SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

This is stunning.

 Lil Buck and Yo Yo Ma

Friday Night Funnies

 

This is an oldie, but it still makes me laugh:

Talking animals with Scottish accents:

 

 Another oldie, but I still laugh every time I watch it:

 

This is the original Minneapolis police report of George Floyd's death.

 

If it wasn't for Darnella Frazier, who was 17 at the time and videoed the crime, this pack of lies would have allowed convicted murderer, Derek Chauvin, to walk.

This is why the George Floyd Justice in Policing act must become law.

GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS

Chauvin Found Guilty 

of Murdering George Floyd

Guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Guilty of second degree murder

Guilty of third degree murder

 

JUSTICE FOR GEORGE FLOYD

This is what Trump and FAUX NOOZ lies and disinformation brought us:

 

Sedition against the United States of America!

(This is disgusting White Privilege. Imagine if POC had done this!)

60 Minutes:  "The FBI calls the Oath Keepers an anti-government militia with current and former law enforcement and military members among its members. 

60 Minutes profiles the group, which has become a central focus in the ongoing investigation of the January 6 attack on the Capitol."

 

What the Hell is Wrong with This Country's LEOs?

 

Loveland police officer on leave after arrest video of 73-year-old woman with dementia 

 According to the lawsuit, Walmart employees asked Garner to return to the store when they saw her leave without paying and took the items back — a soda, a candy bar, a T-shirt, and wipe refills — denying her request to pay for the items.

(NOTE: The woman returned the items, offered to pay for them, and the store refused. The store then called the police, and THAT escalated an incident that was harmless and nothing more than a dementia-related health problem. --S.K.) 

Someone from Walmart then called police to report Garner and the direction she walking but said the store had not suffered a loss, the lawsuit said. 

The charges against Garner were dismissed after prosecutors wrote in a motion that she “appears to be incapable of understanding her surroundings or her actions.” 

**********************

This is a 80 pound woman suffering from dementia who was slammed to the ground and had her shoulder dislocated by the Loveland police who, IMO, demonstrated a total lack of self-restraint on an unarmed, feeble woman. They acted like thugs, and I hope the woman and her family sue the crap out of these officers who apparently haven't got an ounce of common sense or compassion in them. 

(NOTE: Walmart did NOT suffer a loss! The items were returned, Walmart REFUSED to take payment for them when the woman offered. AND THEN THEY CALLED THE POLICE ON HER! None of this would have happened but for Walmart's idiocy in calling the police.)

 

Mr. Shaw Kenawe suffered from a severe form of dementia (Lewy Body Dementia), and sometimes when I took him with me shopping, without my knowing, he would grab some item and hold it in his hand or put it in his pocket. At the check-out, if I didn't notice the item in his hand or pocket, the employees would just tell me what they saw, and I'd take the item and return it to the store. 

The employees never called the police, and Mr. Shaw Kenawe was never slammed to the ground for his unintentional taking of an item he didn't pay for. This is how a civilized people deal with those who are weak and ill and certainly suffering from an age-related mental disease. 

Somehow certain police forces in this country are too stupid and too eager for violence to understand how to deal with non-violent, non-criminal, confused elderly citizens suffering from this awful disease.

Mr. Shaw Kenawe and I were fortunate that we lived in a place where people had more compassion and awareness about dementia patients, and no police would have ever assaulted and harmed an ill and helpless citizen.

Loveland needs to severely discipline or fire the LEOs involved in this shameful incident. And we need to ask ourselves what kind of a country would tolerate this sort of assault on a citizen.

 

SUNDAY WITH ELGAR'S LUX AETERNA (Nimrod)

 

“It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.” - Benjamin Britten

 

Saturday Night Dancing

 

Don't Bring Me Down:

For Your Consideration

 

From David Gray: 

"I have to drive my two-year-old to daycare tomorrow morning. 

To ensure we arrive alive, we won't take public transit (Oscar Grant). 

I removed all air fresheners from the vehicle and double-checked my registration status (Daunte Wright), and ensured my license plates were visible (Lt. Caron Nazario). 

