The State of the Onion speech by Joe Biden was predictably long, boring and filled with falsehoods and distortions and like all onions, stunk to high heaven. None of this, of course, was noticed by the MSM. They covered this as though it was straight from the lips of God. To people familiar with any of the subjects, it was utter nonsense. The only reason we have a vaccine and any hope of returning to normal is the Warp Speed miracle that Donald Trump made happen, despite Democratic resistance and scorn.

But perhaps the biggest and most danger lies were regarding three subjects. Biden referred to the Capitol riots as the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. Seriously?  No one in the MSM noticed that no one actually brought a gun to this insurrection, that the only Capitol Police officer who died was from natural causes and that the only shooting was of an unarmed white woman. So far most of the insurrection charges have been laughed out of court. If anything, this is nothing short of abuse of power by the Biden Administration DOJ. The same DOJ that ignores the real problems from Antifa and BLM.

Then he said that the greatest threat to national security is white supremacists groups. There are white supremacist groups, but if they have been active, it sure isn’t being reported. Proud Boys is definitely not a white supremacist group. To call this the great threat to our national security is joke. The greatest threat to our national security is having someone like Joe Biden in the White House.

Finally, he claims, again, that Russia interfered in our election. Since he won, who does he think Russia helped? This was also absurd. The thought of Biden trying to intimidate Vladimir Putin is a joke. A dangerous joke.

Then, a miracle. Typically, the response to a State of the Union address is horrible. Several people, like Nikki Haley and Marco Rubio took a shot at this with disastrous results. But this time Tim Scott got the opportunity and he knocked it out of the park, across the street and on the roof of the neighboring parking garage. (I saw Kirk Gibson do that at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.)

It is impossible to overstate the power of this performance. Tim Scott stood there, smiling, and absolutely eviscerated both the State of the Union address and the Liberal left agenda. America got to see a black man, highly successful, who felt no need to express victimhood. Instead, he is an inspiration to a lot of people proving that success in this country is not limited by the color of one’s skin. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that speech received loud and enthusiastic support from black people who are sick and tired of being represented by perpetually angry professional whiners always complaining about  how unfair life can be while they are personally raking in millions.

This may be the best speech by a politician I have ever heard. It certainly ranks up there with the speech by Ronald Reagan that launched his political career. He spoke eloquently and quietly but with great force. He looked sincere, but not angry. Remarkable. This reminds me of listening to someone describe the first time Elvis Presly performed in public. The audience was just sitting there, silently. He thought he had failed. But the older and wiser stage manager told him to just wait for it. Sure enough, the crowd leapt to its feet and gave him a standing ovation. There are very few performers who are so brilliant that they can literally silence a crowd. They silence the crowd because everyone is focused entirely on listening. Such people are rare. Tim Scott proved on national TV that he is that good.

We can expect the MSM to immediately attack him. That already happened on CNN. But that is not only doomed to failure, it is doomed to create a huge back lash. We saw the Great Scott last night, and this is exactly the kind of person who can and often does change the world.

TDM

I used to play basketball, a little. I was a skinny white kid. I could shoot pretty well, dribbled fairly well, and enjoyed the game. Until our school played a high school from Milwaukee. All of the players on that team were black. They were all taller than me, I at 6 ft., I was one of the tallest players on my team. They could all jump higher, shoot better, fun faster and dribbled circles around me and everyone else. We didn’t stand a chance. Then they laughed at us at weak and pathetic white boys. That really hurt!

This caused me to reflect on the strongest argument for racial justice in America. The NBA. According to the best information available, 81.1% of players in the NBA are black. Only 17.9 percent of them are white. Many of them are huge white guys from overseas with names I couldn’t possibly pronounce. The bottom line is that if you are a white kid, who likes to play basketball, the chances of playing in the NBA are close to zero. How is this fair? If we are going to have racial justice, then let’s have racial justice for all. Starting with the NBA. I propose that effective immediately all NBA teams be required to set a quota for Black Players to be no more than twice the percentage of black people in the country. That is about 13.4%. To be fair, let’s round that up to 15%. To be even more fair, let’s allow teams to have twice that percent of black players, or 30%. This seems only fair, because Coca Cola will no longer work with law firms that do not have 30% black attorneys. Every major corporation is required to set a goal for a certain percentage of black officers and directors. Every occupation, that is dominated by white people, is being forced to actively recruit and hire black applicants. Why should the NBA be exempt from social justice?

So, by 2023, which will be close to the end of the COVID 19 lockdowns in Democratic States, the NBA must have a plan of action to have 70% of players be non-black. At the same time, we need to be looking at the NFL. According to reports in 2019 58.9% of NFL players were black. It is reported that by 2020 this had increased to 70%. How is this remotely fair?

Now naïve people could conclude that black people can run faster and jump higher than white people. But that would be just so fascist. Are we to believe that people have inherent strengths and weakness because of their race? How is that possible? Even if true, that is still unfair. How do we really know how well white players can perform in the NBA or the NFL if they are not even given a chance. Talk about a lack of racial justice. So, effective 2023, every NFL team should set a goal of having at least 70% of players non-black.

