David Badash, - Raw Story/New Civil Rights Movement
Stephan: Do I really need to say anything about the moral depravity of this Republican vote.
172 House Republicans voted against renewing the Violence Against Women Act Wednesday, just 24 hours after eight people – including seven women, six of Asian decent – were gunned down in a shooting spree at a series of Atlanta spas by a shooter who is now claiming he has a sex addiction.
The legislation passed 244-172, with a mere 29 Republicans joining Democrats to support the bill. No Democrat voted against it. The bill now heads to the Senate.
The Violence Against Women Act is Clinton-era legislation that was sponsored in 1993 by then-Senator Joe Biden. Originally so uncontroversial it passed on a voice vote in the House and 95-4 in the Senate. It must be regularly renewed, and is currently expired because then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to allow it to be re-authorized in 2019.
Urging passage of the critical bill, President Biden in a statement last week said: “Delay is not an option, especially when the pandemic and economic crisis have only further increased the risks of abuse and the barriers […]
Stephan: Today as I was working I thought the current racism that is so prominently in the spotlight of American culture can either be a social destroyer, or a challenge that will finally cause Americans to exorcise from our society the racism that has been our shadow since colonial times. In my view, this is an essential step to getting through the existential threat of climate change. We must create a society focused on fostering wellbeing. And wellbeing and racism are antipodal. Are we ready to wake up to the reality of racism and expunge it? That's the challenge.
White supremacy milita
On March 16, 2021, Robert Aaron Long opened fire on businesses in the Atlanta area that employ a large number of Asians. Six of his eight murder victims were Asian women. Similar to Dylan Roof who murdered nine Black parishioners inside an African Methodist Episcopal church in South Carolina and Patrick Wood Crusius who murdered 23 people in Texas in the deadliest anti-Latino attack in recent history, prosecutors should consider hate crime charges for Long.
Yet, some people are actually buying that Long’s actions were solely over an alleged sex addiction. There are a ton of massage places in the Atlanta area. Why did he only target the ones operated by Asians? It is because he is racist and probably sexist; plain and simple. It should not take domestic terrorists writing white supremacist manifestos, like those of Roof and Crusius, in order for us to classify their behavior as hate crimes. It is not enough for people to only be convicted of murder. They should also be convicted of hate crimes or we will continue to see everyday, mundane […]
Stephan: If you don't realize White terrorism is having an existential effect on our democracy, read this. When members of Congress don't feel safe in their nation's capital, or in their own homes something is seriously awry. And as this report details that is exactly where we are.
Riot fencing and razor wire reinforce the security zone on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 19, 2021. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance received an unusual inquiry from a state lawmaker: Could campaign funds be used to purchase bulletproof vests, gas masks and pepper spray?
It was a question the independent state agency, which regulates political spending and hands down advisory opinions on campaign finance issues, had never been asked before.
Yet in the weeks and months after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, it is the kind of query that is surfacing with regularity both in Washington and in state capitals across the country. Alarmed by a growing number of threats, harassment and scenes of violence at government buildings, lawmakers in both parties are seeking clarity from election agencies on whether they can spend campaign dollars and taxpayer money on security and personal protective equipment — everything from body armor to panic buttons at home.
“Threats have an impact,” said Michigan Democratic state Rep. Kevin Hertel, who noted that threats against state […]
Kenneth P. Vogel and Nicholas Confessore, - The New York Times
Stephan: In the whole of American history we have never had an administration anywhere near the corruption level of the Trump administration. Day after day the stories and evidence pour out like pus from an inflamed wound. Yet who is being held accountable?
WASHINGTON — One hacked the computers of business rivals. One bribed doctors to win referrals for his nursing homes.
Another fled the country while he was on trial for his role in a fraud that siphoned $450 million from an insurance company, leading to its collapse. Still another ran a Ponzi scheme that plunged a synagogue into foreclosure.
Each won clemency from President Donald J. Trump.
They also had something else in common, an investigation by The New York Times found. The efforts to seek clemency for these wealthy or well-connected people benefited from their social, political, or financial ties to a loose collection of lawyers, lobbyists, activists and Orthodox Jewish leaders who had worked with Trump administration officials on criminal justice legislation championed by Jared Kushner.
That network revolved around a pair of influential Jewish organizations that focus on criminal justice issues — the Aleph Institute and Tzedek Association — and well-wired people working with them, including the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney for Utah, and Nick Muzin, a Republican operative.
Stephan: I saw a recent study that 49% of Republican men don't want to get vaccinated. And this is why. I think Hannity should be charged with murder in the same way one would charge a fire marshal who told people to run down a hall knowing there was a consuming fire at the end. I also think Fox should lose their FCC license to broadcast such disinformation.
Sean Hannity on Fox
Fox News host Sean Hannity told his millions of viewers on Thursday evening that nobody should feel shamed or pressured into getting a coronavirus vaccine, insisting that it’s a “personal decision” and revealing that half of his friends aren’t getting a jab.
In recent weeks, and as federally approved vaccines have been administered at an increasing rate, concern has continued to grow over the large number of Republicans and conservatives who have expressed hesitancy in getting immunized. An NPR/Marist poll, for instance, found that nearly half of Trump supporters would not get a shot when they’re eligible.
During his Thursday primetime broadcast, Hannity—who served as an informal adviser to the ex-president—attempted to find a middle ground. While he said he personally plans to […]
