Category: Political

We all lose

I voted this week.  I didn’t want to.  I don’t feel good about it and I’m not proud of it.  I’m one of those 8 out of 10 voters that say they are repulsed by this campaign.  Repulsed by both major party candidates.  I don’t think that either one is qualified to run this country or is deserving of the honor that the office once held.

When you boil it down, I felt trapped.  There is no way that I will ever vote for Hillary Clinton.  I don’t care who she is running against.  I don’t care for what she is running.  I will never, under any circumstance, voluntarily help elect her to any office.  With that said, the alternative this election was nearly as objectionable.  I think, at best, Trump is an actor.  But, when it came time to flip the metaphorical lever, I had to make a choice.  I had to ignore that both individuals are terrible human beings and cast a vote.  I really had no choice other than to vote for Trump.  I’m not happy.  I’m not proud.  I just didn’t feel like I had a better option.

This election has been like no other that I’ve experienced.  I’ve never seen one that was more contentious or made more personal by people on both sides.  So many times, I’ve seen people say something like, “If you vote for Trump/Clinton, then you’re a (insert insult here)”.  I’ve seen this from people that have friends and family that did just that.  I think people need to think about things before they make that kind of a statement.  They need to remember that a vote for a candidate does not necessarily equal support for that candidate.  I have never actually voted for a presidential candidate; always against their opponent.

In spite of my vote for Trump, I am none of the following:

  1. Racist
  2. Sexist
  3. Misogynistic
  4. Xenophobic
  5. Ignorant
  6. Islamophobic
  7. Hateful

If you think that I am any of these things, then we probably aren’t actually friends.  I don’t care who you sleep with, where or if you go to church, what color your skin happens to be, where you’re from, or what your political leanings might be.  If you’re a decent person, we’ll probably get along.  Treat me with respect, and I will reciprocate.   I think most people are that way.  The idea that who you vote for immediately classifies you as some sort of “deplorable” is nonsense.  Friends, we are all smarter than that.  I hope that your love for your family and friends runs deeper than any political allegiance.

I don’t know who will win next week.  I do know that regardless of the outcome, if we let it come between friends and family, we all lose.

Never Forget

It has been 15 years since 2,996 Americans were killed by cowardly terrorists on our own soil.  Fifteen years and this day still bothers me.  Every year on this day, all of the emotions come back, just like on September 11, 2001.  The edge has dulled, but the sadness and anger are still there.  My memories of that day are still sharp.  I picked up a rental car at Lovell Field in Chattanooga and headed for Birmingham for a project.  I was listening to the John Boy and Billy Big Show on the radio when they said that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers.  I assumed that it was a small plane and was reminded of a similar incident in the 1940s when a B-25 crashed into the Empire State Building.  Then, while they were on the air, they saw the second plane hit.  From that point, I knew we were under attack.  The rest of the trip was filled with radio coverage that sounded like planes were falling out of the sky all over the country.  The plane hitting the Pentagon and the crash in Shanksville emphasized that point.  I freely admit that I was scared as I drove by the Birmingham airport on the way to our office.  Once I got there, everyone was gathered around a small television, where I actually saw the attacks for the first time.  No work was done that day as we all tried to deal with what we had seen.

I spent that night alone in a hotel room in Birmingham.  All I wanted to was be home, but that just wasn’t possible.  One of the things that I remember most about that day was President Bush’s address to Congress that evening.  It was one of the most emotional and well-written political speeches that I’ve ever heard.  The sight of Republicans and Democrats sitting in unity for a change gave me hope that we, as a nation, would recover.  I honestly felt a little better after watching it.  The only exception was Hillary Clinton, who wore an expression on her face that clearly showed her annoyance at having to sit there while Bush was in the spotlight.  I will never forget that, either. In the days that followed, there were no news stories slamming either party.  Nobody was talking about race.  Why should there be?  People of every race were affected by that day.  We were all Americans working toward a common goal.

I was in New York City for work in 2009.  I had part of an afternoon off, so I went into Manhattan to the temporary 9/11 Memorial.  It was in a building near NYFD House 10, a station that lost 6 men.  Inside the memorial was a museum containing items that had been recovered from the site.  In the rear of the memorial was a small room that made a huge impact on me.  Three of the walls were covered by photographs of the victims. Monitors on either side of the room had a continuous scroll of the names of the victims.  You can see photos below.  To say that this made it personal is a major understatement.  To see it all on television is one thing, but to look at the faces of nearly 3,000 dead Americans is quite another.  I wanted to look at every face, but I just couldn’t do it.  The ones that I saw were a true cross-section of America.  I saw skin of every color, janitors, executives, and everyone in between.  The minutes that I spent there had a major impact on me and I will never forget it.

