Bobservations

Carlos is the Absentminded Professor, always has been. Yesterday …YESTERDAY … he said to me:

“I need you to drive me to the statehouse at 10AM because it’s World AIDS Day and I’m speaking.”

“TOMORROW? You never told me about that and I have to work.”

“Tell ‘em you can’t work.”

“At the last minute?”

He blustered about how he thought he told me, he was sure he told me, he knew he told me …. did he tell me? No, he did not, but luckily I have a rapport with my boss because I’m so bloody valuable, that I was able to get the day off, though I will be doing some work from home.

Then … yes, there’s more … I get up early to take Carlos to Columbia and I’m turning on the water to take a shower. I’m stooped over the tub, feeling the water come out of the tap and get hot, and as soon as I have the temperature correct, I turn on the shower … except Carlos had cleaned the bathroom yesterday and when he put the handheld shower head back, he turned it slightly. So, as I turn the shower on a huge spray of icy cold water—it’s 29-degrees here this morning—spewed out onto my head, down my bareback and across my bare ass.

Oy, the screams. It is gonna be a long cold drive to Columbia.

Oh this is such a shame.  I mean, how he’ll ever make back the $25 million of his own money that he put into his campaign?

This week the Senate voted 61-35 to advance the amendment to the Respect for Marriage Act that includes language related to religious liberty and conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law. It would also continue to prohibit polygamous marriage.

This vote puts us one step closer to sending the bill to President Biden.

PS Mitt Romney voted ‘Yes,’ while lifelong “confirmed self-loathing bachelor” Lindsey Graham voted ‘No.’

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about Broderick Hunter Jr. in the Would You Hit It section of this post, and Upton said this:

“re: Broderick Hunter Jr. - I must ask, is there a Broderick Hunter Sr.? I tend to like only original issues.”

And so here is Broderick Hunter Sr. for Upton. Would He Hit It?

I spent my childhood watching "The Sound of Music" and "Cabaret", so I really thought the rise of fascism would have more show tunes.

Kanye West said he’s planning a 2024 presidential run and has tapped far-right provocateur anti-LGBTQ+ homosexual Milo Yiannopoulos to work on his campaign. He has also asked white supremacist Nick Fuentes, with whom he dined at Mar-Illegal with Thing 45, to help him run for office.

Let that sink in … the anti-Semite has asked a an anti-LQBTQ+ queer man and a Nazi to help him run for public office.

Supervisors in Arizona’s Maricopa County voted unanimously to certify their election canvass ahead of a state deadline on Monday, defying Republican objections. The Republican-controlled board … read that again, the Republican-controlled board … ruled that no voter was disenfranchised.

Oh Kari Lake, AKA Thing 45 in a Dress, you’re a loser.

Candace Cameron Bure is the chief creative officer for the Great American Family Channel and is responding to media coverage regarding LGBTQ representation in the network’s programming. See, in a WSJ profile, journalist Ellen Gamerman asked Bure if Great American Family will feature same-sex couples as leads in its holiday content, and she “said no”:

“I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core.”

Now, Bure is accusing the media of fanning “flames of conflict and hate” by reporting on her quote.

“I would like to address my comments on Great American Family’s programming … All of you who know me, know beyond question that I have great love and affection for all people. It absolutely breaks my heart that anyone would ever think I intentionally would want to offend and hurt anyone.”

Great love and affection but your marriages don’t matter and deserve no recognition.

Fuck off, Candy.

I find Trevor Noah hotter than hot … that’s all … that’s the post. I mean, the wit, the intelligence, that smile, the accent, it all reminds me of someone, but that’s unimportant. Would You Hit It?

I Didn't Say It

Trevor Noah, “The Daily Show” host, on Fox “personalities” pushing back against President Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman to SCOTUS:

“Biden is going to pick a Black woman who is also qualified. These people act like Biden is just going to show up to the mall and be like, ‘Yo, Shaniqua, come with me.’ And why not try to make the Supreme Court a little more representative of the country it represents? I mean, their rulings impact the lives of every person in the country. Of course [Tucker Carlson’s] upset. Think about it. For almost all of American history, the entire Supreme Court was white dudes with bow ties and weird hair. Now that’s all gone. It’s all gone. Where’s Tucker’s representation, huh?”

