Stephan: First, note that this article appears in The Guardian, a British publication read and respected around the world. The only newspaper I know of that is owned and operated by a foundation.This is how the White terrorist MAGAts present American to the world. Second, racism in the MAGAt world has reached a level I have not seen since the 1950s. Third, be aware of the anti-science, really anti-factual knowledge bias of the MAGAt movement. You don't threaten colleges and universities if you support higher education. We are at a crossroads. The majority of America must push back against this minority -- it's roughly a two thirds, one third split.
Howard University, one of the jewels in the crown of HBCUs, was the target of bomb threats for a second day. Credit: Sarah Silbiger/Reuters
Several Black colleges and universities in the US received bomb threats and put their campuses on lockdown on Tuesday, a day after a rash of similar threats forced the cancellation of classes for the day at a number of schools.
Howard University in Washington, University of the District of Columbia, Kentucky State, Xavier University of Louisiana and Fort Valley State in Georgia were among the historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) reporting threats, according to Twitter postings and local media.
“Campus is currently on lockdown. Residential students remain in dorms. Non-residential students and staff should NOT report to campus until further notice. Campus operations are suspended for the day,” Fort Valley State said in a tweet.
Howard gave the all clear on Tuesday morning after the campus received a threat at about 2.55am, it said on Twitter.
Stephan: I found this in a rightwing newspaper. I think they ran it to excite fear in their White readership. I see it as the obvious evolution of America's obsessive gun psychosis. If you are a Black person constantly hearing about the police and Whites generally threatening Blacks, killing them, is it surprising that some Blacks are arming themselves? I see this as a manifestation of the Great Schism Trend that is tearing the country apart. The natural result of what the culture has allowed the 2nd Amendment to become.
Firearm purchases by a record number of Black Americans have accelerated a surge in gun sales since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of government records.
The year 2021 is on track to be the second biggest on record for firearms sales, with more than 18 million guns purchased through November, consulting group Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting concluded. That would outpace every year except 2020, when 22.8 million guns were sold.
Black Americans are a big reason behind the surge, according to data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Black gun ownership increased 58.2% through the first six months of 2020, and the foundation expects that number to be similar for 2021, given the trends in purchases.
Overall, Blacks outpaced every other demographic in the increase of gun purchases in the first half of 2020, including Whites (51.9%), Hispanics (49.4%) and Asians (42.9%), the national organization said.
“The Second Amendment and gun rights have been the Black community’s right, and a lot of Black people are starting to realize it,” said Kourtney Redmond of the […]
Stephan: Wherever Republicans are in control the quality of life is degraded. This is their latest obscenity concerning gun laws. The research data is very clear, the weaker the gun laws the greater the murder and suicide rates. This law, as the prosecutor notes, would essentially legalize murder.
Armed homeowners Mark T. and Patricia N. McCloskey standing in front their house along Portland Place as they confront protesters marching to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s house Sunday, June 28, 2020, in the Central West End of St. Louis. No shots were fired and the protesters marched on. The protesters called for Krewson’s resignation for releasing the names and addresses of residents who suggested defunding the police department. Credit: Laurie Skrivan/Post Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI — The latest attempt to alter Missouri’s gun laws would establish a presumption that individuals who use force against another person reasonably did so in order to defend themselves.
Prosecutors, law-enforcement representatives and civil rights and religious leaders slammed the proposal during a Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety hearing on Tuesday, while proponents, including U.S. Senate candidate Mark McCloskey of St. Louis, praised the measure.
Opponents said the bill, sponsored by Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Battlefield, would lead to chaos and would further stress the state’s already strained court system, while proponents said it provided […]
Stephan: I do not understand why Donald Trump has not been arrested, and is presently out on bail awaiting trial. How many crimes is the Garland Justice Department prepared to let slide. Because he has not been held to account, he has been able to continuously spew out the racism that is a fundamental part of his character. And that has led to increasing White terrorism, and Blacks arming themselves.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty
With former President Donald Trump off mainstream social media, his messages aren’t as ubiquitous. It makes it harder for them to break through.
But in recent rallies and statements, Trump has seemed to escalate a message rooted in racism and lies.
Trump alleged during a rally in Texas over the weekend that Black prosecutors investigating him are “racist,” and he is again flirting with mob violence, calling for mass protests if they do anything he deems to be “wrong or illegal.”
And after teasing a 2024 run — “to take back that beautiful, beautiful house that happens to be white” — he said one of his actions as president could be to pardon those convicted as a result of their actions during last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. More than 750 people and counting have been charged with crimes.
“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” Trump said. “We will […]
Benjamin Mueller and Eleanor Lutz, - The New York Times
Stephan: This is all due, everything described by this article is the effect arising from the politicization of an illness, the conscious weaponizing of Covid by one party, the Republicans. It has resulted in the emergence of a uniquely American death cult. This cannot be disputed, as this article lays out. What strikes me about this particularly, what stands out, is the cynicism it represents. The wealthy deliberately took what should have been a fringe movement -- there were anti-vaxxers with the Plague; there were anti-vaxxers with the 1918 Spanish Flu and made it mainstream. What had been fringe was transformed into a death culture involving millions in which believers willingly enormously increase their odds of contracting and dying of Covid. And hundreds of thousands have. The peasants are giving up their lives in service to a White supremacy, christofascist authoritarian movement funded by the rich.
The other thing I take away from the Covid pandemic and these numbers is the collapse of the Illness Profit System model of healthcare.
The ballooning death toll has defied the hopes of many Americans that the less severe Omicron variant would spare the United States the pain of past waves. Deaths have now surpassed the worst days of the autumn surge of the Delta variant, and are more than two-thirds as high as the record tolls of last winter, when vaccines were largely unavailable.
With American lawmakers desperate to turn the page on the pandemic, as some European leaders have already begun to, the number of dead has clouded a sense of optimism, even as Omicron cases recede. And it has laid bare weaknesses in the country’s response, scientists said.
“Death rates are so high in the States — eye-wateringly high,” said Devi Sridhar, head of the global public health program at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, who has supported loosening coronavirus rules in parts of Britain. “The United States is lagging.”
Some of the reasons for America’s difficulties are well known. Despite having one of the world’s most powerful arsenals of vaccines, the country has failed to vaccinate […]
