A Dark Day In America
This is a post about America.
Please scroll down if interested.
.
There’s zero question in my mind that if, during a Make America Great Again rally, a Black man had shot two people dead, and seriously wounded another, the same jury would have convicted him on all counts.
Today’s verdict affirms white privilege and white supremacy.
I feel sick.
33 Comments
Leave a Reply Cancel Reply
Your email address will NEVER be made public or shared, and you may use a screen name if you wish.
Same. It is abhorrent. Reprehensible.
I agree. I am sickened.
Rittenhouse is as “not guilty” as O.J. Simpson. Neither were innocent
What worries me is that the Proud Boys, White Nationalists, White Supremacists and others will consider this as carte blanche to show up at any peaceful protest and just start to open fire.
It sets a very dangerous precedent regarding vigilantism in this country. I really fear for the outcome of the Aubrey trial.
That said, I knew he was going to get off. It was clear the judge was going to let him off. Even if the jury did convict him on all or any of the counts, I am sure the judge would have set aside that verdict and let him walk free. The prejudice was clear from the first day. Which only makes this farce of a trial all the more sad for this country.
It was a travesty.
Rittenhouse is still a murderer.
I only hope the families of his VICTIMS sue him in civil court and win.
Agreed, mlaiuppa.
The verdict is unbelievable. The families of the two men murdered and the man who was injured but lost his arm get no justice at all. That is sick. The judge was clearly NOT impartial.
No criminal justice.
But the survivor can still sue in civil court for medical bills, lost income, etc. With the right jury he could bankrupt RittenLouse for life. I hope he garnishes a lifetime of wages and bankrupts him for life.
Yes. This verdict sets a dangerous precedent.
Agreed, Kate.
One of the incredible things about the 1/6 terrorist attack on our US Capitol is that none of them expected any repercussions.
They thought they could trespass, damage government property, attack police officers, try and overturn an election, murder any politician they could grab, damage democracy, AND…get away with it.
Note how they always call themselves patriots.
It makes me want to vomit.
All of our government security agencies have identified far-right White Supremacists as the #1 danger to America.
This is what Rittenhouse is. And all the traitors who attacked the Capitol.
And, today, a jury decided that all this was OK, and encoded violence by such people into the law books.
Wanna understand what happened to Germany in the 1930s? Just pay attention to America today.
Well, the 1/6 insurrectionists were the looters, vandals, rioters, etc. So by their own standards I could have gone there with an assault rifle to offer medical aid to the Capitol police and then shot as many insurrectionists as I wanted that I felt threatened me and I would be able to walk free. Self Defense.
The problem with these white privilege ar$e-wholes is that they think these exceptions pertain only to them and no one else. That is in essence Fascism. That the elite have Democracy and the rest of us live under an Authoritarian dictatorship. And they are fine with that as long as they are the elite. The Republicans are busy right now redrawing district lines to eliminate as many Democratic districts and positions as possible. They are the minority but they will continue to control more and more states. There is a real danger there. We were that close to having the 2020 election overturned by the House and Trump declared president. If Kevin McCarthy was Speaker of the House, it would have happened.
In more positive news, the Eff DeJoy will finally be gone, likely at the first of the year. Biden is replacing two board members and they will remove DeJoy. Took long enough.
It will cost a mint to repair all of the damage that hard little turd has done. I hope they replace all of those destroyed machines with the best, most advanced technologically exquisite machines possible. Put all of the mail boxes back on the streets, reinstitute overtime and first class air mail. Basically erase everything he’s done, put it back better and then make sure no amateur hack can destroy the USPS again. While they’re at it rescind that retirement pension POS too. The USPS is a SERVICE protected in the Constitution. It is not a business and does not have to make a profit or even break even. That needs to be codified in the law. The USPS needs to be protected. We’ve seen the impact on our democratic elections that trying to destroy the post office can do. In fact a new bill was in the works to block DeJoy’s 10 year plan to make the mail slower, more expensive and reduce Post Office hours. Called the D-E-J-O-Y act.
“The DEJOY (Delivering Envelopes Judiciously On-time Year-round) Act would require mail service to abide by the same policies in effect on January 1, 2021 — effectively preventing any DeJoy-led service changes from going into effect.”
Postage is still going to go up from 55¢ to 58¢. Time to buy some more forever stamps.