It’s hard to deny that those on the right, politically and in the media, are letting their racism shine through. They don’t even bother hiding it anymore … see next quote.

SIENOTES Trevor really floats my boat … hot, funny, and smart.

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Joe Rogan, podcaster and anti-vaxxing loon, on Black people:

“The black and white thing is so strange because the shades are such a spectrum of shades of people. Unless you are talking to someone who is, like, 100% African from the darkest place, where they are not wearing any clothes all day and they have developed all of that melanin to protect themselves from the sun, even the term Black is weird. When you use it for people who are literally my color, it becomes very strange.”

Racism, plain and simple, with a healthy dose of what-the-fuck-it is, because a lot of those folks aren’t Black enough?

Fuck all the way off you racist asshat.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., apologizing for saying Anne Frank had more freedom in hiding from the Nazis than people have today under U.S. vaccine policies:

“I apologize for my reference to Anne Frank, especially to families that suffered the Holocaust horrors. My intention was to use examples of past barbarism to show the perils from new technologies of control. To the extent my remarks caused hurt, I am truly and deeply sorry.”

I don’t buy this; he’s too smart. He knows his words are still out there, having their desired effect on the masses, so his apology his hollow. The good news is that both his sister and his wife took him to task for his remarks:

Kerry Kennedy, his sister, said:

“Bobby’s lies and fear-mongering yesterday were both sickening and destructive. I strongly condemn him for his hateful rhetoric. He does not represent the views of RFK Human Rights or our family.”

Cheryl Hines, his wife also said:

“My husband’s reference to Anne Frank at a mandate rally in D.C. was reprehensible and insensitive. The atrocities that millions endured during the Holocaust should never be compared to anyone or anything. His opinions are not a reflection of my own.”

But, again, the damage, and the ignorance, has already been spewed.

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Neil Young, musician and activist, demanding that his management team and record label remove his music from Spotify for their anti-vaccine lies:

“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines—potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule. I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Young is referencing the steady stream of misinformation about vaccines that Joe Rogan has peddled on his podcast. Young also has the back of some 270 doctors, physicians, and science educators who signed an open letter asking Spotify to stop spreading Rogan’s baseless claims.

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Ted Cruz, wacknut GOP loon, promoting the asshatted idea that President Biden will nominate Vice President Kamala Harris to the Supreme Court:

“I think there is a chance they name Kamala to the court, in part because they can’t stand her. And one of the virtues of naming her to the court is they get to get her out of the White House. My guess is if Kamala was nominated, it probably would be a 50-50 vote. Maybe she’d pick up a Republican vote. I would not be on the fence. I would be a hell no on Kamala if she were nominated.”

Oh, that hurts, Ted Cruz being a No vote to anything the Democrats suggest, even something as ludicrous, and QAnon-ish, as this.

Gosh he’s an ass.

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John Stockton, retired NBA Star, who may have hit his head one time to many on the hardwoods, saying more than 100 professional athletes have died from the vaccination:

“I think it’s highly recorded now, there’s 150 I believe now, it’s over 100 professional athletes dead—professional athletes—the prime of their life, dropping dead that are vaccinated, right on the pitch, right on the field, right on the court.”

They’re dying right on the court, mid-practice or mid-game and there is not one single video to document this?

Why that makes Stockton look like the Dumbest Fuck Walking.

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Brian Cox, actor, on Johnny Depp and turning down the part of the Governor in the “Pirates” franchise is his new memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat:

“It would have been a money-spinner, but of all the parts in that film it was the most thankless. Plus, I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things I’ve done. Another thing with ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ is that it’s very much the ‘Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow’ show, and Depp, personable though I’m sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated. I mean, ‘Edward Scissorhands.’ Let’s face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t. And subsequently, he’s done even less. But people love him. Or they did love him. They don’t love him so much these days, of course. If Johnny Depp went for Jack Sparrow now, they’d give it to Brendan Gleeson.”

