Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
March 26, 2021
BY MARIANNE DHENIN
(YES! Magazine) Many Americans learned to ride bicycles as kids. I still remember zipping around a cul de sac in my neighborhood, shrieking with glee and reveling in my newfound freedom after the training wheels came off. But those who did not have the opportunity to learn to ride during their childhood often face uncertainty or anxiety about learning as adults. Bicycle education programs help those who want to become cyclists overcome that fear while also addressing problems in their communities—from pollution to racial injustice.
And biking’s popularity has only increased during the pandemic: Bicycle sales skyrocketed in the United States in March 2020 as commuters sought to avoid crowded means of public transportation. Organizations around the world are using bicycle education to empower new riders and advocate for more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive communities.
Building Bridges
In 2015, Germany coined a new term, Willkommenskultur, to describe the welcoming culture rolled out to greet arriving refugees, many of whom were fleeing the Syrian war. This culture led to an explosion of new volunteer organizations eager to address the needs of new arrivals. Few groups have had as lasting an impact (or as much fun) as #BIKEYGEES in Berlin. According to Annette Krüger, its founder, the organization teaches “women from all over the world” how to ride bicycles.
For immigrants to Germany, where about nine out of every 10 residents own a bicycle, learning how to ride means becoming part of a community. On bikes, women “can discover areas in their neighborhood” and experience “an improvement in independence, mobility, and security,” says Greta Aigner, a trainer at #BIKEYGEES. ...............(more)
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2021/03/22/bike-education-cycling-equity/
The Power of Bike Education to Transform Lives and Communities
The Power of Bike Education to Transform Lives and CommunitiesBY MARIANNE DHENIN
(YES! Magazine) Many Americans learned to ride bicycles as kids. I still remember zipping around a cul de sac in my neighborhood, shrieking with glee and reveling in my newfound freedom after the training wheels came off. But those who did not have the opportunity to learn to ride during their childhood often face uncertainty or anxiety about learning as adults. Bicycle education programs help those who want to become cyclists overcome that fear while also addressing problems in their communities—from pollution to racial injustice.
And biking’s popularity has only increased during the pandemic: Bicycle sales skyrocketed in the United States in March 2020 as commuters sought to avoid crowded means of public transportation. Organizations around the world are using bicycle education to empower new riders and advocate for more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive communities.
Building Bridges
In 2015, Germany coined a new term, Willkommenskultur, to describe the welcoming culture rolled out to greet arriving refugees, many of whom were fleeing the Syrian war. This culture led to an explosion of new volunteer organizations eager to address the needs of new arrivals. Few groups have had as lasting an impact (or as much fun) as #BIKEYGEES in Berlin. According to Annette Krüger, its founder, the organization teaches “women from all over the world” how to ride bicycles.
For immigrants to Germany, where about nine out of every 10 residents own a bicycle, learning how to ride means becoming part of a community. On bikes, women “can discover areas in their neighborhood” and experience “an improvement in independence, mobility, and security,” says Greta Aigner, a trainer at #BIKEYGEES. ...............(more)
https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2021/03/22/bike-education-cycling-equity/
March 26, 2021
MECOSTA, Mich. — For generations, Brian Sackett's family has farmed potatoes that are made into chips found on grocery shelves in much of the eastern U.S.
About 25% of the nation's potato chips get their start in Michigan, where reliably cool air during September harvest and late spring has been ideal for crop storage. That's a big reason why the state produces more chipping potatoes than any other.
But with temperatures edging higher, Sackett had to buy several small refrigeration units for his sprawling warehouses. Last year, he paid $125,000 for a bigger one. It's expensive to operate, but beats having his potatoes rot.
“Our good, fresh, cool air is getting less all the time, it seems like,” he said on a recent morning as a front-end loader scooped up piles of plump, light-brown potatoes that would be packed into a tractor trailer for shipment to chip factories. .............(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/26/global-warming-crop-storage-michigan/7009991002/
Michigan farmers have crop storage problem as global warming brings higher temperatures
MECOSTA, Mich. — For generations, Brian Sackett's family has farmed potatoes that are made into chips found on grocery shelves in much of the eastern U.S.
