Republican Party Policies

38,000 gun deaths a year in US: who needs gun control?

2 cases of voter fraud in 2020: let’s pass 253 new voter suppression laws --Ari Berman @AriBerman

Thanks, Mr. President! Thanks, Republicans!

 That's quite the leadership you got going there.

US hits grim new daily record with 3,656 coronavirus deaths

This broke yesterday on CNN: US hits record breaking number of COVID cases 11 days in a row.

Seems this administration is one of the reliable carriers, too.

Interior secretary tests positive for COVID-19 after two days of meetings with officials: report

Not done there, oh no.

Weekly jobless claims rise to 885,000

Note that this next summary is from the very conservative, very business-friendly Business Insider, too

The GOP's 'outrageous' effort to overturn the election cements its status as 'a willing party to authoritarianism'

Authoritarianism, Fascism, let's not split hairs.

But hey, at least the Dow and the markets are up, huh? 

Stocks rise to record highs on talk of COVID relief deal

At least Mitch McConnell and then Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue down in Georgia are going to be doing okay on their stock portfolios, right??

And again, this President Trump. What a guy. Always there to do the right thing at the right time, eh?

Trump cuts $200M in health care funds to California over abortions

Y'all are terrific.

Really.

Quote of the Day

From Humans of New York

"I've been a deep believer my whole life. 

18 years as a Southern Baptist. 

More than 40 years as a mainline Protestant. I'm an ordained pastor. 

But it's just stopped making sense to me. You see people doing terrible things in the name of religion, and you think: 'Those people believe just as strongly as I do. They're just as convinced as I am.' And it just doesn't make sense anymore. 

It doesn't make sense to believe in a God that dabbles in people's lives. 

If a plane crashes, and one person survives, everyone thanks God. They say: 'God had a purpose for that person. God saved her for a reason!' Do we not realize how cruel that is? Do we not realize how cruel it is to say that if God had a purpose for that person, he also had a purpose in killing everyone else on that plane? And a purpose in starving millions of children? 

A purpose in slavery and genocide? 

For every time you say that there's a purpose behind one person's success, you invalidate billions of people. You say there is a purpose to their suffering. And that's just cruel."

Humankind's future

"...an organism at war with itself is doomed." --Carl Sagan

Rest in peace Joe Simon, creator of "Captain America"

Rest in peace Christopher Hitchens

Now I just hope not one person or source says or writes anything nasty about him or his passing. Particularly any "Christian."

Good news out of Iraq

From online news today: Alleged Al Qaeda Members Sentenced To Death BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced 15 alleged al-Qaida members to death for their role in the 2006 wedding party massacre of 70 people, considered one of the most horrific attacks carried out by Sunni-led militants during the insurgency. Thank goodness. Maybe more countries can see Al Qaeda is no good way to go. Link to original story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/16/alleged-al-qaeda-members-sentenced-iraq-massacre_n_878144.html

But like the Sudan, they don't have oil

Gov't says forces loyal to Gbagbo kill 220 in Ivory Coast

So naturally, we aren't going to do a thing about it.

On guns and the "We'll Never Learn Department"

As promised earlier, from The Daily Beast and Yahoo! News yesterday:

2,405 Shot Dead Since Tucson (Andrew Romano)



Nothing else, here, anyway, need be said. 

(Go read the article.)

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/12881_acourtrulingandcheneycouldswayguncontrollaws/print

Dolphin deaths on the Gulf Coast

Scientists are doing the work now on dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico--it seems 53 of them have washed up on beaches dead when the norm is far lower at 2 per year, from what I've read.

Scientists scrutinize rise in baby dolphin deaths

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Scientists are trying to figure out what killed 53 bottlenose dolphins - many of them babies - so far this year in the Gulf of Mexico, as five more of their carcasses washed up Thursday in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

It's likely to be months before they get back lab work showing what caused the spontaneous abortions, premature births, deaths shortly after birth and adult deaths said Blair Mase, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's stranding coordinator for the Gulf Coast.

Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, said he'd never seen anything like the calf deaths, or found word of anything like it in 30 years of records from his area - Alabama, Mississippi and east Louisiana.

I have to say, however, that, given the whole oil spill ordeal and the dispersants put on the Gulf, it seems difficult to believe that there wouldn't be a correlation between these deaths and the nightmare that was the oil spill. 

No conclusion, for sure and no "presumed guilty" but it sure seems highly likely, don't you think?

For now, we'll stay tuned.

Links:  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEAD_DOLPHINS?SITE=JRC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/scientists-investigating-dolphin-deaths-in-gulf-say-bp-oil-spill-is/1153647

An example of why KC has a high murder rate

The shooting yesterday, now well-covered by the press in town, of two men who shot each other seems to be a good example of why the Kansas City area has a high murder rate.

Fortunately, only one died.

Fortunately, apparently, the one who did die was trying to rob the other.

And get this, "It appears the victim and suspect knew each other...".

I guess that shouldn't be a huge surprise but if you're trying to rob someone (trying to rob someone?), wouldn't you think you'd try to rob someone you didn't know, so you didn't have to either a) be concerned they'd turn you in or b) then be certain you HAVE to kill them?

This is some crazy logic, if you can call it that.

This has to stop. The shootings and killings have to stop.

We have to work together, as a community, to stop the shootings and killings. I don't know how but we have to do this.

Protesting over what?

Wouldn't it be nice if the local clergy--and everyone else--who has their bowels in an uproar over the clothing policy issue at the downtown Power & Light District were as upset and giving as much energy to the killings that have gone on in town for the past year also?

I mean, come on. Sure, go protest about some real or imagined discrimination but if your own people are being killed in drive-by shootings and whatever, isn't the murder rate much more of an important issue than someone not letting you in a bar because of your clothes?

Let me be clear here, too. I am absolutely not defending any discrimination that may or may not be going on downtown. I don't defend anyone's discrimination, anywhere so don't accuse me of that.

I'm just saying if you're going to protest clothing, where were these groups last summer, when people were shooting and frequently killing people in their own homes and front yards?

And where will they be next summer, when it starts all over again?

Does this strike anyone as hypocritical?

Link to stories: http://www.kctv5.com/news/21621538/detail.html

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Group-Protests-Dress-Code-at-P-L-District/jK20e3uhw0unJGKxBaLbPQ.cspx?rss=764

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1570708.html