America's War on Prevention

If America keeps failing with gun violence, that's fundamentally because she's waging war on prevention, and because the forces that feed upon these failures have faced impunity for too long.

Worse: constant mass shootings are only one of the nation's most obvious self inflicted traumas. At least, there, everybody knows the rules of the game: 

• more people die of guns in the US than anywhere else, and not just because 332M Americans own 400M of them
• implementing basic gun control laws (e.g. background checks) have always showed spectacular results, including in the States between the moment Bill Clinton signed the last batch and the moment Republicans blocked its prolongation
• even if a vast majority of Americans (including within Republicans) support these laws, the NRA and the GOP keep distorting the 2nd Amendment to push even harder against any kind of oversight or accountability. 
• the situation keeps worsening: Republicans are likely to sweep the Middterms, and the Supreme Court they reshaped against the will of the people is likely to dismantle the few remaining safeguards. This self-proclaimed 'pro-life' crew prefers to protect guns to protecting the lives of kids or pregnant teens.
  

America is not just sick, she doesn't want to heal.  

And that's exactly the same story with health in general. Even before the pandemic, America spent one third more per capita on healthcare than any other developed country, and yet saw her life expectancy plummet, the average health of her citizens being more worthy of a laggard.

Like with guns, there's a lot of money involved, but here, at least two families of lobbies are working in sinc to sink the boat: where everywhere else the focus is on prevention, Big Pharma and Big Food make sure that prevention is withdrawn from all policies, and that only the 'cures' they propose are considered. Because they couldn't gain more shares of stomachs, Big Food had the genius idea of supersizing our stomachs, and Big Pharma certainly can't complain because they make more money selling drugs that no one needs when they follow just a normal diet. And don't count on health associations to defend consumers: most of them are bankrolled by the same lobbies, and promote the very behaviors they're supposed to fight against.

The prevention of gun violence, obesity or heart diseases are national causes everywhere except in the US, where they would mean the end of the party for lobbies who need America to keep getting sicker instead of healing.

If these lobbies reach across the aisle, they've always worked in symbiosis with the Republican Party. But that party itself has given up all restraints, any ambition for common ground or common sense. And it's now waging war at all levels. 

Solutions to major problems are no-brainers? Let's dumb everybody further down, let's ban books, let's reject facts, truth, reason, and science. We want you to feel stupid, victimized, angry, we want you to replace critical thinking with systematic, blind criticism, we want you to forget about moderation and to live on a permanent conflictual mode.

The GOP not only stopped fighting racism, it's deliberately fueling it now, crushing voting rights for minorities, promoting voices that fuel hatred (exhibit A: Tucker Carson spreading the Great Replacement fallacy). The big tent has turned into a dangerous tin foil hat under which thrive the worst of the worst (Holocaust deniers and white supremacists are more welcome than ever).

Even if they know better, these guys will tell you with a straight face that the Earth is flat, that Trump won in 2020, and that arming teachers is the solution when even a squad of trained police officers are scared to face a teenager carrying assault weapons.

Pew Research on bipartisan support for gun control
NB: more data on Brady Campaign's website: bradyunited.org/resources

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Dirt? "I'd take it"

Asked by George Stephanopoulos what he would do if Russia or China told him they had dirt on a political opponent, Donald Trump replied: 'I think I'd take it'. And when reminded that Christopher Wray told the Congress that in this situation, candidates should contact the FBI, he simply said 'the FBI director is wrong'.

When DJT says something is 'wrong', he's not talking moral compasses, but what doesn't follow his mobster principles.

'Russia! If you have dirt on Biden, tell me. I won't tell the FBI, as usual'

Donald Trump is 'right', because the GOP keeps following his mobster principles, putting him on the 'right' track to get reelected. GOP voters keep supporting him because GOP lawmakers keep enabling him, starting with the most corrupt of them all, Mitch McConnell, who not only confirmed his grand stand to block Obama's legitimate Supreme Court pick would not be applied should Trump face the same situation, but also had his state shamelessly benefit from his wife's work for the administration. Corrupt Elaine Chao. Corrupt Susan Collins, who pretends to defend women's rights, but gives the nod to Brett Kavanaugh, and countless anti-abortion judges.

