Some Thoughts On Paul Pelosi
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An intruder broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home early today shouting, “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?” and then attacked Paul Pelosi, her 82-year-old husband, with a hammer.
The suspect is in custody, Paul Pelosi is in the hospital and both sides of the political aisle are in their respective corners waiting to politicize this.
And politicize the lives of our politicians we must.
For example:
Hunter Biden is a recovering crack addict. The president should be demanding that every addict gets the excellent care that his son received, but Joe isn’t doing that. Hunter’s addiction, therefore, is political.
In June, the Supreme Court made abortion illegal for poor women. Ivanka Trump whose father appointed the three justices who made overturning Roe possible, had at least one abortion in high school, according to several friends. Ivanka, like Herschel Walker, insists she’s unapologetically “Pro Life.” Her abortion(s) and the ones Herschel Walker paid for are the height of hypocrisy and, therefore, political.
On June 14, 2017, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the GOP house whip, almost bled to death after a mass shooter fired 100 rounds into lawmakers practicing for a charity baseball game. Five years later, Scalise has lost a little mobility but not his A Plus rating from the National Rifle Association. His shooting, therefore, was political.
After protestors appeared outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home earlier this year, Speaker Pelosi rushed into law H.R.4346 - Supreme Court Security Funding Act of 2022 to provide more protection for all Supreme Court Justices. The Supreme Court failed to return the favor to American taxpayers when immediately afterwards it ruled state governments like New York cannot prohibit the public from carrying firearms “for self defense.” They’re protected, we’re not. The Supreme Court’s safety and the public’s lack of safety is political.
Like I said, what happened to Paul Pelosi today was political.
As we used to say in San Francisco, “Plenty more will come out.”
This newsletter is published at 6 p.m. Eastern on Friday. Right now all I know is police report both the intruder and Pelosi had hammers. The intruder reportedly grabbed Pelosi’s hammer and attacked him with it.
The intruder reportedly was trying to tie Paul Pelosi up and wait for Nancy to come home. There are also reports that he might have posted right wing conspiracy theories on his social media.
I don’t approve of Paul Pelosi, his wife or their kids, but I pray he survives.
Again, it’s Friday night. The Speaker’s office says Paul is expected to make a full recovery, but he’s 82 and was rushed into surgery, that’s never good.
The Midterms are almost a week away.
Maybe I’m wrong, but something tells me that as this story unfolds both sides will use it to their political advantage, and rightfully so because there are questions that still need answering.
What really happened?
How is it even remotely possible that the home of arguably the most powerful politician in the world could be broken into so easily?
Where was security?
And does this have echoes of January 6th?
What really happened?
I wish him a speedy recovery, but Paul Pelosi’s a drunk. He was probably hammered before he got hammered.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the crapulous Paul Pelosi decided to repair a kitchen door he smacked into at one in the morning and his neighbor stopped by to complain about the incessant hammering. One thing led to another and Paul got smashed for being smashed.
The important thing is I pray he’s OK. I really mean that.
But he is an irresponsibly dangerous wino.
This year Paul spent five days behind bars for being behind bars before getting behind the wheel of his Porsche and crashing it into an oncoming vehicle. Had he been driving under any more influence he’d be an oil lobbyist.
His reckless driving could have killed someone, in fact it once did - his older brother decades ago. In his teens, Paul was driving way too fast, the car crashed, he survived, his brother didn’t.
That should have sobered him up, at least before getting behind the wheel of a car.
It didn’t.
Granted, he’s not the Speaker.
But he’s married to the Speaker, and they are a power couple wielding their influence to further their children’s careers, one of whom is reportedly expecting to inherit Nancy’s congressional seat.
Paul Pelosi violates basic human decency and perhaps ethics laws trading millions upon millions each year in tech stocks that are subject to oversight by his wife, the Speaker.
They’re Democrats who are supposed to speak for the poor and the working poor, but instead the Speaker too often speaks for herself.
The minimum wage hasn’t been raised since 2009, and I can’t help but wonder if the Pelosis fear a federally mandated livable wage would put a dent into their nearly $200 million fortune.
Like I said, this newsletter publishes at 6 p.m. Friday night. If Paul’s health deteriorates I will feel awful… Even if he is a landlord.