About 25% of the nation's potato chips get their start in Michigan, where reliably cool air during September harvest and late spring has been ideal for crop storage. That's a big reason why the state produces more chipping potatoes than any other.
But with temperatures edging higher, Sackett had to buy several small refrigeration units for his sprawling warehouses. Last year, he paid $125,000 for a bigger one. It's expensive to operate, but beats having his potatoes rot.
“Our good, fresh, cool air is getting less all the time, it seems like,” he said on a recent morning as a front-end loader scooped up piles of plump, light-brown potatoes that would be packed into a tractor trailer for shipment to chip factories. .............(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/26/global-warming-crop-storage-michigan/7009991002/
March 25, 2021
(Guardian UK) Like so many on Brazil’s left, Pedro Carvalho was certain Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency would prove a nightmare: for human rights, for the environment and for the national health system the 41-year-old doctor cherishes and serves.
“I felt this profound sadness, just utter, personal sadness,” Carvalho remembered of the fateful moment in October 2018 that the far-right populist was confirmed as his country’s new leader.
“He’d been a politician for 30 years. Everyone knew who he was,” the intensive care physician said of the dictatorship-praising former paratrooper. “He is hatred. He is hatred itself.”
Back then, of course, nobody knew Brazil was also barreling towards its most devastating public health catastrophe since the Spanish flu, or that Bolsonaro would so ruinously mishandle an epidemic that has now killed more than 300,000 of his citizens, his wife’s grandmother included.
....(snip)....
The consequences, say critics, have been deadly. On 24 March 2020, with Brazil’s Covid death toll at 46, Bolsonaro claimed the pandemic was being exaggerated “and soon it will pass”. On Wednesday, exactly a year later, the number of fatalities surpassed 300,000 after a record 3,000 lives were lost for the first time in a single day. Only the US, governed until January by Bolsonaro’s rightwing inspiration, Donald Trump, has suffered greater losses, with scant sign of Brazil’s outbreak being brought under control. ...........(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/brazil-coronavirus-bolsonaro-300000-deaths
'Saddest March of our lives': Brazilians lament Covid devastation as critics decry Bolsonaro
(Guardian UK) Like so many on Brazil’s left, Pedro Carvalho was certain Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency would prove a nightmare: for human rights, for the environment and for the national health system the 41-year-old doctor cherishes and serves.
“I felt this profound sadness, just utter, personal sadness,” Carvalho remembered of the fateful moment in October 2018 that the far-right populist was confirmed as his country’s new leader.
“He’d been a politician for 30 years. Everyone knew who he was,” the intensive care physician said of the dictatorship-praising former paratrooper. “He is hatred. He is hatred itself.”
Back then, of course, nobody knew Brazil was also barreling towards its most devastating public health catastrophe since the Spanish flu, or that Bolsonaro would so ruinously mishandle an epidemic that has now killed more than 300,000 of his citizens, his wife’s grandmother included.
....(snip)....
The consequences, say critics, have been deadly. On 24 March 2020, with Brazil’s Covid death toll at 46, Bolsonaro claimed the pandemic was being exaggerated “and soon it will pass”. On Wednesday, exactly a year later, the number of fatalities surpassed 300,000 after a record 3,000 lives were lost for the first time in a single day. Only the US, governed until January by Bolsonaro’s rightwing inspiration, Donald Trump, has suffered greater losses, with scant sign of Brazil’s outbreak being brought under control. ...........(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/brazil-coronavirus-bolsonaro-300000-deaths
March 24, 2021
(Bloomberg) For the past year, an assumption — sometimes explicit, often tacit — has informed almost all our thinking about the pandemic: At some point, it will be over, and then we’ll go “back to normal.”
This premise is almost certainly wrong. SARS-CoV-2, protean and elusive as it is, may become our permanent enemy, like the flu but worse. And even if it peters out eventually, our lives and routines will by then have changed irreversibly. Going “back” won’t be an option; the only way is forward. But to what exactly?
Most epidemics disappear once populations achieve herd immunity and the pathogen has too few vulnerable bodies available as hosts for its self-propagation. This herd protection comes about through the combination of natural immunity in people who’ve recovered from infection and vaccination of the remaining population.
