Lady Justice Walked Away One Day

Lady Justice walked away one day

from the USA...

The allegorical personification

of the moral force of our courts

has turned away from the nation

and moved on to other ports

Distrust of the judicial system is systemic in our society today. And for good reason.

Who can trust a system that can't seem to find Trump guilty of anything? 

During his short chaotic reign, Trump was able to stack the Supreme Court and federal courts throughout the country with his supporters. 

He cheated, lied, and abused every federal department from the Department of Justice to the FBI to place partisan hacks in the courts.

One need not look any further than the quasi-trial of a murdering 17-year-old punk who got away with killing two unarmed men and seriously wounding another with a bullshit defense.

If you followed the Rittenhouse trial, you know the judge was bias in his favor. Having Trump's favorite martial song as the dial tone on his cell phone was one hint on where that judge was coming from.

Turning to one of the most important cases in decades, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the future of abortion rights in America today.

Front and center the fate of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability.

No decision is expected to be announced until next year, but Trump's stacked court of hand-picked Federalist Society darlings are expected to overturn the decision and take away women's rights to their own bodies.  

The fact that Trump and his minions can get away with abusing the courts using endless appeals to continually stall justice is demoralizing.

Once upon a time "blind justice" was the legal concept regarding the neutrality of the dispensing of justice. Now it means crooked judges and kangaroo courts.

GOP Doubling Down Against Vaccinations By Claiming the New Variant Was Invented By Democrats

Listen my children and you'll shall hear

How Republicans utilize fear

to debunk science and facts

with numerous circus acts

As the rest of the world responds to the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, Republicans are scrambling to blame Democrats for the arrival of the new mutation.

Clown Caucus House GOP members are claiming the Democrats invented Omicron. That's right. As stupid as this claim is, it'll be raw meat for Trump supporters and other low life extremists.

Fox is having fun mocking the new variant. It's really something to see the Good Morning Moron Crew casually joke about a new mutation of the deadly virus.

One Congressional wag (who isn't worth naming) commented that the Democrats came up with Omicron virus to help them out in the midterms. Like a deadly virus would be a selling point? Unbelievable.

What's happening is Republicans want to undermine Biden's vaccine efforts.

As Axios reported Monday morning, the concerted efforts to keep shots from going in arms have escalated in red states, with Republican politicians now openly bribing constituents not to get vaccinated.

"Republican officials around the country are testing a creative mechanism to build loyalty with unvaccinated Americans while undermining Biden administration mandates: unemployment benefits," the short piece explains.

"Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have changed their unemployment insurance rules to allow workers who are fired or quit over vaccine mandates to receive benefits," Axios stated in the report.

I can't help wondering how many Republicans/Trump minions are going to die to show their loyalty to the most corrupt president this country has ever seen?

Founder of the 'Stop The Steal' Rally Will Comply With House Subpoena

Ali Alexander, who takes credit for being the founder of the "Stop The Steal" rally on Jan. 6, is going to cooperate with the House Select Committee.

To be sure, if Alexander had the money he would resist, but he doesn't. Praising his "fellow patriots" who are defying the committee, Alexander bemoaned the fact they have an "expensive right" to fight subpoenas - claiming the cost is too high for him.

Alexander told the press that "I frankly don't have the money to spend on legal bills. The only reason I'm going is I don't want to go to jail."

Hoping for a circus-like public setting, Alexander was irritated when the committee said he would be privately deposed in December.

Promising to make the interview as public as possible afterward, Alexander defiantly told his followers he will resist in any way he can.

In a recent video he said that he plans on submitting photographic and video evidence of agitators sabotaging his Jan. 6 peaceful protest.

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How two friends farcical, failed schemes ended with the biggest fail of all: Stop The Steal

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Alexander, a known conspiracy clown, also claimed he has evidence that Trump was betrayed by someone in his inner circle. 

It's hard to see how much information will be pried from his unwilling lips, but at least it's an attempt to flesh out the insurrection's origins.

Be Prepared For The Worst If You Go Shopping This Year

      Fair warning. Shop at your own risk!

Holiday shoppers are risking life and limb to go shopping across America this season.

Groups of thieves are looting retail stores in organized smash-and-grab robberies putting shoppers at risk. Gunshots have been ringing out in malls from Washington to Minnesota.

The headlines:

**Six Injured after shooting at North Carolina mall sends Black Friday shoppers running in panic

**Black Friday: Another High-End Store is Robbed, In String of Six LA Smash-and-Grabs

How Safe Is It Too Go Shopping?

In addition to the perils shoppers face this season they have to contend with the ongoing pandemic.

First, it's important to note public health authorities are urging people to stay at home as much as possible by limiting errands and outings to just the essentials.

The fact is only 58 percent of all Americans are vaccinated. That means 42 percent are unvaccinated and walking around in public.

Holiday shopping has always been a chaotic experience with crowds rushing stores that feature special seasonal sales.

But this season is special for all the wrong reasons. Just know that if you decide to join those adventurous shoppers you could be taking your life into your hands.

