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SMITE THE RIGHT: PART ONE (OF TWO)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on April 30, 2021 at 12:08 am
On September 11, 2001, 19 Islamic terrorists snuffed out the lives of 3,000 Americans in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
They did so by turning four commercial jetliners into fuel-bombs—and crashing them into, respectively, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon, in Washington, D.C.; and—unintentionally—a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
World Trade Center – September 11, 2001
But within less than a month, American warplanes began carpet-bombing Afghanistan, whose rogue Islamic "government" refused to surrender Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda mastermind of the attacks.
By December, 2001, the power of the Taliban was broken—and bin Laden was driven into hiding in Pakistan.
For more than 16 years, the United States—through its global military and espionage networks—relentlessly hunted down most of those responsible for that September carnage.
On May 1, 2011, U.S. Navy SEALS invaded bin Laden's fortified mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan—and shot him dead.
And today—almost 20 years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States continues to wage war against Islamic terrorists.
On January 6, the United States suffered another spectacular terrorist attack—this time launched by Right-wing Americans.
Thousands of Fascistic supporters of President Donald J. Trump—many of them armed—stormed and ransacked the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Five people—including a Capitol Hill policeman—were killed.
The insurrectionists' goal: To stop members of Congress from counting Electoral Votes cast in the 2020 Presidential election, from which former Vice President Joseph R. Biden was expected to emerge the winner.
For Trump—who had often "joked" about becoming "President-for-Life"—that Biden had won the election was intolerable. And it must be prevented by any means—legal or otherwise.
After overwhelming the Capitol Police force, the Stormtrumpers damaged and occupied parts of the building for three hours. Legislators huddled fearfully while National Guard units from several states finally evicted the insurrectionists.
The Capitol attack marked the first time in American history a defeated Presidential candidate violently sought to remain in office.
It should also mark a desperately-needed change in the priorities of American law enforcement, which has traditionally focused on Left-wingers—and especially blacks—as the country's mortal enemies.
Numerous commentators have noted the contrast between the tepid police response to the Capitol attack by white Right-wingers and the brutal crackdown on peaceful blacks protesting the murder of George Floyd in Washington D.C. on June 1, 2020.
U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops used tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades, horses, shields and batons to clear protesters from Lafayette Square—so Trump could stage a photo-op at St. John's Episcopal Church.
It's time for American law enforcement and Intelligence agencies to wage all-out war on Right-wing terrorism—and those Republican voters and Congressional members who support it.
On March 2, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on the Capitol attack and the growing challenges of Right-wing terrorism.
Christopher Wray
The hearing came as the FBI continues to make near daily arrests related to the riot. So far, more than 300 people have been hit with a variety of charges, from trespassing to conspiracy against the government.
According to PBS Newshour Correspondent Lisa Desjardins:
"[On March 1] federal prosecutors filed a revealing document in the case against Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean, seen here with a megaphone on January 6. This charges that he and other Proud Boys raised money and collected protective gear weeks ahead.
"On January 6, prosecutors allege, they used high-tech radios to communicate and purposely dressed incognito, no Proud Boy colors or clothing. This, prosecutors say, was to help with their plan to turn others in the crowd, who they called normies or normiecons, to join them in violent attack."
Wray was appointed FBI director in 2017, after Trump purged James Comey for refusing to become his personal KGB chief. Wray himself had been marked for dismissal because he refused to agree with Trump's false claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2016 Presidential election.
Only Trump's loss to Joe Biden had prevented a similar purge of Wray.
Referring to Right-wing terrorists, Wray warned: "They don't have a formal membership in an organization. They don't have clear command control and direction, in the way that, say, an al-Qaida sleeper cell might have. And that's much more challenging to pursue."
From Trump on down, Republicans have tried hard to convince Americans that it was Antifa—not Right-wing Stormtrumpers—who brutally attacked Capitol police and threatened the lives of Congressional lawmakers.
Their goal: To absolve Trump and put the blame on Antifa.
There are three problems with that assertion:
The insurrectionists' carried out their attack amidst a sea of red MAGA caps and blue and white "TRUMP" flags.
There was not a black face to be seen in the mob—all were white.
Numerous videos recorded rioters' saying they were acting on orders from their President.
On March 2, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray: "Do you have any evidence that the Capitol attack was organized by—quote—'fake Trump protesters'?"
To which Wray replied: "We have not seen evidence of that at this stage, certainly."
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THE PORNOGRAPNY OF PRESIDENTIAL PERKS: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 29, 2021 at 12:14 am
Once Presidents leave office, they usually lead quiet—and highly prosperous–lives.
It's become commonplace for Presidents to write—or ghostwrite—their memoirs. These usually fetch them a hefty advance, even if sales prove disappointing.
Then there's the speaker's circuit, where fees per speech usually run into tens of thousands of dollars.
These are activities that leave the average ex-President an extremely wealthy man—but don't impact the public purse.
But there are other perks—such as lifetime Secret Service protection for themselves and their spouses, as well as taxpayer-funded office expenses—that put a serious strain on the national budget.
George W. Bush, unlike his father, got two full terms (2001 – 2009).
Bush made money in the oil industry and owned the Texas Rangers professional baseball team before he became Governor of Texas and then President. He's made tens of millions through a book deal and speaking fees.
