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America Is Sick. And It’s Not Just The Swine Flu

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Gun Violence Constitutes A National Public Health Emergency

The big news this weekend was Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s Sunday press conference during which she declared a “public health emergency” in response to a possible swine flu epidemic. In Mexico, 103 people have died. In the U.S., 20 people have contracted the virus, none are in critical condition. The great concern is the possibility of the risk of quick transmission.

Sunday morning, before the swine flu story hit the networks, I was reading the news and was struck by several separate stories of children being shot by guns. I read three that morning and another later that afternoon. Gun violence has been on my mind for a while now, so I did some digging. It turns out, 32 Americans die every day from gun violence. Eight of them are children. In the ten years since Columbine, 300,000 Americans have died from gun violence. And it’s getting worse: we’ve had several mass shootings this year, including 57 killed in the space of a month.

According to Daniel Vice of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, “In a typical weekend in the United States, more people are shot and killed than in an average year in Australia; the same is true in Britain, and other countries that have tougher gun laws.” Even accounting for differences in total populations, there is no comparison.

America needs the Matthew Shepard Act. America needs stricter gun laws. America needs to stop cowtowing to the NRA, the Religious Right, and homophobic conservatives.

On Friday, in his New York Times column, Bob Herbert wrote,

“There is no way to overstate the horror of gun violence in America. Roughly 16,000 to 17,000 Americans are murdered every year, and more than 12,000 of them, on average, are shot to death. This is an insanely violent society, and the worst of that violence is made insanely easy by the widespread availability of guns.

When the music producer Phil Spector decided, for whatever reason, to kill the actress, Lana Clarkson, all he had to do was reach for his gun — one of the 283 million privately owned firearms that are out there. When John Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Malvo, went on a killing spree that took 10 lives in the Washington area, the absolute least of their worries was how to get a semiautomatic rifle that fit their deadly mission.

We’re confiscating shampoo from carry-on luggage at airports while at the same time handing out high-powered weaponry to criminals and psychotics at gun shows.”

That’s right. Think about it. We’re confiscating bottles of shampoo and making you take off your shoes at the airport, we’re declaring (and rightly so) a “public health emergency” in response to a possible swine flu epidemic that has yet to take one life in this country (no one is saying it won’t), yet from the same weekend that the Secretary of Homeland Security announces a national public health emergency, here are some headlines:

Three shot at NYC Barbecue, 13 year old critical: “A gunman shot wildly into a crowd at an outdoor barbecue in Harlem early this morning, hitting three people and leaving a 13-year-old boy in critical condition, police said.”

3 Virginia men hurt in shooting at Hampton University: “A former Hampton University student armed with three guns followed a pizza delivery man into the student’s former dorm early Sunday, shot the delivery man and a dorm monitor, then turned the gun on himself, university officials said.”

Georgia professor sought in shooting death of wife, two others: “A University of Georgia professor who police suspect in the fatal shootings of his ex-wife and two men outside a theatre near campus on Saturday disappeared in his Jeep after dropping his children off with a neighbor, authorities said.”

Suspects Sought in Shooting of Oakland Children: “Oakland (CA) police say two girls, ages 1 and 4, and a 14-year-old boy were wounded when shooting erupted between two groups of young men around 2:15 p.m. Saturday”

12-year-old girl, man wounded in Marquette Park shooting: ” A 12-year-old girl and 19-year-old man were shot Sunday night in the (Chicago) Southwest Side’s Marquette Park neighborhood.”

Victim Shot Dead on South Side: “A 31 year-old man is dead after being shot Sunday afternoon while visiting a friend on the Far South Side.”

Sheriff: Man killed 2 deputies after being stunned: “Two deputies killed by a soldier they were trying arrest for beating his wife exchanged multiple rounds with the man who began shooting while on the ground after he was shocked with a stun gun, authorities said Sunday, a day after the men were killed.”

Can we honestly say that gun violence has not reached levels of a national public health emergency also? We’re declaring a national public health emergency for the possibility of an epidemic, an epidemic for which we have on hand, millions of readily-accessible and distributable TamiFlu vaccines. If there were a disease that was killing 32 Americans every day, 8 of them children, wouldn’t we also be declaring a national public health emergency for that?

