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Polar bear with carrot

Saturday, January 30, 2021

Saturday political rant

I got one of those dear john letters the other day. It was over. The letter was polite and respectful but it basically said that the person didn't want to hear from me again because he hates my politics. It did bother me because I love my liberal and conservative friends equally and don't enjoy alienating anybody. And I have known and been friends with this particular guy for over twenty five years.

But I obviously pissed him off. This was the link that put him over the edge. In retrospect I guess it is one of those "don't you see what assholes belong to your side" posts and in retrospect nobody wants that thrown in their face. Like me having to answer for anarchists burning shit down in Portland or Minneapolis. For the record I don't believe in political violence in any form, from any side.

Anyway it is so remarkable how few people do cut me off totally, this is the second in the last year or so and both did so politely. No "You are a fucking asshole and are going to burn in hell" stuff. 

I have to walk a fine line sometimes. I am what I am and you are what you are and we are defined by about the age of seven I think and people don't change much, if ever. And you can't please everybody, you have to be true to yourself. Or restrict discourse to plants and birds. As the bard so eloquently said, To thine own self be true.

I am not exactly democratic with the blog, more like a sensitive despot. I don't publish unsigned troll comments that are real nasty unless I feel like it and I try to cut off unsupported ad hominem attacks against fellow bloggers.

I have had several conservative friends tell me that I need to show more balance. One friend tells me that he has to grit his teeth when he reads it. Thank you for your honesty. I will try to understand your point of view better, I don't want to preach to the choir. 

I got this comment the other day and didn't post it but do want to print it here because it is rather instructive.

This narrative doesn't hold water for me. That if we wanted to burn it down we would have, so shut up. Might be true but this past effort was pretty concerted and beyond vile. Somebody needs to own these guys and figure out how we got here. And I don't want to break bread with any of them because frankly they are so creepy. I don't want anything to do with the MAGA base that elects a Boebert, King, Gohmert or Greene.

The first reaction from the right I read after January 6 was that a couple trespassers broke a few windows and now everybody is freaking out. Then the story was that the riot was full of antifa plants who were steering and fomenting the violence. Now it was directed by the nefarious Lincoln Project, at least according to Giuliani.

This is bullshit. From what I have read there was exactly one man associated with antifa there, a black guy who was merely filming the destruction. One guy.  And like these rioters were ever going to take direction from him... From the arrests it is clear to me that the insurrectionists were pure MAGA and the right needs to own that.

And it was not just a few windows broken, of course. These assholes were playing for keeps. Five deaths and numerous injuries

"Between USCP and our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department, we have almost 140 officers injured," union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement released Wednesday. "I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained brain injuries. One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs. One officer is going to lose his eye, and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake."

Sounds like a war to me. The Capitol Police chief said that his department was not set up for five hours of continuous hand to hand combat.

Metropolitan Police Department acting Police Chief Robert Contee, who ordered more than 1,000 of his officers to help defend the Capitol, provided his own testimony to the closed-door congressional hearing, telling the committee, "This assault on the Capitol has exposed weakness in security in the most secure city in the country."

The unprecedented attack had police "engaged in literal battle for hours," Contee said. "Law enforcement training neither anticipates nor prepares for hours of hand-to-hand combat."

You have to wonder why the National Guard were issued orders to be disarmed by the Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller prior to the riot? Almost like somebody knew what was coming? Of course this is the guy who was praising Russia so.

People on the right think it is time to "move on" usually with a false equivalence shot across the bow that mentions BLM and antifa. We have members of congress taunting school shooting survivors and promoting theories that democrat leaders kill children and drink their blood. Jewish cabals with rayguns. And the party for the most part is totally mum. I guess it is a very big tent and pretty much anything goes. 

And we not only don't censure a Marjorie Taylor Greene, we give her a seat on an education committee. Amazing country we got here.

14 comments:

Kerr A. Lott said...

Key phrase: 'False moral equivalence'. The idea that there are "fine people on both sides" is one of Trump's totally false generalizations.

When one side is manipulated by QAnon wild conspiracy theories and Trump's equally bizarre conspiracy theories and white superiority bullshit, and the other side is guided by rational thinking there is no moral equivalence. At all.

As for BLM and antifa going nuts? Here's a quote from standup comedian Keith B. Bergman: "Every time a cop is seen committing an extrajudicial murder, the right says they need to 'see the whole video'. Every time the right gets a TikTok of protestors throwing a rock, they decide it means an entire metropolitan area has been burned to the ground and the ashes pissed on".

