bureaucracybusters

Posts Tagged ‘DEATH PENALTY’

A LIFE–AND PRESIDENCY–BASED ON HATRED

In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 22, 2025 at 12:05 am

During his 1992 Presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” as his mantra for staying focused on the issue that recession-suffering Americans most cared about.  

Donald Trump’s mantra—as Presidential candidate and President—could be summed up as: “It’s the Hatred, Stupid.”  

From June 15, 2015, when he launched his first Presidential campaign, until October 24, 2016, Trump fired almost 4,000 angry, insulting tweets at 281 people and institutions that had somehow offended him— in politics, journalism, TV and films.

Donald Trump

The New York Times needed two full pages of its print edition to showcase them.  Among his targets:

  • Women
  • Blacks
  • Hispanics
  • Asians
  • Muslims
  • News organizations
  • The disabled
  • POWs

And his base is equally motivated by hatred—of the same persons and organizations whom Trump regularly attacks. During the 2016 campaign, countless such voters told interviewers: “He says what I’ve long been thinking!”

Trump didn’t implant hatred in them—he simply gave it legitimacy. And they love him for it.

And since coming to power once again as President on January 20, Trump has given his lust for hatred free reign. 

  • Issued pardons to about 1,500 of his followers who violently tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election in the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress. Move than 250 of those pardoned had been convicted of assaulting police.
  • Withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). 
  • Suspended all foreign aid for at least three months.
  • Withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.
  • Through his appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, has declared all-out war on established medical institutions.
  • Ordered the dismissal of 5,000 FBI agents who investigated his incitement of the January 6 riot and his own hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Federal Bureau of Investigation - Wikipédia

  • Declared “a national emergency” targeting migrants—legal and illegal.
  • Sought to cancel automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children, known as birthright, and enshrined within the United States Constitution.
  • Withdrew the security detail assigned to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for rightly criticizing him as a wannabe dictator.
  • Cancelled travel to the United States for refugees, including those who had been approved to resettle within the country.
  • Withdrew the security detail assigned to Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fauci’s crime: Contradicting Trump’s lies about the dangers of COVID-19.
  • Ordered all Federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility offices, positions, plans, actions, initiatives or programs to be scrapped within 60 days.
  • Through his Federal Communications Commission Chairman, Brenden Carr, forced CBS to cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”—a fierce Trump critic. 

Upon being named Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler ruthlessly moved to make himself absolute dictator.

During his first eight months since again taking office on January 20,  Donald Trump has ruthlessly moved to make himself absolute dictator

* * * * * * * * * *

As non- and anti-Fascist Americans have watched Trump’s behavior with fear and morbid fascination, many of them have asked: “What makes him do the things he does?”

It’s a question asked—and answered—in the 1993 Western, Tombstone. And the answer given in that movie may just hold the answer to the question so many Americans are now asking about Trump.

Tombstone Movie Poster 1993 1 Sheet (27x41)

Tombstone recounts the legendary blood feud between the Ike Clanton outlaw gang and the Earp brothers—Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil—in  the famous gold-mining town in 1880s Arizona.

Wyatt Earp has been challenged to a gunfight by quick-trigger gunman Johnny Ringo. Although he impulsively accepted the challenge, Wyatt now realizes he’s certain to be killed. Thus follows this exchange with his longtime friend, the pistol-packing dentist, John H. “Doc” Holliday: 

WYATT EARP:  What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?

JOHN H. “DOC” HOLLIDAY: A man like Ringo’s got a great empty hole right through the middle of him. He can never kill enough or steal enough or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.

EARP:  What does he need?

HOLLIDAY:  Revenge.

EARP:  For what?

HOLLIDAY: Bein’ born.

Donald Trump was born into a world of wealth and privilege. His father gave him $200 million, which he channeled into a real estate empire. He has claimed to be worth a billion dollars.

He has been linked—often by his own boasts—to some of the most beautiful women in the world. He has been a major force on TV through his “reality show,” The Apprentice. He has literally stamped his name on hundreds of buildings.