But forget is what we, as a nation, have done.  It has only been 15 years since we were as united as a nation as we have ever been in my lifetime.  Look at us now.  The news is nothing but insults slung at one candidate by the other candidate, over-hyped stories of racial divide, stories about how ignorant people that believe this or that are, and the most outrageous example of Hollywood misbehavior they can find.  Now, we are more divided than we have ever been in my lifetime.  As a nation, we have forgotten what I think is the most important lesson of September 11; that we are all Americans, and that we are at our best when we work together.  I sincerely hope that we remember that lesson someday.  I just hope that it doesn’t take another moment where we all remember where we were when it happened to remind us.

victim-room

victims

 

Both Sides of His Mouth

Late last month, President Obama commuted the sentences of 111 more prisoners, all of whom were convicted of drug crimes.  This round brought his total number of commutations to 673.  White House counsel Neil Eggleston wrote, “We must remember that these are individuals – sons, daughters, parents, and in many cases, grandparents – who have taken steps toward rehabilitation and who have earned their second chance.”.  All of these individuals were convicted of various drug crimes and were described as “non-violent” (Byron Tau, Wall Street Journal, 8/30/16).

The conviction of 13 of these ‘non-violent’ offenders included at least one firearm charge.  Here’s a summary:

  • Sly Stallone Aikens (no, really!), convicted of knowingly using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to, and possessing the firearm in furtherance of, a drug trafficking crime (2 counts), sentenced to 360 months imprisonment (amended to 235 months) and 5 years supervised release;
  • Alfonso Allen, convicted of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base; distribution of cocaine base (2 counts); possession with intent to distribute cocaine, cocaine base, and marijuana; possession of a short barreled shotgun in furtherance of a felony drug offense; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; possession of a an unregistered short barreled shotgun, sentenced to life plus 10 years;
  • Brian Allen Altman, convicted of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime (2 counts), sentenced to 420 months imprisonment and 8 year’s supervised release;
  • Derrick Lewis Bynum, convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; use of a communications device to facilitate narcotics trafficking (3 counts); possession with intent to distribute controlled substances (2 counts); possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, sentenced to 300 months imprisonment and 10 year’s supervised release;
  • Fred Charles, Jr., convicted of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams of cocaine; use of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, sentenced to 248 months imprisonment and 5 years supervised release;
  • Darryl Dewayne Edwards, convicted of attempt to manufacture 50 grams or more of cocaine base; possession with intent to distribute cocaine base; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; possession of a firearm by a felon, sentenced to life imprisonment;
  • Mark Foster, convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine; carrying or possessing a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, sentenced to life plus 60 months imprisonment,
  • Orfil Javier Garza, convicted of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute; carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense, sentenced to 180 months imprisonment and 5 years supervised release;
  • Ali Reno Harden, convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; possession of a firearm having an obliterated serial number; possession with intent to distribute more than five grams of cocaine base; possession of a firearm during the commission of a drug trafficking crime; possession of marijuana, sentenced to 180 months imprisonment, 8 years supervised release, and $5000 fine;
  • Ronnie Lorenzo Hardy, convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; principal to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base; unlawful possession of a firearm; possession of a firearm during a felony drug offense, sentenced to life plus 60 months imprisonment;
  • Derrick Waller, supervised release violation (possession of an unregistered firearm and distribution of cocaine); possession with intent to distribute cocaine base (crack), sentenced to 224 months imprisonment plus 45 months from previous charge;
  • Richard Van Winrow, convicted of possession with intent to distribute a narcotic drug contolled substance; felon in possession of a firearm, sentenced to life imprisonment.

Forgive the amount of information presented above, but I wanted you to have a sense of why these folks are in jail to start with.  I thought it would be interesting to see what I could find about these cases and see how the gun was involved. I was able to find a little more on three of them and I think they warrant further discussion.  It was suprisingly difficult to find anything about their actual cases.  I was looking mostly for local media reports, but those were few and far between.  I think these three are pretty representative of the type, however.

Walter Breland of Statesville, North Carolina, was arrested on October 31, 2001.  An informant had notified officers that were conducting surveillance of a known drug distribution house in Evansville, Indiana, that a man was standing on the porch of the house selling cocaine.  When officers approached Breland, he “immediately ran from the porch area of the residence, across the street and between some houses, where he hid behind a large bush. When Officer Luecke began to pursue Breland, he rose, tossed a plastic bag containing cocaine over a fence, and charged Officer Luecke brandishing a firearm. Officer Luecke struck Breland with a flashlight, which caused Breland to drop the gun, but Breland continued to run from the police. He was caught and arrested minutes later by other officers who conducted a search incident to the arrest and found $2,000” (http://www.allcourtdata.com/law/case/united-states-v-walter-breland-katrel-thomas-and-andre-vaughn/cBbx4nd?page=1).

