Constitutional Rights. First Amendment and Second Amendment. Minnesota.

Responses to my Facebook post/s. First line, or highlighted quoted lines, are by commenters to my post.

<>“Constitutional rights and freedom of speech." Yes, but NOT in front of a gun. Even if a damn cartel sicario is the one pointing a gun at my face, yet he yells: "Stop" or motions for me to stop, sheer common sense tells me to stop. Repeat: Especially if there’s one or more people in my car, or I am around people (as in a mass of protestors). 

       If after the fact, I believe my “constitutional rights and freedom of speech” are violated, then there you go. That’s the job of civil rights attorneys and cause-oriented legal experts. 

<>“Right to bear arms is our 2nd amendment right.” In fact, let me stretch that: There is “gun carry” in Minnesota. Yet deductive reasoning or sense asks me, “Why would I carry my damn gun to where law enforcement, guns royale, are all over. And where protest adrenaline or rage are louder than thunder?” Would I calm down yet still head out to where the shoutings are and protest, legit and smarter.

       

<>“Exercise those rights and must bend the knee to not get murdered in our streets.” Compliance before a cop who told me to stop–as in driving the car on the shoulder of a road or oblige to frisking–are examples of police/civilian interactions. Would you go ahead and drive faster or wrestle a cop because it is a “civil right” to refuse frisking? Do you? 

       Next, what if all these happen, with your child in the car? Because there are people around with cellphone cams to record the “murder” and disrespect of your “constitutional right,” tell me. But you can be smarter than dramatic. Let `em and then sue; in fact you may win huge money and/or get donations via GoFund. But you need to be alive to enjoy those. You dig? 

       

<>“No longer living in the America that my forefathers fought to protect.” Actually, they did fight for those. Founding fathers. Democracy, civil rights, all the amendments. They fought a real revolution or war for those. But they didn’t say “abuse” or overstretch those. They drafted and ratified those rights for your protection as an American. 

       We enjoy all these privileges of Democracy and the First Amendment so much that we overdo them. Challenge the Constitution while crossing the thin line between “legal” and “illegal,” yeah? Insult the head of state and law enforcement because it is your First A? Unleash your rage versus the “New Hitler,” yeah? 

       Other nations don’t have these privileges. Look at current Iran. Soldiers don’t yell at you to stop. Soldiers don’t wrestle you to the ground to handcuff you. They just shoot you, in front of people. I experienced those. Hey, go cuss at a head of state, the bodyguard will kick you right there or snatch you, toss you in a black SUV, and drive you to your death. Those are real life elsewhere. 

       Sure, it is your right to cuss at anybody, right? So what if someone in the streets, someone who doesn’t like you, throws all imaginable Samuel L. Jackson “f” words in your face? Smile and say, “Yes, okay. That is your Freedom of Speech.” So cuss back I guess? Is that what the Founding Founders taught us? 

       So you are telling me that we in America could be “losing” the sublimity of democracy that John Adams (and the Founding Fathers) fought for. First of all, those were the 1700s, these are the 2020s. Life has evolved and so the words Democracy and the “right to bear arms” must not be interpreted per 1788. 

       If Thomas Jefferson or James Madison are alive now, I sure know what they’re gonna say. Yet those words will be taken as truths or “constitutional” per Left or Right. You reckon? ☮️🗽☮️

STUFF. Security. NATO. Greenland. And Donald Trump.

Response to a Friend’s Facebook page/post. 

I AM a bit bothered by the word "security" these days but I do recognize leadership SOPs. Yet per Mr Trump's playbook, his trade tact outweighs his balancing act in regards to doves/hawks in his foreign affairs agenda. Clearly, he is not a fan of NATO (he already lowered U.S. share in 2019). He doesn't favor too much military expenditures yet we know that the Pentagon's Defense budget keeps on spiking. That is an American fact, regardless that China's military budget is 4x less. 

       President Trump's major issue with the EU isn't Greenland (as media narrates). It is Ukraine. The EU still backs up Kyiv with military aid, irrelevant of Europe's economic murk. 

       Ergo, while Don keeps the hawks in Washington calm, he also issues his dovish agenda. That is tough. The reason why he sold new arms in Asia and Saudi Arabia yet he pursued peace. 

BEFORE Joe Biden, and while Angela Merkel was in power, the EU was cool with Russia. Europe needs Moscow's oil and gas; Norway isn't enough. The reason the economy stays below 1 percent is they lost that fuel (although some EU members continue to buy from Moscow/Gazprom actually; some via India). 

