jasonderoga86

Breaking News (at least, for me): according to aggregate crime tracker Neighborhood Scout, as of right now Oakland -- my home city, where I was born -- is essentially the most dangerous city in America, with a violent ctime rate almost FOUR TIMES higher than the national average the it makes safer than ZERO PERCENT of U.S. neighborhoods.

My friends are begging me to go party with them for a close friend's birthday. But I'm just paralyzed here. My local Kaiser Permanente is no longer safe; a person can go there to get health care and end up in the emergency room with grievous (or possibly fatal) injuries these days. Our DA refuses to charge juveniles convicted of seriously violent crimes (i.e., armed burglaries, armed carjackings... all at the ages of 13 to 14 years) as adults. Our Mayor keeps giving us promises she knows she can't keep. Several restaurants have permanently closed their doors after being in business ranging from 25 to 54 years.
And we only JUST NOW got our new police chief. How is that supposed to address the rise of criminals who're now so bold and eager to commit violent crimes due to TWO YEARS of crimes surges due to the lack of sufficient law enforcement?! 

And we're still forced to go to our jobs to make money to pay taxes to this state, even if by doing so we might not come back home to our families safely -- or even at all. 

I'm sick of this shit. I'm sick of public officials asking so much of us civilians while they feel no obligation to reciprocate with more safe neighborhoods. We've done enough. They need to get off their asses and DO THEIR JOBS, rather than put blatantly unrealistic expectations on us because they're not up to the task. That's how it's supposed to work.

First off, I was just assigned a new case manager recently. I haven't yet had a chance to really talk to him, since a lot is going down at my job. But our first meeting WAS unique. Unique in that it was three days after an all-too-common tragedy happened in Lewiston, Maine. 

See, the thing is, my new case manager has a history with Lewiston. If I remember correctly, he was born there, and still has family there. So when the terrorism that was what went down in Maine happened, it hit him personally. And HARD. I don't think I've EVER heard such rage in someone's voice. He reminded me of Golden State Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr on the day Uvalde happened. And Kerr was also pissed to a level I've never seen before. 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I really feel I have to emphasize this and get it off my chest. My new ally voiced the all-to-familiar disdain for Republican politicians who say they don't want to talk politics after these things happen, yet in the same breath they propose new legislation for arming more people. Or in other words, the same shit that Wayne LaPierre coined after Sandy Hook: "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Uh-huh. And who decides who the "good" and "bad" guys are? Certainly not the ones doing the shooting, seeing as Republicans always seem to avoid talking about the killer after things like this. And in many cases, the "good guy" with a gun is also murdered anyway -- because they're armed with a pistol, which is FAR less potent than a military-issue rifle designed specifically for army soldiers. You know, the kind that these assholes use to slay so many people at once, AS THEY'RE DESIGNED TO DO. 

The GOP have already said they refuse to anything about this. In fact, to answer a parent's question of how she could ever send her child to a public school again with this being an obvious new norm forced on her and over 60% of American citizens -- INCLUDING responsible gun owners -- one particular Republican simply said, "Homeschool her."

What the shit? THAT'S the best they can say? So I guess that means the end of students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? The end of the sacred "One Nation under God?"

And while we're on that subject, I've noticed something equally disturbing. The weapon used in many school massacres and mass shootings in general is the AR-15. Some have aptly called it "The Radicals' Rifle." Thus, it shouldn't be a surprise that AR-15s were used in mass shootings incited by racist and bigoted rhetoric from GOP politicians. And it also shouldn't be a surprise that these same politicians respond to such massacres by LOOSENING already weak gun laws. There is a pattern here. Part of it is the GOP always stuffing "thoughts and prayers" down Americans' throats, invoking an all-powerful God. Also, oftentimes an ideology of strengthening a "Christian nation" is mentioned. Hell, even psuedo-Speaker Mike Johnson spoke of a "God-decreed obligation to charge the gates of hell." He spoke these words after the horror in Lewiston... amongst a group of ladies from a group named "Gun Rights for Women." Wow. That's SO thoughtful of you, Mr. Johnson. How much did the NRA pay you to say that, hmmm?

An article on the Washington Post concerned this very incident, and many comments followed. One in particular echoed the original author of the article's statement that Republicans let this carnage continue because they "think violence is good". The commenter, a lady, elaborated on the statement in detail, decrying the violence. Violence against schoolchildren because schools are no longer safe. Violence against women for standing up for the right to their own bodies. Violence against people who are anything that deviates from being heterosexual. Violence against election workers, Democratic politicians, people who stand for the rule of law. And of course, violence against marginalized Non-White groups for the purposes of GOP-encouraged ethnic cleansing. 

