To my FB friends:

I see a wide variety of responses on the video that I created and posted about the siege on the capital last week. Responses from so many friends on such a volatile issue that is affecting our lives and our country. I have friends lashing out at me, I have friends agreeing with me, I have friends defending me. Social media gives us the opportunity for love & hate, wisdom & ignorance, forgiveness, and aggression all on the same platform. Why? Because we are Americans living in the greatest country in the world who has a foundational promise of freedom of speech.

When I was growing up, I got my world view from Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, and Lawrence Spivak from a little black & white television. We formed our beliefs and bias from our parents, our places of worship, our schools, our community from the morning paper, the evening news, and your drunk uncle on holidays. We had no internet, Google, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or an openly antisemitic Parler, or musings from a mysterious dark web with voices of nefarious individuals with evil intent. Now we have almost unlimited opportunity to speak our voice and be heard as well as opportunity to be manipulated.

Our freedom of speech as promised by the 1st amendment of our constitution is an inalienable right and is what truly what makes the great experiment that we call democracy work at all.  We have grown up with political satire and vociferous opposing views that serve only to strengthen our republic, guarantee our freedom, and encourage resilience in a nation that leads the world in innovation and prosperity.

Freedom of speech although does not include freedom for incitement of violent acts. Throwing tea from a Boston harbor is an act of defiance not violence. Killing a Police Officer with a fire extinguisher when doing his job to control an angry mob to protect our capital is not freedom of speech its murder. Murder over an allegation of wrongdoing perpetrated by inuendo of yet unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud that is voiced on social media and yet to be proven.

I was shocked and dismayed watching the events unfold, even more shocked and dismayed the days that followed with many Trump loyalists condoning the insurrection and even defending the murder and mayhem as unfortunate but necessary.

For over 30 years I have walked with the bereaved, sat in the puddle of their tears with them. I have sat with people in every major city in this country and even more in their surrounding communities.  Not one time in the countless thousands of times sitting in the puddle with a griever did we ever discuss politics other than for insufficient bereavement leave. 

We have an agitated and very frightened country with an amalgamation of influence that is threatening our future. We have a lethal pandemic killing 4,000 people a day, we are incurring one death every 8 minutes in Los Angeles county alone as we speak. Then we have thousands of protesters show up to our Nation’s capital with our country’s underbelly of miscreants, stooges, opportunists, and ignorant agitators that all claim the virus is a hoax and the election was stolen. This contingently  infiltrated and overtook the presence of any local peaceful protesters that were there. They came from all over the country to storm the capital from the urging of our president. They have one agenda to create discord & mayhem at the same time while smugly extolling their joy and carnival of doing it. 

I realize these miscreants are a small percent of those who support the ideals of President Trump but unfortunately, they paint all his supporters in a bad light. Call me hopelessly centric, but up until these past few years I have been. I had never heard of or was aware of some of these radical groups on either side of the aisle. Groups such as ANTIFA, BLM, Q-ANON, The Proud Boys and a plethora of other white supremist groups; many who are opposing factions with a different diametrically opposed views and agendas.  I had no idea that the far right has been nurturing and laying plans for a coup d’état of our country for a long time. This evidently has the support from far-right wing Christians as part of God’s plan. I have gotten veiled threats for daring to satirize their demagogue and leader as they honestly believe he is an appointed/anointed vessel of God to save our country. I have told from numerous supporters that it is ordained; Trump will be President for the next four years. I have been told by a direct source who I know very well and who is an ardent Trump supporter that there will be a military intervention before Jan.20th with the storming of state capitals around the nation. Several leading members of congress will be tried for treason and Trump will still be our president.

Seriously this a widespread belief among MAGA supporters; to hear it voiced directly is a bit unnerving, especially stated with a smug, just you wait see demeaner. Is this delusion or do we have a large-scale underground militia that are forming coalitions of insurrection composed of Orcs, Goblins, and opportunist Trolls in our country? 