       Regardless of the war, Russia is still #1 natural gas exporter and #2 in oil (exports). Per Trump, the only way to deal with Ukraine is to end the war. Let the disputed (secessionist) Donbas region decide for themselves. Then talk about Ukraine’s rare earth and wasted natural resources. That is the issue anyway, going back to Euromaidan in 2014. The EU wanted these resources. They believe a war will do that as though we are in the 17th century still when the West could easily impose, via military aggression.

THE fact of the (current) world is, when a country purchases a territory, that is a corporate budget and the upkeep is shared with the government, and so on and so forth. So if Denmark sells Greenland, that'd be the lowdown.

       You see, China has been “quietly” buying lands globally since the Deng Xiaoping years, after Mao Zedong's death. But they don’t do it a-la America or Europe. You know I mean? They don’t like drama. While the world busies itself from all-Trump, China’s BRI, or Belt and Road Initiative, or trade expansionism carries on. ☮️☮️☮️

I WROTE this poem, I think, 15 years ago. It mirrors my break from the Left that started in the Philippines in the mid-1990s onto my grim experience with their comrades in New York City, which pushed me to move to Asheville NC in 2000 to seek “peace” and heal, and why I organized/produced “Bonfires for Peace” in public parks.

My response to newspaper interviews: “The Bonfires (for Peace) is not politics. This is a community convergence, whoever you are.” And then my frustration after covering the Occupy protest in Wall Street in 2011: “No leaders, no followers.” Today’s Left is fighting their own shadow, an enemy that is ushered by their “romanticized, idealized fear” of what may happen in a dystopian future, unable to see the horror in the gutters–ignoring the writings on the wall from Day 1 of the 21st century’s Great American Divide. Two dead in Minnesota blurring the dead in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran. And still, the Left believes the “war” is here, within and not without, far from our beloved “Democracy.” ☮️🗽☮️

Just So You Know

Just so you know

I am not coming to the party

I will not be in the drum circle

I won't be marching with the crowd

I will not be there. I am not going

I will not be present. I am gone.

The red wine that drenched beaten chests

in drunken celebration of our victories are all gone

spent, consumed, drained. The bottles broken

shards and splinters scattered on the pavement.

There's no more wine in the cellar of my searching.

The drums that I used to pound with strong hands

of coal and fire to usher thunders of rage among

bugles and brass have lost their rhythm.

I couldn't follow the beat anymore. My feet

and legs are worn out from all the marches

and hikes. Tired, blistered, bones twisted

my boots are punctured, with holes wide

as the hollow in my monsoon fed lungs. 

Just so you know. I won't be there.

But carry on and start the bonfire

without me. Let the heat surge

and illuminate the dusk of these

burning avenues and highways.

Dawn in the mountain reveals

columns of broken piano keys that

I couldn't follow. A drunken sky

of black pigeons splash in

the putrid waters but I couldn't

recognize them. The wolf's cry

that once woke me up from

stupor has a voice that I couldn't

understand. I couldn't hear the call

of crows or the tapping of ravens

anymore. Just so you know

I won't be there. You don't need me

in the next convergence to calm

the tempest that pummels the glade.

Just so you know why I am not

joining the din of jungles anymore.

I lost my armour along this journey.

Roads that once screamed the pain

time has covered my moss.

The bolsheviks of academias

and the revolutionaries on the rostrum

are drowned out by the discourse

in the plaza of our minds. The factory

is compressed in a tiny box and the farm

is littered with embers that click

out in midday sun. The songs

that warmed the trenches of Bastonne

aren't sung anymore. The wind

that pushed boats in Dunkirk

have gone elsewhere, and the poems

that lit the rubble of war from Waterloo

to Cajamarca, Yorktown to the Mekong Delta.

All gone.

The virulent force of my hands

that held torches on winter's nights

that I passed onto sweaty hands

of car workers in Macomb County

have fizzled out. The grease on gloves

of coalminers in Welch and steel

workers in Steelton are washed away

by invisible rains. Yet I can still recall

the cadence of lostness while young men

and women fight and die in Raqqa.

I can still smell the stench of dead camels

in oil fields in Riyadh. I hear the howl

of babies fed with toxic fear in Medellin

and Pyongyang. In my dreams

at night, I see electric eels along

the breakwaters in the South China Sea.

The foul aroma of gunpowder

in a Chicago sidestreet that devour

the scent of magnolias in the park.

The memories are still alive in me.

Skeletons of buffalos in Tahlequah

and murk of dumpsters, lost

keystones to violated treaties

in the plains and pueblos. Memories live.

But memories belong to the past.