If you feel this is unfair, this is exactly what the NBA and the NFL is demanding regarding coaches. There is tremendous pressure on both NBA and NFL teams to recruit and hire black coaches. They are also under pressure to recruit female coaches. Which brings up another point. In addition to increasing the number of white players in the NBA and the NFL, we should also demand that 50% of players and coaches be female. That is only fair.

If we are going to have racial and gender justice, then let’s have racial and gender justice. Some, again naïve, people would argue that sports should not work this way. That only talent and the ability to play the game should count. But talent and the ability to play is now irrelevant in every other field, so why make an exception for sports. Joe Biden clearly is against that, which is why he is all in on transgender males competing in woman’s sports. Otherwise, he would be admitting that gasp, males, and females have different athletic abilities. Heresy I say heresy. It would be like saying that women have more to fear from physical attacks by men then men need fear physical attacks by women. We know that this could not possibly be true, because if you believe that, you probably believe men and women have different physical makeups and ability. How unfair is that. If you think you are female, you should have all the rights and protections of a female. Biology has nothing to do with gender. Nothing else is fair.

All I am asking is for racial and gender equality. Everywhere. In every occupation. At every level. Then and only then will we all understand the importance of equality.

TDM

Each of us should do two things immediately. First, get on our knees, and thank God and Mitch McConnell that Merrick Garland is not on the U.S. Supreme Court. Second, while on your knees pray for the people living in Minneapolis and Louisville who will pay a terrible price because he is the Attorney General.

We already know the results. Any place where the Obama administration “investigated” policing, the violent crime rate skyrocketed. This is inevitable for several reasons.  One is that even if this investigation was fair and balanced, it will distract from the mission of those police departments. Another is that there is zero chance it will be fair and balanced. But the biggest problem is that we are stripping police departments of the thing they need most, the ability to respond immediately to serious problems. Every police officer will get the word. Dot all your “I”s, double check everything, require and demand management approval before taking any action. Murder in progress, not your problem, repeat all the above, write it down and get signatures. The worse the situation the more the need for direct management involvement and approval. Think “Ruby Ridge” repeated over and over again.

Such approval will be delayed because management doesn’t want to make a mistake either. In many cases management will simply say wait, or not now. Not enough documented facts or evidence.

Let me give an example. Someone reports an angry man waving a gun. Instead of just responding, more questions will be asked. The first question will be regarding race. If it is a white man, then less care is necessary. If it is a black man, then this will be considered extremely high risk, for the police. White people are shot by police all the time. But you don’t know that because no one even reports their name. But if a black man is shot, it is a national emergency without regard to the facts. Police will not be dispatched until everything is ready, fully documented and signed off by management. If there are people getting killed, that will not change the response time, it may even slow it down.  Police with not search anyone or anything without probable cause. Even then, they will wait for authorization, which may or may not come. Minor crimes will not be prosecuted or even investigated. Why bother? Too much risk for police with little if any reward.

This is great if you are a criminal. But if you are a law abiding citizen, not so much. We have seen this before, with disastrous consequences. There are reports that Bill Clinton had several opportunities to kill Bid Laden. But in each case the chain of command was too slow to response. And, in one case, Clinton allegedly refused to give authorization because he was playing golf. It is hard to evaluate the accuracy of these reports, but they have the ugly odor of truth.

Crimes rates already soaring through the roof in every major metropolitan area run by Democrats. We still have racist policing in Baltimore, although it appears as though every civic official involved is black. Check out Ferguson, Missouri, where Eric Holder did a similar investigation. It has worked brilliantly.

Ferguson, MO Crime Rates and Statistics – NeighborhoodScout

The violent crime rate is 10.57, in the rest of Missouri, it is 4.95. The national median is 4. In Ferguson, the property crime rate is 48.77.  The national median is 21.  This is “AFTER” Ferguson got help from Eric Holder and crew. Odds are the Merrick Garland era will produce even more drastic and worse results. Would you want to be a police officer working in this environment? Even more important, would you want to live there? There was a recent shooting in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Here is what we already know about that. Pasquotank County Sheriffs were serving an arrest and search warrant on the home of Andrew Brown, Jr.

“This is an arrest surrounding felony drug charges,” Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said in a video statement. “Mr. Brown was a convicted felon with a history of resisting arrest. Our training and our policies indicate under such circumstances, there is a high risk of danger.”

Mr. Brown tried to flee the scene in a car. Police fired at the vehicle, killing him.

There are massive crowds gathering demanding to see the body cam footage. We can guarantee that the MSM will report this in a way most damaging to the police. Seven deputies were placed on leave, and three resigned. The three who resigned were not even involved in the incident. Ben Crump, who got millions representing the George Floyd family against Minneapolis is already on the scene. He is already calling this an execution. Beyond predictable. Here is one of the other attorney’s said:

“I want to destroy the system that puts us in this position,” said Bakari Sellers, another attorney for Brown’s family. “I want to make sure that in the state of North Carolina they can no longer hide videos from individuals that need to see them. … Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

Next time police try to apprehend a violent suspect and he tries to flee, what should they do?  Let him go? If they do that, he is very likely to commit more violent crimes. But if they try to stop him, they better do it exactly right, or they will be subject to criminal prosecution themselves. They will also be subject to Merrick Garland’s crew showing up and micromanaging the process. Ironically, this attempt to end systemic racism is guaranteed to make policing totally racist. The people who will pay the highest price are those who liberals are pretending to embrace.

