There is no chance that Donald Trump will shut his big mouth over shooting Jews and fake news

By SJ Otto

After 11 people were shot at the Tree of Life synagogue, in Pittsburgh, this nation then goes through the usual pattern of hand ringing and other predictable routines. There is a call by various politicians and citizens for new gun laws. Every politicians in the nation calls out for a discussion on the various gun laws and possible changes to the gun laws.[1] As can be predicted, these calls fall short of any action and they go silent shortly after the passion of the event (usually a shooting at a church or school) cools down. By now, no one has followed through on any kind of change. It’s a pattern and it has persisted now for years with absolutely no variations. No new gun laws have been enacted and we can expect nothing to change.

Here in Wichita there are groups of people who want to roll back the Kansas gun laws that allow people to carry guns without a permit. A lot of people want to require permits before a person can carry a gun. I oppose that because changing it would allow those who have the money for permits to carry a gun while poor people could not carry a gun. The permits are expensive. That means only wealthy people can carry guns if those changes are made. I would rather see the efforts made to roll back the “stand your ground” laws. Those laws seem to shield a reckless person so they can carry a gun. As it stands, a person can shoot the wrong person or kill them over a frivolous reason. Just recently a white man shot an unarmed black man in a fight over a parking space.  

Another problem that may contribute to these church and school shootings is the division and politically charged attitudes that politicians are creating. People are getting fire up from the political rhetoric from speeches and written opinions.

Consider President Donald Trump’s tweets and speeches at his rallies. At first Trump agreed to “ratchet down” the rhetoric that has enflamed people across the country. The nation is deeply divided and people are passionate about their political points of view. Some say that such divisions are responsible for those who have acted out violence, such as Cesar Sayoc who allegedly mailed out all those pipe bombs to Democrats and supporters of Democrats. Then there is the Robert Bowers, who allegedly shot up the Tree of Life synagogue. Acts of hate against Jews and other minorities seem to be way up over the last few years.

At first Trump said he would “ratchet down” his rhetoric against the Democrats and minorities. Some folks are blaming Trump for the rise in hate crimes and verbal attacks by far-right hate groups who feel at ease to attack minorities, such as gays, blacks and foreigners. As Trump crosses this country trying to rally his supporters to support Republicans who are running election campaigns this season, his rhetoric has gotten nasty. For example Trump tweeted:

“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame...”

Trump just can’t seem to shut his big fat mouth or his thumbs as he tweets his angry and hateful messages. It is not surprising he has made a cluster f**k out of trashing foreigners and aliens who want to come here, such as that big caravan that is coming from Central America, but he has also attacked the news media, calling them “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”

There are legitimate reasons to want to put the brakes on people who want to come here illegally and join our nation. Trump goes way overboard. He accused George Soros and other Democrats of paying people to come here from Central America. Such an accusation is totally false and completely absurd. He is trying to use these baseless accusations to motivate his base of support to get out and vote. He is trying to create an atmosphere of fear and hate. It is working.

We all have problems with the mainstream news media from time to time. But to insist that they are “fake news” and “true enemy of the people” is a ridiculous accusation. These are obviously made because Trump has thin skin. He can’t handle criticism. The news media may make mistakes, but they have reported on his idiot actions and his downright stupidity and there is nothing fake about that. We can be thankful that the news media is watching Trump and reporting on his mistakes. If any institution is an “true enemy of the people” it is him. We would all be better off if Trump just kept his big mouth shut about a lot of the things he talks about.

We all know Trump is not going to do that. He will keep on tweeting and mouthing off on things he either knows nothing about or he just makes things up. As long as he is president we can count on Trump to fan the passions of hateful people who take their politics just too passionately.  

Pix by Foreign Policy.

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[1] See: “Steve Kerr speaks out on gun control in wake of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting,” “Citing Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Phil Murphy backs new gun laws for NJ,” and “Trump calls Pittsburgh synagogue attack 'evil' anti-Semitism, suggests armed guard could have curbed violence."

It’s Samhain/Halloween a holiday we are all familiar with

By SJ Otto

Happy Samhain/Halloween, etc! Most people know this holiday as a time for dressing up, and children getting candy from “trick or treating.” But this was the most important holiday of the year, before Christianity came to Europe. The Druids, witches, Wiccans and other pre-Christian religions saw this day as a kind of New Year day. It was the most important holiday of the year, in which people celebrated the end of the harvest and the beginning of the new year. It was also a time where people believed that spirits could visit the living. That is why many people wore masks. They carved pumpkins out of fruits, such as turnips. (Pumpkins came from the new world, so Europeans didn’t have them).

It is amazing that any of these traditions remain, since Halloween can be viewed as a non-Christian holiday. At one point the Christian Church came up with All Saints Day, for a holiday after Halloween, where people were supposed to dress as their favorite saints and go to mass.