More from Herbert:

“The toll on children and teenagers is particularly heartbreaking. According to the Brady Campaign, more than 3,000 kids are shot to death in a typical year. More than 1,900 are murdered, more than 800 commit suicide, about 170 are killed accidentally and 20 or so are killed by the police.

Another 17,000 are shot but survive.”

The sad fact is that we’ve become so complacent, “blasé”, as Bob Herbert put it, that these daily deaths are nothing but daily statistics.  Gun violence is the symptom of a sickness. Acceptance of it is the illness that is clouded by right-wing Second Amendment touting teaparty terrorists who happily support an escalating murder rate in the false name of protecting their own civil rights, while denying true civil rights, the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to those 32 Americans who die every day. Those 32 Americans who are gunned down each day no longer have the opportunity to exercise their civil rights, those rights that proud NRA gun-toting, secessionist-threatening, teaparty sign-waving, tax-cutting crazy, Obama-hating, homophobic Conservative “patriots” pretend matter to them.

Despite what gay rights activist  Jonathan Rauch says, guns are not the answer. From his piece, “The Right Kind of Gun Rights“:

“Although gay life in America is safer today than it once was, anti-gay violence remains all too common. The FBI reports more than 7,000 anti-gay hate crimes in 2005 alone, and since 2003 at least 58 people have been murdered because of their sexual orientation. Perhaps because gay-bashings often begin in intimate settings, the home is the single most prevalent venue for anti-gay attacks. In public, of course, gay-bashers make sure that no cops are around. For that matter, sometimes the police are part of the problem, responding to gay-bashings with indifference, hostility, sometimes abuse. ”

Nine years ago, one of the first columns I wrote for National Journal told the story of Tom G. Palmer. One night some years ago in San Jose, he found himself confronting a gang of toughs, as many as 20 of them, intent on gay-bashing him. Taunted as a “faggot,” threatened with death, Palmer (and a friend) ran for their lives, only to find the gang in hot pursuit. So Palmer stopped, reached into his backpack, and produced a gun. The gang backed off.

If no gun? “There’s no question in my mind,” Palmer told me in 1999, “that my friend and I would have been at least very seriously beaten, and maybe killed.”

That may or may not be. But tell that to the friends of openly gay, 15 year-old Lawrence King. Via The New York Times:

“On the morning of Feb. 12, Lawrence was in the school’s computer lab with 24 other students, said Mr. Keith, the police spokesman. Brandon walked into the room with a gun and shot Lawrence in the head, the police said, then ran from the building. Police officers caught him a few blocks away.

Unconscious when he arrived at the hospital, Lawrence was declared brain dead the next day but kept on a ventilator to preserve his organs for donation, said the Ventura County medical examiner, Armando Chavez. He was taken off life support on Feb. 14.”

It’s time to stop the sickness that is acceptance of gun violence. The Right can scream all they want about Second Amendment rights. Or how, if everyone had a gun we wouldn’t need The Matthew Shepard Act. Who knows. Maybe 15 year-old Larry King could have easily whipped out a gun and convinced his attacker he meant business…

Pass the Hate Crimes Bill. Get the Second Amendment back in line. Go to the Framers’ intent. Get the god-damn guns off the streets. The more time we take, the more people die. When will we make it stop?

(image: Philippe Kurlapski)

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‘Couldn’t Care Less if He’s Upset’: GOP Senator Slamming Trump’s Budget Bill Has Company

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U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is blasting President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation legislation that passed the House early Thursday morning. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune will need to cobble together at least 50 votes to pass the massive bill that experts say will add trillions to the deficit, kick eight to thirteen million Americans off health care, gut Medicaid by $800 billion and Medicare by $500 billion, along with many other controversial provisions.

Fox News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram reports that one MAGA Republican Senator, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, may be bucking the President and his “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

“Johnson calls the Big Beautiful Bill ‘completely unacceptable.’ When asked if he thought that would upset the President, Johnson replied ‘I couldn’t care less if he’s upset. I’m concerned about my children. My grandchildren,'” Pergram wrote.

