Sunday, April 29, 2012

Yes, they are.

It is worthwhile and timely that the Washington Post published this article by Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Although it is well-known in the grass/net-root left that their title, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem" is an obvious truth, it is nice to have members of the establishment finally admit it as well.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the gop's position, they made this bed with the clear and utterly cynical understanding that if they sabotage government enough while Democrats are in charge, voters have no alternative but to accept their hostage-taking strategy eventually. I have hope that the 2010 midterms were a fluke, that recent events and republicans' own extremism will finally repudiate the uncompromising authoritarianism. Can their pride allow them to the center if and when the American electorate rejects their far, far right agenda? History says no.


Truth hurts.
"Mike Lofgren, a veteran Republican congressional staffer, wrote an anguished diatribe last year about why he was ending his career on the Hill after nearly three decades. 'The Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe,' he wrote on the Truthout Web site."

Hardly.
"Democrats are hardly blameless, and they have their own extreme wing and their own predilection for hardball politics. But these tendencies do not routinely veer outside the normal bounds of robust politics. If anything, under the presidencies of Clinton and Obama, the Democrats have become more of a status-quo party. They are centrist protectors of government, reluctantly willing to revamp programs and trim retirement and health benefits to maintain its central commitments in the face of fiscal pressures."

Plain reality, suprizing to see this prescription make the Washington Post.
"We understand the values of mainstream journalists, including the effort to report both sides of a story. But a balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality. If the political dynamics of Washington are unlikely to change anytime soon, at least we should change the way that reality is portrayed to the public.
Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views. Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?" (emphasis mine)

Conclusion? Equivalence is a ridiculous fallacy when the right side of the equation is so committed to the destruction of democracy and the attainment of absolute power. While there is no surrender on the left because republicans will simply invent a left-wing boogieman, there is an easy realignment for the right because Democrats want more than anything to work with republicans to fix national problems. Only kooks like me want revenge for all the gop's crimes, the establishment is willing to forgive and forget. Will it ever happen? Again, history says no. Authoritarianism in this country led to our Civil War, while in Europe it led to World War. The exception was the Great Depression. The business class experienced a momentary loss of confidence because they really were dependent on the US economy for their profits and privilege. Concurrently, there was an organized liberal force around FDR that was ready to step in and win the allegiance of a critical mass of the electorate. None of these elements are present now, which is why I fear it is only a matter of time before the true believers on the right begin a new and even more bloody civil war.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Peel back the 2nd Amendment

Hopefully part one of analysis on this excellent article from the New Yorker.

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”--Second Amendment to the US Constitution

If only this language was a little less ambiguous. People interpret it many different ways. It is maddening because of the inflexibility on these issues.

"The firearms used by a well-regulated militia, at the time the Second Amendment was written, were mostly long arms that, like a smaller stockpile of pistols, could discharge only once before they had to be reloaded. In size, speed, efficiency, capacity, and sleekness, the difference between an eighteenth-century musket and the gun that George Zimmerman was carrying is roughly the difference between the first laptop computer—which, not counting the external modem and the battery pack, weighed twenty-four pounds—and an iPhone."

I wonder if our modern gun enthusiasts know about the prototype to the Second Amendment?

"In the United States, Article VI of the Articles of Confederation, drafted in 1776 and ratified in 1781, required that 'every state shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.' In early America, firearms and ammunition were often kept in public arsenals." (emphasis mine)

Just something to think about. Certainly doesn't sound like a prescription for private armies the way most contemporary militias operate.

Lazy Boots

Having tracked the comment thread on Owen's blog all day, I am more convinced than ever that there are some really ugly people around here. This campaign season is going to be even more ugly than the last one. I have never been involved with a local race like this, where "official" actions are personal. Decisions are personal. Second, it is awfully easy to rack up 19000+ posts if all you do is cut and paste.

I have been urged to write letters to the editor in support of Tanya's campaign. Somehow it seems different than blogging. This is my space. What am I going to say? It would be weird. Even when I do attract the occasional troll on this page, they go away with nary a wave of my hand. I always feel like a letter to the editor, where someone is going to judge whether or not to print it, has to be utterly perfect. My perfectionist streak, like dumping the extra evidence into an essay question to make it harder to criticize, causes freezes. I do not like being judged by people with less than a Ph.D. Maybe it is time to give this up and concentrate on professional, academic writing.

Things are never really going to change, and nothing I do is going to matter either way.

Gauleiter Robinson and his merry thugs

Owen Robinson at boots and sabers has already alerted the faithful to the enemy in their midst.

Let the character assassination begin!

As usual, the lazy gauleiter of Washington Co. has nothing to add by way of analysis but leaves the way open for trolls to let Tanya Lohr know that her kind is not wanted.

I am not even sure which one is him.

While it is still early, the comments are already rolling in.

1.
Well she has the politician speak down.
I guess my first question would be what she considers an adequate amount for public education.
What does respect for women look like to her and why not respect for people in general?
Affordable health care is not something that will be solved at the state level unless she means raising taxes on some to pay for health care for others.
I wonder if she would agree with us recalling her after a year if she wins?  No - that’s different - she’s a woman and that would be disrespectful.
Tad
Posted by Tad on April 27, 2012 at 1929 hrs

Victimization, it's not just for leaders of the African-American community.
2.
There’s a winner for ya! Egad.
Posted by bajaskier on April 27, 2012 at 2151 hrs

Glad you think so.

3.
For accountability sake there should always be a candidate to run against an incumbent.  Be it within their own party or another party. It helps keep the incumbent accountable for what they’ve done and what they say they will do.
There are many liberals that are not happy with how Obama has performed and it would have been nice to see a Democratic candidate to run against him.
Posted by Pat on April 28, 2012 at 0744 hrs

Isn't that why you all embraced Romney so wholeheartedly?

4.
I guess men don’t count in Lohr’s world.
This is the kind of teacher “educating” our children?
I hesitate to ask, what does “adequate” mean in her world?  50% of my time an effort?  75%? 100%?  110%?

Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 0909 hrs

I am pretty sure this is the Kewaskumite who half-heartedly stood up for murdering black kids on my post a while back, he has made similar comments in the past. Next time go ahead and call her a femi-nazi Kevin, you know you want to.

