here we go again

We knew Trump’s monumental humiliation on No Kings Day and his barely attended pathetic excuse for a military parade that was supposed to inspire fear and envy in the rest of the world coupled with the obvious lack of respect he received at the G7 summit in Canada would have repercussions because Trump never lets the least slight slide. His obsession with winning a Nobel Peace Prize and his bottomless need for respect and adulation apparently culminated in the conviction that if he bombed Iran into oblivion thereby saving the world from possible annihilation if Iran ever actually produced a nuclear weapon it would result in both. Either that or, and more likely, bombing Iran was a big fuck you, I’ll show you who’s powerful. Trump bombs Iran and then declares now is the time for peace, in all caps, or else. He thinks he’s shown them who’s boss, that he’s won. Iran’s nuclear ambitions destroyed by me! Praise me, I saved everyone, now give me my peace prize! Iran’s all, not even Bozo. This is not over. Wars are easy to start, hard to stop. Just ask George Bush the younger. 

In an interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when asked why would Iran agree to a peace deal when the US already pulled out of the treaty Iran had been abiding by that limited their nuclear ambitions and then launched surprise attacks against Iran, responded “The ones that shouldn’t be trusted are the Iranians.” Same interview or maybe a different one he said they weren’t looking for a war with Iran but if they retaliated it would be the worst mistake they ever made. Apparently to this administration bombing a sovereign nation to stop them from developing a nuclear bomb after withdrawing from a treaty that was preventing them from doing so isn’t a declaration of war, but that country retaliating is. Trump will claim that Iran started this particular conflict when it was Israel who started the escalation when they started bombing Iran directly. 

Iran supports militant groups in other countries fighting what they consider oppression and we call them terrorists but so do we, so do other nations. The only difference is we don't call the ones we support terrorists. Whatever the nomenclature the goal is the same, to support those who are likely to get us what we want through the use of violence. Israel calls Iran a terrorist nation, Iran calls Israel a terrorist nation. Israel bombs hospitals, schools, residential areas, and aid distribution sites in Gaza and nobody blinks an eye. Iran bombed one hospital in Israel and is accused of war crimes. Netanyahu ignored the intel that an attack by Hamas was imminent in response to the apartheid conditions and terrorist tactics used by the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank and is using it as an excuse to wipe Gaza off the map. Less than 2,000 Israelis have been killed in the current conflict compared to almost 60,000 Palestinians. Israel restricts how much aid is allowed into Gaza if any at all and the people are starving. The US is apparently fine with that because Trump wants to develop the Gaza coast. The line between defense and terrorism is very fuzzy and depends on which side of the line you're standing on. 

So now, here we are, embroiled in another possible war started by the ‘no new wars’ president, unless of course he feels humiliated and needs to whip someone’s ass to make himself feel better, a draft dodging man who calls those killed in action or held prisoner losers. We shouldn’t be surprised, you know, war is what we do. This country has been at war for almost every year of its existence and usually more than one military action at a time. In fact I don’t think there has been a single year during my lifetime, and I’m 75 years old, that the US has not been involved in some kind of military operation all over the world including four major wars…Korean War, VietNam War, war in Afghanistan, and war in Iraq…and we are the biggest exporter of military weaponry. 

What happens in Iran remains to be seen, just how long and deep this military action will go or if it sparks a wider conflict. It puts Trump at odds with his handler Putin since Iran and Russia are aligned and Putin is not about to abandon his stronghold in the Middle East considering he already lost Syria any more than he is going to give up Ukraine and his ambitions towards all of Eastern Europe. Destroying Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons doesn’t necessarily mean they will never have any if Russia wants them to.

So, yeah, war is what we do. War is what humans do. The entirety of human history is war and conflict and conquest creating one great empire after another. My theory is that being the apex predator we have nothing to keep us in check but ourselves, that we are our own predator. It doesn't seem to be working though. The planet is groaning with unrestrained population growth and competition for resources.

the intent of religious and far right extremists to rule, not govern

This is long but I hope you will read all the way to the bottom.

On my way to SHARE last Thursday morning I passed a guy walking along the side of the road holding a big sign in front of himself that said 'Jesus loves you'. There's also a big cross in the easement of one of the main north/south roads that has 'Jesus Is Lord' written on it. During the last election people put out 'pray for our nation' yard signs. At least one of the people I know thinks Mike Johnson's elevation to Speaker of the House is not just a good thing but a great thing. And that is fucking scary. I have no problem with religious believers for the most part as long as they understand that their religion and beliefs apply only to their lives. Unfortunately, too many think their religion and beliefs apply to everyone's lives and should be legislated and forced on the population as a whole. And that is exactly what Mike Johnson wants and plans to do. And not just Johnson, the whole Trump supporting extremist cabal in the House.