Another person responded with something along the lines of " Guns save more lives than they take. Deal with it."

First off, that's completely ignorant -- one life taken is one too many. Personally, I don't care who it is at this point, whether you're a cop, soldier, whatever. If you take a life, then by definition you're a killer. Christianity is no exception. Jesus said to "turn the other cheek." God Himself said, "Thou shalt not kill." The Second Amendment grants the right to bear arms to "well-regulated militias", NOT to any old Joe who wants to see how it feels to murder someone on a dime for sadistic pleasure or release of pent-up hatred.

Many people on the internet also accuse the inaction as supporting Christian nationalism, citing that the insurgents on Jan 6, 2021 were fed lies that Christianity "was under threat by a Marxist Radical Left Regime" along with the notion that violence was necessary -- in fact, some said "required" -- to "save America". That same encouragement of violence is still a cornerstone of GOP rhetoric. 

Mike Johnson also told Sean Hannity that guns aren't the problem, but rather "the human heart." Another commenter on a different blog site said, "Yeah, Mike Johnson is right. The problem is the human heart... that is, the hearts of the Republican Party. Their hearts are full of greed, insatiable lust for power, and just flat out evil." Basically, they don't fight against death. They CHAMPION it. Letting the gun violence continue is the only way Republicans can advance their agenda, because diplomacy and negotiation are off the table lest they draw the ire of the gun lobbyists. They won't bite the hand that feeds them. 

So, the Republican Party has made their intentions entirely clear, and they will let nothing -- not even the lives of young schoolchildren, who wish to have promising futures -- stand in the way of that. But I believe something WILL. No human likes to have their life be dictated on someone else's account. As I said before, God/Higher Power gave all of humanity the gift of free will. America is already fed up, and regardless of the GOPs fealty to gun lobbyists and violent extremism, SOMETHING'S GONNA GIVE EVENTUALLY. And when that happens, they'll be left high and dry, and not even the NRA will be able to save them. We're seeing it happen in the entertainment industry, this refusal to commit to an untenable way of life to satisfy those in power who crave godhood, and we're gonna see it among American citizens.

SOMETHING'S GONNA GIVE. Hope never dies. Never. ✊🫡

I'm what you'd call an unorthodox Christian. I don't take the Bible the same way other Christians do. Therefore I can't for the life of me understand what I recently heard.

45 and his little syndicate aren't hiding their plans anymore. They're literally blasting it on megaphones and speakers. Flying cars. Washington-sized right wing haven cities. Internment camps for the homeless under threat of arrest. Drug dealers executed with no trial. And let's not forget the main course: all of the government  - the branches, the departments, EVERYTHING - will be controlled by one man. How can you fight tyranny when what you'll put in place is THE VERY DEFINITION OF TYRANNY? 

What bothers me is how 45's supporters can call themselves Christian and be backing this guy. The whole world saw what he did during his 4-year regime. They saw what happened to those innocent parent-robbed kids in cages. They saw the brutality dealt to Blacks, Latinx, and other POC's by White cops and White extremist vigilantes. And they saw what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. Hell, some rogues in Brazil were inspired and did their own spin a year or two later. 

They said Obama was a horrible man because he was Hitler reborn, complete with moustache. But a White supremacist Hilter's all well and good, huh? As a Christian and an American, I cannot in good conscience call this individual a man of God, or even a human. Not anymore. Not anymore. A fellow Christian pointed out - as we've all seen - that 45 has routinely broken ALL Ten Commandments daily. ALL of them. Nothing is sacred to 45. Expect absolute, infinite power, of course.

I'm sorry to say at this point that I really don't care what happens to him. He's an abomination beyond any kind of salvation, and so are his blind, hate-filled loyalists. They are driven by vengeance and vengeance alone.

I'll end with something I learned from Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Vengeance is a poison that blackens the soul. Many of us try to protect ourselves from becoming that which we abhor. But some people allow - even welcome - darkness to devour them. And for these individuals, once the darkness takes them, either they can't come back... or they just don't want to.

We'll just have to wait and see in November of 2024. Personally, I don't see any escape for this guy. Whether he wins or loses, well, he still loses. Inauguration doesn't start till mid-January 2025, and if he tries anything then, that will surely end his return to power AND his freedom... if he's lucky.

After all, Jan 6. 2021 was a crime of treason - a crime he has yet to pay for.