5.
I must admit that Grothman’s statements have not shown a lot of respect for women. He has attacked single mothers as child abusers, stated that women don’t need to earn as much as men because it isn’t as important to them and been very vocal about the right of a woman to make her own healthcare decisions (not talking about abortion).
I don’t want to state this as a fact but really want an answer so I do not misrepresent the facts. Does Grothman still live with his mother or is that an attack being thrown around by his opponents?
Posted by MoveForward on April 28, 2012 at 1029 hrs

6.Since when does wanting to restore respect for women mean disrespecting men or saying they don’t count as much? Kevin, how does that mean “men don’t count” in her world? Grothman said women don’t need to make as much money as men. How is that not disrespecting women? If he had said something similar about exclusively men and this woman only said let’s restore respect to women, that’d be one thing, but that’s not the case here.
Posted by VAPolitico on April 28, 2012 at 1136 hrs

Update:
For more lovelies.
  1. Wow-
    two teachers…..I’d love to see their house on the chain in Minocqua!!
    Posted by lovetoride on April 28, 2012 at 1315 hrs
  2. “I want to restore adequate funding for public education, respect for women, affordable family health care and strengthen our communities by empowering working people,” Lohr said.
    It is a shame that liberals cannot be honest
    Posted by Mcbragg on April 28, 2012 at 1318 hrs
  3. Glad to see the Republicans bashing without knowing. Lovetoride, what an idiot. You have no knowledge of this young lady or her situation. Give it a rest.
    Posted by dodgecountydem on April 28, 2012 at 1435 hrs
  4. VA Politico,
    What does restoring “respect to women” mean?
    That statement, by itself, is overtly exclusionary to men.
    Why does Lohr not talk about “restoring respect to men”? Progressives advocate huge government welfare largess that incentivizes single parenthood and destroys the institution of marriage. (Many times, if the couple gets married, they lose the government goodies and handouts.)
    As a result of this “progressive” mentality, men have become “disposable” to the family unit in our society.
    Just who’s “respect” is Lohr talking about here?


    Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 1511 hrs
  5. Kevin, it’s only “overtly exclusionary” to men if you want to get all outraged and upset about it. Your example about how men have become “disposable” to the family unit is ridiculous. As is your assertion that anyone is incentivizing single parenthood. Recognizing that there are single parents and making sure that those parents and their children have safety nets isn’t destroying the institution of marriage. It’s an effort o provide care for people who need it, instead of doing what you do, which is judge and shame them as a whole, regardless of whether there are factors beyond their control.
    Seriously Kevin, you’d probably be a much happier person if you didn’t spend so much time going out of your way to be offended.
    Posted by VAPolitico on April 28, 2012 at 1519 hrs
  6. VA Politico
    “Kevin, it’s only “overtly exclusionary” to men if you want to get all outraged and upset about it.”
    ....and progressives don’t get worked into a lather, offended, and outraged over little things? I’m merely dealing from the progressive playbook here…is that now a bad thing?
    Did you read Glenn Grothman’s newsletter on all the goodies a single mom gets with 2 kids and how much she would lose if she married a dad, with a job?
    It’s a very compelling economic argument to throw Dad to the curb, or risk losing a ton of government goodies.
    Until government stops disrespecting men by making it more lucrative for mom to be without Dad, Democrats look very, very, foolish talking about restoring respect to anyone.
    The debate is about government disrespecting the sanctity of the family unit, not about disrespecting women.
    Lohr appears clueless on this, based on her comments, fresh off the anti-man, Emerge conference.
    Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 1533 hrs
  7. Kevin, do not believe what Glen puts in his newsletter. It is spin, all the way exaggerated to make a point. He listed every possible program to the max. That is not real life, but what Glen would like you to believe. And before you get into one of your little Kevin fits, please provide proof that all those numbers are real and that there is someone out there actually getting those benefits.
    Posted by dodgecountydem on April 28, 2012 at 1657 hrs
  8. dodgecountydem,
    Are you saying the numbers in this newsletter are inaccurate?
    http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/grothman/Documents/Grothman-families.pdf
    Please point out which of the welfare “goodies” are inaccurate?
    If mom making $15K/year marries Dad making 30K per year, most to all of the free government goodies do go away under a 4 person family scenario.
    You accused this newsletter of being inaccurate, where?
    I understand why Democrats hate this newsletter, it shows how anti-family “progressive policies really are.

    Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 1704 hrs
  9. Kevin, I looked at Grothman’s numbers. They are what I said—max benefits. “He listed every possible program to the max. That is not real life, but what Glen would like you to believe.”
    If a women gets married and makes a family of 3 a family of four, she only looses many of the benefits if the income between her and her husband actually rises above $40,000. If both husband and wife are working full time at $10.00 per hour—which is far above what most unskilled jobs pay. (You pay your people less than $9.00 an hour I am sure.) At $10.00 an hour full-time, husband and wife make just over $40,000 a year. But wait, most places will not hire full time because then they have to provide benefits—which would take our family off of Badger Care. If they are less than full time, there are few benefits to getting married.
    Posted by dodgecountydem on April 28, 2012 at 1722 hrs
  10. dodgecountydem,
    I did not see you point out an inaccuracy…you accused Grothman of inaccuracy…I guess you were inaccurate.
    Even if we go with your example, both parents will have to sweat and work all year…including paying taxes to lose just about as much in government freebies.
    It’s still far more attractive to not get married, not work, and collect the government goodies and have all your time available.
    The rest of us suckers are doing it wrong, being responsible and married.
    Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 1731 hrs
  11. I wonder if she’ll try and get her students to work on her campaign. They can probably get credit for the new bogus “volunteer class” the district just implemented. Let’s wait and see…..
    Posted by Mary on April 28, 2012 at 1735 hrs
  12. The plain fact is Glen Grothman’s district probably would elect Al Capone if he was running on te Republican ticket.
    Posted by Dave on April 28, 2012 at 1746 hrs
  13. Mary, your words are slander—making assumptions to try to demean someone. Where does Jesus make up stories and lie about those he disagrees with? I thought you were a Christian.
    Posted by dodgecountydem on April 28, 2012 at 1751 hrs
20.
dodgecountydem,
You accuse someone of slander when you could not point out the inaccuracy of Grothman’s newsletter after your wild allegation?
Dave,
Pretty funny.  I doubt it.  It’s Democrats seem to have the virtual monopoly on electing disreputable criminals like Blago, John Edwards, and Anthony Wiener.
Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 1814 hrs

21.
Good night Kevin,  your closed mind is just not worth it.  And you are a part of the problem—employing people at less than full time so you do not have to provide them with benefits.  Paying less than $15.00 an hour keeps people in the cycle.
Posted by dodgecountydem on April 28, 2012 at 1823 hrs