In the meantime, be grateful that Merrick Garland is only Attorney General, a position from which he can and eventually will be fired. If he were on the Supreme Court, we would be serving under a life sentence.

TDM

Anyone living in Northern California is very familiar with Turkey Vultures. They are huge and they glide around high in the air. People sometimes mistake them for Hawks or even Golden Eagles. But Turkey Vultures are not birds of prey, they are scavengers. They show up after someone else has already done the heavy lifting. We once had about 20 of the show up, all sitting in a row on our back fence. Further investigation showed that a racoon had chosen our backyard as his final resting place. The Turkey Vultures were doing their job, making sure he rested in pieces. By the time they were done, there was not much left.

To the uninformed, from a distance, a Turkey Vulture may look impressive. But if you see one close up, like all vultures, they are ugly as sin. I am glad we have them because they are good at cleaning up a real mess. But their primary function is not to fix things, it is to devour the remains.

Sometimes it seems like our entire political system is dominated by the human version of Turkey Vultures. These people have no solutions to anything, but they are brilliant at picking over the remains in the event of a convenient disaster. CNN was the Turkey Vulture Network. While Trump was President, they were brilliant at finding any potential flaw and if that failed, they invented things. The only thing that mattered to them was picking on Donald Trump. But they missed something important. When Donald Trump was gone, they were left without a purpose. They are too terrified to pick on Joe Biden, although he is the ultimate target of opportunity. The problem for the MSM is that if they admit how awful Joe Biden is as President, they will have to address their role in making this fiasco possible. At least in real life, Turkey Vultures seldom kill anything. The MSM worked double overtime to get rid of Donald Trump and found themselves faced with his replacement, a rotting corpse even they can’t stomach.

Jim Acosta made a career out of being rude and insulting Trump. To people like Hollywood celebrities, he was a hero. But to most of us he was just disgusting. Well, once Trump left office Acosta couldn’t continue his rude and insulting act with the Biden administration. For one thing, they don’t bother to answer questions from anyone. In addition, if Acosta were as rude to Biden as he was to Trump, he would have been hounded off the stage. So, Acosta chose a new career, as the primary weekend anchor for CNN. Great move for Acosta, huge mistake for CNN. Prior to Acosta taking over CNN ratings were already tanking. But when Acosta took over, he turned a trickle of viewers abandoning CNN into Niagara Falls. CNN ratings since Acosta took over have dropped an astonishingly 36%.

LOL: Ratings For “CNN Newsroom” Have Fallen 41% Since Jim Acosta Took Over (trendingpolitics.com)

Actually, it may be closer to 41%. By any measurement this is beyond bad. The problem here is that CNN and the rest of the MSM were nothing more than Turkey Vultures. They had no mission in life other than to pick over Donald Trump. Only this time, as vultures, they made a huge mistake. Donald Trump is not actually dead, and it turns out that he was and is the voice for millions of dissatisfied Americans. He has been replaced by Joe Biden, who is truly awful, but the MSM cannot bring themselves to report accurately on this. They are still in the mode of let’s pretend this is working. It isn’t. When I see Joe Biden, I do not see the President of the United States. It is impossible to believe that he is really calling the shots. He is too busy trying, and failing, to remember the route to the exit. Just recently he was on a climate change call, with leaders all over the world, Biden was the only one stupid enough to do this wearing a face mask.

Look for yourself, there is Putin, in the middle, clearly in charge, and there is Joe wondering how long before his next bathroom break. I am sure the rest of the World Leaders on this call were having a hard time suppressing the giggles. We have literally made ourselves the laughing stock of the world.

I actually like Turkey Vultures. They are fun to watch. But there is a reason our national bird is the Bald Eagle, not the Turkey Vulture. We didn’t earn our independence by picking over the bones of dead corpses. We won it clawing our way to victory. Most people understand that. The others are still watching CNN and pretending this resembles the news.

TDM

The video showing the police shooting a 16 year old black girl instantly went viral, for all the wrong reasons. Predictably Lebron James wanted this Cop prosecuted. Joe Biden said it was another example of systemic racism. But now people are seeing the actual video and they are seeing other videos from a different angle.. Unlike the Derek Chauvin video, this one provides pretty good insight into a lot of things. Some of them were noticed by the MSM, finally, and some were not.

One thing that is obvious is that police were called to deal with a situation that was beyond chaotic. Another is that the usual suspects automatically blamed the police, with zero regard to the facts. A black girl was shot, nothing else could possibly matter.

Here is a picture of the crowd that gathered in Columbus, shortly after this shooting:

Ma’Khia Bryant: Ohio police release body camera footage in shooting of 16-year-old (yahoo.com)

Here is the video of the actual shooting. CBS, unlike NBC, showed the full video and did not edit out the knife.

Police in Columbus, Ohio shoot, kill teenager Ma’Khia Bryant and release bodycam video – CBS News

Anyone watching this video soon realizes that the police officer shot that girl because she was about to stab another young girl. What is astonishing is how fast things moved, how little time he had to react and the skill he used to shoot her and not the girl who was the intended victim. If you watch video shot later, you will see that police tried to save her life, after shooting her.