His net worth has been estimated at $40 million.
Barack Hussein Obama served two terms (2009 – 2017).
Obama has greatly profited from paid speeches and production deal with Netflix worth an estimated $50 million. He also gets a government pension of $161,000 a year. Michelle Obama got a reported $65 million advance for her memoir "Becoming."
Obama's net worth has been estimated from $40 to $135 million.
Donald Trump served one term (2017 – 2021).
Before he entered politics, Trump reportedly got $200 million from his father to enter the real estate business. He made millions as a New York City real estate mogul. Many of his other businesses have failed, but Trump's vast property holdings make him by far the wealthiest president of all time. He has also profited from his show "The Apprentice," which ran from 2004 to 2017.
His net worth is estimated at $3.2 billion.
It's long past time for the re-evaluation of Presidential welfare.
By all means, Presidents deserve a pension, but it should be on a par with the time they served in office. This currently amounts to $219,200 per year for life.
Most police officers must serve 20 years before they can collect their full pension. And they are required to put their lives on the line almost every day. No police officer is allowed to retire on a fulltime pension after serving eight—or even just four—years.
Then there's the matter of funding by the General Service Administration (GSA) to staff, set up and furnish an official office anywhere in the country. Ex-Presidents and their staffers can receive up to $1 million annually in reimbursements for costs.
Ex-Presidents use these monies to propagandize their accomplishments—or what they claim were their accomplishments—while in office. This usually takes the form of self-serving autobiographies—which, in many cases, are ghostwritten efforts.
Former Presidents certainly have the right to publish their memoirs. But they should not receive public monies for doing so.
Moreover: Presidents aren't required to submit their manuscripts to what amounts to a censorship committee to guarantee they don't spill national security secrets.
Agents of the CIA are—and can have royalties from their books seized if they don't allow their manuscripts to be so screened.
As for lifetime Secret Service protection: In 1965, Congress authorized the Secret Service (Public Law 89-186) to protect a former president and his/her spouse during their lifetime, unless they decline protection.
Secret Service agents guarding Barack Obama
In 1994, as a cost-saving measure, Congress acted to limit protection for future former presidents and spouses to ten years after they left office.
But on January 12, 2013, President Barack Obama signed a new law authorizing lifetime protection of all former Presidents and First Ladies. In addition, children of former Presidents will receive protection until they are 16 years old.
This was clearly in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center—and America's entry into a global war on terrorism.
Still, this is hardly necessary. There has not been one recorded case of an attack on a former President since the Secret Service began protecting the Chief Executive in 1901.
From a national security viewpoint, it is also unnecessary. Once a President leaves office, he is essentially out of the loop of daily government business.
The protection of organized crime witnesses by the Justice Department's Witness Security Program offers a useful remedy.
While awaiting trial, witnesses are given 24-hour protection by deputy U.S. marshals. But once the trials are over and they have received their new identities and relocation to a safe area, that protection is withdrawn. If they are once again threatened, they can request it from the Marshals Service.
And if such protection is deemed necessary for a former President, then a financial means test should be applied.
Every living ex-President is a millionaire—including even Jimmy Carter, whose wealth is estimated by USA Today at $8.2 million.
Millionaires are not considered eligible for local, state or Federal welfare programs—unless they are former Presidents.
Thus, millionaire ex-Presidents who believe they need/deserve lifetime Secret Service protection should be required to pay for it out of pocket—or hire private security.
Treating former Presidents as gods is not only an outrageous waste of taxpayers' monies. It is an affront to the ideals of a democratic nation.
THE PORNOGRAPNY OF PRESIDENTIAL PERKS: PART ONE (OF TWO)
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
George Orwell's famous novella, Animal Farm, was a brutal, symbolic attack on the Soviet Union and its brand of Communism. But it applies just as accurately to the different ways poor and rich Americans are treated.
Let's start with the poor.
According to the Social Security website: "Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a Federal income supplement program funded by general tax revenues (not Social Security taxes). It is designed to help aged, blind, and disabled people, who have little or no income; and It provides cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter….
"One of our highest priorities is to help people with disabilities achieve independence by helping them take advantage of employment opportunities. Work incentive employment supports help disabled and blind SSI recipients go to work by minimizing the risk of losing their SSI or Medicaid benefits….
"We do not count the first $65 of earned income plus one–half of the amount over $65. Therefore, we reduce your SSI benefit only $1 for every $2 you earn over $65."
Wow! An SSI recipient can earn up to $65 dollars before that begins to affect his SSI.
In 1960, $65 was equal to $575.88 in 2021 dollars.
That would have been great in 1960. But 1960 is now 61 years ago.
According to Intuit, an American business that specializes in financial software: "The average cost of food per month for one person ranges from $150 to $300, depending on age. However, these national averages vary based on where you live and the quality of your food purchases."
And according to Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data: In February 2021, the average monthly rent for an apartment in the United States was $1,124.
So being able to earn $65 before the Social Security Administration starts reducing your SSI monthly payment shouldn't be considered a "work incentive."
For despicable contrast, consider how America's former Presidents are treated.
The Former Presidents Act of 1958 provides several benefits and perks that are available to Presidents after they leave office. Their biggest perk is an annual pension equal to the pay for a Cabinet Secretary, which is $221,400 in 2021.