Not only does Johnson et al think he has the power given to him by god to force his religious extremism on the population at large, a member of the Seven Mountain Dominionists, he is also an insurrectionist who was instrumental in trying to get Congress to subvert the election, leading the amicus brief that more than 100 republican representatives signed supporting the Texas lawsuit that sought to invalidate the 2020 elections in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania even after 60 lawsuits filed by republicans claiming fraud failed to produce one iota of evidence. They support Trump because they see him as instrumental in achieving their goal of getting rid of the separation of church and state and turning our democracy into a religious authoritarian government. If you have any doubt that that is their goal, do a little research into this group.

Mike Johnson wants a national ban on abortion, no exceptions even though it is a life saving procedure for women with ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, dead fetuses, severely underdeveloped fetuses with no chance of life, or other health conditions that make it extremely life threatening to continue a pregnancy and even though the majority of Americans are against banning abortion. Already the maternal death rate and newborn death rate has increased in states with abortion bans. Johnson supports banning IVF and common forms of birth control, he voted against ensuring access to contraception and believes every American woman should be required to have at least one child to insure future laborers for the Hegemony. His wife engages in conversion therapy for gays, a completely discounted and dangerous therapy, and they are busy scrubbing all mention of it from the internet. He would make same sex marriage illegal and blames love between members of the same sex as the source of all evil.

And then there's his financial statements in which he declares neither he, his wife, nor their children have a checking or savings account and declares no assets. How does that work? How does he pay his bills? Does he cash his paycheck at the bank? He makes $174,000 a year and that excludes his wife's income. As long as we're on the topic of suspicious stuff, he claims to have adopted and raised a black teenager though there was never a legal adoption, Johnson just 'took custody', whatever that means, but there is no evidence of this 'son' he claims to have raised, not in pictures anyway, not in family portraits, not on any of their websites.

So far in his tenure as Speaker he has split support for Ukraine from support for Israel, offsetting the financial aid with an equal cut to the new funding for the IRS to go after the ultra wealthy tax cheats which if passed would actually add to the national debt by reducing the amount of money collected. As it stands now, with the extra funding, every dollar spent on the IRS returns two or three dollars in owed taxes but republicans don't like it when their obscenely rich donors have to pay their share of taxes. The House has also voted to cut the EPA budget by 39%, the NPS by 13%; reducing the salaries of the EPA administrator, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, and the Secretary of the Interior to $1 each; and are pushing to eliminate Biden's $35 cap on insulin. What Johnson and the House are not doing is working on funding the government, which current funding expires on November 17. Fortunately none of these extreme bills have a chance of passing in the Senate and I expect their refusal to work on and pass a budget for the government for the coming fiscal year is because they see shutting down the government as a plus, a black mark against Biden, hoping it will erode support for him and enable them to take back Congress and the Presidency. However, this man as Speaker of the House, is second in line for the presidency after the Vice-President. If Trump's constant calls for violence against those who oppose him succeed, Johnson could become president before the next election.

As for Trump, his republican supporters, and their desire for an authoritarian government you need only listen to Trump's own words. They will replace everyone in every agency and the civil service with people suitably loyal to Trump, not the Constitution, and are working to acquire a team of lawyers who are willing to try 'innovative' approaches, read unethical, and are already making lists of names. Trump makes no secret of his intention to weaponize the justice department to punish his opponents, detractors, and those who have testified against him (the list of names is long) and, if he wins, is floating plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on the first day of his second term to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations. If re-elected Trump's supporters plan to move quickly and aggressively to consolidate power in the West Wing with that nazi Stephen Miller playing a leading role. There will be no stumbling and bumbling. All of this planning, Project 2025, is going on now by an outside group. If you are unfamiliar with Project 2025, I suggest you research it. It's the republican game plan for when they get control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency.

Scary times.

And of course they aren't focusing just on the upcoming national election but every state election from the governor to the school board. Virginia and Ohio have important elections on Tuesday and both republican dominated states have removed thousands of qualified voters from the rolls preceding these elections while tossing out twice as many mail-in ballots submitted by blacks than whites continuing their voter suppression tactics.

Hopefully Trump will be in jail or disqualified though the plan will go forward no matter which republican may get elected. The movement is larger than Trump. If we want this democratic republic to survive, if we want the will of the people to govern us and not the will of the far right white christian nationalists intent on religious authoritarian rule every last one of us must vote and vote democrat. What's happening now is exactly what the founding fathers rebelled against.

If you don't already get Heather Cox Richardson's newsletters you should sign up for them. She's a historian and an excellent source of information about what's happening in this country and how it ties into our history.