And now he holds the Presidency of the United States, the most powerful office in the Western world. 

Yet he remains filled with a poisonous hatred that encompasses almost everyone.

Since taking office, he has offered nothing positive in his agenda. Instead, he has focused his efforts on what he can take from others. At the top of his list: Declaring war on millions of illegal immigrants—many of whom hold menial jobs most other Americans refuse to take.

As first-mate Starbuck says of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick: “He is a champion of darkness.”

A LIFE–AND PRESIDENCY–BASED ON HATRED

In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on February 6, 2025 at 12:28 am

During his 1992 Presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” as his mantra for staying focused on the issue that recession-suffering Americans most cared about.

Donald Trump’s mantra—as Presidential candidate and President—could be summed up as: “It’s the Hatred, Stupid.” 

From June 15, 2015, when he launched his first Presidential campaign, until October 24, 2016, Trump fired almost 4,000 angry, insulting tweets at 281 people and institutions that had somehow offended him— in politics, journalism, TV and films.

Donald Trump

The New York Times needed two full pages of its print edition to showcase them.  Among his targets:

  • Women
  • Blacks
  • Hispanics
  • Asians
  • Muslims
  • News organizations
  • The disabled
  • POWs

And his base is equally motivated by hatred—of the same persons and organizations whom Trump regularly attacks. During the 2016 campaign, countless such voters told interviewers: “He says what I’ve long been thinking!”

Trump didn’t implant hatred in them—he simply gave it legitimacy. And they love him for it.

And since coming to power once again as President on January 20, Trump has given his lust for hatred free reign. 

  • Issued pardons to about 1,500 of his followers who violently tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election in the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress. Move than 250 of those pardoned had been convicted of assaulting police.
  • Withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). 
  • Suspended all foreign aid for at least three months.
  • Withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.
  • Ordered the dismissal of 5,000 FBI agents who investigated his incitement of the January 6 riot and his own hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
  • Declared “a national emergency” targeting migrants—legal and illegal.
  • Sought to cancel automatic citizenship for U.S.-born children, known as birthright, and enshrined within the United States Constitution.
  • Withdrew the security detail assigned to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley for rightly criticizing him as a wannabe dictator.
  • Cancelled travel to the United States for refugees, including those who had been approved to resettle within the country.
  • Committed to pursue federal death sentences and pledged to ensure that states have sufficient supplies of lethal injection drugs for executions.
  • Withdrew the security detail assigned to Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Fauci’s crime: Contradicting Trump’s lies about the dangers of COVID-19.
  • Put federal employees working to halt discrimination on paid leave.
  • All Federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility offices, positions, plans, actions, initiatives or programs will be scrapped within 60 days.

United States District judge Loren AliKhan granted a temporary halt to Trump’s intended “pause” after several advocacy groups argued this would devastate programs ranging from healthcare to road construction.

Just as Adolf Hitler moved quickly to make himself absolute dictator upon being named Chancellor on January 30, 1933, so has Donald Trump within a week of falsely promising to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

* * * * * * * * * *

As non- and anti-Fascist Americans have watched Trump’s behavior with fear and morbid fascination, many of them have asked: “What makes him do the things he does?”

It’s a question asked—and answered—in the 1993 Western, Tombstone. And the answer given in that movie may just hold the answer to the question so many Americans are now asking about Trump.

Tombstone Movie Poster 1993 1 Sheet (27x41)

Tombstone recounts the legendary blood feud between the Ike Clanton outlaw gang and the Earp brothers—Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil—in  the famous gold-mining town in 1880s Arizona.

Wyatt Earp has been challenged to a gunfight by quick-trigger gunman Johnny Ringo. Although he impulsively accepted the challenge, Wyatt now realizes he’s certain to be killed. Thus follows this exchange with his longtime friend, the pistol-packing dentist, John H. “Doc” Holliday: 

WYATT EARP:  What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?

JOHN H. “DOC” HOLLIDAY: A man like Ringo’s got a great empty hole right through the middle of him. He can never kill enough or steal enough or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.