Here are some good Halloween tunes:

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Marilyn Manson - This is Halloween

Ramones - Pet Sematary

Fox Business host peddles conspiracy theories about pipe bombs mailed to Trump's enemies

Since bombs against liberal leaders have been front and center in the news lately, I just had to post something about who ever is sending them. –SJ Otto

From Daily Kos:

Like many in the Fox News lineup, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs has treated his audience to ever-more-dubious rantings and conspiracy theories over the last few years. His routine has gotten meaner, his dedication to hoax-peddling more urgent, and his incessant demonization of liberals, immigrants, government officials, and anyone else that Dear Leader has designated for abuse on any given day has become a regular feature of his “business”-themed show.

Now the Fox host is trivializing and conspiracy-peddling about a pipe bomb sent to a host of Trump’s named enemies, including a rival news network.

For the rest click here.

Local Kansas Democrats rally to get out the vote

By SJ Otto

In the wake of two big time visits from President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in support of Kris Kobach and other Republican candidates across the state, Democrats rallied the troops, October 21, with a visit by Dan Glickman former Kansas Congressman from the 4th District and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

"I was an elected official here for many years,” Glickman said, according to KAKE TV. “I just like to see people engaged."

Glickman has spent the weekend back in Kansas stumping for Democrats like James Thompson, candidate for the US Fourth District House of Representatives, Laura Kelly and Lynn Rogers, candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, Lacy Cruse, running for Sedgwick County Commissioner, and Kansas Representative John Carmichael among others. They gathered Sunday afternoon at the Machinist Hall in Wichita, KS.

I was there, just in time to see local Democrats speak.[1] Thompson and Cruse are part of a movement to move the Democratic Party to the left. In the past the Democrats have relied on a strategy of raising lots of money, staying close to the center and avoiding controversial issues that might offend voters. That strategy has not always worked and many progressive Democrats are sick of it. Thompson, Cruse and some other Democrats were able to fill Century II, earlier this year, with supporters of both their campaign and the more progressive local Democrats.

“If you have pre-existing health conditions, you better vote,” said Thompson. He added that his opponent Ron Estes wants to get rid of the protections that Obamacare (Affordable Care Act or ACA) has given people.

“They will allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and deny people health care,” Thompson added.

He also pointed out that Trump and his Republican congress people want to cut back on Social Security.

“They call it entitlements and they are entitlements,” Thompson said. “You paid into them your whole life and they want to take that away from you.”

Other Democrats warned that if Kobach wins the election, he will damage the public schools even worse than Sam Brownback did when he was governor.

This afternoon the theme was to get out and vote. Most of the speakers said that there has never been a bigger difference between the Democrats and Republicans in the state’s history.  It was also announce d that about 40,000 Democrats and independents have signed up to vote in the last week. This could spell a big difference in the outcomes of these elections.

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[1] Since I am a Gonzo Journalist I am able to put myself in the story when the need for that arises. This is a part of being a Gonzo that I really like.

Many local Democrats were on hand today.

James Thompson warned Democrats that his opponent Ron Estes wants to cut back on people's health care.

Lacy Cruse was in the Maize Fall Festival Parade Yesterday. 

There was an enthusiastic crowd with lots of Democrats.

Marching with Lacy Cruse in the Maize Fall Festival

By SJ Otto
Today I took part in the Maize Fall Festival Parade of Maize Kansas. I marched with contingent of Lacy Cruse. The march is held every year and local political candidates take part so they can promote their candidacies. Here are some photos of our group.

Trump—the anti-journalist president who jokes about beating up journalists

By SJ Otto

Once again we are treated to the ramblings of a thug-like buffoon who pretends to be our “President” Donald Trump. Trump was at a rally to shore up support for Republicans and his words were followed with cheers from a crowd of brain dead Montanans.
Montana House Republican Greg Gianforte body slammed Ben Jacobs, of the Guardian. Trump said Gianforte is "my guy." Trump said this at a time when Saudi Arabia has kidnapped and assassinated a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.   .

It is one thing to go around claiming the media provides us “fake news,” but we don’t need to give politicians a green light to physically attack journalists for doing their job.[1] This seems to be a dangerous time to be a journalist.

Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record. The country is similar to Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea and has a lot of the same problems, such as being a government that uses heredity to determine its leaders. The people of Saudi Arabia are not starving, which is one of the few differences. Saudi Arabia is an oil rich kingdom and the US sells them lots of weapons. On the other hand North Korea is a cold war relic that is still considered a US enemy. The US mainstream news media makes a lot of noise over North Korea’s human rights record. The same news media completely ignores the human rights abuses of Saudi Arabia.  

