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marmar's Journal
July 5, 2022
An endless arms race: How to fight the NRA's absurd solution to mass shootings
More armed guards everywhere, more guns everywhere. Do you want to live in that country? It's time to say no
By JOHN DAVENPORT
PUBLISHED JULY 5, 2022 6:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) As we celebrated Independence Day, there was no independence from the scourge of gun violence and the toll it is taking on the American psyche. The shooter who attacked a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing six people and wounding at least 38 others, used a "high-powered rifle," according to authorities. Survivors report a rain of bullets at the height of the attack.
This attack is bound to renew calls for more "red flag" laws that would help identify and disarm emotionally or mentally unstable persons who are making threats of gun violence or praising mass murderers. But would the Highland Park shooter's online record of participating in "death fetish" culture sites and making art featuring mass killing have been enough for a judge to order seizure of his guns? The Guardian reports that just one Reddit website featuring gruesome death videos has more than 400,000 subscribers, most of whom will never shoot anyone. Red flag laws may help, but they seem likely either to cast too wide a net or to miss key individuals, given that mental health is not a strong predictor of becoming a mass shooter.
With more than 22,000 deaths by gun reported by July 4 this year, it is not surprising that people are looking for quick solutions. After the execution of 19 elementary schoolers in Texas and a hospital shooting in Oklahoma in May, there were shootings at a graduation party and a nightclub during the first weekend in June. Then an armed man was arrested at the home of a Supreme Court justice.
....(snip)....
This new law may create a false sense of hope, but will do little to reduce the 316 "routine" shootings that take place on average every day in this country, including around 74 in suicide attempts and another 91 in accidental shootings. This problem is driven by the fact that there are so many guns in American households that someone in a psychic meltdown can easily get hold of one. Gun sales tripled during the pandemic, and there is more than one private firearm per person in America, far more than in any other nation. In 2021 alone, 19.9 million guns were sold in the U.S., amounting to more than $1,1 billion in gross profits. Even if we assume half of that went to guns for hunting sports (which is unlikely), it is still a shocking figure.
....(snip)....
To really fix the problem, we have to reduce the fears of neighbors cultivated by mass media, which drive gun sales. The sense that others around you are arming up also triggers second-order fears. Americans feel the need to own a gun because the enormous number in circulation make it far more likely that a criminal here will use a gun while committing a crime. There is no technological substitute for deep social trust, as sociologists researching "social capital" have found. The proliferation of guns erodes that trust like the strongest acid, and produces a defeatist sense that mass shootings are "inevitable." .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/07/05/an-endless-arms-race-how-to-fight-the-nras-absurd-solution-to-mass/
An endless arms race: How to fight the NRA's absurd solution to mass shootings
An endless arms race: How to fight the NRA's absurd solution to mass shootings
More armed guards everywhere, more guns everywhere. Do you want to live in that country? It's time to say no
By JOHN DAVENPORT
PUBLISHED JULY 5, 2022 6:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) As we celebrated Independence Day, there was no independence from the scourge of gun violence and the toll it is taking on the American psyche. The shooter who attacked a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing six people and wounding at least 38 others, used a "high-powered rifle," according to authorities. Survivors report a rain of bullets at the height of the attack.
This attack is bound to renew calls for more "red flag" laws that would help identify and disarm emotionally or mentally unstable persons who are making threats of gun violence or praising mass murderers. But would the Highland Park shooter's online record of participating in "death fetish" culture sites and making art featuring mass killing have been enough for a judge to order seizure of his guns? The Guardian reports that just one Reddit website featuring gruesome death videos has more than 400,000 subscribers, most of whom will never shoot anyone. Red flag laws may help, but they seem likely either to cast too wide a net or to miss key individuals, given that mental health is not a strong predictor of becoming a mass shooter.
With more than 22,000 deaths by gun reported by July 4 this year, it is not surprising that people are looking for quick solutions. After the execution of 19 elementary schoolers in Texas and a hospital shooting in Oklahoma in May, there were shootings at a graduation party and a nightclub during the first weekend in June. Then an armed man was arrested at the home of a Supreme Court justice.