Another good source for keeping tabs on the ridiculousness and stupidity of some of today's republicans is Jeff Tiedrich. He is astute and funny and says fuck a lot.

and here we are again,

riots and violence and destruction because privileged white people don't listen. Or should I say privileged racist white people don't care how many black people are murdered. And did you see the video of the white guy who walks up with a hammer and starts smashing windows and then leaves? Or that the police precinct building that burned was evacuated 20 minutes before the fire started (granted this was just a tweet or FB post I saw) or that people are reporting on social media that they are seeing white people setting fires and smashing stuff or that the police chief of Minneapolis has reported that all the people arrested were from out of town? So who knows who is really starting the violence and fires. It's not unheard of for cops to plant guns and drugs and it's not such a big leap to think that certain cops and outside agitators would not hesitate to start the violence and destruction and then blame it on the protesters. So many white nationalists and nazis and racists WANT violence and an excuse to gun down black people in the street and they have been infiltrating police departments for decades. At least they have arrested the cop and charged him with murder, albeit 3^rd degree murder and 2^nd degree manslaughter. But he'll get off because they're all in this together. The medical examiner has stated that strangulation was not the cause of death even though anyone who saw that video knows exactly how he died. And the looting? Plenty of videos showing white people helping themselves to merchandise are on social media but you won't see any of those on the news.

For those of you who don't understand the rioting, think it doesn't help their cause, what else is left for them? Black Americans are killed by police far more often than white Americans. In 2019, 370 white people and 235 black people were shot and killed by police. On the surface it seems more white people were killed until you realize that black people make up only 12% of the population, 12% of the population accounts for 39% of the people killed by cops in 2019 so proportionally, per capita, far more black people are killed by police than white people. Black people have tried everything...being submissive, being compliant, writing letters, giving speeches, protesting peacefully and still they are shot dead unarmed by police and civilians, still they constantly have to deal with white people calling the police and being arrested for simply living their lives in public. Why do they finally riot? Because nothing else fucking gets attention! Nothing else has ever instituted change. Take a knee during the national anthem to point out racial injustice and you get spit on and fired. They are angry and frustrated and horrified when all they want is to be left alone, to not be killed by police and citizens who think they have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner over an accusation, to just live their lives with the same sense of safety that every. single. white. person. enjoys.

And what is Trump doing? He is throwing gas on embers, looting equals shooting, encouraging violence against black Americans. He wants nothing more than to use the National Guard or the Military Police (which have been put on alert) to fire on black civilians, to declare some sort of martial law, complaining that the Mayor of Minneapolis isn't being forceful enough against these protesters. He wants desperately to use the strong arm tactics his buddies Putin and the royal Saudis use. He threatened violence to the protesters outside the White House last night and is calling for his supporters to show up tonight.

If you still think we don't have a problem with racism in this country, consider this. In Atlanta, white militia members dressed their children up in camo, vests, shields, gas masks, helmets, and assault weapons and spread them out in a line to confront protesters. Their children! 

       

Their children are being taught that black people are scum and thugs and don't deserve to be treated with respect or even listened to and must be dealt with accordingly.

It is past time for our society to actually put into practice what we claim to be, a place of opportunity for all Americans regardless of skin color but that will never happen as long as we refuse to call out these white supremacists and nazis for what they really are...domestic terrorists...and then deal with them accordingly.

Edit: I read today statements by the mayor of Minneapolis, the governor of Minnesota, the police chief of Minneapolis, and a report by a resident of Minneapolis that the city is under siege. Peaceful protests against the murder of George Floyd take place during the day and after curfew, bands of roving white right wing militia members spread out and start fires and bash in storefronts, even removing plywood put up for protection. There are eye witnesses to this but by the time the police and National Guard show up they have melted away. Predictably AG Barr is blaming 'the radical left' and Antifa for the rioting and destruction without any proof whatsoever and despite the fact that some of those arrested are linked to the far right militias that have been threatening their wet dream of a new civil/race war ever since Trump was elected and in several cases it is the cops themselves that are escalating the violence.

MAGA?

Anyone who thinks Trump's latest EO means anything is deluding themselves. It said nothing about reuniting these already detained children with their families and his order only protects children and parents for 20 days and included language that gives them excuses to continue with the status quo. This was a photo op and a speech, a deflection because the opposition was too intense and growing and the bad press was coming from all quarters. It did not bother him to see pictures of these kids. He ordered it, him and Sessions, they cooked this up to force Democrats to vote for funding his wall and as a supposed deterrent to people coming for asylum. He said as much. Which is why this EO was completely unnecessary. There is no law forcing separation of children from their parents. The one they refer to allowed unaccompanied minors or accompanied by a non-relative to be housed to protect them from predators. This is not a practice that has been going on for 18 years. This is not happening because of anything the Democrats did. This is solely to be placed at the feet of Trump and Sessions. And for Sessions to quote the Bible to justify his complete lack of compassion, I mean, has he ever read about Jesus? Does he know anything about the man he calls his savior?

