Normally a candidate for president isn't the object of frequent assassination attempts

 Something tells me it's not the Deep State.  They're not that incompetent and have an unlimited budget.  Something I have noticed though.  In the wake of two assassination attempts against Trump instead of lowering the temperature of the anti-Trump rhetoric as might be expected people on the Left have actually increased it.  We still have the Hitlerian references.  There is still the deranged talk of Trump if he wins becoming a dictator for life and canceling all future elections.  So WHY do people on the Left continue to talk like this?  One conclusion they want somebody to finish the job.

Mass formation psychosis is now treated as a part of normal rational political discourse.  We're living in surreal times.

Maybe we need to watch the left-wing rhetoric Part 2

 Second attempt on Trump's life in two months.  On Sunday September the 15th the former president was playing golf at his Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach FL.  A Mr. Ryan Routh age 58 stuck the barrel of his rifle through the fence at the edge of the course.  The weapon was an AK-style assault rifle with a multi-round magazine and a long--range scope.   Trump was only 300-500 yards away.  The Secret Service saw this opened fire and Routh was later arrested in a black Nissan on I-95.  A fierce supporter of Ukraine with a history of business problems and being in court.  Most recently lived in Hawaii but was a long-time voter in NC as a registered Democrat.  A long social media trail and many media interviews.

We didn't lower the temperature the first time around it only went up.  Will we cool the fierce and sometimes deranged anti-Trump rhetoric in the wake of the second assassination attempt?  Probably not.  Left-wingers gotta hunker down and double down.  No pause for reflection.  It will be put on the back shelf the news cycle goes so fast these days.  Is this the new normal?

Thuganomics

What do you think about Mark Zuckerberg's revelations that the Biden WH relentlessly pressured Facebook teams on a daily basis to censor certain Covid content that went against the narrative?  Zuckerberg now says he regrets caving into government pressure which btw when the government gets involved in these areas it technically becomes censorship,  Also Zuckerberg now admits FB demoted the New York Post's coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story at the time which could have potentially influenced the election by suppressing information from the voters at least those who don't read the New York Post.  Do they read the NYP in Idaho?  Talk about possible election interference!

DOES KAMALA HARRIS SUPPORT GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP???

The age of snark

 I recently took a 3+ year hiatus from blogging and came back.  The reason for the rest period was twofold.  First the toxic nature of our political environment being foremost.  Secondly you couldn't have a rational discussion of covid at the time so I chose to ride that one out.  So eventually I decided to return but nothing has really changed.  

The toxicity of politics has only gotten worse.  There are commenters in the blogosphere who are constantly argumentative, rancorous, have a contrarian spirit and who make no attempts to search for common ground.  They don't understand the point you are making (feigned ignorance?) and distort your words through their own political filter.  I think part of the reason for our current political environment is a kind of overreaction to Trump.  He may win he may lose but the hyperbole and rhetoric continues unabated even in the wake of the recent assassination attempt.  I don't want to be a party to that and find it horrible.

It might be pretentious to call blogging an art form but this is a time for creative decision-making for me anyway.  Maybe Lista had the right idea blog only for yourself.  Everyone has a different philosophy of blogging.  If you don't fit in here find another blog that resonates with you.  There are plenty out there.

That's it for now.  Stay free:)

The Speech

'Twould have been nice if Donald Trump's acceptance speech on the final night of the RNC had started around 10:00 as some folk like myself have to get up early the next day to get ready for work but Kid Rock had a new song to perform.  The whole night took on a Wrestlemania turn which is not my thing and I could have sworn Hulk Hogan used the term "scumbags" but I was already on my second glass of Skyy.  Trump said early on in his speech that he wants to be president of the whole country and not just half and that "we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement."  Turned out to be the longest acceptance speech in convention history and I held out as long as I could but finally hit the hay.  Critics are saying his speech was not very unifying but you still have to deliver the meat and potatoes.  Did you expect Trump to start singing Kumbaya? The long speech covered all the topics which we can get into in the comments section.