DJT will be reelected if Democrats let Putin and Trump run the show, like they did in 2016. Feeding the narrrative that DNC primaries will oppose an ultra-radical, revolutionary, and an old conservative, and that only Trump represents change.

Which is true. Only not the change you want, if you care for democracy, human rights, the environment, healthcare...

Either you take a stand for decency, for democracy, for the values that make America great, or you let the worst enemies of America Make Amerika Great Again.

You want dirt? You'll get it.


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Bubba Clinton rocks DNC 2012: GOP Unity My Ass!

The day the NRA and the AIPAC stop dictating political platforms, the USA might become an independent democracy.
 
Day 2 of DNC 2012 started in damage control mode: the Democratic platform had to mention God and Jerusalem to pass the theocratic cut. The POTUS didn't need to receive a 3 A.M. call from the AIPAC to sense the danger for November 6. You can count on conservative pundits to spin this non-event as a blahblahgate blown to biblical proportions, but the case got easily closed. For good measure, Madeleine Albright pinned a splendid "Pro-Israel" brooch on Obama's chest. 
 
And the incident proved that at least, the Democratic Party remains open for debate. Heck: Sister Simone Campbell was even allowed to deliver her "pro-life stance"! And she didn't crucify Romney just to redeem herself or simply because he's a Mormon. 
 

 
Day 2 of DNC 2012 soon switched back to full groovy mode. The floor fretted at the news that Barack would meet Bubba on stage later in the night, and everybody waited for something special from Liz Warren.
 
Meanwhile, with only a few VIPs on stage to hammer the messages (in substance: if Barack Obama stands for working people in the US, Mitt Romney rather watches his own money work in the Caymans), CNN served slices of Hillary to fill the blanks. The Secretary of State had seeked refuge in NonCharlottistan during the Convention, and I bet John Kerry will succeed her for Obama Season V, but when she was abruptly asked how she judged her "boss", she answered with one of the sweetest compliments she ever made to her 2008 rival. Amazing "grace" indeed.
 
Meanwhile, still, John King delt his full deck of maps. I'm pretty sure that when he sleeps, John King sees red and blue county maps. Grey ones when he's got a nightmare. And when he can't fall asleep? He probably recounts Florida 2000 ballots.

Eventually, we didn't have to wait long for great moments. Sandra Fluke did more than deliver a pro-choice speech. She brought down the house and for that, she didn't even have to raise her voice. Sandra Fluke simply rose and use her voice, exactly what conservatives don't like in a woman.

At the beginning of Elizabeth Warren's "warm up act for President Clinton", I confess I thought she too needed a warm up act. Then she started addressing the issues that count, and my oh my, if independent voters listen to her speech, they'll instantly tear down the GOP ballot. Warren stood for all humans against the inhuman program of Romney-Ryan. The best answer to Mitt's infamous "corporations are people".

Bill Clinton trumpeted Barack Obama's second term from Yesterday's Gone to Forward Folks. Not as perfect as Michelle Obama yesterday (Bubba can be too talkative and professoral), but he won her heart by offering his best support to the "man who had the good sense to marry" her. What a one man show! Simply unstoppable. Barack ? "A man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside". The RNC 2012? In "an alternative universe". Correct location, Bill. And we're not even mentioning Romney's "moral compass", more than questioned by Randy Johnson, a former Bain employee, a couple of hours earlier. By the way, Mitt: Joe Biden's seat is not empty, but all others are. For the standing ovation in his honor, courtesy POTUS #42.
 
