Monday, November 21, 2016

Two Months Out and Things Begin to Get Ugly

We are still two months out from the inauguration of America's first openly proud fascist president and things have already begun to get ugly.

Trump surrogates are talking about how there have been historical precedents which could be used to justify the establishment of a, "registry," listing immigrants coming in from countries where terrorist groups are active. In the words of Carl Higbie, a former spokesperson for the pro Trump super pac, Great America, "We've done it based on race--we've done it based on religion." In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Highbie wouldn't go so far as to endorse internment camps, but he did mention the WWII era roundup and forcible detainment of Japanese Americans as one of those precedents.

In the mean time, Vice President Elect, Mike Pence has said the incoming administration will not rule out water boarding and other means of, enhanced interrogation techniques. It remains unknown if the new administration would limit the use of such methods--which could lead to American troops and intelligence operatives being charged with war crimes--to enemy combatants in places like Iraq, or if the new administration would be willing to subject a  U.S. citizen to such treatment after he, or she walks out of a mosque in, let's say, Edmond, Oklahoma.   

Also last week two Episcopal churches were vandalized. The Church of Our Savior in Hillandale, Maryland, which has a large number of Hispanics in its congregation, had the words, "Trump Nation Whites Only," spray painted in two places on the grounds. The first was on a brick wall bordering the church's garden and the second was on the back of a banner which advertised the times of Spanish language Holy Eucharists. The banner was also slashed with a knife.

In Bean Blossom, Indiana, St. David's Church had the words, "Fag church and Heil Trump" spray painted on two different walls. On a third was a swastika. Since their man is the first official Info Wars/conspiracy theorist candidate it didn't take long for Trump supporters to begin accusing those devious Anglicans of committing a couple of, "false flag operations." You know, they defaced their own places of worship in order to make it look like Trumpists are running amok.

Meanwhile El Don's followers launched a wave of enraged twitter attacks against, @HamiltonTheatre. It was their response to a cast member of the play, "Hamilton," reading a pro democracy and diversity statement during a curtain call to, Mike Pence who was in the audience.

The vindictive tweets began after the big orange guy took to twitter claiming the producers and cast of, "Hamilton," went out of their way to harass, Pence. The President Elect demanded an immediate apology and because he's Donald Trump who, at his core, is a petty bully, he, couldn't help but label the critically acclaimed and wildly popular production as, "overrated."

Since most of Trump's devotees are too stupid and lazy to do on line research and lack anything even resembling impulse control, much of the vitriol was wasted. The New York production of "Hamilton," where the actor made his brief speech has the twitter account @HamiltonMusical. @HamiltonTheatre belongs to the Hamilton Theatre in, you guessed it,  Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently running a stage adaptation of the cult film, "Toxic Avenger."

Right now the only glimmer of light to come out of this head long dive down the dark hole of xenophobic nationalism is that most of us who cast ballots on election day actually aren't nuts. As of today Hillary Rodham Clinton is ahead in the nationwide vote by 1.5 million. The margin of her real time popular lead is another truth which conspiracy theorists are desperately trying to disprove by just making shit up.

Although those of us with functioning brains know Clinton's popular lead is real, it is of little comfort. In fact, such knowledge only deepens the bitterness. Despite her win when it comes to the number of total of votes cast we are still stuck with an unstable, narcissistic, loon who openly panders to all that's evil in America. And, although many--especially those of European descent--might survive his reign, the real question is, will the republic?

Tragically, at least from here, at this moment, it appears the odds of that happening aren't particularly good.



sic vita est




11-21-16


Monday, November 14, 2016

The Trump Transition: Waiting on Those New Hugo Boss Uniforms

While we wait to see what kind of deal Don Trump's transition team made with the fashion house, Hugo Boss for official Trump uniforms and accessories the president elect is beginning to name names and threaten to kick ass.

He went on CBS's, "60 Minutes," Sunday to announce, if you're Hispanic, you need to start looking over your shoulder in the very near future. According to Trump, "What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country, or we are going to incarcerate."

Hey, don't blame me for the twisted syntax, that's exactly how he worded the statement. Then, he added, "But we're getting them out of our country, they are here illegally." Finally he said, after the border is secure immigration officials will begin to make a "determination" about remaining undocumented immigrants in the United States.

If he intends to keep his word, which was pledged endlessly during the campaign, we already know what that, "determination," will be. At this moment the only questions unanswered are how violent the rioting will become in response to mass deportations and, will Donald Trump let a little thing like due process of law get in his way when he begins them.