EARP:  What does he need?

HOLLIDAY:  Revenge.

EARP:  For what?

HOLLIDAY: Bein’ born.

Donald Trump was born into a world of wealth and privilege. His father gave him $200 million, which he channeled into a real estate empire. He has claimed to be worth a billion dollars.

He has been linked—often by his own boasts—to some of the most beautiful women in the world. He has been a major force on TV through his “reality show,” The Apprentice. He has literally stamped his name on hundreds of buildings.

And now he holds the Presidency of the United States, the most powerful office in the Western world. 

Yet he remains filled with a poisonous hatred that encompasses almost everyone.

Since taking office, he has offered nothing positive in his agenda. Instead, he has focused his efforts on what he can take from others. At the top of his list: Declaring war on millions of illegal immigrants—many of whom hold menial jobs most other Americans refuse to take.

As first-mate Starbuck says of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick: “He is a champion of darkness.”

WHO’S THE REAL VICTIM?

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Social commentary on July 28, 2023 at 1:32 am

Joy Stewart, 22, was nearly eight months pregnant when she encountered Dennis McGuire in Preble County, Ohio, while visiting a friend. 

McGuire wanted to have sex with her but Stewart refused. 

Dennis McGuire

So he raped her.

No, not vaginally.  She was so pregnant he couldn’t have sex with her.

So he anally sodomized her.  With a knife.

Not surprisingly, Stewart became hysterical.  

And this made him fear that he would go to jail for raping a pregnant woman.

So he choked her.  Then he stabbed her with the same knife he had used to anally rape her.

Finally, he severed her carotid artery and jugular vein. He wiped blood off his hands on her right arm and dumped her in a wooded area where she was found the next day by hikers.

Joy Stewart

The date was February 1, 1989.

When questioned by police, McGuire blamed Stewart’s kidnapping and murder on his brother-in-law. 

But the accusation didn’t hold up—-and DNA evidence clearly implicated McGuire.

McGuire was convicted of kidnapping, anal rape and aggravated murder on December 8, 1994.  But even while facing a grim future, McGuire managed to postpone his fate as victim could not.

First, his attorneys appealed his conviction to the Ohio Supreme Court on June 10, 1997.  To the dismay of him and his mouthpieces, the court upheld the verdict on December 10, 1997.

By this time, McGuire had already outlived his ravished victim by eight years.

Second, his attorneys appealed to the United States Court of Appeals, for the Sixth Circuit. 

During this appeal, as in the first, McGuire’s attorneys didn’t argue their client was innocent. They simply claimed that a jury never got to hear the full details of his chaotic and abusive childhood.

As if that had been so much more horrific than the details of Joy Stewart’s rape and murder.

The case was argued on December 16, 2013, and decided on December 30.   

The court upheld the death penalty verdict.

By that time, McGuire had outlived Joy Stewart by 24 years.

But McGuire’s lawyers weren’t through. They asked Ohio Governor John Kasich to spare McGuire, again citing his chaotic and abusive childhood.

Kasich rejected that request without comment.

Then, on January 6-7, 2014, McGuire’s lawyers argued in Federal appeals court that Ohio’s untried two-drug execution method would cause their client “agony and terror” as he struggled to breathe.

Supplies of Ohio’s former execution drug, pentobarbital, had dried up as its manufacturer put it off limits for executions. Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction planned to use a dose of midazolam, a sedative, combined with hydromorphone, a painkiller, to put McGuire to death.

That appeal proved unsuccessful.

Finally, on January 16, 2014, McGuire kept his long-delayed date with the executioner in a small, windowless room at the Lucasville Correctional facility.   

Opinion: Ohio should be the 24th state to abolish death penalty

Strapped to a gurney, McGuire gasped, snorted and snored as it took him 26 minutes to die.

“I’m going to heaven,” were his last words.

His surviving family members, of course, felt that a travesty of justice had occurred.

On January 25, they filed a lawsuit in Federal court, claiming that McGuire’s execution was “unconstitutional.”

