I’m very happy Chauvin got convicted on all counts. I’m also quite distressed that it took SO MUCH evidence. For NINE DAYS the Prosecution presented witness after witness. The legal folks, trainers, fellow officers, his boss, all testifying that Chauvin did NOT use proper procedure. He violated his training. The medical folks all testified that Mr. Floyd’s health conditions and drug history played no part in his death and that he died because people were sitting on him in the prone position for nine minutes. The defense? Well, they had to do something so they brought in a guy to say the use of force displayed looked okay to him (he wasn’t the one being sat on, however) and another who said that maybe it was the drugs and then rested. All of this AFTER the video that made so clear that Chauvin murdered Floyd. STILL, everyone was holding their collective breath. What would the jury do?

I think Chauvin went to trial because he’s used to the notion that Minneapolis cops don’t get convicted of killing black people. He was arrogant at the scene. He was arrogant taking a trial instead of a plea bargain. He was arrogant in the courtroom. He just didn’t seem to believe it was possible for him to be convicted.

I suppose now his fellows will accept plea bargains.

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My favorite definition of a Libertarian is a conservative who likes to smoke pot but that is really just a playful description. The truth is Libertarians believe in a kind of perfect freedom – for themselves, anyway. It’s a kind of perfect freedom that does not – CAN not – exist in a society because of the old ‘Fist-to-Nose’ allegory. Libertarians believe in their absolute, perfect right to swing their fist anytime they want, any place they want. It takes no time at all to see the flaw in the “logic.” What happens when their perfect freedom to swing their fist comes into conflict with my perfect freedom to not be hit?

Of course, it’s possible Mr. Fistswinger and Mr. Nohit can talk about it and come to some accommodation – an agreement that respects each other’s perfect freedom without infringing on it. But what happens when someone insists on their own perfect freedom to swing their fist and refuses to acknowledge MY perfect freedom to not be hit? Obviously, that’s where courts come in. The courts rule: your right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose. You may not violate MY rights in the pursuit of your own perfect right. This is simply a balancing of rights that MUST occur in a society in which people interact. But Mr. Fistswinger refuses to accept this balance and storms off – angry, swearing, and whining that his perfect right has been infringed.

Frankly, I think it’s probably been people of the Libertarian mindset that spread humans across the globe. As governing rules are imposed on a society, the Libertarian…leaves. They would not acknowledge the need to balance rights so, in an effort to secure their own perfect right, they just went somewhere people weren’t. Eventually, civilization followed, the Libertarian felt closed in by new rules, and off they went again. It’s actually a pretty workable solution – so long as there exists someplace “new” for the Libertarian to go. Obviously, though, they eventually ran out of “new” places and society overtook them.

Eventually, that mindset got lumped together into a group and given a name: Libertarian. Inevitably, the Libertarians formed a political party of the same name. The party has existed since 1971 but they’ve never done well in elections. The BEST they ever did was in 1980 when they captured about one percent of the national vote but they’ve never been able to repeat that “success.” My own thinking is that they don’t do better because people understand how unrealistic the ideas of the Libertarians are. It’s not that they’re wrong, per se. But there is no practical application for perfect freedom in a society, as we’ve already seen.

After 1980, this vile pseudo-human known as Charles Koch realized that nobody was ever going to take the Libertarian party seriously so he did what any self-serving, one-percenter might do: he lied. He, along with his brother, David, started funding “think tanks” like the Cato Institute. These were not true think tanks, though. These were disinformation machines conceived, intended, and created to inject disinformation into the body politic. THEY knew they were lying. The consumers of their drivel did not. The idea was to “mainstream” Libertarian thinking by making it appear more credible than it ever actually is. But they didn’t stop there.

From time to time, some clever sod will go out and buy an old, surplus Army uniform and some medals and tell everyone they served and earned the medals even though they didn’t. The practice is referred to as “Stolen Honor.” In the same way, Charles realized people were not likely to embrace the Libertarian party since their impractical reputation preceded them. So, slowly, Libertarians started registering as Republicans and running under the more respectable banner of the GOP, a kind of “Stolen Respectability.” People didn’t realize what was happening but they DID notice that the Republicans of this once-great nation had become a bit…unhinged.