Professor Bill Clinton slammed Mitt Romney: the wannabe should learn arithmetic before giving lessons on budget. And even on jobs. America is better off without Republicans who cost her one million jobs by crippling the Congress, and of course GM is better off without Romney in the driving seat. Paul Ryan? It takes an Irishman to know one, it takes a saxophonist to know brass, and "it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did". Struck out, the rookie.

Not only did Bill deliver an even better speech than he would have for himself, but this final, powerful Clinton-Obama embrace? You couldn't find a more perfect union at work.

Cruel comparison with that cold reunion of losers right after Ryan's acceptance speech... Last time Mitt Romney hugged someone so hard, nine month later Ann had their last kid.

 
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* see "DNC 2012 Day 1: Come Together, Now"

"Pro Life" Murderers

George Tiller was murdered on Sunday. Just outside the church where he served as an usher, in Wichita, KS. Back in the nineties, this physician already survided one bombing and one shooting.

The murderer* will probably get a life sentence for this monstruous crime... Life for a "pro-lifer", because I presume that this dangerous lunatic considers himself a good Christian and a good defensor of God's creation, and that in this troubled mind, Tiller was a serial killer because he happened to perform late term abortions.

But to the contrary, "thanks" to his crazy act, Tiller died a martyr for actual faith as well as a martyr for the actual "pro-life" movement : those who chose saving one life over fanaticism, those who respect mankind and want to protect democracy from fundamentalism.

Federal law protects people like Tiller because America chose democracy over fundamentalism. His tragic death will resonate during the usual Roe v. Wade bout following Justice David Souter's retirement announcement.

Pro-choice activists will screen Judge Sonia Sotomayor as well as pro-lifers, and both should : any democracy needs transparency, and this one endured enough consequences of hidden agendas. Justice Souter's most important decision was to wait for the Bush-Cheney era to end before leaving office (see "5-4. Still standing").

About Fundamentalist in Chief George W. Bush, I spilled this blogule a couple of days before the November 2004 Elections (see archives : "Red Blogule to this "pro-life" President - Stem cells : who's the murderer ?"**)

Somebody tell me why this "pro-life" President, so much eager to protect life in the form of embryos, is the biggest supporter of death penalty and holds the record for executions in the US.
Somebody tell me why this man, who says every tiny cell counts, doesn't show any remorse when soldiers die because of his failures or kids are slaughtered during his massive bombings to smoke Zarkawi out before November the 2nd.
Somebody tell me why this imposteur, who dares say he defends the values that built America, should even have the slightest chance of fooling the electors once more.

He did. But American voters redeemed themselves last year.

Justice Souter will not be replaced by a radical. Nor will Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I'm so glad Obama makes the choice. Of life.




* probably the man already charged : Scott Roeder, also from Kansas
** to complete the Pro-life trilogy, see also Pro-life / pro-death pro-teges"

Debate # 3 : That One tamed The Whipper

And the winner is... Joe The Plumber. Or maybe Bob Schiffer.

John McCain survived another day, leading the first half of the debate, putting Barack Obama on the defensive, wording his distance with Bush ("Senator Obama, I'm not President Bush"), and winning the closing address.

In his best debate so far (and the last one : should he win, Palin will probably do the next one), McCain even survived the Veep test, Obama failing to point out the fact that Joe Biden was ready to lead the country from day one.

But the Sitting Bull looked once again very grumpy when his opponent was talking, and Obama, who gracefully dodged the abortion ("Nobody's pro-abortion") and Bill Ayers bullets, wrapped the second half thanks to health and education. And he was a little bit more subtle when it came to courting Ohio / Michigan voters ("Joe The Plumber" crushed by a Detroit motorcade).

Obama was tired and not in his best day. But he didn't make any mistake and didn't hurt his batting average that badly.

He was just a nice smart man debating with a nervous person who came to make a show or better : to fight on a ring. McCain came out smiling, but Americans are not in a mood to count this kind of points.