22.
dodgecountydem,
Well…yeah.  85% of my staff is teenagers.  Democrats passed restrictive child labor laws.  14 and 15 year olds cannot work more than 16 hours in a school week.  16-17 years olds can only work about 26 hours in a school week.
How can they be full time?  Democrats forbid them to work!
The rest of my staff does not want full time employment.  They want to work when it suits them, and I let them off when they need off…even at last minute sometimes.  They value flexibility, not rigidity of full time work.  Many just want to work 3-4 hours, while their kids are in school.
So can I have an apology when you demand I BREAK CHILD LABOR LAWS in pursuit of your demands?  (And also forcing the rest of my workers into a scenario they do not want….)
Personally, teenagers want to work more…to pay for college.  Instead, government forced them to have free time to run with the gang because our government forbids them to excel, and be responsible.
Your comment is beyond contempt in my view.
How many jobs have you created?
Posted by Kevin Scheunemann on April 28, 2012 at 1848 hrs

23.
Are you serious Dem??
Every job is supposed to be full-time?
Every job is supposed to pay at least $15/hr.
Every job should provide benefits?
No - you are part of the problem.  With that attitude you show that you are willing to give away others money regardless of their worth.
Also, part of the problem is that we expect employers to provide insurance.
Geesh - you want people beholden to the employer, to the government, to everyone else but themselves.
Posted by Tad on April 28, 2012 at 1850 hrs

24.
Kevin, are you impying that ‘men are getting slighted’ in society with a straight face? If a woman is staying with a man just to get his insurance benefits, I would gather that there is a problem in the relationship that has nothing to do with liberal government goodies. I think we can raise our boys/men in society to have more to offer a relationship or family so they do not feel so disposable. Your defensive almost gives the impression that you feel personally threatened by women who are able to raise a family without a man.
Posted by Shana Schloemer on April 28, 2012 at 1903 hrs

25.
Dodgecountydem is more than welcome to develop a product and a business plan, and consequently share his wealth with whomever he chooses.
Unfortunately, in this society, it is easier to take some else’s wealth.
Posted by Smeety on April 28, 2012 at 1907 hrs

26.
Tad, is employers aren’t supposed to provide insurance and the government isn’t supposed to provide insurance then how would you like the people who make minimum wage to afford insurance? You say that people should “make what they are worth?” What does that mean?
I have always worked in mental health/human services. In the recent past, I have done suicide assessments and gone out with the medical examiner to do trauma counseling while making $20 an hour. Fortunately, I snagged myself a fancy indisposable man. A “keeper” for more reasons than this. He has great insurance and will always make astronomically more money than I do. He works in a corporate setting so his “worth” has been set by society as far more important than my “worthless” work as a therapist with a master’s degree.
Posted by Shana Schloemer on April 28, 2012 at 1911 hrs

27.
Kevin, why is it every time you address a criticism you say “I’m just taking a page out of the progressive playbook”? At some point, what you’re doing becomes your own playbook, and you have to stop pretending like you’re just “doing what the Dems would do.”
Face it, you’re just as “bad” as those progressives you hate.
Posted by VAPolitico on April 28, 2012 at 1915 hrs

28.
Kevin,
#1—students should have limited work hours.  Getting a High School diploma should come first.
#2—If someone were to come to you—an adult—and ask to work 40 hours a week, full-time would you hire them?  I wonder.  You would probably say no citing the cost of insurance and worker’s comp.
I ask you again to show me a person who is living the scenario that Glenn suggests.  And he twists the numbers to feed his “they are all taking advantage of the government” mentality.  Do you truly believe that most people would rather live off of the government than work and support themselves?  If so, I have a wonderful piece of marshland not too far from here I can sell you.
Posted by dodgecountydem on April 28, 2012 at 1929 hrs


And now the local news



Quite a few people outside of Washington County, WI are now aware of the bigoted creep we have representing us in the State Senate. Glenn Grothman is a frumpy excuse for a man who says awful things about women and vulnerable members of our society. He is a self-proclaimed leader of the tea party in Wisconsin and therefore stands for all the misspelled signs expounding racism and aggression from that freakshow.

Photo of Tanya Lohr speaking at a Recall Grothman event.

This is his newly-announced opponent in the upcoming election, Tanya Lohr. A more diametrically opposed candidate could not have been found. Tanya stands for all that is decent and civilized in American society. She is a dedicated teacher, spouse, and parent. Tanya became an activist not out of some personal ambition or lust for fame, but because she was sick of the right's zealous drive to destroy all that is good. She is a genuine and sincere champion for enlightened reason and civic responsibility.

Here is the story on Tanya's announcement from her hometown West Bend Daily News. And let the mudslinging begin. Grothman summons all the bile-filled disrespect he can muster to attack her as representing "special interests." As though working people in this state, our wives, sisters, mothers, daughters; and the dedicated, underappreciated professionals who teach our children are a special interest akin to his friends in the class-conscious and highly aggressive business community. Business has received more special favors and rents from Grothman's republican partners-in-crime just in the last year than education could ever dream of. But no matter, if you are the submissive brownshirt-in-waiting that believes the nonsense coming out of Grothman's piehole then you don't deserve to live in the decent society Tanya will be fighting for anyway.

Nearby Port Washington also ran a story on Tanya's announcement. This story attempts to place her candidacy in the middle of the determined campaign by republicans to put all women back in the kitchen. So what if they refuse to admit that their consistent attacks on equal pay, reproductive rights, and the rote rollbacks of the rights of women to sue employers for discrimination constitutes a "war on women?" An aggressor never admits they are attacking, it is always "self-defense." Make no mistake, everything we have seen since the 2010 phyrric victory of the disgusting liars in the gop has been a full-court press to wreck the lawful government from the inside and reduce the United States to a banana republic.

Finally, Bluecheddar posted about Tanya's candidacy and spelled out all grothman's offenses against civilized society while listing Tanya's credentials as a Child of Light in this war for decency. I would like in the future to examine more closely just how clear the choice is between the two and how this race will fit in the Wisconsin uprising. For now, it is inspiring to see a regular person enter politics and give hope to many of us who have been taking it on the chin ever since scott walker and his koch-fueled band of thieves came to town.

Time and cynicism

I posted previously on the jaw-dropping level of cynicism in the romney campaign. This news from Paul Krugman really cements it into place even further.

"Mr. Romney tried to make a closed drywall factory in Ohio a symbol of the Obama administration’s economic failure. It was a symbol, all right — but not in the way he intended.
First of all, many reporters quickly noted a point that Mr. Romney somehow failed to mention: George W. Bush, not Barack Obama, was president when the factory in question was closed. Does the Romney campaign expect Americans to blame President Obama for his predecessor’s policy failure?"