I will be careful to follow all traffic rules (Philando Castille), signal every turn (Sandra Bland), keep the radio volume low (Jordan Davis), and won't stop at a fast food chain for a meal (Rayshard Brooks). 

I'm too afraid to pray (Rev. Clementa C. Pickney) so I just hope the car won't break down (Corey Jones). When my wife picks him up at the end of the day, I'll remind her not to dance (Elijah McClain), stop to play in a park (Tamir Rice), patronize the local convenience store for snacks (Trayvon Martin), or walk around the neighborhood (Mike Brown.) 

Once they are home, we won't stand in our backyard (Stephon Clark), eat ice cream on the couch (Botham Jean), or play any video games (Atatiana Jefferson). 

 After my wife and I tuck him into bed around 7:30pm, neither of us will leave the house to go to Walmart (John Crawford) or to the gym (Tshyrand Oates) or on a jog (Ahmaud Arbery). We won't even walk to see the birds (Christian Cooper). We'll just sit and try not to breathe (George Floyd) and not to sleep (Breonna Taylor)." 

 These are things white people simply do not have to think about."

Artist unknown

What are the gobshites* talking about?

 

*gobshite (plural gobshites) (Ireland, slang, moderately offensive) One who engages in nonsensical chatter or unwanted conversation. What's that gobshite talking about now? (Ireland, slang, moderately offensive) A person of very poor judgment and unpleasant character.

Here's what they're talking about:

Yes, the folks who admire and support the guy who cried "I Love You! You're special." to the mobs that incited an insurrection against his own government; who incited armed mobs to "HANG PENCE!" his own vice president; who incited armed mobs to harm the Speaker of the House; and who sought to interfere with the certification of the electoral college votes and overturn a free and fair election -- THOSE FOLKS -- are promoting the false and conspiratorial idea that Democrats are Marxist?!

Now why do you suppose that they post absurd ideas like that instead of facing what they are and who they support?

Shame? Ignorance? Confusion? Self-loathing? Ignorance? 

We all saw with our eyes what happened on January 6th, yet the MAGAts pretend it was just a "A Tiny Bit of Rowdiness" that caused the deaths of seven people, including a Capitol policeman, and was the first attack on the United States Capitol since the War of 1812.

But Democrats are "Marxists?"

Jennifer Rubin:  "Americans should be deeply alarmed that the Republican Party still remains faithful to the instigator of that violence (who sent his “love” to the rioters during the attack). A political party that cannot repudiate the person who inspired insurrections and still brags about it (and to boot, spreads the lie that the insurrectionists were left-wing extremists) must be held accountable for their part in the normalization of these groups."

[skip]

"Republicans have tried to absolve themselves of blame for the rise in right-wing violence by noting that they have denounced violence. But they cannot escape responsibility for helping to spread the ideology underlying white supremacy or giving the ideology of extremist groups the patina of respectability. When they constantly propagate the notion that the United States is facing an existential threat from immigrants or that their followers’ way of life hangs in the balance, Republicans and their right-wing media mouthpieces cannot be surprised when some Americans take them seriously and spring into action" 

The bloggers who promote the idea that Democrats are Marxists are no better than the thugs who wrongly attacked the United States. Why? Because they perpetuate Trump's Big Lie, promote conspiracies and anti-democracy narratives, and refuse to accept Joe Biden's overwhelming victory over Trump.

But more than that are Republican and right wing media lies: That the election was stolen, that honest journalism is fake news, and that Obama is a Muslim. -- the list goes on. 

And the biggest lie, the true “Big Lie” that has been going on the longest, is that Democrats are evil; that they are socialists, godless, baby killers,  who want to make your kids gay and turn America into Venezuela. 

Their mantra has always been that Democrats hate America, Democrats are Marxists; and if “you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore.”These lies, all underpinned by the ubiquitous “Democrats are evil”, have had the inevitable affect. **

If you believe the lies then “Democrats” ARE evil, and those fighting Democrats, including those who violently stormed the capital, are the true patriots. This is why we must clearly see Republican lies for the threat they are, and clearly assign responsibility for the damage they cause. 

 A good start is to recognize their and Trump's statements that the election was stolen for what they are:  Acts of criminal sedition intended to overthrow our government.

