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Mr. Scorpio

Mr. Scorpio's Journal
Mr. Scorpio's Journal
November 20, 2021

Hey. everybody...

November 15, 2021

I don't smoke or vape...

But I am interested in what you got for edibles.

What’s tasty?

November 11, 2021

A sobbing Kyle Rittenhouse already won -- even before his trial is over

If convicted, he'll become a right-wing martyr. If he is freed, it's a message to others like him that prison won’t be in their future.

By Issac Bailey, professor of public policy at Davidson College and author of "Why Didn't We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland"


Kyle Rittenhouse, in an unusual move for a defendant, took the witness stand Wednesday. He cried. His defense team then made a motion for a mistrial with prejudice, which means Rittenhouse couldn’t be retried. But whatever the court rules, he has already won.

He’s charged with ​​reckless homicide, intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide for shooting three people (killing two of them) who were protesting the police shooting of yet another Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer. The protest followed many George Floyd-inspired ones that erupted across the world calling for police accountability and justice for Black lives. White allies, like the ones Rittenhouse shot, were among the protesters. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty.

f Rittenhouse is convicted, he will likely stop being a right-wing mascot and become a right-wing martyr. If he isn’t convicted, he will set a precedent for others like him to pick up guns they shouldn’t have and thrust themselves into the middle of unrest they should avoid — confident in knowing that prison won’t be in their future.

To his supporters, and even many of his detractors, Rittenhouse isn’t a monster. Not really. He was a young, dumb kid hyped up on the Foxification or Fox News effect of American discourse on the Black Lives Matter movement in a country that fetishes guns — for show, for sport and for killing — not a white supremacist, like, say Dylann Roof. Not really. He wore no hoods and didn’t wrap himself in the Confederate flag. He’s a patriot who tried to bring calm to chaos because, as Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson told us at the time of the shooting, the adults around him wouldn’t “maintain order.” He was so nonviolent that police officers greeted him and those like him like fellow guardians of the community before he killed anyone.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/politics-policy/sobbing-kyle-rittenhouse-won-before-ruling-rcna5114
November 5, 2021

Hey...

November 3, 2021

Once in office...

Youngkin and Sears will launch an immediate attack on Gov Northam’s accomplishments, attempting to dismantle what he’s done. They’ll work to underminei both Democratic US Senators and, most of all attack free speech, legal fairness, reproductive rights, racial equality and the state’s LGBTQ community. With the help of the GOPr controlled, they will wreak havoc on the state’s budget and resources, making it more harder for lower income families to make ends meet. The state will become a breeding ground for radical right wing groups and racists of all stripes, especially those hostile to the Federal Government, given Virginia’s proximity to Washington DC.

Expect violent acts against vulnerable groups and individuals, acts and rhetoric to center and support white supremacy, various forms of voter suppression, a bend toward police state authoritarianism and general malfeasance, incompetence and corruption in public office. Expect a rise in hate speech, incendiary rhetoric, white grievance and general in-civility out of the State House and halls of state government. Natural disaster responses will be mishandled, the state, which is particularly vulnerable to climate change, will either botch efforts to mitigate it, or eliminate already established procedures enacted by Democrats. Gawd help those in Virginia, if we’re subjected to another pandemic.

The question is, however, what’s next? What needs to be done for the Commonwealth and all of those people in it?

Democratic activists need to be proactive. They can’t depend on the population centers to bail them out.

The clock is ticking. Winsome Sears will be a formidable opponent, if she chooses to run in the next gubernatorial race. The most extreme factions of the GOP are already moving to support her and she’ll be happy to pander to white supremacists, racist trolls and Trump cultish insurrectionists.

The next four years will be rough on everything and everyone in Virginia.

Time to do what needs to be done.

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