Mt Two Cents: Terrorism

We need to get our words right.

In the wake of that mass hooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last week we need to learn our words: terrorist.

See, I’ve noticed that when a brown man takes out an assault weapon and shoots up an office in San Bernardino, or a couple of brown men open fire at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, they are called terrorists.

But when a white man murders fifty people in New Zealand, or a white man slaughters nine black people in a church in Charleston … or a white man shoots at concert goers, or movie goers or shoppers in a mall or students at school, when white people slaughter dozens they are called in the press, gunmen.

They are not. They are terrorists.

Slaughtering people is terror. People gathering to worship, or dance, or to listen to music, and who are murdered for no apparent reason other than hatred are victims of terror, no matter what the skin color is on the hand that pulls the trigger.

And we need to hold the press accountable; we need to remind the media that terrorism isn’t committed solely by brown-skinned people, but that most of the terror attacks, at least in this country lately, have been committed by white men.

Now, that doesn’t mean all white men are terrorists, but it does mean we need to broaden our scope and our language as to what makes a person a terrorist.

It isn’t who you shoot, it’s that you shoot.

It isn’t where you shoot, it’s that you shoot.

It isn’t the color of your skin, it’s that you think you have the right to take human life because you hate people.

It’s hate; and it’s hate speech. So maybe we need to start by combating hate speech, and that’s not so hard to do. When someone says something within earshot that is hateful, say something; call them out on their hate, their racism; shine a light on it. Cockroaches and racists run from the light.

But what do we do when the hate speech is coming from positions of power?

We have a president who has said that Muslims are terrorists, that Muslims hate “us,” that Muslims cheered in New Jersey on 9/11 as the towers came down. We have a president who has said that some white supremacists are “nice people,” even as Heather Heyer was being laid to rest after Charlottesville.

There are good people on both sides, he said, when people shouted death to Jews.

And, both men responsible for the mosque shootings in Quebec and Christchurch actually credited an American president for his views on Muslims. Those two men in opposite corners of the world, singled out the president, and his views, his opinions, his statements, as part of the reason why they opened fire and slaughtered innocent people.

That’s also terrorism.

Our president, while he may not carry a gun, and may not actually say the words, ‘Go out and kill,’ suggests that people are coming for us, to take our lives, our jobs, our loved ones, our country, and when a terrorist strikes, he has no anger toward the terrorist who echoes his white supremacist leanings, in fact he almost has to be coerced to even condemn the violence.

And then his words of sorrow weren’t for the people murdered, they were for New Zealand, because he couldn’t be bothered to say the word ‘Muslim’ lest he offend his base. In fact, as they were cleaning up the blood in that mosque in Christchurch, he said he didn’t think there was a rise in white supremacy at all, at least not in this country.

He’s forgotten Charlottesville, Quebec, Pittsburgh; he’s forgotten Las Vegas, Charleston, Orlando; he’s forgotten Parkland, Newtown, Christchurch.

He’s forgotten that, while the FBI defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, not including the suspect, are killed, that there over 20 mass shootings in this country in 2018 … almost two a month. And there have been eight mass shootings in 2019 … and it’s only March. And that doesn’t include shootings where less than four people were murdered.

That’s terrorism, and until we start calling it by its real name, no matter the skin color of the perpetrator, we’ll never find a way to stop it. And that’s the greatest terror of all.

It’s not over ….

Just A Thought ....

Donny _____ Spills The Tea ... To The Russians

I guess this is what happens when you elect a narcissistic buffoon with a giant ego, a mouth that never stops, a bad rug, and tiny hands to the Oval.

Last week, in a meeting with the Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, _____ bragged about highly classified intelligence—clearly _____ doesn’t know from intelligence—providing details that could expose the ally who provided the information and the manner in which it was collected.

Yup, just cuz, you know.

The intelligence disclosed was about an ISIS plot and was considered so sensitive it wasn’t shared widely within the United States government or passed to other allies.

Until _____. Sadly, _____’s display of ignorance is not illegal because the president—even a buffoon—has the power to declassify almost anything.

However, sharing the information without the express permission of the ally who provided it, could jeopardize a crucial intelligence-sharing relationship and is considered a major breach.

Still, it made _____ feel important; like a big shot.

But here’s the rub; the ally who provided the intelligence has said  it would cut off access to future information if it were shared too widely ... like in a casual Oval office conversation with the Russians who might be able to determine how the information was collected and could disrupt the ally’s espionage efforts.

Beyond angering a partner, an ally, in the War on Terror terror terror and calling into question the ability of the President to keep his fat mouth shut, it also proves the hypocrisy of ____ and the GOP.

