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Just Sayin'... Do any of these things really matter? [1]

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Date: 2023-01-27

Could George Santos actually shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any votes? If we’re talking about votes of support from fellow Republicans in Congress, the answer appears to be a resounding yes! Apparently, lying about pretty much everything regarding who he is and what he’s done, is not enough for Santos to lose any Congressional votes from his party. What’s worse, it turns out that during his campaign for a House seat last year, he actually and consciously tailored his lies to appeal not only to his right-wing base; he simultaneously crafted a completely separate set of lies that would appeal to Independents and Democrats as well. The Machiavellian strategy worked, and now that he’s been elected, based on all those lies, the MAGA controlled Republicans refuse to hold him accountable for any of it (they need every single vote to continue their assault on democracy, so there!). Yes, he probably could shoot someone in plain view on 5th Avenue. Based on MAGA mouthpiece Kevin McCarthy’s comments this past week, he would have to end up in prison to lose his seat alongside his fellow fascists. Thank you Donald Duck-the-Law, for showing them how it’s done.

How do you botch an execution? According to recent reporting, the U.S. “botched” 35% of execution attempts in the past year. When a convicted prisoner is set to be killed, the process is usually done by so-called “lethal injection,” except that in one out of three cases, not only is the injection not immediately “lethal,” it subjects the victim to an extended and extremely painful dying process. On top of that, it’s extremely expensive, and the official witnesses have to endure watching a human being essentially tortured to death. But why is this? Every year, accidental opioid overdose kill tens of thousands of people, painlessly (more than 80,000 of them in 2021 alone). These unfortunate souls essentially go in their sleep, probably feeling wonderfully euphoric, up until the moment they pass on. If we’re not going to ban capital punishment, can’t we at least just let those condemned to death go out with an opioid overdose — painlessly, peacefully and without drama? Seems like the the most humane way to perform an inhumane act.

Trump’s Chief Financial Officer gets 5 months of prison for ten years of tax fraud. Black woman voter gets 5 years of prison for voting twice, accidentally. Really, is this what we call justice in America? Allen Weaselberg (sorry, Weisselberg) pled guilty to decade-long tax fraud on behalf of the Trump Organization. Incredibly, Trump wasn’t charged at all, but Weisselberg was sentenced to a whopping 5 months in jail. With good behavior, he’ll be out in 100 days. On the other hand, Crystal Mason, black, mother of three, went to vote on Election Day 2016, and when the polling place had no record of her voter registration, she was offered a “provisional ballot,” which she used to vote. Turns out that in Texas, she was ineligible to vote because she was on federal supervised release after prison time 3 years prior. She did not realize she was not allowed to accept the provisional ballot or cast a vote. So naturally, being in Texas, a Texas judge (no jury) sentenced her to 5 years in prison for her mistake. The details of the story are unbelievable (see link below), and an unfortunate example of how our modern day “justice” system treats some people more justly than others.

We need a new section on Google News, Huffington Post, and other news aggregator sites called: “Today’s Mass Shootings.” There were at least 735 mass shootings in 2022. In the past week, there have been 3 more mass shootings in California alone. While gun-rights advocates unwittingly serve as the marketing department for gun manufacturers, we’re averaging more than 2 mass shootings per day in the U.S.. Since news aggregators make money from advertising, perhaps they will find gun manufacturers to be willing customers for a new Today’s Mass Shootings section, despite what you might think. Case in point? Illinois gun manufacturer Wee 1 Tactical is now marketing their new semi-automatic rifle for kids, affectionately called the JR-15 — 20% smaller than a standard AR-15, and 2.5 pounds lighter; you know, the way kids like their semi-automatic rifles. After all, you never know when a bad six year-old with a gun is going to want to shoot a teacher; and when that happens, what could be better than a good 6 year-old with a gun?

Speaking of guns, just for the record, hunting is not a “sport.” Don’t get me wrong. Hunting is definitely a skill, a very useful one, especially if you’re needing to kill something to feed your family. It also takes practice, good equipment and patience. And if you’re a hunter needing to protect others, you might even be in high demand in post-apocalyptic times. But quietly tracking down and killing a defenseless animal, just for fun, using a high-powered rifle and a scope, does not qualify as “sport.” The Oxford Dictionary defines “sport” as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” (emphasis mine). A hunter’s intended kill is not “competing” with the hunter, and is certainly not “entertained” by being an unwitting target. It has no idea it is being hunted and it can’t play in return. It just sits there innocently at the watering hole, as a sniper’s bullet takes it down from afar, without warning. If you really want to call hunting a “sport,” then go after your target with a bowie knife and kill it with your own hands. At least that way, your “competition” has an opportunity to see you coming; and if it doesn’t run, it might even defend itself, and you might even risk being injured. Now that’s sport.

Mainstream media must stop publishing entire Twitter images from politicians, and then calling it “news.” Along with millions of other Americans, if I wanted to know the latest dribble coming out of DT’s or Marjorie Taylor Green’s pie hole, I’d start “following” them on Twitter. While this practice of re-printing tweets in their entirety extends to politicians on both sides of the aisle, most Americans are nevertheless not on Twitter, by choice. Yet almost every news organization, from the NY Times to Huffington Post to CNN and a host of others, insists on reprinting complete Tweet images from almost any and every politician that might say something that will rile up an audience. In the 2016 election alone, the Orange Stain received what is estimated to be $5 BILLION worth of free advertising for his campaign, mostly from mainstream “news” media simply reprinting complete images of his asinine tweets, day-in and day-out. It’s bad enough that the ugliest of candidates seem to get the most press coverage. But are they really entitled to what amounts to free mass-distribution of their tweets to millions of people that chose not to follow these politicians on Twitter? Come on so-called pillars of journalism — do your jobs and report the news, don’t become cut-and-paste pawns for social media twits.

Clear the table - we’re about to have sex! What is it with Hollywood’s insistence, in movie after movie, that when the romantic couple finally gets so horny that they just can’t wait any longer, they must first stumble into the kitchen, tear off each other’s clothes, and then with one massive swoop of their arms, sweep every item off the kitchen table and onto the floor. There goes the fine china, the wine glasses, books? candles? even the tablecloth, strewn across the room with hurricane force. After all, what could be more comfortable than a cold, hard, kitchen table to do the nasty on? Couldn’t they make it another 10 feet to the bedroom and do it on some nice soft sheets; maybe even on a comfortable mattress, pray tell? You’d think making an expensive mess out of the kitchen and doing it on a slab is the way everybody does it these days. Maybe it is? Or is it just in Hollywood? Not that I really care. Just sayin’…

This story also appears on Richard Lang’s Newsletter “For Better or For Worse.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/27/2149636/-Just-Sayin-Do-any-of-these-things-really-matter

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