This is so obvious that even Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo on CNN noticed it.

https://www.newsweek.com/don-lemon-chris-cuomo-defend-officer-shot-makhia-bryant-1585708

They didn’t rush to judgement on the police officer.

“Tasers don’t work the way guns work,” Lemon said. “Not at that distance,” added Cuomo. “And not with that amount of time.”

Lemon added: “If the woman in the pink was my sister, niece, wife, whatever … you have to make a decision. Is one life on that scene more valuable than another?

“And if someone is trying to take a life on that scene, do you protect the life of the person trying to take the life or do you protect the life of the person whose life is an imminent danger at that moment?”

People where shocked that Lemon and Cuomo reported objectively, for a change. Talk about a miracle.

But they didn’t notice something else. Look at the homes. They are well maintained. This does not exactly look like the hood. Look at the cars. They are all nice cars, in good condition. This isn’t Beverly Hills, but it also isn’t exactly the projects. But the White House couldn’t resist making this racist anyway.

“She was a child,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “We’re thinking of her friends and family in the communities that are hurting and grieving her loss. We know that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino people in communities and that Black women and girls, like Black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence. We also know that there are particular vulnerabilities that children in foster care, like Ma’Khia, face.”

I don’t where Jen Psaki gets the evidence that police violence disproportionately impacts Black and Latino women. The facts, from all available sources, present a very different picture. The following statistics come from an interview of Heather McDonald on Newsmax TV. She may be wrong, but this is a lot more realistic that what we are getting from the White House.

She reports that 10% of white homicide victims were killed by cops, but only 3% of black homicide victims were killed by cops. Yet the homicide rate for blacks victims is 13 times higher than whites. So, who is killing all those black victims? It obviously is not the police. There is systemic violence, but it is not done by cops, it is the result of black on black crime. The problem, ironically, may be the lack of cops. The dumbest and most irresponsible response to this would be to defund the police and make it harder for them to do their job.

There were reportedly 18 unarmed black men killed by policy last year. Now perhaps this is low, perhaps this undercounted some people, but it is no where near what people have been led to believe. If you watched CNN, you probably were expecting something like 18,000 deaths.

I hope a lot of people watch this video. If the police had not arrived and taken swift action, someone else probably would have died. In fact, several people might have died.  Perhaps this will help people have a real conversation, an honest conversation. Yes, there are bad cops, just like there are bad preachers and salesclerks and even insurance agents. But we need cops. We desperate need effective policing.

One good thing that happened is that Lebron James shot his mouth off, again, and stepped in it big time. He posted a picture of the hero officer, with the caption: “You’re Next.” The National Fraternal Order of Police responded with the following:

National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)

@GLFOP @KingJames , with his vast resources & influence, should educate himself and, frankly, has a responsibility to do so, on the facts before weighing in. This is disgraceful & extremely reckless. The officer saved a young girl’s life. No amount of gaslighting will change that fact.

One thing is certain, most of the people on the scene thought the officer was a hero. BLM and people like Lebron James and Joe Biden quickly labeled him a zero, before they knew any of the facts. Now that the facts are coming out, more people are realizing that he really was a hero. It is about time. We all would benefit from more facts and far less hyperbole.

TDM

Governor Gavin Newsom, who is wrong about nearly everything, nailed it yesterday. He said that if George Floyd looked like him, the results would have been different. He is right about that. If someone who looked like Gavin Newsom got tanked up on methamphetamines, alcohol, and fentanyl, tried to pass counterfeit currency and then fell asleep sitting behind the wheel of their car, they would be treated very differently. Police would have shown little or no restraint at all. That is because there would have been no group of onlookers shooting video with their cell phones and screaming insults at the police.  And if a white guy did this, and died, his death would be chalked up, appropriately, as a drug overdose not police brutality. George Floyd was treated differently because he was black, but in the exact opposite way the fawning idiots in the MSM are screaming at us in their self-righteous rants.

I make no excuses for what Chauvin did. I do question whether this even resembled due process, but at minimum police botched this. But the point is there is no evidence they botched this because Floyd was black, they botched it because they didn’t handle a man who was obviously high on drugs to the point of a death by overdose, very well. They should have noticed when he stopped breathing. Coulda , woulda, shoulda, all day long. Murder, not so much.

Unfortunately, all the wrong people will learn all the wrong lessons from this. Black suspects will be encouraged to resist arrest. They have several incentives to do this. One is that they know police will be terrified of confronting them, even with non-lethal force. Another is that they know this will draw a crowd, which will automatically be on their side, regardless of circumstances. If they are lucky, they may hit the lottery and get a huge claim settlement. If not, then their family will certainly enjoy the benefits. In some cases, they may even become heroes. Do not underestimate this. There are a lot of people out there who live lonely and unproductive lives. Some of them go out and shoot people, so someone will remember their name. There is a reason the term “suicide by cop” was invented. Some people really do that. Some may argue that no one would do something like this, but desperate people commit suicide every day, for a lot of reasons.

Ultimately the why does not matter. There was nothing about the George Floyd incident that was racist, until the surrounding crowd and the MSM made it racist. Before that it was just police responding to a difficult and potentially dangerous call. Then it was police dealing with a highly intoxicated suspect who was resisting arrest. They tried to handle him with non-lethal force. First, they talked to him, then they handcuffed him and pushed him to the ground. What else could they have done. Should they have shot him, or used pepper spray, or a taser. Any of the above would have almost certainly killed George Floyd or anyone else in his condition.