Yet the agony remains unattended.

I want to come out and continue

the trek to freedom but I lost my way

as I lost my strength. I don't know how

to get to the plaza anymore. I am lost

in the far lefts of the north

and the alt rights of the west, and centers

of the east, and the left and right

of the south. I don't even know anymore

what kind of voice speaks of freedom

and justice. I will not be

welcomed to the gathering. I am misplaced.

I don't belong to anyone's polar extreme.

But those who go out early know

that there will be no dahlias that bloom and die:

they will all live yet mired in numbers and laws

in games of death, in loud anger.

Imprisoned in a shipwreck of blood.

I just couldn't navigate the plaza anymore.

So I will not be there.

Yet despite the fact that I lost my armour

my boots, my flag, my drums, my megaphone

my pen, my guitar, and my car and all the

tools that took me to the road, I still have one

last possession that I know will one day

bring us all together again.

My heart. ☮️🗽☮️

–Pasckie Pascua, from “Sweat! Poems of Grease and Mud.” 

Peace in America? Cracks in the Streets. Days of Disquiet.

LET me inhale-exhale first and place my (outside looking in) objectivity to crush whatever subjective drama that I harbor in me. <>I am not new to deaths in the streets where police (military, riot cops) confront protesters or civilians. I am a veteran of dictatorship-days tempests, both as a journalist and activist. Philippines, 1980s-1990s. These happened before my eyes, even. <>But I am new to this kind of street violence or public shootings, in America. From 1999 Columbine to this recent incident in Minneapolis, perpetrated by civilians or law enforcement. So I’d tackle this in a different but related context.

       In Martial Law Philippines or during my coverage of the countryside war in Asia, my primal response to a person (police, soldier, Communist rebel, civilian) with a gun pointed at me and who yelled: “Stop!” I’d stop. Common sense. Even in actual war, when a combatant who drew the gun first yelled “Stop!” to the enemy combatant, the latter stopped and raised his/her hand in surrender. (Of course, per mass shootings in America, the shooter doesn’t yell stop, so you better run or hide or whatever. Save your life.) 

       In many cases or videos of “cop shoots civilian” (or takes down, choke-holds, a civilian) in the U.S. that I saw, the victims were resisting or “moving/running,” regardless of the cop's weapon/s drawn (or holstered). I didn’t really see these police-resistance or outright defiance in “military ruled” Philippines. Yet many soldiers in dictatorship Philippines went on mowing down protesters, in full view of the public and the media. More tragic.  

       So my question on impulse, in the Minneapolis shooting: Why didn’t the victim stop? Clearly, the cherry-picked video (always edited as in others) tells me, the ICE operatives were telling the driver to stop. Or by sheer instinct, when law enforcement approaches you, you gotta stop moving. Checkpoints, random traffic stops etcetera. Of course, given the heat of the moment as fueled by the eerie divide or hate-Trump howl in the current-day U.S., cops or ICE or law enforcers are told to exercise “maximum tolerance.” 

       But “maximum tolerance,” many times, flies away as adrenaline gets the better of the police. Yet I can’t really judge that since I am not a cop or a rebel combatant or a soldier (I don’t even own a gun). With rage and anger thrown all over ICE faces wherever they go, as they attend to their job, that “maximum tolerance” mojo is really tough to comply with. (A major reason why I don’t own a gun is–I have a short fuse.) 

       Anyhow, a full-investigation (of the Minneapolis tragedy) is warranted. If I am Defense or Prosecution, or whatever, I’d like to see the full, unedited video that led to the ICE operatives approaching the SUV and then firing. I won’t use the videos that are splashed all over social media but I’d enjoin the public to come forward in case they have a full, longer video. Then, the obligatories: The ICE agent’s mental state etc etcetera. 

       In a calmer voice, I’d like to say, an ICE agent–not President Trump–shot an American in America. That matters a lot per public perception of an individual crime or particular police-public engagement. Meanwhile, although that isn’t as simple-linear as the typical mass shooting here by a disturbed person, the mental placement of a law enforcer matters, especially in these days of hate and disquiet. Of course, there’s “command responsibility” as in careful deployment of ICE agents in “hot areas.” (Minnesota is currently hot, also because of the corruption probe, not just because of the unpopularity of ICE to this side of the divide.) What I am saying is internal affairs (IA) investigates their own, too. 

       Looking in from the outside again, my overall take on this is exactly what my dad used to scold me about when I insisted on going out as protests burned the streets of Manila in those years: “Don’t go out. Stay at home. Don’t get shot.” ☮️🗽☮️

On the subject of the ICE agent’s shooting of a civilian. 