As time went on, once-mainstream Republicans – the rational Republicans – began to leave the party. They didn’t move to the now center-right Democratic party where they might have felt quite at home. They just became independents. But this left the faux-Republicans running the GOP. We’ve all seen the results. The GOP is now as bat-shit crazy as the Libertarian Party ever was – and for the same reason: it’s full of Libertarians. I’d say the scheme was, overall, successful. The Libertarians FINALLY got their President, Donald Trump. The world saw Libertarian “thinking” in action as Trump simply ignored science and other realities and tried to impose his preferences on real life. (Not surprisingly, it didn’t work.) Conservative “news” outlets, built to stoke Libertarian contrarianism, continued to lie and present the Trump presidency as successful. These lies all culminated in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol building as domestic terrorists who saw themselves as “Patriots” tried to overturn a “stolen” election that bears absolutely NO evidence of having been stolen.

The after-effect has been…eye opening. The media continues to report on what “Republicans” think about this or that issue but, mostly, nobody cares anymore. People seem to have realized that today’s Republican Party is a sorry shell of it’s former self. It’s like the Trump years and the Capitol assault caused the scales to fall from the nation’s eyes. Sure, the Libertarians managed some temporary success with their stolen respectability but they’re essentially barbarians and it’s not easy for a barbarian to behave as a civilized person for very long. People have long understood the Libertarian Party was full of useless wishful thinkers and it’s now normal to see the Republicans the same way – useless. The Libertarians marginalized themselves in the Libertarian Party and now they’ve very nearly marginalized themselves and the GOP as well.

The truth is, I’ve never had much use for political parties but I understand that people like to organize themselves into like-minded groups so political parties seem inevitable. Right now, there’s a strong push for more progressive thinking. (Progressive thinking is always the way the country recovers after some GOP – or in this case, Libertarian – dimwit has been in the Oval Office.) You might think this idea, progressive thinking, appeals to me. Okay, it does. I prefer a nation that seems to be at least trying to do the right thing. But…I have concerns about a party – any party – being the only realistic game in town. This once-great nation has NEVER truly been a so-called “two party” system. It’s just that we only had two parties that seemed, you know, sane. The Communists did okay when they first showed up – until people understood Communism. The Libertarians followed the same path. Their start was as strong as they were ever going to be. The Green Party? They’ve never even really had a strong start. People don’t seem to know what the Green Party is about – mostly because the Green Party doesn’t seem to know what the Green Party is about.

Like it or not, we’ve had two realistic possibilities for party affiliation for those who feel the need, Democrats and Republicans – and now the Republicans are every bit as useless as the other outliers, leaving the Democrats as the only rational and realistic option. That’s dangerous. Honest debate about honest concerns is better for governing. (This, as opposed to just stringing together words that can sound correct but actually make no sense.) Rational Republicans leaving the fold seems to have been inevitable as the Libertarians usurped (and tarnished) the GOP but I think it’s time for the rational Republicans to come back and push the Libertarians back to where they belong: obscurity.

I’ll tell you this: sooner or later, any unchallenged party will go too far – or even just make a well-meaning but honest mistake. Having someone around to at least mention possible issues is an effective stopgap – but that “someone” has to have credibility and the only way that’s going to happen is if the GOP recovers some honest respectability. They can’t do it with Libertarians in their midst…

While we’re “debating” whether or not the United States is, fundamentally, a racist nation (spoiler alert: it is), failed human being Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to make sure everyone KNOWS the United States is a racist nation. She’s launching a new Congressional caucus to “protect Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and press for infrastructure that “befits the progeny of European architecture.” Helping with the new caucus is racist Rep. Paul Gosar (R, of course – Arizona). Also on board, so far, you’ll find racist Republicans (of course) Louis Gohmert from Texas and Barry Moore from Alabama.