Darryl Dewayne Edwards (aka David Devon Wilson) of Port Author, Texas was arrested after a federal search warrant was executed at his home, where crack, a large amount of cocaine, implements to cook crack, and a gun were recovered.  This was his third such arrest, which mandated a life sentence (http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/new/article/Drug-gun-charges-put-Port-Author-man-in-jail-for-765320.php).

Orfil Javier Garza of Pacoima, California, was arrested in Kearnes, Utah, along with two others, including a 15 year old juvenile.  The arrest came as a result of a long term drug trafficking investigation.  The arrests resulted in the seizure of $500,000, 1.5 pounds of meth, 4 weapons, and 8 ‘high-value’ vehicles.  https://www.dea.gov/pubs/states/newsrel/denver120707.html

Others of note include Ali Reno Harden, who was arrested in possession of a firearm from which the serial number had been removed.  Then there’s Derrick Waller, who was on supervised release for a previous offense when he was arrested in possession of an unregistered firearm and for distribution of cocaine.

Lets consider, now, how many times have we heard Obama and his leftist compatriots call for more gun laws or tougher gun laws?  After every shooting that makes the news, one or all of them is on TV before the bodies are cold decrying how easy it is to get a gun, how there are too many guns, how there are guns out there that no one should own.  Here is a small sample of 13 criminals who are in custody partly because they committed a crime that involved a firearm.  If he really wants to reduce gun crime, how does it make sense to put these people back on the streets earlier than a jury of their peers called for?  None of these people has any business having their sentence reduced.  They were peddling poison, possibly to your friends, family, or neighbors.  They were armed for a reason, likely to protect themselves from people even worse than them!

No, Obama and his minions have no real interest in public safety, only in pushing their ill-conceived and unconstitutional agenda.  That’s why he continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

 

 

I Don’t Think I Can Do It

I walk into my polling place on November 8, check in with the staff, get my number, and wait in line.  I feel connected to my community as I stand there with my fellow citizens, waiting to do my civic duty.  Finally, its my turn to go into the booth. I step in, enter my code, and then proceed to select my choice to run this country for at least the next 4 years.  I put my finger on the wheel that allows me to select my candidate and spin it to highlight “Trump, Donald J. (R)”.  All I have to do now is hit the red button to cast my vote.  If you’re like me and cannot imagine Hillary Clinton as president without nearly losing control of certain bodily functions, is that about how you visualize your election day playing out?  That’s what I keep thinking about, but friends, I just don’t think I can do it.

I know, I know, I know.  Don’t waste your vote.  A vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Clinton.  Believe me, I’m having these debates with myself. But I keep coming back to the fact that I do not think Donald Trump needs to lead this country.  I don’t even think that he’s actually a Republican.  Friends, the man is an opportunist. If he thought that he could win easier as a Democrat, he’d be running as a Democrat.  He hasn’t shown me anything that makes me think that he believes any of the stuff that comes out of his mouth.  He has demonstrated an amazing talent for saying stuff that makes him look like a jerk.  I understand that regardless of what he says, Hillary’s media cronies are going to make him look as bad as possible.  But with that said, he makes it way too easy.

Can anyone tell me about his plans?  I know he wants to build a wall.  OK.  He says he wants to bring back the middle class.  He knows exactly nothing about the middle class.  Do you think for a second that he has any idea what most of us deal with on a daily basis?  Has he ever worried about paying his mortgage?  Has ever been stressed because he wasn’t sure that his paycheck would hit the bank before the check he wrote to cover the power bill?  Does he have any clue what a dozen eggs cost?  He knows nothing about any of that.  I don’t hold the fact that he’s wealthy, or that he was born with that wealth, against him.  I think its great that you can achieve that in this country.  But I don’t think he really cares about any of us that grind it out every day.

So, what am I to do?  Obviously, I can’t vote for Hillary. That goes without saying.  So do I just not vote this time?  That is unacceptable to me.  There’s way too much of that apathetic attitude as it is.  Do I just go ahead and vote for the “lesser of two evils”?  That is all I’ve ever done.  I have never really voted FOR a candidate so much as against their opponent.  I’m tired of that.  I want to feel good about the choice that I make, whether they win or not.  And by feel good, I mean that I think that they actually have the best interest of the country at heart and the Constitution as their guide.  Do either of the big party candidates meet that simple criteria?  Not even close.

