I CAN'T GET CAUGHT UP

Six years ago, we were, many of us, reeling at having witnessed what a jury would come to call *the murder of George Floyd.*

Many of us - but not all - saw in the murder of Mr. Floyd a signifier of a work begun but still left wildly unperfected. Some looked right at it; let it wash over them; others looked away.

A few — but loud as hell — welcomed that extrajudicial killing as street justice, and so drifted farther from the golden shores.

Into the strong currents of those days — and *for* these days ... to echo here and now — John Polite wrote this lament.... 

I can’t get caught up in my hurt that so many don’t even make the effort to sympathize with what black folks go through. They turn their backs to the racism and racial terror that exists the same way one of the police officers kept his back to George Floyd. He’ll probably use that as a defense (IF this ever goes to trial.) “I never touched him so I’m not guilty.” Friends, racism works the same way. Turning your back to it is just as destructive and makes us just as guilty as those who actively engage in it. It’s not surprising. But it hurts nonetheless.

I can’t get caught up when some people seem to be more outraged over the destruction of property than the brazen, deliberate taking of a mans life by those assigned to protect and serve. I agree that it is counterproductive. But your silence on the murder that triggered it is deafeningly loud.

I can’t get caught up in those who view #blacklivesmatter as a profane thing and divisive, when they know perfectly well its not always affiliated with the organization of the same name and it certainly doesn’t mean black lives matter more than others. To the contrary, America needs to finally recognize that black lives are not regarded as highly as many others. Some still view us as 3/5 of a person—an assertion that was used to justify slavery. A great segment of America doesn’t believe that black lives matter. I am convinced Mr Floyd, Mr Aubrey and Ms Taylor would be alive today if they were white.

I can’t get caught up by my non black friends, some who I’ve known for decades, that I went to school and church with, broken bread with, prayed with, who not only don’t try to understand, but verbally assault those who call out racism and white supremacy, yet who have “lots of black friends.” That apparently they have not once thought “this could happen to (insert black friend here).” If you’re a friend, try, at some level, to hear us and understand.

I can’t get caught up in those who insist all whites are devils when I see too many of them strongly speaking out against racism (some of them even more than I.) While I don’t believe they can begin to understand what it’s like to be black any more than I can understand what it’s like to be white, I won’t disregard those who are truly trying, who have reached out to me personally asking “what can I do,” and who have been a part of the battle for years. It’s a disservice to white abolitionists, to the john browns, the jane Elliot's and others. we must give credit to those who make the effort.

I can’t get caught up, because ultimately it will make me as hateful as those who hate me. And I don’t have time for it. It would be an insult to my parents—who have seen racism far worse than I’ve seen—yet taught me to love one another as Jesus loved me. It would deny the fact that my family was embraced by the first baptist church of riverside when we were the first and for years the only black family to join. That they ordained both me and my mother (who served on their staff for more than 20 years.) That they packed that church at my dads funeral, and still weekly visit and bring meals to the house three months after his passing.

I can’t get caught up in the hate. God has shown me too much love in spite of the racism and hatred that pervades American culture. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” - Dr King

— John Polite . May 29 2020 

i can see clearly now . then + now

[Thoughts on May 22, 2021, revisited and extended on May 22, 2026]

  

 

May 22, 2021

Shared with Your friends

"Today, Senator Angus King, Jr. (I-ME) came out and said it: 'We need answers on the 1/6 insurrection—but many of my [Republican] colleagues are indicating they will vote against an independent investigation. When people start moving heaven and earth to block an investigation, I have to wonder if there is something to hide.'” — Heather Cox Richardson . 05.20.21 on her fine Facebook feed

[Note: Do you recall any serious attempts to block the seven far-from-independent investigations and 30+ Congressional hearings into the killing of four Americans at the US embassy in Benghazi?]

In words attributed to the little-known but reportedly great Carlisle Marney: "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you flinch before it sets you free."

And we’re back...

And, we're back: 7 Years ago, Justin Amash, Republican-about-to-turn-Independent Member of the U.S. House of Representatives,  posted his take on the then newly released"Report On the Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election" — the Mueller report.  

