Botany
Botany's JournalWhat a real hero does and says. Richard M. Fierro, protect your people
“These kids want to live that way, want to have a good time, have at it,” “I’m happy about it because that is what I fought for, ..."
COLORADO SPRINGS — Richard M. Fierro was at a table in Club Q with his wife, daughter and friends on Saturday, watching a drag show, when the sudden flash of gunfire ripped across the nightclub and instincts forged during four combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan instantly kicked in. Fight back, he told himself, protect your people.
snip
“I don’t know exactly what I did, I just went into combat mode,” Mr. Fierro said, shaking his head as he stood in his driveway, an American flag hanging limp in the freezing air. “I just know I have to kill this guy before he kills us.”
snip
It was Mr. Fierro’s first time at a drag show, and he was digging it. He had spent 15 years in the Army, and now relished his role as a civilian and a father, watching one of his daughter’s old high-school friends perform.
“These kids want to live that way, want to have a good time, have at it,” he said as he described the night. “I’m happy about it because that is what I fought for, so they can do whatever they hell they want.”
Mr. Fierro was trying to get better at going out. In Iraq and Afghanistan he’d been shot at, seen roadside bombs shred trucks in his platoon, and lost friends. He was twice awarded the Bronze Star.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/us/colorado-springs-shooting-club-q-hero.html no paywall
*****
And even after this senseless shooting triggered by hate speech Mike Pompeo was out there fanning the flames of hatred
against a women who has never bothered him one time. The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten,”
Pompeo said.
This has to be from the Onion. McCarthy Plans Special Committee on China
thanx to DUer discocrisco01 for posting 
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142997944
The House already has a committee that deals with China: The House Foreign Affairs Committee*
Good God in Butter what a fucking idiot. Any doubt that the House thanx to gerrymandering and SCOTUS
will become a shit show is now gone.
The House Intelligence Committee deals with these issues too.
* Been around since 1822
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Committee_on_Foreign_Affairs
I'm going to starve
This cold snap has finished off my sugar snap peas
that was still growing a few days ago but it was too late for the pollinators.
Well, maybe l can live on my dried Joe's Long red peppers, horse radish, and red skin potatoes.
E. Musk, "Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor at 2 p.m. today."
BTW a question for the smart I.T. / DU people. What will happen to Twitter if it has no real time
human type support people ready to go 24/7? Can Twitter "run on its own" through A.I. and the
programs that "run things" which are already installed? Any "moving parts" than need to be oil?
thanx to DUer PSBS
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217388928
Never forget that McCarthy was caught on tape in 2016 saying he knew that Trump was "Russian Dirty."
We are dealing with a real shit in McCarthy and he is ONLY SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE BECAUSE OF THE GOP'S
CHEATING IN GERRYMANDERING THE SHIT OUT OF MANY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS
In the transcript published by the Post, McCarthy speculates that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee’s computers and, in the process, discovered whatever opposition-research materials the Democrats had gathered on Trump.
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, according to Entous, a superb reporter who heard a tape recording of the colloquy. “Swear to God.”
In the Post piece, McCarthy’s remark is met with laughter, and Ryan cautions his colleagues, “This is an off the record . . . No leaks! . . All right?”
And then, amid more laughter, Ryan says, “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
“That’s how you know that we’re tight,” Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip, says.
“What’s said in the family stays in the family,” Ryan concludes.
************
When asked about his comments about Trump and Russia McCarthy's staff @ first said, "that it never happened"
and when told that the they had a transcript of it his staff said, "it was taken out of context" and when told that
the Washington Post had a tape of McCarthy linking Trump to Putin their answer was "he was only joking."
BTW Paul Ryan and Steve Scalise along with Mitch McConnell (he was told by the White House and US Intell)
all were well aware of the Trump Russia connection in 2016
(McCarthy is not a good man as he showed yesterday by skipping Speaker Pelosi's speech to meet with the odious
Stephen Miller.)
***********
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/paul-ryan-keeps-it-family-kevin-mccarthy-russia-trump
My rant about the GOP being the majority in Congress "they" got there by CHEATING
In OH most of the congressional districts are so gerrymandered that the races are over before
the first ballot is cast. I believe that is the case in Florida and Tennessee too. All across America
a Koch Brothers backed think tank redraw the district lines in many places so that the republican
was all but guaranteed to win the district especially if the congressperson is an incumbent.
This is Gym Jordan's district.
None of this shit in the Ukraine would now be happening if we had stopped Putin/Trump in '16
BTW Republicans this is all on you too. Republicans knew that Trump was "Russian Dirty" in 2016.
And they were good with it.
2016 RNC Delegate: Trump Directed Change To Party Platform On Ukraine Support
President Trump may have been involved with a change to the Republican Party campaign platform last year that watered down support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine, according to new information from someone who was involved.
Diana Denman, a Republican delegate who supported arming U.S. allies in Ukraine, has told people that Trump aide J.D. Gordon said at the Republican Convention in 2016 that Trump directed him to support weakening that position in the official platform.
Ultimately, the softer position was adopted.
https://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488876597/how-the-trump-campaign-weakened-the-republican-platform-on-aid-to-ukraine
*****
And don't forget what Don's impeachment #1 was all about too. Helping Putin and weakening Ukraine
by blackmailing Zelenskyy to get the weapons he needed in his fight with Russia. And to get the weapons
his country needed Trump wanted Zelenskyy to make up shit about Joe and Hunter Biden. All the republican
senators refused to hold Trump accountable for his crimes there and Mitch McConnell stopped the American
people and the senate from seeing exactly what TFG did. McConnell walked away laughing.
******
And do not forget who sold out Ukraine on the Crimea in 2014 good old Gen. Flynn
President Obama fired him for not giving him and others warning about Russia's invasion
of the Ukraine (Flynn was flipped by Russia in 2013 my 
) then Flynn went to
Russia for about 6 months, then came back to America to work for the Trump campaign,
Trump was warned about Flynn but still hired him, and after he was caught negotiating
secret deals and setting up secret back channel communications with Vlad/Russia/Eric Prince
Trump's White House had to fire him. Flynn was not fired for lying to Pence but for being
caught dirty as per Russia.
The Urkrianian People, their Allies, and Joe Biden made this possible
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1591719973290139648Why these elections in 2022 are like the 2014 off year elections
Leading up to the 2014 elections it was all ebola all the time and after those elections you almost
never heard one word about ebola and in 2022 it was all inflation all the time and I'm willing to bet
you will not hear anywhere near the coverage of inflation that we heard prior to the '22 elections.
Republicans and the really rich own much of the media. End of story. Or at least that is what I
think but I am: 
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Member since: Tue Nov 30, 2004, 04:49 PMNumber of posts: 70,504