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Relationships

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Man and woman.

I am not an “expert” on this subject. Given my past life circumstances, you might say with some conviction that I am the quintessential novice in such matters. So forgive me if I overstep the boundaries of common sense.

As I see it, there are four distinct types of man/woman relationships.

Type A: love, close association, and broken heart. These are generally relationships where man and woman meet, experience explosive sex and emotional support before diverse personality traits smothers the  fires of desire, and leaves only the ashes  of a broken heart by either or both of them. They walk away from each other, only to have “what if” occasionally flicker in the hidden recesses of the brain where we store things that cannot be forgotten.

Type B: love, marriage and partnership. A love that survives decades during periods of child rearing, career/work pursuits, and coping with the never-ending challenges of life. Somewhere, somehow along the way—amidst disagreements, inattention, neglect, and/or the monotony of living routines—the love subsides, sometimes even dies. The couple decides nonetheless to remain together not in marriage but in partnership for the children, to protect mutual financial interests, or because of the need for human companionship that is too great to walk away from.

Type C: love, marriage, and divorce. People sometimes marry, too often against their better judgments. Marriage becomes a slow dissolving sink hole in which the couple falls. Muddy, bruised and ugly, they generally blame the other for the sink hole. Their love, marriage, and most of the relationships entangled in their family and social orbit end in human bankruptcy. They walk away from the other, mostly in a mean-spirited way because of their joint failures, and neither is ever quite able to recoup their emotional (and financial) losses caused by the divorce.

Type D: love, marriage, and togetherness. People meet, often under the most unlikely circumstances, and they know, with every instinct born of all sorts of life experiences, that they have met the eternal love of their lives. They join together in an uncertain journey—one that will know spontaneous laughter, unbridled joy, happiness and contentment that will allow them to not only endure but overcome the inevitable disappointments, defeats, sorrow, and unrealized expectations life will bring. They join together, they live together, they grow old together, and they die together.

Life has blessed me with a Type D relationship.

Sometimes at night I can see and feel Jodie’s breathing after returning from a midnight jaunt to the bathroom. I ease back in bed, quietly lying for a few moments knowing to the core of my soul that if she passes before me, she will be waiting at the stream’s edge for me to cross where we can sit under an aged oak tree, holding hands while staring back at the known, all the while knowing that the courage of our love will see us through the unknown that awaits on the eternal side of the stream

I hear her laughter in another room as she enjoys another animal video, and I see her through amazed eyes as she looks out across the beautiful range of hills whispering “I’m home at last,” and I feel her touch on my neck as she reads the things I have written.

For a million different reasons, men and women cannot  live through some relationships but one thing is certain: man and woman cannot survive without them.

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Me and Fred

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Fred is my second dog. My wife rescued him in 2013. He was about to be euthanized. I carried him from the post where he had been chained by the local city pound to our car. Fred bonded with me at that moment.

I suspect Fred was two years old when we brought him home. He had a deformed paw. The Vet said it could have been a genetic birth defect or some early injury caused by abuse.

It was evident that Fred had been severely abused as a pup.

Still, he clung to me. He tagged behind me everywhere I went. He was terrified of human feet. It would take me three years of training, beginning with Fred lying near my feet, before he completely trusted my feet. Now he comes to my feet, rolls on his back and begs for a belly feet rub. He loves for me to rest my feet on his back.

How could anyone abuse a puppy?

Fred is smart, perceptive – he understands all my gestures and my talks to him. I can say ball, bone, sit, feet, lay down, come, stop, quiet, watch, I love you Fred, and he responds to the language.

Like millions of other children, I was abused as a child—sometimes quite brutally. It created a burning lava-like anger in my psyche. That led to a flawed social understanding and some catastrophic life choices. But there were times in my prison life where the anger served me well and aided in my survival. It was too often a natural response in “the belly of the beast.”

I was 30 years of age when I walked away from the dark side of my life. The bitter harvest was over and done with. Like Fred, I forced myself to trust, to respect, and to love.

As Fred has conquered his fear of feet, I conquered the anger that resided in the recesses of my tortured soul.

Fred and I became best friends because we trust each other. I sit on the porch, glass of cold tea in hand, while Fred lies a few feet away—eyes, nose, ears still vigilant of any potential threat but relaxed because I am relaxed. We are at peace.

But our country is not at peace.

It’s now—quite possibly irretrievably—soiled with racial hatred, political divisions, and angry social unrest. America has not only lost its way, but its very soul. Make America Great Again and Build Back Better is all bullshit. Americans have been a mean-spirited people ever since those fucked up Pilgrims put their dirty feet on Native Indian land.

So what does that have to do with me and Fred?

The Covid pandemic has brought death, financial ruin, long-term yet not understood after effects, fear, and a take-no-prisoners war between the sane and insane, to tens of millions of Americans. You would think that would be enough to keep the American people occupied.

But it hasn’t.