Krugman points out the strange alchemy of trying to convince American voters that all bad things happened after Jan 20, 2009 and that all will be fine if we just go back to exactly the way things were before that date.

"Mr. Romney constantly talks about job losses under Mr. Obama. Yet all of the net job loss took place in the first few months of 2009, that is, before any of the new administration’s policies had time to take effect. So the Ohio speech was a perfect illustration of the way the Romney campaign is banking on amnesia, on the hope that voters don’t remember that Mr. Obama inherited an economy that was already in free fall."

In the previous post on Romney's cynicism, Cesca pointed out that a certain number of republican voters really are this stupid. But most will simply use the magical alchemy of doublethink to both know and not know at the same time, allowing them to fully believe that all economic woes are the black guy's fault. Romney just banks on the tribalist phenomenon, that bring the teabagger crowd along with whatever nonsense du jour, while knowing that there are some Americans so busy trying to keep their lives together that they will buy whatever the opposition candidate says. No matter how contrary to real experience that yapping actually is.

Thomas Frank also wrote about the extreme cynicism of campaigning on how badly government works to get into power, and then proceeding to make government work very badly once in to make the prediction true. The most cynical angle is pretending that government is broken because ideology on the right says it must be broken, without also recognizing that those conservatives are the reason it is broken.

In a way, Romney is representing the gop when he says to the President "why haven't you fixed everything we have broken in the last 30 years already?" And, he'll probably get away with it too.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Ugh

Segway Jeremy Ryan posted that Adam Kind, the homeowner who shot Bo Morrison in Slinger, shouted racial slurs on the phone with police.

Later, Jeremy posted at AddictingInfo the unedited 911 call and linked to the Milwaukee JS story on the new evidence. It is very garbled and I couldn't make out the alleged slur, but the justice system seems to be going to great lengths to protect Adam Kind. He was unnamed for quite some time, while Bo's name and subsequent information was immediately known. Like Emmett Till and countless lynching victims before them, Morrison was no angel, but only a sociopath can argue he deserved to die for his actions.

The initial reports made the story sound as though Kind simply found Morrison on his porch and shot him. Now the story seems to be that the party was known, cops were on the scene, and Kind shot Morrison right under their noses. What? Gun nuts often argue the hypothetical that cops are never there when they are needed. In this case, it seems all Kind would have had to do was open the door of his porch and ask the cops to come and get Morrison. But instead he took the law into his own hands to shoot the "intruder." This stinks to high hell before the allegation of shouting "f*cking n*&&er" came to light.

So, government bad and must be destroyed in the view of right-wing nut jobs. Even the police. If you can just shoot someone "threatening you" even when the police are right there, who needs them?

Can we please have a zombie apocalypse soon? Or maybe an alien invasion?

worstest of the worst




Subsidized Union-Busting

Josh Eidelson at Salon recently reported that Federal contracting firms are using taxpayer money for anti-union activities. In just one more stunning demonstration of class warfare on working people, a company called Serco that runs one of many government services for a profit is using part of its contract to force employees to watch anti-union films and listen to anti-union speeches on the clock. Serco doesn't own the facilities or equipment used for these disgusting activities, and using the same rationale right-wing reactionaries use on us, they are using taxpayer money to bring in a professional union-busting lawyer for $350/hour.

Sickening is all I can think. Not only has the business class effectively muscled into government as a for-profit middleman to do work formerly accomplished just fine by actual non-profit government workers, but now they steal taxpayer money to infringe on the freedom of contract workers to organize. And in violation of the law. Not simply the old and practically forgotten, unenforced NLRB regulations but an executive order passed by President Obama early in his administration.

Is it even possible to count all the ways the bosses screw us with government help? Tax benefits for shutting down factories here and shipping them overseas are old news. But this contracting scam is really dispicable. Not only can we not choose to buy from these parasites, but they get to siphon off public funds to recycle into right-wing politicians' campaigns and keep the profits rolling in for the union-busting industry. Only in a society completely dominated by relentless class warfare is this possible. Democracy is a pretty thin reed when so many functions of government have simply been infected by contracting viruses.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Christian America

Just passing this excellent article along. Farrell Till eloquently disproves the current rage among fundamentalists; that the Founding Fathers were creating a "Christian Nation" and have been fighting a tenatious battle to rewrite history in favor of this wishful thinking and fervent belief.

The "Myth" is excellently sourced, I have reviewed several of these books and primary sources myself and his notes are clear and correct. If only there existed a silver bullet that could shut down this nonsense and allow us to come together, secular and faithful, in order to build a more just society.

Thesis:
"The primary leaders of the so-called founding fathers of our nation were not Bible-believing Christians; they were deists. Deism was a philosophical belief that was widely accepted by the colonial intelligentsia at the time of the American Revolution. Its major tenets included belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems and belief in a supreme deity who created the universe to operate solely by natural laws. The supreme God of the Deists removed himself entirely from the universe after creating it. They believed that he assumed no control over it, exerted no influence on natural phenomena, and gave no supernatural revelation to man. A necessary consequence of these beliefs was a rejection of many doctrines central to the Christian religion. Deists did not believe in the virgin birth, divinity, or resurrection of Jesus, the efficacy of prayer, the miracles of the Bible, or even the divine inspiration of the Bible."

To believe that this nation was founded by fundamentalists in spite of all the evidence is to completely misunderstand the era of the Enlightenment. Reason, not superstition, was the order of the day. This nation is free and allows all people to worship as they wish. Neither I nor anyone else wants to take away anyone's religion, but that also means I will fight like hell to keep your religion from infringing on my or anyone else's liberty.

In closing:
"Historians, who deal with facts rather than wishes, paint an entirely different picture of the religious composition of America during its formative years than the image of a nation founded on "biblical principles" that modern Bible fundamentalists are trying to foist upon us. Our founding fathers established a religiously neutral nation, and a tragedy of our time is that so many people are striving to undo all that was accomplished by the wisdom of the founding fathers who framed for us a constitution that would protect the religious freedom of everyone regardless of personal creed. An even greater tragedy is that they many times hoodwink the public into believing that they are only trying to make our nation what the founding fathers would want it to be. Separation of church and state is what the founding fathers wanted for the nation, and we must never allow anyone to distort history to make it appear otherwise."