In the case of SARS-CoV-2, however, recent developments suggest that we may never achieve herd immunity. Even the U.S., which leads most other countries in vaccinations and already had large outbreaks, won’t get there. That’s the upshot of an analysis by Christopher Murray at the University of Washington and Peter Piot at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ...........(more)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-24/when-will-covid-end-we-must-start-planning-for-a-permanent-pandemic?srnd=premium
We Must Start Planning For a Permanent Pandemic
(Bloomberg) For the past year, an assumption — sometimes explicit, often tacit — has informed almost all our thinking about the pandemic: At some point, it will be over, and then we’ll go “back to normal.”
This premise is almost certainly wrong. SARS-CoV-2, protean and elusive as it is, may become our permanent enemy, like the flu but worse. And even if it peters out eventually, our lives and routines will by then have changed irreversibly. Going “back” won’t be an option; the only way is forward. But to what exactly?
Most epidemics disappear once populations achieve herd immunity and the pathogen has too few vulnerable bodies available as hosts for its self-propagation. This herd protection comes about through the combination of natural immunity in people who’ve recovered from infection and vaccination of the remaining population.
In the case of SARS-CoV-2, however, recent developments suggest that we may never achieve herd immunity. Even the U.S., which leads most other countries in vaccinations and already had large outbreaks, won’t get there. That’s the upshot of an analysis by Christopher Murray at the University of Washington and Peter Piot at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ...........(more)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-24/when-will-covid-end-we-must-start-planning-for-a-permanent-pandemic?srnd=premium
March 24, 2021
By Jeffrey C. Billman
(Detroit Metro Times) There's a harsh truth underlying this political moment, one we do immense harm to continue pretending doesn't exist. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of thing our institutions — in particular our media — are designed to reckon with, conditioned as they've been by the fetishization of bipartisanship as a virtue unto itself.
But the reality is what it is: With few exceptions, Republicans are not a serious party.
That's not meant to be glib, nor does it mean the GOP should be ignored. The party's hard turn toward authoritarianism — accelerated by Trump-era gaslighting and attacks on voting rights — are dangerous, especially given the party's structural electoral advantages. So, too, is its propaganda network, which has radicalized adherents and convinced them of their own oppression.
In a recent Pew survey, 26% of Republicans said whites faced "a lot" of discrimination, compared with just 17% who said the same of Black people — a result almost incomprehensibly detached from the real world. They also believe that men face more discrimination than women and evangelicals more than Jews, Muslims, and LGBTQ people.
These beliefs stem from the sense of grievance that has become Republicans' mother's milk. To their minds, the forces of liberalism — of socialism, of secularism, of Black Lives Matter, of Hollywood, of Silicon Valley, of academia, of the media — are wolves at the door, threatening traditional cultural hierarchies. ..............(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/republicans-are-not-a-serious-party/Content?oid=26730595
The Republicans are not a serious party
The Republicans are not a serious partyBy Jeffrey C. Billman
(Detroit Metro Times) There's a harsh truth underlying this political moment, one we do immense harm to continue pretending doesn't exist. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of thing our institutions — in particular our media — are designed to reckon with, conditioned as they've been by the fetishization of bipartisanship as a virtue unto itself.
But the reality is what it is: With few exceptions, Republicans are not a serious party.
That's not meant to be glib, nor does it mean the GOP should be ignored. The party's hard turn toward authoritarianism — accelerated by Trump-era gaslighting and attacks on voting rights — are dangerous, especially given the party's structural electoral advantages. So, too, is its propaganda network, which has radicalized adherents and convinced them of their own oppression.
In a recent Pew survey, 26% of Republicans said whites faced "a lot" of discrimination, compared with just 17% who said the same of Black people — a result almost incomprehensibly detached from the real world. They also believe that men face more discrimination than women and evangelicals more than Jews, Muslims, and LGBTQ people.