A New COVID Variant Emerges: It's More Deadly Than Then The Last One

The discovery of a new COVID-19 variant spreading rapidly from six African countries has caused a cascade of closures from countries around the world.

The newly identified virus known as B.1.1.529, is causing an unusually high number of mutations that make it more transmissible and could result in immune evasion.

These are the countries that have announced restrictions so far:

* Italy

* Austria

* France

* Japan

*The United Kingdom

*Singapore

*The Netherlands

* Malta

* Malaysia

*Morocco

*Philippines

The closures were announced late yesterday. All flights from these six African countries have been suspended:

South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini.

Germany plans on declaring South Africa a "virus variant area" as of tonight, which will mean that airlines may only enter the country to repatriate German citizens.

Israel's Prime Minister Nattali Bennett announced sweeping travel restrictions for most of Africa after one case of the new COVID-19 variant was confirmed in the country.

President Biden announced new travel restrictions today to and from the six African countries affected, after the World Health Association labeled the new strain as a "variant of concern." 

Dr. Anthony Fauci said there is no indication that the new variant - Omicron - is currently in the United States.

According to Fauci, the U.S. is bidding time (with the restrictions) while trying to determine if its vaccines will provide protection against the new Omicron variant.

Tragically, it doesn't look like the world can do anything about the global ongoing mutations other than react to them in real time.

Thanksgiving Day: Finding Something - Anything - To Be Thankful For

Now that most of the country has gotten over the "Thanksgiving myth" that eventually led to the genocide of native Americans, the day has expanded into a generic holiday to be thankful.

Thankful for anything.

There's a pandemic. Be thankful you're alive and reading this.

The country is polarized. Listen...this is nothing new. A quick look back at our history shows numerous decades of chaos. Yet, we're still here. That's worth being thankful for.

There's so much hatred in the country. Staying above the fray, where anything can provoke anger is a choice. Be thankful that you can still spread love as a potent alternative.

There're traditional reasons about the holiday to be thankful for. Especially the emphasis of families coming together in fellowship. 

I won't sugar-coat it. I know these are hard times. Americans are afraid of a lot of things, from losing their jobs to their lives to the COVID-19 delta variant.

I believe we can all find something to be thankful for. No matter how small. Whatever reasons you have, Thanksgiving 2021, is a good time to recall and embrace them.

Shoplifting on Steroids: Organized Thieves Raid Stores and Run

               (Photo - Flash mob-style robbery of Walnut Creek Nordstrom)

Shoplifting has been elevated to a dark art, as groups of people dash into stores and steal everything they can get their hands on in minutes before running away.

Here's two recent cases to illustrate just how bad the situation is becoming for retail stores in America today:

Last week a Louis Vuitton store in a Chicago suburb was raided by 14 thieves wearing masks and hooded sweatshirts.

Surveillance footage showed them brazenly grabbing bags and wiping shelves clear before dashing out the front door.

They escaped. All the police could find was one of the three cars used for the getaway (it was stolen). 

The thieves didn't display weapons or attack employees. They were very businesslike in their looting. It's estimated that the merchandize stolen amounts to $120,000.

Also last week:

About 80 thieves wearing ski masks stormed the Nordstrom store in Walnut Creek, California.

Witnesses say the large group raided the store in under one minute! 

In this case two employees were attacked by the looters who punched and kicked them while another was pepper sprayed.

Unlike the Louis Vuitton store however, at least three suspects were arrested. One, at gunpoint.

Police reported the raid was not connected to a string of nationwide riots that took place over the weekend in the wake of the Rittenhouse verdict.

No. It was just another case of organized thieves ripping off retailers. The raids have gotten out of hand and many retailers in areas like San Francisco are shutting down their stores because of the losses.

In mid-October Walgreens in San Francisco closed five of it's stores because "retail theft" has risen to unsustainable levels despite increased investment in security.

Thanks to organized serial shoplifters bare necessities are now rare luxuries on drug-store shelves across New York City.

I suppose you could blame the pandemic for the rise in shoplifting, but it has to go deeper than that. 

It goes to the lack of moral fiber in the country today. Nothing is too extreme. Nothing is off the table. People are becoming more lawless within our severely divided country with each passing day.

This decay in our society is just one more symptom of our country in a crisis.

Divided We Fall: How Two Americas Are Destroying Democracy

Remember when this was the nation's de facto motto?

E pluribus unum. "Out of many we are one."

Now it's about how divided we are. How factions of society don't believe in universal equality. Partisan groups threaten each other in state and federal government with bodily harm.

Religion, always a controversial subject, has been weaponized with the rise of so-called Nationalist Christians. They're goals are simple and cruel.

Christian nationalist agitators are calling for only one religion to be celebrated in America. Christianity. The rest of the religions are being relegated to imposters who seek God in the wrong places.

Broken down to the simplest terms, we are now living in two Americas where everything from belief systems to human equality are in question.

We are now in Defcon 2. One step away from total anarchy. Political road blocks are springing up throughout the country. A sure sign of the stagnancy which has settled into the states and federal government.