Cesca on cynicism

What is the difference between gloomy and cynical? It is never fun to be accused of cynicism, we are supposed to be the "Shiny, Happy People" REM sang about all those years ago. A few definitions to help explain.
Cynicism: An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others. Also: the holding or expressing of opinions that reveal disbelief and sometimes disdain for commonly held human values and virtues.
Pessimism - the feeling that things will turn out badly 1. A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view.
2. The doctrine or belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds and that all things ultimately tend toward evil.
3. The doctrine or belief that the evil in the world outweighs the good.
A healthy dose of skepticism or even cynicism is a very important tool when venturing into the public venue of politics. After all, people do lie. People also cheat and manipulate others. But not all and it takes a special kind of sociopath to lie, cheat, and manipulate you one-on-one or in a small group.

For the purposes of this blog, cynicism is the active understanding of the negative in human nature and using it for selfish purposes. Gloominess is the passive understanding of these features and the almost complete lack of power to do anything about it. However, being gloomy also means expecting the worst to prevent disappointment.

Nobody jujitsu's this sort of lowered expectations better than Bob Cesca. He recently nailed Mitt Romney's ultimate cynicism championship title in a way that makes my eyes water. If I live a thousand years I could never equal this zinging indictment.

Americans shrug off the political process under the assumption that politicians are liars and scam artists with little regard for their personal struggles and pet issues. So that’s what voters expect when election days grow larger in the window. Consequently, they either ignore the process or make thoughtless, dart-board choices based on an insufferable “lesser of two evils” brand of pessimism.
But it takes a particularly cynical politician to literally build a campaign around this negative expectation.
Mitt Romney is doing exactly that.

That is the cynicism I am trying to get at. Just as the hedge fund monkeys flinging their worthless mortgage-backed feces at mouth-breathing investors, or the whole trail of hot-potato passing vermin who built the damn housing bubble in the first place. "We know it's crap, but everyone is in on the game."

Romney is easily the most jaded, cynical presidential politician since Richard Nixon. He operates with the hubristic attitude that voters expect him to be shifty, and therefore he’s allowed to be shifty. The expectation gives him permission to be that caricature. For example, he accused President Obama of being an elitist because he attended Harvard even though anyone with a cursory knowledge of Romney’s history knows he also attended Harvard. But none of that matters. He’s smart and calculating enough to know for certain that a chunk of Republican voters will accept the claim at face value and not investigate the contradictions and hypocrisy, and the rest of the Republican voters expect him to say whatever it takes to win, so who cares if it’s bullshit?

And here we have it. The money shot.

BTW, I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone in the reality-based community found some redeeming quality in george w. bush's presidency. Yes, he had core values... They all sucked rotten eggs, but he did have some. But he had to lie constantly to disguise how rotten they were.

After absorbing the awesome in that post, check out what Cesca has to say about Social Security and the rottenness of pilfering morons wishing to steal it from you.

NBPP? Never heard of them.

Oh the things I miss reading boring history books. Shortly after the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, I was informed about his incredible menace to democracy called the New Black Panther Party. The breathless way in which this threat was discussed made me think there must be something to it right? Well, after sifting through some google hits, I found out that there were two guys standing in front of a polling place in Pennsylvania and one of them had a baton or something. People walked in and out without any problems. Then there were no actual complaints about voter intimidation during the nonevent. But, of course on fox news where big, scary black men are always about to break into your home and rape your wife, this was a big deal.
Now, I am not convinced that these two chuckleheads aren't on fox's payroll or some other scam, but they resurfaced with $10,000 to bounty george zimmerman's capture after Treyvon Martin was murdered. Which was good, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson can only scare the only mostly-true believers so far. There needed to be a good new black boogieman to scare quiverfull children with.

Anyway, the NBPP should be on fox news' payroll if the amount of coverage they get on that propaganda masquerading as news channel is any indication. Google it for yourself, these two dorks may have big mouths but nothing can rile up both the fear factor and self-righteousness glands in right-wing authoritarian followers like scary looking black guys. The rest of us are left wondering what all the fuss is about.

Speaking of glands and their dysfunctions, there is a scary organization out there that constantly works with glassy-eyed fervor to make our society less safe. It is called the NRA. This merry band of vigilantes keeps racheting up fear to sell its merchandise, pull in donations and membership fees, and pays nothing in taxes for marketing murder. According to one site (cached) they take in $237 million a year but spend next to nothing to lobby government. The fear they peddle is enough to bring the faithful to the polls to defeat evil, gun-grabbers. Evidence to the contrary that no one is coming for their guns no matter how much we the people may plead for it. Really, when was the last time a Democratic candidate campaigned on gun control?

Fear is just cover for approved aggression in the minds of authoritarian followers. Isn't that what all the "castle doctines" and "stand your ground" laws are for in the end? Giving "responsible gun owners" permission to shoot any "suspicious and/or threatening" characters around them?

I take a lot of criticism for my extreme stance of, you know, not wanting to get shot. So, in order to deflect the coming screams of how "anti-gun" I am let me clarify. I do not hate guns, I hate people, the kind that think they get to be judge, jury, and executioner for stepping on their lawn or "acting suspicious."

While you chew on that, find any fox news article talking about zimmerman's arrest. Read through some of the comments. These are the people you are defending when you say it is perfectly reasonable to have these enabling laws on the books. These are the people holding the gun. And if you are not 100% "one of them" (and believe me, they come up with reasons to disqualify people more and more frequently) you will be staring down the barrel. You will live or die based on these highly reasonable and respectable "responsible gun owners'" feelings that day.

Good Luck Folks!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Goldstein Lives!

There is no surrender.
Liberals like myself long ago gave up the fight for justice and equality in America. We have instead been trying desperately to drive away the vultures and hyenas that have been picking away at the liberal state's corpse.

We plead "uncle, uncle, uncle" for the thugs to stop beating us. But all they hear is "unc, unc, unc" and "cul, cul, cul" because in a perverse way... they need us... if only as a boogieman to scare their quiverfull children.

Right-wingers can only be happy if they have an enemy. They are naturally aggressive and need a target for their aggression. The Twentieth Century can be seen in some ways as a winnowing of these enemies progressively toward the center. It was uncontroversial that the US was a liberal society at the turn of the century, liberal in a classical sense. This meant the right of individuals to vote for their representatives, to be secure in their personal liberty and property, and pursue happiness in their own way. But at the same time, corruption in government and business was rife, voter fraud and vote-buying was rampant; and "let the buyer beware" was the only protection from everything from fly by night insurance, patent medicine, mystery meat, and bank failures. Sounds like a right-wing paradise right? Wrong. While big government, feminists, and homosexuals had yet to come on the scene in a big way to oppress innocent white men, there were uppity Negroes to lynch, Catholics and Jews to oppress, Freemasons, immigrants, etc. Oh yes, there was that moral crusade against demon rum too.

