The Radical Republican: When the GOP Championed the 14th Amendment

by Nomad

One idea that many people have a hard time wrapping their heads around is how the platforms of the two major political parties in America have dramatically shifted over the last 150 years. 

This historical fact is brought into sharper focus with the recent talk by Republican Donald Trump about the possibility of repealing the 14th Amendment and citizen birth rights provisions.

With the Party in Disarray and Denial, the GOP has Become America's Zombie Party

by Nomad

After 2012, the Republican National Committee performed an "autopsy" on what went wrong. So many good ideas were suggested. By the looks of things, nothing has changed. Following the skillful autopsy, the GOP patient has become a political zombie. 

In the grim weeks following the Republican disaster in 2012, many in the top echelons of the Republican Party called for a concise heart-searching about what exactly is wrong with the Grand Old Party. 

Priebus' Call for Soul-Searching

The first and the hardest part of any rehabilitation was admitting there was a problem. The time had come to make that initial step. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" at that time

"In order to get back in the game, you've got to look at and do a full autopsy of what happened."

Not a bad idea. Something had to be done to stop the decline. Denial was no longer an option.

How to Make Sense of a Senseless Act of Violence

by Nomad

Whenever there is a senseless act of violence against the innocent, many of us struggle to find the means to cope, or some kind of an appropriate response. That often seems like an impossible feat.

"Chapelhillvictims" 
by Source (WP:NFCC#4).

On February 10, 2015, Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23,  and his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21,and her 19-year old sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were brutally murdered in their Chapel Hill, North Carolina home. 

All three died of gunshot wounds inflicted by their neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, a 46-year-old former car parts salesman. (Reportedly the motive for the triple murder was a dispute about a parking space.

Barakat and his wife were both students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, enrolled in the School for Dentistry. Last Monday Barakat would have begun his third year there and his wife would have followed her husband with her first-year dentistry school. 

A senseless tragedy, there's no doubt about that. The question is: is there ever an appropriate response to such an event? It is too easy to match hate with hate, ignorance with ignorance, or perhaps worse, simply to shake one's head and move on.
How can we not surrender to despair?

Photo: Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Meets A Fan Close Up

by Nomad

Republican front-runner in the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump, drew large and enthusiastic crowds at an Alabama rally. At this point, his opponents must be scratching their heads in dismay.

A Triumphant Trump
Last Friday, Republican President Candidate Donald Trump spoke before an impressive crowd at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. The Trump people said the number at the rally was around 40,000 but others figures suggested about half of that.

Should you have the stomach for it, you can find a video of the full speech at this link.

At one point in his long, free-form and somewhat rambling speech, he suggested that the candidates like JEB would be swayed by their mega-donors and special interests when it came to trade talks. Trump brought the crowd to its collective feet by asking them:

Who would you rather have negotiating with China, Japan Mexico, any of them, Trump or Jeb Bush?"

They roared "Trump! Trump! Trump!" "Trump-ism" seems to be triumphant.. for the moment.

Sleeping on the Streets: DOJ Challenges the Constitutionality of Anti-Homelessness Ordinances

by Nomad

Otherwise ignored by mainstream media, the Washington Post picked up an interesting news article the other day regarding homelessness and a DOJ challenge the local ordinances against vagancy.  

To Be Without a Home, Like a Complete Unknown

Boise, like many US cities, passed an ordinance which banned sleeping or camping in public places. That city is by no means unique.

The usual knee-jerk reaction to a visible and embarrassing problem has been to find a way to make it a criminal offense. The idea is basically if we can't prevent it, we can make it illegal and then we can make it invisible.