A good friend and bereaved dad from the South who obviously is an ardent Trump supporter posted a comment in reaction to my satirical post/video that the attempted coup was staged by ANTIFA and were they were the major players in inciting the violence that resulted in breaching the capital and murdering one and harming many of our nation’s capital protectors in blue.

The most prominent and flagrant insurrectionists that lead the failed coup attempt have been arrested and being prosecuted as we speak. Not one of them has been identified as ANTIFA or BLM. Most of those arrested admitting to authorities with pride of their involvement with radical militia groups of the right to take back the country. The Viking dude wielding the horn/fur hat openly states he was a representative sent by QAnon. Richard Barnett who disgraced Pelosi’s desk openly touts being a Trump loyalist/patriot. Lonnie Leroy Coffman who had a car full of incendiary devices, guns, and gasoline jars that were fused and ready to go to cause harm, death, and damage at the capital is a proclaimed patriot. They are not ANTIFA , they are just psychotic insurrectionists who enthusiastically endorses Trump and his agenda.

When you see protesters wearing shirts that say Camp Auschwitz or the acronym 6MWE (6 million Wasn’t Enough) and many shirts and confederate flags degrading black Americans, it must give one pause to comprehend their peaceful protest ideology. Personally, it turns my stomach. Hundreds of agitators with combat gear, tactical expertise, some with pipe bombs and zip ties who were openly harassing members of congress and in unison asking for the hanging of Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. This is not fake news or cleverly disguised undercover ANTIFA supporters that was mixed in the crowd pulling the shots, we all heard the chants. It was an angry mob of right-wing agitators looking to cause harm to our duly elected officials on both sides of the aisle.

Their ignorance in plastering their own photos of the insurrection on social media is almost laughable; of course, they will be caught and prosecuted, it is on film and all admitting to being Trump enthusiasts and were all reacting as patriots to support our president. Four of their supporters died that day from their own activities in the insurrection that was triggered by the urging of their fearless leader and his family.

In this day & age that we find ourselves in, I was shocked to hear Rudy Giuliani say “Trial by Combat” followed by Trump saying: do not be weak when you march to the capital. Urging combat does not correlate with assertions that it was a peaceful protest. No sheep’s clothing here, the wolves were proud and loud.

The idea that this was coup was staged to paint a negative light on a peaceful protest is absurd. You can cut, edit all you want media accounts of the day, you cannot edit their actions or their confessions. Most our proud to be guilty.

Satire is American as Apple Pie and a hallmark of American politics:

The formal definition of satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices.” It is an extremely broad category. The “or” in the definition is key – most satires are humorous, ironic, and exaggerated, but they only must be one of these things to count as satire. There are two important things to remember about satire: It makes fun of a person, idea, or institution. Its purpose is not just to entertain, but also to inform or make people think.

The statement below is from Reuters, the most unbiased prestigious fact checker agency in the world, universally known and respected for its honesty, integrity and unbiased reporting with no agenda or political alliance.

“Social media users have been sharing content online that suggests those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were Antifa, not Trump supporters. Many have been using compilations of pictures as purported evidence, but examination of these images shows they do not support this claim. Meanwhile, the FBI has said there is “no indication at this time” that Antifa had played a role in the mob that stormed the Capitol.”

There are now 6 dead Americans because of the siege of our nation’s capital by insurrectionists. Exactly fifty years ago, Charles Manson was convicted as being responsible for the deaths of 7 innocents. He did not pull the trigger or wield the knife, yet he was convicted for inciting the murders from his influence and the direction that he voiced to his adherents.  Blind followers doing a madman’s bidding back then then and now. I will never understand that kind of blind allegiance. That people of faith that live by the 10 commandments can support murder and mayhem whiling tolerating the increasingly non-Christian behaviors of our president frankly baffles me.  Hundreds of people demanding that our vice president be dragged from his congressional chamber and hung from the gallows is not Christian behavior and shocking to see happen in our country. How this can be condoned by other loving Christians is completely beyond my understanding.

                      “Blessed are the Peacekeepers, for they will be called sons of God” Matthew 5:9

the offending satirical video : https://youtu.be/yItxABXIpBo