....(snip)....
This new law may create a false sense of hope, but will do little to reduce the 316 "routine" shootings that take place on average every day in this country, including around 74 in suicide attempts and another 91 in accidental shootings. This problem is driven by the fact that there are so many guns in American households that someone in a psychic meltdown can easily get hold of one. Gun sales tripled during the pandemic, and there is more than one private firearm per person in America, far more than in any other nation. In 2021 alone, 19.9 million guns were sold in the U.S., amounting to more than $1,1 billion in gross profits. Even if we assume half of that went to guns for hunting sports (which is unlikely), it is still a shocking figure.
....(snip)....
To really fix the problem, we have to reduce the fears of neighbors cultivated by mass media, which drive gun sales. The sense that others around you are arming up also triggers second-order fears. Americans feel the need to own a gun because the enormous number in circulation make it far more likely that a criminal here will use a gun while committing a crime. There is no technological substitute for deep social trust, as sociologists researching "social capital" have found. The proliferation of guns erodes that trust like the strongest acid, and produces a defeatist sense that mass shootings are "inevitable." .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/07/05/an-endless-arms-race-how-to-fight-the-nras-absurd-solution-to-mass/
July 4, 2022
Explosive testimony suggests Trump was set on a coup that evokes America’s darkest hour
Sarah Churchwell
The 6 January hearings already confirm a plan for insurrection and recall the civil war and its ‘lost cause’ aftermath
Sun 3 Jul 2022 03.30 EDT
(Guardian UK) ‘I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021,” declared congressman Bennie Thompson, chairman of the select committee, as he opened the 6 January hearings last month.
That drop of American history was quickly lost in the cloudburst to come, the extraordinary revelations culminating last week in the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. But Thompson opened proceedings with that reminder for a very good reason: because the 6 January insurrection did not merely resemble the dark history of the civil war and its aftermath, it continued it. “Some people are trying to deny what happened,” Thompson added. “To whitewash it. To turn the insurrectionists into martyrs. But the whole world saw the reality of what happened on January 6th. The hangman’s gallows sitting out there on our National Mall. The flag of that first failed and disgraced rebellion against our union, being paraded through the Capitol.”
The denial that followed that first disgraced insurrection – the civil war – was a myth-making disinformation campaign known as the “lost cause”. Slavery, southern apologists said, was a mere pretext for the war, which, they insisted, was started by an aggressive and spiteful north, much as Trump and his defenders claimed for many months that the 6 January insurrection was, in fact, planned and carried out by antifa.
....(snip)....
In 1934, a retired major general named Smedley Darlington Butler testified before Congress that he had been approached in 1933 by America’s financial leaders to spearhead a coup against Franklin Roosevelt, a plan backed by the American Liberty League. Butler said he was asked to mobilise an army of disgruntled veterans to march on Washington and install a military fascist dictatorship.
Butler was widely accused of being a fantasist and historians later followed suit in suggesting that the Business Plot, as it was known, was an empty threat that shouldn’t have been taken seriously. Many said the same thing about Trump – until the events of 6 January. Historian Robert O Paxton, for example, America’s pre-eminent expert on fascism, had long resisted calling Trump a fascist, but wrote in the wake of the insurrection that he had changed his mind.
....(snip)....
As the testimony of Hutchinson makes clear, Trump had done everything he could to seize the laurel crown and declare himself an American Caesar. He hasn’t given up yet – and, what is more, neither have most of his supporters. ............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/03/explosive-testimony-suggest-trump-was-set-on-a-coup-that-evokes-americas-darkest-hour
Explosive testimony suggests Trump was set on a coup that evokes America's darkest hour
Explosive testimony suggests Trump was set on a coup that evokes America’s darkest hour
Sarah Churchwell
The 6 January hearings already confirm a plan for insurrection and recall the civil war and its ‘lost cause’ aftermath
Sun 3 Jul 2022 03.30 EDT
(Guardian UK) ‘I’m from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021,” declared congressman Bennie Thompson, chairman of the select committee, as he opened the 6 January hearings last month.
