Tag Archives: news

Public Executions – From Experience

Posted on by
Reply

Warning: Disturbing Images Posted Below

(A video version of this post can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DeuocmnhXBv/ )

Newspaper Clipping from April 4, 1981

Every now and again, one needs a reality check. Since I keep myself attuned to what’s going on in the country and in the world, I don’t often have to go too far to find one. I recently posted a photocopy of a newspaper clipping about an execution by beheading I witnessed on April 3, 1981, while living and working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It took place just after noonday prayers on their holy day, which is Friday, in a place we all knew as “chop square” adjacent to a large mosque in the city.

Deera (Chop) Square – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Everyone knew an execution or a stoning was about to take place since the police were busy clearing away all the cars that were normally parked in the large open square. Thousands circled the site that had been cordoned off, they came from the local shopping areas and from the mosque. I was visiting the central part of the city doing some shopping myself as it was our day off. Looking back, I think I remained because in my mind something so barbaric would never actually take place. The scene was surrealistic.

I was wrong. The two men convicted and sentenced to beheading were actually two police officers who had raped a man at gunpoint. At the designated hour, the men were taken from the back of a police van and made to kneel after their gutras (headscarves) were removed. To me, the men looked as though they’d been drugged. At this point, the Sayyaf – the swordsman – moved to the side of each man and performed the two beheadings, one after the other.  

Not the actual scene reflected in the newspaper clipping

The execution was both horrific and educational. I was a first-hand witness to this base form of human behavior. Many of those men, surrounding the site, had pushed through the crowd to the front in order to have a better view of the execution, now came rushing back through the crowd unable to keep from vomiting along the way.

A big and recent news item has centered on Pete Hegseth’s plan to have Nidal Hasan publicly executed by firing squad for murdering 13 people at Fort Hood, in Texas. We haven’t had a public execution in the United States since 1936. The memory of seeing the beheadings came home to roost. Then I was struck by the irony that so many MAGA adherents and far right-wing followers are terrified over the idea that elected public officials who are Muslim will somehow convert our system of law to that of Sharia law – something that would never happen. How can these same people be so willing to stop Sharia law from being a thing in this country in its tracks be so willing to allow the reintroduction of the kind of event that is commonplace in a country that is run by Sharia law?

So, I posted a copy of that newspaper clipping and verbalized my thoughts about that irony and was immediately gifted with that very solid reality check. MAGA and their ilk, once again, showed their true colors. First, many abjectly failed to see the connection – I shouldn’t really be surprised. Second, then followed the Ad Hominem labels: twatwaffle, libtard, left-wing moron, jerkoff – nothing new in all that. It just proves the research that shows such people are on the lower end of educated society. Third, they seemed to think I didn’t want Mr. Hasan executed – nothing could be further from the truth. I believe in capital punishment – not as our society currently has it – which allows for such punishment after convictions obtained from evidence that convinced a jury beyond reasonable doubt. Given the many examples of human failure by executing innocent people, I’d love to see the law changed to allow for execution from evidence that is beyond ALL doubt. But, as to public execution, it would be another form of retrograde in the demise of American behavior…and of human behavior in general.

I am a conservative in matters pertaining to fiscal responsibility but liberal in securing human rights for all people, something MAGA would willingly deny to many segments of our society for no other reason than they can’t see past black or white sides of a situation or have the intelligence to absorb the subtleties between the two.

In late 2016, I posted that Donald Trump was not the person you wanted leading the country. I’d worked for real estate developers from New York and I knew, very well, the type of individual Trump was. I woke up on the morning of January 20, 2017, to find Trump had been elected. That felt about as surreal to me as the beheadings were 36 years earlier. I was prompted to write a blog post shortly thereafter in which I claimed that January 20th was, in my mind, The Day America Died. I hate to think this, but nearly ten years later, I think many would agree with me.

P.S. Though it seems the public execution of Nidal Hasan will not be held, we still edged too close to the precipice. It also seems, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia maintains they no longer hold public executions – I remain dubious.

Give me a follow by clicking the blue button at the top right under the banner…

The 2028 Presidential Election – Questions!