People die in police custody all the time. We hear about them on the news. If they are white, we seldom hear anything else. Even if they are black, we don’t often learn much else. What made this case different was the police being surround by people with cell phones, filming everything, between anti-cop chants.

We should learn from this, and we will learn from this, but right now we are learning all the wrong lessons. Millions of people are now convinced that this is a country of systemic racism, that we are all bad, that our founding fathers brought forth a new racist nation and that policing has become increasingly racist nationwide. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made that point yesterday in what they apparently thought was an attempt to calm things down. Instead, they did the opposite. They just poured gas on an increasingly out of control fire. It was beyond pathetic.

Perhaps Nancy Pelosi accidently said the truth when she thanked George Floyd for dying. His death, while not necessarily racist, played right into the hands of people like Nancy Pelosi and she is probably truly grateful.

There is systemic racism in this country. It takes place every day inside of a planned parenthood clinic. If you are a young black woman, with limited means, they will be glad to help you kill your baby. They will explain to you all the reasons why this life is not worth saving. They do that to white women too, but the statistics are brutal. Black women get their babies aborted, free, by Planned Parenthood at an inexcusable rate. There are some reports that more black babies are aborted than are born alive. What could possibly be more racist than that. Easy, to the liberal left, the death of a George Floyd.

Unfortunately, the inevitable result of this will be more racism and division. White people, who previously would have given a black person considerable slack, view them differently today. They view them as a threat.  Police absolutely will make decisions regarding use of force based primarily on race. It is simple. If you are a police officer and you shoot a black man or woman, without regard to circumstances, there will be some people screaming for your head. If there is any potential for a mistake, you are probably going to jail. Every police officer is the country knows that this morning. This means if you live in a minority neighborhood, and you call the police for help, expect to wait a while. When the police show up, it will be in force, with body armor and body cameras. They will do everything possible to avoid using any force, until the circumstances prove it is absolutely necessary. In many cases that will include after some innocent person has been killed or wounded. Just recently police shot a black girl because she was stabbing another girl. The protests are already gearing up and the family of this girl has probably already received a call from that black attorney in Minneapolis who got the George Floyd family $27 million.

In the meantime, Derek Chauvin is in jail, but he is certain to appeal his case. While most criminal cases on appeal are upheld, thanks to Maxime Waters and Joe Biden, he actually has one of the strongest cases for appeal in American history. My prediction is that his case will be overturned. He may or may not be tried again, but if so, it will be a very different trial. Most people know that after the Lincoln assassination Mary Surratt was famously hanged. What they don’t know is that John Surratt, who just may have planned the whole thing, escaped. He went to Canada and then Europe. He was eventually arrested in Egypt and extradited. He was put on trial 18 months after his mother’s death, but this wasn’t a military trial, it was a civil trial in Maryland. His attorney even admitted that Surratt was involved in the plot to kidnap Lincoln. After a two-month trial, the result was a hung jury, and he was never put on trial again. These is easy to understand, all the real witnesses were dead because they had been hanged. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

In the meantime, policing in this country has become racist. Some police, will wisely, seek other employment. People choosing to become police, for the right reasons, will hesitate. Those who want to become police officers, for all the wrong reasons, will celebrate. This is going to get ugly. It is already ugly. And no one, other than Democratic politicians, will even think they benefit from this.

TDM

It is now official. The trial of officer Derek Chauvin is a classic example of what is seriously wrong in this country. This all started with a false narrative. Millions of Americans are convinced that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, solely because he was black. They are equally convinced that there is a serious problem in this country with angry racist white cops shooting unarmed black men for walking while black. There is, of course, no evidence of this rather than the rush to judgement by the out-of-control liberal left-wing media. They want people to believe this. They need people to believe this. Facts be damned. To the liberal left the constitution and the bill of rights have been abandoned on the alter of anti-Trumpism and anti-Christianity. Some of this is actually deserved. Trump is and was famous for insulting people. Christians far too often ignored the doctrine of grace and embraced the arrogance of legalism. Whether deserved or not, Christians were known primarily for what they were against. Too many Christian leaders were famous for arrogantly putting down the evil they saw in others, seldom considering self-reflection. This is not true, of course, for the vast majority of preachers and is absolutely not what Christians were hearing in church. But it is exactly the image that the world saw because super-star ministers drowned out any other message.

I frankly do not know if Derek Chauvin is guilty of a crime or not. I just know that there is zero chance of him getting due process. He has already convicted by the MSM and while the decision of the jury may or may not affect his ability to live freely or in prison, he is doomed either way. If he is acquitted his only chance of survival is to go into witness protection. But nothing like that is remotely possible.

The truth about this case, ignored by the MSM, is quite simple. Police were called to deal with a huge black man, high on drugs and acting out of control. They tried, and failed, to get him to go peacefully to the station. He resisted, so they handcuffed him and pinned him down. Somewhere in the course of events, George Floyd died. At best, police failed to realize that he had stopped breathing. Perhaps part of the reason for that is that police were surrounded by an angry crowd, screaming insults, and holding up cell phones. Sadly, one of the side effects of the smart phone is that almost everyone has a video camera available. Just recently, during the shooting in a supermarket, there was one idiot literally trying to film the scene while shots were still being fired.