That drop of American history was quickly lost in the cloudburst to come, the extraordinary revelations culminating last week in the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. But Thompson opened proceedings with that reminder for a very good reason: because the 6 January insurrection did not merely resemble the dark history of the civil war and its aftermath, it continued it. “Some people are trying to deny what happened,” Thompson added. “To whitewash it. To turn the insurrectionists into martyrs. But the whole world saw the reality of what happened on January 6th. The hangman’s gallows sitting out there on our National Mall. The flag of that first failed and disgraced rebellion against our union, being paraded through the Capitol.”
The denial that followed that first disgraced insurrection – the civil war – was a myth-making disinformation campaign known as the “lost cause”. Slavery, southern apologists said, was a mere pretext for the war, which, they insisted, was started by an aggressive and spiteful north, much as Trump and his defenders claimed for many months that the 6 January insurrection was, in fact, planned and carried out by antifa.
....(snip)....
In 1934, a retired major general named Smedley Darlington Butler testified before Congress that he had been approached in 1933 by America’s financial leaders to spearhead a coup against Franklin Roosevelt, a plan backed by the American Liberty League. Butler said he was asked to mobilise an army of disgruntled veterans to march on Washington and install a military fascist dictatorship.
Butler was widely accused of being a fantasist and historians later followed suit in suggesting that the Business Plot, as it was known, was an empty threat that shouldn’t have been taken seriously. Many said the same thing about Trump – until the events of 6 January. Historian Robert O Paxton, for example, America’s pre-eminent expert on fascism, had long resisted calling Trump a fascist, but wrote in the wake of the insurrection that he had changed his mind.
....(snip)....
As the testimony of Hutchinson makes clear, Trump had done everything he could to seize the laurel crown and declare himself an American Caesar. He hasn’t given up yet – and, what is more, neither have most of his supporters. ............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/03/explosive-testimony-suggest-trump-was-set-on-a-coup-that-evokes-americas-darkest-hour
July 4, 2022
(Guardian UK) When the flood water roared into her home in Assam, Jyoti Bora* saw the morphine pills she takes for head and neck cancer swept away along with all her belongings. At the relief camp she was evacuated to, Bora, who uses a wheelchair, found a boat to take her to the hospital to get more medication.
But when she got to Cacher cancer hospital and research centre she found the entrance flooded – the water was 1.5 metres high. A hospital orderly and a nurse were dispatched in a raft, made from planks of plywood tied to tyre inner tubes, to collect her.
“Initially, she refused to get on. She was very frightened. As it is she is frail. But she knew she could not manage without her morphine injection,” says her doctor, surgical oncologist and deputy director of Cacher, Ritesh Tapkire. “That’s how our outpatients have been coming for radiation, chemotherapy and pain relief for the past week.”
About 5 million people in Assam, in India’s north-east, have been affected by the worst floods in decades, which began in April and show little significant signs of easing. Entire villages have been submerged. More than 114,000 hectares (280,000 acres) of crops have been damaged and 5,000 livestock washed away. The army and relief workers are providing food, medicines and drinking water to 780 camps for those displaced by the flooding. ..........(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/04/cancer-care-flood-assam-hospital-boats-patients
'Cancer care can't stop': flood-hit Assam hospital uses boats to reach patients
(Guardian UK) When the flood water roared into her home in Assam, Jyoti Bora* saw the morphine pills she takes for head and neck cancer swept away along with all her belongings. At the relief camp she was evacuated to, Bora, who uses a wheelchair, found a boat to take her to the hospital to get more medication.
But when she got to Cacher cancer hospital and research centre she found the entrance flooded – the water was 1.5 metres high. A hospital orderly and a nurse were dispatched in a raft, made from planks of plywood tied to tyre inner tubes, to collect her.
“Initially, she refused to get on. She was very frightened. As it is she is frail. But she knew she could not manage without her morphine injection,” says her doctor, surgical oncologist and deputy director of Cacher, Ritesh Tapkire. “That’s how our outpatients have been coming for radiation, chemotherapy and pain relief for the past week.”