These beliefs stem from the sense of grievance that has become Republicans' mother's milk. To their minds, the forces of liberalism — of socialism, of secularism, of Black Lives Matter, of Hollywood, of Silicon Valley, of academia, of the media — are wolves at the door, threatening traditional cultural hierarchies. ..............(more)
https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/republicans-are-not-a-serious-party/Content?oid=26730595
March 24, 2021
What's it like to get your COVID-19 shot at Ford Field? Freep reporter tells his story
Eric D. Lawrence
Detroit Free Press
I got my shot on Tuesday.
Actually, it was the first of two. The second one is set for April 13, which is three weeks after my first.
I was part of a soft opening for the mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Ford Field in Detroit before the full show begins on Wednesday.
You want to know whether it was easy, whether it was painful, did I have to wait long, did I feel any side effects, which shot was it, and of course, whether you should get it.
....(snip)....
Parking and getting in
Was it quick? Yes. I arrived at the Gem Theatre parking garage on Brush Street just before 10 a.m. (parking was free) and found a spot on level 4. I was outside, walking across the street to Ford Field in a matter of minutes and directed inside, where a nice woman at the door asked me to roll up my jacket sleeve and took my temperature with a scan of my arm. She also asked whether I’d had any of a number of symptoms of illness in the last 14 days, and sent me along when I said I had not. ..............(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/03/24/vaccine-covid-19-freep-reporter-tells-his-story/6969795002/
What's it like to get your COVID-19 shot at Ford Field? Freep reporter tells his story
What's it like to get your COVID-19 shot at Ford Field? Freep reporter tells his story
Eric D. Lawrence
Detroit Free Press
I got my shot on Tuesday.
Actually, it was the first of two. The second one is set for April 13, which is three weeks after my first.
I was part of a soft opening for the mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Ford Field in Detroit before the full show begins on Wednesday.
You want to know whether it was easy, whether it was painful, did I have to wait long, did I feel any side effects, which shot was it, and of course, whether you should get it.
....(snip)....
Parking and getting in
Was it quick? Yes. I arrived at the Gem Theatre parking garage on Brush Street just before 10 a.m. (parking was free) and found a spot on level 4. I was outside, walking across the street to Ford Field in a matter of minutes and directed inside, where a nice woman at the door asked me to roll up my jacket sleeve and took my temperature with a scan of my arm. She also asked whether I’d had any of a number of symptoms of illness in the last 14 days, and sent me along when I said I had not. ..............(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/03/24/vaccine-covid-19-freep-reporter-tells-his-story/6969795002/
March 24, 2021
The Dark Tales of the Christian Sex Addiction Industry
There’s a reason so many young men believe their sexual desires make them depraved—or worse.
BY KELSY BURKE
MARCH 23, 20211:43 PM
(Slate) The many times I’ve spoken, for my research, to young Christian men who believe they have a porn or sex addiction, they tell similar stories. One told me that as a teenage boy in his evangelical church, sex and porn were “kind of the popular sin to talk about just because you knew that it was something that every guy was struggling with.” Another young man spoke of his longtime adulthood mission to “win the war and be ready to keep on fighting” against his sexual desires. These men use the language of “sobriety and relapse,” referring to sex and porn, and they told me common experiences about how they came to realize their reputed problem and began attending treatment, sometimes in their church basements. As one put it, when his faith leaders began workshops on the matter, “Every session was just full of people—like there were people standing in the back. That’s what opened the floodgates.”
Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of killing eight people at Atlanta-area spas last week, also told authorities upon his arrest that he was a Christian and a sex addict. (He reportedly said he targeted the victims, including six women of Asian descent, to remove “temptation,” a motivation that police offered in a now-infamous press conference.) Both claims came under immediate scrutiny. Long’s own church removed him from its membership, since it could “no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.” And psychologists have explained that there is no evidence linking compulsive sexual behavior to violence and that in any case, sex addiction itself is not a diagnosable disorder. Many believed Long’s claims to be an excuse for a hate crime against Asian women, a violent attack on sex workers, or both.