After formalizing rather standard white supremacist rhetoric into their shiny new platform, Gohmert told CBS News the caucus isn’t “supposed to be about race at all.” Somehow, I think is supposed to be ALL about race. Just about the only racist trope NOT represented in their literature (so far) is “Jews will not replace us.” I suspect they’re trying to shoehorn that bit in – as surreptitiously as possible…

I STILL say the best evidence against “white supremacy” is white supremacists. They’re just an embarrassment to the species…

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I’m sorry to report the unionization effort in the Amazon warehouse in Alabama failed. There is much talk of how America lost all of it’s good jobs to overseas locations. The truth is, American corporations off-shored UNION jobs. That’s what MADE them “the good jobs.” We can have good jobs in THIS once-great nation again, too, but it’s going to take unions. Sadly, the corporations have gotten very good at disrupting unionization efforts.

The first thing to consider is the desperation of the population in the location you put your plant/warehouse. The more desperate the better. On the one hand, you get all kinds of tax considerations when you show up AND you get to put a little lipstick on the pig by making a big announcement that your company is bringing jobs to…wherever. In addition, you get a workforce scared to risk those jobs for fear of going back to even more desperate times. The corporation gets those perks whether or not anyone tries to bring in a union. But if they DO try, there is a tried-and-true playbook of how corporations bust unionization efforts.

First, the corporation finds the turncoat employees. These are the employees who are too scared or stupid or ideologically opposed (a redundancy for “stupid”) to trying to improve their own lives. The turncoats support the company no matter what it may cost them personally. These backstabbers are useful to the corporation for the second phase of the operation, spreading rumors. They start telling anyone who will listen the union will generate mass layoffs or maybe even cause the closing of the plant/warehouse. It’s important these stories travel through the rumor mill. It gives the corporation “plausible deniability.” Meanwhile, management implements the third phase – promising the moon. “Oh, we were JUST about to make life bearable for the workers. We were just about to let you use the bathroom almost whenever you wanted and we were just about to double everyone’s salaries and we were just about to offer profit sharing and 401k’s and sick leave. Heck, we were even planning on putting some new vending machines in the break room. Of course, we can’t do any of that if you unionize. The union creates an adversarial relationship and they won’t let us do any of those things so – vote down the union and we’ll take care of you like we never have before (but, secretly, always wanted to).

Mostly, the rumors are the what gets the job done for the corporations. Fear of losing even a crappy job to no job is just too much for the desperate masses. The union gets voted down and life returns to “normal.” Of course, none of the things the corporation promised happen. “Oh, we were sure going to but discovered…whatever…” In the end, the employees WILL get new vending machines. After all, the company profits from those…

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By now, any thinking person has come to understand that the so-called “free market” has done serious damage to a vast swath of the American people. The poorer you are, the harsher the damage. Part of the problem is that, along with the fraudulent notion of a “free market,” the cons sold the false idea that taxing rich people is a bad idea. This phenomenon has had two results. One, governments have responsibilities they can’t simply ignore so they increase taxes, charges, and fees on everyone else. Two, finding themselves STILL facing shortfalls (the actual goal of tax cuts for the rich) governments are forced to cut services.

It’s weird in the various ways the failures reveal themselves. As one example, where I live, the government used to take on responsibility for pest control, mostly rats and mosquitos. Budget shortfalls have caused them to do less work on rat control and the resulting boom in the rat population is…disturbing. Recently, I realized that the so-called free market has even destroyed driver education! (I know!) There was a time when Californians learned to drive in school. Public or private, schools used an agreed-upon curriculum to teach everyone to drive – so we all drove, basically, the same way. We all took the classroom portion of the training and even the in-car portion during our regular school day. It didn’t cost us a dime. It was nice. It worked well. EVERYONE, rich and (OMG!) even “the poors” received the training…

Then came privatization, driven (if you will) by falling revenues due to tax cuts for the rich. It’s important to note that privatization NEVER results in better quality at a lower cost. Never. Driver training is no different. It didn’t take long before schools had to leave that part of a common education out of the day. For better or worse, driver training would have to take place in private companies – and it’s been for the worse. Now? Driver training is expensive. (“Whatever the market can bear…”)

This means many poor and struggling families – and the number of those is increasing every day – simply opt out. They don’t have a choice. They drive without licenses and without even the proper training because they’ve got to get to work. Worse, those that DO go through the classes might very well be given slightly different information. So now, California’s roadways are a hodge-podge of drivers all doing the best they can but not quite on the same page.