Representative Amash concluded that Attorney General William Barr deliberately misrepresented the Mueller report to the American people. Amash assessed that President Trump had, in his term, engaged in impeachable conduct, and that partisanship had eroded the will of Congress to check and balance the president. And he concluded that few Members of Congress had read the Mueller report.  

The evidence was there all along, available to anyone.   

[ Volume 01 . https://www.justice.gov/d9/report.pdf   

Volume 02 . https://www.justice.gov/storage/report_volume2.pdf ]  

A few months later, President Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on different corruption charges: Abuse of Power, and Obstruction of Congress.  

[ https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres755/BILLS-116hres755enr.pdf ]  

He was acquitted by the Senate.   

Later, he was impeached by the U.S. House again, this time for Incitement to Insurrection.   

[ https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hres24/BILLS-117hres24eh.pdf ]  

He was acquitted by the Senate.   

The prevailing public argument in the two Senate acquitals seemed to boil down to the expectation that 1) The president would learn his lesson and 2) If the president did not learn his lesson, he would face jeopardy in the justice system.  

Judging from his behavior going forward, it seems Mr. Trump did learn a lesson, but not the one members of his party say they anticipated. 

You probably don’t need a rundown of the president’s misbehavior toward the U.S. Constitution; the law of the land and the Courts … nor do you need a list to help you tally the results playing out in the economy; in broken international treaties and relationships of trust; in extrajudicial killings in the waters off Venezuela; in complicity in the killing of 70,000 civilians in Gaza; in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz; in the mistreatment of brownskinned Americans, asylum seekers and guests; in the cycle of apparent self-dealing, misappropriation of government funds and personnel; in the deaths of ½ a million poor people in the wake of DOGE closures; in the attempt this week to write away all of the tax and business fraud liabilities to which he may be subject under the law … and much, much more….

[ https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1441086/dl

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1441216/dl ]

The corruption is staggering and, staggering as well is the approval his debased and debasing behavior enjoys from Americans who, just a minute ago, claimed the high moral ground.

In this election season, I think we must make Republican candidates fear the people more than they fear the president. There may be little room for MAGA-aligned officials and voters … though we have enjoyed the occasional revival of public morality here and there and now and then over 250 years together, so, who knows…. 

Be that as it may, there remain Republicans who may respond to the call to rededicate themselves to this particularly Americn Democracy; and Independents who know a bad deal when they see it, and will vote a better deal, even if there’s no perfect deal on offer. 

The need is now; the time is now; the later it gets, the hard it is.

Mothers' Day (not Mother's Day)

Julia Ward Howe, 1908

In September, 1870, the great Julia Ward Howe wrote, maybe, the first Mothers' Day card.

That's Mothers' Day, not Mother's Day (due respect to the latter). Here it is, courtesy The Library of Congress.

APPEAL TO WOMANHOOD THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

Again, in the sight of the Christian world, have the skill and power of two great nations exhausted themselves in mutual murder. Again have the sacred questions of international justice been committed to the fatal mediation of military weapons. In this day of progress, in this century of light, the ambition of rulers has been allowed to barter the dear interests of domestic life for the bloody exchanges of the battle field. Thus men have done. Thus men will do. But women need no longer be made a party to proceedings which fill the globe with grief and horror. Despite the assumptions of physical force, the mother has a sacred and commanding word to say to the sons who owe their life to her suffering. That word should now be heard, and answered to as never before.

Arise, then, Christian women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for carresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence vindicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, man as the brother of man, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Cæsar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient, and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

JULIA WARD HOWE. 

Boston, September, 1870.

Source

Library of Congress . http://www.loc.gov/resource/ rbpe.07400300 

 

The Deal ≠ The Delivery

The Art of the Deal is not the same as the art of delivering a fair and equitable deal for the American people and our neighbors, near and far.

Read this from Heather Cox Richardson, two years ago, a few months before we made the colossal mistake of putting Donald J Trump back in the White House ... and consider the U.S. economy at the end of 2024 — *The Envy of the World* — rebuilding after the Covid 19 global pandemic on the sound, real world economics of rules-based cooperation among large-, mid-, and small-nation economies; and compare that with the chaos unleashed by our Big Ugly Mistake.