America, the country where it’s more dangerous to be a black motorist than it is to be a white insurrectionist.

By now most people have read of or heard about the Windsor, Virginia, police stopping Black/Latino Army Lieutenant, Caron Nazario, and pepper spraying and threatening execution after pulling him over for a supposed motor vehicle violation. He was driving his new SUV with temporary plates in view on the back of his new vehicle.

From NPR:

Lt Nazario, who is Black and Latino, was in uniform and driving with a temporary paper license plate on his back window on 5 December, when he was told to pull over in the town of Windsor. 

He then stopped at a petrol station and kept his hands outside the window, while asking the policemen why he was being stopped. 

"To unbuckle his seatbelt, to do anything, any misstep - he was afraid that they were going to kill him," Mr Arthur told CBS. 

The suit filed by Lt Nazario says that Mr Gutierrez acknowledged why the army officer had waited to pull over in a lighted area. "I get it, the media spewing race relations between law enforcement and minorities. I get it," the policeman said, according to the suit.

The complaint alleges that the officers' behavior is "consistent with a disgusting nationwide trend of law enforcement officers, who, believing they can operate with complete impunity, engage in unprofessional, discourteous, racially biased, dangerous, and sometimes deadly abuses of authority." "What's going on?" Nazario, dressed in uniform, repeatedly asked. 

Windsor Police Department officer Joe Gutierrez responded: "What's going on is you're fixing to ride the lightning, son." 

 "Fixing to ride the lightning," is a murder threat, the complaint that was filed against the Windsor, VA, police, claims.

It is a colloquial expression for execution that refers to death by electric chair. 

 

Metallica Ride the Lightning (1984) 

Metallica used the phrase for the name of their 1984 album, Ride the Lightning. 

Ride is the second studio album from the heavy metal band, released 1984. 

 The eponymous track includes the following lyrics: “Death in the air / Strapped in the electric chair / This can’t be happening to me”.

GOP Jesus

 

Saturday Night Dancing

 

One of the greatest dance scenes in moviedom!

America! From West Side Story.

Nature

 

This is a pink underwing moth caterpillar. 

Unless you're planning on a trip to NSW Australia, you'll probably never encounter a critter like this. And even if you are lucky enough to take that trip, you probably won't see one of these guys, because they're endangered:

Who's surprised? NO ONE

 

When child procurer, rapist, pedophile, and Trump friend, Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested, the then-POTUS, Donald Trump, wished her well.

Now this:

Trump reportedly had to be talked out of defending Matt Gaetz because the allegations against him were so serious

"Former President Donald Trump had to be talked out of defending Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz after reports surfaced that the Justice Department was investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a minor and broke federal sex-trafficking laws. 

 That's according to The New York Times' Maggie Haberman, who on Thursday told CNN's "New Day" that Trump had really wanted to defend the GOP lawmaker, but that he was told to stand down because the allegations against Gaetz were so serious. 

 "His first impulse was that he wanted to defend Gaetz, you know, 'He's one of our people,'" Haberman said. "Several of his advisors had told him that's a very bad idea, that the nature of what Gaetz is being investigated for is so serious that this is not something that former President Trump should be out there on a limb" for. 

 Indeed, the silence from Trumpworld was deafening in the days following The Times' revelation about the Gaetz sex probe."

Meanwhile, the far right Trump bloggers are in a tizzy over what they believe is a loss of our American values. 

Here's what they actually say about this "loss." (Keep in mind that Joe Biden has been the president for less than four months, and Trump was their "Christian Values President" for FOUR YEARS! And keep in mind that not ONCE in those four Trumpian years did they moan the loss of their Christian values, knowing what a cheat, liar, adulterer, and fraud their hero is.)

Here is their cri de coeur:

"This post queries national values. The term “values” suggest widely accepted moral concepts or orientations toward achieving generally accepted social attitudes, preferences, sentiments, and behaviors. 