There were genuine radicals in America at that time too. Anarchists and Socialists and even Communists had small niches in American politics. Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs would die laughing if they heard the paroxysms of horror coming from our current right wingers about "socialism" and "Marxism." A couple of red scares later, the rise and fall of the new KKK, and a couple world wars rendered genuine radicalism a fringe element in American politics. Realistic, pragmatic, and mature liberals instead built a society where some freedom to harm others was restricted, other forms of fraud and abuse regulated, and generally placing watchmen between workers, consumers, and those who would do them harm. The other side of the coin was a public commitment to assisting those who needed help. It worked pretty well for over a generation. Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world and our government managed to protect not only this country from totalitarian communism, but a great many allies as well.

So what the hell happened? The same government and spirit of public service that built that standard of living and protection from external attack is itself under attack from so many people who benefited greatly from the very thing they now despise. Having driven real radicals from the scene long ago, today's occupiers can barely hold a candle to bomb-throwing anarchists of a the previous age, right wing authoritarians now attack... teachers?

Tina Dupuy recently wrote how the right needs an enemy, if a real one cannot be found, one can be invented. Perhaps she is right that this time they screwed up, but to the faithful, it just does not matter. Wind them up and point them toward what ever the masters feel like attacking, away they will go pitchforks in hand. There just seems no disconnect between attacking the people we entrust to teach our children as overpaid and a burden on society in some fantasy land, and the reality. There are shadowy "teacher's unions" and "birth-control pushing feminazis" to send the posse after. And away they go. Victory is never complete. No matter how many "moral" transgressions their leaders are guilty of, no matter how badly right wing politicians screw up the system on purpose, no matter if you actually benefited from a program now targetted as "immoral" or how low your taxes actually are. The right is always on the march.

Orwell depicted Emmanuel Goldstein as just such a shadow threat to the glorious Ingsoc system of Oceania. Did he or Big Brother ever actually exist? The two minutes hate must continue regardless of reality.

I am tired of surrendering to these jackasses. They will never stop coming for all the things you value, if their violent rhetoric is to be believed, soon they will be coming for you as well. It does not matter if you really are a liberal or not. The right wing nuts who cheer death, cheer injustice, cheer misery to others must be stopped. If the NRA's rant on the supposed Goldsteins coming for "your" guns did not convince you, look around. They are everywhere and horribly afraid that you might pursue happiness in a way they don't like. If Goldstein does not exist, he must be invented. Therefore, we will never be safe. To the barricades! Stop hiding! Stop hoping they will get tired of hitting you or come to some sense of civilized reason. It is time to fight back!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

I should have become a plumber

From Alternet:

Deciphering Right-Wing Code: What Conservatives Are Really Saying When They Seem to Spew Nonsense
 Did Rick Santorum just declare the next right-wing crusade?

April 4, 2012  |  


Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore




LIKE THIS ARTICLE ?
Join our mailing list:
Sign up to stay up to date on the latest Visions headlines via email.







Progressive commentators have been piling on Rick Santorum for a weirdly incoherent statement he made about the state of American history classes in America's colleges. Here's what he said:

"I was just reading something last night from the state of California. And the state of California universities -- I think it's seven or eight of the California system of universities -- don't even teach an American history course. It's not even available to be taught. Just to tell you how bad it's gotten in this country, where we're trying to disconnect the people from the root of who we are...."

The derision Santorum has received is well-deserved. He messed up the facts badly: 10 of the 11 UC campuses do teach US history (the only exception is UC San Francisco, which is exclusively a graduate-level health sciences campus and offers no humanities classes at all).

It also misses the point. It's not news when a conservative says something that was flat-out wrong, or when liberals take smug satisfaction in demonstrating that they are (as usual) factually right. But there was something else Santorum said in that statement that was newsworthy and important -- and in our zeal to debunk the facts, many progressives are completely missing it.

It's Not About the Facts

The thing to remember is this: Even though right-wing narratives are often factually wrong, they are absolutely never content-free. Stories like this are always about something. And the weirder and more factually challenged they sound to liberal ears, the more important it probably is for us to know what that something is. Too often, our obsession with the gobsmacking wrongness of these statements deafens us to clues to the right's current motives and intentions that are frequently lurking in these strange declarations.

I'm a native-born speaker of right-wing code. And what I heard in Santorum's ramble was, frankly, hair-raising. To my ears, it was a very loud and clear tip-off that conservatives are gearing up an all-out frontal assault on funding for America's public universities.

The Story Beneath the Story

Santorum's brief comment, incoherent as it seemed, communicated a great deal to his audience by artfully triggering a vast universe of essential right-wing memes. Consider what got communicated here.

The University of California may have 11 campuses, but in the right-wing mind, "UC" is code for just one of them -- UC Berkeley, the first and still-flagship campus, which holds a mythic position as Ground Zero for all of Dirty Hippiedom in the conservative imagination. If Satan is alive on earth, there is no doubt that his zip code is 94720. Everything conservatives loathe about the Evil 1960s is epitomized by the very word, "Berkeley."

Oblique as this already is, invoking UC and Berkeley also calls forth the ghost of Ronald Reagan -- always a good thing in conservative stories. Let it never be forgotten that Our Hero made his political bones by standing up to those Dirty Hippie brats while he was governor of California. He punished them by abolishing UC's free tuition -- which is still remembered by the faithful as the first historic salvo in the long war to defund all public services.

Furthermore: picking on UC was telling in another way. When conservatives seriously gather themselves to go after somebody, they always attack frontally, at their intended victim's point of greatest strength. (See also: swiftboating.)  The University of California system has long been regarded as the best public university system in America, and Berkeley as the best single public university in the country. Santorum's story's focus on this particular system -- the biggest, baddest exemplar of its type -- is no random accident. It draws a bead on the strongest target on the field. This is almost always a clear sign that conservatives are lining up their artillery -- in this case, for an open assault on America's public colleges and universities.

The Crusade Begins

When wingnuts say stuff like this, it is never, ever offhand. This narrative is making the rounds on the right because somebody is laying the groundwork for an imminent, planned political action. Santorum's screed is the first stage of this campaign. It's a story that justifies the coming action, and puts the issue on the public table for discussion. It explains to right-wing followers that public universities, already well-understood as havens for liberal (!) public employees (!!) who exist only to corrupt the youth (!!!), are now also so blatantly unpatriotic (!!!!) that they no longer deserve taxpayer support.