Widows of former Presidents are eligible for a $20,000 yearly pension. In addition, former Presidents and their spouses can opt to receive lifetime Secret Service protection.
According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, ex-Presidents are provided with:
Funding by the General Service Administration (GSA) to staff, set up and furnish an official office anywhere in the country.
Reimbursement for themselves and their staff up to $1 million annually for costs.
$500,000 a year for their spouses for official travel and security.
The guarantee of a funeral with full honors and burial, if they or their spouse wants it, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Let's go back 41 years–to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who served from 1981 to 1989.
Reagan believed that government should not help the impoverished. Those who lacked wealth to buy such necessities as housing and medical insurance were written off as unimportant.
He claimed to be a "fiscal conservative." But he drastically shrank the tax-base, bloated the defense budget and destroyed programs to benefit the poor and middle-class.
As a result, Reagan produced a $1 trillion deficit—which only the Clinton Administration eliminated.
Before his Presidency ended, 18 wealthy Californians contributed $156,000 apiece to buy him a 7,200 square-foot mansion overlooking Beverly Hills.
Reagan signed a multi-million dollar deal to write his Presidential memoirs and publish a collection of his speeches.
He signed an exclusive contract with a Washington lecture bureau, which paid him $50,000 per speech given in the United States and $100,000 overseas. This made him the highest-paid speaker in the country.
These monies came in addition to his Presidential pension of $99,500 a year for life and his $30,000 annual pension as a former governor of California.
At a cost to the government of $10 million annually, Reagan continued to receive lifetime Secret Service protection from 40 fulltime agents.
According to a November 5,2020 article in USA Today:
Reagan had made money as a movie and TV actor for more than 20 years. He owned several pieces of real estate, including a 688-acre property near Santa Barbara, California. He also profited from his post-Presidential autobiography.
Reagan had a peak net worth of $14.3 million.
After Reagan came George H.W. Bush (1989 – 1993).
Bush made his initial fortune running an offshore oil drilling company and owned millions of dollars worth of property, including an estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, which around the time of his death in November 2018, was valued at $13.5 million. Like most ex-Presidents, he authored his autobiography: All the Best.
His peak net worth: $26.6 million.
William Jefferson Clinton served from 1993 to 2001.
Since leaving office, Clinton has made millions from his 2005 book My Life. But his wife, Hillary, provides most of his wealth. She reportedly received a $14 million advance for her 2014 memoir Hard Choices. She also made millions from paid speeches.
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THE MAN WHO SAVED DEMOCRACY: PART TWO (END)
As a result of the vast increase in election security, President Donald Trump failed to get the help he expected from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The result: He lost the 2020 Presidential election.
Thus, Joe Biden won the popular vote by 81,268,924 to 74,216,154 for Trump—and the Electoral College by 306 to 232.
Two days later, Trump claimed: "And this is a case where they're trying to steal an election, they're trying to rig an election."
Chris Krebs was the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And the man most responsible for ensuring election security.
Chris Krebs
On November 12, to counter the growing chorus of lies from Trump and his Right-wing allies, he put out the following statement:
"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."
On November 17, Trump fired Chris Krebs.
Too cowardly to confront Krebs, Trump fired him by tweet—and accompanied the outrage with yet another lie:
"The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud, including dead people voting, poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more.
"Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency."
Asked by "60 Minutes'" Scott Pelley if he was surprised to be fired, Krebs replied: "I don't know if I was necessarily surprised. It's not how I wanted to go out. The thing that upsets me the most about that is I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to my team.
"And I'd worked with them for three and a half years, in the trenches. Building an agency, putting CISA on the national stage. And I love that team. And I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, so that's what I'm most upset about."
Krebs was no dyed-in-the-wool Democrat but a life-long Republican. He gave up a lucrative job as Microsoft's head of cybersecurity policy to join the Trump administration. He wanted to serve his country by creating a dedicated cybersecurity agency for the first time.
Still, he had his reservations about taking the job. As he told the Financial Times: "The flaws of this man [Trump] were obvious to everybody that was willing to pay attention. [But] to do your job, you have to be able to compartmentalize. I was willing to do that.
"Over time, it eats away at you. It eats away at you, the other parts of the department that were doing stuff that just seemed so inhumane. I was never involved in any of those policy conversations."
By January 6, 2021, Trump had exhausted his legal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
From November 3 to December 14, Trump and his allies lost 59 times in court, either withdrawing cases or having them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
Of these attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 election, Krebs told Pelley:
"It was upsetting because what I saw was an apparent attempt to undermine confidence in the election, to confuse people, to scare people. It's not me, it's not just CISA. It's the tens of thousands of election workers out there that had been working nonstop, 18-hour days, for months.
"They're getting death threats for trying to carry out one of our core democratic institutions, an election. And that was, again, to me, a press conference that I just– it didn't make sense. What it was actively doing was undermining democracy. And that's dangerous."
On January 6, the United States Senate, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding, met to certify states' Electoral College results of the 2020 election.
That morning, Trump urged Pence to flip the results of the election to give him a win.
Pence replied that he lacked the power to overturn those results.
At noon, Trump appeared at the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence. A stage had been set up for him to address tens of thousands of his supporters, who eagerly awaited him.