According to the lawsuit, McGuire suffered  “repeated cycles of snorting, gurgling and arching his back, appearing to writhe in pain. It looked and sounded as though he was suffocating.”

The McGuire family wanted to ensure that such an execution never happens again.

During the execution, his adult children sobbed in dismay.

For him.  Not his ravaged and innocent victim. 

 * * * * *

The old saying, “Justice delayed is justice denied” remains as true—and relevant—as ever.

In order to be effective, punishment must be certain and swift.  To repeatedly postpone it—literally for decades after the perpetrator has been convicted—is to inflict further agony on the victim.

Or, in this case, the surviving family and friends of the murdered victim.

And it sends an unmistakable message to those thinking of victimizing others: “Hey, he got to live another 25 years.  Maybe I can beat the rap.”

Opponents of capital punishment have long argued that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.

In fact, it is.

Having finally had sentence carried out on him, Dennis McGuire will never again threaten—nor take the life of—anyone.

Prisons scheduled for executions are now facing a chronic shortage of the drugs used to carry out such sentence. The reason: Many drug-makers refuse to make them available for executions.

This has caused some states to reconsider using execution methods that were scrapped in favor of lethal injection.

Methods like;

  • Hanging
  • The gas chamber
  • The electric chair
  • Even the firing squad.

In line with this debate should be another: Whether the lives of cold-blooded murderers are truly worth more than those of their innocent victims.

And whether those victims—and those who loved them—deserve a better break than they now receive under our legal system.

TIME TO REFORM THE DEATH PENALTY

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on June 20, 2022 at 12:10 am

On June 8, justice finally caught up with Frank Atwood.

On September 17, 1984, eight-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson was riding her bike home when Atwood kidnapped and murdered her. Then he left her body in an Arizona desert.  A hiker found the child’s remains about seven months later.   

Making Vicki’s murder even worse: Atwood had previously been convicted of “lewd and lascivious acts and kidnapping” two young children in California.

Ten days after Vicki’s disappearance, eyewitness testimony and physical evidence led to Atwood’s arrest. He was charged with one count of kidnapping. 

Atwood’s trial began in January, 1987. He was found guilty of first degree murder on March 26, and sentenced to death on May 8, 1987. But it took until 2020 for all of his appeals to be exhausted. 

Finally, at just after 10:15 a.m. local time, on June 8, Atwood met his own death by lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence, Arizona. 

Arizona Supreme Court issues execution warrant for Frank J. Atwood - The Gila Herald

Frank Atwood

While Atwood had no concern for the pain of others, he had plenty of it for himself. He tried to halt the execution by claiming the procedure would violate his constitutional rights. 

How? 

In an appeal to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Atwood’s lawyers claimed that lying flat on the execution table would cause him excruciating pain due to a spinal condition he developed while in prison.

The appeals court agreed with a federal judge in Phoenix, who noted that the table can be raised to an inclined position.

A district court dismissed Atwood’s “poor, pity me” excuse and on June 7, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision to execute him.

A typical execution room

The next day, the United States Supreme Court dashed Atwood’s last hope to escape justice and denied his petition to halt the execution.

About 111 inmates remain on Arizona’s Death Row.

The Atwood case offers serious reasons for a complete overhaul of how the death penalty is administered. 

First: There is genuine wisdom in the saying: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”  

Imagine how the parents and relatives of Vicki Hoskinson have felt for 36 years:

  • Knowing that she died violently, probably after being sexually abused.
  • Knowing that she wasn’t given even the dignity of a funeral—that her body had been left in the desert, with her remains scattered by animals.
  • Knowing that the man responsible for her death was not only still alive but had far more rights conferred on him by the State than he had provided Vicki.
  • With every appeal they had to relive the horror of their loved one’s brutal murder.

63 Love the Fog ideas | eerie, cemeteries, old cemeteries

Second: The life of a murderer should not be considered as sacred—if not more so—than the lives of those he has murdered.

People don’t get sent to Death Row by stealing food or picking pockets, as they did in England during the 19th century. They don’t even get there by killing someone accidentally or in the heat of passion.

