Right Now

I've been fairly quiet on the blog recently. While I published a couple of posts about the coronavirus, it's been two weeks since I wrote about the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests. A lot has happened in the country since that post. On the afternoon of that June 1st blog post, police cleared peaceful protesters near Lafayette Square in DC, so that President Trump could take pictures outside St. John's Episcopal Church holding a bible. (I'm using police in general since it seems like it was some combination of the US Park Police, US Secret Service, Washington DC police, Arlington police, National Guard, Bureau of Prisons Special Operations Response Team, and members of the US military.) This Washington Post video details all of this brilliantly. (I also recommend reading this Washington Post article about the early legacy of these events including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, apologizing for going with Trump on his field trip.)

Mostly peaceful protests continue throughout the country. Statues of confederate leaders have come down. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder (he was originally charged with something less) while the other officers present for the killing of George Floyd were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. A 75 year-old man was pushed down by Buffalo police resulting in brain injuries and Trump blamed the guy for falling. The Louisville officers responsible for Breonna Taylor's death still haven't been charged. Rayshard Brooks was killed by a Atlanta police officer with the Atlanta police chief subsequently resigning.

There seems to be some real discussions about race in America and police reform including legislative actions or at least proposals. The big question is whether real, long-term change can and will happen. You see peaceful protests with people from all different ages and ethnicities, so I'm hopeful.

Since this is my blog, I'm naturally going to share where I'm at right now and how I can help. I want to attend a protest here in DC, but as I mentioned last week, I'm not going anywhere right now especially during the last few weeks with school still in session. I feel like I'm going to regret not being part of these protests in the future. The big thing I'm trying to figure out is how to teach my kids about what's happening. They don't know anything about white privilege or the history of police brutality. They're only 9, 6, and 2, but the 9 year old is old enough to understand some things. We showed them the CNN/Sesame Street town hall, and I thought certain parts were really well done. 



(On a completely different subject, I started thinking about what a Fox News/Sesame Street town hall would look like. It would be much, much, much, much different.) 

If you have any suggestions about books or shows or movies that are age-appropriate, please leave a comment or contact me directly. Now that school is over, we have a lot more time.  Otherwise, I continue to follow the news and read stories shared by others about their own experiences with police or prejudice. 

Again, I'm hopeful that real dialogue continues and change happens. A good start regarding police reform would be if politicians and community leaders read this article by J.J. Hensley, a former police officer and Special Agent with the Secret Service and someone I'm friendly with online.

So that's where I am right now. Still trying to figure out how to balance life and work and being with the kids nearly 24/7 and trying to do the best I can. I can do better.

Photo by Jose Luis Magana/AFP/Getty Images

Post-Election Thoughts

Everyone else has already shared their thoughts on the 2016 Presidential election, so I thought I would write my own blog post. First, I hate the fact that I was right way back in March. Being correct so often is both a blessing and a curse.

As for Donald Trump becoming America's 45th President, I've already gone through the five stages of grief fairly quickly. I'm not happy with the results, and I have some serious concerns about the direction of our country, but I've accepted that Trump was elected based on our political process (meaning via the electoral college and not the popular vote).

- Arguably the worst outcome from Tuesday night/Wednesday morning is that Kellyanne Conway, Newt Gingrich, and Rudy Giuliani are not only not going away, but they will probably all have major roles in the Trump administration.

- I was extremely surprised that Donna Brazile went with the Nana from Candy Land look on Tuesday.

- Congratulations to the Republican Senators for "letting the American people pick" the next Supreme Court justice. The gamble of only having 8 justices over the past 9 months paid off as a conservative justice will now likely fill Antonin Scalia's seat. However, this sets a bad precedent. If Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, or any other justice retires in 2020 or even mid to late-2019, the Democrats in Senate (assuming they earn a majority during the 2018 mid-term elections) could and probably should wait to approve a justice on the same grounds the Republican Senators used in 2016.

- Trump has campaigned for abolishing Obamacare. Now that he's President, can he just let 20+ million go without health insurance?

- Similarly, can he really just get rid of the entire Department of Education?

- I guess the biggest point is that Trump is used to getting his way as a CEO. While he may try to take some executive actions, it will be interesting to see how/if he can govern. He's going to have to work with Congress (though it will likely be an extremely friendly Congress at the start). He doesn't strike most people as an "in the weeds" policy guy.

- I'm an ABC guy. We watched that station growing up (I think my parents liked the local WTAE newscast and just kept the station on for Peter Jennings and company), and it's helped that fellow Ithaca College grad David Muir is now the #1 nightly news anchor. However, there were too many commercials on Tuesday night, so I ended up watching a lot of CNN. I couldn't stop watching John King and his map.

- I predict multiple occasions over the next 4 years of Congress over-riding vetoes. I believe that this happened only once during the Obama administration and that was over the right to sue foreign governments. (I could be wrong on this though.)

- Random question: When was the last time two candidates represented the same state? Both Clinton and Trump are registered New York voters, and I honestly don't know the last time both major candidates were from the same state.

- It appears that Chris Christie is leading Donald Trump's transition team. Is he even pretending to be governor of New Jersey anymore?

That's really all that I want to write today. I guess we'll see if Trump really wants to be the people's President (meaning all people). I'm trying to be optimistic.

WTF CNN

Last Wednesday night, I flipped through every news station trying to get information about the horrific events in Mumbai. I finally settled on CNN who seemed to have the most detailed news as well as a reporter outside of the Taj Mahal hotel. Throughout the coverage, I couldn’t help to watch the news ticker at the bottom of the screen. Every few minutes, the ticker would show an item that Spencer and Heidi really didn’t get married. So when did this count as news? There was a major ongoing event with hostages in multiple locations and scores of people killed. That should have been the only item on the ticker. Instead, we need to know that two people on an MTV pseudo-reality show may or may not have got married?

Disgrasian has actual screenshots of the Spencer/Heidi CNN ticker.