I highly recommend former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner’s “Justice Matters” daily video series. Today’s installment appears below. (more…)
In response to this post, which contains the data point that the U.S. has suffered 200+ mass shootings in the first 144 days of 2020, a gun nut reader responds:
We need to recognize that anything, regardless of how evil, can exist if there is enough money associated with it. Consider for a moment dealers in child slavery, distributors of heroin, those expanding the fossil fuel industry, and the manufacturers of assault rifles to be sold to unscreened, potential mass murderers of our school kids.
At the top of each of these organizations are people who know they are reviled by civil society, but they simply couldn’t give a s***, because there is so much money involved.
Those AR-15s really are the weapon of choice, aren’t they?
From this:
Soon after (Texas governor Gregg) Abbott announced the death of the children and a teacher at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas, about 130 km west of San Antonio, a 2015 tweet resurfaced where he called upon Texans to buy more guns. “I’m EMBARRASSED: Texas is #2 in the nation for new gun purchases, behind CALIFORNIA. Let’s pick up the pace, Texans.” (more…)
Yesterday I wrote a post in which I praised Connecticut senator Chris Murphy for his terrifically informative and inspiring speech on violence in America.
Given our country’s demand for political demagogues, it’s really remarkable that people like Murphy continue to exist at all on the Senate floor. For the most part, lawmakers of intelligence and compassion have been replaced with those who get where they are by inflaming our lowest, yet most powerful emotions: fear and hate. (more…)
Here’s one of the most powerful speeches you’ll ever hear, given by the junior senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, speaking on racism and violence, and how it’s used to the political advantage of certain demagogues.
People like Donald Trump exploit Americans’ instinct toward violence, which was born of our history of slavery of blacks and mass slaughter of the Indians. They manipulate us into division, into feelings of fear, and hate, while ensuring that we have unlimited access to high-powered assault weapons, so as to maximize the number of gun deaths that result. This cycle expands as it repeats, further perpetuating that division, fear, and hate.
“It’s a choice,” Murphy reminds us. “We can elect leaders who unite us in peace,” or those who pull us apart, and grow ever-more powerful as the carnage rips through our society. “It’s a decision, and it falls upon us.”
I’m not sure this is something the U.S. hard-line right-wing doesn’t already understand. Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, and the others don’t exist by accident.
Look at Vladimir Putin. How far do you think he would have gotten in Ukraine if the common Russian people had access to anything but pure bullshit?
Of course, Americans, for the time being at least, can open the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. They can tune into some semblance of the truth on TV, or choose a website that seems to do a good job.
Having right-wing media outlets is a necessary condition for political success of would-be dictators, but will it be a sufficient one? We’ll see.
It’s been a while since I mentioned that Pope Francis is among the most compassionate leaders of a large group of people that humankind has ever known.
The meme here, of course, is a reference to the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco’s denying Nancy Pelosi the rite of Holy Communion because of her position on abortion.
My understanding of organized religions isn’t too strong, but I would have said that welcoming sinners was an integral part of the package. What’s it good for if not that (other than enabling priests to satisfy their sexual desires on young boys)?
This gem is from 20th Century American astronomer and philosopher Carl Sagan.
There is no reason to expect that organized human civilization will persist indefinitely, even under the best of circumstances. And these aren’t exactly “the best of circumstances,” are they?
It’s possible that our experiment with democracy is at an end, as the United States is facing enormous internal pressures to join countries like Russia, China, Turkey and Hungary, not to mention the dozens of other autocracies.
If that’s the case, it will prove what many sages have been saying for the last 2500 years, i.e., that the common person is simply too stupid to govern himself. (They probably put it more elegantly.)
It’s also possible that we’ve lost the battle to mitigate climate change and the other factors that could mean environmental collapse, before it’s too late.
Yet we all need to try our best.
How to explain Newsmax to those who may be unfamiliar with it?
How about this: It’s like Fox News, but without all the deeply sincere concern for truth, accuracy, fairness, objectivity, and journalistic integrity.
OK, but is it possible that what they claim here is true, i.e., that, at least at one point in time, its ratings topped CNN? Of course. Hell, even I watch it from time to time to understand exactly how stupid and insane some of my fellow Americans are.