Nobody deserves what happened to him. Even landlords who, instead of using their influence over the Speaker to push for rent freezes and Medicare For All, devotes most of his energy to getting richer.
Seems like an 82-year-old Democrat should be out there working for the farmworkers instead of exploiting their labor on his two Northern California vineyards.
Again, I really do pray he’s OK.
I also hope the Democrats keep the house.
But if the Democrats lose the house it will be because they never learn from the past. Like January 6th for example.
After January 6th, the first thing Nancy Pelosi should make certain of is the house is secure, her house and the People’s house.
Once again, Where was the security detail?
It hasn’t even been two years since they broke into Nancy’s office looking to kill her. It’s inexcusable that someone could now break into her home with the same intent.
How did someone get into the Speaker’s home?
Granted her security detail is in Washington DC with her, but the Pelosis have several properties and her husband was in one of them. I would imagine a couple worth anywhere between $100 to $200 million could spring for a few armed guards.
Assuming today’s police reports are all true, this was January 6th redux
Today’s attack leaves little doubt that at least one of those insurrectionists who broke into the Speaker’s office on January 6th, smashing windows and breaking furniture, would have done to Nancy that day what was done to her husband this morning.
Not ALL those Trump supporters that day would have hanged Mike Pence or pummeled Nancy Pelosi, but all it takes is one.
Political violence in San Francisco is nothing new.
Senator Diane Feinstein became San Francisco’s mayor in 1978 after Supervisor Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Because of that, San Francisco has some of America's strictest gun laws. Concealed carry permits as well as most semi-automatic weapons are almost impossible to get. Ammo buys require background checks.
Nancy Pelosi's husband is alive today because the San Francisco intruder could only get his hands on a hammer.
Today Proves Gun Laws Save Lives.
Naturally the NRA will use today as an example of why guns are not the cause of America’s violence. They are liars. No elementary school buried 20 kids after a troubled loner got his hands on a ball peen hammer.
Only one side needs to tone down the rhetoric, and that side is the GOP
Words, like elections, have consequences. Violent rhetoric breeds violence, because all it takes is just one person to think they’re talking to me.
Why has the language turned so vitriolic in Washington?
Well, in this country voting isn’t mandatory. So, politicians must fire up their base to get them to the polls. Americans must be made angry or afraid in order to vote.
But Republican rhetoric is dangerously over the top and leads to things like January 6th and today’s attack on Paul Pelosi.
Republicans demonize because they offer no solutions. They campaign using anger and fear, and when given the chance they govern using anger and fear.
Governor Ron DeSantis, for example, has made life worse in Florida by neglecting the needs of real voters. He governs by stoking anger and fear to deflect his incompetence on to migrants, minorities illegally voting, and of course Joe Biden.
Republican voters are becoming dangerous because they are fed a steady diet of lies, lies like Joe Biden is a dictator planning to mutilate your child’s genitalia.
The special blend of ultra right Christian Nationalism infecting the GOP reduces complicated issues down to Good versus Evil which is why it’s not uncommon to hear preachers, politicians and pundits opine that Nancy Pelosi is Satan, and that’s why Paul Pelosi is in the ICU tonight.
Republicans have cultivated an undereducated mentally unbalanced electorate.
They need to dial back their anti government, anti Democratic Party rhetoric because it threatens the physical safety of our politicians and their families.
The Republican voter is easily manipulated because we don’t treat mental health in America. We medicate it.
There is unresolved trauma simmering underneath the surface and when it bubbles up Americans find refuge in a GOP that celebrates anger, bullying and violence. This Republican Party signals to every toxic man and woman who lack the vocabulary to articulate why they feel so angry and alone that there’s a place for them where we can all be angry together.
Republicans tell these sick and undereducated voters, “What’s the point of a First Amendment if you can’t trash transgender children on Twitter? What’s the point of a Second Amendment if you can’t walk to the corner grocery carrying an Ar-15?”
I don’t like Paul Pelosi. But I pray he survives.
Today he, like our republic, is a victim of a Republican Party ruled by blind rage.
Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden are mediocrities. We have to get rid of them. but first let’s keep the republic- and that’s political.