The Republicans and their news outlet, Fox News, are lockstep in calling up all the demons of the Apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. In the New Testament of the Bible, in the Book of Revelations, they are actually the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, most accounts deeming them a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment – which is the tenor of the Republican response to Obama’s executive action plan.
It is reported by NBC that the Senate, controlled by Democrats, will not take up the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as Attorney General during the lame duck session of the Senate. The current rule, recently changed by Harry Reid, is that an appointment such as Attorney General, requires a simple majority. Can anyone believe that having Mitch McConnell as the next majority leader in the Senate officiate this confirmation will be preferable?
[There] is a memo [at the Pentagon] that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.
— General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO (1997-2000), (March 2, 2007)
I don’t want to just end the [Iraq] war, but I want to end the mind-set that got us into war in the first place.
— Presidential candidate Barack Obama, (January 31, 2008)
In perhaps the best mainstream report during the election season, the typically firmly D.C.-based Steve Inskeep went knocking on doors in Colorado and came across a woman, Ili Bennett, who told him she’s felt some excitement from both Elizabeth Warren — and in the past, the Tea Party.
A typically excellent piece by Greg Palast recently exposed some more about the now almost routine cynicism of the US government. His article revealed how a piece of software is being used to carry out a huge purge of mainly non-white people from the US electoral role – apparently most non-white people in the US usually vote Democrat. Then just yesterday we learn that in the US mid-term elections the Republicans won control of Congress.
Context doesn’t matter with clever kitty videos, but politics is different
BuzzFeed, moving up from cute-cat-tricks to catty-Senator-tricks, caused a few ripples in the political swamp on October 22 with its belated, skewed reporting of Republican Senator John McCain calling U.S. Admiral John Kirby an “idiot” on a right wing radio show in North Carolina on October 15. OK, nobody really expects BuzzFeed News to publish honest news.
When Republicans come up with environmental solutions, look for their real effectiveness and suspect that politics and greed might be involved. Some Democrats are deceptive too but the GOP functions as a complete tool of vested interests like the Koch brothers who pollute your place, then ignore your space.
“This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed.”
American hysteria is a wondrous thing to behold.
Our hysteria is usually obvious in retrospect, whether the freak-out is over witches, labor unions, or communists. Hysteria is not always so easy to perceive as it happens or, in this case, as it is happening right now with ISIS-centric Islamophobia running rampant around the nation’s terror-drenched reptilian brain.
Why are so many young unarmed black men killed by the police? Obviously there is no easy answer to that question, but most evidence suggests it is race-related.
In addition, a whole divisive national culture of apartheid and inequality furnishes a fertile setting for angst and anger. In this setting, our media displays dual props of haves and have-nots, many of the latter, minorities. In a society of changing demographics, intent on winning white votes at any cost, conservative politicians set have-nots up as “whipping boys” for disgruntled whites with eroding wealth.
Soon after children start noticing differences between others and themselves, they’re old enough to believe they’re superior or entitled in some ways. These feelings come naturally, and are reinforced by adults as children learn social behaviors by comparing attributes and values so they can fit in with, or be seen apart from, certain others in society. This is all instinctual to some degree and a normal part of life. To make the case for instinct and superiority, think about what anyone would consider when choosing a partner for a serious or long-term relationship.
