The Many Guns of Benjamin Plank

 Meanwhile, here in Oklahoma City things took a deadly turn on Monday. Three Oklahoma County Sheriff's deputies showed up late in the morning, or early that afternoon at a house in southwest OKC. They went there to serve an eviction notice to one, Benjamin Plank. The deputies weren't there at the behest of some greedy bank, or cold blooded lending institution.. They had arrived because Mr. Plank's mother wanted him out of her place and he wouldn't leave. As you can guess Ben Plank took umbrage with all this.  He opened fire on the deputies with an AR-15 style assault rifle, killing, Sgt. Bobby Swartz and severely wounding deputy Mark Johns. The third deputy, who still hasn't been identified was unharmed.  

Apparently the trouble began in July when Plank's mom claimed her son had grown verbally abusive and increasingly irrational. He also had lots of guns he'd carry around inside of the house, while occasionally saying he should just, end it all. In short, she realized her son had become crazier than a bed bug on the brown acid.

Understandably dear old Mom became frightened and around the first of August asked for and got an eviction notice for her kid. Plank, who is 35, ignored it. In fact, one day while his mother was out he disabled the garage door opener and used the deadbolts on the doors in order to keep her out of her own home.

After that incident Plank's mom returned to court. On August 12th she secured a Victim's Protection Order which not only banned her kid from the home, but ordered him to surrender his weapons to the authorities prior to a hearing. 

It was at that point things got muddled. According to an Oklahoma law, endorsed by Governor, Kevin Stitt and passed by a legislature with the collective IQ of tree moss, no one can seize the guns of a person, no matter how bat shit crazy until after a competency hearing. Stitt calls this due process--you know--for heavily armed homicidal maniacs. 

So far officials aren't saying the anti red flag law is what caused the situation. When asked why Plank still had the guns on hand, OKC Police Chief, Wade Gourley responded with, "Our department doesn't do that. No one thought to ask Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommy Johnson the same thing. Later, Gourley amended his statement by saying, "There was something wrong with the VPO.

Well yeah, it was in violation of Stitt's fucking law.

It remains unclear at this time if Swartz and his partners knew of the gun snafu, or not. Apparently they were there to evict Plank from the premises and nothing more. 

Whatever the case after the shooting Ben Plank escaped the scene in his pickup truck, with his boat in tow--hey, a captain always stays with his ship. What followed was a high speed chase up I-35 which turned into a rolling gunfight as Plank traded shots with at least two different OKCPD officers. He headed east on I-40, perhaps thinking of all those lakes in eastern Oklahoma, then took the Air Depot exit in Midwest City. He turned south, either by design, or accident and ran smack dab into the most heavily guarded gate at Tinker Air Force Base. 

At that point Benjamin Plank threw his rifle out the window, exited the truck, and dropped his shorts, presumably so police could see he didn't have any concealed weapons. After being gang tackled by about a half dozen cops and, according to Gourley, tased he was carted off, first to a hospital, then the county lockup where he now sits. Gourley told the media his boat contained a bag full of guns and ammo and investigators found other weapons at the home. "He was going to shoot the first law enforcement officers he saw, no matter what the uniform," the chief said.

Right.

Swartz's funeral is Friday. It has been reported Johns is in for a long hospital stay and extensive rehab. The third deputy is on leave and Sheriff Johnson describes her as, "really shook up." 

No one is asking how, or when Benjamin Plank got his arsenal of weapons. Why should they? This is America for God's sake. Guns and ammo are easier to purchase than bananas. The real question now, is why he still had them and if Kevin Stitt, who is running for re-election, enabled him to do so. 

The problem being, no one in the Oklahoma City right wing leaning media wants to ask it.

8-24-22

 

Smashing All That Was Sacred to Us

 Way back in the fall of 1963 I distinctly remember a woman who attended our church express her disgust of John F. Kennedy. "I wish someone would just shoot him," she said. A couple of weeks later Kennedy made a trip to Dallas and Lee Oswald did just that. I have no recollection of her reaction to the murder.

Later, in the mid 1970s I had a neighbor named Bill Snyder. He told me one day over beers the United States would be better off if the government was run by a military man without any interference from a Congress, or Supreme Court. 

Yes, the yen for political violence infesting so called Christians and the desire for a benign authoritarian leader with no need for legislative, or judicial restraint have been around for longer than many of us would like to admit. The difference between those quaint times and now being in the past the terrible rubes who believed that shit were rare and they had the sense to keep it to themselves most of the time.

Not anymore. 

The vile fuckers are out of the closet and so common sometimes they actually get elected to the very Congress they want to either disband, or turn into a rubber stamp for a dictator who is to their liking. We used to call these clods crazy and worse, now they are known as republicans. 

The, Great Awakening, as they say began when an American of African descent won the presidency. Barack Obama was the sum of their fears. He was living proof white people were losing their grip on power. His desire to, "even the playing field," drove them stark raving mad. How else can you explain all the accusations about him not really being an American and snide remarks about having to rename the presidential residence from the White House to the Black House and more. You know, he's going to seize our guns so we can't rise up when the time comes.  