Trump ordered them to march on the Capitol building to express their anger at his loss—and thus intimidate Congressional officials to reject the results.
The Stormtrumpers marched to the United States Capitol—and quickly brushed aside Capitol Police, who made little effort to arrest or shoot them.
The "Jolly Roger" meets Donald Trump
Three hours passed before the mob was dispersed and order was restored.
Yet for all the terrible drama of that day, the true hero of the moment went unrecognized.
By depriving Trump of Russian help, Chris Krebs had ensured a victory for democracy.
On the evening of January 6, the House and Senate met again to count the Electoral Votes.
And as expected, the two bodies pronounced Joseph Biden the winner—bringing an end to Donald Trump's reign of criminality and treason.
THE MAN WHO SAVED DEMOCRACY: PART ONE (OF TWO)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 26, 2021 at 12:28 am
"TIME's Person of the Year over the course of nearly a century has been a measuring stick for where the world is and where it's going. But how to make sense of 2020, a year without measure? A year marked by multiple crises, all at once, all over the world: A once-in-a-century plague. Brutal racial injustice. Glaring inequality. Apocalyptic wildfires. Democracy under fire."
Thus opens the web page advertising TIME magazine's "Person of the Year" choice of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
On the surface, choosing Biden and Harris makes sense: "Joe Biden was elected President of the United States in the midst of an existential debate over what reality we inhabit. Perhaps the only thing Americans agree on right now is that the future of the country is at stake, even as they fiercely disagree about why."
As for the shared legacy of Biden and Harris: "If Donald Trump was a force for disruption and division over the past four years, Biden and Harris show where the nation is heading: a blend of ethnicities, lived experiences and worldviews that must find a way forward together if the American experiment is to survive."
Yet a lesser-known but far more consequential choice for "Person of the Year" would have been Chris Krebs.
Because, without Chris Krebs, there would not now be a Biden Presidency.
During the 2016 Presidential race, Russian propaganda had played a major role in convincing millions of Americans to vote for Donald Trump. Social media platforms—especially Facebook and Twitter—were flooded with genuinely fake news to sow discord among Americans and create a pathway for Trump's election.
And where Internet trolls left off, Russian computer hackers took over.
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote—65,853,514 to 62,984,828 for Trump. But in the United States, what counts in Presidential elections is the Electoral College vote. And there Trump won: 304 to 227.
What put him over the top in the Electoral College was the help he got from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
So notorious was the role played by Russian trolls and hackers in winning Trump the 2016 election that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was determined to prevent a repetition in 2020.
And the point man for this was Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) run by DHS.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1977, Krebs had received a B.A. in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia in 1999, and a J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law in 2007.
Krebs had served as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Infrastructure Protection, and later worked in the private sector as Director for Cybersecurity Policy for Microsoft.
In preparation for the 2020 Presidential election, Krebs launched a massive effort to counter lies spread by Russians—and Americans—on social media platforms. As he explained to Scott Pelley during a "60 Minutes" interview aired on November 29, 2020:
"So we spent something on the order of three and a half years of gaming out every possible scenario for how a foreign actor could interfere with an election. Countless, countless scenarios."
Krebs' to-do list included paper ballots:
"Paper ballots give you the ability to audit, to go back and check the tape and make sure that you got the count right. And that's really one of the keys to success for a secure 2020 election. Ninety-five percent of the ballots cast in the 2020 election had a paper record associated with it. Compared to 2016, about 82%.
"That gives you the ability to prove that there was no malicious algorithm or hacked software that adjusted the tally of the vote, and just look at what happened in Georgia. Georgia has machines that tabulate the vote. They then held a hand recount and the outcome was consistent with the machine vote."
Krebs' duties included:
Sharing intelligence from agencies such as the CIA and National Security Agency with local officials about foreign efforts at election interference.
Ensuring that domestic voting equipment was secure.
Attacking domestic misinformation head-on.
At his command lay the resources of a series of powerful Federal investigative agencies:
"We had the Department of Defense Cyber Command. We had the National Security Agency. We had the FBI. We had the Secret Service. We also had representatives from the Election Assistance Commission, which is the federal independent agency that supports the actual administration of elections.
"We had representatives from some of the election equipment vendors. And they're critical because they're the ones out there that know what's going on on the ground if there's any sort of issue with some of their systems. And we had representatives from state and local governments."
Misinformation led CISA to create a new "Rumor Control" website ahead of the 2020 election. Its main goal was to debunk rumors surrounding the 2020 election that had been spreading throughout the country.
As a result, Krebs was widely praised for revamping the department's cybersecurity efforts and increasing coordination with state and local governments.
By all accounts—except Donald Trump's—the November 3, 2020 election went very smoothly.
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WHAT SCARES THE NRA: RIDICULE: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, History, Humor, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 23, 2021 at 12:15 am
In March, 2013, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its Right-wing allies declared war on comedian Jim Carrey.
The reason: His music parody video: "Cold Dead Hand," which mocked gun fanatics and the late Charlton Heston, former president of the NRA.
Among its lyrics:
Charlton Heston movies are no longer in demand
And his immortal soul may lay forever in the sand.
The angels wouldn't take him up to heaven like he'd planned.
'Cause they couldn't pry that gun from his cold, dead hand.
The phrase, "cold dead hand," originated with Heston himself.