Thoughts?

Maybe we need to watch the left-wing rhetoric

 Someone tried to assassinate Donald Trump today at a campaign rally in Butler, PA.  An audience member has died and the gunman has been killed.  As Trump was being swarmed by Secret Service agents to escort him off the stage with bloodied face he pumped his fist to the crowd.  Photo Of The Year.  Say what you will that was a gallant move on Trump's part.  Could swing the election.  Make him a martyr and he could win in a landslide are what some people are saying.

Will the Left watch their rhetoric now and tone it down?  Probably not but one can wish.

The proposed ban against TikTok seems rather strange

It's weirdly authoritarian.  Govern me harder Daddy.  I'm not getting this one.

The global protesters against Trump

We have dictators and tyrants in real-time spanning the world and yet nobody's globally protesting them. I hear the Bushmen in Africa were even protesting.

Hillary Rodham Clinton compared some of the Republican presidential candidates to ISIS

From a free speech angle I got no problem if that's how she feels but where's the blowback, the media firestorm? just sayin'. Well she's at least updated the tired Nazi analogy. Trump says things that are half true and he's got the universe on edge. On the positive side at least she acknowledges that ISIS is bad for women.

Defunding Planned Parenthood

I have sincerely tried to understand this liberal apoplexy whenever the subject of defunding Planned Parenthood is broached but when I've posed the question throughout the years I never get a clear answer or quite often no answer at all.  WHY is Planned Parenthood entitled to or why are we morally obligated to subsidize this organization through millions of dollars in federal taxpayer funds every year???  Even if I were pro-choice I wouldn't automatically come down on the side of the federal subsidy.  There are quite a few organizations in this country who do yeoman's work on the side of good and yet they don't receive such a subsidy and yet it is mostly a Democratic Article of Faith that PP needs to be federally subsidized and if you don't quite morally calculate it this way you're on the side of darkness and devils.  I have to say though I have always found the pro-abortionism of the NY Times editorial board to be quite stunning even with the string of undercover sting videos by the pro-life although I'm supposed to say the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress. So throw your coins in the fountain here or if you prefer just walk by and glance and give the old Sitemeter an uptick.

Why throw rocks at a junkyard dog?

The Garland TX Mohammed cartoon shootings, our little version of Charlie Hebdo - ISIS is now claiming responsibility which even if true you'd think they'd be a bit hesitant as it hardly came off in their favor, not their best work you could say. Pamela Geller of her American Freedom Defense Initiative coordinated this event in TX and from what I understand it was some sort of cartoon contest for who could come up with the best sketch of the Prophet Mohammed I guess. I might be in the minority but her subway ads in NYC which the MTA had a huge problem with I don't find them the least bit offensive. I'm sure you've heard of them and they always have the angle of radical Islamists are anti-Semitic which they are so it's kind of hard for me to unravel just why the MTA has their collective knickers in a twist. However having said that what was the point of this little sketchathon in Garland TX? Are they suddenly interested in this particular faith system? Are they contributing to global culture? Was the whole affair designed to be provocative? (x) I'm thinking we have enough to worry about. Thanks guys and gals and all you Bob Ross wannabes.

What's up with the cops in this country?

If Eric Garner were a coyote roaming around one of the five boroughs of NYC he'd be alive today but professionally and humanely relocated - I wanted to work this thought into some kind of workable blogpost-title but it's somewhat unwieldy. Watching the coverage of the Baltimore protests/riots on the Today show this morning and a very conservative person said to me "you can understand their frustration" to which I nodded and said they (black folk/African-Americans) hardly ever get justice. These controversial cop cases involving unarmed black man who later die are mounting in this country and while I like to take them individually and analyze them at my own pace and I do have a fairly strong law-and-order bias cumulatively I find myself asking what's up with the cops in this country? Now practically everybody and their grandmother has a built-in video camera in their cell phones these days but the cops don't seem to care, they keep doing what they're doing whatever they're doing and it usually doesn't wind up good for the unarmed black man. WHY should 25-year old Freddie Gray have a broken spine while in police custody??? Now your typical conservative response will be but we don't know all the facts yet (tin ear on Race those conservatives) but ya wanna know something? What's up with the cops in this country?

