Study: Gun Nuts have AK-47 Penis envy

 

I cannot fathom an idiot laced family that would use religion and its scriptures to support the lunacy of a gang of gun nuts who represent the primary reason for the 42,781 gun violence deaths in 2021. What the hell is "Muscular Christianity" and where in the Bible does it say to, favor ‘stand your ground’ over ‘turn the other cheek?’ In Peter Manseau's perspective in the Washington Post, he offers this headline...

"Why so many guns on Christmas cards? Because Jesus was ‘manly and virile.’"

It would seem that we have a very large population of impotent males in this country since they require some 390 million guns to show their virility. The American Journal of Men's Health says...

Although there has been no direct empirical evidence linking sexual dysfunction (SD) with gun ownership, speculation has been widespread and persistent for decades.

What this Christmas card says about congressional dysfunction...

There's more science from the Journal...

"Our primary hypothesis, derived from the psychosexual theory of gun ownership, asserts that men experiencing SD are more likely to personally own guns than other men. To test this hypothesis, we used recently collected data from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS), a national probability sample of 780 men, and binary logistic regression to model gun ownership as a function of SD. Our key finding is that men experiencing SD are no more likely to own guns than men without SD."

The Journal says findings are important for sexual dysfunction because, "they contribute to our understanding of factors associated with gun ownership by challenging the belief that phallic symbolism and masculinity somehow drive men with SD to purchase guns." I live in Arizona, where all that is necessary to own a gun, and carry it anywhere you want, is a warm body. But no matter what open gun law state you live in, you can now marvel over inadequate gun guts carrying.

Here's more research from the Journal...

"The psychosexual theory of gun ownership has three primary propositions. The first proposition is that guns are phallic symbols. In his Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, [Freud] argued that “the penis is symbolized primarily by objects which resemble it in form, being long and upstanding, such as sticks, umbrellas, poles, trees, and the like; also by objects which, like the thing symbolized, have the property of penetrating, and consequently of injuring, the body,—that is to say, pointed weapons of all sorts: knives, daggers, lances, sabres; fire-arms are similarly used: guns, pistols and revolvers, these last being a very appropriate symbol on account of their shape.”

"The second proposition is that guns are symbols of masculinity. In U.S. culture, guns are associated with masculinity because they are primarily used by men.

"The final proposition is that some men acquire guns as a means of compensation when they perceive losses in virility and masculinity."

This study from The American Journal of Men's Health should be of top interest to gun control advocates explaining in so many ways why gun nuts do what they do. As far as spreading cheer with your AK-47, the recipients of these cards, assuming you are not a gun rights advocate, will be able to snicker at friends and relatives who may have a bedroom problem. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Just How Unamerican is the Republican Party?

 

Juan Williams, who is an opinion contributor to The Hill believes it is pretty extensive. I did a post recently, "Are You Ready for America's Civil War II," which depicts a country in conflict, clearly defined by the fact that the radical right mounted an attack on the U.S. Capitol this last Jan. 6, in an act of insurrection. I think it is safe to say that this combination of sedition and treason was initiated and then choreographed by Donald Trump.

Williams is a fair-minded person, a Democrat, with two Republican sons, but still unable to "stomach" what has happened to the GOP. There are many out there with that opinion, but, unfortunately, many do not speak up like Williams. Here's a couple of his grievances...

"How can anyone dismiss a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol as just 'one day in January,' to quote former Vice President Mike Pence.

"Doesn’t it infuriate you to see so many Republicans make lying about the winner of the 2020 election a test of party loyalty?"

Well, the right certainly has its mentor to try and prove the 2020 Presidential election was a fraud. As of the first of this year there were well over 30,000 lies attributed to Donald Trump, leading his movement of misinformation. The poor souls who follow him have a cookie cutter image of how to spread his deception, and they have been very effective. But there is evidence Trump's popularity is waning with the failure of his History Tour to draw crowds.

Here's a take on Republicans from a Texas Democrat...

"another strong conservative member of the GOP, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (Texas), offers a similar assessment. Crenshaw, speaking at a public event this month, described unnamed far-right GOP members of Congress as “grifters” and 'performance artists.'”

My gut tells me he is talking about the five simpletons: Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorne and Paul Gosar. Combined, their IQs would be in the double digits. But what is most compelling about this gang is the morons who elected them in the states of California, Georgia, Colorado, No. Carolina and right here in Arizona. Lord knows, the people have the right to vote but do they have the right to deliver the country certifiable idiots.