According to last year's report from the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, a survey of 187 cities found that:

• 24% of cities impose city-wide bans on begging in public.
• 76% of cities prohibit begging in particular public places.
• 33% of cities make it illegal to loiter in public throughout an entire city.
• 65% of cities prohibit the activity in particular public places.
• 53% of cities prohibit sitting or lying down in particular public places.
• 43% of cities prohibit sleeping in vehicles.
•  9% of cities prohibit sharing of food

A recent study by UC Berkeley School of Law noted that more Californian cities have enacted more anti-vagrancy laws than in any other part of the country. with Los Angeles and San Francisco topping the list.

The laws restrict anything from panhandling to sharing food with a homeless person to sitting in public spaces.

Massacre Classes: Florida Giving Seminars on How to Survive an Active Shooter Event

by Nomad

With all possibility of sensible gun control reform seemingly out of the question, local police departments are providing residents free classes on how to survive an active shooting scenario.

It's a reflection, some would say, on the pathetic state of gun control in the US.

Penny Dickerson of the Daytona Times reports that the local Daytona police department, in conjunction with the Volusia County-Daytona Beach National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Black ClergyAlliance have begun holding free seminars.
The subject: how to increase your chances of survival when faced with an active shooter.

JEB and the Family Legacy: Political Dynasty or Plague on the Nation?

by Nomad

Has JEB given up trying to rebrand the discredited Bush brand? Certain remarks he made last week would suggest he is eager to pick up where his infamous brother left off.

When I consider what kind of president Jeb Bush would make, there are a lot of niggling questions that come to mind. I ask myself:

• Would you really vote for a person who uses an assumed name? 

A lot of people- including journalists- incorrectly assume Jeb Bush's first name is a shortened form of the Biblical-sounding moniker, some kind of reference to the long suffering Job or Zebulun. Yet the truth is Jeb should be written in capital letter as it is actually the first letters of his real name, John Ellis Bush. If you think about it, it doesn't make sense to call the candidate Jeb Bush at all. It could be simply JEB, like JFK or FDR.

As it stands, it is like saying John Ellis Bush Bush.

Using an alias is hardly a standard practice for a candidate. Ask Rafael Edward (a.k.a "Ted") Cruz. To die-hard conspiracy theorists, it vaguely suggests deceit of some sort. After all, when filling out applications, many criminals use their nicknames or false names in the hope you will not be able to see their criminal history.

Anyway, it's his last name that creates a rotten egg smell for most voters.

OXI and Austerity: The Secret Historical Meaning of the Greek Referendum

by Nomad

In a nation like Greece, with its long and proud history, messages can be conveyed by symbolic acts that echo and invite comparisons. The recent Greek referendum was one of those events.

Many news commentators were mystified when the left-wing Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for a nation-wide referendum on the European debt payback proposals. The attitude ran something along the lines that the Greek people had no authority to vote on such complicated issues. What was the point and what did any result actually mean?

I recall one of the reporters asking if the Greek people even understood what they were voting for. It was, they said, all too complicated an issue for the average citizen to understand. 

This was, it was implied, a matter for governments, not for citizens. Despite the fact, it was past administrations and armies of faceless bureaucrats that had engineered this experiment in austerity. Never mind that it was the people who would ultimately suffer under the proposed austerity measures, their opinion counted for nothing. 

True, there were people on fixed incomes, there were countless numbers of unemployed citizens that were entirely dependent on government support, there were large numbers of Greeks who had already suffered for the last five years from belt-tightening austerity.

According to the prevailing attitude expressed by some in the media, the opinion of these people counted for nothing.

Unable to Forward: The Tragic Story of a Gay Son's Letter Lost for 26 Years

by Nomad

A local news affiliate in Virginia, WSET recently reported how a local man received a long lost letter from his now-deceased gay son. While reading the story I was struck by the fact that the father was- even now- unable to fully understand the tragedy of the situation.

For Father's Day, 1989, Duane Schrock Jr wrote to let his father know that despite their differences, he was very happy with his life and that the estrangement between them could be patched up:

"Dear Dad, we haven't been in touch for quite a while. I'm doing fine and am very happy in Richmond. I'd like to hear from you. Have a happy Father's Day. Love, Duane."

