The Washington Post is reporting that Wisconsin Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is presiding over the murder trial of young gun nut Kyle Rittenhouse, who gunned down two protesters last summer, has ruled on how lawyers can refer to the dead.  Recall that Rittenhouse, who was a minor at the time, was illegally in possession of an AR-15, and had illegally crossed state lines to join a white supremacist group “guarding” private businesses in Kenosha Wisconsin.  He killed two protesters who had confronted him for carrying an assault weapon in public.

Schroeder’s ruling?  During the trial, lawyers can refer to the people Rittenhouse killed as “looters”, “rioters”, and “arsonists”, but not as “victims”, because “victims” is a “loaded term”.  We’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and we’re not coming back.

The verdict of the jury in the Derek Chauvin murder trial has just been published, and it’s guilty on all three counts.  I believe this verdict is appropriate especially since Chauvin showed reckless disregard of George Floyd’s life as it drained away under his knee.  This trial is not just one trial of one murder.  It was hopefully a turning point in policing and our own culture that has accepted for far too many years inequality according to skin color and economic status.  This sordid story should change the conversation in America about race and the police.  How we respond to it will determine the direction of that change.

The Washington Post is reporting that at least 5 of the terrorists who have been charged with planning the kidnapping and murder of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer played prominent roles in the April protests where the capital was swarmed by heavily armed gun nuts.  Three of said nuts are in the now famous photo standing menacing people in the capitol building.

At least 5 of those charged played active roles in these protests that shut down the state government and were active in 7 other protests around the state until they were arrested.  It’s also come to light that these terrorists identified themselves with the Boogaloos Bois movement which is spreading a violent ideology.  After we witnessed Trumpists stopping traffic and even threatening Biden campaign busses over the weekend, it’s clear now that Republican leaders, through decades of gross negligence and radical ideology, have unleashed evil forces in the US not see since the Kennedy assassination in the early 60s and the American Nazi movement in the 30s.

We must pull back from the brink shine the light on these criminals.  Enough of this is enough.

Nigerian army used Donald Trump’s words as an excuse to murder rock throwing protesters in Senegal.  Dear God.

This is not directly about politics, but in the end really is.  A couple of days ago, it was reported that notorious mobster, James “Whitey” Bulger was found dead in his cell.  OK, he was 89 years old and in poor health; another dirtbag dies in jail.  That happens all the time, but this one is different – he was murdered in his cell.  OK, that happens all the time, too, right?  It’s still different. Bulger, who was wheelchair bound, was viciously beaten to death with a padlock stuffed into a sock to make a sort of medieval mace.  That’s not all, though – his eyes had been gouged out and at least part of his tongue cut out.  Jesus.

Bulger was an infamous member of the Irish Mob in Boston who was famous for his cruelty and cold blooded murder.  He was also an active informant to federal law enforcement during his life of violent crime.  He was finally jailed in 2011 for life when caught after 16 years of hiding in plain sight.  Since being imprisoned for two consecutive life terms he’s been a pain in the ass for prison officials and disciplined multiple times.  Bad guy, right? But here is where it gets weird.  Bulger was suddenly moved this week to the maximum security federal prison called Hazelton in West Virginia.  Within 24 hours, he was beaten to death and mutilated in his cell. The cell was in the general population of the prison.  The prime suspect is a guy named Fotios “Freddy” Geas, a Greek hitman for the Italian mafia in Massachusetts who is serving a life term for murder.

So here’s the point – and it’s not that a really bad guy was brutally murdered by another really bad guy both serving life in a maximum security prison.  They’re both vicious murderers.  The point is that this is no coincidence.  Some official in the Federal Bureau of Prisons in the US Department of Justice authorized this move.  This official moved Bulger to a prison where he was most certainly in deadly danger, and danger became reality in less than 24 hours after the move.  Some employee of the federal government signed Bulger’s death warrant, and THAT is the point.

We are in a time of great uncertainly and instability.  The federal government, led by a morally bankrupt individual, is fragile.  This brutal murder in a federal prison by an inmate supervised by the federal government was sanctioned by an official of the federal government.  Our Constitution commands equal protection under the law.  Those Constitutional rights extend to EVERYONE in our country.  EVERYONE, even vicious criminals in our prisons.  The Department of Justice has a legal obligation to protect everyone under its jurisdiction, especially those in prison.  This murder exposes the rot within the DOJ.  If a federal official authorizes a move that would result in the certain death of one under their care, is the next step disappearing people who politically disagree with the government?  What about those arrested for protesting in Congress or at the Supreme Court?  Bringing the full force of the federal government to take the life of a prisoner demonstrates a shocking corruption that must be removed.  Corruption is corruption no matter where it lay, especially in the federal government.  This corruption must be exposed and eliminated.