But as a sociologist who has spent years studying the peculiar but persistent relationship between conservative Christianity and “sex addiction,” I do not believe these motivations exclude one another, and they’re well worth understanding in tandem. I’ve written previously for this magazine about how many conservative Christians frame men’s sexual desires as potentially out of control, given what they perceive as men’s natural biological urges and the secular social pressure for men to indulge in their sexual fantasies. In turn, a Christian industry has cropped up to include literally hundreds of products and resources—books, websites, support groups, apps, and software programs—created by and for Christians to overcome reputed sex and pornography addictions. Long himself was reportedly a patient at an in-patient Christian treatment center that specialized in sex and porn addiction. Young white Protestant men like Long are indeed the most likely group to perceive themselves to be addicted to pornography, even though they use it less frequently than their secular counterparts. These “addictions” may not be traditionally diagnosable, but the system that pushes them—and in some cases profits from them—is very real. Many of the people behind this system are deeply rooted in the church and believe not only that young men’s sexual desires are pathological but that porn and sex work are an evil temptation that must be criminalized. We still have much to learn, but the killings in Atlanta should be cause for a reckoning among white evangelicals to reconsider the messages they send young people about sex, gender, and race. ...........(more)
https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/03/sex-addiction-fact-check-atlanta-shooting-history.html
The Dark Tales of the Christian Sex Addiction Industry
The Dark Tales of the Christian Sex Addiction Industry
There’s a reason so many young men believe their sexual desires make them depraved—or worse.
BY KELSY BURKE
MARCH 23, 20211:43 PM
(Slate) The many times I’ve spoken, for my research, to young Christian men who believe they have a porn or sex addiction, they tell similar stories. One told me that as a teenage boy in his evangelical church, sex and porn were “kind of the popular sin to talk about just because you knew that it was something that every guy was struggling with.” Another young man spoke of his longtime adulthood mission to “win the war and be ready to keep on fighting” against his sexual desires. These men use the language of “sobriety and relapse,” referring to sex and porn, and they told me common experiences about how they came to realize their reputed problem and began attending treatment, sometimes in their church basements. As one put it, when his faith leaders began workshops on the matter, “Every session was just full of people—like there were people standing in the back. That’s what opened the floodgates.”
Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of killing eight people at Atlanta-area spas last week, also told authorities upon his arrest that he was a Christian and a sex addict. (He reportedly said he targeted the victims, including six women of Asian descent, to remove “temptation,” a motivation that police offered in a now-infamous press conference.) Both claims came under immediate scrutiny. Long’s own church removed him from its membership, since it could “no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.” And psychologists have explained that there is no evidence linking compulsive sexual behavior to violence and that in any case, sex addiction itself is not a diagnosable disorder. Many believed Long’s claims to be an excuse for a hate crime against Asian women, a violent attack on sex workers, or both.
But as a sociologist who has spent years studying the peculiar but persistent relationship between conservative Christianity and “sex addiction,” I do not believe these motivations exclude one another, and they’re well worth understanding in tandem. I’ve written previously for this magazine about how many conservative Christians frame men’s sexual desires as potentially out of control, given what they perceive as men’s natural biological urges and the secular social pressure for men to indulge in their sexual fantasies. In turn, a Christian industry has cropped up to include literally hundreds of products and resources—books, websites, support groups, apps, and software programs—created by and for Christians to overcome reputed sex and pornography addictions. Long himself was reportedly a patient at an in-patient Christian treatment center that specialized in sex and porn addiction. Young white Protestant men like Long are indeed the most likely group to perceive themselves to be addicted to pornography, even though they use it less frequently than their secular counterparts. These “addictions” may not be traditionally diagnosable, but the system that pushes them—and in some cases profits from them—is very real. Many of the people behind this system are deeply rooted in the church and believe not only that young men’s sexual desires are pathological but that porn and sex work are an evil temptation that must be criminalized. We still have much to learn, but the killings in Atlanta should be cause for a reckoning among white evangelicals to reconsider the messages they send young people about sex, gender, and race. ...........(more)
https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/03/sex-addiction-fact-check-atlanta-shooting-history.html
March 24, 2021
(Salon) With Donald Trump's presidency now in the past, competing factions are emerging among TrumpWorld characters who are now in open conflict with each other. From MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's beef with Fox News to former Parler CEO John Matze's clashing with his former employer, longtime allies in the MAGA movement, are now turning against each other.