READ MORE: ‘Didn’t You Say That?’: Democratic Senator Decimates FDA Chief

Senator Johnson’s issue appears to be not the millions who will lose health care, but the deficit. In other words, the bill, he believes, does not cut spending enough.

Ten days ago Johnson wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed, and commented, “At a bare minimum, the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ shouldn’t INCREASE the annual deficit. With the meager spending reductions being discussed, I’m afraid it actually will.”

“In the House, President Trump can threaten a primary, and those guys want to keep their seats. I understand the pressure,” Johnson said, according to The Daily Beast. “Can’t pressure me that way.”

“I know everybody wants to go to Disney World, but we just can’t afford it,” he added.

Politico reported on Thursday that Senator Johnson “said there are sufficient votes to block the bill if his party doesn’t bend in his direction on spending reductions, including setting up a bicameral process for going ‘line by line’ to find a total of roughly $6.5 trillion in cuts over the coming decade.”

Johnson appears to have company.

RELATED: ‘Cut, Rip, Gut, Kill, Cruel’: Top Republican Lashes Out Over Dems Using These Words

Several other Republican Senators have voiced distress over the House bill: Lisa Murkowski, Rick Scott, and Rand Paul, among others. Four “no” votes would mean the end of the bill, but it’s not clear that any of them will end up voting against the bill.

“I think there’s nothing conservative about having deficits of $2 trillion a year,” said Senator Paul.

“Most Republicans view Paul as a hard ‘no’ and acknowledge Johnson might be, as well,” Politico also reported.

“We have to get our fiscal house in order. We have no choice,” complained Senator Scott.

The concerns of some may be easily fixed. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn opposes a provision of the bill that bans states from imposing regulations on artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, CNN notes that more than half a dozen Senate Republicans have voiced concerns, and NCRM currently counts even more who have expressed varying degrees of unease—yet this is still far from signaling they will oppose the bill.

Last week Senator Johnson explained his concerns on Trump’s bill.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Sovereignly Appointed’: Trump Praised in Pentagon Prayer Event Led by Hegseth and Pastor

 

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‘Didn’t You Say That?’: Democratic Senator Decimates FDA Chief

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The Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, came under strong criticism for his inconsistent remarks before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee after the accuracy of his claims related to terminated scientists and others was called into question by U.S. Senator John Ossoff (D-GA).

“You were asked on April 17th whether any of the personnel reductions had included personnel responsible for food safety or infant formula safety,” Senator Ossoff told Commissioner Makary. “You said, quote, ‘There were no cuts to scientists or reviewers or inspectors—absolutely none’. You were asked on April 23rd on CNN, and said, quote, ‘Again, there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors’.”

“But then just two days later, an HHS spokesperson confirmed that in fact, scientists had been fired, and that you were scrambling to rehire them,” Ossoff continued. “Did you, in fact, say on April 23d, there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors? Just before we get into the details, is that an accurate quote?”

“No scientific reviewer was cut as part of the reduction in force,” replied Commissioner Makary.

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“You said there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors. Didn’t you say that?” Ossoff pressed.

“My understanding,” Makary replied, “was that there were no cuts to the scientific staff, but specifically the scientific reviewers is what I was referring to.”

“But you said there were,” Ossoff responded.

A similar back and forth continued for several minutes, then, Senator Ossoff asked, “Had, in fact, scientists who study outbreaks of food related illnesses and the safety of infant formula been fired?”

“The reason it’s not accurate, Senator, is that people were not fired, they were scheduled for the reduction in force, and when that was before I got there. When I got there, we did an assessment, and so some of those individuals out of the 19,000 were restored,” Makary replied.

“Have all scientists responsible for food safety and infant formula safety, been rehired or reinstated?” Ossoff asked.

“Look, we have not reduced in force the scientific review staff. I know where you’re going with this,” Makary replied.

READ MORE: ‘Sovereignly Appointed’: Trump Praised in Pentagon Prayer Event Led by Hegseth and Pastor

“You said there were no cuts to scientists, and then the HHS spokesperson said, actually, there were cuts to scientists, and now we’re trying to rehire them. I mean, so it gives the impression you’re not sure about the personnel actions ongoing in your own agency,” said Ossoff.