We have dissolved into this. Where cell phone video, taken in the midst of chaos, is considered to the be one and only true record of events. Never truer than regarding George Floyd and Derek Chauvin. Many people watched the only video shown, seeming to prove that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd’s neck slowly choking him to death. But, if you wanted the video, a couple of things should have been obvious. One is that Chauvin knee wasn’t actually on Floyd’s neck. The other is that Chauvin never appeared to be looking at Floyd. He was looking around, probably at the angry mob. Look at that video, did this look like a man in a rage to you? If anything, he looked distracted.

But facts don’t matter. If they did, odds are that he would never have been charged with a crime at all. What happened here was the media outcry was so loud and so sustained that authorities in Minneapolis began a desperate search for tomorrow. Or rather, I should say, a search for some reason to charge Chauvin with murder. The autopsy reports showed so much toxicity that Floyd may have died even if police had not been called. Well, maybe not exactly, because Floyd swallowed a bunch of pills when police arrived. But in any event, he was in serious jeopardy of dying regardless of what police did because of the actions he did himself. But there was tremendous pressure on the coroner to find this a homicide. Otherwise, those angry people rioting in Minneapolis would become angry. Then they kept looking for the most serious charge possible against Chauvin, again without regard to the facts. But soon prosecutors realized that if they tried to charge Chauvin with the more serious crime, he was likely to be acquitted. So, they begged the judge to allow consideration of a much lower level of crime. That is why in addition to Second Degree Unintentional Murder, they added, Third degree murder and Second-Degree Manslaughter. Note that this third charge says that Chauvin should have known to put Floyd in a side recovery position. He should go to prison for ten years because of that?

See the contrast here. While the mob is screaming murder, the prosecutor is primarily arguing that he could have done things better. Big difference. I wonder if the jury will notice? Just a couple of days ago, Brooklyn, MN., police shot and killed another suspect. BLM immediately organized a protest. Then they discovered two things that changed their mind. One was that the guy police shot was not black, he was white. Second, he was shooting at police. This didn’t fit their narrative, so the protest was cancelled mid-stride.

Now self-righteous arrogant left-wing journalists are screaming NEVER AGAIN! This assumes that what happened in the George Floyd case was purely the result of systemic racism and police abuse of power. But they miss something. When police arrived, Floyd was sitting behind the wheel of his car, ready to drive somewhere. He many not have actually been up to driving, but that was apparently his plan. Can you imagine being on the road with another driver coming at you, in Floyd’s condition? You should, because if we truly say never again, that is exactly what will happen. Even the man shot accidentally by the female police officer who mistook her service revolver for a taser, was trying to escape arrest by driving away. That is what our future looks like, if we don’t wake up. Police are already retiring in droves and there are few recruits. Those who stay in the job will soon develop a not my problem approach to policing. Any police officer who confronts an angry black man under these circumstances is at high risk of facing criminal charges, regardless of the outcome. On the other hand, if they don’t subdue some of these people, they put other innocent people at risk. Most of those people, by the way, will be minorities leaving in poverty-stricken areas. In other words, fixing alleged systemic racism by police is guaranteed to hurt the very people they claim to represent.

Today, doubling down on stupid, President Joe Biden said that Derek Chauvin is obviously guilty. Joe, who can’t remember where he is at times, is an expert on a trial he didn’t even watch. If Chauvin is convicted, it will be appealed. Maxine Waters had already made this a certainty. Now Joe Biden not only guaranteed an appeal, but he also guaranteed a new trial. This, of course, will only happen years from now, after Chauvin had paying enormous legal bills while hiding in this basement.

The question is: “Who possibly benefits from this?” Certainly not people already terrified by black-on-black crime. Certainly not the police and not the people who benefit from the security the police provide. Even the “unarmed black men” being shot by racist white cops won’t benefit, except for the few lucky enough to get millions is a settlement from places like Minneapolis.

I have many black friends. I recognize the reality that sometimes police do profile people because of the color of their skin. I wish it were not true. But this reminds me of another friend, who is a Muslim man. He talked about always being profiled at airports. He said at first, I was upset, but then I realized that the terrorists they were trying to stop were trying to kill me too. Exactly.

TDM

At some point, even the MSM will realize that the Biden Administration is a complete disaster. They may never admit it, but they will recognize it. This past week was an unmitigated disaster.  Biden started by telling such outrageous lies about the Georgia Voter Registration law that even the Washington Post noticed and gave him four Pinocchio’s. But perhaps the biggest mistake was in the way the U.S. handled the visit by the Japanese Prime Minister. If there is one alliance that is very strong and vital to U.S. interests it is with Japan.

Yet, when the Prime Minister arrived at the White House no one was there to greet him, other than the guard at the door. The only reason this didn’t immediately blow up into an international incident is that it was assumed that the Biden Administration was only stupid and not deliberately insulting. The Prime Minister was greeted, eventually, by Kamala Harris, who choose the occasion to trash her own country. She raged about the shooting in Indianapolis and didn’t bother to welcome Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga until she was done ranting. It was disgraceful and whether the Biden Administration realized it or not, it caused the Prime Minister to lose face. Then, after spending over an hour with Kamala Harris, Prime Minister Suga was finally brought to the White House, Biden said the following:

“And Yosi, I know how proud you are of people of Japan are.”

