So first of all JohnCo, in re-reading your comment, you don't mention your friend's age - - and yet our pal "larry" makes an assimption and believes that he "got to live to a nice age". This is the problem the right-wing often has with comprehension, even doctors it seems: one of their favorite exercise is jumping to conclusions !!!

I'm sorry for your friend dying from covid, JohnCo, but this is my speculation. "IF" your friend had shown up at trumple's Capitol Hill insurrection, and "IF" he had taken his gun, it likely would have been loaded. The majority of gun enthusiasts believe that you don't point a gun at someone unless you have the ability to use it - - and they'd call that self-defense.

Watch "Trump Supporters Now Say Trump Will Be Sworn In As President On March 4" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/WlTrFILCB6I

Being around a group meeting of those types made me feel as if I needed to go thru a nuclear decontamination "scrub down".

I can tell you, these people are THREE SUITS short of a full deck, yet they are "deadly" serious about their beliefs. Thru a friend of a friend, who got sucked in to the crazy Sovereign movement, I was invited to attend one of their Insider events in the mid-90s.

They only use the N-word to refer to black people. They speak in a derogatory fashion of the Jewish. Inexplicably, there are women in the movement, even though the core group of male leaders vocally assert that it's never been legal for women to vote any more than it ever was for the "jungle bunnies", "towel heads" or "Latin invaders". The Confederate Battle Flag was present and you could tell, with them, that slavery would be right around the corner.

My friend that I went with is Jewish (but they didn't ask names, and she doesn't "look like a Jew", whatever that means, something the guy repetitively spoke). They were obviously attentive to new people as potential recruits. As two lowly women, we were "assigned" to one of the elder guys who spoke eloquently (and stupidly, wrongly) about the original Constitution and how everything past a certain point is basically illegal, in their view.

Much low-key eye-rolling and head-shaking passed between my friend and me, when the group-leader wasn't looking, as he prattled on without noticing. We didn't need to ask many questions, as the indoctrinator was never lacking description. Despite insulting Jewish comments, somehow my friend maintained calm. Besides, we certainly felt as if we were in the home camp of a hostile group, and could easily have been attacked if we revealed ourselves as non-believers.

We were both speechless as we drove away. We stopped by a favorite Mexican restaurant to more or less silently decompress over margaritas for a couple of hours. It was an astonishing and appalling experience.

Afterword: the guy who sent us gave up on his temporary romance with Sovereign citizens. He decided to follow their lead and not register his car. He was stopped, decided to espouse his beliefs to the LAPD officers, wherein they had his car towed and impounded. None of the big mouthed leaders of the sovereign group, with which he had affiliated himself, were willing to step up and help him get his car back !!!

Like so many others of your ilk, you see "OUR" (NOT just YOUR) Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, etc etc, as 240-year-old manifestos.

So sorry for you and yours, but my kind just don't see it that way - - we think that the Founding FATHERS set those up to be living documents - - subject to changing times. AND they built those mechanisms of change into the documents which, for some reason, you choose to ignore.

That's why many of us call ourselves Progressives, and conversely think of all of you as Regressive - - and when you spout that kind of ancient, backward bull pucky, it continues to be really difficult to view you any other way.

And speaking of cliffs - - we think it's your kind and the people you vote for who are pushing our country over the cliff (and that's "US" trying to pull it back)...

Like so many others of your ilk, you see "OUR" (NOT just YOUR) Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, etc etc, as 240-year-old manifestos.

So sorry for you and yours, but my kind just don't see it that way - - we think that the Founding FATHERS set those up to be living documents - - subject to changing times. AND they built those mechanisms of change into the documents which, for some reason, you choose to ignore.

That's why many of us call ourselves Progressives, and conversely think of all of you as Regressive - - and when you spout that kind of ancient, backward bull pucky, it continues to be really difficult to view you any other way.

And speaking of cliffs - - we think it's your kind and the people you vote for who are pushing our country over the cliff (and that's "US" trying to pull it back)...

Like so many others of your ilk, you see "OUR" (NOT just YOUR) Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, etc etc, as 240-year-old manifestos.

So sorry for you and yours, but my kind just don't see it that way - - we think that the Founding FATHERS set those up to be living documents - - subject to changing times. AND they built those mechanisms of change into the documents which, for some reason, you choose to ignore.

That's why many of us call ourselves Progressives, and conversely think of all of you as Regressive - - and when you spout that kind of ancient, backward bull pucky, it continues to be really difficult to view you any other way.

And speaking of cliffs - - we think it's your kind and the people you vote for who are pushing our country over the cliff (and that's "US" trying to pull it back)...

I don't understand Oscars "notability" ??? djt has voluntarily "resigned" from SAG-AFTRA when he was up for a vote to be involuntarily removed. Of course the comment in his letter was typical trumpanian: "they did nothing FOR ME" - - and that's all he's ever cared about. HIM HIM HIM !!!

HE is an A-1 narcissistic sociopath - - please wake up !!! He doesn't believe in anything. He only said he believed in what you say you believe in so that he'd get your vote. He just wants to win for his own reasons, not yours.

So the sadness is that you and your fellow radicals even believe the way you do, and the sickness is that he capitalized on that - - you guys can't even see that he's using you !!!