Ken Paxton Threatens Doctors / Hospitals
This criminal, inhuman POS barely escaped with his career (though not his reputation) intact this fall - only because of his affiliation with an equally corrupt party.
Paxton Survived on near party-line votes
His shame will long outlive him - even if many of his victims don't.
2023 is a banner year, breaking at least a couple of less-than-desirable records.
- The US has broken the annual record for mass murder rampages.
Office parties, family gatherings, bowl games; there are lots of reasons to get together with friends and family this time of year to laugh, eat and drink.
Over time, though, I'm finding more and more of my friends opting to to not drink alcohol at these events. They seem to have a pretty good time anyway.
There are a lot of reasons our friends might choose to abstain. The one thing they have in common is that they are none of my business.
Let's each celebrate the holidays in our own way, and enjoy one another's company, without asking a bunch of dumb questions.
I have been hearing the term 'stochastic violence' recently, and it rings true. The instigator need not specifically state the time and place, or method ... they only need program their myrmidons to hate, and be assured that any action they take will be justified.
It leaves plausible (barely) deniability, while assuring terrorism.
I don't make a habit of giving advice to congressional Republicans (at least nothing longer than three to five words – including the f-bomb). And I am enjoying the clown car thing they've been doing ...
But, there are serious issues that need to be addressed promptly, and maturely; so I suggest that they close the doors to the clown-car, ignore the fools and the fire-eaters, and select Tom Cole to lead them until the next election.
I'm not saying that I agree with Representative Cole on much. I've heard him speak on a couple of occasions, and we differ on most issues. But he is educated, intelligent, moderate (at least by the standards of the current crop of elected Republicans). He speaks in complete sentences, and doesn't lean on derogatory insults of his opponents to make his point.
Sadly, most of these characteristics probably make him unelectable to leadership in the Republican caucus. And I'm sure he would prefer to remain upwind from this anyway, so it would be a feat to even get him to toss his hat into the ring.
The most powerful thing, the most courageous action Netanyahu can take at this point is to not invade Gaza – to NOT take the most crowded real estate on Earth, and collectively punish the residents there by compressing them into an area half its size.
I wish there were a possibility that Netanyahu had the courage to take that step – but he won't. His ruling coalition relies on partners who will settle for nothing less than total ethnic cleansing – the utter annihilation, or removal, of the Palestinians in the captive territories of Gaza and the West Bank. And, if his ruling coalition falls, Netanyahu returns to the reach of the long arm of the law, and would face the corruption trial he barely dodged a few months ago, when he formed this ruling coalition to escape it.
We, who are happy in the body assigned to us at birth (albeit with a little less paunch, and maybe a tad taller); we who are attracted to members of the opposite sex; we who conform to society's expectations and norms in any number of ways – our lives are complex enough. Imagine if we faced the additional challenges of not easily fitting in in these ways.
Today is the first day of Pride Month for members of the LGBTQ+ community. For the rest of us, it's an opportunity to celebrate the color they add to the fabric of our society – a chance to reach out and let our brothers and sisters know that, when they are attacked, or face discrimination and intolerance for openly being their authentic selves, we are their allies, and friends.
Authorities in many of our more backward states apparently feel that if they use the power of the state to promote bigotry against members of our society who have faced bigotry since the beginning of history, they will simply go away ... without ever asking how they got here in the first place.
Many of these same authorities believe that if