Right now, I’m seriously thinking about Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate.  I have some problems with the Libertarian platform, but no worse than I do with the big parties.  I still need to do some more research on the guy, but I like what I’ve seen so far.  He comes from working class parents and started his own company, which has been very successful. He earned his wealth through his own efforts.  That alone puts him ahead of the other two in my book.  And just think what it would do to the Big 2!  What better way to bring about change than to not elect either of them!  Wouldn’t they have to take a long look at themselves at that point?  I mean, it should be easy to beat the Democrats this time, but Trump is the best that the Republicans can do.  That is a sad state of affairs and speaks to the larger lack of leadership from which we have been suffering.

I don’t yet know what I’m going to do when I walk into that booth on November 8.  I do know that this situation is very frustrating to this American.

Of Logic and Reason

While discussing the creation of this blog, the most common thought shared among myself, Paul, and Kyle was a concern over the near complete absence of logic and reason in society. While politics is the obvious shining example, one need not wander far from that topic to find a similar vacuum throughout our culture today.

What then, is logic? Or reason? They are not interchangeable terms. Reason is described as being subject to opinion, as opposed to logic, which is an actual science with rules and tests to guide one’s thinking process. To many, if something just seems to make sense, then it must be logical. In many cases, that would be incorrect. I contend a dumbing-down of our society has been going on for decades now, to the point your average person is totally incapable of applying basic concepts of logic and/or reason. Given my future posts here will likely include no small amount of discussion of the same, I think it may be useful to both myself and future readers to touch on some basic concepts.

There are types of reasoning, two of which are inductive and deductive. Deductive reasoning is from the general to the specific. “All Drebs are left-handed. Harold is a Dreb, therefore Harold is left-handed”, for example. Inductive reasoning is the inverse; from the specific to the general, e.g., “Kathy is from the Pacific Northwest. Kathy’s I.Q. is only 10 points higher than the minimum required to be self aware. Therefore, all people from the Pacific Northwest are blisteringly unintelligent.” As you can see, conclusions aren’t always valid. A third type of reasoning is called abductive, which can be described as “take your best shot”. Multiple pieces of evidence are considered, some possibly conflicting or irrelevant, and a conclusion is drawn. This is the type of reasoning you might use when answering questions like “Is she guilty or innocent of this crime”, “…from what illness is this patient suffering?”, or “…which one of these jackasses is going to get my vote?”

One definition of logic: “The science which studies the formal processes used in thinking and reasoning.” Since it is a science, there are specific rules which determine whether or not your reasoning is sound. There are simply too many to list – my intention is not to write a textbook! In the course of my lengthy and varied formal education, I never once took a dedicated course in logic. As a student of the subject, I simultaneously enjoy being able to discern faulty reasoning as it is encountered as well as feel overwhelmed at the frequency with which it is found. In my future posts I hope to illustrate some of these rules as well as learn more about them myself. Hopefully, I’ll find a way to do so which will be thought-provoking rather than a possible cure for insomnia. Since we are now in the midst of a Presidential election, there will plenty to discuss, no doubt. This could be a wild ride, folks!

What are you protesting, exactly?

As I watched video footage of Black Lives Matter protestors blocking public streets and demonstrating in various cities across the country in the hours immediately after the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I asked myself “what are they protesting, exactly?”.  At that point in time, all anyone in the general public knew about either case was: 1. both men were black, 2. neither officer was black, and 3. there was a video of either the incident or the immediate aftermath.  Of course, the usual suspects in the media were running both segments of video non-stop, complete with headlines blaring that “another black man has been killed by white cops”!

Which leads me back to the question, what are they protesting, exactly?  One of the things that you hear at nearly all of these protests is “No Justice, No Peace!”.  So, they’re protesting for justice and against a perceived injustice.  But, how is it just to assume the officers were wrong when all you know about the situation is what you’ve seen on a few seconds of video? Wouldn’t justice actually involve determining what happened before condemning either party?  In my mind, it is decidedly UNjust to assume that either party was at fault based on 30 seconds of video.  Everyone knows there will be an investigation, since all officer involved shootings are investigated.  If you’re really interested in justice, you wait and see what the investigation reveals and what facts come out about each case.  If you rationally consider the facts and don’t agree with the outcome of the investigation, then protest if that’s what you think will fix it.

I’ve also heard them say the protests are about the “disproportionate” number of African-Americans killed by police versus other groups. I tried to figure out how many people are killed by police, and the racial distribution of those people. The end result is that I have no idea.  Every number from every source was different and I don’t trust any of the sources that I could find (The Guardian and the Washington Post, for example).  Surprisingly, the FBI does not keep track of that statistic. I don’t know if one group is killed out of proportion to their percentage of the population or not.  But if you watch the mainstream news media, you would sure think that white officers are killing black suspects in huge numbers.  Again, what are they protesting when no one really know what’s going on?

