Today’s article will be a departure from the usual Sunday format in that I will consider multiple incidents and go back two weeks instead of focusing only on the one just ended.

Mainly I’ll focus on the actions of bad men but I want to start with recognition of the passing of a good one. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated last week Thursday or Friday (time zone differences account for the ambiguity). Abe was a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party. The old joke – with a lot of truth to it – is that the party is neither. In reality it is a center-right party much like the American Republican Party before the inmates took over the asylum. That doesn’t line up with my personal political philosophy but I still recognize a good man even if I disagree with him on policy. (That sounds pretty American, doesn’t it?)

Perhaps the greatest gift Abe gave the world is coming out in his death. He, more than any other world leader, appears to be responsible for holding the alliance of democracies together during the disastrous Trump administration. We generally give that credit to Germany’s Angela Merkel or France’s Emmanuel Macron, but it appears Abe was often the behind the scenes mediator.

Now on to the bad men; or at least some of them.

On June 27th Jayland Walker died in a hail of 90 bullets from Akron Police officers’ guns. 60 of them penetrated Walker’s body as he ran away from them. I simply do not have enough information to say whether Walker was a good guy or not. Same can be said for if the initial shooting was justified, although on the surface it seems difficult to believe it was. I want more evidence before I pass judgement on those issues.

What I am prepared to pass judgment on is the actions of the eight members (I’m assuming all male) of the Akron Police Department, at least some, if not all, of whom, continued to shoot for seven seconds after Walker’s body was on the ground. He was no longer fleeing and certainly did not present a threat. After the shooting ceased Walker (or perhaps his corpse) was placed in handcuffs with his hands behind his back.

Staying in Ohio a ten-year-old rape victim tried to obtain an abortion. She was denied. When Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine was confronted by a reporter about the situation. He never addressed the question spinning it into a diatribe about how he really didn’t know anything but was assuming that the rapist was in custody and being prosecuted. He sounded as stupid as Texas Governor Greg Abbott when he was confronted with a similar reporter’s question a few months ago.

Label me whatever you choose, but I don’t think any level of government should force ten-year-old rape victims, (the typical age of a fifth grader) to give birth to their rapist’s babies.

Note to Ohio and Texas voters: both DeWine and Abbott are running for reelection this fall.

Over in the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned as both head of the Conservative Party and PM. His PM resignation has taken a non-traditional twist both in that he has not formally rendered it to the Queen and has stated his intention to remain in office until a successor has been named. I’m not an expert on the UK’s laws and refer you to the BBC for coverage on that topic.

What I will say is that despite the fact it took a long time and several scandals the UK’s right wing party (The Conservatives) finally had enough of an incompetent, scandal plagued, buffoon for a leader. What about America’s Republican Party and Donald Trump? Will his time come or is the difference between conservatives and fascists masquerading as conservatives that large?

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has been subpoenaed to appear before the Special Grand Jury in Fulton County investigating interference in the 2020 election. He is fighting the subpoena calling the whole thing a fishing expedition. Well Senator Graham, staying with that analogy and paying homage to your home state I might say that it looks like Fulton County DA Fani Willis may have caught white crappie.

Last week we learned that both James Comey and Andrew McCabe were subject to intensive IRS audits subsequent to their firings from the FBI. The odds of which for any one taxpayer are about 1 in 30,600. For two people both recently terminated from the same position? I’ll invoke Nance’s Law – coincidence takes a lot of planning. (Or in this case a corrupt and vindictive President.) Oh, and in my opinion, it has long time Trump advisor Roger Stone written all over it.

I’ll finish today’s article in Washington with a very bright, although evil, man – Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell has threatened to kill a bill helping American semi-conductor manufacturers compete against Chinese firms if the Democrats go ahead and pass legislation lowering prescription drug cost via reconciliation (which evades the filibuster).

Needless to say, I support both bills. McConnell wants to preserve the filibuster (at least until when and if he again becomes Senate Majority Leader) but more importantly he wants to protect Big Pharma. Mitch controls his caucus largely by controlling the purse strings and he certainly doesn’t want to bite one of the hands that feed. If Americans die or lose jobs in the process…oh, well.

The worst part of this story is that all the bad men are still alive.

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