Hot takes on news breaks

The Proud Boys are scum, anyway you look at them, but a 33-year jail term for national leader Enrique Tarrio for organizing the Jan. 6 (choose the word you like best) insurrection, riot, protest at the U.S.  Capitol is excessive.

The 13 last Americans to die in Afghanistan

“Seditious conspiracy” or not, he wasn’t even there, but “led from afar.”

If it were an insurrection, it was the most poorly organized in history, and when the media calls Jan. 6 “deadly,” they never report that the only person “dead” was an unarmed protester, Ashli Babbitt. Not excusing her illegal behavior, just keeping the record straight. In Philadelphia, a murderer got a shorter sentence than 33 years. I guess restorative justice only applies to people on your side.

Don’t get me wrong. He deserves jail time, but 33 years is crazy vengeful. 

OK, OK. I hear you, on the Right. How many people were jailed for the “mostly peaceful” riots/protests of 2020 that resulted in 19 deaths and at least $1 billion in damage? None that I know of, but I could be wrong. [Update: It turns out I was wrong, and there have been prosecutions.]

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It is obvious there is something wrong with GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and President Joe Biden.

Denying it is futile. They each have mental issues. Former President Donald J. Trump has all his marbles, but they are square and don’t roll. His failure is moral, not mental.

None are fit for the offices they hold, or seek.

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It’s a damn shame that Bryce Harper, one of Philly’s most loved athletes ever, had his so-timely 300th home run soiled by a loss to the Angels.

Both teams battled back when they fell behind, but it looked like a lock for us when closer Craig Kimbrel took the mound in the 9th.

The crane blew the save, raising questions, such as, did he have enough rest between starts, and, is he done?

Harper has engraved his name on Philadelphia’s heart. I will do a list of the others some other time.

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The Taliban is celebrating two years of running Afghanistan, and women in particular, into the ground.

The U.S. military didn’t do this to Afghanistan.

Politicians and the public did.

Although the U.S. had just a few thousand troops in Afghanistan, it was enough to hold the Taliban at bay. 

In 2021, the year we pulled out, we lost 13 soldiers during the entire year — those we lost on the one day of the poorly planned evacuation. We lost 11 military members in 2020.

While any death is tragic, the military loses more people in accidents each year. 

But the constant drum beat of “America’s longest war” rattled the politicians and neither Left nor Right was able to explain that the cost of staying was worth it. Am I saying we should have stayed, and been OK with a stalemate (such as we have in Korea)? Yes, I am saying that. A stalemate is better than a loss. I know many of you disagree. 

Even had our withdrawal been perfect, and had we been able to evacuate all our friends, which we didn’t, the end result would have been the same — a Taliban victory, with their worthless assurance that they won’t support terrorism. 

We fought and died and spent billions for 20 years to walk away with nothing, other than the Flag-draped coffins of 13 Americans.

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Yep, disgraced Rudy Giuliani will stand trial for defaming a couple of Black, female election workers in Georgia.

His bald-face lies about them led them into harm’s way from the Trumpster morons who believe the election was stolen, when anyone with half a brain knows it was not.

That’s not just me talking. It is the former U.S, attorney general, the Georgia governor, the Georgia secretary of state, saying it. And they are ALL REPUBLICANS.

Defamation is often difficult to prove, but less so when the lies are obvious, deliberate, with the intent to harm.

Believe me, I know.

I hope Rudy has to pay through the nose.