The evidence is in. This whole “comfort the comfortable” concept is an absolute failure for the largest number of Americans. I think it’s time to end this experiment in “greed is good” and go back to doing the things that created the strongest middle class in the history of the world, high taxes on the rich and a strong social safety net for everyone…

Have you been paying attention to the Derek Chauvin trial? Derek seems to be having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. That’s okay with me. For nearly two solid weeks experts, professionals, one-time colleagues, doctors, police trainers…hell, just about anybody connected with law enforcement and/or the medical profession has come out to agree: Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. Well, they haven’t rendered a verdict, yet but that’s the message. It’s been SUCH a parade of agreement that Chauvin’s actions were outside of standard police training and actions, I started wondering what kind of defense Chauvin might offer.

There’s always the standard, “Oh, cops have a tough job and have to make difficult, split-second decisions.” That’s often true, of course, but…you know…not in this case. Cons are out pretending Floyd was – well, to hear THEM tell it – Floyd was already dead from all that Fentanyl in his system but the Prosecutor covered that. Nope. “Oh, well, he had a heart condition,” they say, trying to defend the indefensible. According to the medical examiner who declared Floyd dead: Nope. I mean, he did, but that isn’t what killed him. I suppose the defense might suggest Chauvin didn’t realize the severity of Floyd’s condition. The prosecution has covered that, as well. Chauvin has been trained to recognize exactly that kind of distress and is duty-bound to render assistance in exactly the way he didn’t. The cops on the scene even rebuffed the attempted aid of an EMT who just happened to be there and was warning them of the danger.

I read in the Guardian, this morning, that the defense may be counting on the drug angle anyway. Apparently, there’s this concept of “excited delirium” that suggests that someone on drugs can become agitated and become stronger and have a higher resistance to pain than normal. None of that applies in the Floyd case, of course. We have all watched the video. He wasn’t resisting. He was just trying to survive. But the defense has to say SOMETHING, right? If they can’t point to the shiny badge and they can’t point to the “resisting, drug-addled black man,” what have they got?

I have found the whole prosecution SO devastating, I am curious as to why Chauvin didn’t just accept a plea bargain in the first place. Sitting on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, in front of an audience, on camera and being recorded is one of the most blatant acts of arrogance I’ve ever seen – short of insisting that, despite all of that, getting his day in court would “clear everything up.” Are cops REALLY that certain that courts will back them up, no matter what?

I presume Chauvin’s accomplices are watching closely. I suspect that Chauvin’s trial is – more than anything else – a warning to them. Chauvin is making the state go through the motions, as is his right, but my guess is they don’t want to do this for all four of the killers on such a clear-cut, open and shut case. Once Chauvin is convicted, I predict the rest will accept plea agreements for their participation and the whole mess will be behind everyone.

You know…until the next time…

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Speaking of killing people, I hear there are some out there (mostly cons, of course) refusing to get the vaccine and insisting on going about their day normally. Open everything, go everywhere, do whatever. (Is now the time to mention that the current U.S. death count from Covid-19 stands at 561,231?) Not surprisingly, conservative strongholds are also Covid-19 hot spots, with Michigan leading the way. Remember Michigan? That’s the place where the cons were SO determined to do the wrong thing they attempted to kidnap the Governor – with an eye toward murdering her. The cons are all over it, aren’t they? Infamous con Ted Nugent even wants to know why there weren’t any lock-downs for Covid 1 through Covid 18! At some point, one gets tired of trying to induce people to do the right thing and, let’s be honest, there SHOULD BE the right among people to choose to die. Let’s just let them “live with their choice” (read: die) and reduce the surplus population, right? It’s not very p.c. of me but I’m okay with that.

