PRIDE

“All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more – and no less – heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, living our lives, and trying as civil-rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to ‘fix what ain’t right’ in our society.” (Wisconsin, Senator Tammy Baldwin)

The old normal, now that we are filled with hindsight, was never normal at all. To adjust or be asked how we might acclimate to this new normal, almost at first, to me, seems like a joke, a sarcastic comment, or like a dangling participle, which is intended to modify a noun which is not actually present in the text; except as we try to survive these past three and a half years and the year 2020, what is the person, place or thing we are TRULY discussing. Our consciences have an inconvenient truth they must contend with, and no longer can we conveniently pretend who we were or what we once believed was normal!

It is the month of June, and ever since riots broke out in Gay Bars, initiated by Police and so-called VICE-Laws, and culminating with the Stonewall Inn Riot, in Greenwich Village New York, on June 28, 1969, the LGBTQ community said no more and began to decide what their new normal would look and feel like; and via this process as a community we discovered PRIDE!  No revolution is easy, and no revolution or movement is quick, but both erupt like the Big Bang of the Universe and toss into space the debris of hope, passion, promise, and purpose. I finally faced my fears, which now seem in human years decades ago, but within my own psyche, only mile-seconds of time, and said no more, silence equals death, and not knowing then but realizing it now, said I can’t breathe…My life was spared, George Floyd’s was not!  I take nothing away from the events of this moment. But just as a man who among other attributes in this life was, blessed by nature to be GAY, want to acknowledge, that freedom and prejudice are enemies, that equality and superstitions based on religious dogma are enemies, the morals and values are enemies of hate and fear. That Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ARE NOT enemies of our UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. In the midst of this delirium and darkness, and decay, and desire for destruction of fair and just, I will try to keep the norm of wishing all a healthy Pride Month whose purpose is to make be inclusive and end the pure delight of divide and conquer!     

8:46 Minutes

8:46 Minutes. Today, June 8, 2020, George Floyd is being laid to rest in Houston. We have witnessed, an almost two-week daily madness, a battle, testing the stamina, strength, and security, of the soul of this nation, against the sinister, insidious, sad, unthinkable, and pure self-serving of a sociopath. It took a knee to the neck of a man being who was just someone BLACK, to squeeze the oxygen out of his lungs, for Americans of all demographics to realize, the given facts of JUST BREATHING, is no longer a human right. All of this when prior to this heinous and racist purposeful act (a demonstration of I HAVE THE POWER, and YOU DON’T) people discovered that a one-time assumption that all humans can and will breathe freely ain’t necessarily so! And all the while, as George Floyd, struggled to inhale, some Americans have also been suffering the consequences of a hidden enemy, a CORONAVIRUS, whose grip more powerful even than a KNEE, have stopped them from inhaling, and like George Floyd, never exhaling again.

8:46 Minutes. It took even less time for a sitting President to initiate American Troops to act as if American people were foreign enemies and approach our nation with the anger, might, and madness of a Military ready to go to war against OUR own THEIR own fellow Americans, placing their riot gear, assault weapons, helicopters, and tanks on the neck of democracy, hoping to choke the last vestiges of a Constitution, into submission. A psychologically deranged man, with the title of President, Commander-In-Chief, with a sycophant piss ant Attorney General, (Barr) and a political hack pretending to be JUST another Toy Soldier for Trump's collection of machismo memento’s the Secretary of Defense (Esper), one Son of the Confederacy still hoping the South will rise again Mark Meadows (Chief of Staff), and a cunning, calculating grifter, all about the photo ops, (expensive, clothing and props to cover any blood from her own empty conscience…or lack of) intentionally disregarding the personal freedoms of American’s)Princess Ivanka, acting with the same disregard hoping to choke out any image of empathy with a show of force, paraded and provided proof that “I Can't Breathe, is meaningless if it serves no purpose but to keep Trump in power!

