by John Walters
Urban Warfare
Saigon, 1968? Los Angeles, 1992?
No. Portland, 2020. Portland?!? Doesn’t everyone have better things to do this summer, especially in the Pacific Northwest (which may be northwest, but sure as hell ain’t pacific).
The United States has its own Gestapo now, and it’s called the Department of Homeland Security (you may remember this agency was formed to root out bad guys in turbans who shouted “Death to America!” less than 20 years ago. Now they’re tasked with putting down any form of insurrection and/or rebellion while ignoring all tenets of due process or Miranda rights. Hooray, ‘merica!”)
President Trump is copying directly from the Putin playbook and he apparently has enough support (DOJ, U.S. Senate, etc.) to continue his fascist agenda for the time being. Should people be vandalizing government buildings? No, and they should be arrested for doing so.
Should unidentified federal agents in camo gear and night sticks be descending on U.S. cities against the wishes of those cities’ mayors or those states’ governors to squash a “rebellion” that really isn’t one? Nope.
And don’t think for a moment that Trump and his ilk don’t hope that the bullying tactics don’t draw out more protesters, which will allow him to bring in more muscle, and then you need someone to light a spark on this race war that Trump wants Fox News cameras to film in living color.
It has a way of getting 800 dead Americans daily off the front page, you know?
Florida Men
On a rural lake road in central Florida last weekend, three young white men were brutally murdered. And if you were wondering what we were wondering, the local sheriff, Grady Judd, says, “This does not look like a drug deal gone bad.”
The victims—Brandon Rollins, Keven Springfield and Damion Tillman—were all between 23 and 30. They apparently were going night fishing last Friday night and Tillman arrived first. He was being beaten and may already have been shot when Rollins and Springfield rolled up. Rollins managed to place a cellphone call to his father, who lives only 10 or so minutes away, and the two were briefly able to talk before Rollins passed.
Police aren’t saying what was said, but he obviously did not identify the killer(s) are officials are offering a $30,000 reward for info leading to the arrest of who did it.
So what’s the motive? Was it really a fishing trip? This is not a heavily populated area. You’d have to think they at least one of them knew the assailants. Stay tuned or wait for the Netflix documentary.
Trump Trips Over Truth
It was 90-plus degrees in the Rose Garden on Saturday afternoon, but most of the heat President Trump felt was coming from four feet away. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace would have made his daddy, the legendary news griller Mike Wallace, proud. as he questioned Trump and exposed falsehood over prevarication. You have to wonder who inside the administration thought that this would be a good idea.
Chris Cillizza at CNN has done the dirty work, posting the “55 Most Shocking Lines” from Trump during the interview. 55. This is the new normal.
Pryor Engagement
This was from the Seventies. The Richard Pryor Show, with a spoof of To Kill A Mockingbird. Opposing counsels Richard Pryor and Robin Williams. This actually aired on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC in 1977—for all of four episodes.
NBC put it up against the one-two punch of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley
on ABC.
Someone at ABC must have seen this episode, though, as they soon snatched Williams to play Mork in a bizarre episode of Happy Days that soon after resulted in Mork and Mindy. Pam Dawber. Sigh.
Incidentally, today would’ve been Robin Williams’ 69th birthday.
Freeze Frame
On this day, in 1983, the coldest temperature ever officially recorded: minus-89 degrees in Vostok Station, Antarctica.