It's hard to say when the GOP last made an attempt at governing. Mostly it's vision is to block anything the Democrats want to do, with some help from lowlife Dems like Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema. Williams mentions a host of books written about Donald Trump and I have read most of them. One of them by a close family member, his niece Mary Trump. Most of the others are written by acclaimed journalists like Bob Woodward. The books basically describe a monster.

 Mary Trump: Donald Trump Had The Power To Stop Jan. 6 Riot...

And here is a statement that should be chilling to all Americans who value our democracy...

In the last year, every congressional Republican voted against a bill to help the country recover from the economic damage caused by COVID-19.

In closing, there is still Covid-19 raging across the United States, in large part due to Donald Trump and his Republican cronies. As of this writing, there have been 51,075,976 coronavirus cases in the U.S. and 820,194 deaths. Think about that folks, over 800,000 people, many of which could still be alive...if not for Republicans, led by Donald Trump.

Are You Ready for America's Civil War II

 

Once again Charles M Blow is on top of the latest in the war on democracy. We could have a civil war, he says, which looks like it already started on January 6, at the U.S. Capitol insurrection. He references Texas' violation of the Constitution and federal laws by passing legislation forbidding abortions. 

Then, SCOTUS let the law stand, but with a slight compromise, allowing abortion providers to sue. Here's the scenario...

Anyone who assists in providing an illegal abortion — from the provider down to the person who gives a woman a ride to the clinic — can still be sued. Roe v. Wade has essentially been overturned in the state, and soon that astonishing reality may not only become permanent there but may also spread to other states.

Ridiculous, but that is what we have come to expect from Texas' moron governor, Greg Abbott. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was furious in her dissent...

“This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure. It echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to ‘veto’ or ‘nullif[y]’ any federal law with which they disagreed.”

And who is John C. Calhoun? The answer from Blow...

"I found the invocation of South Carolina’s Calhoun striking. Yes, he was a strong believer in nullification, the idea that states could nullify federal laws, but he was also a raging racist who went further than the slave owners who saw slavery as a 'necessary evil,' seeing it instead as a positive good."

THIS IS SCARY: Kim Iversen: Is CIVIL WAR Looming? Americans SUPPORT Red States, Blue States Seceding From US...

Having grown up in the South, and in the 40s and 50s when the Ku Klux Klan was running rampant, as a very young boy I once witnessed the lynching of a Black man. The experience was ghastly and tortuous as I knew the man had done nothing to deserve this. And I had no prejudice against Blacks since it just didn't make sense to me that I should hate somebody just because of their color. There were many incidents over the years where I disagreed with friends, even family.

That was then, but racism has once again reared its ugly head, somewhat due to Donald Trump's openness for white supremacy, strongly supported by advisers like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. This has not gone unnoticed by Charles Blow...

"I see too many uneasy parallels between what was happening nearly 200 years ago and what is happening now. I see this country on the verge of another civil war, as the Calhounian impulse is reborn."

As Blow surmises we won't see the number of deaths experienced in the Civil War starting in 1861, lasting to 1865, even though there has already been violence and some lives lost in the current turmoil. Contrary...

"this new war will be fought in courts, statehouses and ballot boxes, rather than in the fields."

And with this less people will die, but more of democracy will be lost...perhaps all of it forever. 

 

 

 

Anti-vaxxers will not be "coddled"

 

Charles M. Blow is a well-known columnist with the New York Times and he has finally had enough. With anti-vaxxers. Like many of us in the U.S., Blow says, "I am furious at the unvaccinated." The understatement of the year. A personal incident fueled his reaction against a friend who, unvaccinated, could have endangered himself and others around him...like his buddy, Charles Blow. What happened next was typical of a group well defined as anti-science...

"I recently found out that a friend of mine — a smart guy — was not vaccinated, and I confronted him about it.

"How could he have not gotten his vaccination? And how had he not seen fit to tell me and our other mutual friends? Wasn’t he worried about the risk he was posing not just to himself, but to the rest of us?

"He tried to laugh it off, offering up a bunch of concerns rooted in conspiracy theories. But I told him that he had to get vaccinated, period."

Blow also commented, "I will not coddle willful ignorance of the unvaccinated anymore." Well said! Don't you love the word, "coddle?" It means, "to treat tenderly; nurse or tend indulgently; pamper." Not that I think we have had an overabundance of coddling of the anti-science bunch, but there has been more than enough of mutual concession and compromise between those of us who believe that the scientific community knows what it is doing and "those" who don't.

The Story Behind The Anti-Vaxx Movement In America | Rise And Fall...

Charles Blow has more...

"The next time I saw him, he was worried about the omicron variant and asked if I would go with him to get the jab. I texted him a site where he could register and told him to let me know once he had. That was Saturday. He still hasn’t signed up.