Charlton Heston in his prime
On May 20, 2000, the actor and then-president of the NRA addressed the organization at its 129th convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
He warned that then-Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidade Al Gore "is going to smear you as the enemy," and concluded:
"So, as we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: 'From my cold, dead hands!'"
Carrey's stance on gun control couldn't have been more opposite.
In in February, 2013, he outraged Right-wingers by tweeting: "Any1 who would run out to buy an assault rifle after the Newton massacre has very little left in their body or soul worth protecting."
Fox Nation referred to the tweet as "nasty."
Red Alert Politics writer Erin Brown dismissed it as "a careless remark …rooted in the shallow, parroted talking points so commonly espoused by liberal elites."
But that was nothing compared to the rage that has greeted "Cold Dead Hand." Reason TV's Remy offered a parody rebuttal to Carrey's song. Its lyrics included:
It takes a talking ass
to oppose a vaccination
when your PhD is in
making funny faces.
None of which bothered Carrey. In fact, he exulted in Right-wing outrage, tweeting: "Cold Dead Hand' is abt u heartless motherf%ckers unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids. Sorry if you're offended…"
It takes a cold, dead hand to decide to pull the trigger.
Takes a cold, dead heart and as near as I can figger.
With your cold, dead aim you're tryin' to prove your dick is bigger …..
Many psychologists have long theorized that a fascination with firearms can compensate for inadequate sexual performance.
But it's one thing for an unknown psychologist to write this in an obscure medical journal—and another for a famous comedian to splash it across the Internet.
Carrey's video was especially ruthless in attacking those who—like the NRA—make a lucrative living off gun sales:
Imagine if the Lord were here…
And on the ones
Who sell the guns
He'd sic the vultures and coyotes
Only the devil's true devotees
Could profiteer
From pain and fear.
Many Rightists attacked Carrey for parodying a man—Heston—who died in 2008 and could not defend himself. But Heston had appeared several times on "Saturday Night Live" to spoof his granite-hard image.
In his video, Carrey dares to attack not simply the masculinity of the Rightist NRA crowd, but even its courage:
You don't want to get caught
With your trousers down
When the psycho killer
Comes around
So you make your home
Like a Thunderdome
And you're always packin'
Everywhere you roam.
Perhaps that's what most outraged the Right—the accusation that its members live in fear and do their best to generate needless fear in others.
Fear that can supposedly be abated by turning America into a society where everyone packs a weapon and every moment holds a potential High Noon.
On March 29, 2013, responded to his critics with this statement:
"Since I released my "Cold Dead Hand" video on Funny or Die this week, I have watched Fux News rant, rave, bare its fangs and viciously slander me because of my stand against large magazines and assault rifles.
"I would take them to task legally if I felt they were worth my time or that anyone with a brain in their head could actually fall for such irresponsible buffoonery. That would gain them far too much attention which is all they really care about."
The NRA has spent decades bribing and intimidating its way through Congress. Those members who subscribe to its "guns for everyone" agenda get legalized bribes (i.e., "campaign contributions").
Those who refuse to do so face the threat—if not the reality—of being ousted.
Bullies are conspicuously vulnerable to ridicule. And they fear it even more than serious criticisms.
To become an object of ridicule means no one fears you. And the NRA thrives on fear–that of its own members ("They're coming for our guns!" and it can generate in its opponents ("We won't be re-elected!").
The NRA's only "defense" is to smash anyone who dares to mock its folly, brutality or pretense to omnipotence.
Or, as Ernest Hemingway once put it: "Fascism is a lie told by bullies."
WHAT SCARES THE NRA: RIDICULE: PART ONE (OF TWO)
In History, Humor, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 22, 2021 at 12:17 am
As of April 16, there have been 147 mass shootings in the United States since the start of 2021.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting is one when four or more people have been shot or killed, not including the shooter. More than one mass shooting a day has occurred in 2021.
In 2020, there were 610 mass shootings in the country. Nearly 20,000 Americans died from gun violence that year, more than any year in the previous 20.
In 2019, there were 417 mass shootings, up from 337 in 2018.
Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its Republican shills in the House and Senate remain as intractable as ever on any aspect of gun control.
"We have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people," said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). "We ought to combat that too. But I think that many folks on my side of the aisle are saying is the answer is not to get rid of all sober drivers. The answer is to concentrate on the problem."
Mass shootings in the United States: January to April 16, 2021
The average American may fear being the victim in a random mass shooting. But what frightens the NRA—besides proposed gun control legislation—is mockery.
Consider the Right's reaction to actor Jim Carrey's March, 2013 "Cold Dead Hand" music video.
In this, Carrey—–a strong advocate of gun control—mocked the NRA and its right-wing allies.
These included rural America and (for the video's purposes) the late actor Charlton Heston, who served as the NRA's five-term president (1998-2003).
Jim Carrey as Charlton Heston
The video featured Carrey and alt-rock band Eels as "Lonesome Earl And The Clutterbusters," a country band on a TV set modeled after the 1960s variety show, "Hee Haw." Carrey also portrayed Heston as a dim-witted, teeth-clenching champion of the NRA.
"I find the gun problem frustrating," Carrey said in a press release, "and 'Cold Dead Hand' is my fun little way of expressing that frustration."