When he beat mainstream GOP candidates not once, but twice, it pushed them further to the fringe. Then along came the man who fulfilled all their desires. 

He was and still is, loud and inarticulate. He levels crude personal insults against political opponents and is more than willing to publicly repeat every myth and lie they have come to believe. He also has the not so subtle ambition to be the leader for life and no qualms about purging, what quakily became his party, of those who actually think we should be loyal to the republic rather than him. Finally, like the mob who adores him, he has no knowledge, or respect for the Constitution of the United States of America. To him and his fans other than the second amendment the entire document just gets in the way.

This disease isn't just at the top of the party. It percolates up from the bottom where local legislators have set new lows in intelligence and decency. They are busy as beavers on meth restricting voter and women's rights. The aim being simple, if you aren't just like us, you don't get to cast a ballot and if you get raped, even by dear old Dad, it's your problem and you get to carry the beast's fetus to full term. 

Indeed, screw democracy. We know what is right for you and the country. After all, as Joe Goebbels once said, "We will reach our goal when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us..."

It makes me wonder what ol' Bill Snyder, if he is still alive, thinks about it all.

8-18-22 

Saint Donald, The Perpetual Martyr

 It must be tough being a republican these days. You not only have to be able to shift gears faster than a driver at Le Mans, but you have to throw your vehicle into reverse in order to change directions in full view of everyone in the grand stands. Such adroit and high speed maneuvers began to take place this past Monday morning when agents of the FBI showed up at Donald Trump's front door.

Some members of the GOP were so outraged at this turn of events they forgot their anger a couple of years ago about calls for the police to be defunded. That's right, suddenly they were demanding the FBI be stripped of its funding. Others, who up until Monday were saying Joe Biden was a senile old man who didn't have a clue about anything, are now maintaining he is the evil mastermind behind the plan to execute the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. A few are howling the search of a former president's residence is proof the United States is becoming a, "banana republic." They seem oblivious to the fact that particular ship sailed on January 6th 2021 when Trump inspired the mob to storm the capitol building in order to illegally keep him in power.

Well, as they say, times change, although not usually so quickly.

Brother Don, predictably, is now in full martyr mode. Indeed, to hear him is to believe no man in history has been crucified as often as he has. He is living proof the deep state exists. That they really are out to get you. 

Some are speculating and a few are hoping the search warrant affair has all but guaranteed him the republican nomination in 2024. The reasoning is it has galvanized and energized his base. This thinking doesn't seem to recognize Trump's cult of ghouls are already galvanized. They have been since 2016 when he came gliding down the golden escalator Let's face it, the man could walk outside, look at the sun and say, "That's a great full moon," and they would believe him. He literally could shoot the poor schnuck in the middle of 5th Avenue and they'd let him off.

Be that as it may a nomination might not be in the offing. It's tough to appear on a ballot after you've been convicted of a felony.

What no one is contesting is that he did possess the documents he wasn't supposed to have--that he did withhold them from the National Archives despite what the law says. There had been months of negotiations held to get them back to where they belonged. He had even turned over some, but refused to come clean on the rest. What no republican wants to admit is that subpoenas wouldn't have worked because Donald Trump is a congenital liar and cannot be trusted to do anything a court requests, or be trusted with government documents no matter what their importance. Yes, the only way to get them back was for the FBI to execute a search warrant.

Some right wing hacks are comparing the search to the Watergate break in. Their recollection of history is astoundingly bad. Either that, or they are depending on the defective memories of Trump's band of hysterics. A legally executed search warrant carried out in the middle of the day by law enforcement officials has nothing whatsoever to do with a gang of Cuban expats breaking into an office during the middle of the night in order to steal campaign strategies and material. They were breaking the law, not following the instructions of a federal judge.

Of course logic and a sense of the law are severely lacing in today's republican party. All they know is, in their minds, their man has been wronged. And, that wrong is enough for some to threaten civil war, not to mention sending scores of demented messages to law enforcement agents and opposing politicians.

It might behoove them, however, to remember what happened the last time these soldiers of heaven took to the streets and committed violence in the name of their guy. In the end, Donald John Trump hung them out to dry.

Such is the one way street named loyalty for the former President of the United States of America.

sic vat est

811-22

The Donald Trump is the Lord Jesus Christ Incarnate Revival: AKA, CPAC 2022

The late author, Hunter S. Thompson once said taking acid in Las Vegas is redundant. One can only imagine how he would have described what happened in Dallas over the last three days. 

Indeed, reality took a deeply surreal, yea, hallucinogenic turn at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference--also known as The Donald Trump is The Lord Jesus Christ Incarnate Revival. How else can you describe an event that started with a speech by the Hungarian fascist Viktor Orban then ended with an address by Herr Trump himself. 

In between these ghoulish bookends were people like the republican candidate for Governor in Arizona, Kari Lake. She told the faithful she won the nomination because MAGA voters, "overwhelmed," the fraudulent machines in her state which were rigged against her. If elected she promised to officially declare Arizona's southern border is being, "invaded." 

