Saturday, September 16th, 2017
Frank G. Karioris, - truthout
Stephan: Once again let me state that in my view the real damage to the country is being done at the operational department and agency level. That's why I concentrate on it. Here's the latest, another reversal of an established Obama administration policy.
Just what we need universities with militarized campus cops. What could go wrong?
Consider this report; this is what fascism looks like as it takes over a country.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions looks on during a vigil ceremony marking the September 11 terrorist attacks at the Department of Justice on September 11, 2017, in Washington, DC. Credit: Zach Gibson
Sending an ominous signal to student protest movements nationwide, universities across the US are once again able to equip their police forces with castoff military gear, tying them ever more intimately into the military-industrial complex.
In August, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced at a Fraternal Order of Police convention that Program 1033 would resume providing ex-military equipment to police organizations, including university police departments.
At least 117 educational institutions are now armed and armored. This is the state of higher education in the US.
As part of the program, already at least 117 colleges […]
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Saturday, September 16th, 2017
BRYAN SCHATZ, Reporter - Mother Jones
Stephan: California is a deep Blue value state but, just as there are blue enclaves in deeply Red value states, Austin in Texas, so in Blue states there Red enclaves. One of them is California's 48th District, Huntington Beach. You can always tell the Red Districts whether the state itself is Red or Blue, because they have the nincompoops. Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California's 48th is an example. Right up there with Steve King, and Louie Gohmert. Why do I say that? Read on.
To be fair, the one good thing about Rohrabacher is he is pro-medical marijuana.
California Republican Representative. Dana Rohrabacher
Credit: Paul Zinken/AP
California’s Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher apparently believes the deadly white nationalist protests that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month were the result of a left-wing plot orchestrated to score political points against President Trump.
A profile published in the San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday exposes Rohrabacher’s alternative thinking:
Rohrabacher isn’t buying that conspiracy theory, but he’s deep into another — that Democrats were behind last month’s white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va. Oh, and calling them white nationalist riots is a liberal media deceit, he said.
“It’s all baloney,” Rohrabacher said.
Under Rohrabacher’s scenario, a former “Hillary and Bernie supporter” got Civil War re-enactors to gather under the guise of protecting a Robert E. Lee statue there.
“It was a setup for these dumb Civil War re-enactors,” Rohrabacher said. “It was left-wingers who were manipulating them in order to have this confrontation” and to “put our president on the spot.”
Those of you who are fans of conspiracy connoisseur and conservative commentator Alex Jones, host of “Info Wars,” will recognize that scenario as one of his dreamscapes, which […]
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Friday, September 15th, 2017
Stephan: Think about what this well conducted survey is telling us -- and I urge you to click through and read the actual paper not just this report. More than a third of White Americans feel that White people are under attack. Rationally it is an absurd conceit. But rationality is not operative here.
You can't reason with these people because they are not rational; they are in a fear fugue because of their terror about change. These are the White Supremacists, the Evangelical "Christians," the Christofascists, the Trump supporters.
The only thing I can see that will dissipate this fear is for those who don't have this dysfunction to band together and commit to creating social policies based on wellbeing. Reducing their fear will allow these millions to think rationally again.
Credit: Tim Boyle/Newsmakers
A new poll by Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics reveals that Americans are, to a remarkable degree, buying into white delusions of persecution.
More than half of the population, 57 percent, — believe that Confederate monuments should remain in public spaces. Meanwhile, 39 percent either strongly or somewhat agree with the idea that white people are currently under attack in the United States. (emphasis added) Thirty-one percent also felt that “America must protect and preserve its White European heritage,” although 54 percent did agree that “racial minorities are under attack in this country,” and 77 percent say that America should “protect and preserve its multi-cultural heritage.”
On a more positive note, 52 percent of respondents say they oppose the “alt-right,” while only 6 percent support the movement. The same can be said for white nationalism (65 percent against, 7 percent for) and neo-Nazism (77 percent against, 4 percent for).
Things aren’t all good though: 32 percent support Black Lives Matter. That’s less than the 37 percent who oppose the movement. Antifa is less popular, earning the support of 8 percent of […]
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Friday, September 15th, 2017
Randall Balmer, - L.A Times
Stephan: In talking with people I find it is very hard for them to recognize, let alone accept that Christianity, at least Evangelical Christianity, once a movement that made equality, supporting women's rights, the poor, and downtrodden a central tenet of their social commitment, has become something very different. This article, by an academic author at Dartmouth College lays it out.
The statistics tell one story: 81% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. The deafening silence from leaders of the religious right in the wake of the neo-Nazi violence in Charlottesville, Va., points to an even larger one, which places racism at the very heart of the movement.
On the face of it, evangelical support for Trump is anomalous. How can a movement ostensibly concerned about “family values” support a twice-divorced, thrice-married man who said that his “personal Vietnam” was avoiding sexually transmitted diseases? How could evangelicals vote for someone who flaunted his infidelities and who boasted about his tawdry behavior toward women?
The standard rejoinder is that evangelicals were so concerned about abortion and, therefore, judicial appointments that they were prepared to ignore Trump’s indiscretions to advance the one cause — opposition to abortion — that lay at the core of their political movement. That argument collapses, however, on historical examination.
Several evangelical leaders and evangelical organizations applauded the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision. The late Paul Weyrich, architect of the religious right, was emphatic that abortion had nothing whatsoever to do with the genesis of evangelical political activism in the 1970s, a sentiment echoed by other conservative leaders, […]
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Friday, September 15th, 2017
Stephan: The Great Schism Trend that I have been following and talking about for over a decade I now see is principally driven by fear; people are crippled by their terror over change.
About a third of us are reverting to a more primitive racial tribal atavism. Nowhere is this clearer than in the states of the old confederacy.
Their social outcome data is deteriorating, as this report illustrates, even as that of the Blue value states, such as California, is improving. The schism is widening by movement at both ends of the spectrum, and the central idea of united states that has shaped our destiny for almost three centuries is crumbling.
As students return to school across the country, we continue our look at the resegregation of schools—particularly in Alabama. A new article in this week’s New York Times Magazine titled “The Resegregation of Jefferson County” by Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at how predominantly white towns in Alabama are increasingly pulling out of regional school districts and creating new schools that are overwhelmingly white. Critics say this is a new form of segregation. For more, we speak with Nikole Hannah-Jones. Her article about choosing a school for her daughter in a segregated school system won a National Magazine Award this year.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: As students return to school across the country, we turn now to look at the resegregation of schools. Today, we look at Alabama. A new article in this week’s New York Times Magazine headlined “The Resegregation of Jefferson County,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones, looks at how predominantly white towns in Alabama are increasingly pulling out of regional school districts and creating new schools that are overwhelmingly white. Critics say this is a new form of segregation.
Well, we’re joined by Nikole Hannah-Jones in our studio. Her article about choosing a […]
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