8:46 Minutes. Four men whose oath to Keep the Peace, Protect and Serve, placed a chokehold on any respect remaining for a Police Force, one in which many more have tried to do their job to keep daily life in this nation inhaling and exhaling. But this time Derek Chauvin/J. Alexander Kueng/Thomas Lane/Tou Thao, like Trump, like the CORONAVIRUS, like the Good Nazi’s, like the KKK, the politicians in towns, cities, counties, states, and the Federal Government, acting as if they saw, heard or spoke of NO EVIL, managed to not only snuff out the hope of finally inhaling a deep satisfying breath, but instead demonstrated a sinister action to smother, and let Black Americans die another day. 8:46 Minutes, maybe, in the death of one man those minutes which ended his life, can be used to bring back the breath of hope and change. But I am not holding my breath for the time being!

goodbye, hello

You say yes, I say no, you say stop, and I say go, go, go
Oh no - You say goodbye, and I say hello
Hello, hello - I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello
Hello, hello - I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello (Hello Goodbye/Paul McCartney)

In Klamath Falls, Oregon, where 200 peaceful protestors of various races, gender, and religious affiliations gathered to protest the murder of George Floyd…just across the street, hundreds of their mostly white neighbors were there for decidedly different reasons. They leaned in front of local businesses The Daily Bagel and Rick's Smoke Shop wearing military fatigues and bulletproof vests, with blue bands tied around their arms. Most everyone seemed to be carrying something: flags, baseball bats, hammers and axes. But mostly, they carried guns. They said they came with shotguns, rifles and pistols to protect their downtown businesses from outsiders. They had heard that antifa, paid by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, were being bused in from neighboring cities, hellbent on razing their idyllic town.

Meanwhile, Trump, last week said New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees should not have apologized for his anti-kneeling comments, saying, "We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart," adding, "NO KNEELING!" Brees responded to Trump in an Instagram post, saying he now realized "this is not an issue about the American flag" and "has never been." "We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform," he said.

And I have to ask, if you wear any semblance consisting of the paraphernalia or symbols which identity with either the Confederacy or Nazi Germany, two nations once at war against the United States if you refuse to read the entire Constitution, but recite passages from the Second Amendment (similar to your chosen chapter and verses from a BIBLE which is only convenient to fool yourself into believing you are a religious person,) and ignore the other Amendments, if you only feel safe caressing and sexualizing a weapon originally created for war, if you think that ‘checks and balances’ are only a Progressive ploy or plot to eliminate any rights/freedoms or liberties, you JUST don’t want to abide by, and only believe that the DEEP STATE is a Democrat Party thing…and you STILL get pissed when someone takes a knee or refuses to accept the words behind the Pledge of Allegiance or National Anthem…who the fuck do you think you are, and why the fuck do you even consider yourself a patriotic citizen of the USA.

 Now, FINALLY, some people ONCE in powerful positions of government, who had appealed to the MAGA cult, also are beginning to understand the hypocrisy and lunacy which is Trump, and more frightening his GOP ENABLERS. His EVANGELICAL THEOCRATS, and of course his 1% DONOR CLASS OF DOMESTIC TERRORISTS. We should all be on the same page, but if we were, Trump’s story would have ended a long time ago. As Paul McCartney wrote: You say yes, I say no, you say stop, and I say go, go, go Oh no - You say goodbye, and I say hello.”

smiling faces, sometimes

“Let me tell you
The truth is in the eyes 'cause the eyes don't lie, amen
Remember, a smile is just a frown turned upside down my friend
So, hear me when I'm saying
Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes, yeah
They don't tell the truth
Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof
(Beware) beware of the handshake
That hides the snake (can you dig it, can you dig it?)”/’Smiling Faces Sometimes’-Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong

"We've seen presidents and leaders across the world who have had leadership moments and very powerful symbols that were important for our nation to see at any given time, to show a message of resilience and determination," McEnany said, giving the example of Churchill inspecting the bombing damage during the London Blitz. "It sent a powerful message of leadership to the British people." (NBC/NEWS)