On Tuesday alone, several such feuds were on display. The day began with the news that formerly Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell, who once made grand, if entirely unsupported, claims about Dominion Voting Systems, alleging it had plotted to steal votes from Trump and deliver them to Joe Biden, had more or less backed down from her legal fight. Powell asked a judge to dismiss Dominion's $1.3 billion lawsuit against her and various other defendants, with her attorneys arguing in a letter to the judge that "no reasonable person" should have believed Powell's wild claims about the election.
"Reasonable people understand that the 'language of the political arena, like the language used in labor disputes ... is often vituperative, abusive and inexact,'" Powell's motion to dismiss read. "It is likewise a 'well-recognized principle that political statements are inherently prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.'"
Powell's legal strategy is strikingly similar to the legal argument previously deployed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson used in court, who suggested that what he says on the air shouldn't be taken seriously because he's expressing an opinion — on a channel that claims to deliver news. ...........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/03/24/maga-world-civil-war-not-quite--but-pro-trump-figures-are-squabbling/
MAGA world consumed by infighting
(Salon) With Donald Trump's presidency now in the past, competing factions are emerging among TrumpWorld characters who are now in open conflict with each other. From MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's beef with Fox News to former Parler CEO John Matze's clashing with his former employer, longtime allies in the MAGA movement, are now turning against each other.
On Tuesday alone, several such feuds were on display. The day began with the news that formerly Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell, who once made grand, if entirely unsupported, claims about Dominion Voting Systems, alleging it had plotted to steal votes from Trump and deliver them to Joe Biden, had more or less backed down from her legal fight. Powell asked a judge to dismiss Dominion's $1.3 billion lawsuit against her and various other defendants, with her attorneys arguing in a letter to the judge that "no reasonable person" should have believed Powell's wild claims about the election.
"Reasonable people understand that the 'language of the political arena, like the language used in labor disputes ... is often vituperative, abusive and inexact,'" Powell's motion to dismiss read. "It is likewise a 'well-recognized principle that political statements are inherently prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.'"
Powell's legal strategy is strikingly similar to the legal argument previously deployed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson used in court, who suggested that what he says on the air shouldn't be taken seriously because he's expressing an opinion — on a channel that claims to deliver news. ...........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/03/24/maga-world-civil-war-not-quite--but-pro-trump-figures-are-squabbling/
March 23, 2021
The NRA way of life is ruining our nation
Decades of gun propaganda has created a nation of sociopaths
By AMANDA MARCOTTE
MARCH 23, 2021 5:02PM
(Salon) Right on the heels of last week's horrific shooting spree by a 21-year-old at three Atlanta-area Asian day spas that left eight dead comes another mass murder, this time with a death toll of 10 at a Boulder, Colorado grocery store. The suspect, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was reportedly armed with an AR-15. While everyone waits for an apparent motive (officials said an investigation would not take fewer than five days to complete) one thing is absolutely certain: Little will be done to address the primary cause of mass shootings. The ease with which any random man with an inchoate grievance can pick up a gun and rapidly snuff out the lives of strangers to make himself feel powerful will remain unchecked.
That's not because Americans oppose stricter gun control laws. In fact, around 90% of Americans polled consistently support background checks for all gun sales. But when House Democrats introduced a bill earlier this month making background checks universal, all but eight Republicans voted against it. And forget about even turning this bill into law. The filibuster's continued existence makes it impossible to get it past Republican obstruction in the Senate.
