Stephan: Ken Paxton is such a repugnant person but there is nothing surprising about him. He always is, and does, exactly what a man of his character can be expected to be and do. What I think is important to know here is that the people of Texas chose him. Where do you have to be in your consciousness to elect men like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton? By any social outcome measure, they have been a disaster at fostering wellbeing. Yet they got elected. What does that tell you?
The other thing I am watching in Texas because it will be very revealing of the state culture is whether the government from local to state gets away with the Uvalde massacre, and no one is held accountable? It looks like they are going to pull it off, but we will see.
“Life is short,” Paxton told radio host and pastor Trey Graham, who had asked the Attorney General what he would say to “give a little comfort” to the parents of the elementary school students slaughtered by an 18-year-old with two AR-15 style assault weapons.
After admitting that he would be “devastated” if he lost a child, “especially in a way that is so senseless and seemingly has no purpose,” Paxton said, “I would just have to say, if I had the opportunity to talk to the people I’d have to say, ‘look, there’s always a plan,’” as Salon reports.
“I believe God always has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is,” Paxton continued. “And certainly, we’re not going to make sense of, you know, a young child being shot and killed way before their life expectancy.”
Stephan: Here is the transcription of a really intelligent conversation about the reality of what is happening worldwide about guns and the evil role the U.S. plays.
The weapons industry has way too much influence on the U.S. government and shapes its policies. The U.S. spends more on the military-industrial complex than the next seven nations combined. [https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/No-Warming-No-War_05-Federal-Budget-and-Spending.pdf] That 80% of Americans support some kind of gun control, means little to them. That they probably don't even know international is just a freebie. Only voting can cure this problem, and it is going to require both houses of Congress to remain under Democratic control and have it increase.
As U.S. lawmakers struggle to reach a consensus on legislation to curb gun violence in the wake of mass shootings, the U.S. also remains the largest international supplier of arms, funneling billions in military weaponry into wars in Ukraine and Yemen. Until there is a serious curtailment of U.S. militarism, it will continue to prioritize U.S. lives over lives abroad, says Norman Solomon, national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, whose new piece is headlined, “How About Some Gun Control at the Pentagon?” International arms control advocate Rebecca Peters describes U.S. efforts to block weapons control efforts at the United Nations and adds that New Zealand’s swift action on gun control following the Christchurch mosque killings in 2019 should give the U.S. impetus to do the same.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
Another mass shooting. It was Wednesday night, four people shot dead in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after a gunman attacked a […]
Stephan: What most Americans don't seem to get yet is that MAGAt world sees itself in war. They expect and want violence. It is their belief that they are the true patriots, and the true protectors of the Constitution. That this view, has no substance in fact, does not matter to them. They believe it, because they believe it. It soothes their fears, hates, and resentments.
It has been almost a year and a half since Jan. 6, 2021, when Donald Trump and his cabal attempted to nullify the results of the presidential election, and by doing so effectively bring an end American democracy. By any reasonable standard, this was the greatest crime committed by an American president in the country’s history.
Supporters of President Donald J. Trump before the start of the rally. At the Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township, PA Saturday afternoon October 31, 2020 where United States President Donald J. Trump spoke during a campaign rally for his bid for reelection. Credit: Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle / Getty
Last Thursday night, the House committee tasked with investigating Jan. 6 and the larger threat to American democracy held the first in a series of televised hearings. Its preliminary findings are that Trump and numerous allies, including Republican members of Congress, orchestrated a sophisticated, well-funded, nationwide effort that included the Big Lie and other propaganda about “election fraud,” dozens of spurious legal challenges designed to subvert the electoral outcome and undermine public faith in democracy, […]
Stephan: I think Charles Pierce has it right, in his chronology of what has happened. He has hit the right trophes. America as a democratic republic hangs by a thread. It will come down to the November election, and based on what has happened in the primaries I am not feeling optimistic. Trump lost a number of his endorsements, but he also won some. Clearly MAGAts world is alive and well. It is up to us now.
The January 6th Committee
The Washington Post gives us all another long look into the clumsy machinations that went on during the grifterdammerung phase at Camp Runamuck. This latest episode stars one Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer who held a job in the Department of Justice, but who plainly thought he was destined for greater things. Jeffrey Clark fancied himself a Maker Of Presidents, legitimate ones or not.
Clark, an environmental lawyer by trade, had outlined a plan in a letter he wanted to send to the leaders of key states Joe Biden won. It said that the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns” about the vote and that the states should consider sending “a separate slate of electors supporting Donald J. Trump” for Congress to approve. In fact, Clark’s bosses had warned there was not evidence to overturn the election and had rejected his letter days earlier. Now they learned Clark was about to meet with Trump.
And at that point, we were off to the races.
Acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen tracked down his deputy, Richard Donoghue, who had been […]
Julie Ingersoll, Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Florida - The Conversation
Stephan: You will remember that a short while ago I published an article reporting that the Southern Baptist Convention had just been told that on the basis of the evidence they had a major sex problem, both pedophilia with underage children and with women generally. Here is a good exegetic essay on what is going on and why in the SBC.
Rape survivor and abuse victim advocate Mary DeMuth speaks during a rally protesting the Southern Baptist Convention’s treatment of women outside the convention’s annual meeting in Dallas in June 2019. Credit: AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter
The Southern Baptist Convention 2022 annual meeting overwhelmingly voted to approve reforms to address sexual abuse in the denomination. A devastating yearlong investigation had recently documented widespread claims of sex abuse including accusations of rape, cover-ups and gross mistreatment of women seeking justice.
In 2019 the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News partnered on a series of investigative reports on sexual misconduct by Southern Baptists with formal church roles. Subsequently, the annual meeting of the SBC held in June 2021 voted to authorize an investigations firm, Guidepost Solutions, to conduct an independent probe of its executive committee and its handling of sex abuse. The report and the list of alleged offenders has recently been made public.