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant and such powerful English prose. In addition, Biden botched his name. His name is Yoshihide Suga.

It would have been the equivalent of Mr. Suga responding: “Thanks Joey.”  Then Biden doubled down on the insults with the following:

“You gotta a Japanese boy coming over here and guess what he won the Masters. He won the Master. He won the green jacket,”

The only good news is that Prime Minister Suga does not understand English, so hopefully the translators softened the blow while translating. But the rest of the world understood and that became obvious with the way China treated John Kerry.  Now John Kerry is, in my opinion, the lowest level of pond scum. So, seeing him humiliated, by anyone, any time, under any circumstances is normally viewed as a good thing by me. But in this case, insulted John Kerry is insulting the United States of America.

John Kerry was in China to sign another climate change deal that China will quickly ignore. They didn’t even wait for Kerry to clear the Chinese border before Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng announced that China was unlikely to make any new pledges at the upcoming Climate change summit. Then, instead on giving Kerry a ride in an official vehicle, they literally put him on a bus.  Here is a picture of him, sitting in the back of the bus, clutching his worthless facemask.

It is also reported that the Communist Party no longer arranges for officials at the state councilor level to meet Kerry. Kerry may be too arrogant and stupid to realize he has been humiliated but everyone in China understood.

Ironically, the non-African American, black female Vice President of the United States, recently converted to Asian because her mother immigrated to the U.S. from India, apparently knows nothing about face despite her strong Asian heritage.

This would be funny if it were not so serious and potentially deadly. Mr. Suga may not have understood the totality of the insult while in the White House, but he almost certainly was enlightened when he returned home. Fortunately, the relationship with Japan is probably strong enough to endure this, but I doubt they will pay much attention to anything coming from either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the next state visitor from Japan is a Chef bringing Sushi to the White House. Expired Sushi.

Sometimes Hollywood does a good job of explaining real life. If you want to see an example of this, watch “Rising Sun,” a movie produced in 1993 starring Sean Connery. This does an excellent job of explaining face regarding Japanese Executives. Ignore this to your peril.

The Trump White House was routinely accused of being naïve and rude regarding foreign affairs. But the opposite is true. Even “Chairman” Xi Jinping, met with President Trump and despite their difference, the meeting was polite and productive. One would think that with all the Obama holdovers in the Biden Administration they would at least have people around who understand the rules of diplomacy. But if that is true, it is certainly not very evident.

The good news is that Biden is so weak that no foreign leader is likely to bother attacking him. What they will do is ignore him. In some ways, remarkably, this may be better than if they took him seriously. His proposed solutions to every challenge are so ridiculous that we may benefit if they are just ignored.  A sad situation for sure. The only thing certain is that sound of this face plant was heard round the world.

TDM

There are people who fly incredibly important and dangerous missions every day. You just don’t know about them. That is a good thing. These are highly classified aircraft as are the missions they fly. Secrecy is the name of the game. Recently there have been published reports about two of these planes being “intercepted” by Russian jets as they flew along the coast of Russia. Following is one such article:

Russian fighter intercepts U.S. reconnaissance plane over Pacific – China.org.cn

Think of the longest flight you have ever taken on an airliner. The longest non-stop airline flights today last up to 17.5 hours. For most people, a flight more than 10 hours is considered a real ordeal. Now imagine staying on that plane while it is refueled and then flying back. You still would have a shorter day that the crews on these missions. I flew on similar planes on combat missions over the Gulf of Tonkin. We flew out of Okinawa and the flights lasted 24 hours. In addition, we weren’t exactly sitting on cushy coach seats being fed by enthusiastic stewardesses. We often were sitting on our parachutes, wearing helmets and got no breaks at all. There were toilets on the plane, but that was about it. In addition, we typically spent at least two hours in briefings before the flight and two hours debriefing after the flight. If that sounds exhausting to you, that would be more than accurate. By the way, our plane was always escorted by four U.S. fighter jets when we were over the Gulf.

These planes flying along the coast of Russia have far longer missions. I personally know of missions that are in the air for more than 36 hours. The thought of a Russia fighter “intercepting” these planes is not exactly new. This used to happen on almost every trip. The crew members actually enjoyed seeing the Russian fighters, although it was truly tense. The fighter pilots would fly next our the RC135 and flip the bird. The USAF crew members would respond in kind.  It just never made the news. Fortunately, it is extremely rare for these planes to be shot down. I also a crewmember on these planes.

I also flew on much smaller planes that flew over South Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh trail. These planes were EC47s, they were very slow and flew at low altitudes because the planes were not pressurized. Our squadron motto was: “Alone, Unarmed, Unafraid.” The first two parts were true, the last part was absurd. We were terrified. So, we did what every real combat veteran does, we focused on the job. Unfortunately, some of these planes were shot down.