I can’t argue with that …. Especially the ‘overblown, overrated’ bits.

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I Didn't Say It

Trevor Noah, on the Kenosha Murder:

“Nobody drives into a city with guns because they love someone else’s business. That’s some bullshit. No one has ever thought, ‘Oh, it’s my solemn duty to pick up a rifle and protect that TJ Maxx.’ They’re doing it because they’re hoping to shoot someone.”

That kid wanted to shoot people, not help people, and he got his wish.

Now, could I get my wish and see his privileged whiny bitch ass locked up for years?

Asking for a country sick of white people murdering people of color and getting off scot-free.

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Tucker Carlson, Fox News liar, proving again he is a racist by questioning whether Vice President Kamala Harris is really “from” the United States because she went to high school in Canada:

“The one thing we know for sure about Kamala Harris is we should all be very, very grateful to have her because she’s historic for reasons that no one ever explains. But there’s a lot we don’t know about Kamala Harris. Most people probably don’t know she really grew up in Canada, where she went to high school. She’s not from this country in that sense, or she’s certainly also from Canada. Why haven’t we heard that?”

So, if you’re born in this country but go to high school in Canada you are not from America. Well, I forgot one thing, if you’re person of color born in this country but go to high school in Canada you are not from America.

Racist; fuck off.

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Gene Simmons, KISS, on anti-vaxxers:

“If you’re willing to walk among us unvaccinated, you are an enemy. I don’t care about your political beliefs. You are not allowed to infect anybody just because you think you’ve got rights that are delusional, of course. You don’t have the right to go through a red light—actually, the government has the right to tell you to stop. You have to put on a seatbelt. If they tell you [that] you can’t smoke in a building, you can’t smoke in a building. And that’s not because they want to take away your rights, it’s because the rest of us hate it! We don’t want to smell your smoke. I don’t want to catch your disease. I don’t want to risk my life just because you want to go through a red light. This whole idea—this delusional, evil idea that you get to do whatever you want and the rest of the world be damned—is really terrible. We’ve gotta identify those people and bring them out into the open so you know who they are. Know who your friends are by how much they care about you. That includes COVID.”

The first two lines say everything. And I agree, though I would add that anyone who doesn’t get vaccinated and gets COVID and dies, kinda deserve it.

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Chris Christie, former New Jersey Governor, Thing 45 supporter, and flip-flopping hack, saying the insurrection was a result of Thing 45’s lies about the 2020 election:

“I think everything that he was saying from election night forward incited people to that level of anger. I think people minimize what happened on the 6th by pointing to the speech that he gave on the Ellipse on the 6^th. I don’t think [the racist traitors] would’ve gone there if they thought the election had been fair.”

And yet this flip-flopping mass of ignorance says he will vote for Thing 45 if he runs in 2024.

Please join Tucker in the Fuck Off Pile.

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Rupert Murdoch, Fox News boss, saying Thig 45 should stop focusing “on the past” and pushing The Big Lie:

“The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or welfare or economic opportunity. It is crucial that conservatives play an active, forceful role in that debate, but that will not happen if [Thing 45] stays focused on the past. The past is the past, and the country is now in a contest to define the future.”

Hey Ru? Why dontcha talk to your hellhounds on your own station that are also continuing to push The Big Lie. Oh, yeah, they line your pockets with coins so they can say what they want.

There’s space for you between Fucker and Krispy in the Fuck Off Pile.

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Ronna Romney McDaniel, Republican National Committee [RNC] Chairperson, apologizing to RNC members over a new LGBTQ+ outreach program:

“We would never, ever organize or communicate with organizations that undermine our values. You have my word on that. The goal of this new outreach is simply to get more voters to vote Republican in 2022. That’s it. We need to stay united. The mainstream press, Democrats, and organizations that are opposed to the RNC want nothing more than to divide and weaken us. We are thankful for every legal vote and welcome Americans from all backgrounds, communities, and organizations who understand the wisdom in voting for Republicans and the foundational principles that strengthen our nation.”