Trump and his ilk have been slow to criticize Saudi Arabia. They now have to decide how they are going to deal with a staunch ally that clearly has murdered a dissident journalist and yet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he told President Donald Trump to give Saudi Arabia "a few more days to complete" an investigation into the Khashoggi murder. According to CNBC Pompeo says that Saudi officials told him during a visit to the kingdom this week that "they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi, and that they will do so in a timely fashion."

To have the government of Saudi Arabia investigate its own crimes is absurd. It’s like having a fox investigate its own crime of stealing eggs from the hen house. But the US, under Trump and war mongering leaders such as Pompeo, are forced to pretend they are dealing with a civilized nation that follows the democratic rules of a Western country.

No US president in modern times would have an easy time of trying to defend all the trade and military deals with such a despicable government. But Trump’s constant haranguing of the US press has back fired on him. Trump has come out looking like an anti-press, anti-journalist thug. He can now be seen as a governing, thinned skin politician caught up in a murder cover-up.

Our idiot president has shown that he has no respect for the rules of law when it comes to those who might expose him as the buffoon that he is. I wonder if Trump would find it funny if I encouraged someone take a shot at him?

Pix from The Federalist Papers.

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[1] I can add to this that I am a journalist, so this applies to me.

Of course it is OK to hate the Republican Party –Part 1

Kanye West sucks!

By SJ Otto
I used to like Kanye West. It seemed like he tried to make music and lyrics that had something to say. I never actually bought any of his albums and I never will—now that he is publically supporting President Donald Trump—probably one of the worst presidents this country has ever had and will ever have. Not that the Republicans haven’t tried hard in the past. Richard Nixon killed millions in Vietnam; Ronald Reagan conned the working class into accepting one of the lowest standards of living they ever experienced; and there was President George W. Bush, the brain dead idiot who got us into unnecessary wars.
I call this new series; “Why I hate the Republican Party.”
I despise the Republicans on a personal level. Donald Trump gets elected and one of the first things he does is try to destroy health care for millions of Americans. That affected me personally. And state level Republicans have also messed with my health care to the point that I have only catastrophic health care and it is real expensive and almost worthless. Kansans are among the most ripped off people when it comes to Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) and I learned all of that from the health care representative I went through to get my present health insurance. I live in one of the worst states for Obamacare and I live in the only industrialized country in which the government doesn’t care about the health of its less wealthy citizens. I got to thank the Republicans, although there are some Democrats who are no better.
I have argued with a lot Marxist and other leftists on a variety of Facebook sites, where they have argued against the Democratic Party to the point I believe they hate the Democrats more than the Republicans. I would leave statements about the Republican Party and I would get statements back such as “The Democrats do that also” or “The Democrats are just as bad.” I do agree with many of the comments about the Democrats, at least the so called “mainstream Democrats.” But I firmly believe that the Republicans are noticeably worse. And I say that because what they do affects me personally.
I see Trump fans writing into The Wichita Eagle, such as:

“There is something for everybody on that impressive list, so please look it over and register to vote by Oct. 16, for those candidates who need to go to Congress and give support to President Trump's agenda, which is really a pro-United-States-of-America agenda.” –by Carolyn Simms

People like her just ignore the fact that many of us won’t live long enough to enjoy all of those benefits on that “impressive list.” Supposedly, as I read from other supporters of Trump, the economy is doing well, so just ignore the fact that poor people die early due to a lack of health care. Trump has trashed the environment with a passion. He operates as if he hates poor people. He shifted the tax burden on the poor, when he gave out that impressive tax cut that mostly went to rich people. He trashed the agency that was planning to go after predatory lenders, some of which are charging poor folks 900 percent interest. It is mostly poor people who use their car ownership to obtain loans that are nearly impossible to pay back and they saddle those poor folks with a lifetime of debt. Trump is defending these lenders. I could go on and on with examples of Trump’s hatred of both poor people and the environment. The saddest thing I note is that many middle class people and some poor folks actually support this enemy of the working class. One person I read about actually praised Trump as the greatest president we ever had.
Then we have such ass hole celebrities as Kanye West, Roseanne Barr and Kid Rock, all support this guy. We definitely don’t want to support these people in anyway. Don’t buy their albums, don’t watch them on TV, don’t give them anything. The Republicans are enemies of the working people and poor people. We need to fight back.
This is just the first part in this series, “Why I hate the Republican Party.”

What ass holes!

Pix by TooFab.

The Rise of Brazil’s Far Right and What it Shows About Western Democracies

Protesters great Trump in Topeka, Kansas

By SJ Otto

A lot has been said about Republicans being angry at the way the Democrats treated Judge Brett Kavanaugh this week before he was voted in to the Supreme Court, but  there are plenty of Democrats who are angry at the way the Republicans have treated women abuse victims from those hearings.

We saw that this Saturday, as anti-Kavanaugh forces protested Donald Trump and his ilk at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, KS.