Are they protesting the violent deaths of young black people men in general?  If so, why don’t they take to the streets every week in Chicago, where they are dying by the dozens? To date in 2016, there have been 366 murders in Chicago (http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/homicides). Of these, just over 78% were black and 67.5% were between the ages of 13 and 34.  Over 3/4 of these have not been solved and there is no suspect, but they tend to occur in predominately black neighborhoods, so it seems likely that the perpetrator was black as well in many cases (http://heyjackass.com/). These disturbing statistics do not make the news and do not illicit any protests of any sort that I’ve seen.  This makes me wonder if black lives actually do matter to Black Lives Matter.

So, what are they protesting, exactly?  I’m sure I don’t know and I suspect that they don’t either.

 

Never Let A Good Tragedy Go to Waste

In reaction to the senseless murder of three Baton Rouge police officers and the wounding of 3 more, President Obama said the following:

And that is why it is so important that everyone–regardless of race or political party or profession, regardless of what organizations you are part of–everyone right now focus on words and actions that can unite this country rather than divide it further.  We don’t need inflammatory rhetoric.  We don’t need careless accusations thrown around to score political points or to advance an agenda.  We need to temper our words and open our hearts–all of us. [Read it at https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/07/17/transcript-obama-baton-rouge-remarks/Mf7xwERq0pLmJNZEVRNqZJ/story.html]

While I certainly agree with his sentiment, I find it beyond ironic that he actually said any of this. This president has done nothing to unite this nation and nothing to lessen tensions when they were at a boiling point. He has done nothing but fan the flames with comments that offer sympathy only to the criminal that was killed and not the officer who has to live with being forced to take a human life.

No we certainly don’t need anymore inflammatory rhetoric or careless accusations for political reasons. He has given us plenty of both.  Consider these excerpts from his speech from only a week before at the memorial service for the 5 Dallas police officers that were murdered (protecting protestors who had no idea if what they were protesting had actually happened):

…I see people who have protested on behalf of criminal justice reform grieving alongside police officers.  I see people who mourn for the five officers we lost, but also weep for the families of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. [Read it at http://thewaynecountynews.com/syndicated_post/full-transcript-of-president-obamas-dallas-remarks/]

So, without knowing anything about what actually happened in either case or anything about Sterling or Castile, their deaths are equivalent to that of the police officers.  Maybe, maybe not, but this was not the place to even mention either name.

But America, we know that bias remains.  We know it, whether you are black, or white, or Hispanic, or Asian, or native American, or of Middle Eastern descent, we have all seen this bigotry in our own lives at some point. We’ve heard it at times in our own homes.  If we’re honest, perhaps we’ve heard prejudice in our own heads and felt it in our own hearts. We know that. And while some suffer far more under racism’s burden, some feel to a far greater extent discrimination’s stain.  Although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent.  No institution is entirely immune, and that includes our police departments.  We know this.

So, at a memorial service for police officers who were murdered during a Black Lives Matter protest, Obama thought it was appropriate to discuss racial issues in this country. He has unlimited opportunities to say whatever he wants and have it spread all over the world, but he couldn’t stop at just honoring the officers. There are another couple of paragraphs on racism.  You can read those, if you like.

We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.

I’m not even going to comment further on this one. There’s no need.

And here is where I had to fight to keep my lunch down. If you have a weak stomach, please don’t read the rest of this.

We should — when we hear a friend describe him (Alton Sterling) by saying that, whatever he cooked, he cooked enough for everybody, that should sound familiar to us, that maybe he wasn’t so different than us. So that we can, yes, insist that his life matters.

Just as we should hear the students and co-workers describe their affection for Philando Castile as a gentle soul.  Mr. Rogers with dreadlocks, they called him.  And know that his life mattered to a whole lot of people of all races, of all ages, and that we have to do what we can without putting officer’s lives at risk, but do better to prevent another life like his from being lost.

Wow. Can you think of anything less appropriate to say at a memorial service for murdered police officers? Murdered because they were in uniform and white.  Murdered while protecting protestors who were angry over some perceived wrong, when in fact, nothing was known about what had actually happened in either case. He didn’t know anything about Sterling or Castile or what actually happened that caused their deaths.  But that didn’t stop him for basically eulogizing them along with the officers.  I personally find that disgusting.

Yes, we should be focusing on words and actions that unite. But while that happens every day at the local level, it does not happen in the White House, and that’s frustrating to this American!