Since we no longer live in a moral society, which seems somewhat evident when members of society fire a good president because he did mean-tweeting, when all of our institutions have been corrupted, when no one serving at the highest levels of government is ever held accountable (except for mean-tweeting), when the divorce rate is at 50% (suggesting that vows of commitment mean nothing for half of our nation’s 328.2 million people), [NOTE: Their hero, DJT, was divorced THREE TIMES, AND CHEATED ON ALL HIS WIVES, AND EVEN HIS MISTRESSES -- What the hell is this guy smoking?] and when half the nation thinks that the other half are a bunch of racists for crap that happened more than 200 years ago, [NOTE: The lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama, on March 21, 1981, was one of the last reported lynchings in the United States. Several Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members beat and killed Michael Donald, a 19-year-old African-American, and hung his body from a tree. ] then I have to ask for some clarification: what “national” values are you talking about?"

Indeed. What "national values" are they crying about? Trump crapped all over them with his lying, cheating, and treachery for four shameful, harrowing years. 

The problem is that these people are too blind to see what's in front of their sad, Trumpian noses.

A REMINDER OF WHAT HAPPENED ON JANUARY 6 2021

TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING, 

WHO WAS THE PRESIDENT FOR 4 YEARS, 

SAID THIS ONE YEAR AGO TODAY:

April 8, 2020, TRUMP: "If we can stay substantially under 100,000 [American deaths] -- which was the original projection -- I think we did a very good job."

REMINDER:  Over 500,000 Americans died on his incompetent watch, and there are idiots in this country who say they miss him.

 

DONALD J. TRUMP'S LEGACY TO AMERICA:

January 6, 2021

 

7 people killed 

1 cop murdered 

2 cops committed suicide 

140 cops were injured 

1 cop has brain trauma 

1 cop crushed cervical disc 

1 cop lost 3 fingers 

1 cop stabbed with metal spike 

1 cop lost an eye. 

500,000+ Covid Deaths

The Georgia Voter Suppression Laws

GOOD NEWS:  April 7, 2021:

New Gallup Poll finds largest increase in Democratic party identification in a decade.

It is data like this, showing people leaving the GQP and joining the Democratic Party, that makes it hard to understand the reasons the Republican Party keeps sucking up to Trump and embracing Trumpism. 

People leaving the GQP do not support conspiracies, coups, racism, corruption, and misogyny. 

***********************************

As expected,Trumpublicans are upset because people of good will are protesting the voter suppression laws recently passed in Georgia.

And, as expected, the Trumpublicans are spreading lies about those recently passed voter suppression laws. For example:

Myth 1: The Georgia election law discourages voting/suppresses votes 

FACT: The bill actually preserves or expands ballot access in several important ways: It requires that large precincts with lines more than an hour long take steps like adding voting machines and election personnel for the next election to reduce wait times. It does not change the number of total early voting days, and actually increases the mandatory days of early weekend voting. Compared to 2020, 134 of 159 counties will offer more early voting hours in future elections under the new law. It codifies election drop boxes, which did not exist prior to 2020. Voters can continue to vote absentee with no excuse(unlike states like Delaware, New York, and Connecticut, which require an excuse to vote absentee).

From Max Boot, a Republican: (NOTE: He is NOT a Trumpublican, there is a huge difference! Unlike a Trumpublican, a Republican is NOT a cultist. The above italicized text in orange was taken from a Trumpublican cultist's blog.) 

Max Boot:

As in any war, truth is the first casualty in this conflict. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) claims that criticism of the legislation is misplaced because it actually “expands” voting access. It’s true that the act does contain some provisions that expand access primarily in rural, heavily Republican areas. But a meticulous New York Times examination found that these provisions are far outweighed by 16 measures that restrict voting access — especially in urban areas where minority voters are concentrated.

In the core of metropolitan Atlanta, the number of drop boxes for absentee ballots will be reduced from 94 to no more than 23. 

The amount of time to request an absentee ballot before an election will be cut from 180 days to 78. 

Provisional ballots cast by voters who mistakenly go to the wrong polling place may no longer be counted. 

Election officials will be banned from sending absentee ballots to all voters. 

Mobile voting centers will essentially be discontinued. 

New ID requirements will be instituted. 

Outside groups will be prohibited from offering food or water to voters waiting in long lines even on hot and humid days. (Long lines are one of the leading reasons cited for not voting.)