The grim reality is that the entire nation is in the thrall to a minority of extremely insecure mostly white men who, drunk on decades of NRA-fueled propaganda, have decided that having the ability to commit mass murder at a moment's notice is a crucial component of maintaining their manhood against the ever-encroaching threats from de-gendered Potato Heads and lady video game players. Most of these men claim exoneration because they don't personally grab one of their many overpriced killing machines to lay waste to a grocery store or high school. Grotesquely, some even use these mass shootings to indulge in public fantasies about how they would totally stop an active shooter, though somehow they never seem to actually get around to doing it. But ultimately, they've become complacent in the face of mass murder from decades of being told by right-wing media that there's a binary choice between preventing murder and watching Michelle Obama personally run off with their testicles in her handbag. Worse, the right has cultivated an overall suspicion of the very concept of concern for the lives of others at all. ..............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/03/23/the-nra-way-of-life-is-ruining-our-nation/
The NRA way of life is ruining our nation
The NRA way of life is ruining our nation
Decades of gun propaganda has created a nation of sociopaths
By AMANDA MARCOTTE
MARCH 23, 2021 5:02PM
(Salon) Right on the heels of last week's horrific shooting spree by a 21-year-old at three Atlanta-area Asian day spas that left eight dead comes another mass murder, this time with a death toll of 10 at a Boulder, Colorado grocery store. The suspect, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was reportedly armed with an AR-15. While everyone waits for an apparent motive (officials said an investigation would not take fewer than five days to complete) one thing is absolutely certain: Little will be done to address the primary cause of mass shootings. The ease with which any random man with an inchoate grievance can pick up a gun and rapidly snuff out the lives of strangers to make himself feel powerful will remain unchecked.
That's not because Americans oppose stricter gun control laws. In fact, around 90% of Americans polled consistently support background checks for all gun sales. But when House Democrats introduced a bill earlier this month making background checks universal, all but eight Republicans voted against it. And forget about even turning this bill into law. The filibuster's continued existence makes it impossible to get it past Republican obstruction in the Senate.
The grim reality is that the entire nation is in the thrall to a minority of extremely insecure mostly white men who, drunk on decades of NRA-fueled propaganda, have decided that having the ability to commit mass murder at a moment's notice is a crucial component of maintaining their manhood against the ever-encroaching threats from de-gendered Potato Heads and lady video game players. Most of these men claim exoneration because they don't personally grab one of their many overpriced killing machines to lay waste to a grocery store or high school. Grotesquely, some even use these mass shootings to indulge in public fantasies about how they would totally stop an active shooter, though somehow they never seem to actually get around to doing it. But ultimately, they've become complacent in the face of mass murder from decades of being told by right-wing media that there's a binary choice between preventing murder and watching Michelle Obama personally run off with their testicles in her handbag. Worse, the right has cultivated an overall suspicion of the very concept of concern for the lives of others at all. ..............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2021/03/23/the-nra-way-of-life-is-ruining-our-nation/
March 23, 2021
Mar. 18—WASHINGTON — Michigan Reps. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, and other progressive members of Congress introduced legislation Thursday to spend $500 billion over the next decade to electrify public transit.
The legislation, dubbed the BUILD GREEN Act, will be introduced in the House by Levin and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and in the Senate by Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.
We're offering a great deal on all-access subscriptions. Check it out here.
"Electrifying our cars, buses and trains is a central pillar of the Green New Deal. The answer to both the climate crisis and the crisis of wealth inequality is to empower working people with the sustainable investments necessary to rebuild the communities devastated by decades of pollution and corporate trade policy," Levin said in a statement. ..............(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/bus/vehicles/hybrid-hydrogen-electric-vehicles/news/21215209/mi-levin-tlaib-propose-500-billion-for-electrifying-public-transit-over-next-decade
Michigan: Levin, Tlaib propose $500 billion for electrifying public transit over next decade
Mar. 18—WASHINGTON — Michigan Reps. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township and Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, and other progressive members of Congress introduced legislation Thursday to spend $500 billion over the next decade to electrify public transit.
The legislation, dubbed the BUILD GREEN Act, will be introduced in the House by Levin and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and in the Senate by Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey.
We're offering a great deal on all-access subscriptions. Check it out here.
"Electrifying our cars, buses and trains is a central pillar of the Green New Deal. The answer to both the climate crisis and the crisis of wealth inequality is to empower working people with the sustainable investments necessary to rebuild the communities devastated by decades of pollution and corporate trade policy," Levin said in a statement. ..............(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/bus/vehicles/hybrid-hydrogen-electric-vehicles/news/21215209/mi-levin-tlaib-propose-500-billion-for-electrifying-public-transit-over-next-decade
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,064