Carrey's frustration triggered NRA outrage.
Fox News personality Greg Gutfeld ranted: "He is probably the most pathetic tool on the face of the earth and I hope his career is dead and I hope he ends up sleeping in a car.
"This video made me want to go out and buy a gun. He thinks this is biting satire going after rural America and a dead man… He's a dirty, stinking coward… He's such a pathetic, sad, little freak. He's a gibbering mess. He's a modern bigot."
Columnist Larry Elder spared no venom in attacking Carrey: "Let's be charitable—call Carrey ignorant, not stupid."
Much of his March 29, 2013 column centered on defending Heston, who died at 84 in 2008.
A lyric in Carrey's song says "Charlton Heston's movies are no longer in demand." This prompted Elder to defend the continuing popularity of Heston's 1956 movie, "The Ten Commandments," where he played Moses.
Elder felt compelled to defend Heston's off-screen persona as well, citing his 64-year marriage to his college sweetheart, Lydia.
On the other hand, writes Elder, Carrey, "followed the well-worn Hollywood path: Get famous; get rich; dump the first wife/mother of your kid(s), who stood by you during the tough times; and act out your social life in the tabs to the embarrassment of your kid(s)."
Clearly, Carrey's video struck a nerve with Right-wing gun fanatics. But why?
Start with Gutfield's accusation that Carry was "going after rural America."
Rural America—home of the most superstitious, ignorant and knee-jerk Fascistic elements in American society—boastfully refers to itself as "The Heartland."
In short: a prime NRA and Rightist constituency.
It was rural America to which Senator Barack Obama referred—accurately—during his 2008 Presidential campaign:
"They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Second, there's Elder's outrage that Carrey should dare to say that Heston's movies "are no longer in demand."
Among these movies: "Major Dundee," "El Cid," "Khartoum," "The War Lord." And even the hammiest film for which he is best-known: "The Ten Commandments."
Heston was a widely respected actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1959 for "Ben Hur" and served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1965 to 1971.
But it was not Heston's film career that Carrey focused on—but his role as president of the NRA.
Charlton Heston at the NRA convention
Ironically, Heston had identified himself with liberal causes long before he became the face and voice of the gun lobby.
In 1961, he campaigned for Senator John F. Kennedy for President. In 1963, he took part in Martin Luther King's March on Washington.
In 1968, after the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, he joined actors Kirk Douglas, James Stewart and Gregory Peck in issuing a statement supporting President Lyndon Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.
But over the coming decades, Heston became increasingly conservative:
Reportedly voting for Richard Nixon in 1972;
Supporting gun rights; and
Campaigning for Republican Presidential candidates Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
When asked why he changed political alliances, Heston replied: "I didn't change. The Democratic party changed."
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DDMBs, SI, WALGREENS, NO: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on April 21, 2021 at 12:28 am
Thanks to its mild climate and social programs that dole out cash payments to virtually anyone with no residency requirement, San Francisco is often considered the homeless capital of the United States.
Current estimates peg the homeless population of San Francisco at about 8,000.
In 2019, a survey found that an estimated 2,831 members of this population were sheltered. Another 5,180 were unsheltered. This made for a total of 8,011.
The vast majority of them fall into four groups:
Druggies
Drunks
Mentally ill
Bums.
Or, to put it more discretely: DDMBs.
Many DDMBs refuse to enter the city's available shelters. Some claim these places are dangerous—understandably so, since they're peopled with drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums.
But another reason why many of these shelters go unused is: They don't allow their guests to drink up or drug up.
Huge areas of the city are covered in feces, urine, trash and used hypodermic needles. Hospitals overflow with patients that have fallen ill due to the contamination.
The city will spend about $852 million in 2020-21 on DDMBs. Dividing that amount by about 8,000 DDMBs provides the figure of $106,500 per DDMB.
In February, 2018, NBC News surveyed 153 blocks of the city—an area more than 20 miles. That area includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and the cable car turnaround. It's bordered by Van Ness Avenue, Market Street, Post Street and Grant Avenue. And it's also home to City Hall, schools, playgrounds and a police station.
Reporters found trash littered across every block. Forty-one blocks were covered with needles and 96 blocks were contaminated with piles of human feces.
Most of the trash found consisted of heaps of garbage, food, and discarded junk—including 100 drug needles and more than 300 piles of feces throughout downtown. If you step on one of these needles, you can get HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B or a variety of other viral diseases.
And once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne and release deadly viruses, such as the rotavirus.
In a 2018 news story on NBC's San Francisco affiliate, KNTV, Mohammed Nuru, the director of the Public Works Department, said: "Yes, we can clean, and then go back a few hours later, and it looks as if it was never cleaned. So is that how you want to spend your money?"
Another danger posed by DDMBs: Their rampant shoplifting has led to the closing of many Walgreens drug stores in San Francisco.
Low-income and disabled seniors who depend on these stores for prescriptions are especially at risk.
Walgreens spokeswoman Alexandra Brown claimed that the closures were part of a "transformational cost management program."
Apparently, even the chief victim of these thefts refuses to publicly blame the "homeless."
An employee at the closing Walgreens store at 730 Market Street said the store couldn't cope with losing $1,000 a day due to shoplifting.
