Bad Apple Trees
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” -- Isaac Asimov
It's not like we didn't know. Hell, I'm old enough to remember the bombing of the Birmingham church in 1963, that killed Addie Mae Collins, Cynthis Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair, and wounded more than twenty other people. Martin Luther King, Jr., called it "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity." And I remember that there were no criminal charges pressed against those who bombed the church until one of the four thugs was finally convicted in 1977, despite the FBI's knowing their identies from 1965 on.
The gaggle of turds that were planning to "overthrow" the government of the state of Michigan are of the same basic make-up as the klansmen who bombed that church, or one of the many other bombings from that era. The sheriff that shared a stage with one of the terrorists now claims the group were merely doing what many others wanted to do -- arrest the governor. In the past, that claim would have been a successful defense strategy for the defendants' legal defense. But not today.
An associate told me that the pictures of the terrorists made them look like in-bred clowns, not equal to the accomplishments of their grandiose intentions. While I agree on the first part -- for they indeed look like a branch that split off from human evolution a million years ago, resulting in what is known as the Louie Gohmert missing but unmissed link -- they are extremely dangerous. The information that they were accessing explosives confirms that which I spoke of in my August 28 essay here, "The Troubles."
It's bad enough when white trash has access to guns. It's far worse when they gain explosives. And it is at the worst point when they have associates, such as a sheriff, on their team. Again, we have witnessed the synergy of these things in the Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights Movement era, and in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Hateful, dull-witted people can do an extreme amount of damage. They can cause suffering and death within a community.
As I understand it, there is a possibility of more arrests being made on this case alone. Yet this case is in no sense "alone," as it is part of a much larger problem. The fact that this was taking place in a state with a Democratic governor -- and a woman, at that -- gives hint to what we can rationally expect when Joe Biden and Kamal Harris kick Trump and Pence's pale white asses out of Washington, DC.
This weekend, while on facebook, I've noted that a growing number of the rednecks I went to school with are recognizing that Joe Biden is going to win the election. They are unhappy with this reality. As that recognition sinks down into the lower depths of the Trump cult, it will go beyond despair. They will seek to strike out at the civil society.
I am reminded of Malcolm X's historic speech, "The Ballot or the Bullet," from April, 1963. In this instance, we will win by way of the ballot, and the brain-dead thugs will likely respond with the bullet. Yet Malcolm also taught that in the jungle, there are not only hunters, but those who hunt the hunters. In the past week, we saw that Michigan's state police and the FBI hunting the hunters. This is a good thing.
At the same time, with this dip-shit sheriff, we do recognize that "bad policing" isn't simply a case of a few bad apples. Since you can tell a tree by its fruit, it is clear that we must remove the poison trees from the orchard of society. And that specfically means the friends, associates of, and members the terrorist white nationalist groups that have become employed in law enforcement. Just as this is something that could never happen under a Trump administration, with its white nationalist members (including Trump), it can and must start happening in 2021.
Be awake, Be alert. Stay safe. And vote.
H2O Man
= new reply since forum marked as read
Though I don't agree about the growing up part, I think your kids have raised you well....
Your posts are always so on target and they illuminate something troubling for me.
I greatly appreciate what you do.
Thank you!
