Oliver Willis on how many of us need to wake up and stop pretending that those who are sticking with Trump through thick or thin are being "duped" by him or taken for a ride by Fox News.
They are, Willis thinks, truly malicious people who are energized by the cruelty and hatred of minorities:
Will Bunch writes that the young man who drowned in the Rio Grande the first week of August due to Greg Abbott's buoy barrier had a name:
Norlan Bayardo Herrera.
But he adds,
"If I had waited on the American mainstream media to write about the human beings lost to the barbaric policies of the governor of the nation’s second-largest state, I would still be waiting."
"Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump’s top immigration advisers, advocated using U.S. predator drones in 2018 to blow up migrant boats full of unarmed civilians, according to an upcoming book by a former administration official."
"The Christian Nationalists’ God is petty, insecure, cruel, authoritarian. Their God, like their favored presidential candidate, demands above all else obedience and loyalty. Their God sees only a few as 'elect': Mike Johnson and his ilk, straight men, blastocysts and frozen embryos. All the others He casts out. Their God is not inclusive; their Paradise, a fascist state."
"The most pressing issue for Christians in the United States isn’t being persecuted for our faith. Rather, it is those who are using our faith as a tool to control and even persecute others in the name of Jesus. Until we Christians can collectively reckon with this reality, we have no hope of reclaiming any integrity."
When #MAGA Republicans hold power, the Constitution isn't upheld:
#DeathSantis signed a new law today that guts oversight of police.
The law furthers limit local civilian police oversight boards by barring them from investigating allegations of police misconduct. Police unions support the law -it protects the rights of officers. Critics: another blow to police accountability efforts already shackled by existing state laws giving cops extraordinary legal protections-.
#DeathSantis has also signed this inhumane bill: local governments in Florida are now blocked from requiring heat protections for outdoor workers, driving a stake through the heart of Miami-Dade County’s efforts to keep farmworkers & construction workers safe from extreme heat.
Cities & counties in Florida can no longer mandate employers offer water, rest & shade to their outdoor employees on hot days, which are increasing due to #globalwarming.
There have been efforts to #criminalise people who live on the streets in the #UnitedStates.
Supreme Court judges are due to rule on whether a law that essentially makes being #homeless a crime, is #constitutional.
The ruling could affect the lives of more than half a million people.
Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reports from #LosAngeles.
Remembering his experiences as a child in an internment camp for Japanese Americans, George Takei asks supporters to sign a petition calling for action to stop the cruelty Texas Republicans are visiting on migrants now. He writes,
"A leaked e-mail from a Texas Department of Protective Safety trooper documents the remarkably cruel measures Governor Greg Abbott has instituted at the border to deter crossings."
Peter Wehner wants us to believe that "Donald Trump has made the Republican Party cruel, xenophobic, exclusionary, and bigoted."
The reality is, Republicans themselves have made their party all of those things, with Trump as its face — with Trump as their face.
Republicans have, with Trump as their face, pandered to cruelty, xenophobia, bigotry, for years now. We are all reaping the whirlwind from their sowing of the wind.
"I’m Jewish. I believe in Israel, and I’m aghast at what Hamas did to so many innocent people on October 7. I strongly support the use of force against the killers. But as thousands of innocent people die in Gaza—not as targets, but as victims of relentless bombardment in a war they didn’t choose—I can’t accept the bigotry, zealotry, and callousness these [Republican] candidates are espousing."
"Everyone’s focused on Trump’s insane blathering, but we should be equally disturbed by the crowd’s raucous laughter [when Trump makes an ugly 'joke' about Nancy Pelosi's husband].
"Biden’s real problem is not his age. It’s our age … of performative politics.
As usual, Donald Trump is at the root of the mess. From the minute he entered the 2016 presidential race on a golden escalator in a building blaring his name, U.S. politics has been a twisted reality show that elevates outrage, insults, and cruelty in a spirit of sadistic fun."
An opinion piece published yesterday in the #BillingsGazette explores #CodyRoberts ' #torture of a young female #wolf in Daniel, #Wyoming. By now, most of you have heard the news or seen the disturbing photos and videos. We remain disgusted by the #cruelty, as does our partner and op-ed author #JeffEwelt.
In his op-ed, Jeff Ewelt, the Executive Director of #ZooMontana and a partner of The #RelistWolves Campaign,
Anyone who's worked DV or IPV in any capacity can well verify it, but here's an #FBI article about animal #cruelty and human #violence.
"research shows a well-documented link that it is a predictive or co-occurring crime with violence against humans (including intimate partners, children, and elders) and is associated with other types of violent offenses."
"One of the overlooked portents of 2020 (many Democrats were too relieved to notice) was that the election was still extremely close. Trump received 74 million votes, nearly 47 percent of the electorate. That’s a huge amount of support, especially after such an ordeal of a presidency—the 'very fine people on both sides,' the 'perfect' phone call, the bleach, the daily OMG and WTF of it all."
What's not going on in the minds of people who say "A great number of homeless people have mental illness issues" to suggest mental issues are the reasons why people are homeless (on average)
It's more plausible that, for example, someone lost their Job, couldn't pay the rent, got evicted, & was forced to live on the streets ("homeless"), and that harsh environment caused that person to develop #MentalHealth issues
"By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration could take down Gov. Greg Abbott’s floating razor-wire migrant death traps along the border."
"The four candidates — pharma entrepreneur Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — spent two hours moving from denigrating one marginalized group to the next, targeting each for hate and xenophobia. Occasionally they’d make a disparaging remark about President Biden, but their real enthusiasm was saved for demagoguing marginalized people and spewing bigotry."
I get asked this question from time to time. People forget Trump completely turned ICE loose during his presidency on communities all over the US. They would roll in to towns, set up roadblocks, then go from business to business arresting people. ICE also patrolled the streets doing the same. So, yeah, he's really that dangerous.
"Bereft of any vision of positive change, this is a man who is only capable of exploiting an aggrieved people’s worst instincts—who has figured out that he can get what he wants by stoking the fear, hatred and anger of others. He uses violence, not imagination. Conflict, not collaboration. Cruelty, never kindness. Retribution, not affirmation."
"These are the tools of a weak man inciting the mob to satisfy his hunger for carnage.
A man like this sells bibles wrapped in an American flag. Desperate for dollars and loyalty, he laughably claims the bible is his 'favorite; book and that he has many of them. Empty and broken inside, he needs to compare himself to Jesus Christ on the holy weekend of Easter."
"One of the marks of fascism—real-deal, capital-F fascism—is the propensity to view the less fortunate not as fellow sufferers in the journey of life, but as Untermenschen. Vermin to be removed. Or, as Johnny McEntee might put it, cleansed.
This is what America is in the process of choosing. And we’re not being hoodwinked. None of this stuff is being hidden behind a façade of civility and normalcy. This cruelty is the selling point."
a REAL genocide is being perpetrated
and people are talking about radical student protests?
are we perhaps secretly reveling in this livestream of cruelty?
is this the actual hallmark of our so-called Western “higher culture”?