About 5 million people in Assam, in India’s north-east, have been affected by the worst floods in decades, which began in April and show little significant signs of easing. Entire villages have been submerged. More than 114,000 hectares (280,000 acres) of crops have been damaged and 5,000 livestock washed away. The army and relief workers are providing food, medicines and drinking water to 780 camps for those displaced by the flooding. ..........(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/04/cancer-care-flood-assam-hospital-boats-patients
July 4, 2022
The future of our nation is now at risk just as much as it was in 1800, only this time it’s a radicalized Supreme Court that’s hell-bent on rewriting the American social and legal compact
Thom Hartmann
9 hr ago
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1: 9
In that famous verse, Solomon could have been writing about the Republicans who control today’s Supreme Court. Having helped blow up the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch now want to dial the First Amendment back to 1798.
And, given that it’s the 4th of July and the day we celebrate actions by our Founding generation, its the perfect time to examine the behavior of the rightwingers on today’s Supreme Court in the light of our Founder’s reactions to a similar effort when they were still alive. You’ll find it both enlightening and shocking.
Last week the Court passed — for the moment — on a case from a hate group disputing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of them as a hate group, wanting instead to sue the Center into bankruptcy by claiming the hate designation was a form of libel.
Thomas dissented, whining that the media and commentators “cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity.” ..............(more)
https://hartmannreport.com/p/next-rightwingers-on-the-court-want
Next, Rightwingers on the Court Want to Take Your First Amendment Rights
Next, Rightwingers on the Court Want to Take Your First Amendment RightsThe future of our nation is now at risk just as much as it was in 1800, only this time it’s a radicalized Supreme Court that’s hell-bent on rewriting the American social and legal compact
Thom Hartmann
9 hr ago
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1: 9
In that famous verse, Solomon could have been writing about the Republicans who control today’s Supreme Court. Having helped blow up the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch now want to dial the First Amendment back to 1798.
And, given that it’s the 4th of July and the day we celebrate actions by our Founding generation, its the perfect time to examine the behavior of the rightwingers on today’s Supreme Court in the light of our Founder’s reactions to a similar effort when they were still alive. You’ll find it both enlightening and shocking.
Last week the Court passed — for the moment — on a case from a hate group disputing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of them as a hate group, wanting instead to sue the Center into bankruptcy by claiming the hate designation was a form of libel.
Thomas dissented, whining that the media and commentators “cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity.” ..............(more)
https://hartmannreport.com/p/next-rightwingers-on-the-court-want
July 4, 2022
(Guardian UK) The drag queens were out in force across New York’s recent Pride parade triggering cheers and waves with their flamboyant and extravagant costumes.
But this year the world of American drag has been marred by growing fears of violence and intimidation as they have been specifically targeted by conservatives and extremist far-right and militia groups amid a general rise in anti-LGBTQ hate.
One of the main targets for rightwing ire has been Drag Queen Story Hour events where drag queens will read books to children at public libraries.
Three weeks ago at a reading in a library in San Lorenzo, 30 miles from San Francisco, a group of men, one wearing a T-shirt stenciled with the image of an assault rifle, interrupted a drag performer reading The Kindness Book to pre-schoolers, frightening all. .............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/04/drag-queens-targeted-us-far-right
US drag queens stand their ground amid intimidation by the far right
(Guardian UK) The drag queens were out in force across New York’s recent Pride parade triggering cheers and waves with their flamboyant and extravagant costumes.
But this year the world of American drag has been marred by growing fears of violence and intimidation as they have been specifically targeted by conservatives and extremist far-right and militia groups amid a general rise in anti-LGBTQ hate.
One of the main targets for rightwing ire has been Drag Queen Story Hour events where drag queens will read books to children at public libraries.
Three weeks ago at a reading in a library in San Lorenzo, 30 miles from San Francisco, a group of men, one wearing a T-shirt stenciled with the image of an assault rifle, interrupted a drag performer reading The Kindness Book to pre-schoolers, frightening all. .............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/04/drag-queens-targeted-us-far-right
July 4, 2022
(Guardian UK) A person using a flamethrower set fire Saturday to a Pan-African flag flying on a pole outside the headquarters of the Uhuru Movement, a Black international socialist group based in Florida.