Further inquiry bore this suspicion out. It turns out that Santorum's weird claims about UC's history departments were a garbled rendering of an op-ed that appeared last week in the Wall Street Journal. (The article is behind a paywall; but the report it referenced, from the conservative Hoover Institution, is not.) The WSJ piece deplored UC's history programs thusly:

This decline in the quality of education coincides with a profound transformation of the college curriculum. None of the nine general campuses in the UC system requires students to study the history and institutions of the United States. None requires students to study Western civilization, and on seven of the nine UC campuses, including Berkeley, a survey course in Western civilization is not even offered. In several English departments one can graduate without taking a course in Shakespeare. In many political science departments majors need not take a course in American politics.

The report goes on to point out that university faculties skew decidedly liberal (perhaps because the facts have a well-known liberal bias), and that nothing but partisan education happens behind those ivy walls.

You can kind of squint sideways and see how Santorum got from here to there.

For the record: it is true that a single "survey course on Western Civilization" isn't offered at most UC campuses. That's because Western Civilization courses are more typically offered in a multi-part series, because the professors don't think it's possible to effectively teach 3,000 years of history in a mere 10 weeks. So all of UC's undergrad campuses offer plenty of courses in both US and Western history, and a lot of students take them to fulfill their general education requirements. However, it's also true that many students choose to broaden their horizons by taking something they didn't already cover in both elementary and high school -- say, Asian or African history -- instead.

Given how fast and loose the WSJ played with this point, it's probably not wise to credit it with much accuracy on the other claims, either.

But the content of this Hoover report isn't as important as the fact of its provenance, its existence, and its publication on the pages of the WSJ. Right-wing crusades almost always start with think-tank reports; and are issuized on the pages of conservative magazines and newspapers. From there, the ideas are picked up and disseminated by Fox, politicians, conservative ministers, and right-wing bloggers. If all goes well, within weeks, legislators will be paying attention, and lobbyists will be presenting them with ready-written legislation to propose to deal with this manufactured "problem."

This is the path we're on now. Santorum was setting the stage. He warned us, very clearly: Following the War on Public Employees and the War on Women, this will be the summer of the War on Public Universities. Whether the proposals will be to revoke their charters, close campuses, or sell off their facilities to for-profit colleges, you can bet that ALEC already has the bills in the can, and will be introducing them in state legislatures presently. 

We can waste our time and energy marveling at Mr. Santorum's lack of facticity -- or we can hear the clear warning of real danger just ahead, and start getting ready to defend our public universities.



Sara Robinson, MS, APF is a social futurist and the editor of AlterNet's Vision page. Follow her on Twitter, or subscribe to AlterNet's Vision newsletter for weekly updates.

More evidence that it is Democrats that are the real conservatives in this country. Republicans and their fellow travelers really are the authoritarians in America. Whatever flavor you want to ascribe to them: fascists, theocrats, corporatists, radical reactionaries, etc. Take whatever case you want, from the Wisconsin uprising to my wife's library getting attacked for daring to serve patrons the theocrats find icky, liberals are increasingly besieged and put on defense for what used to be taken for granted. The Democratic Party has few new ideas, if their platform has any ideas at all they tend to be watered-down and slightly more humane ways to privatize and deregulate the public sphere. All we have seen in the last decade is rear-guard actions to hold on to those good and just aspects of the New Deal system that is just abhorrent to the authoritarian mind.
So, I was laid off again and again in manufacturing, finally finding something I want to do with my life just in time for the fascist pigs to set their sights on universities... Greeeaaaattt.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Day One

It is quite understandable if you are not finished grieving today. Public education in West Bend was dealt a very serious blow with the election of Vinney Pheng to the school board. Take a few days, put politics out of your mind, it is really okay. When you're ready, the challenges will still be here. We certainly have our work cut out for us, but that is no reason to give up. As Noam Chomsky likes to say, the US is really an organizer's dream because there is great discontent out there along with great energy, it would take only the effort of sincere organizers to turn that discontent into positive, progressive change. Polls consistently show attitudes among the majority to be Social Democratic, people are willing to hear a message of progress and commonwealth. But American individualism, lack of social cohesion, and the atomization that accompanies everything from air conditioning to television means many people hold attitudes of cooperation in isolation. This tendency is reinforced by our economic makeup, while we arguably have never been more interconnected and dependent on each other, specialization and division of labor make it ever harder to relate to others.
The separation between people caused by all of these factors is one major reason why public schooling is so vital to American society. If we put aside the more sinister ideas about public schools from people like John Taylor Gatto and concentrate on what schools actually do, the reasons why authoritarian right-wingers desire so badly to destroy public education become rather obvious. Broadly speaking, public school systems are a covenant within a community. Public funds are pooled to build classrooms, hire and compensate qualified teachers, maintain the standards accepted by the majority in that community along with standards respecting the entire nation, and enlighten and protect our great treasures; our children. All students are brought together to learn not just reading, writing, and arithmetic; but social interaction under practical supervision.
Sure it is not perfect, but public schools are under public control. Theoretically, we can work together to improve the quality of education our children receive. But as Mr. Pheng proved, demagogues can manipulate voters by playing on their emotions and fears. They misdirecti real concerns into unfounded fears, and manufacture problems to present destructive and harmful "solutions." Suddenly, inclusion and pluralism are destructive ideas, creativity and exploration are harmful, and of course we simultaneously are paying too much in taxes and cannot afford education. Compartmentalized thinking, egged on by demagogues, separates the public services we all want from the costs and funding necessary to maintain them. Taxes have been made into a dirty word, while in an earlier age Justice Louis Brandeis could reason that "taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society" today government allegedly functions by magic.
Trying to argue on those terms will always be a losing proposition. In the coming days, weeks, months our ideas should always be presented in terms of commonwealth. There will always be people who simply reject the idea of community on principle, in the story we construct for our side these are the villains. As Drew Westen argued, politics is a story and there have to be good guys and bad guys, as we make our case for commonwealth and community the selfish citizens who want the benefits of civilization but want others to pay for it are the enemy. It is very important to keep our ideas alive between elections, providing an alternative story for people who believe in community but in the absence of a progressive storyline may fall into isolation again or worse, fall for the next Vinney Pheng. We are here to stay and will not give up.
This is a fight we can win, truth, justice, and the American way are on our side. But it will take work, when you are ready to join the campaign we will be here. And remember, we all have different talents and capacities, doing something is much better than doing nothing. From each according to their gifts, to each according to their need. West Bend is badly in need of your energy and talents, and every little bit makes a difference. Today is simply Day One of the effort.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Despair or discouragement