While running for office last year he made Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information through her private email server central to his campaign—remember “Lock her up!”?

Yeah, and yet there was never any indication that Clinton exposed sensitive information from an ally or gave it to an adversary.

That’s just _____.

The spin after this latest gaffe is that _____ may have not been aware of the sensitivity of what the info he was sharing. It wasn’t until after the meeting, when notes from the meeting were circulated among National Security Council officials, that it was flagged as too sensitive to be shared ...  even among many American officials.

But we all know—from Twitter and his own incoherent ramblings—the man cannot keep his mouth shut.

_____ lackeys,  Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, national security adviser, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Are saying it never happened, the conversation never took place and nothing classified was shared. But, according to other officials in the room, _____ did discuss the contents of the intelligence, but not the sources or methods used in obtaining it; but this doesn’t alleviate the concerns that, by sharing any information with the Russians, that they could figure out those details.

But that’s _____, as I said, and now it appears that he’s in an alleged "downward spiral" because, not only are democrats angered by the news, even some Republicans are condemning the president. And when your own party finds you to be an idiot who can’t stop yapping, a moron who endangers our allies, well, then, it just bodes well for impeachment or investigations, or a fat golfer from resigning the office.

Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, a frequent _____ critic, and fellow national security hawk John McCain each called the news “troubling” and “disturbing.”

And David Kochel, a GOP political strategist, wins for best response, putting it like this:

“John McCain probably revealed less to the KGB in 5+ years of torture at the Hanoi Hilton than Trump did in 5 minutes in the Oval.”

Snap!

But one Republican who comes down firmly on the side of the president, because he’s _____’s political caddy is House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Back in July 2016, no one in DC was more appalled, loudly appalled, that the FBI had decided not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime for sending and receiving classified information on her private email server than Lyin’ Paul Ryan:

“No one should be above the law. But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent. The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions.”

And after his tirade, he asked the Obama administration to stop giving Clinton classified briefings:

“Individuals who are 'extremely careless' should be denied further access to information.”

And so, clearly, Paul Ryan believed the FBI should have charged Clinton for sending and receiving classified information on a private email server she used exclusively as secretary of state.

And yet, in his initial statement about _____’s comments to the Russians, Paul Ryan is trying to play it safe by parsing his words so as not to anger We The People and not to anger ____:

"We have no way to know what was said, but protecting our nation's secrets is paramount. The speaker hopes for a full explanation of the facts from the administration."

Wow; so when the thought that maybe, maybe, Hillary Clinton had done something wrong, Paul Ryan basically shrieked a version of “Lock her up” from the rooftops, but when his own party’s president clearly blabbed top secret information, he treads carefully.

And that is exactly why this party needs to go; as Bill Maher calls it, their “tribal hypocrisy” of bashing one side for some alleged crime, but looking the other way when it’s their own leader.

Ah, but just another day, just another blunder, in America under ____.

Tick tock to impeachment.

NYT

Independent

Washington Post

Random Musings

I cannot get over the hypocrisy of a president who tells the Syrian people, including the children, they cannot come here because they come from terrorist countries, and then he drops bombs on Syria because Syria gassed those same Syrian people and their babies.

If he’d just let them in ....

Adele just broke a record set by Carole King’s Tapestry; Adele’s 21 has been on the Billboard Top 200  for 320 weeks now besting  Tapestry’s 318 weeks ... and 21 still sits at #103.

It was a long run for King, but now Adele rules.

Carlos had a birthday over the weekend and all he wanted was some new pants and a few new shirts, so I took him shopping on Saturday to get some new duds.

Once home, he swore he would “thin the herd” in his closet and while I was working on the computer he came into the office and said,

“Should I keep these?”

“These” were pair of gauzy white pants that were nearly sheer, and that looked like they, at one time, had a drawstring waist; so I replied,

“Sure, if you’re going as Don Johnson from Miami Vice this Halloween.”

For some reason he stomped off ...

Howsabout that United passenger that was dragged off the flight because United overbooked the flight and needed to make room for some United employees to get to Louisville?

As I said on Facebook, they ought to change their name to  UnAmerican Airlines or, if I had been the passenger they dragged off the plane, they should rebrand as Bob Airlines cuz I’d own that sh*t.

Little Donald Trump Jr. said he won’t run for governor of New York in 2018 which is good because no one asked him.

Oh, and the state of New York berated a yuuuuge sigh of relief.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley resigned this week after it was revealed he embezzled state funds to cover-up his affair with aide Rebekah Mason.