That letter, a tentative reaching out to a disapproving father on Father's Day, somehow never arrived. Six years later, in 1995, at the age of 45, Duane died of AIDS without ever re-establishing contact with his father. 

People who knew Duane considered him "a very kind and gentle person."

Plantation Politics: How Some in the Old South Continue to Deny the Evils of Slavery

by Nomad

Can racism ever be extinguished in the USA when there are still some people who wish to ignore the inhumanity of slavery and to absolve the slave-owners of all responsibility?

Recently, I saw this article the other day and thought it was worth sharing.
Margaret Biser, a tour operator for a Southern plantation,  reveals that so many of her visitors seemed determined to ignore (or at least, minimize) the human costs of slavery. 

Admittedly some of this is based on a profound but genuine ignorance about history. Blame our education system or home schooling?
However, in other cases, the problem went much deeper.
In a word, denial of the history of an enslaved race's degradation and misery.

What can one make of people who want to tour a historical plantation but who refuse to acknowledge that all the wealth and grandeur on display was based on the sweat and toil of an army of bought and sold slaves? 

Why Should Your Destiny be Decided by The Color of Your Skin?

by Nomad

Is it possible that in America the color of your skin will determine how well you will do in life?

A look at the statistics suggest that, despite all of the past progress on racial equality, if you are African American you will have the cards stacked against you. But especially if are also a man.

After reviewing numerous studies,  Jorg Spenkuch, an assistant Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at Kellogg School of Management  in Chicago came to a shocking conclusion.

"No matter where you look, race is a really important predictor of how well people do in life.”

He is one of the authors of Racial Disparities in Job Finding and Offered Wages which investigate how much discrimination can explain racial wage gaps African- Americans and other groups. 

How, fifty years after the Civil Right Era, can this still be a problem in America? 

Sage Advice from Walt Whitman about Listening to Your Conscience

by Nomad

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Toddlers and Handguns: America's Self-Inflicted Tragedies Are Not Just Freak Accidents

by Nomad

The number of children injured and dead from accidental shootings is a national disgrace. Clearly guns and children don't mix but that doesn't stop many parents from patriotically exercising their second amendment rights. Even if it costs them their children.

Last month, in Lunenburg County, Virginia, a two-year-old boy shot himself in the head. According to law enforcement, the boy found a loaded gun on the dresser and pulled the trigger. Days later, the boy died of his self-inflicted wounds. 

That same weekend in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, another two-year-old named Zackary also shot himself with a loaded gun that had been left out in plain sight.

Montoursville police say the loaded handgun was lying on the couple’s bed Thursday and the two year old grabbed it, walked downstairs, and accidentally shot himself. The bullet went through his leg and is lodged in his back.

On May 23, a three-year old Mississippi boy died after shooting himself in the face while playing with a gun. A few weeks earlier, a 2-year-old Arizona boy also shot himself in the face with his father's handgun. Having found the gun wrapped up in sheets on the man's bed, the boy fired one round which hit him in the face and exited through his head He is expected to survive the accident. The damage and disfigurement will no doubt be a tragic feature of his life.

Earlier that same month, in Peoria Illinois, yet another child, Christian, found a family gun while playing in his father's bedroom and shot himself in the face.

Friends of the family said in TV news interviews that normally the gun would have been locked up but this, they said, was a "freak accident."

However, there seems to be a distressingly large number of these so-called accidents to call them "freak." We are only talking about one month, after all.

Tea Party Candidate Ted Cruz Claims JFK Would be a Republican Today

by Nomad

Few can top Ted Cruz when it comes to bombast and misleading statements. And that's putting it mildly. However, his recent declaration on JFK was one of the biggest lies yet.

I am a little too jaded to roll my eyes every time I hear a politician say something ridiculous. We have all practically come to expect it. Gore Vidal pointed out that only by twisting words, warping the historical record and turning day into night is it possible to get some people to vote against their own interests. 