Wrestling with Joe The Plumber, The Maverick won the WWF bout, but facing America, Barack Obama won the Presidential Debate.

Prisoner Of Wasilla - A short sighted Maverick

John McCain is a POW now. Prisoner Of Wasilla, he'll have to go all the way to November with the caricature of a Veep he picked in a last minute "hail Maria pass" (as Jonathan Atler splendidly put it).

Old Noah had to fill his Arch before the Gustav flood, but didn't have enough time to find a member of each species. With Sarah Palin, he filled a few checkboxes in one shot : Mac is targeting hardcore Hillarists ? Palin is a woman. Mac is turning 72 ? Palin is 44. Mac wants to rally ultraconservatives ? Palin is a mother of 5, against abortion rights, and a NRA activist. Mac wants to please Bush's fundamentalist base ? Palin prones the teaching of creationism / Intelligent Design at school.

Even better : as Mark Brown put it, "Palin gives them the reason (excuse?) they needed to vote for McCain, assuming they weren't already there. Now they won't be voting AGAINST the black man. They'll be voting FOR the woman." So the Palin quick fix is solving both the gender and race issues. Another way for McCain of evading the direct comparison with Obama.

Brilliant...

And pathetic.

This isn't a daring move but a purely defensive, tactical, and short sighted one. The kind of moves a cornered rookie chess player would try in an embarrassingly childish final display of bravado. John McCain has no long term vision whatsoever : he is simply everyday more desperate to please everybody, everyday more hollow and inconsistent.

Mac says he’s been keeping an eye on his Pal for years, but he actually met her 6 months ago, and called her only once about the job*. The "maverick" is gone, replaced by either a compulsive gambler, or someone who totally despises the Vice Presidency (after all, this very man already delivered a cristal clear definition for the job : "The vice president has two duties : one is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators").

What a contrast with the Obama - Biden ticket ! Barack chose Joe because he respected him for his judgement and his ability to challenge him a positive way for the good of the country, like a trustable and unbiased partner would do.

McCain-Palin ? They don’t respect each other. They don’t even know each other, never worked together. Can’t work together... unless, of course, John McCain decides to give up totally to his darker side, and accepts to lose the McCainistan war. I don't know whether he's lost his bearings, but I hope Independents won't lose theirs and follow such a dangerous path.

Let Obama take care of him in the Presidential debates.

Meanwhile, Hillary has unfinished job to do and I expect her to come out and expose Palin's imposture (she personifies what feminists abhorr : a former beauty queen**, a militant against abortion rights, a NRA activist willing to nuke Roe vs Wade). That would prove she really meant what the said the other night.

Before Hurricane Hillary touches down, the McCain-Palin duet intends to surf on Hurricane Gustav, the perfect Weapon of Mass Distraction : imagine them facing the elements in a spectacular New Orleans acceptance speech - what a dramatic, un-Conventional, un-big-stadium-extravaganza change ! The perfect PR op' at the best moment.

And far less risky than facing a mob of dubious and angry Reps.

* read "The story behind the Palin surprise" (Jonathan Martin on Politico 20080829)
** When you say "I think that’s a pretty, pretty event-filled and record-filled resume", are you talking about the Miss Wasilla 1984 line, John ? Do you really believe in this "agent of change" who doesn't understand evolution ?, this untested, small town celeb one heartbeat away of leading 300 million Americans ?

George Pontius Pilate Bush lets Gonzales face justice - Red blogule to Our Dear Compassionate Leader

"Al has got work to do up there".
Ecce homo. I give you Alberto Gonzales, and it's up to the people to judge, it's up to him to explain why he dismissed some nosy attorneys, it's up to my fuse to explain why he short circuited the Congress.
George W. Bush washes his hands and I see mud on them : his justice promotes scientific revisionism and medieval fundamentalism, attacks the moderates and pacifists, protects Special Interest Groups.
George W. Bush washes his hands and I see blood on them : his justice promotes torture and protects the gunslingers.
George W. Bush pretends to be compassionate and to stand for values ? He should be remembered as the immoral coward who betrayed America.
Go get Alberto Gonzales, the mastermind of this deviant justice, but don't forget to get the man who ordered this kind of plans*.
Go get Alberto Gonzales, the mastermind of Abu Ghraib, but don't forget to impeach his master.