My Pillow guy, Mike Lindell was also there. He made sure those in attendance understood elections in 54 different countries had been left up to voting machines. Those countries, he said, "were lost," because once the machines have control they never give it up.

In other words, according to both these loons the age of Skynet has arrived. 

There were others, of course, including a guy in a fake jail cell who represented the poor incarcerated January 6th insurrectionists. According to CNN the, "actor," in this little passion play really was in the mob that day. The reason he was available for the job was because he had turned state's evidence on other rioters who are currently doing time in real lock ups.

Well these republicans have never lacked when it comes to irony, or hypocrisy. 

Obviously Orban and Trump were the stars of the show. Orban, who a few weeks ago delivered a speech that was called, "pure Nazi," by one of his own aides, received a standing ovation after his address. It moved one analyst to declare the GOP is now openly in support of white nationalism. The Hungarian Prime Minister's only uncomfortable moment was when he said his country supported Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. He apparently didn't realize most of the people in that hall actually like Valdimir Putin. 

Our Donald, the alleged billionaire, shook down his supporters for donations to pay for a proposed law suit against CNN. Then he proclaimed both the January 6th coup attempt and the foiled plot to kidnap Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer were faked.

The crowd ate it all up. Hey, what do you expect from a bunch of fat grotesque rubes, many of whom were dressed in outfits so horribly garish and ridiculous it made you think of Porter Wagoner on Peyote. There is no telling how much cash they'll shovel into Trump's law suit plan, not realizing huge chunks of it will go directly to some fraudulent committee, or foundation run by one, or more of his kids, or cronies. 

Let's face it, the only one of these MAGA grifters nailed so far has been Alex jones, but even he received a few kind words from GA congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene who made the speakers list this year. 

Yes, there aren't any lies, conspiracies, or scams too big for the crowd in Dallas this year. Not so long as you keep telling them this country belongs to them and them alone and they are being persecuted by radical leftists only because they are white.

It is, in their twisted brains, the will of God. 

Don't believe it? Just ask Donald John Trump and his pals. They are more than willing to tell you just that.

sic vita est

8-7-22

Fox News Drops The Donald Show From Its Lineup

 What was unthinkable a year ago appears to be happening. Last week the New York Times reported it had been 100 days and counting since former president, Donald Trump made an appearance on the Fox News Network. That's right, Big Don hasn't been shown, or heard from on Fox since April 13th of this year when Sean Hannity interviewed him.

But, as the TV pitchmen say, wait, there is more. At least two major conservative newspapers, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, have recently run editorials condemning Trump's actions prior to and during the failed January 6th coup. 

Yes, there looks to be a disturbance in the force. The connections are obvious. All three outlets are owned by the mad Australian, Rupert Murdoch, who serves as the emperor of all right wing media. It would seem he and his son, Lachlin, who is the Fox CEO, have grown tired of Brother Don's act.

Of course this isn't the first time Fox News has gotten crosswise with Donald Trump. On election night 2020 the network was the first to call Arizona for Joe Biden. The announcement came right as the then president was preparing to fraudulently proclaim victory. It also prompted a call from at least one Trump family member, it isn't clear who, to call either the old man, or his kid to demand a retraction. The response was a firm no. According to the Murdoch involved, "The numbers are ironclad."

Then, a couple of weeks ago, The Don was thrown into a rage when his former pals on Fox and Friends cited a CNN poll which found nearly 55% of republicans asked said they preferred Trump no run in 2024. Trump immediately labeled the show, "Terrible," and accused Fox of, having, "gone to the dark side."

There has been oodles of speculation as to why there has been a falling out between the Murdoch family and Trump. Most traditional journalists believe it's because Lachlin especially thinks, Mr. Trump is stuck in the past. Instead of providing any new ideas and moving forward he has become a one note Donnie, obsessed with changing a past which cannot be changed. There is a fear that this obsession will blunt GOP efforts to retake the Senate and House this fall and the White House in 2024. In short, in the eyes of Murdoch and son, he has gone from asset to liability. 

This reversal of fortune has Fox looking for a fresh face and voice to carry the party standard in 2024. There are indications it has settled on one. Recently, instead of covering a Trump stop on his Greatest Hits Tour, it gave Florida Governor and possible presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis 13 minutes of free air time on Laura Ingraham's show. For those 13 minutes it was if Donald Trump no longer existed.

Other analysts have been a tad more mercenary in their assessment of the situation. According to them the Murdochs and Fox consider Don Trump old news. He is like any television commodity which had a good run, but now has grown passe. Or, as they say in the business, the Donald Show has jumped the shark and it's time to put someone new in his time slot. 

After all, in TV, ratings are everything.

Well, 2024 is still two years off and that is a long time in presidential politics. There is no telling what will happen between now and then. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent Donald John Trump has lost Fox News and the vast Murdoch media machine. 

Indeed, the worm may have turned for, Our Donald. And let's face it, your lies don't matter anymore if no one can hear them.

.

8-1-22