Recent Comments

1. 1 day ago on Jack Ohman

   Oh knock off your distortionist crap, @Ironhold. There was nothing in Jack Ohman’s cartoon or the thread of responses to my comment narrowing the subject down to one specific speech by Trump.

   YOU are the one who took my general comment and tried to “correct” me by limiting it very narrowly in a way not justified by the context of the ’toon or the thread.

   YOU are the one who went off on a very narrow tangent from the general theme of the thread.

   As to “why Trump won in the first place”?

   Trump “won” by LOSING THE ACTUAL VOTE by three million.

   Trump “won” with massive voter suppression in three large industrial states (Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania) whose elections were run by Republicans, and where the combined total across all three states was fewer than 78,000 votes, a fraction of 1%. (Good news: all three states now have Democratic governors and secretaries of state who will be running the elections in 2020.)

   Trump “won” with massive illegal Russian interference by illegally misappropriating Facebook data and illegal influence in the Trump campaign.

   But I’ll make it easy for ya:

   1. Do you or do you not support moving statues of KKKonfederate traitors from pedestals to museums and history books?

   2. Do you or do you not support banning KKKonfederate battle flags (the flags of traitors) from public facilities?

   3. Do you or do you not support renaming U.S. military bases currently named after traitors who took up arms against the United States?

   The KKKonfederate battle flag is not about “heritage.” It is about slavery and treasonous armed rebellion against the United States. The entire KKKonfederacy lasted barely four years, less time than same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states. So let’s replace statues of Stonewall Jackson with monuments to Stonewall Inn.

2. 2 days ago on Lisa Benson

   — Lisa Benson has repeatedly posted cartoons equating the slogan “defund the police” with eliminating law enforcement which she suggests would cause crime rates to soar. Even the ’toon on this page shows bullets whizzing below the Democratic donkey posting the slogan. How can you not interpret that to mean that she is suggesting anything other than that the slogan would cause crime rates to go up?

   The message fails on two counts:

   1. The actual presumed nominee of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, explicitly rejects the slogan. Yeah, yeah, Trump is trying to saddle him with it, but the fact is that, by Democratic standards, Biden is pretty conservative and he has not embraced the position.

   2. While I would (again) reiterate that I find the slogan to be a poor choice of words because it is so easy to misinterpret, the actual proposal by anyone who is serious is to replicate very successful models that have actually been implemented, that freed up police to do actual law enforcement instead of social work, reformed or, where necessary, entirely replaced corrupt, racist departments, and did NOT cause crime rates to go up, but actually reduced crime significantly AND also reduced costs.

   And yeah, there have been other ’toons by Lisa that have made the same flawed point. I chalk it up to the fact that, after high school, she signed up for college, went to a few classes and decided it wasn’t for her and dropped out and now expects to analyze complex socioeconomic and public safety issue that she really knows nothing about.

3. 3 days ago on Jack Ohman

   See how the Trumpers present their misleading facts? @Ironhold tries to deflect from Trump’s support of racists and traitors by noting that, in one speech that he knew would get particularly broad coverage, he throws in the name of the founding president and an abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. Big wow.

   @Ironhold asks, “Did you see the actual list of people Trump announced?”

   I ask in return, “Have YOU seen all the speeches and Tweets Trump has spewed?”

   Trump has repeatedly cited the KKKonfederate (read: TRAITOR) statues, KKKonfederate (read: TRAITOR) flag and KKKonfederate (read: TRAITOR) base names. Yeah, we know how you guys work, you Tweet and speechify and incite violence day after day, but then once in awhile you give all the same dog-whistles but, for once, leave out the names (and maybe even throw in an African American to show how “woke” [not!] you are).

   No, @Ironhold, there are not “very fine people on both sides.” Those who carry the flag of the KKKonfederacy, the flag of treasonous armed rebellion against the United States, the flag of SLAVERY, NOT HERITAGE (the entire KKKonfederacy existed barely four years, less time than same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states — we should replace the statues of Stonewall Jackson with a monument to Stonewall Inn), and wave the flag of the Nazis and shout white supremacist slogans are NOT “very fine people.” They are racist traitors and very sick people.

4. 4 days ago on Lisa Benson

   — again, please actually read a comment if you are going to pretend to reply to it. I cited real-life examples of cities that defunded the police, moved money to proactive strategies and first-response strategies that emphasize crisis management and de-escalation, with RESTRUCTURE, REBUILT enforcement services for more serious emergencies including violent crimes.

   I cited specifics. I named the names including such (formerly) gang-infested crime hotspots as Camden, New Jersey and Compton (yes, THAT Compton, as in “straight outta Compton”), California.

   Costs dramatically reduced.

   Crime rates dramatically reduced.

   This is not hypothetical. This is actually being done. THE RESULTS ARE IN.

   You people who keep saying it can’t work, WHEN IT IS WORKING WHEREVER IT HAS BEEN DONE, remind me of the engineer who computes that it is aerodynamically impossible, by the laws of physics, for a bumblebee to actually fly, and the bumblebee is laughing in his face as it hovers right in front of him.