Exactly. Kyle is basically a white supremacist insurgent.
Me too. Sick and dumbfounded.
That young man has issues that will only fester and escape again down the line in his future.but
Agreed, Linda.
There’s a picture of him where he looks about five, and he’s proudly holding a huge assault rifle.
This is just profound child abuse, IMO.
Karma isn’t done with Kyle yet. What a sad situation for all.
Agree. Frightening and terrible, and setting a very dangerous (beyond dangerous) precedent. And reeks and of white supremacism.
We have so much work to do to help this country/world/planet .
Karen, I always remind myself that the people who yearn to destroy democracy (you know, Trump supporters) comprise only about 1/3 of America.
This mean that 2/3 of Americans are good and decent.
What scares me though is that about the same numbers were evident in early 1930s Germany, when only a 1/3 minority supported Hitler.
And then…
These people, if they can grab/steal absolute power…which they are furiously trying to do…WILL destroy America.
Thanks for this positive, upbeat reply Ross. Its very helpful and I will keep these numbers about good people in mind.
Watching the Arbery trial now….
On another note, I wonder… about the Infrastructure Bill—even if the s#it hits the fan in 2024, if your man Pete Buttigieg might be the hero we need in 2024 or 2028 after people see and feel the results of the Infrastructure Bill. And hopefully Build, Back, Better. (Of course depending on what Biden and Kamala want to do, but I have a feeling about Pete…)
And on yet another, I am pretty close to restoring a 20 year old Chesterfield sofa because I like the lines better than anything I can find, I love the idea of restoring, anything and everything and I don’t have the opportunity to restore a house right now..
It may be a folly. But I am ok with that.
Hugs to you and the kitties Ross! And to Cody.
Time to grow up snowflakes! He was tried and found not guilty. Now you are just pissed off because you didn’t get your way. Stop trying to play on peoples emotions by twisting the facts. The people he shot were not innocent and were trying to kill or injure him. Twelve people who heard the actually facts saw it that way as well. White privilege didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, the real fact did……..and not something you hear or see from the liberal press!
They were trying to disarm him. He incited violence by pointing his rifle at unarmed people, then claimed self-defense. Blubbering, cowardly Snowflake.
If he was only interested in providing medical aid, why did he bring an assault rifle that he had someone else buy for him? He went there intending to teach some liberals a lesson. Then used the crying man-baby defense.
The Judge had his thumb, in fact an entire fist, on the scale.
Republicans consider vandalism a capitol offense because they value stuff over life. They use it as an excuse to justify murder.
If Rittenhouse had been a black 17 year old shooting at 1/6 Insurrectionists, he would be in prison for life if not on death row.
He’s George Zimmerman in the making.
May Rittenhouse be shunned for life.
Michael, terms like “snowflake” are not helpful when trying to help people see that the press has been lying to them. Terms like this are devisive, and division is exactly the media’s goal. People who believe what they are told on TV are simply gullible and very indoctrinated, not evil. The press once sought to draw attention to important issues of the day in a neutral and informational manner so that the public could be informed. Those days are long gone. The corporate media has for decades served as the propaganda arm of the government in order to sway public opinion and conceal truth; it stopped being neutral long ago. Even the token “conservative” outlet Fox spews its share of disinformation.
One of the most recent and highly visible examples of corporate media’s relentless efforts at distorting truth in order to advance a false narrative and political agenda can be be found in the wildly popular “Let’s go Brandon” phrase. The term has become ubiquitous not simply because it insults the current regime but moreso because it concisely and humorously exposes the systemic falsification of reality which now typifies the “legacy” media. Those three little words opened a lot of eyes!
When not lying outright, the media often distorts the truth through omission of facts and details which would otherwise create a very different conclusion. It is because of this that alternative media has grown exponentially on the interenet… one of the last bastions of free speech (when it isn’t being de-platformed or otherwise censored). People are seeing the deceptive tactics in greater numbers than ever.
We’ll make more progress by helping people see the deception than by calling them names. It will be interesting to what comes next in the continuing attempt to further divide the country and undermine the 2nd ammendment, while promoting a false narrative that all white people are inherently racist. Personally, I hope Rittenhouse sues every media outlet which worked overtime on character assasination in order to defame him before the trial. It’s the media that needs to be challenged, and not its brainwashed victims.
