Sunday Stuff

This is Johnny Walker. His Linkedin profile describes him as “Cultural advisor, author, film-maker, entrepreneur and U.S. Navy Seal Trident recipient.”

He posted the following on Linkedin recently (and the middle finger is aimed at Biden of course):

A MESSAGE to our President:

With all due respect, when you call us Republicans "THE enemy of democracy" I can understand that this is part of the political game or your party's political agenda. That's cool. But the problem I'm facing right now is how can I explain to my kids that I am a Republican and not a terrorist as you claim.

This is not the spirit upon which our great nation was built.

This does not promote the same picture of the land of freedom that my brothers in arms offered to me when I fought terrorists by their side.

This is not a helpful way to unite our country - by disparaging 70 million of your fellow citizens.

I AM NOT ISIS, AL QAIDA, IRANIAN MILITIA, OR A MEMBER OF A CARTEL. I AM A PROUD AMERICAN CITIZEN. SO PLEASE DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN. I HAVE EARNED MY CITIZENSHIP WITH BLOOD AND SACRIFICE.

I AM J WALKER.

If you agree please share it.

(By the way, I’m answering here because Linkedin isn’t – or shouldn’t be, anyway, as far as I’m concerned – a place for news or political commentary. And yes, to be fair, I have no desire to engage in some pointless back-and-forth braying with commentors, many of whom merely want to burnish their alleged “tough guy” bona fides.)

To begin, I searched a transcript of Biden’s Philadelphia speech, and I couldn’t find him using the phase “the enemy of democracy” anywhere. I also couldn’t find the word “terrorist.” So I honestly don’t know what speech Walker is referring to.

(I mean, if Walker is looking for inflammatory rhetoric, he could look to the leader of his party, who called Biden “an enemy of the state” in his Bund rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA last night here. Combover Caligula also recently accused Dem PA U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman of taking cocaine, heroin, crystal meth and fentanyl here, which 1) Is a laughably ridiculous lie even for Cult 45...and Fetterman should sue over it IMO, even though of course, being the world class grifter Trump is, I’m sure Fetterman won’t get the satisfaction he deserves, and 2) would be quite a neat trick...ingesting all of those drugs and managing to actually stay alive, and with a serious health condition no less.)

Here is what Biden actually DID say in Philadelphia a few nights ago...

...we must be honest with each other and with ourselves.

Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.

Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front. Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.

And despite Walker’s braying in opposition, President Biden happens to be absolutely right (if anything, he understates the problem).

So then, by default, Walker is defending the MAGA election deniers...and actually, worse than that, those practicing sabotage of our most important duty as citizens by undermining our ability to conduct free and fair elections across this country with ridiculous election “audits,” onerous anti-voting laws making it harder for younger voters, as well as people of color and other ethnicity, to exercise their franchise, and other foul means. Among other locations, this is talking place in Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida...and potentially the “Keystone state” of PA if Trumper and insurrection supporter Doug Mastriano, by some catastrophe, manages to win election as governor this fall (here).

And since Walker has nothing to say about the 1/6 attack on the Capitol, which of course was also an attack on the very foundation of our government (here), I assume he approves of that also.

This, to me, is supporting fascism. In big, bold, 72-point type. On the front page of the New York Freaking Times and the Washington Post (I won’t include the Philadelphia Inquirer since I know they’d find a way to try and “both sides” this incredibly important issue, though to be honest, those other two papers might do the same thing).

And without impugning Walker’s service (for which he should be commended and we should all be grateful), I can tell you definitively that my father served in Europe fighting World War II, opposing fascism FOR REAL. So, if he were still alive (and if I were to guess), I can imagine that he would see the “cult of personality” threat from Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former Chief Executive (who is still very much “on the hook” for this among his myriad other offenses, let’s not forget) along with his democracy-hating minions (who now love a European dictator as evidenced here) and call it out for what it is.

If Walker opposes Democrats for some personal or philosophical reason, that’s his right of course. But for someone who courageously took on the duty of carrying a weapon for this country to NOT see the homegrown, nativist threat posed by our twice-impeached, popular-election-vote-losing *president as well as those he represents who seek to destroy the foundations of our democracy, then I cannot call that anything less than dereliction of duty, which I reluctantly say with the greatest of reservations.

Update: About Wilkes-Barre...yeah, I think it was more meaningful in the original German (here).