   Stop your gaslighting.

5. 4 days ago on Lisa Benson

   — yep, if you have a police force with 1,000 cops plus one “bad apple” but the other 1,000 keep a blue code of silence to protect and enable the “bad apple,” you have 1,001 “bad apples.”

   And the reality, as you suggest, is that some police forces, like Minneapolis, are so riddled with racism, overt white supremacists, officers with KKK tattoos and symbols and participation in white supremacist social media, that they cannot be reformed. They have to be completely shut down and rebuilt from scratch, from the ground up.

   And again, at the top of this thread, I cite specific examples where this has been done, and done very successfully, including significant reductions in both crime and costs.

6. 4 days ago on Lisa Benson

   — The fact that their presumed opponent, Joe Biden, has rejected the slogan “Defund the police” (admittedly a very poor choice of terminology), though he has embraced the need for reforms, does complicate the Trumpers’ intent to run against the slogan that their opponent also opposes.

   Of course, they will just lie, cheat and gaslight, and regardless of Biden’s actual position, they will just say he supports something he doesn’t and count on their utterly gullible and uninformed worshippers to blindly follow along and, sadly, a significant number will.

7. 4 days ago on Lisa Benson

   — Ya know, Boyd, if you’re going to pretend to reply to someone’s comment, you should actually respond to what they actually said.

   Lisa’s cartoon, reflective of her lack of advanced education, is extremely simplistic and superficial, and the point of my comment was to provide more depth and accuracy as to the actual meaning of “defund and replace,” and cite specific real-world examples as to where it has worked successfully, including (contrary to your simplistic WRONG assumptions) the FACTS that the results, where implemented (Eugene Oregon, more than 31 years, and formerly crime-riddled gang hotspots like Camden, New Jersey, and Compton, California (yeah, THAT Compton, the “straight outta Compton” place). Results where actually tried: significant reductions in BOTH crime rates and costs. That is the real world, not the simplistic hypothesizing of conspiracy theorists whose musings are likely tinged with more than a hint of racist assumptions.

   You know, the points that Lisa, and now you, completely missed — whoosh! Right over your heads.

   You’re just going to double down on Lisa’s failure to grasp.

   Your statement: “de-funding means pulling funding…fewer cops, fewer resources, and escalating crime” is simply WRONG. It does not grasp the issue and it does not address the very successful reality of how it has worked where it has actually been implemented.

8. 4 days ago on Jack Ohman

   — yep, Trump “is an incredibly stupid madman” … WITH THE NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES (and free to declassify all the top secret information he wants to share with Putin).

9. 4 days ago on Lisa Benson

   Now compare with how HEAVILY ARMED White people are treated:

   White protesters stormed the Michigan capitol brandishing weapons of war to protest public safety rules and there was no police or military response whatsoever. PEACEFUL, UNARMED protesters against race-driven police brutality were driven from Lafayette square in Washington DC by the National Guard and the U.S. Armed Forces, to clear it for Trump’s blasphemous Bible-toting photo op.

   White teen Dylann Roof — HEAVILY ARMED, had just murdered nine African American churchgoers DURING A PRAYER SERVICE. Taken alive, including stopping for Burger King.

   White teen Nikolas Cruz— HEAVILY ARMED, had just murdered 17 high school students (and injured 17 more) ON VALENTINE’S DAY. Taken alive.

   White man James Holmes — HEAVILY ARMED, had just murdered twelve moviegoers in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater. Taken alive, without a scratch by the same Aurora Police Department murdered UNARMED BLACK Elijah McClain for “looking suspicious” while walking home).

   Fact: African Americans are SYSTEMATICALLY PROFILED by a lot more than just a few “bad apples.”

   .

   Additionally, just consider that unarmed nurses in psychiatric hospitals routinely restrain violent patients without killing them.

10. 4 days ago on Lisa Benson

    It is not just about police who are over-militarized or overly aggressive. It is not just about cops acting badly, but RACISM in which Blacks are treated DIFFERENT than whites.

    Compare how UNARMED Blacks are treated:

    Black UNARMED adult George Floyd had a bad $20 bill (non-violent crime). Fully restrained. Murdered in cold blood.

    Black UNARMED adult Breonna Taylor, asleep in her bed, in her home (non-violent). Shot 8 times and killed when plain-clothed cops broke in unannounced with a no-knock warrant at the wrong house, for a person already in police custody.

    Black UNARMED adult Rayshard Brooks, asleep in his car (not driving). Is shot IN THE BACK while running away after pointing a NON-LETHAL Taser.

    Black UNARMED adult Philando Castile, shot and killed during a non-violent traffic stop while reaching into the glove compartment to comply with request for his vehicle registration.

    Black UNARMED adult Charles Kinsey was a behavioral therapist SHOT in Florida by Officer Jonathan Aledda while lying on the ground with his hands up begging the police not to shoot his autistic patient, but he survived.