Response to an FB friend’s question.

MY reflex then (in front of soldiers in Manila's Martial Law) and my instinct these days in America (when caught amidst an intense street protest, cops all over): Comply and heed once told to stop by law enforcement with a gun.  I was in fact told to freeze and pinned to the ground by cops in 1999's Battle of Seattle and LA protests in Obama days, though I was there as a journalist, not a protester. Same with the Occupy days in NYC in 2011. Cops stopped me and asked for an ID. I complied. Why would I run? Be shot? They have a gun! 

       As a protest organizer in the past, I was vehemently against engaging riot police and part of our duty as dissent leaders (as well as the police) was to advise the public to avoid the ruckus or noise where we are (something untoward may happen). As protesters, we had medics and first-aid people. My strong words to protesters who were my responsibility: "Don't dare the cops. Yield. We'll deal with circumstances later but don't challenge the man with the gun." 

       Based on the Minneapolis videos that I saw, the ICE agents approached the black SUV. By sheer reflex, if I was the driver, I'd stop. Same with being flagged down, just stay put. The shooting was uncalled for but given all the wayward adrenaline of the situation, people yelling and stuff, and a black van whose driver refused to comply, the ICE guy shot. As I said, uncalled for. But what if? These happen a lot, of course. 

       There was even one that I covered when a cop shot a teenager (a boy) who brandished a toy gun, mentally-bothered victims who posed danger to bystanders, victims who died resisting arrest. This ICE guy will surely lose his job or be sent to jail, I expect, for the quickie response or lack of maximum tolerance. But this case isn't a linear "cop shot civilian" case. ☮️🗽☮️

Before President Trump lost his cool on Nic Maduro.

Response to a Facebook post. 

BEFORE Mr Trump finally issued his end game. 

       This: The United States’ Chevron has been back in Caracas since 2019. Venezuela's top oil seller to China is state-owned PDVSA but Chevron also ships oil to the dragon. Meanwhile, China is #3 top buyer of U.S. oil, aside from the fact that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are on trade truce; they have recently agreed to cool silicon deals, which features Nvidia. The U.S. government gets a 25 percent cut from Nvidia's sales in China. China could pull back again from buying U.S. soybeans if this drama escalates. So this is not about oil. 

       With Mr Maduro out and whoever replaces him (Maria Corina Machado?) shipments of Venezuelan oil to China and wherever carry on. Business as usual. 

       A U.S. shudder of Venezuela is the same somehow with the Iran whip via Operation Midnight Hammer in June. Mr Trump pressures Mr Maduro on drug cartels; nuke issues in Tehran. Yet China (world's top oil importer) is also the main buyer of Iran's oil. The most recent news before The D lost his patience was that Maduro agreed to talk with the U.S. about drugs, as Russia mediates. 

       Before all these: Presidents Trump and Claudia Sheinbaum have agreed to block Mexican drug cartels in their usual routes leading to America’s southern borders. So these cartels stand to lose over $70 billion in annual revenue in the U.S. alone as the market here starts to panic. So Sinaloa and CJNG hooked up with Venezuela's Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua to explore other alternative routes, such as the Venezuela/Colombia options. 

       The top drug cartel in Colombia is Clan del Golfo, which took over from Escobar's Medellin and Rodriguez-Orejuela's Cali. (Note: If Gustavo Petro doesn't concur with Trump next, expect POTUS to hit Colombia's reliance on US military aid. Colombia has always been the top US arms recipient in Latin America.) ☮️☮️☮️

Response to a Left-winger who insists “It’s about oil.”

THAT would be the classic Left-wing rationale, which I also concurred with in the past. Need we reangle the partisanship angst? As the 21st century strode in, geopolitical power play evolved, anchored on China shaking the grid. 

       These: Since 2018, the U.S. has been the world's top oil producer. And already, America gets 60 to 62 percent of Canadian oil exports. #2 and #3 US importers are Mexico and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. doesn't need Venezuela's oil; risks are high. If this “regime-change” styled hit is about oil, this is about China. Xi Jinping or the CCP is getting pissed that shipments of Venezuelan oil are threatened by Mr Trump's drama with Nic dude. Some 80+ percent of Caracas' oil goes to China (add that Chevron, while back in Venezuela since 2019, is also shipping oil to China). 

