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l3wis Democratic Forum
I will be the guest speaker on October 31, Friday, Noon-1 PM, 26th & Cleveland.
I was asked to talk about editorial cartooning, but I have a feeling this conversation will quickly move to dissent and the 1st Amendment.
A Great Artist has left us
Dave Scarbrough passed away September 30. I haven’t seen Dave in several years, but back in the Pomp Room days he was a fixture in almost every band in Sioux Falls. Either helping to write songs, providing vocals or even music production. Dave recorded and produced the music for my movie The Color of Sound. I have the entire session on CD and I told Dave once it was one of the best live recordings I have ever heard locally. Dave was inducted in the SD R & R Hall of Fame last year. Dave was an extremely talented singer, songwriter, guitarist and always the one to help out. He will be missed by us old fart artists and Phil’s Pub junkies. The one thing I remember about Dave was how fun it was to BS him and tell him outrageous stories, he would always believe you. Miss you man! Rest in Peace!
those who live by the sword will also die by the sword
These words uttered by Jesus to his pal Peter have an obvious point; Poke the bear and the bear bites back.
The headline this week should have been, ‘Another Anarchist kills another Fascist’.
To be completely honest, before Charlie Kirk died I had only heard him say a few sentences from different sound bites. They were all racist or misogynistic or a combination of both. He did have a special talent of combining his different hates into one sentence. While his followers thought he was serious, when he would make such statements they came off as comedic to me. He’s like Doug Stanhope if Doug wasn’t funny and sarcastic. So I guess I am baffled as to why the right is putting him on a pedestal. Are we supposed to honor him because he figured out a way to sugar coat white supremacy and fool a generation? As for a defender of free speech? Huh? I follow many national free speech organizations and am a member of NCAC, and trust me, none of these orgs have ever mentioned Kirk as a defender of these rights, quite the opposite.
Do I think people should be killed for their speech? No. And who does? What a silly question.
But when you are getting over 200 death threats a week, as reported by a Kirk staffer after the shooting, you wonder if you were defending free speech OR security ignorance? The warning signs were there, I saw these kinds of attacks escalating after the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie only 3 years ago.
The MAGA movement is only going to use Kirk’s death to further take away our free speech rights. And it is already happening right here with the recent firing of a professor at USD because he dared to call a spade a spade on the internet. If there ever was a time to speak out, it is right now. I have maintained this blog for almost 20 years not because I care about local governess but I care about FREE speech. I know not everyone agrees with my point of view, but that is why I share it, to have you think of a different way of doing things.
Did you know the 1st Amendment was merely a compromise by James Madison;
James Madison was the primary author and driving force behind the First Amendment, which he introduced to the First Congress in 1789 to guarantee freedoms of religion, speech, press, and assembly. He did so because many Americans and delegates at state ratification conventions feared the unamended Constitution lacked protections for essential liberties, and Madison, initially a Federalist who didn’t believe a Bill of Rights was necessary, changed his mind to gain support for the new system and secure the support of Anti-Federalists.
Essential Liberties. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? These things are NOT guaranteed by the barrel of a gun, a religious doctrine or by someone who owns property, they are guaranteed by our speech and speaking out against injustice. “The pen is mightier than the sword,” was coined by the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Some people close to Kirk know that his OWN words will ultimately destroy his legacy, not an assassin’s bullet and this is why they are literally killing the messengers by having people terminated for speaking the truth about Kirk.
Sound like a defender of FREE speech to you?
Like most political bubbles these days, I don’t think we will be hearing much about Kirk after his funeral, just another blip on the radar screen, but the 1st Amendment, that is something we must protect every day even though Kirk failed miserably at it because most fascists do.
Why are local politicians recruiting replacements?
We saw it this past time around in the school board election where an outgoing board member recruited a replacement.
Now Sioux Falls city councilor Cole is chairing the campaign of an At-Large council candidate that wants to replace her. It doesn’t really matter who he is because he will NOT be getting my vote. I will spread the news about this unethical behavior.
• Councilor Cole is NOT running for re-election, in other words she is quitting but wants to make sure she can pick a replacement.
• This is highly unethical and not sure why local yocals are doing this lately (Poops was precedent on this).
• As a highly skilled medical doctor, Cole should know this is unethical behavior.
Guess who decides who will serve us on the council? THE VOTERS!
While it is certainly NOT unethical to advise this candidate or even volunteer for his campaign, recruiting him, endorsing him publicly and chairing his campaign isn’t right.
I hope Sux wakes up before the next election and start looking at candidates for who they are ETHICALLY instead who racks up the most donations and endorsements.
I also heard another candidate running for council MAY HAVE put down a false address. I will investigate and update (from what I found so far, he lives at the address listed on his campaign finance forms.