A little more than 5,000 people in West Bend proved that they cannot make an intelligent voting decision yesterday. Vinney Pheng made no attempt to hide what a lunatic he is, but snuck onto the school board anyway. I don't have the stomach to watch video of him ranting about how horrible schools are or what harm he plans to do to the public school system. But it is clear he belongs far from any position of power or authority.
There have been quite a few rumblings of despair today from people who care about educating our children, even from some who, gasp, have no direct involvement. For what it is worth, today we grieve, tomorrow we start working to bring sanity back to local government. Feel discouragement, but not despair. Loonies sneak onto school boards all the time, despair won't stop the next one. Only organization and getting the word out can do that. There are a few reasons not to give up.
First of all, and I may be overstating the effect, but outside events can and do contribute to local elections. Before elaborating, it should be said that West Bend is not a complete freakshow, they just have a slightly higher number of freaks per-capita than usual for Wisconsin. There are quite a few, maybe even a majority, of nice, decent people who don't deserve to be shackled to lunatics controlling schools or other public systems. This is a good enough reason for me to keep trying. All politics may be local, but the fox news crowd certainly had a reason to show up yesterday. Much more than people motivated to renominate the president. But there is no way to know how much of an impact that had.
I suspect it was quite a lot, therefore I found it encouraging that only 600 votes separated the child of light from the child of darkness. Not landslides to be sure. Maybe if mittens romney had the nomination sewn up by now there would have been less motivation for the right wingers to show up.
The Democratic Party of Washington County has been reinvigorated recently. A new office, new members, new energy, and a new climate of can-do optimism. People that value education and other public services could just sit back and wait for the buyer's remorse to set in. After all, our soon-to-be-ex-governor has already done quite a bit of damage to education at all levels. Pheng can only marginally add to that harm. His rhetoric is sure to turn off lots of normal people. No, the Dems tried hard, organized, communicated, researched, and reached out to present a different vision than that of the right wing. I couldn't vote there because I don't live in West Bend. Next time we will be that much more prepared, one setback is not the end of the world. A continuous presence and continual effort can really keep progressive values activated in people that have every reason to focus on their own lives and own situation. But we need to articulate why working together can produce commonwealth, making all of our lives better.
This is short term discouragement, not despair. And coming from a gloomy historian, that should mean something :)

Monday, April 2, 2012

Dred Scott part 2

Many moons ago in a senior level Civil War course I was struck by the insight that southern fireaters (vehement defenders of slavery as a positive good) were very similar to contemporary gun fireaters. In their rhetoric, slaveowners presented the image of God's chosen people under attack from all sides and forced to go on the offensive. Defense and counterattack, the preferred disguise of aggressors everywhere. Succession and Civil War were rationalized as a counterrevolution to preserve the "pure" intent of the founding fathers against the radical abolitionist Abraham Lincoln. Then as now, I am always struck by the meekness of the Children of Light. Lincoln was anti-slavery for sure but no abolitionist, though fireaters saw his efforts to contain the spread of slavery to the new American lands of the west as the death of their "peculiar institution." Then as now, conspiracy theories were rife in America. Then as now, the real conspiracy of power sows seeds of outrage and discontent to those who should know better. The only defense for the slave power conspiracy was vigorous offense. And of course, then as now an activist, radical Supreme Court delivered a decision on behalf of power that threatened to change the American landscape forever.
Briefly, the Dred Scott decision involved a doctor who brought his slave servant with him to the North on business and died while in a free state. The servant, Dred Scott, argued through intermediaries (property couldn't bring lawsuits) that since his master died on free soil, he was now free. The case wound its way to the Supreme Court and the highest court in the land ruled that no, not only was Scott not free but that slaveowners could bring their property anywhere they wished without hinderance by local laws against it. Essentially this decision opened the door to the spread of American slavery anywhere the stars and stripes flew.
Now, just to be clear, I am not arguing that guns and slaves are equivalent. There is, however, similarity in methods of power using its influence to pass laws against the will of the majority. In this instance, after Trayvon Martin was murdered, the forces of darkness did not express remorse or try to rationalize a defense, they went on offense. From Thinkprogress:
"Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and 28 other Senate Republicans on Tuesday introduced a bill that would allow people authorized to carry concealed weapons in their home state to do the same in other states that allow concealed carry, without requiring a federal permit.

The Respecting States’ Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, S. 2213, is meant to ensure that the Second Amendment rights of people are not infringed upon when they travel between states. But rather than set up a federal permitting process for concealed weapons, the bill would essentially require states with concealed-weapons permits to honor the permits of other states."
We can quibble about specifics, but for crying out loud, is Trayvon destined to be the Twenty-First Century's Dred Scott? Is every state destined to follow this graph?
justifiable-homicide-since-2005 from www.progressflorida.org
The nuts at nra sure are salivating over the possibility of this escalation of violence. '"Congress should recognize that the right to self-defense does not end at state lines," said Chris W. Cox, executive director for NRA's Institute for Legislative Action.  "The NRA has been successfully advocating in favor of strong right-to-carry laws for the past 25 years.  We take a backseat to no one when it comes to the right of law-abiding Americans to carry concealed handguns for self-defense."' As Tex Shelters at AddictingInfo.org puts it these "law-abiding American" gun nuts are "People that obsess over guns and see them as the main solution to disputes are fear-filled paranoids. They make life less safe for the rest of us and now have fewer legal restraints to stop them from killing those who scare them." Of course, this campaign of mass murder without repercussions is taking place in defiance of popular opinion.
Table 1 Public Support for Measures to Regulate Firearms, 2006
 
% for Prohibiting
 Gun Use When Under the Influence of Alcohol                             91 %
 for Limiting Sales of High Power/50-caliber Rifles                      85 %
 for Limiting Sales of Semi-automatic Assault Weapons              82 %
 for Criminal Background Checks for Private Gun Sales              80 %
 for Police Permits to Purchase Guns                                                79 %
 for Stricter Gun Control after Terrorist Attacks                            76 %
 for Illegal Gun Sales to be Punished More than Illegal Drugs    54%

Source: 2006 General Social Survey, n=1364
But at the same time, only 11% of people want to outright ban handguns. So nra and the children of darkness are on the warpath against a basically imaginary threat. But, Goldstein is out there somewhere, always threatening to disrupt Oceania's harmony. Somewhat new in the storyline is the destruction and defamation of Trayvon's character, as though his clothing or twitter posts somehow excuse his murder. So many "law-abiding Americans" have jumped on this bandwagon it is as though we just went back to some dark age when racism was perfectly cool again.