I Am Charlie

No you're not. Most people don't like free speech. BTW is it still not about religion?

'Tis the season of politicizing tragedy

I'm speaking of course of the assassination of two NYPD officers in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn last Saturday afternoon. Consensus analysis is the psycho did what he did in revenge for the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police. Pat Lynch head of the NY PBA has said Mayor de Blasio has blood on his hands. What in hell is that supposed to mean??? Lately Pat Lynch is always angry about something and he's coming across as a tad irrational. Then there's the coverage of all things cop in the NY Post the only right-wing paper in town. They seem to be saying the tragedy was caused by the last few weeks' nationwide protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Garner. Um, protesting is a part of our very democracy, a democratic lynchpin or pillar and nobody has to agree with everybody but it's there your right to express yourself and be heard sans violence of course. It seems to me if more in the NYPD and the right-wing paper of record at least conceded that look excessive force was used in the Garner case it would go a LONG way towards easing national tensions across-the-board. There are those who are anti-cop and they're very anti-cop and those who are pro-police are pro-police no matter what the case or situation. Opposite hardcores imo never make for a better society, no room for compromise or even listening for cryin' out loud. Newtown happened in 2012 just about two weeks before Christmas and now this happened even closer to Xmas. Don't know what to make of that it's just an observation:)

The mistake of conflating Ferguson and Eric Garner

Everybody seems to do this, it's become generic trademark commentary on race. Civil rights activists act like a white cop in Missouri decided one day to shoot an unarmed black teen with his hands up and some (but not all) right-wingers see Eric Garner the same way they see Michael Brown (my God the guy was a criminal selling those loosies). My view: the grand jurors in Ferguson did not come up with an unreasonable decision though I might disagree with it whereas in Staten Island the grand jurors did come up with a perfectly unreasonable decision. I take these cases one by one as they come up which is the best way. In the case of Eric Garner it would be far easier and more productive for conservatives to simply admit this cop did wrong, admit it, learn from it and move on instead of hunkering down as they always do in defense of the cops and smearing those who disagree as somehow being anti-cop. It seems grand juries these days are reluctant to indict the men and women in blue. Righties will point out that they hear reams of more evidence than we ever get to hear but I think it goes deeper than this. It's a cozy-and-toasty emotionalism on the part of those hand-picked from society to become jurors that ultimately gives the police officer the bennie of the doubt. So far the NYC protests are far more civilized than what went down in St. Louis, a social model for proper but passionate protest. The ME in NYC says Garner died from a police chokehold, Det. Daniel Pantaleo said to the jurors he was using a technique he learned at the police academy. All I can say is God help us!

The fog of race

I have to say it was dramatic and intense coverage over on the CW Channel 11 News here, while the prosecuting attorney over there in Ferguson Missoui was droning on and on about the finer points of the grand jury verdict on the bigger split screen they were showing live and growing reaction among the large crowd gathered to hear the no indictment verdict against Ferguson PO Darren Wilson in the tragic Michael Brown case. It didn't take long for the first police cruiser to be set on fire and for the tear gas canisters to be shot in the air. I've noticed more and more in these type racially-oriented protests the increasing number of white protesters joining the African-Americans so it might sound contradictory to say we've made some racial progress but sometimes you have to look for it. There's no way in hell PO Wilson can go back on the streets in Ferguson or any predominantly black community across the country. He'll just have to make some sort of drastic career change so that's a kind of social price against him despite the verdict that was rendered by the jury.

What's up with the Ferguson PD?

