Tag Archives: Florida

Political Rants

Racism works.

The surest sign that Democratic voters put a dent in the Trump administration this past Tuesday was the fact that Trump termed the election as a victory for him personally. It was, of course, anything but. His incoherent, rambling press conference on Wednesday lurched from the usual bragging to open hostility to the press to suggestions that he would triangulate with Congressional Democrats on legislation and quite a bit more. Trump, of course, came armed with cherry-picked, extremely contrived and narrow statistics that spoke to the historical uniqueness of his mid-term “victory”, claiming that the only Republicans who lost were the ones that refused his “embrace”. (He’s conveniently forgetting the apparent one-term loser Claudia Tenney, who fully embraced him and had the entire Trump family visit her district – including the hair hat in chief himself – at various points during the campaign in a desperate attempt to cling to her seat.)

Voter supression poster childrenThat said, among my biggest disappointments on Tuesday night was the failure of Andrew Gillum to win the Governorship in Florida – not for want of trying, I should add. I could say the same for Stacey Abrams in Georgia. Two tantalizingly close races, which suggests that a bit more GOTV might have put them over the top. Or perhaps not. After all, about a million voters have been dropped from the rolls in Georgia over the last few years, thanks in large measure to the efforts of Abrams’ opponent. That’s one way to ensure victory. Another is not to allow them to register in the first place, as has been the case with ex-felons in Florida, though as of Tuesday we now know this will change.

Then of course there are the overtly racist tirades offered by our crackpot president, warning of dark, diseased people menacing our southern border from hundreds of miles away, suggesting that two eminently qualified black candidates for governor are somehow not ready for the job, calling Gillum a crook, etc. Add that to the usual racist nonsense that goes on around election time (e.g. clumsily  offensive robocalls from white nationalist groups), and it may have been enough to keep either candidate from going over the 50% mark. (Then there’s voter I.D. laws and the like, but I’ll stop there.)

I know people want to believe that good triumphs over evil, even if it sometimes takes a little while. That’s seldom the case.  When good people do nothing, evil does as it pleases. If we let racism prevail, it sets a toxic precedent that is hard to reverse.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Recoil.

As I mentioned briefly last week, it has happened again. Another deranged shooter with a military-style weapon and a mountain of ammunition. This time the target was a high school campus in Florida; last time it was somewhere else that didn’t expect it. The young people who emerged in one piece from that atrocity have demonstrated an emotional and intellectual maturity, an eloquence, and a remarkable facility for organizing that puts us all to shame. When I see them, I hang my head – we, the older generations, simply are not good. Let them take the reins.

Our cheese-headed president had some of them over on Wednesday, along with survivors of other mass shootings, for a “listening session”. What has Trump taken away from this heinous remake of previous atrocities? Well, he is telling Beauregard to look into banning bump stocks, again. That is something the Justice Department has been working on for months, since the Las Vegas massacre. The problem is that the administration is probably barred from doing so without action by the Congress, so Trump’s NRA patrons can rest easy. He also suggested arming teachers, janitorial staff, and, I believe, students, claiming that that Gym teacher could have ended the whole shooting rampage if he had had a gun.

Trump's notion of the ideal school resource officer.Okay, well … I may be the only American to remember this (I hope not), but back in the seventies, this latter suggestion was put forward as a joke on All In The Family – the right-wing caricature Archie Bunker was invited to do a guest editorial on television, and he advocated stopping airline hijackers by arming all the passengers. What was a joke in 1972 is now consider a serious policy proposal. That’s how far we’ve come, people. And this is how far political leaders will go to avoid dealing with an issue. The money is all on one side, and our kids are on the other. If we leave the decision to our current crop of politicians, the kids don’t stand a chance.

Sure, there are something like 10 to 15 million AR-15 style weapons in the United States. That doesn’t mean we can’t do something about this. First thing is to stop selling them. Second, in my opinion, you should be required to register military assault-style weapons and handle it in an appropriate way (i.e. lock it up at appropriate times). If you don’t register it, you can’t keep it. They are simply too destructive to treat like a 30-30 hunting rifle. Third: extensive background checks for all gun purchases (since Trump loves the concept of “extreme vetting,” this shouldn’t be a problem for him). Fourth, no more high-capacity clips and new limits on ammunition sales.

That’s where we need to go if we’re serious about protecting kids. Up to us, people. Elect a Congress and a president that will do it.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Assumptions.

So Zimmerman walks. I can’t say as I’m surprised. It is now apparently legal to kill people in Florida, particularly if your victim is black. I should say not exclusively – my neighbor spends half of his time in Florida, and he told me about a “Stand Your Ground” case at his retirement community wherein a Vietnam Vet shot his wife’s lover dead and got off based on Stand Your Ground. The victim was white, but from another country, so that may have been “other” enough for the law. It seems like if your intention is to kill someone, all you need to do is get them alone in Florida and give them the gun, so to speak. So long as there’s no witnesses, it’s your word against theirs.

That aside, let’s consider what this verdict says, in truth:

Not suspiciousKiller Sidewalks. The Zimmerman trial introduced the concept of the sidewalk as a deadly weapon. I suppose this means that any (black) person strolling down the sidewalk can now be considered armed and dangerous. Amazing what legal and logical gyrations we go through to exonerate a white guy who just shot a black guy dead. Who says he was unarmed? He had that deadly sidewalk! 

Thirty Yards. The prosecution failed not only to discredit the defense’s story but to communicate in concrete terms an alternative story that fit the facts.  Martin’s body was found something like ten yards away from the sidewalk. How could Zimmerman have been in mortal danger when the “deadly weapon” (see above) was that far away from where he shot the kid? Why wasn’t the prosecution all over this like a cheap suit?

Silent Witness. Ultimately, the defense put Trayvon Martin on trial. There is one person who knows what happened that night, and he was sitting in that courtroom wearing his stoic wannabe cop face. Sure, he has a constitutional right not to testify. But I don’t see why the prosecution couldn’t have made more of a point of his reluctance to testify.

The Video. I think the item that defines the core issues in this case is the police station video of Zimmerman being processed by the cops after the shooting. He is not only ambulatory, he seems positively casual. The cops treat him at worst like a crime victim, but really more like a colleague. It’s this assumption of innocence in the face of overwhelming indications of guilt that speaks directly to how race plays a role in the outcome. Based on those assumptions, Martin’s body was not properly examined for forensic evidence, the crime scene was not properly protected … the case was lost then.

Note to John Roberts: racism still appears to be alive.

luv u,

jp