Stephan: I am going to make this short and to the point. I've had enough. As you have probably heard throughout the day there is no other country on earth that has the kind of non-military gun murders and school shootings that occur regularly, almost routinely in the United States. The families hadn't even buried all the dead from the Buffalo massacre when the Uvalde, Texas massacre happened. Why is this occurring? Everyone knows the answer. The weapons corporations rent the whores in the Republican Party and make sure they will not vote on anything that restricts guns in this country.
If you vote for a Republican you are voting for more racist Buffalo massacres, and more Uvalde child killings. Is that clear enough for you? Vote Republican and you are voting for random gun death.
Police respond to a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Credit: Dario Lopez-Mills/AP
A shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that has killed 19 children and two adults marks the 27th school shooting this year. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the shooter behind Tuesday’s incident was killed.
This comes just 10 days after a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., that took the lives of 10 people.
Education Weekhas been tracking school shootings since 2018. According to its database, 119 such incidents have taken place since then.
There were 27 school shootings with injuries or deaths this year.
The organization tracks shootings where a firearm was discharged and where any person (other than the suspect) has a bullet wound resulting from the incident. Education Week also includes only incidents that happen on a K-12 school property or on a school bus and that occur when school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.
It doesn’t track cases in which the only shots fired were from a school resource officer or police officer.
Silvia Foster-Frau, Arelis R. Hernández, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin , - The Washington Post
Stephan: I don't find the data in this report surprising. If I were Black, particularly if I lived in a Red open carry state I would be stressed anytime I was in a crowd of White people fearing some kind of violent or fatal confrontation. Why is this happening? Because under Trump White supremacy racism has been stimulated to a fever pitch, and Republicans will not vote for any kind of gun restrictions. Quite the contrary the Republican aim is to allow untrained, unbackground checked, unlicensed individuals over 21 to carry concealed weapons whenever they like. Combine the two and you have the Buffalo massacre.
Three-quarters of Black Americans are worried that they or someone they love will be attacked because of their race, according to a nationwide Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted after a gunman killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket, allegedly targeting members of the mostly Black neighborhood.
The Post-Ipsos poll of Black Americans finds most are saddened and angered by the attacks, but just 8 percent say they are “surprised.” Even before the shooting,in earlier poll questioning,Black people saw racism as one of their greatest threats. After the attack, only 10 percent think the problem of racism will improve in their lifetimes, while a 53 percent majority think it will get worse.
Authorities believe theBuffalo shooting suspect published a 180-page diatribe before the massacre,detailing his plans to kill Black people and describing himself as a white supremacist and a terrorist. Of the 13 people shot, 11 were Black. Federal officials have said they are pursuing the case as a racially motivated hate crime.
“This proved my theory that it’s still out there. And it’s not getting better, […]
Stephan: John Alexander gets it. He sees the clear commonalities between Putin and the Republican Party, both committed to anocracy as their preferred form of government. I wish I had written this essay, I would have said the same thing.
The many parallels between Putin’s Russia and Republican Party base should be patently obvious to any astute observer. An overarching factor is repetitiously communicating false information from sources of nominal authority. Both systems are reliant on continually perpetrating lies. In Russia the propaganda is top driven by Vladimir Putin, and disseminated to the general population with total control of all domestic media outlets to propagate his conspiracy theories. In America, the Big Lie was generated by Trump, disseminated to his base, then used to intimidate rank-and-file Republican officials. In the US the Republican base is enabled through willful ignorance and their rejection of veridical information. Fealty to Trump uber alles is demanded to survive in any primary race in the Republican Party.
The numerous common factors between Putin and the Republican Party include:
By AMANDA MARCOTTE, Senior Politics Writer - Salon
Stephan: Yesterday I reported on the just released study about the sex abuse committed by 700 -- 700! -- Baptist clergy. It's the sordid tale of the Roman Catholic priesthood all over again. As I thought about this, I was struck by the fact that the two religious organizations that are leaders in the anti-choice movement attempting to legalize the second-class status of women both are populated by sex pervert clergy who moralize in public claiming Biblical authority, while privately sexually abusing their congregants young and old. What is the connection, I thought? This article by Amanda Marcotte answers that question accurately I believe.
A 7-foot tall statue (with a 17-foot tall cross) of evangelist Billy Graham graces the front entrance to the headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville. Credit: Getty
“Shocking.” That’s the word being bandied about in both news coverage and social media reactions to a nearly 300-page report released on Sunday that details both extensive sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and a thorough effort to cover it up by the denomination’s leadership. As Christianity Today bluntly noted, the convention had “a secret list of more than 700 abusive pastors,” but “chose to protect the denomination from lawsuits” rather than the victims or potential future victims in the pews. Instead, protecting predators became the norm, and victims of abuse were frequently blamed. One victim, whose abuse started when she was 14, “was forced to apologize in front of the church,” but forbidden to name the pastor who had forcibly impregnated her.
The situation is, indeed, horrific. It’s a minor miracle that this report even […]
Robert Reich, Former US Secretary of Labor, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: America's obscene wealth inequality is allowing a handful of billionaire fascists, who don't want to be taxed or restricted in what they want to do, to fund the christofascist cult that was once the Republican Party. These are the men, almost all middle-aged or older White men, who are paying their Congressional whores to dismantle America's democratic republic and create an anocracy. They rely on the fact that most Americans are too stupid or simply not interested enough to defend the system that allowed them to accumulate their wealth.
Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech financier who is among those leading the charge, once wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”’ Credit: Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Decades ago, America’s monied interests bankrolled a Republican establishment that believed in fiscal conservatism, anti-communism and constitutional democracy.
Today’s billionaire class is pushing a radically anti-democratic agenda for America – backing Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, calling for restrictions on voting and even questioning the value of democracy.
Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech financier who is among those leading the charge, once wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
Thiel is using his fortune to squelch democracy. He donated $15m to the successful Republican Ohio senatorial primary campaign of JD Vance, who alleges that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden’s immigration policy has meant “more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”
Thiel has donated at least $10m to the Arizona Republican primary race of Blake Masters, who also claims Trump won the 2020 election and admires Lee Kuan Yew, the authoritarian founder of modern […]