The White House has become a fortress inside a fortress following the protests triggered by the death of George Floyd. Entering feels like going into a Green Zone in the nation’s capital, with block after block of tall, black reinforced fencing erected in recent days. Lafayette Square, across from the White House — normally full of selfie-taking tourists, older men playing chess, and a handful of often-eccentric protesters — is now behind the steel fence perimeter and filled with National Guard troops and armed Secret Service agents. Protesters have been pushed back so far they can no longer be seen and are barely heard from the People’s House. (Shannon Petttypiece)

The District of Columbia Washington) has become the first major populated American city to have Federalized Security, at the ready to pounce upon the freedom of Speech. Of course the “he said, she said, I did say it, but if I did, I didn’t mean what I said, no one said, it, the Fake Media made it all up, it was said in jest, Its Antifa/Pelosi/Schumer fault that it even had to be said, even though I admit to saying nothing at all. Willie (Roy Cohn 2020 Version) Barr, blamed the Park Police for shooting tear gas, pellets, rubber bullets for an “I AM READY FOR MY CLOSE UP, MR. DEMILLE, PR PLOY. Secretary of Defense Esper, is no on the defense, having to pretend he never meant it when he said there was no place on the streets of a major city for Military (WAR READY TROOPS) and has lied once again about what he thought he meant to say but didn’t mean it to sound like he said it…

The Kushner Klan, Princess Ivanka, and Prince Jared, once again fucked up some stooge like photoshoot (both making tons of money for being, well for being…WELL FOR JUST BEING…the worst case for NO NEPOTISM) And oh yeah, Trump was taking a tour of the White House, happened upon his Hitler styled Bunker, but is too macho to have hidden there, but not too macho to first extend his palace gates and of course, keep on the table the idea that HIS TOY SOLDIERS WILL INVADE AMERICAN CITIES WHEN HE FEELS SCARED…AGAIN!

Men In Black

“Ooh, Here come the Men In Black
It's the MIB's, uh, here come the MIB's
Here come the Men In Black

Walk in shadow, move in silence
Guard against extra-terrestrial violence
But yo we ain't on no government list
We straight don't exist, no names and no fingerprints
Saw somethin' strange, watch your back” (‘Men In Black’/Will Smith)

It might almost seem like a parody, the whole idea of men dressed in black, and no one ever knowing who they are…in most sane times when there is a baseline for reality, lots of folks might be humming this tune. But AMERICA, wake up, look around, SUDDENLY on the streets of DC, especially now, surrounding the newly installed parameter of the Trump Royal Place, initiated by Reichsführer Willie Barr, to eliminate Lafayette Park as a civilian free zone, we have UNIDENTIFIED MEN IN BLACK, armed and at the ready to attack and hurt, those expressing their First Amendment Rights! The Tax Payer is paying for ALL of this Paranoia Demonstration on Steroids by Trump and Reichsführer Willie Barr, YET, none of us are entitled to know who, what or where they are or came from. The Fascist Coup had begun a long time ago, but NOW it IS in FULL display! WTF!

be my neighbor

As Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers), would welcome us into his home, he would mention which day it currently was and sing a little phrase such as “…It’s Friday, it’s Friday, the reason why it’s Friday is cause’ Thursday thru…” And then knowing which day of the week it was Good Things could begin to happen. Ah, to live in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood… We are far from that blissful, moral, value-filled neighborhood, but as the song goes “…it’s Friday, it’s Friday…” Maybe with Trump always Friday the 13^th. And being it is Friday, June 5, 2020, in America here are just a few items we might consider from our previous week.

