Bobservations

One morning this week, I was in our home office and Carlos comes into tell me of yet another reason the Conservatives will be freaking out: male dancers with the professional sports teams. Not cheerleaders, but dancers.

I started to say something about how that might not exactly rile up the conservatives and Carlos said:

‘And some of them are really hot.”

Now we know the real reason behind his story.

PS Carlos loves American Ninja Warriors because, he says, the men must be in amazing physical shape to compete; then, of course, he adds:

“Some of them are really hot.”

Are you sensing a theme?

The GOP is all abuzz that Paul Ryan will be resigning soon. And, in case you thought that was just wishful thinking, think about how shortly after the rumor broke Paul Ryan put out an official statement denying a press report that Republicans were saying that he was getting ready to resign.

Uh huh. Bye Felicia.

Earlier this year the LGBTQ community of Starkville, Mississippi planned a Pride parade, but the alderman in the city put the kibosh on a Queer Celebration. Then the LGBTQ community filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Starkville and there was a revote, a 3-3 deadlock that was broken after Mayor Lynn Spruill voted in favor of the parade.

So, last Saturday Starkville held their Pride parade and it was the biggest parade in the city’s history, with over 3,000 people flooding downtown Starkville for the first ever LGBTQ Pride parade.

Mayor Spruill has been a vocal LGBTQ supporter and praised the turnout made possible by the high level of attention brought to the situation:

“I never expected to have this many people. Somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 people and this would never have happened if we didn’t have the controversy, so I’m almost grateful for the controversy in the sense it became something more than it ever would have been and it became something we can be very proud of, with no issues associated with it.”

Congrats, Starkville, for your Pride.

From the Rightwingnuts and NRA Lapdogs Are Lying Pigs file comes the story of Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez being pictured ripping the US Constitution into pieces.

Conservatives, gun nuts, asshats, morons, douchebags and idiots all over posted and reposted the picture except …

What? It was faked!

The original photo was from a Teen Vogue story from last week featuring Gonzalez, and other teen activists, ripping a target poster, not the Constitution.

Teen Vogue chief content officer, Phillip Picardi, set the record straight on Twitter:

"The fact that we even have to clarify this is proof of how democracy continues to be fractured by people who manipulate and fabricate the truth."

Rightwingnutted fake news spreaders and liars.

I would now like to thank all the “Family Values Voters” who still support _____for finally admitting that their moral outrage at Democrats over the last thirty years was total bullshit.

See, to the conservatives, being married three times and cheating on all of your wives with multiple parties is just fine.

And then you have evangelicals saying that _____’s affairs and bad behavior are between him and his “God,” yet these same evangelicals were all up in my business when I wanted to marry my husband.

Fuck off, asshats.

Speaking of Asshats and the GOP, Indiana Governor, and Republican, because of course, Eric Holcomb just passed a law that every time a woman seeks medical or psychological treatment she must be quizzed about past abortions.

Failure to disclose past abortions can result in 6 months in jail and $1000 fine.

The GOP cannot keep their hands out of women’s vaginas.

In other GOP hypocrisy, Arizona has about a thousand gun deaths every year, but the governor, Republican because of course, Doug Ducey, opposes universal background checks.

But last week one person was killed by a driver-less Uber automobile, and Ducey suspended Uber from driver-less autonomous testing.

So, he’s more concerned with one person killed by an Uber and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about a thousand gun-related deaths.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, because of course, announced that Baton Rouge police officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake will not be charged in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling in 2016 because they had “good reason to believe” Sterling was armed and resisting arrest.

You know, cuz he was a black man.

Last weekend I watched a British film called B&B, the story of a gay couple refused a single bed at an English bed-and-breakfast; they sued, and won, and a year later, they return to the B&B to celebrate.

Only they find the owner still homophobic, and the owner’s son a closeted gay boy, and a hot beefy Russian staying at the inn. It gets very convoluted; is the Russian gonna hook up with the gay boy? Is he a gay basher? Are the gay men gonna kill him? Is the father gonna kill all of them? Is the son out to kill his homophobic dad?

Let’s say all of that happened and more, and less. It was a fairly decent film but the leads, from top to bottom, were especially delicious …

Tom Bateman played one half of the gay couple, with Sean Teale as his dreamy husband. James Tratas was the beefy Russian with an agenda … to get me riled up.

Just sayin’.

What's Goin' On ....

We had a bad storm last night and lost power; we'd been watching coverage of the protests around the country over the shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. We lost power before hearing about the shooting of eleven police officers — and the deaths of five — in Dallas during what had been a peaceful protest.

I’m kinda glad we lost power; I am tired of the killing.

I am tired that today is the 190th day of the year.

I am tired that, as of today, 566 people have been killed by police officers in this country; that’s nearly three people every day; the majority being Native American or Black.

Today is July 8th; in the first seven days of this month 21 people have been killed by police in July; three every single day.

I am not indicting all police officers; I am indicting those that shoot first and ask questions later … or never ask a question at all.

I am indicting the justice system, and those in law enforcement, who instead of finding answers tend to “circle the wagons” and lay the blame on the victims.

They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He shouldn’t have had a gun.

Where is the right place for Black Americans I wonder, if it’s not walking, driving, living, selling CDs, free, and free of the threat of death, in America?