"I am disappointed, and I am angry, not just with my friend but with all the people who are choosing not to get vaccinated."

And yes, most of us have tried our best to be "tolerant" with those who sometime challenge the IQ system to its limits. I remember when I was in school, all the way through college, not only in science classes, but any curriculum where you can arrive at a solution by establishing facts that substantiate your problem. The teacher decided we had solved the issue, and we accepted this, not just because the teacher said so, but because we had scientifically determined our results.

I don't like concluding a post by calling names, unfortunately anti-vaxxers have forced this ploy repeatedly in the last two-plus years, and once again I must say it with enthusiasm... the anti-science bunch are IDIOTS.

 

Is John Roberts a Quasi Liberal?

 

While Nancy Gertner and Laurence H. Tribe advocate expanding the Supreme Court, Chief Justice, John Roberts, definitely a conservative, believes the court made the wrong decision in supporting the Texas abortion law. Here's what he said...

"John Roberts, warned Friday that the Supreme Court risks losing its own authority if it allows states to circumvent the courts as Texas did with its near-total abortion ban."

SCOTUS' three liberal justices, of course, agreed. More from the Chief Justice...

"Roberts wrote that the 'clear purpose and actual effect' of the Texas law was 'to nullify this Court’s rulings.' That, he said, undermines the Constitution and the fundamental role of the Supreme Court and the court system as a whole."

It just shows the chasm between a justice who had been shown to be objective in the past, compared to the other conservative justices who can't see beyond radical Republican guidelines. NBC reports it...

"was a remarkable plea by the chief justice to his colleagues on the court to resist the efforts by right-wing lawmakers to get around court decisions they dislike, in this case Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal in the United States, within limits."

 Debate: We Should Expand the Supreme Court | Intelligence Squared U.S...

At the same time, Nancy Gertner and Laurence H. Tribe are strongly recommending an increase in the court's size to prevent future decisions like the one for Texas abortion rights. They said...

"We now believe that Congress must expand the size of the Supreme Court and do so as soon as possible. We did not come to this conclusion lightly."

If you want credibility for their determination...

"One of us is a constitutional law scholar and frequent advocate before the Supreme Court, the other a federal judge for 17 years. After serving on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court over eight months, hearing multiple witnesses, reading draft upon draft of the final report issued this week, our views have evolved. We started out leaning toward term limits for Supreme Court justices but against court expansion and ended up doubtful about term limits but in favor of expanding the size of the court."

In other words, they know what they are talking about and collectively have been persuaded that President Biden should add more members to SCOTUS. Yes, there are opponents, many Republicans, and Biden's Supreme Court committee decision is on the fence. However, when you look at the antics of the GOP, particularly in gerrymandering, you have to realize it won't be a level playing field for many years. This makes it advisable that Joe Biden makes the move.

Covid-19 Surges in Michigan - Rest of U.S Next

 

The worst we have seen so far, says Nurse Katie Sefton at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. The state's hospitalizations jumped 88% in the past month, according to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. Here's the scenario...

"We have more patients than we've ever had at any point, and we're seeing more people die at a rate we've never seen die before," said Jim Dover, president and CEO of Sparrow Health System.

 More from Dover...

"Since January, we've had about 289 deaths; 75% are unvaccinated people," Dover said. "And the very few (vaccinated people) who passed away all were more than 6 months out from their shot. So we've not had a single person who has had a booster shot die from Covid."

 Michigan hospitals sounding the alarm as COVID-19 surges...

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said...

Case spikes have hit the Northeast -- where governors are calling in the National Guard to help -- and surges in the Upper Midwest have been "dire," he said.

But here is even worse from Osterholm...

"We expect to see other areas of the country also light up in the next several weeks."

The majority are not vaccinated, according to nurse Danielle Williams, who said the patients commented they "had no idea they could get pummeled so hard by the virus." Where the hell have these idiots been, living under a rock? One health care worker said recently, they were sick and tired of taking care of people who apparently have no regard for themselves or others. It's time for the gulag, where these dumbos can do their thing and kill each other.

UPDATE: The Agony of Stupidity...Did Donald Trump Reintroduce Fascism to America?

 

UPDATE: Fascism expert says Trump’s cult of personality is growing

This country thought it had left fascism behind when it defeated Germany and Italy in the 2nd World War. It took a raving maniac to open the door to its re-entry into to the United States. Donald Trump is the benefactor to a dictatorial form of government his pathetic supporters are willing to tolerate. Trump lost to Joe Biden but has never admitted his loss. Since then, the President has had to muster forces to combat Trump's continuing attacks on democracy.