They are tearing nursing babies from the arms of their mothers, toddlers who have no comprehension of what is happening to them and they are sending them to secret 'tender age' facilities. They are sending these children as far away as NY. They aren't even keeping track of which child belongs to which parent having to resort to DNA testing to match them up in the unlikelihood that they will ever be reunited. The Texas Tribune (and now CNN) posted an article about a facility in Texas that is drugging the kids in their care.

Trump has no intention of offering asylum to any of these people. He wants zero immigration from south of our border and is busily deporting as many latinos as he can including veterans, doctors, business owners leaving families torn apart and remaining spouses suddenly thrust into single parenthood (while he ignores the millions of white illegal residents who have overstayed their visas). He has repeatedly called them all criminals, rapists, drug dealers, and most recently, animals. Pre-Trump, people asking for asylum were allowed to stay in country for a year while their requests are processed keeping families intact. Trump takes their children away and throws them in jail for a misdemeanor when they could just as easily send them back across the border but there is too much money to be made in the private prison industry in which several of the people in his administration and his friends are involved or have ties, all paid for by our tax dollars. It is infinitely cheaper to just apprehend them and send them back regardless of how many times they are caught. But then Trump's buddies wouldn't get richer.

And then there is this on her way to see the children's detainment facilities firsthand...evil, stupid, or just plain clueless?

In the meantime Trump has withdrawn us from the UN Human Rights Council because they are hating on Israel for committing genocide and the Republicans have released their proposed budget for 2019 cutting Medicaid, Medicare, and SS by trillions combined over the next 10 years because, of course, the young, the ill, and the elderly will be made to pay for the trillion dollar plus shortfall caused by their tax cuts to the ultra wealthy.

MAGA!

well, that didn't take long

Now that the Republicans have passed their boondoggle of a tax reform giving us peons a temporary tax cut of maybe $100 if we're lucky while the already ultra wealthy and corporations making record profits get a permanent tax cut of millions and billions every fucking year and adding a trillion to the deficit, now they are all worried about where the money is coming from to cover the extra billions going to our already bloated defense budget and the billions they want for that stupid, and in the end ineffective, wall. Guess who they want to make up the difference...the old, the poor, and the ill.

Social Security and Medicare (also Medicaid) are on the chopping block even though these programs are not part of the national budget but funded by a special account that we all pay into our entire working lives that was flush with money for the foreseeable future until the government raided that fund to pay for the things they didn't want to raise taxes for. Now the Republicans are all woe is us, SS and Medicare are bankrupting us!

They also have food assistance in their sights. Not content with passing laws that make it harder for the working poor to access, now the Republicans want to pick their food for them. If they have their way recipients will receive less money on a debit card that they can shop for the groceries they want with and a box of 'shelf stable' food. In other words, the government is going to decide for you what you get to eat and it will be the cheapest sugar and salt laden GMO chemical filled over processed packaged food available because in this country it's all about profit and you can bet whatever agency (or corporation) the Republicans create to compile and distribute these boxes of food will skim off as much as they can of the budget and pocket the funds. Not content with being political nazis, now they want to be food nazis.

And not just food assistance, Trump wants to eliminate things like the National Endowment for the Arts, not cut the budget but eliminate, because they don't see the value to this country of our culture and arts (here's a link to the 22 agencies he wants to eliminate). Not to mention House Republicans voting to eliminate the only federal agency tasked with making sure our voting machines can't be hacked. This coming on the heels of every intel agency in the country warning Congress and Trump that not only did the Russians hack into and influence the last presidential election but they are currently continuing to do the same for the midterm elections coming up in November. Trump's reaction? Meh, Putin says he didn't do it. He believes this country's #1 enemy over all the intelligence agencies tasked with our protection. Trump also refuses to impose the new sanctions on Russia that overwhelmingly passed Congress. So much for the rule of law.

So you peeps know what you need to do right? Show up and vote in November. Ted Cruz is convinced we will as he said in a speech to the Ft. Bend County GOP, "Let me tell you right now: The left is going to show up. They will crawl over broken glass in November to vote."

If you have to crawl over broken glass to vote then put on some fucking knee pads and get yourself to the polls because if we don't take back Congress in November we can kiss what's left of this country goodbye.

this is how it starts, the question is how will it end

I've been working at the antique store the last few days as the owner decided not to reopen since she had the new location in Rosenberg that was doing well and she has put the buildings up for sale and needs to clear out what she hasn't already moved to the other location so she was having an 'estate' sale there at the old Miss Hattie's. She expected a big crowd, which had my sister and I shaking our heads because...Wharton, so she hired my sister and Jim who also had worked there and me to help with the enormous crowds and sales. Long story short, we did have a slow steady stream of people for the 2 1/2 days but no crowds, big or otherwise, and just one extra person besides the owner and the other vendor would have been sufficient for the amount of sales, so while it didn't keep me particularly busy Friday and Saturday, it did keep me away from the news.