Bentley was married for fifty-plus years until his wife found out about his cheating ass, and he used to be a Baptist Deacon and he stood strong against same-sex marriage because marriage is between one man and one woman ... and his mistress, I guess.

Now, I know there are Democrats who lie, cheat and steal, but doesn’t it always seem like its Republicans who get busted for being lying, cheating, stealing, religious bigoted hypocrites?

Yeah, I know, Tuxedo was here last week, but then he did this ... as I was getting ready for work yesterday he decided to nap in the bathroom window. But then stretched out on his back and twisted his body and when I walked in he held out his front legs to me and meowed like a little kid who wanted to be picked up.

I thought maybe he’d gotten himself twisted in the window and was having a hard time getting down, so I scooped him up, gave him a smooch and set him down.

So he could climb back into the window, turn on his back, twist his torso, hold out his paws and say, “Meowwww.” to me.

Apparently this will be a new game ....

Note to Sean Spicer: rule #1 of being a political spokes-tool, even for the Hair Furor, is that you never compare the leader of a country, no matter how despicable, to Hitler by using the phrase “at least Hitler didn’t ..."

And what was that holocaust Center business? Did Hitler escape the bunker, flee to Argentina, then return to Germany to work as a tour guide at Auschwitz?

Seriously, you’d think a spokes-tool could actually speak.

Last week, whilst watching SNL, I was once again struck by the idea that Colin Jost, of ‘Weekend Update’ fame, is kinda hot; and since he’s also funny—which I find very sexy—well, that was a plus. So, I made a mental note to make him a Hot Man this week. Then I saw that Mark Alexander at Veonix Rising, had also found Jost a little something-something and he, too, posted a few sexy snaps. I was gonna switch gears, but said, ‘Nope, hot and funny always wins.’

And then I stumbled—and I wish it had been literally—upon Reid Scott, who is on Veep  and after seeing him, all sleek and sexy, thought to myself, ‘Damn! Why didn’t we upgrade our cable to get HBO so I could him every week?’

So here is, too; we have funny and sexy and sleek and sexy. Just sayin’.

Well, for over For 138 years, the annual Easter Egg Roll has been the biggest single public event held at the White House, attracting some 35,000 Washington-area schoolchildren, military families, and Congressional guests to celebrate Easter.

Alas, not this year. When the _____’s  host the high-profile event April 17th, it will be significantly scaled down as a result of a failure to do the necessary advance planning, such as purchasing the wooden eggs given as gifts on time and sending out invitations to bring the children and their families to the White House for the celebration. 

I guess when the wife refuses to live in the same house as the husband and he’s too busy lobbing Twitter Lies and dropping bombs and dodging an FBI investigation, the little children suffer.

Muslims Are Not Terrorists ... Terrorists Are Terrorists

On March 22, 2017 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood deliberately drove a car into pedestrians along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street—near the British Parliament—injuring more than 50 people, three of them fatally.

After the car crashed into a perimeter fence, Masood abandoned it and ran into New Palace Yard where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. He was subsequently shot and killed by another police officer.

The attack lasted barely a minute, but it once again raised the idea in people around the world—and in our own White House—of Muslim terrorists attacking decent honest, non-Muslim folks, even though police now say that while Masood had an interest in jihad, they have found no motive, no evidence of radicalization or any link with any known terrorist group.

Still, many said Muslims are terrorists ...

There was another man close by Parliament that day; he owns three restaurants in the area and as the attack and the aftermath spread, he was ordered to shutter his businesses and evacuate.

Instead, he decided to keep Troia, his cafe just yards from Westminster Bridge, open so police officers had a place to eat and keep warm.

“I went to one of the officers and said 'I can shut all the businesses, but I want you guys and all the emergency staff to use this place for food, drinks, and for warmth for free'.”

His name is Ibrahim Dogus; he’s Muslim.

“All these great people need our support. Some of them tried to give us money—one said, 'I'm a police officer, you have to take my money.' We said, 'We're not going to take any money from you.”

Dogus kept the restaurant open until 11:30PM “until the last officer was fed”. He estimates he fed between 300 and 500 emergency workers from the police, London Ambulance Service, and London Fire Brigade.

“We wanted to play our role in terms of supporting the emergency crew. This was happening right at our doorstep. If you walk two seconds on my doorstep I would be on the bridge. I use the bridge to take my kids to school, not on that day, but I live next to the area, I work next to the area.”

Think about Ibrahim Dogus the next time you, or anyone near you, says Muslims are terrorists.

And think about this, too ...

After the attack, a group of women, many of them Muslim women, gathered at the scene and linked arms as a show of solidarity with its victims.