I am indicting the media that, invariably, when a black American is shot and killed by police, look for a mugshot of the victim for the story; but when it’s a white American the media posts a prom picture … a wedding photo … a family picture.

I am asking White America, where is your anger? Are you angry, but internally glad that it wasn’t you, and will probably never be you? Where is the anger? Is it because, like the shooting in Orlando, “they’re” killing all the right people?

Where is the anger from the GOP? Oh, sure, they’ve rallied behind the dead police officers in Dallas — as we all should — but where were they when Alton Sterling was murdered in Baton Rouge? Where’s the anger over the police officers who murdered Alton Sterling and yet, conveniently, lost their body cameras before the shots were fired?

Where were they when Philando Castile was murdered for having a broken taillight? Yes, I know that’s not why he was shot, but it’s what lead to him being shot.

When asked for his license and registration during a routine traffic stop, Philando Castile told the officer he was carrying a licensed concealed handgun and as he reached for his wallet the officer fired into the car at close range four times.

Shouldn’t that make us all angry?

If it doesn’t, head over to The Counted and you can see, every single day, the numbers go up of people who are killed by police officers in this country.

And before you tell me that sometimes there is no other option, I know that; I know that. But not every time … not in the case of Tamir Rice playing in a park … not in the case of Eric Garner, choked to death on the street … not in the case of Sandra Bland … found dead in a holding cell.

Not every time.

And to change we need to start with gun laws; make it tougher for people to get guns because maybe there would have been no snipers in Dallas … maybe a police officer wouldn’t have felt threatened enough to shoot in Falcon Heights … maybe two officers wouldn’t have tackled a man and shot him while he was on the ground in Baton Rouge.

And we need to fix the judicial system which gives harsher, longer sentences to people of color than it does to white Americans. We need to fix our political system which, when people die in this country from senseless gun violence, offer no solutions but “thoughts and prayers” while they cash their NRA donation checks.

We need to fix it.

If we were all truly equal in this country, and if we were all treated truly equally, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or religion, if we are treated one another with the same dignity and respect that we ask for, we’d be in a much better place.

We wouldn’t be burying sons and fathers and brothers and sisters and mothers and aunts and uncles who were shot to death for being ….. ?

The Answer Is: 'Not Yet.' #PhilandoCastile

When will it be enough? I asked that question yesterday — HERE — and this morning I find myself wondering if I'll ever know.

Philando Castile. Say his name.

He worked as a cafeteria supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul, Minnesota.

One day he was riding in the passenger seat as his girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, drove through Falcon Heights.

They were stopped for a broken taillight.

No one really knows what happened next, but Lavish began live streaming on Facebook shortly after Castile was shot while sitting in the passenger seat. I haven’t seen the video; watching people die is not my thing, but here’s what happened:

"Stay with me."

That’s how it starts, with Lavish screaming while Philando Castile sits bleeding to death in her car, her young daughter sitting in the back seat, as she tells viewers she had been pulled over for a "busted taillight in the back."

The officer, yelling and continuing to pint the gun at the dying Philando Castile:

"Fuck! … I told him to get his hand off!” 

Lavish Reynolds, however, is calm and speaking both to the officer and to the viewers:

"He's licensed to carry and was trying to get out his ID and his wallet out his [pocket] and he let the officer know he had a firearm, and he was reaching for his wallet … and the officer just shot him in his arm ... he just shot his arm off.”

As Castile lapsed in and out of consciousness, dying at a traffic stop, the officer grew increasingly hysterical and Reynolds began shouting:

“Oh my God, don’t tell me he’s dead, please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that...Please, officer, don’t tell me he’s gone; please don’t tell me that you did this to him. You shot four bullets into him, sir.”

Another officer arrived and asked Lavish Reynolds to step out of the vehicle. She was handcuffed and placed in the backseat of the police cruiser with her child:

“It’s OK. Mommy. I'm right here with you."

Reynolds immediately broke down when the ambulance arrived and removed Philando Castile’s body from the car.

 “Please, Jesus, no! Don’t let him be gone, Lord.”

Philando Castile. Shot to death for riding in a car that was stopped for a traffic violation.

Did he have a gun? Apparently so, but that doesn't mean he should have been shot to death. He had a right to carry his weapon, but that doesn't mean he should have been shot to death.

I truly believe that, had Philando Castile been a white man, in the exact same situation, the result would have been so very different.

No one would be dead.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is reportedly investigating the situation.

When Will It Be Enough? #AltonSterling

Alton Sterling was standing outside the Trip S Food Mart selling CDs.

Someone placed a 911 call saying a black male in a red shirt had reportedly the caller with a gun.

The Baton Rouge Police Department sent uniformed officers to the scene. Those officers “made contact" with Sterling in the parking lot and an altercation ensued.

"Get on the ground, get on the ground."

The officers confront Alton Sterling; one officer tackles Sterling, throwing him on the hood of the car and onto the ground and then the second officer climbs on and helps hold him down.

One officer seems to shout:

"He's got a gun! Gun!"

And, while Alton Sterling is on the ground, being held down by a police officer, another officer pulls out his gun and holds it the back of Sterling’s head or neck.

More shouts; then two pops.

A video camera catches it all but then cuts away.

"Oh my God."

"They shot him?"

"They killed this boy."

Alton Sterling died at the scene died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

The two officers have been placed on administration leave "per standard procedure."

An investigation was ongoing.

Isn’t it enough? Yet?