Biden has also had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, which, again, Donald Trump holds the responsibility for letting the virus get out of control, resulting in a major problem for the Biden administration. But one thing continues to mystify me in all that is transpiring: why the hell would Trump followers want to succumb to a dictator, especially one that is a lowlife like the ex-president. And why would the apathetics from the left who don't vote seem to endure this lunacy?

One of this country's major allies, Germany, seems to be headed to the radical right, according to AlterNet...

"Germany’s gift to the far right is the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, the public-policy arm of the country’s most prominent extremist party, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Erasmus, a Dutch humanist of the Renaissance best known for his ironic essay “In Praise of Folly,” would have been appalled at such a grotesque misappropriation of his name. The AfD, after all, has built its political base on a series of follies diametrically opposed to humanism, from its initial anti-immigration screeds to its current overtures to the anti-vaccination crowd."

 One must wonder, with a new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, just taking office, who is a

member of the Social Democratic Party, plus working closely with Angela Merkel in the past, is he on board with all this? I mean the AfD will be funded to establish outposts of hate throughout the world. The authors' comment...

The far right hasn’t had this kind of opportunity for global expansion since fascism’s heyday in the 1930s."

And it is clear that the Republican Party is regularly doing its part to kill democracy, raising autocracy to new heights. But although Donald Trump persecuted Hispanics and totally shut down Muslims from entering the United States, five fascism experts said the ex-president did not qualify as a fascist...

"Every one of them stated that to be a fascist, one must support the revolutionary, usually violent overthrow of the entire government/Constitution, and reject democracy entirely."

Trump was...

"too individualist for the inherently collectivist philosophy of fascism, and not sufficiently committed to the belief that violence is good for its own sake, as a vital cleansing force."

In other words, he was more into himself that he would embrace a movement like fascism. Steve Bannon, though, is another thing. The Daily Beast reports...

"Bannon may be the poster child for far-right “populism” and “economic nationalism”—euphemistic slogans for neo-fascism and neo-Nazism—but The Brink (in theaters March 29) is no puff piece on the founder of Breitbart News, whose role in the Trump campaign, and subsequent stint as White House Chief Strategist, helped make him an extremist celebrity power broker."

Steve Bannon is definitely an authoritarian who many thought was Donald Trump's brain. It is interesting to note that, as late as October of this year, Bannon was quoted as saying, "You need to kill this [Biden] administration in its crib." But there is still hope and it comes from the state of Georgia, and the far-left of the Democratic Party, a faction I recently criticized. The fact is I have been a Progressive for years but recently tired of the "Squad's" antics.

If You’re Not Scared About American Fascism, You’re Not Paying Attention...

AlterNet starts with quoting the recent low black turnout in Virginia then turns to South Fulton, Georgia, the state’s eighth most populous city, where Khalid Kamau, a “prominent Democratic Socialist… got 59 percent of the vote.” Here's the scenario...

On December 2, the paper noted that two city council members with a combined “four-and-a-half decades of experience” on the panel “were ousted Tuesday by younger, more progressive challengers.” (One victor, 34-year-old Antonio Lewis, is among the activists featured in “The Georgia Way.”)

This may very well point the way to more Progressive candidates from the left, but it does not open the door to stone-walling tactics. And turning back to the original question, "Did Donald Trump Reintroduce Fascism to America?', probably not, but not because he didn't want to. This maniac would have done anything to stay in office, denies losing, and continues to run for president in 2024. Trump has held several rallies since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection but Iowa was the worst.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds, along with other state politicians joined Trump in October at a rally that CNN's Dean Obeidallah described as "the most alarming by far." Here is Obeidallah's take...

"Some of these very same people, who just nine months ago were slamming Trump for his role in the Capitol riots, were now only too happy to be seen supporting him. This is politics at its worst -- and at its most dangerous for our democracy."

The most hypocritical of the bunch is Sen. Grassley...

who on January 6 was escorted by his security detail to a secure location to protect him from the pro-Trump mob that had laid siege on the Capitol. Grassley, who voted to certify the 2020 election, made a veiled reference to Trump in his statement, noting that the lawsuits filed after the election had failed and that "politicians in Washington should not second guess the courts once they have ruled."

Iowa can do without Chuck Grassley. The U.S. Senate can do without Chuck Grassley. This country can do without Chuck Grassley, just like an abundance of other Republicans in Congress. If we don't stop the GOP's attack on democracy, the U.S. doors will swing open, eventually welcoming a government promulgated by nutcases like the freaked out five, Matt Gaetz, M.T. Greene, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorne and Paul Gosar. Any one of these could lead us to fascism.