Saturday, during a quiet period, I started a post...

What is the matter with that man? Not satisfied with threatening N. Korea with fire and brimstone he has now turned his eye to Venezuela, threatening a military take-over there because 'the place is a mess', not that he even knew where Venezuela is. John Kelly has started bringing an atlas with him to meetings says one of the rogue WH twitter accounts. He is even verbally attacking and threatening the few Republican senators that are finally showing some sort of spine as well as some of his own appointees.

Never mind, I know what's the matter with him. He's an empty shell who is incapable of creating anything and so he destroys instead. Well, that's just one of the many things wrong with him. There is so much wrong with him that he is a joke, albeit a dangerous joke, not just here but abroad as well. There's an interesting article on Alternet about how Trump is perceived by leading European officials and it ain't pretty.

Number one is his obsession with Obama and his primary motivation seems to be undoing everything Obama did...“It’s his only real position,” a European diplomat told the site. “He will ask: ‘Did Obama approve this?’ And if the answer is affirmative, he will say: ‘We don’t.’ He won’t even want to listen to the arguments or have a debate. He is obsessed with Obama.” Which of course we know since nearly every executive action and directive has been aimed at undoing something Obama did regardless of how good for the people it is, the most recent two being rescinding the ability of residents of nursing homes to sue for mistreatment and ending the highly successful program aimed at ending teen pregnancy which has been reduced by 40% under the program...

That's as far as I got but I recommend reading the article.

Now here it is Sunday and I've spent yesterday evening and most of the day today reading about Saturday in total disgust of what happened. Nazis marching down the street with torches in their khakis and white polo shirts spewing racist and white supremacist garbage, every single one of them a privileged asshole who has never in their lives experienced any form oppression. Armed Nazis wearing helmets and holding shields gathering for a 'peaceful' rally around the statue of a fucking traitor to this country to which he pledged his fealty, gathering in defense of white supremacy, gathering in support of Trump, of getting their history back as if the history of this country wasn't created by and written by people just like them, armed groups gathering in camo and body armor who were there to protect the Nazis during their demonstration and violence while the police stood back and watched it all without trying to stop them, not until one of the Nazi terrorists ran his car into a crowd of anti-Nazi protestors killing one and injuring 19 others.

This happened here in America yesterday.

And what was Trump's response? Did he condemn Nazi ideology, did he refute their support of him? Hardly. He namby pambyed around saying we should be united and condemn all that hate stands for, blaming 'many sides' for the violence. It was so vague and non-specific that the nazi crowd is seeing it as a positive.

Well, the nazi terrorists, and make no mistake, there is no difference between alt-right, white supremacists, and nazis, no matter what they call themselves, were eventually run out of town and denounced in the most concrete terms by Virginia's governor and some republican politicians are doing the same, most surprising among them to me was Ted Cruz who called them what they are, nazi terrorists, and condemned them roundly. They'll be back though. There is another such rally planned for September 11 at A&M University in Texas. I think they're testing the waters, trying out their tactics for the civil war they want to start if Trump is removed from office and Trump will embrace them as his own personal loyal army. It's going to get ugly folks.

This nation harbors a heart of hate and oppression. We have been at war for nearly every year of our existence. We whites have enslaved and committed genocide. We have repressed and subjected. With our completely unfettered access to guns, more Americans have died at the hands of our own citizens than have died in all the wars we have fought combined...see sentence 2. I'm afraid we are becoming what we have always been. Still, I never thought we would inherit the soul of Nazi Germany.

rescuing more dogs

Well, it's happened again. Unowned dumped dogs showed up in the yard. This time it was a brindle with some bulldog or pit bull in her with two puppies in my garage at my back door trying to get in with Minnie going nuts. They fled before her ferociousness but not far. My new neighbors on the other side of Allen, who owns the 1/2 acre between us and our new neighbors who bought Frank of the Bountiful Garden's house, do not care for the dog situation out here. They are newly transplanted from the city. I don't know if that's what accounts for some of their weirdness or not since I was once, not that long ago, newly transplanted from the city but I don't think I am fundamentally different than I was but that's beside the point. What was the point? Oh, right, weirdness and neighbors. The last time a couple of weeks ago two dogs were out running around and got into their garage, both of them were threatening to shoot them (they make no bones about being gun owners) if they came in their garage again. What the fuck is the matter with people who think killing something that annoyed you is the right and first response. My response was there are alternatives like contacting the rescue group that is very good about picking up and placing these poor animals, resources permitting. Turns out, those two dogs were the loved pets of a couple that went out of town and the dogs got out while they were gone.

