by Richard Cameron

I don’t write often on the topic of animal cruelty or animal welfare, but I feel I need to – because most everyone in the world of humans has someone to speak for them, but animals need as many voices as they can get.

I had a small contingent of writers here on National Compass, including one who specialized in this subject matter, but now it’s just down to moi.  I understand why that is – life is complicated and this platform does not generate income to pay contributors – we don’t have sponsors or run advertising.  I’m not complaining, just pointing out reality.

But back to indecent treatment of animals. I just could not read the following story and move on to another topic. It has to do with a carriage horse falling down in the street from heat exhaustion in New York City.

I’ll post the well written local coverage from W42ST below, so you can get all the reported details, but just comment that in my family, we have been so many places where these horses are cruelly overworked with the burden of carrying single and multiple passengers in carriages and the people taking these rides are oblivious to the reality of the suffering and dare I say it – the aspect of forced labor that attends to it.

Also, it turns out that the individuals that persist in this are members of a labor union, which explains why city officials have until now, despite years of activism, not done anything to alleviate the daily suffering of these animals.

It appears there is a chance of that changing. We’ll be watching it.  The Carriage trade still persists at the Disney theme parks in California and elsewhere and it seems no amount of resistance to it will persuade them otherwise.

But I also remember taking part in a protest in San Diego several years ago against the use of animals in the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey circus when the organization stubbornly defied reforms and being relieved somewhat later, to see that eventually, under the pressure of public displeasure, they ceased the abusive practices.

So you just have to be persistent. That applies to everything in life. 

Horse Collapse on 9th Avenue Ignites Further Debate on the Future of New York’s Carriages

You probably heard reports on various news outlets that an armed attack occurred at the FBI field office in Cincinnati this AM.

At approximately 9 AM this morning an armed subject attempted to breach the Visitor Screening Facility at #FBI Cincinnati. After an alarm and a response by FBI special agents, the subject fled north onto Interstate 71. pic.twitter.com/vFZHnpbM9L

— FBI Cincinnati (@FBICincinnati) August 11, 2022

As of 6PM Central, it has been reported that the suspect has been shot and killed by the Ohio State Police, which explains their earlier cryptic reference that the “standoff” is over.

While the media had demurred from assigning a motive to the incursion at the FBI’s office, I will go out on the limb – a very sturdy one – and tell you what I think the incident itself signifies.  It signifies that the wild eyed, militant alt-right rhetoric from the Gee Ohhhhhh Pee and the rest of the usual clan of sewer mouths, led by the one term, loser, twice impeached president Donald Trump, has given impetus for further violent acting out.

The alt-right / white nationalist social media ghetto had already been buzzing with invocations of violent rebellion even before Trump’s central base for influence peddling, Mar A Lago, was served by FBI agents with a search warrant on Tuesday.

But since then, the calls for anarchy have steadily ramped up to a crescendo. “Civil War 2.0 just kicked off,” wrote a Twitter user, and another stating, “One step closer to a kinetic civil war.”  Many signaled their readiness to participate: “I already bought my ammo.”

On Telegram, a member wrote, on Telegram. “Civil war coming to America, there won’t be any more elections.” These are just samples from the rank and file.  

Members of the Trumpublican party have stirred the pot for lawlessness as well. Georgia House Member Marjorie Taylor Greene bellowed, “This is the rogue behavior of communist countries, NOT the United States of America!!! These are the type of things that happen in countries during civil war.” 

Steve Bannon – yes, that one, the soon to be sentenced for contempt of Congress Steve Bannon, predictably bullhorned, calling the FBI “the Gestapo” and saying, “We need to choke down the FBI and choke down the Justice Department.”  He did make one grammatical error, as the aforementioned Ms. Greene properly refers to them as the “Gaspacho Police.”

Things We’re Watching – Trumpublicanism Ratcheting Up The Militancy

Faux News was all over it (of course, right?), with the likes of Jesse Watters predicting correctly,  “I think there is going to be some more action you are going to see out on the streets from the base after they see this break tonight. They’ve had it with what this corrupt government and what the FBI has done.”

Not to belabor the point, although we easily could, given the abundance of this sort of rhetorical kerosene, but one more quote here, characteristic of the most direct, comes to us from a voice of the far right that is so unhinged that she has been tossed off both Facebook and Twitter – zero odds primary candidate for a Florida Congressional seat, Lara Loomer.     

“Time to take the gloves off. It’s been time. If you’re a freedom-loving American, you must remove the words decorum and civility from your vocabulary. This is a WAR! And it’s time to obliterate these communists.”

And now, just before publication, this came in.  On Truth Social, a social media platform founded by Trump’s media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, the individual that staged the attack on the FBI branch office, named by authorities as Ricky Shiffer has been discovered to have posted a plot outline for readers on that platform:

“Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t.  If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I., and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the F.B.I. got me, or they sent the regular cops while … ” the account @RickyWShifferJr wrote at 9:29 a.m. ET, shortly after police allege the shooting occurred.

So, now it’s official. Trump and the MAGAverse and the Gee Ohhhhh Pee, inspire domestic terrorism. Well, we knew that before. 

On a happier note and evidence that Democrats are beginning to embrace the awareness that you don’t bring a squirt gun to a gun fight, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Texas, Beto O’Rourke, went verbally ballistic on a demented Greg Abbott supporter that snickered when O’Rourke told an audience on a campaign stop in Mineral Wells about the destructive capabilities of the weapon used on children and their teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. 

The Fort Worth Star Telegram quotes O’Rourke:     

“And take that weapon that was originally designed for use on the battlefields in Vietnam, to penetrate an enemy’s soldier’s helmet at 500 feet and knock him down dead,” O’Rourke said from the middle of a mostly seated group. At this moment, laughter can be heard, before O’Rourke whips around and points at the heckler. “… up against kids from five feet. It might be funny to you mother fucker, but it’s not funny to me.”

Not funny to me either and not funny to the parents, the siblings, the aunts, uncles and friends of the children massacred or the husbands, wives and loved ones of the teachers that were slaughtered.

Only funny, if you are demented.

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