We did this to ourselves, by entrusting political power to the wrong people, with consequences that threaten the well-being of not just a supermajority of Americans but a supermajority of people on earth.

Now we can undo this ourselves by electing a U.S. Congress who will force a return to the fundamentals that have tended towards shared prosperity and liberty in the past, and can help us get back on track again.

The road to a shot at another 250 years of American Democracy begins with electing and seating a 120th Congress dedicated to building a more perfect union on the foundation of the Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and the rule of law.

There's no shame in being fooled into a big mistake. There's great shame in not correcting that mistake at the earliest possible opportunity.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-8-2024...

just kidding ... [or *is* he...?]

 The Plutocrats' Pope . h/t Truth Social

This time last year, the U.S. president posted the first layer of this joke. 

Getting it right away, I added a second punchline. 

The third one is the worst: Whatever you may think of clowns, you should be aware that the one pictured has a hand grenade.

Eisenhower GOP Unite!

 

killing for the hell of it

Reflections on killing for the hell of it on March, 09, 2005

Gandhi . 1931 . London . By Elliott & Fry - philogalichet.fr Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76882768

Last month [February, 2005], Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis famously said, "Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot…It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling…You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil…You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Marine Corps Commandant General Mike Hagee, wishes Mattis had chosen his words more carefully. World Magazine columnist Gene Edward Veith, on the other hand, concluded that: "As in other vocations, so in the military, there is nothing wrong with enjoying one's work."

To Dr. Vieth, Martin Marty poses a few questions:
______________________________________

If a Christian believes that humans are made in the image of God, should it be "a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them"?

World Wars I and II, and many other wars, had Christian fighting Christian, sometimes because they were drafted to do so against their will.  If a Christian believes that another Christian is a child of God, should it be a "hell of a lot of fun to shoot" and kill him?

If a Christian is an evangelical -- like those to whom World magazine is directed -- and he must kill someone who is as yet unevangelized, thus cutting short his potential for salvation, should it be a "hell of a lot of fun" to shoot him?

If a Christian is a grandson, son, father, husband, brother who knows that survivors of his killed counterpart will suffer all their lives because of his necessary act of killing, should it still be a "hell of a lot of fun" to shoot him?

If a Christian is to pay special attention to the weak, and he decides that someone "ain't got no manhood left anyway," should he do Darwin's work and eliminate the unworthy, taking a "hell of a lot of fun" in doing it?

Can the unconvinced -- and I don't mean just the "What Would Jesus Do"-types -- at least ask how finding it a "hell of a lot of fun to shoot" those who "ain't got no manhood" squares in any way with "love your enemies"?
___________________________________________

It just startles me what people who claim to know something about God are willing to put their name to in 2005.

So, with a line from someone who didn't claim to know much about God, I'm out:

"When I began as a prayerful student to study Christian literature in South Africa in 1893, I asked myself again and again, ‘Is this Christianity?’ And I could only say, ‘No, no. Certainly this that I see is not Christianity.’ And the deepest in me tells me that I was right; for it was unworthy of Jesus and untrue to the Sermon on the Mount."

Mahatma Gandhi’s Ideas: Including Selections from His Writings, C. F. Andrews; pp93-95 The Macmillan Company, 1930

we need this. why're you so mean?

Here's the list of U.S. presidents and administrations who have been calling for the construction of a large, permanent, secure, gathering space on the White House grounds for 150 years. **

1876

1877

1878

1879

1880

1881

1882

1883

1884

1885

18**

1887

1888

1889

1890

1891

1892

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899

1900

1901

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

19**

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026 Donald J. Trump

** banned number sequence 

no kings iii . seattle . 03.28.26

Anti-Authoriterrier

An estimated 90,000 participants took to the streets in Seattle proper for the peaceful No Kings III protests on March 28 [final number pending expert analysis]. 

For Seattle, that more than doubles the storied 3.5% share of the population that political scientist Erica Chenoweth identifies as a common feature — once it reaches national scale — of nonviolent mass movements that succeed at sparking regime change and/or major government policy concessions.

3.5% population mobilization is not a guarantee; it's a rule of thumb. But it *is* a rule of thumb, so....

Source

[https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/advocacy-social-movements/35-rule-understanding-what-makes-protest].