“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality” — Ayn Rand
I agree 100% that the media is a huge problem.
It is aiding and abetting the GOP in trying to destroy democracy. I see this in the relentless and unwarranted attacks upon Biden. For example, the media keeps screaming about Biden’s dropping poll numbers. What the media omits is the fact that EVERY PRESIDENT since at least Truman had their poll numbers drop at the end of their first year. This is NORMAl. But, the media presents this as something unique…and bad…about Biden.
The media is also going after Biden over inflation. Ignoring that inflation is currently a GLOBAL problem right now. How is Biden responsible for that?
The media keeps having on Right-wing talking heads who trash Biden and Democrats. The CNN hosts, for example, just nod their heads and rarely reply: “What you just said is bullshit.”
The media was ferocious in going after Hillary about emails. Emails. Friggin’ emails. This was a titanic-sized nothing burger. We ALL send emails. And having a private server was perfectly legal (a server set up by the Secret Service, no less). And while the media was shitting all over Hillary, they constantly downplayed the endless Trump horrors. The supposedly Liberal NYT was a leader in this journalistic shitshow, and this is why I cancelled my subscription in 2016.
The media has been so cowed by the relentless screams of the Right…THE MEDIA IS TOO LIBERAL…that they have fallen all over themselves to attack the Left and soft-pedal the evils the Right is now openly doing, like attacking the Capitol on 1/6, like working overtime to stop people from voting, and, well, the list is long.
Even my favorite late-night talk show host, Stephen Colbert, has become unwatchable. He does joke after joke about Biden but most are made-up Right-wing talking points. “You know, in another example of Biden’s senility…” And the audience laughs. While democracy is in grave danger.
It wasn’t like this in the 1960s and 1970s. Then Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, and the result is the media sewer we now have. It’s not just Fox.
Also, Rittenhouse shot three people. The media reported this. How is that character assassination?
Had a good hearty laugh over several points here, only these are also funny-not funny:
“Even the token “conservative” outlet Fox spews its share of disinformation.” Umm, FOX exists only because we lost the Fairness Doctrine. It always considered itself to be an entertainment network and has always spewed copious quantities of lies by purposely blurring the lines between news and opinion shows. The network had to surrender it’s license in the UK.
“Personally, I hope Rittenhouse sues every media outlet which worked overtime on character assasination in order to defame him before the trial.”
RIttenhouse may be a right-wing darling for his unwise, teenage decision to carry a straw purchased military grade assault rifle that he could not purchase or own legally into a highly volatile situation, but he’s no hero. Rather, he’s both a symptom and result of our ill-defined second amendment, overly lax gun laws, and the extremely dangerous rise of contemporaryvigilante justice. He deserves every bit of media scrutiny he received as well as being subjected to his trial. Unless he has some transformative experience, he’ll probably go the way of George Zimmerman and end up too nuts and toxic to remain a conservative darling. Zimmerman failed to prove he was harmed by media and reaped nothing from his lawsuits. Both “men” created toxic, confrontational situations that resulted in unnecessary deaths.
Honestly, we don’t need this level of reckless endangerment on our streets or in our civil discourse.
You wrote: “while promoting a false narrative that all white people are inherently racist.”
Please provide me with a link to the NYT or CNN or ABC or NBC or CBS where they have been promoting such a narrative.
For, I don’t recall any of these media outlets promoting the idea that ALL white people are racist.
Also, you had a full paragraph about the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon”. I read it three times and don’t understand your point. The phrase is being used by the Right as code for “Fuck Joe Biden”.
Wow, Michael. Wow.
FACTS MATTER:
Rittenhouse traveled across several states to a confrontational zone.
He openly carried an ASSAULT WEAPON.
Yea, all this is what normal people do. FFS.
You wrote: “The people he shot were not innocent…”
And Rittenhouse knew this, how????????
The people he confronted were not there to protest. They were there to destroy property and lives. I’m sorry Ross but 12 people saw it differently than you after hearing the facts. There is no conservative conspiracy like you would believe in your mind, just people with different opinions. Haven’t you grown tired of Antifa, BLM and yes, even the Proud Boys attacking people and not being called to justice…….or is justice only for liberals!
“The people he confronted were not there to protest. They were there to destroy property and lives.”
Michael, please provide me the evidence to support your statement.