Posted on by
1

(A video version of this post can be found at:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc69KO5yC-u/?hl=en    )

As we 8647 either by impeachment (my biggest political hope) or by the 2028 Presidential Election (assuming Trumpy doesn’t completely upend the U.S. Constitution by then) we will be looking to put our 48th President into office.

We need to ask questions. We need to start focusing on those and framing what 2029 will look like. Unless we somehow end up with a Republican version of Trump 2.0, who ever takes the White House has a list of chores I’m not sure many new Presidents have had to face. Lincoln, Truman, Johnson…all took office facing incredible challenges: the divide which led to the Civil War, helping bring WWII to an end, and the continuing escalation of the Vietnam war. But in all, except Lincoln’s situation, the fabric of our nation was largely intact.

Number 48 will have their work cut out to rebuild and reshape the devastation caused by Trump and his administration both domestically and on the world stage.

First, let’s have a quick look at some of what I’m talking about.

The butchery and botched surgery on the part of Elon Musk and DOGE. The severe program changes made to the Department of Education Research, the loss of Justice Department Grants, Medical and Health Research, USAID, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, The Department of Education, and the General Services Administration…just to name a few.

Then there was the wholesale bloodletting of between 260,000 and 350,000 federal employees either through layoffs, firings, early retirement, and hiring freezes according to the Federal News Network and govexec.com. Musk’s target was $2 trillion in savings but according to the DOGE website, it’s achieved $215 billion across 22 agencies. There were 13,440 contract terminations, 15,887 grant terminations, and 264 lease terminations.

The number one agency with the most change is the Department of Health and Human Services led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (it hurts just typing or saying his name). HHS also covers the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH. I can’t think of another federal agency so directly tied to the literal health of all Americans. Because of RFK’s propaganda regarding vaccines, the coverage rate of childhood MMR has dropped to 92.5% which is less than the 95% rate which would mostly prevent widespread transmission of the disease. That gap might not sound like a lot, but it translates to about 550,000 American children. As proof, measles cases have risen to a level not seen in decades and will likely return to endemic proportions. Other potential risks associated with the program changes at HHS include Whooping Cough, rotavirus, chickenpox, and bacterial infections leading to pneumonia or meningitis.

To round out just the top 5 agency cuts (or what they call savings) are the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Small Business Administration. You can go to doge.gov/savings to see the other 17 on the list.

Oh, then lets look at what will hopefully be renamed – some back to what was.

The Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, the Kennedy Center, the Unites States Institute of Peace, the new Naval Trump-class warships, Southern Blvd. near Mar-a-Lago, the bridge on I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee, Palm Beach International Airport, the planned aircraft carrier CVN-81 to be named the USS Donald J Trump, and the Boeing F-47 AirForce fighter jet, at least 4 possible new species of moth, sea urchins, and an amphibian bearing the moniker “donaldtrumpi”, as in Neopalpa donaldtrumpi – a micro-moth. Lastly, let’s not forget the military installations that had been renamed away from a list of Confederate generals and then put back again.

For number 48 – will there still be the tariffs that are accelerating the rise in daily costs for goods and services, the Iran War causing inflated gas prices, the Trump administrations disdain for NATO, and the disrespect shown toward our northern and southern neighbors? And what about the restoration of unbiased journalism, the tampering with election procedures, protections for LGBTQ and same-sex marriage, unrestricted access to abortion procedures, and the return of Roe v Wade? Not to mention the simple disregard for the Constitution and running around waging war whenever and wherever he likes.

How will number 48 restore trust with our allies and trading partners? What happens if the primary global currency shifts from the U.S. Dollar to the Chinese Yuan? I’ll tell you, interest rates would rise, we’d experience a loss of political power and the financial leverage that comes with it, and our ability to carry such a high amount of debt would be eliminated as the demand for dollars disappears. Our role as the greatest country of the free world would fade to dark.

As Americans, we need to think about these things…starting NOW. We need to look at candidates who have the strength of character, the intelligence, and the intestinal fortitude to tackle the longest list of problems and issues that have ever faced an incoming administration. I am truly hopeful that the mid-term elections this November marks a turn toward enlightenment and begins to reset the stage for restoring American greatness again. MAGA is the lie that never ends, a pestilence that needs its own vaccine.

Give me a follow by clicking the blue button at the top right under the banner…