(The previous paragraph reflects my frustration at the refusal of some to participate and do the right thing. Of course we’re going to help those who find themselves suffering from poor choices they’ve made. It’s really the human thing to do…)

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Sometimes, I wish I wasn’t an atheist. Sometimes, I wish I could reasonably believe in the concept of Hell. There are people out in this world who should spend some time there. The idea that people who perpetuate evil in this world and seem to get away with it will get theirs in the end is quite comforting – but it’s bunk. Here in Feudal America, cheaters prosper and crime pays. Many of the very worst people on the planet are waving holy books and hiding behind their pretended faith but don’t seem very concerned about the consequences of their despicable behavior. That seems to be one of the more defining differences between believers and non-believers. Non-believers are more honest…

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No correlation intended, here, but I guess I have to at least mention the passing of Prince Philip. 99 years old is nothing to shake a stick at. I kind of wish he had made it to 100. After that, I don’t have much interest in “the Royal Family” and I didn’t know Philip personally, so I’m not much invested in his passing. I feel VERY badly for Queen Elizabeth II. Losing a life-partner of 74 years has got to be tough…

I’ve been noticing something of a bump in posts on social media from cons repeating the big lie – that the 2020 election was stolen from the Dumbass. They genuinely don’t seem to realize they’re fighting in favor of voter suppression. They’ve been told by conservative media they’re fighting to stop voter fraud – and they believe it. So, some of them stick their heads out of their hidey-holes and challenge posts opposed to Georgia’s shiny new Jim Crow voter suppression law because they know – they just KNOW – the election was stolen. I know there are LOTS of stories out there. But they’re just stories. As it happens, people are free to say anything they want in private conversations, on social media, or out in front of landscaping companies. But people with official responsibilities who take those responsibilities seriously, whose jobs and reputations are at stake, are NOT free to just say whatever they want. They have to go with the evidence. Do you know where ELSE people are not free to just spew phrases and insist the phrases are treated the same as facts? Courtrooms. It’s STILL true in this once-great nation that courtrooms require supporting evidence. So I did a little score-counting in the “Stolen vs Not Stolen” discussion.

On MY side (Team Not Stolen), I have 50 individual states all certifying the results of the election. I have the US Congress also certifying the results – despite the January 6 assault on the Capitol by radicalized, far-right conservative contrarians. THEN, I have on MY side, 60 lawsuits on the topic – very helpfully filed by Giuliani on behalf of the Dumbass. Not one of them prevailed. Not one. ALL of them were tossed out due to lack of evidence. So…for “Team Not Stolen” we have, let’s see, that’s fifty, plus one, plus 60 for, ah, there it is; 111 points. “Team Stolen” on the other hand? Well, they have unfounded assertions put forth by some confused-looking dude on Fox so…zero. 0 points. That’s “Team Not Stolen” – 111, “Team Stolen” – 0. The team that scored 0 in a 111-0 drubbing continuing to insist that, “Hey, maybe, secretly, we won” doesn’t come across as “faithful.” It comes across as “separated from reality.”

Now, even in American football, where points can be added six at a time, 111-0 would be understood as a resounding defeat but the election count is one point at a time. Imagine a baseball game that ended 111-0. I suspect that even among the pros they might discuss a mercy rule at some point. Was the election stolen? 111-0 says no. Was there statistically significant voter fraud? 111-0 says no. Do we need vote reform? 111-0 says no.

