Stephan: One of the many things I find wrong with the Evangelical White supremacist christofascist cult that passes for Christianity in much of the United States is the hypocrisy. Biblical inerrancy when it suits and willful indifference when it does not. Over the past week, several readers have sent me the link to this piece. It is not new, but and I think it is a timely reminder of this reality, written by a Jesuit Priest.
Laura Schlessinger Credit: The Oklahoman
Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s announcement yesterday that she is quitting her radio show called to mind this clever response to her occasional fundamentalist readings of the Old Testament, particularly when it came to homosexuality. This letter, which has been widely circulated on the web since it first appeared in 2000 (despite difficulties in ascertaining its origin) is a healthy antidote to Scriptural literalism of any sort.
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination…End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why […]
Stephan: I don't think it has really penetrated the consciousness of most Americans but the United States is no longer considered a democracy; it is now categorized as at best a "flawed democracy" and our place in the ranking of democracies has dropped precipitously. This is a direct result of the Republican Party's effort to destroy democracy in America as witnessed by the voter suppression legislation introduced into 43 state legislatures by Republicans. And this has not gone unremarked by other nations, as this report in the British Press makes clear.
To get yet another full report on the decline of democracy in the United States: https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2020-download-success
The US has fallen to a new low in a global ranking of political rights and civil liberties, a drop fueled by unequal treatment of minority groups, damaging influence of money in politics, and increased polarization, according to a new report by Freedom House, a democracy watchdog group.
The US earned 83 out of 100 possible points this year in Freedom House’s annual rankings of freedoms around the world, an 11-point drop from its ranking of 94 a decade ago. The US’s new ranking places it on par with countries like Panama, Romania and Croatia and behind countries such as Argentina and Mongolia. It lagged far behind countries like the United Kingdom (93), Chile (93), Costa Rica (91) and Slovakia (90).https://www.theguardian.com/email/form/plaintone/minute-usSign up for the Guardian’s Fight to Vote newsletter
“Dropping 11 points is unusual, especially for an established democracy, because they tend to be more stable in our scores,” Sarah Repucci, Freedom House’s vice-president for research and analysis, told the […]
Stephan: I will be so glad when the government has been fully cleansed of Trumpian orcs. I am so tired of their trend and these stories. Think about the social implications of this story, the millions of lives impacted, and think about what kind of people would do something like this?
President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of his Cabinet, participates in an expanded bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi of the Republic Iraq Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, in the Cabinet Room of the White House. (Official White House Credit: Shealah Craighead)
House Democrats and progressive activists are accusing the leadership of the Social Security Administration—currently headed by Trump holdover Andrew Saul—of slow-walking the Biden administration’s effort to distribute direct coronavirus relief payments to tens of millions of seniors and people with disabilities.
In a letter (pdf) to Saul on Wednesday, Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee raised alarm on behalf of “the nearly 30 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries who are still awaiting their economic impact payments (EIPs)”—checks approved under the recently passed American Rescue Plan.
“We understand that these beneficiaries are waiting because the Social Security Administration (SSA) has not sent the necessary payment files to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” the lawmakers wrote. “We are aware that the IRS asked SSA to start […]
Stephan: You may already know about this lawsuit, and the one by the other voting machine company Smartmatic. I think they represent a very interesting and positive trend, that is going to strongly affect our future. In my oinion it is really going to test the Trumpian biased judiciary. This report describes the latest in the Dominion lawsuit. It is obvious that Fox, and its propaganda spreaders are guilty. The facts are indisputable; they were witnessed by millions. Getting big numbers and the influence it confers was why Fox has acted as they have. I believe this will go to the Supreme Court, and their response will be very revealing.
Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty
Dominion Voting Systems, filed a hefty $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News on Friday morning over the cable network’s repeated airing of half-baked conspiracy theories about Dominion somehow “rigging” the 2020 election.
In the 139-page complaint, with hundreds of additional pages of exhibits, various current and former Fox News or Fox Business hosts are cited for floating false election fraud claims, including Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, and Maria Bartiromo. Dominion argues that by airing and entertaining such conspiracies, the network “recklessly disregarded the truth,” which the technology company says was “good for Fox’s business.”
One key passage in the massive lawsuit document summarizes the case:
Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire. As the dominant media company among those viewers dissatisfied with the election results, Fox gave these fictions a prominence they otherwise would never have achieved. With Fox’s global platform, an audience of hundreds of millions, and the inevitable and extensive republication and dissemination of the falsehoods through […]
Stephan: The pandemic, the economic collapse, the job loss, the racism and gender issues have stressed Americans to a degree unexperienced since perhaps the Second World War. And that mental and emotional stress coupled with America's gun psychosis has led to this.
Pandemic-induced fear, economic hardship, domestic discord, racial strife and an influx of guns helped propel the urban homicide rate by a record amount last year, a new report says.
Why it matters: A drumbeat of dire reports about rising crime has left city dwellers justifiably scared — and policy makers should be addressing the pandemic and violent crime at the same time, the report’s authors say.
Anti-violence programs should be a priority, according to the report released by Arnold Ventures — a philanthropy focused on solving societal problems — and the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice.
Relations between communities and the police should be mended, the authors say,and street outreach workers should be deployed to help defuse tensions.
Driving the news: “In a sample of 34 cities, homicide rates were almost 30% higher in 2020 than in 2019, a jump that claimed an additional 1,268 lives,” per the report.
Prior to 2020, the biggest single-year increase in the murder rate was 12.7%, in 1968, the report said.
While the three largest cities — New York, L.A. and Chicago — accounted […]