President Donald Trump was in Kansas Saturday night, rallying for Governor hopeful Kris Kobach. 

The Kansas Expocentre in Topeka was filled with supporters at the Make America Great Again Rally. President Trump's 2020 campaign team says there were about 11,000 people in attendance. There were maybe 1,000 protesters outside in the rain that night, caring signs and marching outside the front of the Expocentre.

There were lots of signs at the event, including some women who chanted Trump, Kobach go away, racist, sexist anti-gay.

A protester from Lawrence, Jenna Groth, was there with two people.

"I think Trump is dishonest," she said. "He appeals to people who hate. Kris Kobach wants to suppress the vote."
The protesters had to brave cold temperatures, damp and sometimes rainy weather.

Some protesters compared Trump to Hitler.

Some People evoked the days of President Richard Nixon.

Some people from the far-right tried to argue with protesters. They got shouted down.

Ron Estes actually has to get off his fat ass and campaign this time

By SJ Otto

Unlike Ron Estes’ first run for office, this time he will actually have to run a campaign and WORK for his job. Two years ago Estes skipped public forums, avoided debates, and ran a campaign that implied: “I’m a Republican in a Republican district. I will win by default.” That seemed to be his motto, so why do any more work than he needed to?

Thompson on the other hand made all the debates and forums. He was out meeting people.

Estes spent a lot of Republican slush money, from all their bribes and kick-backs, on lots and lots and lots of ads. And he went negative, telling people that Thompson was running on behalf of Nancy Pelosi, who today is no longer relevant to anything in congress. Republicans always accuse their Democratic rivals of wanting to tax the middle class to death.

Estes was late to his own victory party on election night. And the local Republicans, along with the national Republican Party ran ads for Estes. Dishonesty has never been a problem for Republicans. Playing lose with the truth and lying has never been a problem for any of them.   

This year he has actually been to debates, with his challenger, again James Thompson. He plans to make more of them. This year he actually has to get up off his fat ass and had to do something.

Estes has once again been running those misleading ads. This is a guy who just lacks any real issues or convictions.  From the beginning he has been a week candidate who lacks any real dynamics. He’s lack luster and he has been a Republican lackey who just fell ass backward into that office, Kansas’ Fourth Congressional District.

This year he actually wrote an article about health care that goes along with the national Republicans, implying that providing health care to thepoor and others who need it will bankrupt the overall health care system. His lord and master President Donald Trump did what Republicans have been doing for the last 50 years. He destroyed the Democrat plan for providing health care to thows who need it and promised he had a better plan to provide health care to all citizens. Once he got elected and once he destroyed Obamacare, he simply ignored the health care crisis and just went back the status quo. He will do nothing and just keep the lousy system we have—a system that Estes fully supports.

So even if Estes wins this election he will have had to get out and earn it. This time around he can't just sit back on his fat ass[1] and win by default.

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[1] I'm just about as fat as Estes is, so the term "fat ass" is not meant to be taken literally as if his weight is really an issue. The term used here just refers to a politician being a lazy slacker.  

Another good year for Wichita Pride

By SJ Otto

At least a thousand of people gathered for the annual Pride Parade, Sunday afternoon, here in Wichita. There were many colorful banners at this gay pride event where people stressed they should be what they want to be.

Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, asked the crowd who were outside the Old Sedgwick County Courthouse for speeches before the parade, if they remember Stonewall.
"They were riots." he said.

Stonewall was a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations between members of the gay community against a police raid which took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan  New York. They are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement.

He also brought up the passing of an adoption law this year that allows faith based outfits to be involved in adopting out children and they can discriminate against gay couples (SB 284, passed by a vote of 24-15).

"We really dropped the ball on that one," Witt said.

Other speakers that where present also brought up that law, including
Liz Hamor, of  the Greater Wichita Chapter of GLSEN.

"I've known gay people who knew they were gay before they were cutting teach," she said.
In 2013, Hamor started the Greater Wichita Chapter of GLSEN, a national organization that works to ensure all students feel safe, valued, and respected in K-12 schools regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.
"Things were much different five years ago," said Democrat Kansas Representative John Carmichael.

"Gays couldn't inherit property, they couldn't get health insurance for their mates, they couldn't visit partners in the hospital," he added. "It's not as good as it should be but things are better today."

Carmichael also talked about the potential loss of women's rights if Brett Kavanaugh gets to be on the Supreme Court.

"It's wrong and we're going to change it," he said of the adoption law.

"We need to slam the door in their face regarding the last 8 years (of Sam Brownback)," said Lt. Governor Candidate Lynn Rogers.

"We've got to stop the potential hate. We need to get Kansas in the right direction."

Here is a float from Moms Demanding Action from gun violence.

There was a float by James Thompson, running against Ron Estes, the slacker representative of the Fourth District.