clair070

Good points here: When one looks down the lengthening list of prominent male journalists who have been credibly accused of sexual harassment, one thing that sticks out is that they were all obsessed with those godforsaken emails. Charlie Rose, Glenn Thrush, Mark Halperin, Bill O'Reilly: Besides being apparent sleazeballs, they were all big fans of the idea that the thousands of Democratic emails, some released by Clinton herself and some stolen by presumed Russian agents and leaked on WikiLeaks, would somehow turn into an earth-shattering scandal. WikiLeaks is, of course, an operation run by Julian Assange, an accused rapist who spent the election leaking emails that somehow never had the shocking revelations he insinuated readers would find. Rose went after Clinton on emails like a dog after a bone. O'Reilly seemed certain that all these emails would somehow prove Clinton was guilty of something. Halperin could barely wipe the drool off his face, so certain was he that emails ...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Of course, "life after death" -- the concept that some aspect of us (soul/conscience/spirit) lives on after our biological form ceases to live-- is the basis of many religions. However, generally, if you have studied religion, much of their basis is illogical bullshit and rests on unproven mythology, so it's all hard to accept, particularly when there are so many different religions claiming they are the true religion. Indeed, I've been a solid atheist for many years because of this. I define "atheist" as not being religious in any way and not having any belief in god. I think to a high probability that no god exists in the tradition of any of the major religions, however, it's possible there is some sort of "god" out there, depending on exactly how you define god. In any case, as an atheist, I have tended to not believe in "life after death", and certainly, in terms of our standard understanding of the universe, it's hard to know...

Each US presidential election seems to release certain types of demons. Bill Clinton 1992-- rightwing revenge and conspiracy theory demons George W. Bush 2000--  demons of war and death Barack Obama 2008-- demons of racism Donald Trump 2016-- demons of sexual abuse Not that each kind of demon didn't exist previously, but that each demon flourished after that election. And after each new election, the previous demons kept growing as new demons were added; all these demons are still floating out in the American mind, wreaking havoc on our politics and wreaking real damage to people. All this time, the Republicans have become progressively more insane and idiotic-- demons of mental illness have increased. How many demons can we handle before we completely fall apart? Chaos accompanies these demons too, and we are currently beset by chaos: news chaos, political chaos, climate chaos, environmental chaos, military chaos.

“the only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns.”

United Nations officials say Yemen will face the world’s largest famine in decades if the Saudi-led coalition refuses to lift its blockade on deliveries of aid . On Monday, the coalition shut air, land and sea routes into Yemen after Houthi rebels fired a missile that was intercepted near the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia says its blockade is needed to stop Iran from sending weapons to the rebels. The U.N. says aid agencies were given no prior notice of the Saudi decision to shut down all land, air and seaports in Yemen. Meanwhile, medical experts warn the clampdown will worsen Yemen’s cholera epidemic, which has sickened more than 900,000 people. Why is this fucking war still going? Where is any evidence that Yemeni rebels are doing ANYTHING to Saudi Arabia? Also there's a discussion of the political dynamic in play in Saudi Arabia, and the apparent recent consolidation of power by the prince Mohammed bin Salman perpetrating this horrific war. It's pure evil and the Tru...

"Saudi Corruption Purge Snares $33 Billion of Net Worth in Riyadh -- Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s crackdown on some of Saudi Arabia’s richest and most powerful men has put $33 billion of personal wealth at risk."  More 3's in the piece here: The stunning series of arrests has implicated three of the country’s richest people, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who’s No. 50 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, with $19 billion. Also being held are the kingdom’s second- and fifth-wealthiest people, as well as a travel-agency mogul and Bakr Binladin, a scion of a one of the country’s biggest construction empires. The arrests, which the crown prince said are part of a fight against corruption, reportedly have led the government to freeze the accounts of the more than three dozen men detained and believed to be held at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton.

So... another day, another horrible mass shooting in the US.... in Texas, in a church, by a white guy with a semi-automatic weapon. Isn't it clear that these domestic shootings represent a larger threat to the US than Islamic terrorism? Why exactly hasn't ISIS figured out that the best way to kill lots of people in the US is to use readily available semi-automatic weaponry??? As far as I know, there is no law saying guns can only be sold to WASPs. The ready availability of guns in the US has been known since forever, and Muslim terrorists don't know this? Does this make any sense? My guess would be the PTB don't want Islamic terrorists using guns, since that would make a better argument to ban guns, which the NRA does not want. So Islamic terrorists run stupid attacks like using a truck to run down pedestrians and cyclists. Still terrible, but clearly a far lower body count than recent mass shootings.