Child physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse—mostly parents on their children—has skyrocketed 20 to 70 percent, depending upon where you live. The same is true with puppies—animal cruelty and torture has dramatically increased, even though we don’t keep count of abused puppies.

And, how could grown people physically or sexually abuse a child, especially if you are a parent, or kick or torture a puppy, especially if it’s your own?

Actually it’s pretty simple.

There are millions of Americans who believe Donald Trump is still flying around the world in Air Force one; that Democrats are demonic reptilian creatures who canalize babies; that a Dark State cabal of the most wealthy are pedophiles who kidnap 150,000 children each year to sexually exploit them; that New Age math says 74 million votes are more than 81 million votes; and that Elvis was seen golfing (and groping) Sen. Krysten Sinema during her fund-raising trip to Europe.

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Executions

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The carrying out of a sentence of death imposed by either a court or a jury following a conviction for a capital offense.

Since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court effectively reinstated the death penalty after a 10-year moratorium, all 1537 executions carried out since then have been for the crime of murder.

The American death penalty is inextricably woven, as it has always been, in the failed religious concept that murder can only be revenged through murder. The commandment that “thy shall not kill” inevitably introduced the revenge notion of an “eye for an eye.”

That is pretty much how the American death penalty works. The State commands that “thy shall not kill” while the murder victim’s family and friends demand “eye” of revenge.

On October 21, 2021, Willie B. Smith became the 1537th person put to death in this country since 1976. He was an African-American man put to death for the 1991 murder of a white woman in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Equal Justice Initiative informs that more death sentences are imposed per capita in Alabama than in any other state.  The state has executed 68 men and 1 woman since 1976. Thirty-one of those men were black. African-Americans make up 27 percent of Alabama’s population yet comprise nearly half of the state’s executions.

The EJI also reports that one-third of the death sentences imposed in Alabama came out of three counties: Etowah, Houston, and Mobile—all of which are predominantly white counties.

Gov. Kay Ivey, a white female, released a statement after Smith’s execution that, in part, read: “The carrying out of Mr. Smith’s sentence sends the message that the state of Alabama will not tolerate these murderous acts.”

There’s a problem inherent in Gov. Ivey’s statement.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that only 21 white man have executed in this country since 1976 for killing black victims while 295 black men have been executed for killing white victims. In other words, the DPIC reports that 75 percent of executions in this country involved white victims while only 15 percent involved black victims.

Against the backdrop of these numbers, what can be reasonably read into Gov. Ivey’s statement is this: Alabama “will not tolerate” black people killing white people, especially black men killing white women.

Numbers don’t like.

In 1989, University of Florida sociologist Michael Radelet examined roughly 16,000 executions in America—of which only 30 involved the executions of white people killing black people.

And Alabama does not, as a rule, execute black people for killing black people.

This is evidenced by the fact that white male Alabamians have lynched 347 people—299 of whom were black. None of the black men lynched by these white male Alabamians were lynched for crimes against other black people. Those 299 black men were murdered because they were either involved or suspected of being involved in crimes against white people.

That is the Confederate execution mentality. Roughly 3 out of every four of the 1537 executions carried out in this country since 1976 have been carried in the former southern Confederate states.

It did not matter to the proud Confederate state of Alabama that Willie B. Smith was intellectually disabled with an IQ range of 70-75—a disability previously called “borderline mentally retarded.” All that mattered to Alabama was that Willie B. Smith, a black man, killed a white woman. For that, he had to die—the State wanted it and the victim’s family demanded it.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall made this clear in a post-execution statement:

“The family of Sharma Johnson has had to wait 29 years, 11 months, and 25 days to see the sentence of Sharma’s murderer be carried out. Finally, the cruel and unusual punishment that has been inflicted upon them—a decades long denial of justice—has come to an end. I ask the people of Alabama to join me in praying for Sharma’s family and friends, that they might now be able to find peace and closure.”

Revenge never brings “peace and closure.” It accomplishes one thing and one thing only: the perpetuation of violence, murder upon murder.

That’s what really happened to Willie B. Smith.

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Billionaires

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Don’t know any, have never shaken hands with one, and don’t expect I ever will.

Two billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, have been on the world stage recently flaunting their wealth as they wage a public “dollar war” to see which one will be the “richest man on earth.”

While these two physically unattractive dingbats flaunt their naked wealth in public, one in 6 Americans live in poverty—many of whom do not know where they will sleep tonight while others know that a $300 emergency could move them from a cheap motel room to a tent under an interstate overpass.

There are 11.5 million children living in poverty in the U.S. while Bezos and pals take Clem Kadidlehopper billion dollar rocket ship journeys to the outer edges of space just so they can look down on an impoverished, dying planet while Musk goes hunting for more riches in the tech friendly Austin, Texas capital where he can wear cowboy boots, a white cowboy hat and yodel to the moon at night.

If by now you have the impression I do not like billionaires, you’re right. Let me explain.