Security video released by the group shows the driver of a white Honda sedan pulling up outside the group’s St Petersburg headquarters, removing a flamethrower from the trunk and shooting a tower of fire at the flag flying about 30ft (9 meters) above the ground.
The group said the man stopped when a worker inside the building yelled at him.
The video shows the man putting the flamethrower back in the trunk and then driving away. A photo supplied by the group shows the flag with a large hole. ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/02/pan-african-flag-fire-florida
Florida: Person with flamethrower sets fire to Pan-African flag at activist headquarters
(Guardian UK) A person using a flamethrower set fire Saturday to a Pan-African flag flying on a pole outside the headquarters of the Uhuru Movement, a Black international socialist group based in Florida.
Security video released by the group shows the driver of a white Honda sedan pulling up outside the group’s St Petersburg headquarters, removing a flamethrower from the trunk and shooting a tower of fire at the flag flying about 30ft (9 meters) above the ground.
The group said the man stopped when a worker inside the building yelled at him.
The video shows the man putting the flamethrower back in the trunk and then driving away. A photo supplied by the group shows the flag with a large hole. ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/02/pan-african-flag-fire-florida
July 4, 2022
People’s History of Fourth of July
A collection of more than a dozen people's history stories from July 4th beyond 1776. The stories include July 4th anniversaries such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass's speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Black militia that led to the Hamburg Massacre (1876), protest of segregation at an amusement park in Baltimore (1963), and more.
1827: Slavery Abolished in New York.
On July 4, 1827, slavery was abolished in New York, following a gradual emancipation law that went into effect in 1799. However, as historian James Horton explains in a PBS interview, New York continued to benefit economically from the system of human bondage. “New York really provided much of the capital that made the plantation economy in the South possible.”
Learn more in these two resources by Alan Singer, the book New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth and an article, “Reclaiming Hidden History: Students Create a Slavery Walking Tour in Manhattan” about how he and his students organized a tour of the hidden history of slavery in New York.
1831: William Watkins Speaks for Black Americans on Independence Day
William Watkins wrote an “Independence Day” lamentation and reflection for Black Americans under the penname of “A Colored Baltimorean” on July 4, 1831 (published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation):
Johns Hopkins University professor Martha Jones, PhD, writes that “It was a moment filled with despair and hope in equal measure. His despair was a response to the rise of a colonization movement and Black laws — schemes aimed at so degrading the lives of former slaves that they would seek refuge in Liberia, Canada, or the Caribbean. Watkins’ hope was rooted in a budding social movement, that of abolitionism. There, he found seeds of a radical vision that might remake the place of Black people within the United States.”
....(snip)....
1833: Mohegan William Apess Jailed for Defense of Native Land
William Apess, Mohegan revolutionary and author, worked with the Wampanoag to defend their rights. They would lead what would be called the Mashpee Revolt in 1833 to address the wood poaching issue in their forest.
They posted signs declaring it their land. They also petitioned Harvard for the reclamation of their meetinghouse. They exposed Harvard’s missionary, the Reverand Phineas Fish, as exploiting the land he was allotted as part of his religious work and demanded he be removed from his post. ............(more)
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/peoples-history-of-fourth-of-july/
Zinn Education Project: People's History of Fourth of July
People’s History of Fourth of July
A collection of more than a dozen people's history stories from July 4th beyond 1776. The stories include July 4th anniversaries such as when slavery was abolished in New York (1827), Frederick Douglass's speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852), the Reconstruction era attack on a Black militia that led to the Hamburg Massacre (1876), protest of segregation at an amusement park in Baltimore (1963), and more.
1827: Slavery Abolished in New York.
On July 4, 1827, slavery was abolished in New York, following a gradual emancipation law that went into effect in 1799. However, as historian James Horton explains in a PBS interview, New York continued to benefit economically from the system of human bondage. “New York really provided much of the capital that made the plantation economy in the South possible.”
