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Hell—Mandatory? Or Optional?

Dear Editor: There is a saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Unfortunately, the Republicans led by Donald Trump are leading America to hell on a road paved with their evil Fascist intentions, and they are openly and blazingly advertising them. In a recent speech in New Hampshire, Trump stated that he plans to “Root out the Communists, Marxists, Racists and Radical left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” He followed this up with “We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country, we will rout the Fake News Media.” Mike Davis, a …

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A Way Out

To the Editor: I do not applaud Hamas’ attack on innocent Israeli civilians, but the media seldom provide any context for such horrific incidents. An unprovoked attack? One has to remember that Gaza has been under a cruel blockade for 16 years and that it had been attacked by Israel five times since 2008. Moreover, 4 out of 5 Palestinian children now suffer from extreme trauma. Some Israelis want to “flatten Gaza” to eliminate those “human animals” and to prevent the 2 million human beings there from having food, clean water, electricity and fuel to maintain the few hospitals that aren’t damaged. Sadly, 447 Palestinian …

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A Guide to Listings of Mass Shootings in the United States

Rather than writing about the 28 mass shootings which have occurred in the U.S. since we last published, on May 20th, we thought it might be useful to create a guide to online resources keeping track of these events. We’ll begin with Wikipedia’s “Mass Shootings in the United States” page, which will be six years old on June 16th. It has been revised approximately 2,000 times since then, for reasons which should be obvious. This page provides a helpful overview of the topic, including discussions of definition and data sources—both matters of surprising complexity. Its section on demographics is deftly written; a sentence on gender …

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Fri, Oct 8

2004—American warplanes miss Abu Musab al Zarqawi but kill 13 people at a wedding instead. 1991—Speaker of the House Tom Foley [D-Wash.] announces that the House’s sergeant-at-arms will no longer fix traffic tickets for Members. 1985—Dining at the White House, President Reagan “praises incessantly” his guest’s most recent work of art: Rambo: First Blood, Part II. 1974—The Franklin National Bank collapses, undermined by Mafioso Michele Sindona, a close buddy of President Nixon’s Treasury Secretary David Kennedy. 1969—A three-day riot branded “Days of Rage” begins in Chicago. 1968—Washington, D.C. riots after police shoot a Black man. 1967—Ernesto “Che” Guevara is captured by Bolivian troops led by …

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It’s Time to Dump the Filibuster

by W.D. Ehrhart Let’s take a look at the Republican Party this spring of 2021. We have Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who pumps a raised fist on January 6th in support of the MAGA insurrectionists. We have Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who likens smashing windows and beating police with American flags and hockey sticks to a “normal tourist visit,” and insists that the supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol behaved “in an orderly fashion.” We have Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, who says the Justice Department is “harassing peaceful patriots” who came to DC on January 6th to exercise …

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Sun. May 10

2017—President Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. He divulges classified info, exposes a foreign agent, and says firing the FBI Director relieved “great pressure” from him. 1968—Students in Paris barricade the streets. “Be realistic,” their graffiti read, “demand the impossible.” 1960—The FDA approves “The Pill.” 1945—New Hamshire adopts the motto, “Live Free or Die.” 1933—Goebbels tells students, make Germany great—burn books. 1919—In Charleston, S.C., white sailors foment the first of 33 U.S. race riots over a five-month period. 1908—The first Mother’s Day Service is held in W.Va. at the instigation of Anna Jarvis who …

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