Some of the act’s most worrisome provisions give the Republican-controlled legislature more control over disputed results. The legislature can now suspend county election officials. Replacements will be named by the State Election Board — whose chair will now be appointed by the legislature. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had previously chaired the board. But he angered Trump by resisting entreaties to overturn the election results, so now the secretary of state has been booted off the election board altogether.

President Biden may have exaggerated in describing this as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” It’s not as egregious as restrictions on voting during the segregation era (but that’s not saying much). He was definitely wrong to claim that the law ends voting at 5 p.m.; polls will still be open until 7 p.m. And it’s true, as Kemp argues, that some blue states have restrictive voting laws of their own. Georgia, for example, offers a minimum of 17 days of early voting compared with nine in New York. But New York isn’t moving to restrict voting. Georgia is. 

Why is that? Republicans can’t answer that basic question with a straight face because an honest response would expose their authoritarianism and racism.

READ THE REST HERE. 

The blog site that posted the misinformation (above in italicized orange font) pretends to be posting factual information. It's does not.

That blog and many other Trumpublican sites like it cannot be trusted to tell the truth. 

They. Are. Cultists.

I guess you heard about how the Trump campaign scammed money from its donors.

 

Once a grifter; always a grifter, and Trump is a genius at it. Yet his cultists still support him and his corrupt enterprises. 

It's what cultists do. They can never admit to themselves that they've been duped by a con man.

Is there still any doubt that he is a con man deeply in debt? How could anyone run three gambling casinos into bankruptcy? No wonder he cried so much after losing the election, despite his clever fund raising. 

Trump lost in the polls, he lost in money raising, he lost the popular vote both in 2020 and 2016! Does this make sense? Most of all, when will we get the answer to why so many of his followers remain loyal even after being fleeced? 

Some organization should conduct a survey to discover whether his loyalists believe or even know that he cheated on three wives, countless students at Trump U. and donors to Trump charities, as well as cheating contractors, lawyers, banks, the IRS, and donors out of money owed, AND failed in nearly every business from steaks, airlines, neckties, bottled water, to the Plaza Hotel. 

What, exactly, is wrong with Trump cultists? It would be interesting to find out how so many could be conned so easily. 

How Trump steered supporters into unwitting donations

So how do Trump cultists feel about being scammed by a self-identified "billionaire?"

Saturday Night Safety Dancing

 

Good News!

ECONOMY   Jobs report blows past expectations as payrolls boom by 916,000 in March 

Via Democratic Underground: 

 “White House senior adviser Anita Dunn is making the case that Democrats can’t lose by rallying around President Biden’s infrastructure plan because its individual components poll even higher than the $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus passed last month,” Axios reports. 

“Dunn cites public polling showing between 74% and 87% support among Americans for seven elements: new job training for coal miners, highway and bridge work, increasing affordable childcare, expanding broadband access, expanding family and medical leave, upgrading public transportation, and investing in clean energy.” 

Business Insider:  "A Morning Consult/Politico poll found that over half of voters support paying for President Joe Biden's infrastructure package with tax hikes. Of the 2,043 voters polled, 54% said they supported infrastructure improvements with tax increases on corporations and Americans making over $400,000, and just 27% of voters supported infrastructure investments without tax hikes. 57% said they would be more likely to support a $3 trillion plan funded by tax increases on Americans making over $400,000; 17% said they were less likely to support it." 

 

Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin: “The media, it seems, are caught in a Republican framing of policy that does not match reality. There is not a hue and cry over a mammoth infrastructure bill. To the contrary, it is super popular. And Republicans might want to stop harping on the tax increases: Those make the bill even more popular.”

AND SOMETHING FOR EVRYONE TO THINK ABOUT:

During the last Republican presidency, the Republican POTUS tried to overthrow a free and fair election; incited an attack against his own government; incited an armed mob to "Hang Pence!;" incited that same mob to find the Speaker of the House and harm her; incited an armed mob that was responsible for the deaths and injuries to Capitol policemen; incited the armed mob to desecrate and damage the Capitol Building of the USA.

Yes, A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT DID THAT.