Learn more in these two resources by Alan Singer, the book New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth and an article, “Reclaiming Hidden History: Students Create a Slavery Walking Tour in Manhattan” about how he and his students organized a tour of the hidden history of slavery in New York.
1831: William Watkins Speaks for Black Americans on Independence Day
William Watkins wrote an “Independence Day” lamentation and reflection for Black Americans under the penname of “A Colored Baltimorean” on July 4, 1831 (published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation):
On this great festival of civil and religious liberty, while ten millions of freemen are celebrating in “festive songs of joy” the magnanimous achievements of the “departed great” . . . while they are proclaiming in tones of thunder, from centre to circumference of this widespread Union, the “self-evident truths,” that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . . I, feeling the injustice done me by the laws of my country, retired from the exulting multitude . . . to contemplate the past and the present as connected with our history in the land our nativity.
Johns Hopkins University professor Martha Jones, PhD, writes that “It was a moment filled with despair and hope in equal measure. His despair was a response to the rise of a colonization movement and Black laws — schemes aimed at so degrading the lives of former slaves that they would seek refuge in Liberia, Canada, or the Caribbean. Watkins’ hope was rooted in a budding social movement, that of abolitionism. There, he found seeds of a radical vision that might remake the place of Black people within the United States.”
....(snip)....
1833: Mohegan William Apess Jailed for Defense of Native Land
William Apess, Mohegan revolutionary and author, worked with the Wampanoag to defend their rights. They would lead what would be called the Mashpee Revolt in 1833 to address the wood poaching issue in their forest.
They posted signs declaring it their land. They also petitioned Harvard for the reclamation of their meetinghouse. They exposed Harvard’s missionary, the Reverand Phineas Fish, as exploiting the land he was allotted as part of his religious work and demanded he be removed from his post. ............(more)
https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/peoples-history-of-fourth-of-july/
July 4, 2022
(Guardian UK) In the months following the 2020 US presidential election, rightwing TV news in America was a wild west, an apparently lawless free-for-all where conspiracy theories about voting machines, ballot-stuffed suitcases and dead Venezuelan leaders were repeated to viewers around the clock.
There seemed to be little consequence for peddling the most outrageous ideas on primetime.
But now, unfortunately for Fox News, One America News Network (OAN), and Newsmax, it turns out that this brave, new world wasn’t free from legal jurisdiction – with the three networks now facing billion-dollar lawsuits as a result of their baseless accusations.
In June, Dominion Voting Systems, which provided voting machines to 28 states, was given the go-ahead to sue Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News, in a case that could draw Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan, into the spotlight.
In the $1.6bn lawsuit, Dominion accuses Fox Corp, and the Murdochs specifically, of allowing Fox News to amplify false claims that the voting company had rigged the election for Joe Biden. .................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jul/04/fox-oan-newsmax-lawsuits-election-fraud-claims
Fox and friends confront billion-dollar US lawsuits over election fraud claims
(Guardian UK) In the months following the 2020 US presidential election, rightwing TV news in America was a wild west, an apparently lawless free-for-all where conspiracy theories about voting machines, ballot-stuffed suitcases and dead Venezuelan leaders were repeated to viewers around the clock.
There seemed to be little consequence for peddling the most outrageous ideas on primetime.
But now, unfortunately for Fox News, One America News Network (OAN), and Newsmax, it turns out that this brave, new world wasn’t free from legal jurisdiction – with the three networks now facing billion-dollar lawsuits as a result of their baseless accusations.
In June, Dominion Voting Systems, which provided voting machines to 28 states, was given the go-ahead to sue Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News, in a case that could draw Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan, into the spotlight.
In the $1.6bn lawsuit, Dominion accuses Fox Corp, and the Murdochs specifically, of allowing Fox News to amplify false claims that the voting company had rigged the election for Joe Biden. .................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jul/04/fox-oan-newsmax-lawsuits-election-fraud-claims
July 3, 2022
Investigate Ron Johnson’s Role in the January 6 Coup Attempt
The senator played a part in Trump’s scheme, and his actions need to be investigated by the January 6 Committee and the Department of Justice.
