Op-Ed
I asked my Facebook page which high school teacher they’d least like to have had a gun in their desk.
Original at Reader Supported News: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/48453-why-are-we-still-i…
35% of U.S. mass shooters are military veterans, as compared with 14.76% in the general population for the same gender and age. See documentation of this below.
First a couple of Tweets:
The United States Department of Defense released its latest ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’ (NPR) on 2 February, updating the last one issued in 2010 during the previous administration. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’.
The Executive Summary of the NPR is also available, if you prefer. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018 Executive Summary’.
The United States Department of Defense released its latest ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’ (NPR) on 2 February, updating the last one issued in 2010 during the previous administration. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018’.
The Executive Summary of the NPR is also available, if you prefer. See ‘Nuclear Posture Review 2018 Executive Summary’.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s new book, Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment, could be criticized for how little it seems to focus on the Second Amendment, and how much on topics familiar from the author’s past writing. But the topics are radically unfamiliar to most U.S. Americans and extremely relevant to understanding what the Second Amendment was and is.
As our world spirals deeper into an abyss from which it is becoming increasingly difficult to extricate ourselves, some very prominent activists have lamented the lack of human solidarity in the face of the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya. See ‘The Rohingya tragedy shows human solidarity is a lie’ and ‘Wrongs of rights activism around Rohingyas’.
While I share the genuine concern of the Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman and Burmese dissident and scholar Dr Maung Zarni, and have offered my own way forward for responding powerfully to the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya – see ‘A Nonviolent Strategy to Defeat Genocide’ – in my view the lack of solidarity they mention is utterly pervasive and readily evident in our lacklustre official and personal responses to the many ongoing crises in which humanity finds itself.
Breathe deeply, suck in your fear, value life.
Some psycho-pranksters have made this national conversation unavoidable. The game is called “swatting”: Call the cops, report a terrifying emergency — “they’re holding my mother hostage!” — and wait for the fun to start. A SWAT team swings into action. Police surround a random house with their guns drawn. The occupants inside have no idea what’s going on.
On Dec. 28, a house in Wichita, Kansas was targeted for a swatting prank by a guy in Los Angeles. Andrew Finch, age 28, a father of two, wound up being shot and killed by a police officer as he stepped out of his front door and, apparently, put his hands on his hips. He was unarmed.
y comment: “first the ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight
you, then you win”. We are getting close to winning ;-). The response to
this fascist states’ litany of new laws and regulation that stifle free
speech, destroy non-Jews in Jerusalem, kidnap children, deny freedom of
movement, assassinate people etc should fall under these basic categories:
1. Intensify the work for BDS (boycotts, divestment, sanctions) around the
world and take time now to support the 20 groups that the Israeli regime is
trying to silence (and the many others they missed :-)
2. Lobby all governments to treat Israeli citizens in kind: any Israeli
citizen or those connected with Israeli organizations who/which refuse/s to
accept internationally recognized rights of Palestinians (for refugees to
return, for freedom etc) should be denied entry to all countries whose
citizens were denied entry to Palestine (which has to go through “Israeli”
borders).
3. Intensify lobbying governments around the world to withdraw recognition
of the state of “Israel” until it complies with International law including