Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate Economist, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Columnist - The New York Times
Stephan: As usual Paul Krugman sees what is relevant and important in the relationship between China and Russia, as Russia returns to Stalinism and becomes a pariah state. All because one maniacal psychopath destroys the lives of the people of Ukraine, and his own people in Russia. This is all part of the rising trend of authoritarianism and fascism across the world. I see all of this as an attempt to kill democracy worldwide, including in America.
Jennifer Mercieca, Staff Writer - Raw Story / AlterNet
Stephan: From my extensive reading over many months, even years, of right-wing media, and listening to propaganda channels like Fox and Newsmax, I have been convinced that about a third of Americans are fascists. They are White supremacists, and hysterical about anything other than heterosexual male-dominant sexuality. Even worse Christianity has become a major vehicle for their political affiliation. as I noted yesterday with the piece on Pat Robertson a Biblical justification for this perspective has evolved that has turned Christianity into a fascist cult. These people are frightened, hate-filled, and vengeful, and they see democracy itself as their central problem. I don't think the rest of Americans really understand how bizarre and distorted this thinking is, and how committed these people are to destroying democracy. That said, here are some things you can do to preserve America's, your, democracy.
Voters Credit: Reuters/Aaron Josefczyk
Stories and images of Ukrainians fighting for their democracy have inspired citizens worldwide. Many Americans have wondered what we should do to defend ours. They’re right to wonder. American democracy is in grave danger from the same anti-democratic forces.
Authoritarianism — the political belief that danger and chaos require a strict obedience to authority (a strong leader or strong government), even at the expense of individual freedom — is growing in America.
So far, we’ve let them. The threat to our democracy exists.
The situation is urgent.
We’re vulnerable As community organizing scholar Marshall Ganz explains: inertia, fear, apathy, self-doubt, and isolation are all barriers to communal action.
Democracy thrives when we urgently believe that democracy is valuable, when we allow ourselves to hope for better, when our righteous anger overcomes […]
Heather Cox Richardson, Editor - Letters from America.
Stephan: Heather Cox Richardson writes a daily blog that is very sensible. In this one she presents a case for something that I think is not getting enough attention: the relationship of the Republican Party and Vladimir Putin, and his fascist oligarchic government. The issue of fascism or, in America, christofascism as I call it. I coined that term because the cult that defines American Christianity is such a strong factor in this fascist authoritarian movement of which Donald Trump is the leader, but far from alone.
Ukraine war, a woman looks at the ruin of her home
Russia’s war on Ukraine continues.
If the broader patterns of war apply, Russian president Vladimir Putin is making the war as senselessly brutal as possible, likely hoping to force Ukraine to give in quickly before global sanctions completely crush Russia and the return of warm weather eases Europe’s need for Russian oil and gas.
Russian shelling has created a humanitarian crisis in urban areas, and last night, a brief ceasefire designed to let residents of Mariupol and Volnovakha escape the cities through “humanitarian corridors” broke down as Russian troops resumed firing, forcing the people back to shelter. This morning, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to more than 280 members of the U.S. Congress to describe Ukraine’s “urgent need” for more support, both military and humanitarian.
Today, Putin said that the continued resistance of President Zelensky and his government threatens Ukraine’s existence. He also said that the sanctions imposed against Russia, Russian companies, Russian oligarchs and their families, and himself by the global alliance arrayed against him are “akin to […]
Stephan: Part of the authoritarian MAGAt movement is its obsessive gun psychosis. This is what they have achieved. The Trumpian MAGAt movement is dangerous because it is about power, not factual reality.
An employee puts a weapon on display at the National Armory gun store in Pompano Beach, Florida. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty
So-called “stand your ground” laws are associated with hundreds of additional homicides each year in the United States, according to new research conducted by public health scholars, who say that these laws “should be reconsidered to prevent unnecessary violent deaths.”
Published Monday in “JAMA Network Open,” a peer-reviewed medical journal, the study compares homicide trends in roughly two dozen states that enacted stand-your-ground (SYG) laws between 2000 and 2016 with patterns from 18 states that didn’t have such laws during the study period.
Researchers found that SYG laws were associated with an “abrupt and sustained” 8% to 11% national increase in monthly firearm homicide rates, causing an extra 58 to 72 deaths per month. “This monthly increase alone exceeds total rates of homicides in most Northern and Western European countries today,” wrote the authors.
The enactment of SYG laws contributed to an especially pronounced rise in firearm homicide rates in many Southern states that were quick to adopt the laws, with […]
Luke Broadwater and Alan Feuer, - The New York Times
Stephan: It is my view that part of the reason this Ukrainian war is occurring is that Trump's criminality and associated vulnerability led Putin to reconsider how America would react and after the poorly handled Afghanistan withdrawal that he could get what he wanted, Ukraine and its many resources. In the midst of the horror of the war, we should not lose sight of Trump criminality.
Former President Donald J. Trump discounted the facts, the data and many of his own advisers as he continued to promote the lie of a stolen election. Credit: Scott McIntyre /The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Shortly after the 2020 election, as ballots were still being counted, the top data expert in President Donald J. Trump’s re-election campaign told him bluntly that he was going to lose.
In the weeks that followed, as Mr. Trump continued to insist that he had won, a senior Justice Department official told him repeatedly that his claims of widespread voting fraud were meritless, ultimately warning him that they would “hurt the country.”
Those concerns were echoed by the top White House lawyer, who told the president that he would be entering into a “murder-suicide pact” if he continued to pursue extreme plans to try to invalidate the results of the 2020 election.
Yet Mr. Trump — time and again — discounted the facts, the data and many of his own advisers as he continued to promote the lie of a stolen election, […]