So then after I closed the door to the garage and waited 10 minutes or so I crept out the back door and around to peer into the garage to see if they were still there and I saw one of my new neighbors on his back patio who yelled something at me which I didn't catch (the dogs were not in my garage) and the mother dog was running for the street and I looked around to see his counterpart holding a pipe or something with some kind of wire wrapped around it with two puppies at her feet in Allen's yard. She disentangled herself and the puppies stayed there at the back of Allen's property by his skiff on a trailer.

I contacted the the dog rescue group for the county, SPOT, and while I was corresponding with them I saw that Robert, new neighbor, had driven his truck into Allen's yard and was standing next to his truck, puppies deeper amongst the storage buildings at the back of the property. I don't know what he was doing, perhaps taking pictures because the SPOT lady told me a neighbor had also sent pictures of the puppies in. When I was ready to close up last night both puppies were in the garage sitting at the door to the house. I made Marc go run them off. The black puppy fled, the tan one did not and hunkered down over by a cabinet. Short of picking it up and removing it, it would not be dislodged.

I hate this! It pisses me off that people won't be responsible for the animals they acquire. If you can't keep them for whatever reason, man or woman up and do the right thing. Surrender them to a shelter. Dumping them 'in the country' is not a solution! It is cruel and resigns them to a life of hardship, hunger, injury, disease, parasites, and uncontrolled breeding creating feral dog packs that are dangerous if they aren't caught and placed or killed.

Last night both puppies sheltered in the garage which I left open in case mom came back looking for them but there they were this morning. I gave them some water and food and cleaned up the messes they left. One male, one female, still fairly clean and soft but bloated stomachs so wormy, friendly, desperate for human attention. One welcoming word and they were wriggling all over my feet and jumping on me.

Christine, from SPOT, finally got permission to come pick them up which she did. They will get shipped up to Washington state where there is a shortage of puppies due to their strict laws about breeding and selling. SPOT has sent hundreds of puppies to them to get adopted out and it helps with the older dogs that get turned in because they also get seen when they have puppies. Often the puppies already have homes waiting for them when they get there.

So, another happy ending for the puppies at least. Not so much for me. My cat Emma has gone missing. Haven't seen her since Saturday early afternoon before the dogs showed up. 

who needs fucking enemies from without

There is no need for Islamic terrorists to bring us down, we are doing a fine job of it ourselves. We are killing far more of us every day than any Islamic terrorist could do. Terrorists may go for the big flashy statement, but for body count, we can't be beat.

Guns are rampant in this country. All kinds, shapes, sizes. Guns for children even. Another record for gun sales this past Black Friday. Why? Last week's outrage, the Syrian refugees, no doubt. Those people who have suffered the loss of everything in their world...their homes and lives turned to rubble by our bombs. Their ability to care of their families gone up in smoke. No home, no job, no neighborhood, no infrastructure, no food, no water, they are left with the clothes on their backs and their lives. These people who have undergone up to two years of scrutiny, who only want a safe place to raise their families, that are the victims of the very people we say we are fighting, that are finally being allowed in are being vilified by our politicians and a good segment of our population who want to refuse them entry and if they are let in want to refuse them any help because they are being told by the rabid right wing and Fox News that these people should be feared. Never mind that if a terrorist wants in this country it is far easier to get in on a visitor's visa.

Meanwhile, a guy gets pissed off at his waitress because she asked him not to smoke in the restaurant so he pulls out his gun and shoots her in the head.

Meanwhile, a guy hides in the dark and shoots his neighbor three times because she asked him earlier in the day not to drive his riding lawnmower across her yard.

Meanwhile, a guy shoots his neighbor because the man refused to move his car which he had parked in the public street in front of the shooter's house.

Meanwhile, a guy shoots his two kids and then himself.

Meanwhile, a guy shoots up a Planned Parenthood killing three people and injuring many more.

Meanwhile, a man and a woman burst into a banquet and open fire killing 14 people and wounding 17 others, most critically.

And that was just some of what went on this week but by all means, let's be afraid of desperate Syrian women and children.

Did you know that people on the FBI's terrorist watch list can buy guns here legally?

I had thought I would write about the Syrian refugees and the shameful and hateful attitude towards them by so many Americans. The attacks in Paris just galvanized them and the whole time I'm thinking that we are in far more danger from our neighbors than we are from any outside terrorist. We have a culture of gun ownership gone bizarre, a hysteria of fear and hatred in a country where the gun has become the only solution to every problem, where would be vigilantes parade down the street brandishing their long guns, where victims are blamed for not having their own gun amid the chaos...

business as usual when suddenly the door slams open and 2 gunmen lay down constant fire from their long guns with huge ammo clips for 5 or 6 minutes, who leave as suddenly as they came and so when amid all the noise and chaos and screaming and diving for cover and adrenalin dumping in your system causing you to shake and you're trying to figure out what the fuck is happening and you look down to see the blood coming from the bullet hole in your body and tell me just exactly when you stupid idiot who thinks you could have taken out the shooter because you think you are 'well trained', just when in all that do you think you could have pulled out your own gun and started shooting before they nailed you

...where someone who goes target shooting considers himself 'well trained' and so never goes anywhere without his gun. People who can't venture out and feel safe without a handgun on them will one day use that weapon. They want to use it. That's why they have it. The feeling of safety is an illusion as the reality is that the presence of a gun increases the likelihood of it being used and when guns get used, people die. 

