Today is another of my “clean up” articles. I know I’ll never cover all the topics I’d like to but I’ll briefly cover some.

Good Shoot?

Wednesday it was announced that the shooting by police in Elizabeth City will not result in any criminal charges against the officers involved. The DA ruled it what police call a good shoot. In other words, in his opinion it was within procedures and no laws or policies were broken.

The DA may be correct. (That will anger a lot of my readers!) The problem is that not enough of the readily available evidence has been made public. Based on the very limited amount of recordings of the events released, it appears the victim was fleeing the police and possibly using his car as a weapon against them. At first glance, this at least puts it in the grey area.

The problems are ones of credibility and respect. Why at this late date is the vast majority of body cam footage being withheld from the public? This case made national news, has racial overtones and has a lot of people feeling disrespected. (I’m being mild in my choice of words). The secrecy isn’t helping any of that in fact it is feeding that.

Was it a good shoot? I don’t really know and if this is the end of the evidence none of us ever will.

Useful Idiots

Trump uses his most ardent supporters as useful idiots and another example was reported out of my native Western New York this week. One of the participants in the January 6th insurrection was sitting in his dentist’s office a few days after and loudly bragging about his participation including smoking marijuana in the Capital Building and disobeying an order to leave.

As he obviously wanted to be, he was overheard. Subsequently he was turned into authorities and arrested. His actions and the consequences are not unique.

Soft On Crime

In my opinion too many judicial officials have been too soft on January 6th domestic terrorists. These people tried to overthrow the federal government; by that act alone they have demonstrated that they are a risk to society and need to remain in custody awaiting trial. Many kids are in jail awaiting trial on minor drug charges. Where is the justice?

A Colorado man was released from custody and one of the conditions was that he was not allowed to have guns. Subsequently he shot a mountain lion and posed with the corpse on social media. It turns out the Trump supporter was also banned from possessing firearms due to a prior felony robbery conviction.

Obviously, this useful (to Trump) idiot has no respect for the law or intent to obey it. How many breaks are we going to give him?

Toxic Co-workers

The latest game several Republican members of the House are playing is taking pictures of themselves on the House floor sans mask in clear violation of the rules. Those rules are in place to protect the safety of the members and staff and by extension America. (Although I’m certain I’m not alone in contending that America would be better off without many of those Republican members in Congress.)

In many cases the participants were fined. Among them were many of the usual suspects. Beth Van Duyne of Texas commented that the fine was, “Worth it.” The initial fine is $500 and when compared to the money they will bring in via fundraising the exchange is an economic winner. The fine comes out of their pay; campaign funds are not to be used for living expenses. Looks like fodder for several future investigations to me.

Slowly Getting Worse For Trump

It is reported that New York State has notified the Trump Organization that its investigation has moved from just a civil to a criminal one. Stay tuned; this ballgame is still in the early innings.

Mad Matt

I don’t know what events life holds for me between here and the final curtain but I’m willing to bet the cover of GQ is not one of them. I should not poke fun at other people’s appearances. Sorry, I’m human. Am I the only one who sees a resemblance between Matt Gaetz and The Joker?

It just got a lot worse for Matt this week. His buddy Joel Greenberg pled guilty to six felonies and entered into a cooperation agreement. Greenberg admitted he had friends who also participated in committing these crimes. It is widely assumed Gaetz is among them and Gaetz is perceived as a “bigger fish”.

Since Greenberg admits there was more than one other participant who could that/they be? Is it possible Gaetz will make a deal in the process giving up a “bigger fish”? If so that “fish” would have to be pretty high up the “food chain”. Soon we will see how well the drunken frat boy operates under pressure.

What For Brains?

I try to maintain a PG rating on my regular posting so I’ll let you fill in the nonexistent blank above. Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has said he will pardon anyone charged with violating any local mask mandate in Florida.

I spent ten of the best years of my life living in the Sunshine State. It is large and far from a monolith. Different rules may well be prudent in different geographies. Republicans are supposed to be all about local rule (i.e. community schools). DeSantis just undercut all local safety rules. His decree was probably very popular at Mar-a-Lago which is the only locality he really cares to please.

Lots left on the cutting room floor again but that’s it for today.

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