By John Nichols
JUNE 30, 2022
(The Nation) The House’s inquiry into the January 6 Capitol attack is shedding light on the role members of Congress played in Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Americans now know that several Republican members of Congress were so wrapped up in Trump’s coup attempt that they sought preemptive pardons to protect them from prosecution for what they obviously understood to be a criminal conspiracy.
But nothing that has come out so far has provided a clearer insight into the plotting than the revelations regarding the activities of US Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and his aides and associates on the day of January 6, 2021. As was revealed last week during an extraordinary session of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, a top aide to Johnson contacted a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence shortly before the certification of the Electoral College votes that would confirm the election of Democrat Joe Biden.
The Johnson aide indicated that the senator was interested in delivering to the vice president—who would preside over the proceedings—alternative lists of electors from the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. The fake electors were pledged to Trump, who lost the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots nationwide and who lost Wisconsin, Michigan, and three other states that had voted for the Republican four years earlier.
....(snip)....
Confronted by reporters on Capitol Hill about the news, Johnson claimed he was ignorant of most of the details. The senator told CNN’s Manu Raju he didn’t know who had delivered the lists of fake electors to his office. But he did admit, “I was aware that we got this package and that somebody wanted us to deliver it, so we reached out to Pence’s office.” He also acknowledged that, at an incredibly volatile moment, he and his aides failed to vet the package that was to be delivered to the vice president.
“We got handed an envelope that was supposed to go to the Vice President,” Johnson said. He claimed, “I wasn’t involved,” and said, “[There’s] no conspiracy here. This is a complete non-story, guys. Complete non-story.”
But, of course, it was a story. And Johnson was lying about it. Several days after the committee released the text messages, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, “After initially claiming to be ‘basically unaware’ of an effort by his staff to get fake presidential elector documents to Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday he coordinated with a Wisconsin attorney to pass along such information.” Specifically, the paper reported, Johnson “acknowledged he coordinated with Dane County attorney Jim Troupis and his chief of staff by text message that morning to get to Pence a document Troupis described as regarding ‘Wisconsin electors.’” .............(more)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/ron-johnson-january-6/
Investigate Ron Johnson's Role in the January 6 Coup Attempt
Investigate Ron Johnson’s Role in the January 6 Coup Attempt
The senator played a part in Trump’s scheme, and his actions need to be investigated by the January 6 Committee and the Department of Justice.
By John Nichols
JUNE 30, 2022
(The Nation) The House’s inquiry into the January 6 Capitol attack is shedding light on the role members of Congress played in Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Americans now know that several Republican members of Congress were so wrapped up in Trump’s coup attempt that they sought preemptive pardons to protect them from prosecution for what they obviously understood to be a criminal conspiracy.
But nothing that has come out so far has provided a clearer insight into the plotting than the revelations regarding the activities of US Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and his aides and associates on the day of January 6, 2021. As was revealed last week during an extraordinary session of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, a top aide to Johnson contacted a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence shortly before the certification of the Electoral College votes that would confirm the election of Democrat Joe Biden.
The Johnson aide indicated that the senator was interested in delivering to the vice president—who would preside over the proceedings—alternative lists of electors from the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. The fake electors were pledged to Trump, who lost the popular vote by more than 7 million ballots nationwide and who lost Wisconsin, Michigan, and three other states that had voted for the Republican four years earlier.
....(snip)....
Confronted by reporters on Capitol Hill about the news, Johnson claimed he was ignorant of most of the details. The senator told CNN’s Manu Raju he didn’t know who had delivered the lists of fake electors to his office. But he did admit, “I was aware that we got this package and that somebody wanted us to deliver it, so we reached out to Pence’s office.” He also acknowledged that, at an incredibly volatile moment, he and his aides failed to vet the package that was to be delivered to the vice president.
“We got handed an envelope that was supposed to go to the Vice President,” Johnson said. He claimed, “I wasn’t involved,” and said, “[There’s] no conspiracy here. This is a complete non-story, guys. Complete non-story.”