The hue and cry will once again die down and once again no reforms to gun ownership will be made. It is, after all, just normal life here. The deaths of all the innocents are considered debt paid for those who think their right to wield a deadly weapon trumps innocent lives.

So, because we would rather turn a blind eye instead of face our homegrown terrorism, we justify our obsession with guns by projecting our fear onto the helpless and disenfranchised Syrians fleeing for their lives.

Just what the fucking fuck, America? Just, what the fuck.

the Supremes and the flag of distraction

The Supreme Court handed down several good decisions for a change including marriage equality and the Right Wing has gone nuts. They seem to think that because they don't agree, they don't have to abide by the law. They still seem to think that they invented marriage and that their religious restrictions should apply to everybody whether those other people agree with it or not. And so of course they are claiming the eternal war on Christians, claiming that now homosexuality will be taught to kindergarteners, claiming a secret memo from the Justice Department that shows the intent to legalize 12 other heinous behaviors among some of the more absurd accusations. Oh, and that their god will rain down terrible punishment on this country because of this even though their god has not rained down terrible punishment on other countries that recognize same sex marriage. I have to wonder why people worship a god that allows genocide, slavery, child porn and predation, hunger, oppression but gets pissed off when two consenting adults of the same sex mingle their genitals.

The Supreme Court also ruled the Affordable Care Act constitutional (again) but I sincerely doubt that the Republican controlled congress will now stop trying to repeal it and leave millions of people without recourse for healthcare again. They also upheld the independent redistricting commission that put the kibosh on gerrymandering by politicians in Arizona and hopefully it will spread to all the states so it hasn't been a great week for Republicans.

Many Republican politicians did come out against the Confederate Battle Flag after the newest terrorist attack and murder of 9 black people while they were praying in their church by a white supremacist instead of having the conversation we need to have about the uncontrolled access to guns in this country and the racists are up in arms about it. It's not racist, they say, it's our heritage, they say. Meanwhile black churches are being torched all across the South and the KKK is holding rallies. As an American whose forebears have been here since the mid-1600s and who lived in Virginia, then Kentucky, then Texas and some of whom owned slaves and who fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, if the Civil War was about states' rights then it was about states' rights to OWN slaves. The 'heritage' that that flag represents is of white supremacy and subjugation of blacks either through actual slavery or through segregation and oppression. On second thought, we need to have this conversation about the rampant racism in this country as well.

I could have written a whole post on each of these topics but happily for me, and probably lucky for you, I have been busy with grandkid visit 3.

AmeriKKKa

When my son was 15, he and two of his friends went down to the park at the end of our block after dark to play war with their BB guns where they proceeded to run around, hiding behind trees, and shooting at each other. A neighbor, hearing the shots, called 911 reporting gunfire in the park. The police responded with a helicopter using its searchlights and several cars which descended on the boys and officers approached the boys with guns drawn. After the boys were questioned, the officers confiscated their BB guns, loaded them in the back of the car unhand-cuffed, and brought them home. They were released into my care and issued citations for being in the park after hours. 

My son and his friends are white.

Granted, this was 17 years ago before the NRA decided that every home in the country needed to have 10 guns, the more powerful the better, but I have no doubt that even 17 years ago if my son and his friends had been black they would have been shot first and questioned later. If they survived being shot and the questioning, they would surely have been hand-cuffed and hauled off to jail. If it happened today to my white son and his friends I feel sure that they would be brutalized and maybe shot. If they were black, they would most certainly be killed before any orders of compliance were issued and none of the cops would be charged with their murders.

Killing blacks with impunity in this country is nothing new. As slaves their owners killed them with impunity, when freed their neighbors killed them with impunity, and now the cops kill them with impunity.

Much has been said by whites shielded by their white privilege about these recent and continuing murders of black people by the cops mostly amounting to saying that if those black people had just complied with police orders, if they had just showed some respect they would still be alive. But the fact is that these victims aren't given a chance to comply, aren't treated with respect, before they are shot dead, tased into unconsciousness or death, or brutally beat up. The police have done this so often with no repercussions that they are out of control. They respond with deadly force first and ask questions later knowing that all they have to do is say they felt their lives were in danger. According to the white officer Darren Wilson who murdered a black teen, just being black makes cops feel endangered. If these cops are so fearful for their lives while they do their jobs that they shoot first and immediately, that they unload their guns into unarmed citizens, then these people need to get a different job.