If you have ever watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, you delighted in a Drag Queen named ‘Bob The Drag Queen’, her schtick was to say, “Purse First”, always enter showing your purse, and then make your official entrance. Seems Princess Ivanka of the House of Theft and Grifter, had he Purse First at the ready as the tear gas smoke, and flashbangs, illuminated the pathway cleared by pellets and riot police, some identifiable by their uniforms, others just a sneak preview of the Secret Police Brigade, Trump and Barr have ready to do the dirty work necessary for any Dystopian government and Dictator. Purse First, (the modest Princess refers to it as her handbag) was something called a Max Mara and sells for $1540. The first prop, the petite waif, performing the role of the ingenue, for the John Wayne, George Patton Orange Clown, Prince Ivanka had a wham-bam surprised you ma’am second prop as she all coy and innocent just happened to carry around a Bible. BUT it seems a BIBLE is NOT a BIBLE is NOT a Bible (As Hendrickson notes, the Bible that Trump held over his head was a Revised Standard Version (RSV). Every English-language Bible is obviously a translation from the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, but there are vast differences among the versions. Not only is the RSV outdated (the New Revised Standard Version, NRSV, was published in 1989 to replace it), but it’s not a Bible that evangelical Christians consider authoritative. “It would be pretty much rejected by the vast majority of evangelicals. It would be seen as a deficient translation of the Bible. A distinctly liberal one,” 

And even with the best efforts of the cinematic panoramic splicing of Trump's walk of shame, he was rebuked (finally, by someone trying to collect his conscience) "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us," Mattis said in a statement obtained," We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society.” Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis. And waddaya’ know, after one brave soul decided to speak a truth, a few mealy-mouthed Republican Senators (well actually two, Murkowski and Romney, from a distance, (because being too close to Trump and criticizing his lack of moral and vales is a treacherous territory) opined that maybe they cannot support the idea of American Troops firing upon American citizens. 

And then Trump emphasized as he usually does when caught as the coward, he was nobody’s bitch and was not hiding in that White House Bunker, nope he, during all of the protesting decided it might be a good time to a look-see, with his Anchor Wife and their never ever seen or heard of son Barron in tow. And for good measure, Trump expanded the property of his Royal Palace and now Lafayette Park has become a part of his SWAMP. And for good measure, the anarchists working for Trump have decided the idea of the American Military STILL being used to treat our fellow Americans as enemy combatants are, and I quote “STILL ON THE TABLE,”  Oh yeah, on this Friday, June 5, 2020, new unemployment figures came out…better news for some, the same or worse for others. And Trump’s response regarding Racism in this nation is that the ECONOMY will make it all better and beautiful. And by the way, just in case, (because Trump won’t mention it ever again, the death toll from the COVID-19 is over 110,000, 1.92 Million cases with an increase of 21,021 since Thursday, June 4, 2020! As Mr. Rogers always asks, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor!”

Of Gods and Face-masks

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A state legislator says he will not wear a mask during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, saying in Facebook post (where else???) that the face represents the image of God. “This is not the entire world,” Vitale says in the post from Monday. "This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.”(Ohio State Rep. Nino Vitale)

Contrary to the commonly held assumption of crusading knights riding into battle in ... It was not until the 14th and 15th centuries that full suits of armour developed. ... This helm included a faceguard and neck guard which gave it a cylindrical form ... a surcoat, a type of overcoat or cloth covering that served many purposes. Tear gas is an unpleasant and potentially harmful experience, so the best treatment is prevention, says Natasha Bhuyan, an internal medicine provider at OneMedical. “We tell people to wear face coverings, and if they have goggles or face shields, those are even more ideal.”

A Republican and God and Hypocrisy…be it the Fraudmeister Mike Pompeo, Moscow Mitch, Little Lindsey Graham, and his Trump Master Fetish, Willie (The Roy Cohn of the 2020s) Barr or a plethora of other “I am Late For Lunch/or I Didn’t See the Video GOP Senators…here we go again, where nothing but SELFISHNESS/SELF-SERVING SUBSERVIANT SYNCHOPHANTS, place their own NEEDS above and beyond the people they supposedly were hired to serve. So, State Rep, NINO VITALE, let me get this perfectly, or GODLY correct. The Crusaders wore masks, the police, the National Guardsmen, and those dressed in fatigues with no identification who were standing guard at the White House Palace, all gave the middle to GOD? Just curious…