However, the other day I heard Ted Cruz declare that if John Kennedy were around today, he would be a Republican. In Massachusetts (of all places) he told a few hundred supporters"

JFK would be a Republican today. There is no room for John F. Kennedy in the modern Democratic Party.”

Cruz can get away with making statements like that because too many liberals and moderates are ignorant of history and too many on the Right are living in denial of facts. 

It's business as usual for Ted Cruz who is clearly an expert at disinformation. He has already demonstrated that when it comes to promoting Big Lies, the bigger, the better, However, attempting to convert John Kennedy into some kind of Reagan Republican is really asking the even most naive and ignorant voters to swallow a lot in one gulp.

Here's only one example- but an important one- in which Kennedy in no way resembles candidates like Cruz, or Huckabee or Santorum.

Oh God, Not Again!

by Nomad

The French Model: Will Climate Change Spark a World Wide Revolution?

by Nomad

Can we afford to ignore the growing impact of climate change on the stability of nations? Are we facing the potential of a global chaos that will make the French Revolution look like a playground squabble?

On the Brink

Scientists tell us that the world stands on the brink of a radical shifting of the global climate patterns.  From the data, we can at the very least assume, the effects will be unpredictable and it is very likely that there will be more losers than winners.

However, if you think that those dire predictions lay in the distant future, you would be incorrect. A report from the UN's climate science panel last year noted that climate change has already cut into the global food supply. What caught the attention of the government officials from 115 countries who reviewed the report was a blunt and categorical statement. 

Climate change, the report warned, could threaten all aspects of global food security. At this time there was enough evidence, the scientists said to say "for certain that climate change is affecting food production on land and sea." 

That is not based on projections but effects found in real-time.

A Quiet Spot

by Nomad

Reflections on an Ungrateful Nation

by Nomad

In free countries, it is natural to complain about how the nation is being run. The public must hold high standards when it comes to the kind of government it expects. However, that shouldn't mean being blind when things are done properly. It should not mean refusing to give credit when it is due.

Not long ago I saw this newspaper clipping (on the left) and it started me thinking about the negative attitude of so many Americans.

"The hardest arithmetic to master," said Eric Hoffer, "is that which enables us to count our blessings."  

When you listen to people talking you start to wonder how this nation became such a collection of complainers and pampered brats.  

A recent poll by USA Today/Pew Research Center shows Americans say the biggest problem facing the country today is the state of the economy. And yet, so many Americans still seem ungrateful even as things have begun looking brighter on that front. 

After some somewhat less than sterling numbers at the beginning of the year, analysts saw the U.S. labor market "snap back from another brutal winter with a return to healthy job growth." Last month, initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in 15 years. 

"Coal Rolling " Ban Exposes New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's Air Quality Hypocrisy

by Nomad

Although the air quality in New Jersey is a serious problem, Governor Christie's sweetheart relationship with the Koch brothers doesn't give him a lot of authority to do much about his state's air pollution problem. Not when so much of the problem blows in from Koch country.
So what's a presidential hopeful to do? Go after the small fish, of course. 

When it comes to air quality standards, New Jersey has a serious problem. That's according to the American Lung Association which  grades every county in the nation on its air quality and ozone levels. They found that as in past years the Garden State remains among the nation’s worst for pollution.

Poisons Blowing in the Wind

In fact, New Jersey is not alone. The survey found 42 percent of the nation’s population live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution. The ironic part is that the state or county that produces the pollution may not experience the damaging effects.
Experts say that New Jersey's problem is "a combination of locally produced pollution and pollution that travels.”

That means no one governor or state legislature can do much about the problem. It requires joint action from those states who -literally- get the fallout of other states that pollute. In a country as fractured as the US, working together for a regional solution in bipartisan way is nothing but an exercise in nostalgia and idealism.

