Keith L. Alexander, Steven Rich, and Hannah Thacker , Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan: One of the major problems with law enforcement in the United States is how poorly trained police are. Add that to the bully mindset so many police have, and you see this Politifact data, and it only up to June of 2020:
"Cops in Norway: require 3 years of training, 4 people killed since 2002.
Cops in Finland: require 2 years of training, 7 people killed since 2000.
Cops in Iceland: require 2 years of training, 1 person killed since ever.
Cops in the U.S.: require 21 weeks of training, 8,000+ people killed since 2001."
You are paying for these $1.5 billion in payouts with your tax dollars. How do you feel about that?
This is the data for just one city, Philadelphia (2010-2020) A total of $136 million. It is greater than whole nations in Western Europe and JapanCredit: The Washington Post
About 8:30 one Thursday evening in Detroit, Tony Murray was getting ready for bed ahead of his 6 a.m. shift at a potato chip factory. As he turned off the final light in the living room, he glanced out of his window and saw a half-dozen uniformed police officers with guns drawn approach his home.
As the officers banged on the door, Murray ordered Keno, his black Labrador retriever, to the basement. As Murray let the officers in, one quickly pushed him to the floor and at least two others ran to the cellar, he said. “Don’t kill my dog. He won’t bite you,” Murray pleaded. The sound of gunshots filled the house. Keno’s barking, the 56-year-oldrecalled, morphed into the sound of “a girl screaming.”
Officers searched Murray’s home for nearly an hour, flipping his sofa and emptying drawers. Outside, Murray approached the officers standing by their vehicles. […]
Stephan: If you have ever question the effects of pollutants on a population's health read this. I am part of the lead gas generations, and wonder what effect this had on my I.Q. We have got to make fostering wellbeing at every level our first priority, or we are going to be devastated.
Children in school library Credit: Shutterstock
Half of Americans alive today were exposed to “clinically concerning” lead levels during their childhood — and their IQ scores shrank as a result, a new study found.
Specifically, an estimated 824 million IQ points of more than 170 million Americans, who were adults as of 2015, were lost from childhood exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas, according to a Duke University news release. Leaded gas was banned from fueling new U.S. vehicles in 1996 after it was added to gasoline starting in 1923.
On average, nearly three IQ points were stolen from each American cognitively impacted from leaded gas exposure before 1996, according to researchers from Duke and Florida State University.
Those born before the 1996 ban “may now be at greater risk for lead-related health problems, such as faster aging of the brain,” the release said of the study published March 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Stephan: There is an aspect of how America is responding that I think is not getting enough attention, because it really identifies the fascist members of Congress. Representative Madison Cawthorn, Republican of course, from North Carolina, is such an example.
Volodymyr Zelensky and Madison Cawthorn Photo illustration by Salon/Getty
Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug” last Saturday, arguing that the Ukrainian government, now under siege by the Russian military, is “incredibly corrupt” and “incredibly evil.”
“Remember that Zelenskky is a thug,” Cawthorn said during a town hall in his home state last week. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”
The comment, reported by longtime Republican operative Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, is even harsher than the rhetoric of most of his right-wing colleagues, who, over the past several weeks, have slowly praised Zelenskyy as they hesitantly condemn Putin.
On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., pushing back against Donald Trump’s supportive comments, said that he doesn’t “think anything’s savvy or genius about Putin.””I think Putin is evil,” the lawmaker said during a press conference. “He’s a dictator. And I think he’s murdering people right now.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has likewise
Stephan: Here is another example of what I mean. We are replaying the Nazis era of the 1930s, with Vladimir as Adolph, and Republicans as the Nazis.
Douglas Macgregor in August 2020 Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Since Fox News’ Tucker Carlson has offered multiple conflicting reports on the chaos unfolding in Ukraine, he recently brought in Fox News invasion expert Douglas MacGregor to offer insight on what’s really transpiring overseas.
“The sanctions … will do a lot of damage to us,” MacGregor told Carlson. “They’re not going to make much difference to Russia. China will stand with Russia. It knows it has to. Russia has an abundance of food and energy. China will take it all. Russia will not suffer as a result of our sanctions. In fact, it may break down the financial system that we have set up to punish everyone in the world we don’t like.”
Stephan: I would make the case even more strongly than Charles Pierce. Just the verified evidence that has been made public makes it irrefutable that Donald Trump and his band of orcs knowingly and deliberately committed treason. Here is the definition from the dictionary.
trea·son
/ˈtrēzən/
Learn to pronounce
noun
the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
Putin's evil in Ukraine has mostly blown the Trump horror show off the media, but what does get covered just adds to the proof.
So where is Merritt Garland?
Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty
That filing that the lawyers for the congressional committee looking into the events of January 6 dropped in court last week, part of the committee’s continuing effort to get John Eastman to turn over email correspondence, seems to have fallen quite hard on the heads of congressional Republicans. The whole smoke-fire thing has a new salience in their minds, and they’re lashing out, poor dears. From The Hill:
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said any criminal referral from the House “would probably have as much political taint on it as you can get.”
“To me it’s clearly politically driven,” he said. Braun said Democrats are scrambling to change up the political narrative in response to Biden’s moribund job approval ratings and predicted launching a federal prosecution of Trump would be viewed along partisan lines. “At least half the country would say it’s all politically motivated,” he said. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said “the Department of Justice has a high bar” to clear before launching an investigation of Trump […]