But, of course, it was a story. And Johnson was lying about it. Several days after the committee released the text messages, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted, “After initially claiming to be ‘basically unaware’ of an effort by his staff to get fake presidential elector documents to Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday he coordinated with a Wisconsin attorney to pass along such information.” Specifically, the paper reported, Johnson “acknowledged he coordinated with Dane County attorney Jim Troupis and his chief of staff by text message that morning to get to Pence a document Troupis described as regarding ‘Wisconsin electors.’” .............(more)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/ron-johnson-january-6/
July 3, 2022
Pest control practices will have to evolve just as fast to kill the much-hated insects
By PAMELA APPEA
(Salon) Apparently, humans aren't the only animals going keto. The German cockroach (Blattella germanica), one of the most common pests in the world, is evolving to have a glucose-free diet. Unlike many humans, it's not because they're suddenly watching their figure; rather, German cockroaches have inadvertently outwitted human pest control tactics by evolving to dislike sugar, specifically glucose. That could have huge implications for the population of cockroaches worldwide, which is of particular concern given their propensity to spread bacteria and disease.
The not-so-sweet insight emerged from new research coming out of North Carolina State University, where scientists study roach reproductive habits and evolutionary adaptations. There, Dr. Ayako Wada-Katsumata and a team of entomology researchers found evidence of significant changes involving sugar-averse German cockroaches and mating habits.
According to Dr. Coby Schal, professor of Urban Entomology, Insect Behavior, Chemical Ecology, Insect Physiology and head of the eponymous Schal Lab at North Carolina State University, the team's new research shows that cockroaches have begun to deviate significantly compared to previously observed roach-mating behavior. Female lab roaches, housed in North Carolina lab originating from a Florida-strain, included a significant population of glucose-averse roaches; glucose is a simple sugar that is intrinsic to the processes of plant and animal life.
Surprisingly, researchers found these roaches were unwilling to complete traditional roach mating behavior (accepting what the research study refers to as "nuptial gifts" or "nuptial feedings." ) Further, these glucose-adverse female roaches chose not to complete the mating process, meaning there wouldn't be any reproduction. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/07/03/cockroaches-are-evolving-to-prefer-low-sugar-diets-that-could-be-news-for-humans/
Cockroaches are evolving to prefer low-sugar diets. That could be bad news for humans
Cockroaches are evolving to prefer low-sugar diets. That could be bad news for humansPest control practices will have to evolve just as fast to kill the much-hated insects
By PAMELA APPEA
(Salon) Apparently, humans aren't the only animals going keto. The German cockroach (Blattella germanica), one of the most common pests in the world, is evolving to have a glucose-free diet. Unlike many humans, it's not because they're suddenly watching their figure; rather, German cockroaches have inadvertently outwitted human pest control tactics by evolving to dislike sugar, specifically glucose. That could have huge implications for the population of cockroaches worldwide, which is of particular concern given their propensity to spread bacteria and disease.
The not-so-sweet insight emerged from new research coming out of North Carolina State University, where scientists study roach reproductive habits and evolutionary adaptations. There, Dr. Ayako Wada-Katsumata and a team of entomology researchers found evidence of significant changes involving sugar-averse German cockroaches and mating habits.
According to Dr. Coby Schal, professor of Urban Entomology, Insect Behavior, Chemical Ecology, Insect Physiology and head of the eponymous Schal Lab at North Carolina State University, the team's new research shows that cockroaches have begun to deviate significantly compared to previously observed roach-mating behavior. Female lab roaches, housed in North Carolina lab originating from a Florida-strain, included a significant population of glucose-averse roaches; glucose is a simple sugar that is intrinsic to the processes of plant and animal life.
Surprisingly, researchers found these roaches were unwilling to complete traditional roach mating behavior (accepting what the research study refers to as "nuptial gifts" or "nuptial feedings." ) Further, these glucose-adverse female roaches chose not to complete the mating process, meaning there wouldn't be any reproduction. ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/07/03/cockroaches-are-evolving-to-prefer-low-sugar-diets-that-could-be-news-for-humans/
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