I’ll tell you this: it’s important to remember that the only thing that matters is what the evidence shows (111). What a person just…prefers to believe (0) means nothing. I imagine the zeros are going to keep up the pretense, though…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Facebook has taken to interrupting it’s ads with ads. At first, I found it rather obnoxious. Then I realized I could use that to my advantage. These days, when the ad within the ad starts, I use it as my cue to leave Facebook. It’s a GREAT tool to keep from wasting too much time in social media. I recommend it…

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I saw a new story about yet ANOTHER way Donnie Dumbass is fleecing his believers. He had someone set up a donation page – which is just greed squared for the Dumbass. (And, really, why WOULDN’T someone with his claimed wealth need YOUR money?) But then, clever sods they are, they added these check-boxes that allowed your intended one-time contribution to automatically become a regular, weekly contribution and another that allowed your contributions to be increased automatically. Convenient, yes? Even MORE convenient, they pre-checked the boxes for you! Oh, AND they made the check-boxes easy to overlook so people think they’re making a one-time donation of, say, $300 (often quite the bite on the “poorly educated” folks he claims to love so much) only to find out their “one-time” donation had gone out weekly. One guy, Victor Amelino, a 78-year-old from California, donated $990 in September. It recurred seven times for a total of almost $8,000.”

All legal, apparently, and a trick the GOP is using quite a bit these days, at least according to the New York Times. As they receive complaints, they refund the “donated” money. (Likely NOT the bank charges for overdrafts or other fees and if you don’t complain, no refund for you.) The truth is, it’s common for campaigns to refund contributions for various reasons. In the last election, Biden refunded some $5.6 million dollars. Trump and the RNC? $64.3 million dollars. “In effect,” the Times wrote, “the money that Mr Trump eventually had to refund amounted to an interest-free loan from unwitting supporters at the most important juncture of the 2020 race.”

Trump’s not the brilliant businessman he pretends. He’s a thief but his acolytes are only too happy to be fleeced so long as they believe they’re “owning” the libs. Impressive…

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Ah, Matt Gaetz (R (of course), Florida). This tool has behaved like a sleazeball since I first became aware of him. Turns out, it’s because he’s a sleazeball. He’s discovering that paying to transport underage women across state lines for sex is a…problem. He ALSO seems to be discovering that, having attacked anybody and everybody he disagrees with over anything he disagrees with, he finds himself with precious few (any?) comrades coming to his defense.

Did YOU know that Matt Gaetz is one of the Dumbass’s biggest supporters? (Like-minds, you know…) As the evidence mounts, Trump has repaid Gaetz’ loyalty by…distancing himself. Gaetz was a regular on Fox “News” and now is persona non grata after trying to implicate Tucker Carlson in the scheme. He’s just on his own. Nice. Sadly, the Gaetz family has money so he’ll likely buy his way out of any significant legal trouble, here in Feudal America, but it MAY get him out of Congress. Fingers crossed.

I keep hearing the Q-Anonsense that the Democrats are supposedly running a child sex trafficking ring but I keep noticing that conservatives are getting caught participating in child sex trafficking rings. I have to confess, I get a sense of satisfaction seeing conservatives actually falling to the charges they like to project onto their opponents so…pass the popcorn…

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I’m a bit irritated at the American media at the moment – okay, usually. During this current lockdown pause, people are getting back to normal. Unfortunately, in this once-great nation, “normal” means one mass shooting after another. My irritation is rooted in the media tendency to first discover the political leanings of the murderer in question and use THAT as a gauge as to how much information is available. So the first guy I heard about, the Atlanta shooter, (a white, “Christian” domestic terrorist) has been mostly bypassed by the media. Sure, he went out of his way to kill Asians at a time when Asians across the land are being blamed – and “punished” – by conservatives for Covid-19, but, we’re told, it wasn’t racist. He was just having a bad day. He says he’s a sex addict and wanted to eliminate (Asian) temptation. Apparently, his interpretation of his god’s wishes included killing people he might otherwise want to have sex with. Nice work, God… (Truthfully? I’m guessing these incels get that a lot from women, “I’d rather die than have sex with you…”) After that, the media coverage shifts to violence against Asians, NOT details about the shooter, himself.

Thankfully for the media, the NEXT shooter was born in Syria. We know FAR more about him. We get to see him in court. We get to know when his next court date is, what was found on his computer, what his likely motivation was, pretty much anything/everything they can find.

Most Americans don’t even realize they’re being manipulated in their thinking…

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I’d like to take a moment to wish you all a Happy Easter. I see Easter as a “hopeful” holiday and I think we could all use a little of that right now…