Today the Washington Post is reporting various groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP, among others, are bemoaning Trump's appointment of Stephen Bannon as White House senior counsel and chief strategist. Bannon used to run Breitbart News. It's an on line publication which once ran a story saying birth control pills make women unattractive and crazy then later called conservative Weekly Standard editor, Bill Kristol a, "renegade Jew." The prevailing belief is Bannon's proximity to the oval office will empower white nationalist groups.

Actually white nationalists were empowered as soon as the election results came in. Just ask them in North Carolina. Even before Bannon was appointed a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan announced it planned to conduct a Trump, "victory parade," on December 3rd.

Meanwhile, the Trumpists are cracking down on people who don't have nice things to say about their guy. Mr. Frank Navarro, a teacher with 40 years experience was suspended from his job at Mountain View High School--go Spartans--in California. The suspension came after a parent accused Navarro of saying Don Trump was an Adolph Hitler. Navarro denied it, but did fess up to comparing how the two men came to power. You know, like pointing out both ran campaigns promising to expel foreigners and make their nations, "great again."

Back in North Carolina the Raleigh NBC affiliate heavily censored Dave Chappelle's opening monologue on the last "Saturday Night Live" installment. His remarks were highly critical of, Donald Trump. WRAL claimed it censored Chappelle not because of the content of what he was saying, but his use of banned words.

Right.

Finally we have Trump denying the undeniable once again. He took to his recently freed up twitter account and wrote, "New York Time states today that DJT believes more countries should acquire nuclear weapons. How dishonest are they. I never said this."

Actually, Don, on couple of different occasions, you said countries like Japan and South Korea should have nukes in lieu of U.S. troops based in their nations. We have it on tape. Would you like to see it?

Look for shipments of those Trump uniforms from Hugo Boss to arrive shortly. They're very good at it because they've had a lot of practice. Let's face it, after designing and manufacturing those cool unis Nazi party members wore in Germany a number of decades ago, they know how to deliver the goods, not to mention great style.

And, yes--that's exactly where we are at right now.



11-14-16

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

The New Look Amerika, a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trump Properties: If You're Black, Hispanic, or Muslim, Sorry There are no Vacancies

Things started to feel out of whack around Halloween weekend. The polls had gone schizophrenic. The results of varying surveys produced such conflicting data it seemed as if the pollsters had been talking to people not just in Philadelphia, but also Ulan Bator. Even more disturbing was the news early voting in heavily democratic areas was a fraction of what it had been four years ago.

Then came that slime Anthony Weiner and a FBI Director who seemed so desperate to keep his job come January he tried to mollify not just Don Trump, but at the last minute, Hillary Clinton. James Comey drove the Trumpster and his people into orgasmic spasms when he announced a trove of, "new," Clinton emails had been discovered on Weiner's computer just as serious pre-election day voting was beginning. After this shocking news roiled the public and media, only slightly more than 24 hours before the polls opened, Comey issued a statement which basically said, "Oops, never mind. There's nothing of interest here."

By yesterday evening the sense of impending doom had become overwhelming despite the steadfast optimism of my wife. It worsened when the first returns began to trickle in. Yes, they were from states no one expected Secretary Clinton to carry, but her numbers were horrifically minuscule compared to Trump's.

MSNBC's talking heads kept talking different demographics, but even those looked ominous. Clinton's lead among white college educated persons wasn't nearly the margin Trump held among people without college educations and--as anyone who can count will tell you--there are a hell of a lot more people out there who never went to college than did.

So now we're stuck with the decadent, lying, bastard for at least four years. The only possible good news to come from this nightmare is he promised the vile racist fools who voted for him everything from a wall, to mass deportations and, state sponsored religious intolerance. Now, he'll have to deliver on all of it and when he doesn't, or can't the mob will turn on him. He will, in their eyes, have become the same type of professional Washington insider they've howled so loudly about for over a year.

That's in addition to the 20 plus million people he's going to royally piss off when he deep sixes their health care. Tragically, because of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, many of them might not make it to 2020.

There has been talk, both serious and otherwise, of democrats moving to places like Canada en masse now that Donald Trump is set to fuck up the country beyond all recognition. A friend of mine says his personal preference is Costa Rica, but then he likes to surf. While I'll admit I've thought about it, for a couple of reasons I think I'll stick around.

Yes, it is going to get bad, perhaps Great Depression bad. However, the truth is if someone is going to move it needs to be those poor souls living in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine. That's because as soon as Donald John Trump finishes giving Vladimir Putin a blow job, he's going to tell him, go ahead--invade whoever you want in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. We no longer care what  Russia does, or how they do it.