Ronna Romney McDaniel then issued an email apology to the RNC’s 168 members, assuring them that the GOP has no plans to actually support LGBTQ+ equality and that the initiative was merely a ploy to get LGBTQ voters to vote for Republicans anyway.

In other words, she blatantly lied, and admits to being a liar, because she’s a C U Next Tuesday and a Republican and that’s what they do.

Ronna? Dear? Go sit with the wingnuts. in the Fuck Off Pile. There's room on Christie's lap for a bigot.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Joe Biden, on _____’s executive orders:

“Unable to deliver for the American people in a time of crisis, Donald ______ offered a series of half-baked measures today. He is putting Social Security at grave risk at a time when seniors are suffering the overwhelming impact of a pandemic he has failed to get under control. And make no mistake: Donald _____ said today that if he is re-elected, he will defund Social Security."

Remember all that money you paid into Social Security?

Say goodbye to it if this corrupt fuckmonkey is reelected.

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MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon One-Percenter, Jeff, Bezos, has given away $1.7 billion of her wealth since her divorce, some to LGBTQ charities:

“Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror. Life will never stop finding fresh ways to expose inequities in our systems; or waking us up to the fact that a civilization this imbalanced is not only unjust, but also unstable. What fills me with hope is the thought of what will come if each of us reflects on what we can offer. Opportunities that flowed from the mere chance of skin color, sexual orientation, gender, or zip code may have yielded resources that can be powerful levers for change. People troubled by recent events can make new connections between privileges they’ve enjoyed and benefits they’ve taken for granted. From there, many will choose to share some of what they have with people whose equal participation is essential to the construction of a better world.”

Meanwhile her husband rakes in millions every day and treats his employees like garbage.

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Bill Maher, Real Time host, delivering a mock eulogy for _____:

“What kind of spectacular prick do you have to be that everyone’s last request is ‘make sure that a**hole isn’t at my funeral?' Some men look at the world and ask, ‘Why?' Donald _____ looked at the world and asked, ‘What’s in it for me?’ His generosity knew only limits, and he never once failed to put himself before others. He was a devoted father who every day tried to teach his children the wrong lessons of life. Be quick to anger, never never let go of a grudge. See the worst in people, and treat them all equally based strictly on how much money they make and what they look like. So many wanted to speak here today, but couldn’t break their non-disclosure agreements. And our hearts go out to Melania who RSVP’d ‘maybe.’ Donald always said he knew she was the one the moment he saw her and said those three little words: ‘add to cart.’ As for me personally, I guess what I’ll miss most about Don is his dull wit. He was never laughing. And when he made you laugh, it was always unintentional. But as a walking parody of himself he was a challenge to satirize and made me a better comedian for it. He died as he lived: wearing makeup and lying in front of all of us. So fly free, whiny little bitch. Fly free.”

Whiny little bitch! Loving it.

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Tom Cotton, the GOP Senator from Arkansas, proposing a bill that would penalize schools that adopt the 1619 Project, which places slavery at the center of discourse in American history teaching:

“The entire premise of the New York Times’ factually, historically flawed 1619 Project … is that America is at root, a systemically racist country to the core and irredeemable. I reject that root and branch. America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal. We have always struggled to live up to that promise, but no country has ever done more to achieve it. I have no problem with people debating that in a constructive, reasoned, deliberate fashion. What I can’t tolerate, what I think no one should tolerate, are angry mobs tearing down statues of anyone. We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country,. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”

The one phrase that sticks out to me the most is “America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal.” If that were true why did we enslave people; treat them as property; abuse, rape or murder them if they ‘disobeyed’ their white owners? If “all mankind is created equal” why were Blacks legislatively described as three-fifths of a person—or three-fifths of a US citizen? Why were they not counted as all other men who were created equal counted?