So, when you read the kind of reports, keep a couple things in mind. Although you know little or nothing about these missions, they happen every day. The USAF is only flying these missions because they are necessary. These are not training flights. The technology on the plane we flew over the Gulf of Tonkin was mind blowing. Even after all the training, the first time I got on a plane I was blown away. These flights were flown over 50 years ago, but some of the technology didn’t start showing up in the consumer market until very recently. Some of the technology will never show up.

There are many brave men and now women who fly on these planes. These crewmembers are incredibly talented often doing things most people can’t even imagine. They are the silent warriors, always on duty, seldom recognized. There are other men and women, serving on submarines and other navy ships also operating in harms way. If anything, these missions are even more dangerous. We should all be grateful for all of them. We should be proud of them. And we should all pray that we never hear much

The good news is that Joe Biden did not blunder his way into an unnecessary war, yet. The bad news is that he managed to lose, without firing a shot. Donald Trump handled the Ukraine perfectly. He sent the Ukraine weapons, warned Putin to back off, but did not push a confrontation. However, the Ukraine probably thought they had a real friend in Biden, after all he was well-financed by the Ukraine. So, the President of the Ukraine started tweaking the Russian Bear. Apparently, he thought the U.S. and NATO would have his back. He was wrong. Earlier this week Washington announced that they were going to send two warships into the Black Sea. Russia warned them to stay away “for their own good.” Turkey cancelled permission for those ships to pass through the straits that lead into the Black Sea. Today the United States announced that it had changed its mind. In the meantime, Putin ordered invasion stripes painted on his tanks poised at the border with Ukraine. Unlike Biden, Putin is ready, willing, and able to order military action.

This is a humiliating international defeat. So much for Trump being Putin’s puppet, it is Biden who is dancing merrily on Putin’s strings. It is hugely embarrassing for the U.S. to back down in a situation like this. Frankly, this encourages our enemies to slap us around because they have zero fear of the U.S. under the leadership of Joe Biden.

Other countries have already figured this out. None of the NATO countries jumped in to support Ukraine. Ukraine learned, the hard way, that the U.S. under Democratic leadership is famous for abandoning people stupid enough to trust us as allies. If you think this is harsh, research the way we started the Vietnam War and the way we ended it. Then check out how Obama handled Iraq. Remember the invasion of Iraq had strong bi-partisan support.

Biden is leaving Afghanistan and the Taliban is likely to shoot at our troops on the way out. They signed a peace treaty with Trump. Less than three months later they just announced  victory over the U.S. in response to the action taken by Biden.  They missed the CNN broadcasts praising Biden for his brilliant diplomacy. For them this is perfect, they can just ignore us. In the meantime, our NATO allies also have troops in Afghanistan and the countries who are there basically at our request are now being abandoned. This is unlikely to end well and smart NATO allies in Afghanistan will be trying to beat us to the exit.

This is an incredible amount of damage to our foreign relations in a record amount of time.  The good news is that we are unlikely to get involved in a shooting war. The bad news is our enemies will get what they want without one. Every country on earth has figured this out. They flat out don’t respect the United States under Joe Biden. They absolutely do not fear us. Israel obviously gave up on Biden dealing with Iran so one of Iran’s nuclear facilities was miraculously destroyed, again, by an incredibly convenient accident. Israel admits nothing but is having difficulty restraining the smiles.

Now look at a map, check out the locations of Israel and Iran. In between are those Arab countries who signed peace deals with Israel, under Trump. The good news is that thanks to this huge diplomatic achievement by Trump, Israel has support from Arab states in the area for the first time. They do not like Israel, buy they fear Iran. The also love all that oil income. The bad news is that Biden is trying to undermine Israel, again.

In the meantime, Joe Biden had a photo op of himself, walking alone, on the graves of soldiers who died in Afghanistan, while bravely wearing a mask. He was also carrying an umbrella, although it was not raining.

As combat veteran I can guarantee that few people who are wearing or who ever wore our nation’s uniform were impressed. In addition, we are reminded that when Obama got a chance to kill Bin Laden, Joe was the only one stupid enough to think this was a bad idea.

We are headed toward a long and very hot summer. Expect violent protests all over the country and expect them to be handled poorly. We are already seeing higher food prices, higher gas prices and wood prices increased by about 85%. The cost of everything is going up. The ability to use anything is going down. But something else will start happening this summer. The 2022 election campaigning has already started and by mid-summer it will be a full-throated political campaign. The bad news is that Joe did an incredible amount of damage during his first 100 days. The good news is that the “honeymoon” is already over. Nadler proposed stacking the Supreme Court by adding four new justices. Nancy Pelosi responded by announcing there was zero chance she would allow the House to vote on this act of insanity. Perhaps she noticed that her margin in the house is down to 3 seats. If only 2 Democrats cross over on any issue, she loses.

This will be the summer of abandonment. Abandonment of idiot lockdowns, masks, and social distancing. Abandoning our allies in places like Afghanistan. And abandonment of support for the rapidly sinking Biden Administration ship of state.  It was obvious before. Now everyone is singing the same song: “Crimea River.” It is not a love song.

TDM

NOTE: Yesterday I got the name and the facts wrong regarding the Capitol Police officer killed. The one who died, perhaps, because of the Capital riot, was Brian Sicknick. The officer who was recently honored by Biden was William Evans. He was struck by a vehicle driven by a Louis Farrakhan reporter. They should be honored for their service. I apologize for the error.