The Surprising Connections You Might Not Know Between Religion and Income Inequality

by Nomad

Religion may be the "opiate of the masses" but there's another side to this story and it's not pretty. If religion is indeed a drug, then who are the drug dealers? This post looks at the interesting connections between the ruling class, religiosity, and inequality.

Rich People, Poor People, and Religion

A recent study in the Social Science Quarterly reaches some interesting and unexpected conclusions about the relationship between income inequality and the rise of religion.

The authors of  the article Economic Inequality, Relative Power, and Religiosity analyzed countries around the world the levels of income equality and the level of religiosity over a two-decade span. Their conclusions are worth a closer look. 

Let's start by defining the terms. What exactly is religiosity anyway? The sociological term "religiosity" can be considered the overall religiousness of a given culture or nation or group. In other words, the degree in which religion affects our day-to-day life. 

In the study, there were twelve benchmarks, from the percentage of people who felt that religion played an important factor in their lives to a percentage of people who took time to pray, those that believed in Hell and sin and the number of people that believed in a Divine power. This evidence was matched with the levels of income inequality in the same countries.

Some of the findings in the study were less than surprising. For example, the authors found that Muslim countries were considerably more religious than other religious societies, and Catholic and Orthodox societies were more religious than Protestant ones. The lowest religiosity was found among Communist or formerly Communist countries.
Nothing shocking there.

The Surprising Thing

Other things they found confirmed what many of us tend to believe anyway. The study determined, for instance, that there is a very strong relationship between how economically developed a country is and its religiosity: less developed countries are significantly more religious.

The Holstee Manifesto

by Nomad

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Start-up Company Wants to Use Drones to Reclaim the World's Shrinking Forests

by Nomad

One company wants to apply cutting edge technology to tackle one of the world's greatest threats to life on this planet- Man's global destruction of forests. 

Drones have quickly developed a lousy reputation for being Remote controlled killing machines. Their use in the war on terror has admittedly become the bane of the leaders of ISIS and Taliban camps but, like "smart bombs", there have also been growing questions about whether justice is being sacrificed for expediency and about the collateral damage these devices inflict on civilians.

In fact the military use of drones overshadows their civilian applications. The term "drone" refers to any remote controlled aerial device and that covers a wide spectrum, from hunter-killer surveillance craft to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

One start-up firm, UK-based Biocarbon Engineering, is looking at the unique problem-solving capabilities of drones to combat the destruction of global forests.

The Scope of the Problem
Franklin Roosevelt once said:

A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.

That was back in the 1930s and the problem has not only continued but the global rate of deforestation continues to increase at a frightening speed.
The world-wide calamity of de-forestation cannot be left to future generations to resolve. Every year, it is estimated that over 25 billion trees are removed from forests while only 15 billion are planted.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). more than 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest, an area about the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year and they say that about half of the world's tropical forests have already been cleared.

Return of Freedom Fries in Texas Means Increased Obesity for High School Students

by Nomad

Texas state officials continue to march backwards in the name of deregulation. Serving fat and sugar to Texas children is a salute of freedom.

According to a top official at the Texas Department of Agriculture, Commissioner Sid Miller, a decade-old statewide ban on deep fat fryers in public schools must be repealed. 

That ban prohibits deep fat fryers and soda machines on school campuses and places limits on the time and place that junk food can be sold there.

Miller says he thinks that repealing these parts of the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy will streamline things, pulling the state into line with less-strict national standards. Under his plans, the presently-mandated schools will be free to decide for themselves whether to abide by the policy. 

Miller claims that “it isn't about french fries, it's about freedom." 

And who on Earth could be against freedom?

For the Love of Freedom and Fat

 As the Texas Tribune pointed out

The deep fat fryer and soda machine ban are the last of strict nutritional policies introduced by former Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs. In 2004, in addition to those bans, Combs introduced the more comprehensive Texas Public School Nutrition Policy, which banned foods with high levels of sugar and fats in public schools. The policy was repealed last year, when Todd Staples was commissioner, and Miller has consistently expressed his support for less regulation of food in schools.