Take a seat, racist.

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Trevor Noah, The Daily Show host, on Tom Cotton’s calling of slavery a “necessary evil” and for objecting to teaching the 1619 Project  in schools:

“[So] Senator Cotton thinks that this curriculum is racially divisive? Really, this curriculum? Yo, you know what’s really racially divisive? Slavery. And here is the thing: People are upset because when Cotton says that slavery was a ‘necessary evil on which the union was built,’ it sounds like he’s defending slavery, all right? And that’s not something a U.S. senator should do, even if his name is Cotton.”

Snap.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Barack Obama, former president, on the riots and protests:

“As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering.

First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation — something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood.

On the other hand, the small minority of folks who’ve resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause.

I saw an elderly black woman being interviewed today in tears because the only grocery store in her neighborhood had been trashed. If history is any guide, that store may take years to come back.

So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.”

This is how a President responds.

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Joe Biden, on the murder of George Floyd, the riots, and America:

“I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I’ll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain. I’ll do my job and I’ll take responsibility — I won’t blame others. … Is this what we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren — fear, anger, finger-pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness? Or do we want to be the America we know we can be, the America we know in our hearts we could be and should be?”

And this is how a President responds. He isn’t sending out the dogs or tear gas or the army; he’s sending out hope.

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Terence Floyd, brother of George Floyd, calling on the violence to end, and the protests to be peaceful:

“I do feel like it’s overshadowing what’s going on. Because like I said, [George] was about peace. He was about unity. But the things that [are] transpiring now, they may call it unity, but it’s destructive unity. It’s not what he was about. That’s not what my brother was about. It’s okay to be angry, but channel your anger to do something positive, or make a change another way. Because we’ve been down this road already. We’ve been down this road already. He would want us to seek justice the way we’re trying to do. But channel it another way. The anger, damaging your hometown, it’s not the way he’d want.”

Protest. March. Shout. Scream. Cry. Kneel.

But if you’re looting, you’re not a protester, you’re a common thief, and you aren’t helping.

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Killer Mike, Run the Jewels rapper and social activist, urging violent protesters to replace their rage with force at the voting booth.

“I am the son of an Atlanta police officer. My cousin is an Atlanta city police officer. And my other cousin an East Point police officer. And I got a lot of love and respect for police officers. I watched a white police officer assassinate a black man, and I know that tore your heart out. I am duty-bound to be here to simply say that it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth. It is time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs. I’m mad as hell. “I woke up wanting to see the world burn yesterday, because I’m tired of seeing black men die. He casually put his knee on a human being’s neck for nine minutes as he died like a zebra in the clutch of a lion’s jaw. So that’s why children are burning it to the ground. They don’t know what else to do. And it is the responsibility of us to make this better right now. We don’t want to see one officer charged, we want to see four officers prosecuted and sentenced. We don’t want to see targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burnt to the ground.”

Once again … Protest. March. Shout. Scream. Cry. Kneel.

Then vote.

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Trevor Noah, The Daily Show, on the murder of George Floyd, the protests in Minneapolis, the dominos of racial injustice and police brutality:

“If you felt unease watching that Target being looted, try to imagine how it must feel for black Americans when they watch themselves being looted every single day. Because that’s fundamentally what’s happening in America. Police in America are looting black bodies. Imagine to yourself, if you grew up in a community where every day someone had their knee on your neck, where every day someone was out there repressing you every single day. You tell me what that does to you as a society…and you know that this is happening because of the color of your skin.”

We’re almost 250 years into this country and we still treat ‘others’ as less than.

How long will it take for us to learn that we are all more alike than we are different?