Indeed. Welcome to the new look Amerika, a vassal of Russia and a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump Properties. If you're Black, Hispanic, or Muslim, sorry, there are no vacancies.





11-9-16

Monday, November 7, 2016

Alina Fitzpatrick: So Much For Justice in Oklahoma City

Things were taking a dark turn for Alina Fitzpatrick five autumns ago. The 17 year old had dropped out of Putnam City North high school and begun taking classes through the Putnam City virtual high school program. The word was she had left North because of bullying. Officials of the Putnam City school district, ever protective of their precious public image, quickly responded by saying they had absolutely no record of her being bullied.

There were also rumors that a strange man had begun following her for unknown reasons. In addition there was a report she had started to receive disturbing calls on her cell phone from either the stalker, or some other stranger. The calls had become so bothersome, according people who knew her, she changed her number.

Around 10pm on Friday, November 4th, 2011 she was dropped off near the corner of NW 24th and Western Ave. on the near northwest side of Oklahoma City. Other unnamed persons said she was oddly vague about who she was going to visit that evening. Whether she actually was, or wasn't doesn't matter now. Because that night, Alina Fitzpatrick walked into the darkness and never returned.

Not long after she was last seen her cell phone was turned off and calls were routed directly to her voice mail. When she didn't return home her frantic parents immediately launched a search. Posters were stapled to telephone poles and a Facebook page was established asking for help. It is still there, untouched for half a decade now.

On November 9th an unnamed man and his mother drove out to some property they owned near NE 50th and Anderson Road in far eastern OKC. After arriving they discovered the nude body of a girl. Within a couple of days it was identified as Alina Fitzpatrick.

It didn't take long after that for the investigation to bog down and then, for all practical purposes, end.

The fall of 2011 was a deadly one. Two other young women had already been murdered. The death of Carina Saunders was particularly horrific and the media and public were consumed by it. In its shadow the murders of Kelsey Bransby and Alina Fitzpatrick--to almost everyone, but family and friends--paled in comparison. In fact, after initial reports, news of the Bransby investigation was utterly non-existent in the local newspaper and on television stations.

Initially there was some public speculation the Saunders and Fitzpatrick cases might somehow be connected, but authorities quickly denied any sort of link between the two.

Then came the coroner's report. State Medical Examiner, Chai S. Choi said Alina Fitzpatrick had suffered blunt force trauma to the head and had numerous scrapes, bruises, and lacerations which occurred around the time of her death. She also had paper, or cotton like material stuffed in her mouth. However, none of the obvious wounds were serious enough to kill her. What Choi also found was, 0.96 micrograms of meth per milliliter of blood in Fitzpatrick's heart. He concluded such an amount might have caused an overdose.

His final assessment was, "There are apparently suspicious circumstances surrounding her death." But, he refused to call it a homicide.

As soon as the report went public you could hear file cabinet drawers being slammed shut at OKC police headquarters.

On January 20th, 2012 OKCPD spokesperson Sgt Jennifer Wardlow summed up the department's attitude perfectly. When asked by a reporter what the status of the case was she replied, "It's not considered a homicide, but we're keeping an open file on it."

Sgt Wardlow's callousness struck a nerve somewhere. Nine days later Captain Dexter Nelson told the media, "Homicide is just a legal term. You investigate them (homicides and suspicious deaths) the same way." He added the department needed help from the public to solve the mystery.

To my knowledge, Nelson's remarks over four years ago was the last time Alina Fitzpatrick and her death has been mentioned in the Oklahoma City print and broadcast media.

In April of 2016 an unknown person commented on a two year old post of Ghost Shirt Papers which concerned Alina Fitzpatrick. Using the moniker, "Anonymous," he or she wrote, "The police were told who did it. He was in jail on other charges and still got released."

Without any verification, or evidence there can be no telling if "Anonymous" knows what he, or she is talking about, or is just another internet troll who hasn't a clue, or life.

Whichever the case, what we do know is Alina Fitzpatrick was stripped naked, physically abused, and dumped in a weed strewn field with a gag stuffed in her mouth. We also know the Oklahoma City cops stopped giving a shit about her as soon as they read the words, "possible overdose," in the ME's report.

Yes, so much for justice in Oklahoma City. Sometimes it's just more convenient to write off a young girl's life, rather than pursue the beast who took it.

.


sic vita est



11-7-16