Wearing blue as a symbol of hope, the women stood on the bridge where pedestrians were mown down by terrorist—not Muslim terrorist, just terrorist—Khalid Masood.

In an event, organized by Women's March On London, they formed a human chain by holding hands for five minutes as Big Ben chimed at 4PM.

Fariha Khan, joined by fellow Ahmadiyya Muslims, said she wanted to condemn the attack and stand up to the face of terrorism:

"The feeling of what happened here on Wednesday was really strong."

Sarah Waseem:

"When an attack happens in London, it is an attack on me. It is an attack on all of us. Islam totally condemns violence of any sort. This is abhorrent to us."

Ayesha Malik:

"As a visible Muslim I think it was important to show solidarity with the principles that we all hold dear, the principles of plurality, diversity and so on."

Again, remember, after this horrific attack, it was a Muslim man who stood up to help, and a group of Muslim women, who chose to stand in solidarity against terrorism, in the days after the attack.

Muslims are not terrorists.

Terrorists are terrorists.

Independent

Mirror

The Funny Papers

Mike Luckovich, David Horsey, Neal Obermeyer, Jerry Holbert, Nick Anderson, Darrin Bell, John Cole, Jim Morin, Andy Marlette

Minute Rant: F**k Off, Donald [t]Rump

Donald [t]Rump wants to be president so badly that he’ll campaign on fear to win, even if his campaign ideas make him seem a little more Adolph Hitler.

In an interview with Yahoo News [t]Rump said that, as president, he would consider forcing Muslim-Americans to carry a special identification card and he would order the federal government to spy on them:

“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely. There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases … We should have a lot of systems.”

And when he was asked if Muslims would be legally obligated to sign into the database, he said:

“They have to be — they have to be.”

Most sickening of all, and more proof to anyone with a brain that fires on more than one cylinder that Donald [t]Rump has no business running for public office is that when he was asked how his plan differs from the Nazis, he said:

“You tell me.”

Well, there is one difference: he has said anything about rounding up Muslims and putting them in internment camps … yet.

Let’s be clear, again: Muslims are not terrorists, terrorists are terrorists. And people like Donald [t]Rump are terrorists, too, because he’s running a campaign based on it.

My Two Cents: Turning Our Backs On Refugees

So … "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I think we need to take down that statue since some of us in this country, and oddly enough, the ones of us who spout their faith and Christianity at every turn, no longer believe in what Emma Lazarus wrote, and what is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

So … give it back. Take it down, put it on a big ship and tell France we no longer believe in those words.

The governors of some thirty-one states — and it could be more, I haven’t checked the news lately — including our own Nikki Haley who reminds us every time she opens her mouth what a good Christian woman she is, have asked that no Syrian refugees be allowed to enter their states.

Their states. And, of course, they have no plan to accomplish this since they have no legal recourse, no authority, to do any such thing; that would be up to the federal government, wingnuts. But the question of whether they can refuse entry to refugees or not is unimportant, when you think about why, why, they would want to punish refugees fleeing ISIS and war and persecution and death.

How Christian is that? I saw a meme on Facebook that said something to the effect that if only there was a seasonal story about Middle Eastern refugees being denied a play to stay. If only … Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That’s the story!

But these governors don’t remember that and want to turn their backs, our collective backs, on people feeling for their lives because maybe, maybe, one of them, maybe two, might be a terrorist even though they have no proof that this is so.

Oh, but wait. Jeb No-Last-Name will accept the refugees, if, and only if, they can prove they are Christians because real Christians don’t commit acts of terror.

Timothy McVeigh.

But again, how is this Christian? How is this what they teach in churches or the Bible? Turning away those in need, those running from certain death? How is that Christ-like at all?

And how is this American? I mean, unless you’re a direct bloodline to a Native America we are all, each and every one of us, immigrants and refugees — Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio’s families fled persecution in Cuba, so I guess they should consider themselves lucky that there weren’t politicians with their own bent mindset in place when they arrived on calmer shores.

So … if only there was a way to see if this might work before we actually do it you know, if only there was an historical precedent, an historical action, that we might compare this to, so we can see what could happen if we turn our backs on those in need.

Oh wait … back in 1939, the MS St Louis arrived in New York City carrying nearly a thousand Jews fleeing persecution in Europe. And what did we do to those huddled masses yearning to breathe free?

We told them to get out, and to go back where they came from and so the ship turned around and headed back to Europe where some other countries took some of those folks in, gave them shelter. But around 250 of those refugees, who came here, begging for help, begging for us to save their lives, were taken into Nazi concentration camps where they were murdered.

Is that what we want … again? Is that America? Is it Christian? It is right?