Back to Reality, I’m just jotting down a few thoughts which might motivate another post on another day – I don’t feel like writing too much today. From the lips of Zoe Lofgren, D. of California, regarding the interview of Cy Vance on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”Something doesn’t smell right.” She was referring to the FACT Mr. Vance, who was the District Attorney in New York prior to Alvin Bragg, said he was asked to “stand down” regarding the investigation which has culminated in the present charges against Donald Trump. What the???? Who in the SDNY (Southern District of New York) asked Vance to “stand down.”

Of course, then the SDNY also STOOD down. Michael Cohen was allowed to serve a 3 year prison term for the same offense. That was the case which caused me to refer to Trump as “individual 1” for over two years – until it became apparent, after Trump lost in a LANDSLIDE to Joe Biden in 2020 – that Merrick Garland didn’t have the “will” to follow through on an investigation which had been initiated – and likely closed by Bill Barr’s Justice Department. As I look back on this, it’s apparent Cohen was targeted for prison by Trump’s “lacky’s.” It was until they realized he had the “goods” on Trump until Barr attempted to “overturn his conviction.” I’ve been pointing out how republicans have become LOWER and LOWER lowlifes for the past several decades. (Going all the way back to Nixon)

Once again, republicans don’t take long to prove they can always go LOWER. Now, as I’m writing this the state legislature in Tennessee is in the process of EXPELLING three members of the democratic party in Tennessee for, get this, protesting the gun lobby after three CHILDREN and three adults in a Christian private school where a former student shot her way with several high capacity military style (AK-47) firearms into the school and MURDERED those children and the adults there to take care of them with something like 150 shots being fired before the police could intervene and shoot the “shooter.” Two of the three being EXPELLED are the youngest African American members of their body.

This reminds me of what I’ve been reading, “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson, and I’ve come to the conclusion EVERY high school student in America should have this book as required reading. The legislature of Tennessee is PROVING the darkest history of America is still a major problem in our nation. Wilkerson pulls no punches as she points out the 250 years in America where African Americans were treated in a near equal manner to the Jews who faced the MURDEROUS Nazi’s for 12 years in Germany from the early 30’s until the Third Reich was defeated by the “allied” troops back in 1945. That’s right, 250 years of white people murdering and torturing selected “Negroes” in order to put the fear of God in the other members of their SLAVES.

And, of course, it didn’t get much better after the Civil War and “Reconstruction” which lasted only a very short number of years and was followed by the “Jim Crow” years. Jim Crow was a pejorative term in the South which is how the laws insured African Americans would face segragation in all forms of their lives. And, the torture and MURDER of Black Americans continued well into the 20th century. Until the 1960’s Black Americans were prohibited from attending the “White public” schools and it was in the sixties when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed and turned virtually every elected official in the South away from the democratic party.

I was in High School back then and I remember (vaguely) watching Black Americans getting bludgeoned on the Edmund PettUs bridge as they were starting the March to Montgomery in Alabama. This has been referred to as “Bloody Sunday” when African Americans protesting the murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson who had been MURDERED a short while previous, for participating in a peaceful protest at the bridge. The bridge is named after a Confederate General who was a “Grand Dragon” of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. “Bloody Sunday” was what led to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – thanks to it being shown on national TV.

Many white people in America, like myself, even if we’ve been supportive of the Civil Rights movement in America which, obviously, continues, have little to no knowledge of what African Americans have REALLY endured over the 400 plus years since white Europeans “discovered” this nation and, at first, began the genocide of the Native Americans who had been here for thousands of years while bringing the African SLAVES here and auctioning them off in the most disgusting manner of inhumanity – a process which started in the early 1600’s and lasted until the Civil War nearly 250 years later – to do their labor. All of this is coming to mind as I’m watching these two African Americans (along with a White former teacher who had experienced a school shooting as a teacher) being expelled simply for voicing their support for gun legislation after the recent school shooting in Nashville.

Our Supreme Court participated in what led to the March across the bridge when in the 1890’s (I believe) it decided the so-called “separate but equal” decision in the case referred to as “Plessy v Ferguson” which cemented the Jim Crow “Laws” in the American South. The continued suffering inflicted on the African American communities in America continued unabated up to the 1960’s and the peaceful protesting led by Martin Luther King. Things are better now, but it appears to me the so-called “MAGA” movement is trying to relive this dark History in our nation. I can’t help but think of some of the “stuff” coming out of Florida, via Ron DeSanctimoniouis and the Florida legislature, where they’re banning books just as the supporters of the so-called “Lost Cause” back in the aftermath of Reconstruction were doing.

The bottom line here is that republicans can’t be trusted in ANY circumstance. Much of the stuff they’re doing is no longer “under the rocks” but out in the open – as if they actually believe they are in the majority. In places like Tennessee the gerrymandered districts allow them to act as full blown authoritarians. Just the other day, a “liberal” was elected to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, another state which is shamefully gerrymandered, giving the “liberals” a 4 – 3 majority on the Court much to the chagrin of republicans. It didn’t take but a few hours after the election. where the “liberal” candidate won by OVER 10% – a landslide in Wisconsin, for the republicans in the state legislature to begin talking about IMPEACHING her. Of course, in Wisconsin – a state with a nearly identical number of democrats to republicans – the state legislature has a “super majority” of republicans – thanks to partisan gerrymandering – enough to actually impeach this judge. This “garbage” is happening all across our nation – fueled by republicans who live in fear of losing their grip on POWER.

Here’s the deal, if they would choose to do this, the people in Wisconsin will simply vote the “liberal” justice (I can’t remember her name) back into her position as a Supreme Court justice in their state. The gerryrigging of so many states in America is just consistent with the History of this nation people like Ron DeSanctimonious, in Florida, don’t want “we the people” to understand. It’s shameful! I hope the two young Black Tennessee legislators are voted right back into this body and the people of Tennessee rise up against this POWER grab.

Final Thought: Just about everyone in America understands our History – at least to the point where we know how African American parents have to teach their children how to act if/when they’re pulled over by a state trooper for a traffic issue. Often time, the issue is driving while Black. Most of us witnessed the modern day version of a “Lynching” as George Floyd died under the KNEE of a racist Mineapolis cop! That led to massive protests all across this nation – with young Americans of all “stripes” marching in protest of police brutality toward Black Americans. That has led to ANOTHER backlash by White Americans led by Trump and the so-called “freedom caucus” in the House of Representatives – those who call the INSURRECTION of January 6th, 2021 a “peaceful” visit to the Capitol. I taught Middle School until I retired in 2014 and I have confidence the young people I taught will be a part of the movement in this nation which will overturn this push to White Supremacy from the MAGA movement! Stay tuned……….

I received an email from Pittsburgh today showing a red “MAGA” hat with the encription reading under the capital letters “MAGA” with “my ass got arrested.” At first, I couldn’t help myself from laughing – and, then, I turned on the TV to watch two young – and IMPRESSIVE – Black legislatures in Tennessee as they got expelled from the legislature as detailed above. Numerous thoughts are filling my head and it will take a day, or so, (likely) for me to understand what I need to write next. God help this nation!!!