The idea of a unified nation has been cast to the winds of chaos as America stumbles through a never-ending pandemic and the battle between two tribes - with one perfectly willing to destroy the other in the name of hateful ideologies.

I've heard and read political pundits who already believe we are engaged in another Civil War. 

How did we get here? Where did we go wrong? How is it a large segment of Americans don't believe in reality and science?

Part of the problem has been the "dumbing down" of American education in the last couple of decades. Ignorance can lead to hatred of things people don't understand.

A big factor is the rise of the Trump cult. Americans never experienced a more corrupt president, and were caught off guard by his cruelty and stupidity.

Embraced by the worst segments of our society, Trump tore down all the norms in our life and government. That the former president is still trying to steal the 2020 election - a year later - shows how dire things are right now.

How can we turn the tide?

The only thing I can see, in the short term, is for the Democrats to hold onto the House and Senate in next year's midterms.

Short of that, I predict we're going to keep on going down the rabbit hole until democracy is dead.

Why Future Elections Are In Peril In America

The practice of a peaceful transition of power has always been a hallmark of our democracy.

We took it for granted until Trump came along and shattered democratic norms and tried to steal the 2020 election.

Our society is staggering under the weight of angry white men pushing for a fascist state.

They have been emboldened by "stand your ground" and citizen's arrest laws, inspired by a conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Stop the Steal is a Republican mantra based on a blatant lie. An open door to chaos. A reason to walk around in public armed with AR-15s to shoot unarmed citizens.

Angry white guys are a real problem today. They are encouraged by assholes like Sen. Lindsey Graham who warned, "We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term." 

Lee Drutman, a scholar who has studied political violence, recently told the New York Times;

"I have a hard time seeing how we have a peaceful 2024 election after everything that's happened now. I don't see the rhetoric turning down, I don't see the conflicts going away. I really do think it's hard to see how it gets better before it gets worse."

Fact: White male anger has become one of the most potent political forces in contemporary America.

It was that anger that helped an angry white guy win the White House.

We have enough problems with white male violence as it is. Mass shootings in the country are committed more often by angry white men than any other group.

Fact: There's more threats, more guns and more suspicion that the courts will go easy on white people who employ violence.

The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is the perfect example. He got away with killing two men and wounding another. This is the combustible mix that makes more violence almost inevitable.

What we're seeing is more justifications to carry a gun and use it in "self-defense." Somehow unarmed citizens have become the aggressors and the armed citizens who kill them are called heroes.

Our civilian population is already the most heavily armed in the world. Armed militias are getting bolder and organizing every day.

We have laws that not only protect white vigilantes but, in some cases, seem to encourage vigilantes. 

The anger generated by white guys is getting worse daily. A recent poll revealed that 30 percent of Republicans believe that violence is justified to save our country.

To be clear; it's the angry white men - not the black or brown men - who pose the most dangerous threat to democracy in America today.

It's those angry white men who will cause chaos in 2024, challenging our once-cherished peaceful transition of power.

Build Back Better Act Passes House: The Challenge Ahead

House Democrats notched another legislative victory when they passed the sweeping $1.9 trillion bill last night.

The massive economic legislation is a key pillar of Biden's domestic agenda that will dramatically expand social services for Americans, work to mitigate the climate crisis, and increase access to health care to families and children.

But a major hurdle lies ahead. The bill has to get through the Senate where Democrats will have to contend with blue dog Joe Manchin's personal agenda to get the necessary 50 votes under the budget process they're using to pass the legislation without GOP support.

It's hard to see where this is going to end up. Manchin has no morals or conscience as he protects his energy company by swatting down any suggestions of cutting back on coal use.

Manchin is also enjoying his new found power by challenging almost every aspect of the ground-breaking legislation.

If Biden can pull off appeasing Manchin it's going to be a major victory for all Americans. Let's hope one man doesn't stop progress for the whole country.

The Good News: Oil Prices Pull Back from Highs

The pressure is starting to lift.

The tempest of surging gasoline prices is calming down and American drivers are soon in for a break.

There's four reasons this is happening.

1) President Biden had a chat with Chinese President XI Jinping a couple of days ago and the subject was about releasing millions of gallons of oil on the market.

Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at the consultancy Rystad Energy, reported that the biggest factor driving prices right now is the expected release of strategic reserves from the US and China. 

2) OPEC is also steadily ramping up output.

3) This week West Texas Intermediate futures, the US benchmark for oil prices, and Brent futures, the global benchmark, are now trading at their lowest levels in six weeks on signals that supply constraints could begin to ease soon.

4) In the United States, prices fell sharply yesterday after oil inventories at a key hub in Cushing, Oklahoma rose for the first time in weeks.

Needless to say this is good news for the whole country. That includes President Biden and the Democratic party which has been hammered by the far right for the high gas prices lately.

There's no doubt that Republicans will continue to try and make gas prices a wedge issue, but the facts will soon destroy that fiction as the prices go down.

Finally I think kudos are due for President Biden whose diplomacy is getting us through these tough times.