And the deluded right wing acts like it's completely normal for neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, Q-Anon nutjobs, and various other deluded wackos to invade the capitol building, causing death and injury on both sides.

Anonymous said...

Why bother?
You calling nazis your brothers?
They drank the kool aid. Once they get sober, they can sit down at my table any time. Meanwhile they can kiss my saggy white tuchas.
❤️

Anonymous said...

It’s funny I have written a few people off (unfriended or something)never the other way around. I guess Trumpets are less picky or stupid. I will only unfriend you if you badmouth GD. Just kidding. Nothing you could do ffl

Julie Reeder said...

No one I've heard or known excuses the violence at the capital which is completely consistent because the Republicans condemned the Antifa riots as well,, whether it was tearing down statues or burning private businesses.. Heres a good article from USA Today ON the often misquoted Trump "good people on both sides" story. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/17/fact-check-trump-quote-very-fine-people-charlottesville/5943239002/
Let's forget the rhetoric and work together on things we agree on. What do we have to lose?

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the DJ letter.

Too bad a longtime friend couldn't remember all you had in common and get past politics.

I know parents who were disinvited from holiday dinners in 2016 because their children voted for Hillary and they had voted otherwise. Sad.

Not a problem in our family; we unwrap presents instead of unwrapping our opinions. The Springer Spaniel doesn't care who voted for who as long as someone throws the ball when he wants to play.

Kerr A. Lott said...


TIME magazine, January 15

https://time.com/5930185/republican-party-trump-capitol-mob/

"The Republican Party —including local, state and federal lawmakers and elected officials, and dozens of local Republican Party chapters — actively supported the Jan.6(Trump DC)rally, both logistically and by leveraging their institutional platforms, to promote falsehoods and encourage Trump supporters’ grievances.

"More than two dozen Republican lawmakers and other elected officials personally attended the rally, and AT LEAST ONE WAS CAUGHT ON VIDEO STORMING THE CAPITOL BUILDING during the riot.

"Many of these Republican Party members remain fervent Trump supporters and continue to repeat and amplify his baseless claims."

Yet Republicans complain about democrats stoking division.

aferda said...

A few disjointed thoughts:

Do very fine people march together with torch-bearing Nazis and white supremacists shouting hateful slogans? I think very fine people would leave - or know better than to attend to begin with.

I have said a social media good-bye to a couple of people in 2020 over opinions they posted on my social media pages. They either made racist comments, denied the existence of racism, spouted conspiracy theories, and/or told me that I am a victim/stooge of the fake media because I disagree with them. I don't have to allow you into my virtual home any more than my physical one.

I love a good intellectual debate. But don't insult me or my intelligence because I disagree with you. I will listen to your points and intellectually engage with them and I expect the same in return.

Blue Heron said...

I agree, Alex. And I think that it is important to note that you tend to be a conservative by nature so it is actually tougher for someone like you in these circumstances than it would be for me.

Liz said...

I raised you to be an anarchist, but for some reason or other it didn't stick. Also what I meant by anarchists is not what the insurectionists mean. Even I have given up on anarchy in the past fifty years. I now believe that government is necessary.

I will never be as centrist as you are, but I fui respect your opinion. Wish you were a little more left wing,but all is well

Anonymous said...

Do you feel better now? Fucking hilarious. Your fragile thin skin got a little bump and the sycophants race in with the salve, some with two applications. So, is the boo-boo all better?

Blue Heron said...

That's pretty funny a-hole. My fragile thin skin wasn't exactly bumped, I was bummed about losing a friend, somehow I doubt you would understand with your toxic nature, can't have very many yourself, so why don't you just take your cowardly anonymous ass elsewhere and go fuck yourself.

Anonymous said...

I can't be neutral as I watch almost half the people in my country try to pull it down. They don't seem to even realize that's what they are doing, but consider themselves the real patriots. It's crazy making. So, sorry, I'm never going to forgive and I'm never going to forget. If America goes full-on fascist, I will leave it, like so many of them have told me to do over the years.

Blue Heron said...

frayed relations and the devil's army

https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-rep-adam-kinzinger-relatives-disowned-him-impeach-trump-vote-2021-1

Ken Seals said...

I'm with Julie Reeder :-)