In 2020, Bezos’s tax rate was 0.98 percent. Translated, that means he paid $983 million on an income of $99 billion that year. Musk got an even better deal from the IRS. Between 2015 and 2017, he paid just $70,000 in taxes and paid not one dime in 2018, despite having a net worth at the time of $152 billion.

In June of this year ProPublica identified Bezos and Musk, along with 23 other “richest Americans” (billionaires) who paid little if any taxes under the last administration.

Filing jointly, my wife and I paid more than $7,000 each year after the heralded “Trump tax cut”—roughly $2,000 more each year than we paid during the Obama presidency, according to H&R Block.

Fifteen of the nation’s 258 richest corporations did not pay a penny in taxes during the eight years between 2008 and 2015 while another 50 paid taxes at a rate of 10 percent of their income during that same period.

What kind of government permits a system where a working man pays $7,000 a year in taxes while 15 of the nation’s richest corporations, including General Electric, do not pay a single penny in taxes? My tax bracket in 2020 was 22 percent while Amazon’s (the richest company in America) tax bracket was 9.4  percent.

Why should I really give a fuck that 90-year-old William Shatner went to Space on a Bezos rocket, and got all teary eyed about it, while 13 million children were hungry in America that same day—some of whom were lucky if they got a peanut butter n’ jelly sandwich that day?

It’s idiotic that the nation’s news outlets were fixated for hours about Shatner and Bezos in a west Texas desert hugging and crying because the old Star Trek icon got to really see the blackness of space.

“Beam me up from this stupid shit, Scotty – please.”

All these super rich mother..kers, who place profit before people, are the reason why man must now try to establish human colonies on the Moon and Mars so they can plunder the rest of the solar system.

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Two faces of American justice

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One is White, one is Black.

Dawn Bancroft was part of the insurrectionist mob that violently stormed the nation’s Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. She said she was there with the mob to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her “friggin’ brain.” She sent a video to her children showing her engaged in the violent insurrection that left five people dead, 140 police officers severely injured, and millions of dollars in property damage.

The FBI arrested Bancroft and then let her return home in Pennsylvania to be with her family pending disposition of her case.

Bancroft became one of the more than 570 people arrested in connection with the violent attack on the Capitol. As part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, she recently pled guilty in federal court to one misdemeanor count of illegally “parading, demonstrating, or picketing” in the Capitol Building.

Bancroft is one 29 Capitol riot defendants who have pled guilty through plea deals to misdemeanor charges in connection with their violent participation in the insurrection. Eight other defendants have pled guilty to felonies through plea deals as well.

The longest prison sentence handed down thus far was eight months in prison for a felony charge while five misdemeanor charges resulted in time already served in jail or placement home detention.

In accepting Bancroft’s recent plea deal, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan described the Capitol insurrectionists as law-abiding citizens who “morphed into terrorists” on January 6.

That is about one of the dumbest judicial assessments ever made in a courtroom.

The people who went to Washington, D.C. on January 6 with plans to disrupt a constitutional process of government by any means necessary, including shooting Nancy Pelosi in her “friggin’ brain” and lynching  Vice-President Mike Pence, had terrorism in their hearts and minds at the outset. They left their homes and families to travel to an event they knew had been pre-planned for violence. To this day, they remain unrepentant “domestic terrorists,” despite being hailed as “patriots” by right wing lunatics.

Bancroft’s case is the face of White justice in America.

The face of Black justice can be found in the case of Dayonn Davis.

This Georgia teenager was set to graduate from high school in 2018 when he and a friend took a pair of Nike Air Jordan Fives (valued at $180) from another teenager. The friend brought a gun to the robbery without Davis’ knowledge. The friend was arrested but not charged in the incident. The weapon was not used in the taking of the tennis shoes.

The White state prosecutor took a harsh stance in plea negotiations with Davis’ attorney, saying the teenager “could have killed” the acquaintance from whom he took the tennis shoes. The prosecutor insisted that Davis plead guilty to robbery since a weapon was present when the tennis shoes were stolen.

In jail, Davis ultimately pled guilty a non-armed felony robbery charge, and a White judge sentenced the teenager to a mandatory minimum of five years in prison followed by ten years of probation. A local ACLU attorney said the “harsh” sentence received by Davis was not an “outlier” for young Black men in Georgia.

Young Davis was hauled off and placed in one of Georgia’s many violent prisons—a prison system that is currently under U.S. Department of Justice investigation for violence against inmates. 26 inmates were murdered by other inmates in Georgia prisons in 2020 and 18 have been murdered thus far this year.

That is the face of Black justice throughout America.

White adult domestic terrorists are allowed to serve their misdemeanor sentences in their homes for a violent crime that left five people dead, resulted in the suicide of four police officers, and severely injured 140 more while a Black teenager in Georgia is sent to a violent adult prison for the non-violent offense of stealing “Oreos” tennis shoes for five years.

Two faces of American justice.

That is what we see here.

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Copyright © 2019 Jodie Sinclair| Author