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Let's All Sing for Joy as the KKK/Evangelical "Pro-Life" Double-Impeached Mobster/Serial-Earth-Killer Flees Town

Our shredded nation slowly breathes again as the unelected orange menace leaves us at last. If you somehow feel your mood lightening and your state of mind improving, here’s why:

This twice-impeached viral dung heap who needlessly killed 400k-plus Americans, along with 13 federal prisoners he outright murdered at the last minute, is actually on his way out.

And we are all exhausted!!!

Donald Trump was NOT our worst president (that was Woodrow Wilson).

But Trump’s lethal legacy includes:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Trump’s Bombast

As the sun sets slowly on Trump’s presidency and we bid a not-so-fond farewell to the ex-resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, presumably leaving for exile at Mar-a-Largo, it’s worth reflecting: After all he’s said and done, what have we really learned from The Donald?

By this, I don’t mean some sort of high-minded platitude, such as “Democracy is a fragile thing.” Rather, I am referring to what of value, that one can put to practical use, has Trump actually taught us?

Don’t Let President Biden ‘Make Us the Dupes of Our Hopes’

At inauguration time, journalist I. F. Stone wrote, incoming presidents “make us the dupes of our hopes.” That insight is worth pondering as Joe Biden ascends to the presidency. After four years of the real-life Trump nightmare, hope is overdue -- but it’s hazardous.

Stone astutely warned against taking heart from the lofty words that President Richard Nixon had just deployed in his inaugural address on January 20, 1969. With the Vietnam War raging, Stone pointed out: “It’s easier to make war when you talk peace.”

That’s true of military war. And class war.

Destroying the Web of Life: The Destruction of Earth’s Biodiversity is Accelerating

In August 2010, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Ahmed Djoghlaf, warned that ‘We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate.’ According to the UN Environment Program, ‘the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life’ with scientists estimating that ‘150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours’ which is nearly 1,000 times the ‘natural’ or ‘background’ rate. Moreover, it ‘is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago.’ See ‘Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief’.

(Re-)Joining the World

One of the many things we must rightly demand of the incoming U.S. government is the abandonment of rogue status, the serious participation in treaties, a cooperative and productive relationship with the rest of the world.

We’ve all heard about the Iran agreement, which ought to be re-joined and made into a treaty — and sanctions ought to be ended. Biden can do this alone, except for the ending sanctions part.

We’ve all heard about the Paris climate agreement, which ought to be re-joined and made into a treaty — and military pollution included. Biden can do this alone on Day 1.

But what about the others? What about the treaties that Trump has illegally withdrawn from (illegally because treaties require Congress, and because these treaties have built-in procedures for addressing the alleged problems Trump used as excuses to withdraw)? Biden can rejoin them at will. Does he have the will?

A Country Divided Against Itself

In a recent article Catholic University professor Claes G. Ryn wrote“Few people are really open to persuasion in any case—not just on political subjects but on any subject about which they care and on which they have adopted certain views. Diehard partisans for a certain outlook will refuse to have their beliefs questioned, and so will many others. They will be no less dismissive of a document challenging their opinions if it is full of footnotes and appendixes. Such a document will, indeed, make them resist it even more. As for the relatively few people who are truly open-minded, they will not find another person’s observations dispositive. They will, as they should, want to consider the evidence on a contested matter for themselves.” The observation immediately calls to mind the red-blue political division that has hardened in the United States over the past several years, with the two sides persistently talking past each other. Part of the problem is that once someone has staked out an essentially ideological position, he or she will regard new developments in such a way as to fit with that preconception.

9th Annual Schomburg Center Black Comic Book Festival

Comic book characters

Wednesday, January 13–Saturday, January 16
Comic book fans of all ages: get ready for the ninth annual Schomburg Black Comic Book Festival, the virtual edition!
Each year, the Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival brings creators, illustrators, writers, and independent publishers together with thousands of collectors, blerds, and nerds for two days of programming and activities. The highly-anticipated community event includes interactive panel discussions, a vendor marketplace featuring exclusive titles by Black creators, a cosplay show, and more.
Black Comic Book Festival participants are encouraged to wear their favorite cosplay costumes and to register for the annual cosplay show (details TBA).

Have you registered yet?

Events include a tribute to actor and former Schomburg Center acting teacher Chadwick Boseman, a workshop with animator Tim Fielder, the launch event of John Jennings's Megascope imprint, and more!

Covid-19 under Apartheid: How Israel Manipulates Suffering of Palestinians

Israel’s decision to exclude Palestinians from its COVID-19 vaccination campaign may have surprised many. Even by Israel’s poor humanitarian standards, denying Palestinians access to life-saving medication seems extremely callous.

 

Amnesty International, among many organizations, condemned the Israeli government’s decision to bar Palestinians from receiving the vaccine. The rights group described the Israeli action as evidence of the “institutionalized discrimination that defines the Israeli government’s policy towards Palestinians.”

 

Hey MAGA Marchers: Where Was Coward Trump as You Died?

AN OPEN LETTER TO MAGA MARCHERS

When Donald Trump incited you to assault the Capitol, he said he would be with you.

He wasn’t.

Four of you are dead and you’ve killed a policeman. More of you will suffer and die from the COVID that spread through your maskless march. Many of you now face prison terms and ruined lives.

Had you been black, you’d’ve been gunned down before you got anywhere near the Capitol building.

Some of you in Los Angeles compensated by assaulting a black woman who accidentally walked into one of your rallies. Others expressed your opinions about Jews by wearing hats saying 6MWE (Six Million Wasn’t Enough).

Maybe Trump’s bone spurs kept him from marching with you.

When Alice Paul and Martin Luther King and Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez and so many other great American leaders have organized marches for social change, they personally endured gassings, beatings, imprisonment. They never hesitated to risk their own bodies for a higher cause.

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