It’s a trick question, of course, because there IS no such evidence. You are just making that up so your mind can excuse cold-blooded murder.
And…this is vital…even if they were, how could Rittenhouse have known this? To repeat: how could Rittenhouse have known this?
“I’m sorry Ross but 12 people saw it differently than you after hearing the facts.”
You are, it seems, oblivious to the fact that the American legal system is imperfect, and it also had a long history of built-in racism.
“Haven’t you grown tired of Antifa, BLM…”
Michael, can you explain to me what Antifa is?
I’m gonna guess you can’t. And did you know that I am antifa? So is every decent person I know. Antifa simply means being against fascism. And, yes, I’m powerfully against fascism. The question, Michael, is why aren’t you?
And, no, I’m not tired of BLM protestors. I cheer them on.
“attacking people and not being called to justice”
I don’t recall what city had a lot of violence in 2020, but 60 protesters and rioters have been arrested.
You also seem unaware that of the distinction between these two separate groups:
1) Protestors.
2) Rioters.
The former are normally peaceful.
The latter, by intention, are not. And they travel to places where they know protests will be and cause damage and trouble, knowing it will be blamed on the protestors. This is an old trick. In 2020, a police station was set on fire. The BLM protestors were blamed. Turns out…surprise!…that it was a white supremacist! He has since been arrested.
“Cheer on BLM”……the same group where people have died as a result of their, sometimes violent protests? You are aware it is a Marxist organization in its goals and they have never denied that? And you say you are a member of Antifa, associated with quite a number of violent protests around the country? Does violence and your support of such tactics justify your support of such organizations?
“the same group”
Michael, you are delusional. There’s no other way to put it.
There is no BLM group. There are though people who believe that Black lives matter. I am one such person. And such people do, yes, protest the systemic racism in America. This is a good thing even if, yes, sometimes violence occurs.
Yet, you ignore my previous comment:
You also seem unaware that of the distinction between these two separate groups:
1) Protestors.
2) Rioters.
The former are normally peaceful.
The latter, by intention, are not.
“And you say you are a member of Antifa”
I did not state that. For, one can not be a member of an organization which doesn’t exist. I stated that I am antifa. Which is to be against fascism. This is a good thing, Michael. We fought a world war to destroy fascism. So, I ask you again: Why aren’t you against fascism?
For the record: I don’t condone violence.
You don’t realize that you’ve been played by Right-wing media. Played, Michael. They have you scared of ANTIFA (which doesn’t exist as an entity) and BLM (a slogan)! And you cling to these delusions because they then allow you to rationalize away the REAL danger to the country as identified by All of our government security agencies: far-right White Supremacists.
THESE are the people who traveled to cities where BLM protests were underway and caused most of the damage and violence.
THESE are the people who stormed the Michigan capitol with the intention of murdering the governor.
THESE are the people who stormed the US Capitol on 1/6 with the intent to murder and overthrow an election.
But, sure, you go ahead and believe that being against fascism is the problem.
There is no such organization or group named Antifa. No membership. You can’t join. It is a right-wing, made-up derogatory term for anyone that is against Fascism. Every patriotic American should be against Fascism. It’s why we fought in World War II.
At least Spartacus was a real person.
You are continuing to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
You should quit while you are ahead.
It’s a sad day for America. I’m looking at the right-wing SM and it’s [cough] media, and it’s just terrible how they are canonizing this murderer.
Agreed, Paul.
This was posted by one Kurt Schlichter: “Your pain delights me. Kyle Rittenhouse killed two leftist catspaws and bisected the bicep of another and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
I knew he’d get off but it doesn’t make it any easier. The only small ray of light I can take from this is that (finally) people seem to recognize the injustice and are trying harder to create positive change. Still really, really infuriating though.
I could MAYBE feel a little for him if he felt sorry that lives were lost, but he’s not. He’s 18, ignorant, and self-absorbed. I foresee a bad future for him and hope no one else dies at his hands. Very disappointed at the verdict. And what’s with our laws that it’s unlawful for him to have a hand gun, but lawful to have an assault rifle? If he really wanted to go there to “help” with his non-existent medical training, why did he need an assault rifle? That’s just messed up. (I unfortunately didn’t hear the part of why the victims supposedly attacked him – but if I was attacked, I would run away) :/
He’ll become another George Zimmerman and eventually be held accountable for another crime.