Three Texas whoops for de-regulation!

Free Market Mayhem: Do You Really Want to Live in a World without Environmental Regulations?

by Nomad

For corporations, a world without rules, without any annoying government interference might be heaven on Earth. But for the rest of us, it could be pretty damned close to hell on Earth.
We already have plenty of evidence of what life could be like if de-regulators get their way.

We often hear a lot of chatter about the benefits of deregulation and how important it is to avoid government interference in the world of big business. 

True to their Ayn Rand roots, both Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, both candidates in 2016, have expressed the idea that "If only the government got its hands out of the private industries, then a purer form of capitalist harmony would emerge."

Free-market libertarians believe in a totally hands-off approach to government and this includes nearly all corporate oversight. Since governments (and the laws they create) are the only powers strong enough to regulate things, corporations would essentially become unrestricted and above the law. One way to that is by eliminating the agencies that are involved in policing.

In November of last year, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky stated that his top priority was not going after the major polluters -such as the mining industry- His utmost concern was trying to do what he could “to get the EPA reined in.” 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is primarily tasked with effectively managing, overseeing, and enforcing environmental laws. It has the legal authority to go after and prosecute polluters who would choose the break the laws in the name of profits.

So, all in all, McConnell's soundbite might seem like an unusual position for a politician charged with protecting the public interest. However, an investigation explains his personal stake in shielding the coal industry. 

In other words,  blame  it on the in-laws.

JFK and the Ignorance of Voters

by Nomad

Conscience and Scripture: How the Abolition of Slavery and the Fight for Marriage Equality are Inseparable 2/2

by Nomad

In the second part of this series, we take a look at how the Presbyterian Assembly's recent decision to recognize marriage equality is entirely in keeping with its history on other progressive issues.
And whether it was slavery, segregation or mixed marriage, the opposition was always ready to use Scripture to justify their prejudices.

In the earlier post on this subject, we looked at the recent break between National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) and the Presbyterian Church over the subject of same-sex marriage. The decision to allow ceremonies to be conducted- as per the conscience of each church- created a backlash, involving approximately 15.7 million African Americans belonging to 34,000 churches. 

Rev. Anthony Evans. President of NBCI claimed that the Presbyterian Assembly had strayed from the Word of God, that is, the Holy book which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The History of Going Beyond Scripture

The history of the denomination reveals a centuries old pattern of free thinking. Presbyterianism was especially influenced by the French theologian John Calvin,
Two quotes by Calvin seem especially relevant.

Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?

Clearly he believed that faith was more than submission without understanding.  He argued against relying solely on Scripture to resolve spiritual issues- or still worse, relying on the interpretations of church leaders. Faith shouldn't be a hand-me-down.

Another influence on Presbyterian doctrine was  a Scottish reformer, John Knox. He too objected to the absolute submission to Scripture and he had his reasons. 

The testimony of scripture is so plain that to add anything were superfluous, were it not that the world is almost now come to that blindness, that whatsoever pleases not the princes and the multitude, the same is rejected as doctrine newly forged, and is condemned for heresy.

Rebellion, Retrospect,and Regret: The 50th Anniversary of a Vietnam Peace March

by Nomad

Fifty years ago on this date, April 17, 1965, Washington saw one of the first and largest peace marches in its history. It was to become the first of many anti-war marches and demonstrations across the country.
Here's the story behind that history.

The planning for the anti-war march had been in the works since December 1964. Demonstrations against racial injustice had been remarkably successful in waking up the country and its leaders. Activists for peace were determined to inert similar pressures on Washington.
Up to that time, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a little known student activist organization. However, as the America's involvement in the Vietnam War steadily grew, students and others in that age group suddenly faced the reality of the draft.
This was real and it was a matter of life and death.
As one source explains:

Even before they shipped out, those who were drafted had begun to see the horrors of the war, most notably on television. The growing presence of television in nearly every American household thus exacerbated divisions over the conflict and helped fuel the antiwar movement. What Americans watched on television each night shaped their perceptions of the Vietnam War, which came to be known as the “living room war.” For some young Americans, called on to fight but unable to vote until the age of 21, the situation was unacceptable.