If you were a troglodyte the past week and just popped on the tube you'd swear there was a major terrorist attack in the community of Ferguson MO. OK so let's rap about race and the police again. Despite my recent post re the NYPD for me Eric Garner is not Sean Bell is not Michael Brown is not Amadou Diallo and why don't we throw in Tawana Brawley while we're at it. I approach these cases on a purely individual basis and you can make the case that maybe Sean Bell or his friend was driving his SUV towards the cops OR that yes maybe teen Michael Brown was tussling with a police officer in his squad car and went for his gun after strong-arming a convenience store. Look I get it but put these other cases together and start comparing and they all highlight even more at least for me that the Eric Garner case is the weakest in terms of the NYPD POV & PR. He wasn't running down the street half-naked waving a machete, he didn't have a gun or a device that resembled a gun or even took out a black wallet the way Amadou Diallo did in the Soundview section of the Bronx when four officers shot him to death. So for parts of the right-wing like the New York Post to unreservedly support the cops as a general rule is a huge socio/political mistake imo if the GOP wants to get serious about attracting the Black Vote and no Bo Dietl doesn't know more than the NYC ME. Missouri - well at least conservatives are starting to wake the hell up by criticizing the increasing militarization of our nation's police forces what with all that surplus army stuff the federal gov't doled out to them in years past. Actually you know something? conservatives all conservatives should start reading Twelve Years a Slave if they haven't already and watch the movie as it's obvious they have no interest in or never got the whole Black Experience. Lastly conservatives waste far too much time talking about Al Sharpton:)

App Permissions - for the NSA to collect your data

How many saw Brian Williams special interview with Edward Snowden last night? Probably didn't make much of an impression on ole BB though we learned for instance that the NSA can turn on your smartphone even when it's off and take pictures. Don't know what they'd do with my cat though or me watching Home Shopping Network. Brian Williams called this chilling and then we also learned that Mr. Snowden was not just a low-level "hacker" or NSA contractor but had worked for the CIA as a spy overseas, had training in this area and so knows what he's talking about. Also he had a nice haircut and for the ladies out there a couple of moles here and there. NSA's main concern is preventing the next big terrorist attack or even small ones leading up to that but with all these lone fuseboxes out there getting ready to blow who populate the social media and leave copious e-trails with not infrequent weird rantings you'd think there'd be an algorithm for that. I mean if we're gonna give up our privacy en masse in these massive data-mining sweeps it's not too much to ask to go to the mall or get a bite to eat in relative safety. He also said ask the US Government why he wound up in Russia. Then I went to bed.

The Donald Sterling Matter

A thumbnail summary for the few troglodytes out there - LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA Commissioner for making racist comments in a private conversation with his ex-girlfriend. She kinda looks like a model and he looks like a sagging bag of flesh so the word golddigger comes to mind but I digress. What if you went to your uncle's place of employment and said to his boss "you know what Joe said when he came over on Thanksgiving?" Many people have conservative Dads, do you want EVERYTHING leaking out about what was said in the living room especially after the goblet's been sipped a few times? OK you say the uncle is not a millionaire who owns a sports team so episodes like this is gonna churn out the usual pc self-righteous commentary. I already know you never said anything stupid in your life, hell you could smoke ten joints in a row and nothing stupid's gonna come out 'cause your software programming is so right on. Maybe it's because Al Sharpton has predictably involved himself in this case so I reflexively go the other way, dunno. OK throw your coins into the fountain:)

The liberal obsession with the Koch Brothers

Sounds like a brand of soda pop. I never really heard about the Koch Brothers until liberals started talking about them so much. Conservatives also seem to like to comment on the liberal obsession with the Koch Bros so conservatives have an obsession with their obsession just like they have an obsession with reading NY Times editorials (hey guys they're just editorials, don't let them ruin your day). Charles and David Koch of the Koch Industries have been responsible for much charitable giving to various cultural and medical institutions but Harry Reid and Chuckie Schumer say they're unAmerican for funding anti-ObamaCare ads and for calling for smaller government. BB has a bit of a Koch fetish too so maybe he can explain. The pro-Obama Hollywood tripe that spews out daily is ok though.