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Anderson Cooper, on _____ teargassing peaceful protesters outside the White House so he could go to, ahem, church:

“Wow. We are in trouble. He was hiding in a bunker and embarrassed that people know that. So what does he have to do? He has to stick police on peaceful protesters so he can make a big show of being the little big man walking to a closed down church. He always talks about how the world is laughing at the governors right now, [but] the only person the world is laughing at is the President of the United States. And this event, if it wasn’t so dangerous and disgusting, it would be funny because it’s just so low rent and sad. We are witnessing a failure of presidential leadership at a time when this country, when we the people, need it more than ever, perhaps in our lifetime.”

He cares not about another dead black man. He only cares about a photo op for his base of faux-Christian racists.

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Kamala Harris, Democratic Senator from California, denouncing ____  for sowing “hate and division” and using the Bible as a prop.

“I think that Donald _____ has combined the worst of George Wallace with Richard Nixon. You know, when he talks about ‘end it now’ and then ‘dominate the streets,’ you know, dominate, it literally—one iteration of dominate is about supremacy and that’s what [_____] is about. Let’s be clear about it, he has spent full time from the time he ran for president throughout his term in office, full time trying to sow hate and division among the American people. What he is right now doing in terms of invoking the American military, threatening the American people with the American military, the use of the American military against its own people. He is not a commander in chief. He is a divider. He is clearly scared. And—and he cannot meet this moment that he has partly created because of his inability to understand the pain and the suffering. Right now America is raw. Her wounds are exposed. And instead of having a president who understands it, who empathizes, who lifts up the spirits and acknowledges the pain, we have someone who chooses to hold up the Bible like a prop for his own political gain.”

He’s a racist. There is no heart. There is no soul. There is no compassion. No thought about this crisis other than how it makes him look.

And he looks, and sounds, like a racist.

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Jimmy Kimmel, talk show host, blasting _____ for  inflaming violence amid the unrest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd:

“Unfortunately, this is the loop we get stuck in: It goes from ‘it isn’t right to kill an unarmed man’ to ‘well it also isn’t right to loot and set fires and attack the police, too’ [to] ‘but the police are attacking us and killing us over and over and nothing changes’ to ‘well that needs to be settled by the law’ to ‘well an officer of the law just killed another unarmed man.’ And so on. Last night there were senseless acts of violence that were brought on by a senseless act of violence. And it just keeps going in a loop. Our disgusting excuse for a president, Mr. Tough Guy Donnie Bone Spurs, says ‘I know what I’ll do. I’ll make this worse [referring to _____’s “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” racist Tweet] I especially want to pose this question to older people who have seen this before in this country, who have lived this nightmare of race riots already, in the ’60s and ’70s, ’80s, now. Is this who you want leading us? A president who clearly and intentionally inflames violence in the middle of a riot to show how tough he is? A commander in chief who threatens to put members of our military in the position of having to shoot a fellow American on sight? I don’t care what you are, right, left, Republican, Democrat. Enough is enough. We’ve got to vote this guy out already. And we need to work on this problem we have, this blatant double standard because when you stand in front of the flag, you put your hand on your heart and you pledge allegiance with ‘liberty and justice for all,’ we don’t have that, ‘for all.’ I mean, I have it, a lot of you have it, but it’s not for all.”

For all.

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John Lewis, Congressman and civil Rights leader, on racism in this country:

“Sixty-five years have passed, and I still remember the face of young Emmett Till. It was 1955. I was 15 years old—just a year older than him. What happened that summer in Money, Mississippi, and the months that followed—the recanted accusation, the sham trial, the dreaded verdict—shocked the country to its core. And it helped spur a series of non-violent events by everyday people who demanded better from our country. Despite real progress, I can’t help but think of young Emmett today as I watch video after video after video of unarmed Black Americans being killed, and falsely accused. My heart breaks for these men and women, their families, and the country that let them down — again. My fellow Americans, this is a special moment in our history. Just as people of all faiths and no faiths, and all backgrounds, creeds, and colors banded together decades ago to fight for equality and justice in a peaceful, orderly, non-violent fashion, we must do so again. To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve. Our work won’t be easy—nothing worth having ever is—but I strongly believe, as Dr. King once said, that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice.”

Word.

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