The anti-war message was easy enough for a child to understand. America had no reason to be in Southeast Asia and the reason were equally simple: the war hurts the Vietnamese people, the war hurts the American people and the SDS was concerned for both Vietnamese and American people. Anybody who agreed with those three points was invited to join in on the march on Washington.
The book, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage explains:

The official call, hoping to appeal to a broad opposition, maintained that the war was fundamentally a "civil war" as well as "losing," "self-defeating," "dangerous" "never declared by Congress" and "hideously immoral."

These objections, the establishment press immediately labeled "pro-Communist," unpatriotic and at the very best, misguided and naive.

Conscience and Scripture: How the Abolition of Slavery and the Fight for Marriage Equality are Inseparable 1/2

by Nomad

A schism within the Presbyterian Church on its views regarding same-sex marriage made a bit of news recently. 

We look at the historical reasons why any literal interpretation of Scripture for an African American Church presents some particular problems. 

It hasn't been the first time the Presbyterians have followed their conscience on matters of equality and social justice.

The NBCI Decision and the Fragile Unity

Recently. the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) made an interesting and somewhat disappointing announcement. This faith-based coalition of some 34, 000 churches made up of about 15 denominations with 15.7 million African-Americans declare that it had broken its fellowship the American branch of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA).

The NBCI decision came about as a result of a recent vote by the Presbyterian Church to approve same-sex marriage.

Last June, The Presbyterian General Assembly, the top legislative body of the PCUSA voted to revise the constitutional language defining marriage. This decision granted  pastors discretion in determining whether or not to conduct same-gender marriages in civil jurisdictions where such marriages are legal.

According to the text of the assembly ruling, the elders of the Church decided that it was up to the pastors were allowed the freedom of conscience and their own interpretation of Scripture. They were free "to participate in any such marriage they believe the Holy Spirit calls them to perform."

April 12, 1945- The Day America's Father Died

by Nomad

Today marks the seventieth anniversary of the death one of America's greatest presidents. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's passing left the nation not only struck dumb with grief but also a world poised on a new and dangerous age.

Shock and Disbelief

On this day seventy years ago, one of America's most beloved president died suddenly at the "Little White House," his Warm Springs, Georgia retreat since the 1920s.

Shortly after lunch, the care-ridden president had sat in the living room of his cottage, signing letters and reviewing documents. He was sitting for his portrait, reportedly engaged in a lively conservation.

Then, without warning, he was seized by a sharp pain in his head and collapsed. He slumped backward in his chair in an apparent coma. His staff carried him to his bedroom. Doctors were summoned but there was very little that could be done.
In a few hours- at about 3:30 p.m- the 63-year-old president would be dead from a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

Con-Artist Conservatives and The Great Hoodwinking of America 3/3

by Nomad

The Part One and Part Two we looked at how many similarities there are between the fraud and swindles and the modern conservative movement. 

In this, the final installment in the series we wrap things up with two questions: Have middle-class Americans at long last realized that they are the victims of the Republican scam? Followed by the more important question: Is it too late to save American democracy?

Novelist Walter Kirn makes an interesting observations about the victims of swindles. It could explain why the Republican con game has continued for so long. Under normal circumstances, most victims catch on. So why do some people keep voting for the conservatives?

The reason, Kirn says, con artists get away with what they get away with is because their victims are "ashamed of their own blindness and their own gullibility, and they tend to just quietly go away." 

Outsiders might wonder why American voters who have realized that they have been played for the last 40 years are not un-stuffing the feathers from pillows and heating up the cauldrons of tar.
The reaction is, in fact, a bit more subtle. You can find the effect...if you know where to look.