Walgreens is not the only drug store to be victimized by DDMBs. A CVS location a few blocks away, at 995 Market Street, also closed due to shoplifting.
The latest wrinkle in San Francisco's "be kind to Untermenschen" campaign is the creation of "Navigation Centers." These will supposedly warehouse DDMBs temporarily until they can be "navigated" to permanent housing.
But housing is in short supply in San Francisco, and there is no telling how long how many of these drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally disabled and bums will stay in them. Or what harm they will wreak on the neighborhoods warehousing them.
Hundreds—if not thousands—of them are heroin addicts. Such people will commit virtually any crime to support their habit. And their crimes of choice are burglary and robbery.
Thus, pouring large numbers of them into San Francisco neighborhoods via "Navigation Centers"—essentially holding pens for DDMBs—guarantees that countless decent citizens will become targets for desperate criminals.
Navigation Centers boast that they ban drug-abuse or drug-dealing on their own premises. But they allow DDMBs to come and go at will. Which means they are free to engage in drug-abuse and/or drug-dealing in the neighborhoods where these centers exist.
Most politicians set their priorities on how popular their programs will be among voters. But San Francisco's reject practicality for allegiance to Uber liberal ideology.
Drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and those who refuse to work are not reliable voters. Those who are productive, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens do vote.
And many of these people have voted—to not visit San Francisco again.
Hosting conventions is a lucrative business for San Francisco, bringing in about $2 billion each year. But in 2018, a Chicago-based medical association boasting roughly 15,000 conference attendees canceled its planned visit.
And in 2019, Oracle's OpenWorld voted to cancel its planned convention in San Francisco and be centered from 2020 to 2022 at Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas. The San Francisco Travel Association estimates that the move will cost the city $64 million in lost revenue.
The reason for both cancellations: San Francisco's fervent embrace of DDMBs—and the refusal of attendees to wade through piles of trash, used hypodermic needles, beer bottles, human feces and huge tents on sidewalks.
For a city whose lifeblood is tourism, its fervent embrace of DDMBs threatens to become a fatal one.
DDMBs, SI, WALGREENS, NO: PART ONE (OF TWO)
Why are Walgreen stores disappearing from San Francisco?
The answer can be summed up in four letters: DDMBs—Druggies, Drunks, Mentals and Bums.
These are the untouchables of San Francisco. If you doubt it, consider the following:
If you are a firefighter, police officer, paramedic or schoolteacher, and want to live in San Francisco, forget it.
According to Rent Cafe, which provides apartment listings directly from top property managers: "The average rent for an apartment in San Francisco is $2,879." And "the average size for a San Francisco apartment is 739 square feet."
So unless you're a hugely successful IT professional—or narcotics dealer—your chances of being able to afford a San Francisco apartment are lower than Donald Trump's of winning a "Mr. Congeniality" contest.
But there's hope for you yet—if you're a Druggie, Drunk, Mental or Bum.
Because the Mayor of San Francisco—currently London Breed—and Board of Supervisors have deliberately created an Untermenschen-friendly program that actually encourages such people to move to the city.
Run by the city's Department of Public Health (DPH) it's called the COVID-19 Alternative Housing Program. And it works in two stages:
Stage 1: Move the "homeless" into the city's hotels—at city expense.
Stage 2: Provide them with not only free food and shelter but free alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes.
According to a May 11, 2020 story in City Journal.org:
"The program's primary purpose is to keep homeless people, the majority of whom are addicts, out of harm's way during the pandemic. By getting their substance of choice delivered, the thinking goes, the guests may be more apt to remain in their government-funded rooms.
"Another purpose of the program is to protect the public against the spread of coronavirus. The city doesn't want homeless people who should be staying in their rooms roaming the neighborhood in search of the substances, potentially infecting others."
After news about these deliveries leaked on social media, DPH claimed that "rumors that guests of San Francisco's alternative housing program are receiving taxpayer-funded deliveries of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are false."
Except that the reports weren't false.
The program is funded by private philanthropists Nevertheless:
DPH administers and oversees the program.
It's staffed by city workers, including doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, and security personnel.
The department manages, stores, and distributes the substances.
Employee time is involved.
Thus, the program is financed by taxpayers, even if an outside group provides some of the funding.
"Managed alcohol and tobacco use makes it possible to increase the number of guests who stay in isolation and quarantine and, notably, protects the health of people who might otherwise need hospital care for life-threatening alcohol withdrawal," says DPH spokeswoman Jenna Lane.
"Many isolation and quarantine guests tell us they use these substances daily," says Lane, "and this period in our care has allowed some people to connect for the first time with addiction treatment and harm reduction therapy."
Notice the word "guests." As if San Francisco—or any city—should welcome hordes of drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill and outright bums as assets to its community.
"Harm reduction" therapy, according to the Harm Reduction Coalition, is "a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use."
DPH said in a statement that these "guests" are screened for substance addictions and asked if they'd like to stop or have support to reduce their use.
If they say they want to remain alcoholics and/or drug addicts, they're provided with their substance of choice.
The department also provides methadone for "guests" who are addicted to opioids.
DPH staffers have helped people buy "medical marijuana," the agency told local affiliate ABC7.
But the agency doesn't "facilitate purchases of recreational cannabis," according to the San Francisco Chronicle's website, SFGate.