We hear about how most cops are good cops, that only a small percentage of cops are racist sociopaths but when good cops won't stand against bad cops, when good cops don't stop a bad cop from being unnecessarily brutal, when good cops allow bad cops to continue, just how good can 'good' cops be? They close ranks and protect them. Grand juries refuse to indict them. They stand by and watch a fellow officer employ an illegal chokehold on an unarmed man for selling single cigarettes, a chokehold so tight that he crushed the man's trachea and killed him. Not one of the other officers on the scene tried to intervene and stop it.

More training the pundits cry. But the problem is not lack of training. The problem is extreme racism in the police forces. Ask any black cop. The problem is hiring sociopaths, the problem is not requiring a certain level of intelligence to become a police officer, a person who is supposed to protect and serve.

A bunch of white separatists can point guns at and stand off police and federal agents and they aren't even arrested. A 12 year old black boy playing with his legal toy gun is shot dead within moments of the police arriving. White guys parading around in stores or on the streets with their semi-automatic rifles aren't even approached by police. A black guy holding a toy gun in a store that sells toy guns in an open carry state is shot dead basically on sight.

The problem is not lack of training. The problem is not lack of compliance on the part of black people.

The problem is, this is a racist country with racism rampant in the police departments and in the white population. The problem is that black and brown people are targeted for search and harassment just for being out in public. Even all the protests and rioting caused by the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager among others, with all the publicity and evidence shared massively through social media, the police have not even paused.

So now the 'solution' is to have all cops wear body cameras as if that is going to make a difference. We already have plenty of video out there showing police brutality. It doesn't matter. No one will indict a cop. They don't even lose their jobs. And until they do, nothing will change.

Until this country stands up for, stands with, stands behind it's black and brown citizens, then we have no moral ground to criticize other countries for human rights violations.

I have focused on the racism in this country because most of the police brutality and murders are inflicted on people of color but the fact is, white people are also brutalized by police and in growing numbers.

the rat did not wander off into the sunset

I did something today that I'm not happy about. I weighed my options and really it was the only one available to me. But I didn't like it. Don't like it and wish I could have done something else.

What I did was put poison out for a rat.

Poison strikes me as a cowardly act.

You might remember last summer when I had two of my grandkids help me clean out a rat's nest in the garage. It had moved in while we were so busy with all that work earlier in the year, gone three or four days out of every week, and had gnawed holes in a glass crate that was big enough for my cat to walk through with no problem.

After we cleaned out his nest and stopped propping the garage door open and closed off his other entry hole, I thought he had left for greener pastures because he didn't seem to be around any more.

Until about a week or two ago.

When I heard gnawing in the wall behind the toilet.

On the other side of that wall is the closet in the second, smaller, bedroom, the one that Marc uses for an office. And on the back wall of that closet, which is the other side of the wall against which sits the toilet and the sink, and in the closet side of the wall is a large panel of sheet rock that unscrews to be removed to get to the plumbing if need be.

The little dogs were here for a few days while my sister was visiting her stepson and grandkids and the little male dog, Merlin, was very interested in the closet and the spot out in the Little Backyard where the pipe comes out from under the house and underground into the septic system. I finally had to close the door to the office to keep him out of there.

So, today, I got a screwdriver and a flashlight and removed that piece of sheetrock and found myself face to face with a rat who was being disturbed from its sleep. Not even close to being a mouse.

There was a 2 x 4 stud and on the other side of that stud was a small space where it had made it's nest. And it was curled up in that nest looking up at me shining the flashlight.

Looking totally not scary and confused.

Shit. Damn.

damn damn damn

Well, now what the hell am I gonna do.

I put the sheet rock back in place and went to the feed store.

My first choice would be a live trap and turn it loose in the fallow corn field. But I've tried live traps before and they don't work. At least not on mice and rats. At least not the one I tried.

So the rat has to go. It can't live in the walls of my house. It's smelly and destructive.

I don't like killing things. Not even mice and rats.

I won't use glue traps because I think those are inhumane. Anything that makes an animal chew off it's own leg to survive is unacceptable. So I generally use spring traps after the humane trap has failed four or five times, as if spring traps are humane. My hope is that they are killed instantly but I know that's not always the case.

But a humane or spring trap was not possible here without giving the rat access to the inside of the house which is also unacceptable.

I bought poison. And I opened that sheetrock panel and shined my light on that rat with it's innocent face, it was just being a rat after all, and I dropped that chunk of poisoned food right into it's nest and closed the sheetrock panel back up.

And screwed it back in place.