Nobody asked me, but....
*I find it absolutely deplorable that NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre, with the help of Mississippi's old MAGA Republican Governor Phil Bryant, helped steal $5 million dollars from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families dole, funds that were earmarked for impoverished people in Mississippi, to fund a new volleyball gym at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi.
Brett Favre deserves to be locked up!
While there has been "some" media coverage of this event, it has not been on 24/7 blast like Michael Vick's dogfighting charges or, just yesterday, news that Boston Celtics Coach Ime Udoka was being suspended for a whole season due to having had intimate relations with subordinate female staffers.
I do not mean to suggest that the latter two issues were/are not newsworthy, but I do mean to point out that from an anecdotal perspective, that the coverage of Black sports figures in error gets WAY more attention that the bad acts of a legendary white sports figure like Brett Favre—and I find the disparities most disturbing....
* What I also find disturbing is how Florida Gov. Ron Desantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, have been rounding up immigrants and flying them to Massachussetts, Washington, D.C., and other parts of America to score points among their heartless base.
Desantis and Abbott, twin pillars of the so-called “Christian” right 😠
I've been writing for years that these so-called Christians are nothing of the sort, and today is as good a time as any to remind that if you support rounding up desperate men, women, and children and shipping them hither and yon, that Christ's love and compassion ain't within you, either! In fact, it is my personal opinion that the same folks that will round up and ship away desperate people today, remind me of those who rounded up desperate people and shipped them in boxcars in the not so distant past. For those who struggle with reading and comprehending, I am not saying that Ron Desantis is the reincarnation of German dictator Adolf Hitler, but I am saying that when would be autocrats target certain segments of people who they deem "different," that what starts small can morph into something much larger and worse if people of good intentions don't speak out and say, "enough!"
What's also interesting is that while Desantis may be scoring points with right wingers who share his racial background (and their minority lackeys), he may have messed up with Florida's significant Republican Hispanic/Latino population, many of whom support immigration reform—but do NOT like the optics of seeing their kinsmen treated so inhumanely.
With Florida's popular former Republican Governor (turned Democrat) Charlie Crist being his challenger this Fall, Hispanic/Latino Republicans have a tried and true option to vote for over the ill tempered and ill mannered Desantis.
Stay tuned...
*President Joe Biden has left me “gallows humor” amused over the past week by saying and/or advocating:
1. The Coranavirus Pandemic is over (No sir, Mr. President, it is not)
2. The U.S. will defend Taiwan if China attacks (Um, Mr. President, you do realize that American policy on Taiwan has been ambiguous dating back to the Truman administration to prevent World War III starting between the U.S. and China?)
3. Private warnings to Vladimir Putin as to the stakes if it uses tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine (see my response to prong #2).
If you've read my blog for some time, then you know that I support our president and the positive steps his administration has taken to further strengthen the economy, appoint judges that look like a diverse America, providing student loan relief and a stronger infrastructure. But all that's for naught if World War III pops off; every President is prone to verbal gaffes, so I can give some latitude on Mr. Biden mistating that the pandemic is over.
But again, I have a vested interest in avoiding nuclear war—I don't want to die anytime soon 😆—so here's hoping that Biden's advisors will politely remind the president that even if those are his administration's positions on Taiwan and Russia, that everything doesn't need to be said out loud in a way that could force the fools in those nations to see if the U.S. would actually respond.
*On the right, former President Donald Trump made an even worse head scratching claim this week during an interview with Fox host Sean Hannity when he said that he "could declassify documents just by thinking about it" on air.
No sir, former Mr. President, you could not, and still may not; no President has such authority!
Last month, Trump's hand picked Special Master began reviewing the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, some of which contained highly classified nuclear secrets that could be a major problem if such wound up in the hands of a Putin or another despot. The problem for Trump is that while he often makes such false claims on air and at rallies, neither the Special Master that he helped choose—or his own paid legal team—have concluded the same.
What's worse is that just this morning, that very special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, has ordered Trump’s lawyers to back up their client's multiple out-of-court assertions that the FBI planted evidence at the property during their search last month. Judge Dearie is now requiring that Trump's lawyers submit a sworn declaration asserting whether they believe that the FBI and Justice Department planted or falsified evidence.
Folks, these lawyers won't do that—a sworn affidavit would place them in jeopardy of imprisonment and permanent disbarment if they sign off on Trump's lies that he is being framed!
The fact that his own lawyers will not vouchsafe their paying client's words portends problems for the only president in modern American history who refused to comply with the requirement that all classified documents get turned over at the end of the administration. Which, actually, is of little surprise when considering that Trump still has never recognized Biden as the legitimate President and, it seems, still believes that he—not Biden—is president.
Stay tuned...