Nor does the agency require that its addict "guests" remain quarantined. It merely asks that they do so.
When they're not injecting, swallowing or sniffing drugs, many of San Francisco's "guests" spend a lot of their time ripping off retail stores.
Walgreens drug stores have proven a particular target for these DDMBs.
On March 17, Walgreens closed its 10th store in the San Francisco area.
The reason: Rampant shoplifting, courtesy of DDMBs.
"I feel sorry for the clerks, they are regularly being verbally assaulted," a regular customer, Sebastian Luke, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The clerks say there is nothing they can do. They say Walgreens' policy is to not get involved. They don't want anyone getting injured or getting sued, so the guys just keep coming in and taking whatever they want."
"Why are the shelves empty?" a customer asked a clerk at a Walgreens store.
"Go ask the people in the alleys, they have it all," replied the clerk.
One store in the San Francisco area reportedly lost $1,000 a day to theft.
Under California law, theft under $950 is considered a misdemeanor, but many prosecutors prefer to free those charged rather than holding them in jail.
The maximum sentence they could get: Six months.
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WHY AMERICA TURNED ON TRUMP
In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on April 19, 2021 at 12:05 am
On April 27, 2020, Joe Scarborough offered an important insight about why most Americans had ignored President Donald Trump's crimes and outrages for so long:
"Back in January Joe Biden wrote an Op-Ed that the President was not prepared for this coming pandemic, and things were going to get worse. And he said 'Let your doctors talk. Let your scientists talk. Follow their lead.'
"…And it's been one scam idea after another, that people then promoted on other networks, scam doctors promoting these scam solutions, claiming that everybody who had taken this malaria drug had been cured in certain hospitals. This is just the sort of thing that catches up to Donald Trump.
"I've said from the very beginning: You can lie about independent counsels, people won't listen. You can lie about former FBI directors—"
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: "It doesn't impact their lives."
JOE SCARBOROUGH: "They're still going to work, the kids are doing fine, they've got enough money to pay their rent, to pay their mortgage, You can even lie about the Ukraine call—they don't really care.
"But all of these lies, all of these scams that he's been pushing…have been revealed as lies—not by the people on cable news, but by their doctors. By nurses they know. If you've got a doctor who's been treating your family for 20-25 years, you're going to believe that person more than a scam artist that's pushing propaganda for Donald Trump on talk radio."
On August 23, 2018, Trump appearing on "Fox and Friends," said: "I tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor."
Thus, he appealed to the greed and fear of his voting base—and no doubt hoped to reach beyond it: "Keep me in power or you'll all suffer for it."
Then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders bragged, on June 4, 2018:
"Since taking office, the President has strengthened American leadership, security, prosperity, and accountability. And as we saw from Friday's jobs report, our economy is stronger, Americans are optimistic, and business is booming."
Many Congressional Republicans echoed this: The American people care only about the economy—and how well-off they are.
For eight years, Nazi Germany underwent such an epoch. Germans called it "The Happy Time."
It began on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor—and lasted until June 22, 1941. Germans knew about the Nazis' cruelty to the Jews, the mass arrests and concentration camps.
They didn't care.
Frenzied Germans greet Adolf Hitler
The Gestapo didn't have to watch everyone: German "patriots" gladly reported their fellow citizens—especially Jews—to the secret police.
As far as everyday Germans were concerned:
The streets were clean and peaceful.
Employment was high.
The trouble-making unions were gone.
Germany was once again "taking its rightful place" among ruling nations, after its catastrophic defeat in World War 1.
The height of "The Happy Time" came in June, 1940. In just six weeks, the Wehrmacht accomplished what the German army hadn't in four years during World War 1: The total defeat of its longtime enemy, France.
Suddenly, French clothes, perfumes, delicacies, paintings and other "fortunes of war" came pouring into the Fatherland.
Most Germans believed der Krieg—"the war"—was over, and only good times lay ahead.
Then, on June 22, 1941, three million Wehrmacht soldiers slashed their way into the Soviet Union. The Third Reich was now locked in a death-struggle with a nation even more powerful than itself.
German soldiers in the Soviet Union
And then, on December 11, 1941—four days after Germany's ally, Japan, attacked Pearl Harbor—Hitler declared war on the United States.
"The Happy Time" for Germans was over. Only prolonged disaster lay ahead.
Donald Trump had spent his life appealing to the greed or fear of those around him. For example:
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi personally solicited a political contribution from Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.
After Bondi dropped the Trump University case against Trump, he wrote her a $25,000 check for her re-election campaign.
According to an April 14, 2019 story by ABC News, a nationwide review uncovered at least 36 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
In nine cases, attackers hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically assaulting victims. In 10 more cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant's violent or threatening behavior.
But since January, 2020, Trump had come up against an enemy—to his re-election—that he couldn't intimidate or buy off.
A deadly virus like COVID-19 doesn't accept bribe-monies or grovel before a raging tyrant.
Decades earlier, the Germans, making a devil's-bargain with Adolf Hitler, embraced him as Germany's savior—and paid dearly for it.
Decades later, millions of greedy Americans embraced Donald Trump, another would-be tyrant, as America's economic savior.
By supporting Trump—or at least not opposing him—they made a similar devil's-bargain. And such bargains always end with the devil winning.
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