According to 18 U.S. Code § 1111: “Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed for the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated assault abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery, or perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child, or children….is murder in the first degree.”

They get there, in short, by deliberately choosing to take the life of someone—and then doing so.

Third: The insanity defense should be abolished. 

Too many perfectly sane murderers use this as a defense to escape justice for the human carnage they have left in their wake. Even if they are ruled criminally insane—on a “Hannibal the Cannibal” level—they should not be allowed to avoid the death penalty.

Consider this: A beloved dog gets rabies. It isn’t his fault. But from now on he presents “a clear and present danger” to everyone he meets. The same is true with someone who has demonstrated a taste for cold-blooded murder.

Fourth: The number of appeals should be severely limited—to three or four, at most.

This would ensure that the accused had his sentence carefully reviewed, and yet allow a fair time for justice—acquittal or execution—to occur.   

Fifth: Violent offenders should not be released, even if they’re not given the death penalty.

The rate of recidivism in the United States is 70%. Within three years of their release, two out of three former inmates are rearrested and more than 50% are reincarcerated. 

Atwood had previously been convicted of “lewd and lascivious acts and kidnapping” two young children in California. Had Atwood not been released, he could not have murdered Vicki.  

It’s true that some inmates have radically turned their lives around in prison and spent the rest of their lives as model citizens. But this happens so rarely and unpredictably that taking this chance is not worth jeopardizing the safety of the public at large.

THE AMERICAN AYATOLLAHS: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on February 27, 2014 at 12:17 am

On February 18, 2012, GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum warned about the “phony theology” of President Barack Obama.

Rick Santorum

“It’s not about you,” Santorum told supporters of the right-wing Tea Party in Columbus, Ohio. “It’s not about your quality of life.

“It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.”

Which raises an interesting question: What would a Bible-based agenda mean for the country?

The death penalty would be vastly expanded to cover such “crimes” as:

  • Sabbath-breaking: Because the Lord considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.  (Exodus 31:12-15)
  • Adultery:  If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)
  • Fornication: A priest’s daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.  (Leviticus 21:9)

A Biblical-era stoning

  • Nonbelievers: They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13)
  • Homosexuality:  If a man also lies with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death.  Their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20-13)

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution–which forbids slavery–would be repealed. The Bible not only permits slavery but lays out rules for its practice–such as:

  • When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. (Exodus 21-7)
  • However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. (Leviticus 25:44-45)
  • Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. (1 Peter 2:18)

Almost all scientific progress would be discarded, since most of its findings conflict with the Bible:

  • One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but the earth abides forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4). This claim is totally contradicted by what astronomers now know about the eventual fate of the Earth: In about 7.6 billion years, the sun will exhaust its nuclear fuels.  This will vastly increase its heat and gravitational pull, and at least Mercury, Earth and Venus will be vaporized.
  • The Bible speaks of a world where physical laws are often violated by the will of God.   Thus, Jesus turns water into wine and raises Lazarus from the dead; Jonah lives inside a fish for three days; Noah dies at 950 years; and demons are exorcised.
  • In Biblical times, mental illness was seen as a manifestation of demonic possession.  Today we know that mental illness has nothing to do with evil spirits.

Laws guaranteeing equal rights for women would be repealed:

  • I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. (1 Timothy 12:10)
  • Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22)
  • A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. (1 Timothy 2:11)
  • But if…evidence of the girl’s virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father’s house and there her townsman shall stone her to death. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)

Military conflicts would be fought without regard to the Geneva Convention–as the Israelites did:

  • “You are my battle-ax and sword,” says the Lord.  “With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms…. With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens.  With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and rulers.”  (Jeremiah 51:20-23)
  • Samuel said to Saul, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” (1 Samuel 15, 1-3) 

Yes, a nation governed by “a theology based on the Bible” would be one far different from the United States we know today.

Since a number of Old Testament practices might lend themselves to easy abuse, this is not a matter to be taken lightly.