       Meanwhile, China is #3 buyer of U.S. oil. I bet, BRICS bros China and Russia told The D to finish this thriller now. Russia mediated (before the U.S. took out the Maduro couple) and it'd seem Nicanor was out to talk about drug trafficking. But obviously he didn't. So Don lost his patience. Enter Maria Corina Machado and oil shipments to China carry on. U.S./China trade truce stays. ☮️☮️☮️

Compilation of my short MORNING THOUGHTS.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

I am not a fan of political humor. Nope. But I wasn’t—when I was younger or when I was openly advocating radical Leftist ideals. In fact, I worked as scriptwriter for TV political gag shows and wrote speeches—jazzed up with easy jokes—for progressive politicians and protest leaders. Not anymore. Essentially because I evolved as unaligned. How annoying it is to hear/read “foul” humor that is targeted vs a political party or polar extreme ism, Left or Right. 👈😾👉

Bucks rookie MarJon Beauchamp surprised his mother with a new house! Sweet! MarJon isn’t a Top 10 pick though 1st rounder, #24. But that already meant $2.5 million this season and $12 million in the next 4 years of his rookie deal. Getting into pro ball isn’t easy. Lots of work. Many superstars, notably LeBron James, were raised by single mothers. Or out of poverty, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, who now earns $40 million. So happy for these young men! Live it up!⛹️💰⛹️

The upsides of homebased work. Accomplish stuff for equilibrium, while we beat deadlines—on jammies. In between Zoom, run a “mile” on the treadmill or shake your booty to Just Dance—while with your dog. Satisfy your streaming series fix, cook paella, “earth romance” while at work. No need to drive out and back and consume fuel energy or mental energy on road races. Homebased? Cool! So why are you so funky dramatic with your nonstop memes? LOL! 🗣👀✍️

In my younger years, conversations were easy. Serious stuff in re politics and ideologies or religious conviction? We’d gather, share a drink and talk—as grownups. Rowdy retorts and foul language were banished right there. Non-serious stuff like tabloid UFOs and silly movies? We’d laugh and laugh, no room for nasty political humor. These days via Social Media? Mostly about bashing and shaming. Self-righteous partisan blah. Thank God/dess for the funny dog videos! 🗣🧠🫂

The Whiteness of the Narrative. I notice that most of those who howl racism are white or those who are louder on Social Media per BLM are white. Anti-rich, anti-inequality, antifa etcetera. Mostly white. But then almost 70 percent of America is White. What I don't agree with is when others who are neither White or Black are categorically labelled as White or Black, only because their skin says so—to pump up a political/partisan angst or heighten the divide.☮️💝☯️

Say it again. I try my best to be cool when I comment on others' pages but I do comment in long, complete sentences. Sure, I'd get inane, rude, and foul response/s--so I seldom read back even though I get notification. I only check if the person is the grownup that I know behaves as a grownup, regardless he/she disagrees. So if I accidentally read the immature retort, I don't type a response which is a counter-immaturity. Nope. Got other grownup stuff to do. 🗣👥👀

President Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, although widely criticized, is expected. Economics, this time. Never mind that he previously lambasted the Kingdom for the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr Joe as he is, Biden commenced the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a.k.a. MBS with a bro styled fist bump. Cool? A fist bump? That’ll give you an idea how Joe’s advisory staff’s mindset works. Or maybe the President improvised again? 🇺🇸☮️🇸🇦

LeBron James gets the heat for his comment/s on Brittney Griner’s Russia situation. Media say/s his words were irresponsible. Google `em. Want to go dig deeper? LeBron was probably suggesting, Washington refuses to negotiate for a prisoner exchange with the Kremlin. Etcetera. Complex. Yet many on Social Media, as well as conventional media op-ed, somehow said the same thing albeit in harsher words. But then this is LeBron. Are you LeBron? Nope? So say it, LOL! 🗣👥👀

My son Duane and cousins the Fernandez sisters. Millennials. Stark contrasts with my youth—before the internet, of course. We’d climb trees, run all over the `hood, play basketball in the plaza, make noise with the band etc etcetera. But good to know that Duane and his generation (in the family) balance the chakras as well. He is an active martial arts dude. His cousins got outdoor fun, too. Plus they TikTok and Facebook `em. Sure. Bottomline, they hang as family. 👨‍👨‍👧‍👧💻👨‍👨‍👧‍👧

White America’s White Problem. Today’s News: “Non-white and working-class Democrats worry more about the economy, while white college graduates focus more on cultural issues like abortion rights and guns.” America is 72.4 percent White. So the media runs the narrative that America is white or black/non-white. Polar extremes. Yet those who criticize White are mostly White. The middle ground is ignored. On that spot, a crack ensues. We fall in that fissure. 🗣👥👀