Con-Artist Conservatives and The Great Hoodwinking of America 2/3

by Nomad

In Part One we looked at how, despite the evidence, Americans by and large still believe in socio-economic mobility. At the same time, even while conservatives are reducing opportunities for the middle class, they are still promoting the American Dream.

In Part Two we turn to the parallels between the worlds of conservative politics and the world of professional fraud.

When you look over the profile of your average con artist, you'd be forgiven for thinking he could do well in the field of politics. In a perfect world, swindlers and politicians would be absolute opposites.

Politicians, Con Artists and Personality Disorders

Generally speaking, like politicians, swindlers are experts at gaining the trust of their victims and can also be extremely intelligent and highly creative. Their sense of understanding of human nature exceeds the rest of the population. They can even be considered charming. Whereas these would be admirable characteristics typically, such qualities are dangerous.

Of all of these traits, one stand out as being a political advantage. Con artists "thrive on the knowledge that people tend to believe only what they want to believe." 
Anybody who has spent any time attempting to disprove all of the nonsensical disinformation discriminated by Fox News or the other propaganda machines of the Far Right knows how futile it can be.

Are there other similarities between swindlers and conservative politicians? 

Psychologists tells us that many con-artists suffer from a condition called Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Such people tend to be excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, with power, and the prestige that go with power. The behavior is ruled by an exaggerated feelings of self-importance.

Being  exploitative by nature, they tend to see the world in terms of their own egoes and are mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing.  

The Call for Non-Violence: A Night and a Day with RFK

by Nomad

We look back at two particular days in April 1968 and two speeches by Senator Robert Kennedy following the traumatic murder of Martin Luther King in Memphis. The subject: whether senseless violence would triumph over peaceful change.

An Act of Blind Violence

Two days in early April forty-six years ago could perhaps be considered one of the darkest moments in the history of the United States. On April 4th, 39-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis, shot down by a person or persons unknown. 

And for a moment, the Civil Rights Movement hung in the balance.

Would King's assassination in Memphis spell the end of the hopes of millions of black Americans? The question on many minds was whether they would now choose to forsake the non-violence King had advocated and match violence with violence and thereby destroy all of his efforts? 

On the evening of the assassination, President Johnson had issued a statement in which he asked every American to "reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King, who lived by nonviolence."

We can achieve nothing by lawlessness and divisiveness among the American people. It is only by joining together and only by working together that we can continue to move toward equality and fulfillment for all of our people.

In an effort to head off expected rioting, the president contacted and advised a host of mayors and governors. He urged them not overreact and not to use any more force than necessary to keep the peace. Johnson was not impressed with the general atmosphere of fatalism.

"I'm not getting through. They're all holing up like generals in a dugout getting ready to watch a war."

Throughout the nation, there was a deep sense of foreboding. The nation held its breath.

Tomorrow's Headlines: Climate-Change Denying GOP House to Vote to Ban Law of Gravity

by Nomad

In honor of today's date, I present a sneak peek at tomorrow's headline. 

Later this month, the House of Representatives will be voting on controversial draft legislation which will deny the existence of gravity The Republican-led Congress expects little resistance to the proposed law in the upcoming vote.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), famous for his courageous stand on climate change.
In a press briefing on the Capitol steps, Inhofe said

"It's a win-win situation for the American tax-payers. For now on, we will not be held hostage by secular scientists. No offense, they were smart guys, but they are certainly not experts in Scripture. They shouldn't be able to go around trying to force their ideas on the rest of the nation. I still haven't seen any proof for the existence of gravity. After all, there's a reason why they call it a 'theory.' It makes about as much sense to me as the 'theory' of evolution."

According to the draft bill, from now on, all proposed federally-funded projects will be rejected automatically unless all participants sign an affidavit denying the existence of gravity "or any science supporting that theory."