Jim Garrow (Rob O'Flanagan/Guelph Mercury)
SURVIVALIST WEBSITE SOUNDS AN ALARM ON GOVERNMENT VIOLENCE SUPPOSEDLY TO REDUCE CIVILIAN GUN VIOLENCE
The Daily Sheeple posts an interview with Nobel Peace nominee Jim Garrow in which he claims information from an unnamed “military hero” that the U.S. military is using officers’ stated willingness to fire on civilians who resist government efforts to disarm civilians as a “litmus test” of their fitness to serve as officers. From the perspective of this website, this represents a subversion of a clear second amendment right of civilians to bear arms in the defense of their liberty.
(The Daily Sheeple)
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“THE GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD TODAY.”
Martin Luther King’s 1967 description of the United States, in the midst of the Vietnam war, was scarcely mentioned in the pageantry of national self-congratulation this month as inauguration day and MLK’s birthday celebrations coincided. Numerous commentators noted the day as a fulfillment of King’s “dream,” ignoring the nightmare aspect of his thought embodied in the reality of the current violence. As Nick Alexandrov sees it, this is but the continuation of the historical blight of American exceptionalism or blindness to the misdeeds of our own country, a condition that is especially to be regretted when it occurs among the country’s so-called “intellectuals.”
(Counterpunch)
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KNOCK, KNOCK WHO’S THERE? IT’S FOLKS FROM SENECA, SELMA AND STONEWALL WHOM YOU CITED IN YOUR INAUGURATION SPEECH, MR. PRESIDENT.
The lofty presidential concerns for an improved situation for women, blacks and gays will be the focus of those calls, specifically some “what are you going to do about” demands for putting those sentiments into practice. An article written from an LGBT perspective cites several examples of actions the President could take in regard to equality of rights for same-sex couples by the stroke of his executive pen, circumventing the claim that his “hands are tied” by a reactionary Congress from taking actions consistent with his rhetoric.
(The Guardian)
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“THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH MARYLAND IS THAT IT’S SURROUNDED BY VIRGINIA AND PENNSYLVANIA.”
This utterance by a Maryland gun control activist highlights the situation in which Maryland in general and Baltimore specifically have stringent gun control laws but still have persistently high rates of crimes involving lethal weapons. In a way, Baltimore’s problem is that it is “surrounded by Maryland” as the city has stronger gun controls than does the the state. The easy movement of weapons from one region to another illustrates the problem of trying to control the violent use of guns by banning or regulating the sale of them in particular regions.
(Baltimore Sun)
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ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: WHO TAKES OUT THE TRASH AROUND HERE ANYWAY?
County and Emerald Coast Utilities Authority are in conflict over whether the county will continue to operate its revenue-rich Perdido Land Landfill; or whether this will be done by a private company which will shift the trash out of the county to more ecologically friendly landfills. County officials claim they were blind-sided by the Authority’s action and fight to maintain the Perdido facility.
(Pensacola News-Journal)
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Quote of the day…
After more than two decades of the apparel industry knowing about the risks to these workers, nothing substantial has changed. Brands still keep their audit results secret. They still walk away when it suits them and trade unions are still marginalized, weakening workers’ ability to speak up when they are at risk.
Judy Gearhart, workers’ rights advocate, on latest factory fire in Bangladesh in which 7 people were killed, some apparently because emergency exit doors were blocked.
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I don’t think that there is even a “far left” or ” far right” any more. Between the tea party on the one hand and the smaller but no less vociferously deranged group of “left” conspiracists — Truthers and the like — there’s not a trace of discernible political ideology. There’s just a mass of overlapping theories, in which the Evil Gubmint, or the UN, or the Men in Black, or (for the old-fashioned types) the Illuminati, the Catholics, the Freemasons, or/and the Jews are somehow manipulating the “MSM”, the courts, the police, the internet, the libraries, and ultimately the “sheeple” (that seems to be a popular word this week) to unclear ends and for undefined but unquestionably nefarious goals.
The bottom line for all these theories, however, is that only the conspiracists are “in the know”, while everyone else is deluded and gullible and probably mind-controlled through the air, the water, your fillings, and radio waves. I guess that’s the attraction of the position: they get to claim that they know something everybody else doesn’t.