* "plans", "intelligent design", "The Architect"... building a fundamentalist utopia looks demanding on the gray cells side for the promoters, but the aim of the game remains the negation of intelligence for all others.

Red blogule to pro-life / pro-death pro-teges

How many black people among how many dead people down in the South ? Thousands ? Yet a fraction of the country cries over the death of one single individual in Arlington, VA. White supremacists and Christian fundamentalist expect a "good" successor to William Hubbs Rehnquist, praised by his November 2000 Protégé (and pro-life+pro-death-penalty pal*) King Dubya for "improving the delivery of justice for the American people".
John Roberts was not supposed to take the helm that soon but the US should be very careful who will replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Edith "Joy" Brown Clement, a woman from 'bama with a New Orleans pedigree, would be the perfect post-Katrina nominee but for his potential last shot and one year before key elections, W needs to send a much stronger message to his "base"**.
Besides, since she's still sitting in Louisiana, Brown may have a not so Clement word to say during the inquiry about Katrina's aftermath.

* "pro-life" people tend to be "pro-death", but there's nothing funny about it
** Speaking of which... Newsweek just published in their 20050901 edition the mild extract of my 20050708 blogule on London bombings I sent them : "President Bush keeps talking about good vs evil (...) - Tony Blair keeps talking about attacks against civilization... but such speeches are music to the ears of fundamentalists. What these leaders need to protect is not their own "way of life" but the basic rights of moderate majorities under the spell of extremist minorities."

Red blogule to "Intelligent Design" - Fundamentals and fundamentalism - Creationism and cretinism

"Pro-Life", "Intelligent Design"... these guys do have a knack for positive wording (don't even think about positive thinking). I gather they call torture in Abu Ghraib "Truth Quest" and the negation of all independant safeguards or watchdogs (the UN, the Geneva Convention, the International Criminal Tribunal...) something like "Active Freedom".
Bush's position on evolution resembles that of Revisionists on gas chambers : since there are alternative theories, students should be taught both angles*. This image may strike you as indecent and it is, but it clearly exposes the loopholes in the argumentation.
I'm not making any sick parallel between the existence of gas chambers and the existence of God, nor between proven facts and beliefs : I'm comparing people who knowingly manipulate opinions through biased rethorics.
I'm not even defending the theory of evolution, which is the best to date but won't explain everything. I just think the fundamentals of human society should be protected from religious fundamentalism.
Creationism** puts faith at the same level as science and that is the very negation of science. You can believe in ID if you want but you cannot call this science (and of course you have no right to believe in the non-existence of gas chambers).
Just the same, you cannot call "democracy" any approach of politics based on nor even mixed with religious beliefs. That is one of the reasons why, once again, Bush thinks and acts as an enemy to democracy, justice or science.

* or as the Washington Post relates it : "Both sides ought to be properly taught . . . so people can understand what the debate is about". You want to "teach" about Creation, Dubya ? If there were a place for it in school, it would be the History of Religions (with a "S" so that, this time, all angles could be presented). And you want "debate" now ? That's what I call "evolution" : you've been avoiding the debate on every other issue and the one you picked doesn't rely on any facts. Can you believe it ? No one can contest your belief !
** I realize that up to now my blogules on this issue have been spilled in French (see "National Geographic - Points de vue et images du monde" or "Creationism & Cretinism"). And I guess "creationism" should be rebranded into something more suitable : I suggest a generic term like "Religion-Based Beliefs" for all the likes of Creationism.