After more back-and-forth, Ossoff wrapped it up: “You were very specific. You said there were no cuts to scientists. And then five days later, there were no cuts to scientists. Those are your direct quotes. There were no cuts to scientists, but there were cuts to scientists.”

Again, more back-and-forth and then Makary appeared to grow frustrated.

“I mean, this is the problem in government. Somebody has a fancy sounding name like, ‘Infant Formula Safety,’ and no one can ever touch them, even if they’re not doing their job.”

During his testimony, Dr. Makary also declared to another Senator, “By the way, America doesn’t want COVID boosters.”

And a third chastised him, saying: “You’re prepared for a question that I didn’t ask … I’m asking you what are you doing about bird flu! Just answer that. Please. Don’t give me a runaround about other stuff.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Get Out of Here’: Trump Erupts, Calls for NBC Probe After Reporter Asks About Qatari Jet

 

 

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‘Cut, Rip, Gut, Kill, Cruel’: Top Republican Lashes Out Over Dems Using These Words

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During the House’s marathon markup of President Donald Trump’s historic budget bill, the Chairwoman of the powerful Rules Committee lashed out at Democrats for plainly describing the legislation’s sweeping consequences. Officially dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” the measure narrowly passed in the early hours of Thursday by a 215–214 vote. It removes $800 billion in funding from Medicaid, would lead to $535 billion in cuts to Medicare, and is projected to cause an estimated 8.6 to 13.7 million Americans to lose their health care. It will also add $3 trillion to the federal deficit—fueled by tax breaks heavily tilted toward the wealthy and the nation’s first-ever $1 trillion defense budget.

“I am concerned about what has been said about this bill and what it’s going to do,” Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told the members of her committee Wednesday night. “The extreme comments that have been made about it, and how I believe that it is scaring people out there in the country unnecessarily.”

“The words I’ve heard, particularly today, are ‘cut,’ ‘rip,’ ‘gut,’ ‘kill,’ ‘cruel,’ ‘stealing food,’ ‘losing coverage,’ ‘jammed through,’ ‘biggest transfer of wealth from vulnerable to wealthy people,’ ‘irresponsible’.”

“That is not the way we ought to be talking about this bill.”

READ MORE: ‘Sovereignly Appointed’: Trump Praised in Pentagon Prayer Event Led by Hegseth and Pastor

Many appear to disagree.

MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen, just after the bill passed Thursday morning, wrote:  “What we do know about the legislation the GOP is calling the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ is genuinely terrifying.”

“What makes this situation even worse is that Republicans, from the president on down, are consistently lying about what the bill would do,” Cohen charged.

“The House Republican budget plan would eviscerate Medicaid and food assistance and shift resources toward the wealthiest Americans,” the Center for American Progress (CAP) warned ten days ago, adding that it “would implement the largest cuts to both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history—kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance and taking food away from hungry children.”

“It would raise household electricity costs while trapping most middle-class and poor students in greater student loan debt to afford a higher education,” CAP’s Bobby Kogan, Senior Director for Federal Budget Policy wrote. “And it would make all these changes as a means to partially offset tax breaks that disproportionately go to the richest Americans, giving households in the top 0.1 percent a multihundred-thousand-dollar tax break on average while increasing deficits by trillions of dollars. Taken as a whole, the bill would add trillions of dollars to structural deficits despite these enormous cuts to critical services.”

“If enacted,” Kogan warned, “this would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history.”

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“Taken as a whole, this bill would harm Americans—particularly the most vulnerable people—and leave the country worse off. It would lead to preventable deaths by taking health care away from millions of people. It would worsen food insecurity by taking food away from the hungry, particularly kids.”

“Budgets showcase our morality because they force governments to decide how to prioritize limited resources. The House Republican budget plan would shift funding away from the sick and hungry and, instead, toward the wealthiest Americans.”

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) responded to Foxx, saying, “In other words, ‘please don’t call this bill what it is or say what it does’.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Full MAGA Lobotomy’: Rubio Rebuked by Senate Dem — ‘I Regret Voting for You’

 

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