PICTURE OF THE WEEK

 

America does not love or protect its children.

Cyndi Borowski💙🇺🇲 @BorowskiCyndi · 

The leading cause of death for American children are adults who think their right to kill is greater than a child's right to live.

Firearms are the leading cause of deaths for American children and teens:

5-year-old fatally shoots 16-month-old brother in Indiana apartment 

Detectives found that the child was able to gain access to a weapon in the residence, police said.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, state legislators are busy making it easier for anyone, mentally well or ill, to buy and own guns:

 RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina residents can now buy a handgun without getting a permit from a local sheriff, after the Republican-controlled legislature on Wednesday overrode the Democratic governor’s veto — a first since 2018. The House voted 71-46 to enact the bill, which eliminates the longstanding permit system requiring sheriffs to perform character evaluations and criminal history checks of pistol applicants. 

The Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in a party-line vote on Tuesday. The permit repeal takes effect immediately. Cooper and Democratic lawmakers warned it allows a greater number of dangerous people to obtain weapons through private sales, which do not require a background check, and limits law enforcement’s ability to prevent them from committing violent crimes.

AMERICANS MASSACRED BY AR-15s

Aurora: AR-15 

Poway: AR-15 

Uvalde: AR-15 

Buffalo: AR-15 

Boulder: AR-15 

Orlando: AR-15 

Parkland: AR-15 

Nashville: AR-15 

Las Vegas: AR-15 

Sandy Hook: AR-15 

Waffle House: AR-15 

Highland Park: AR-15 

San Bernardino: AR-15 

Midland/Odessa: AR-15 

Sutherland Springs: AR-15

TRUMPUBLICANS: Mocking the slaughter of American men, women, and children just to "own the libs."

THIS IS THE AMERICA WE LIVE IN.

 

VIA DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND:

I am a paediatric emergency physician working in Australia.

I have NEVER seen a gunshot wound in a child, and have not seen a gunshot wound in anyone for over 20 years.

This cause of death is the result of "choices" by politicians and the people they represent.

This jerk who thinks he's "owning the libs" is wearing an AR-15 pin the day after 3 children and 3 adults were slaughtered by a real AR-15. This is just one example of the total moral deterioration of the current Trumpublican Party. 

Imagine if you were one of the parents whose child was ripped apart by that weapon and saw this bastard proudly wearing a pin to mock your child's death.

Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA):

HOW AR-15s DESTROY ITS VICTIMS' BODIES

 

From a blogger friend, Michael Kempster:

"The Washington Post thinks you should at least be given the opportunity to understand, in detail, just how Noah Posner, age 6, and Peter Wang, age 15, died of AR15 wounds. Perhaps this atrocious machine, designed solely to kill human beings, and marketed for obscene profit, doesn't belong in civil society. Perhaps. Just possibly":

'The AR-15 fires bullets at such a high velocity — often in a barrage of 30 or even 100 in rapid succession — that it can eviscerate multiple people in seconds. A single bullet lands with a shock wave intense enough to blow apart a skull and demolish vital organs. The impact is even more acute on the compact body of a small child.

'“It literally can pulverize bones, it can shatter your liver and it can provide this blast effect,” said Joseph Sakran, a gunshot survivor who advocates for gun violence prevention and a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

'During surgery on people shot with high-velocity rounds, he said, body tissue “literally just crumbled into your hands.”

'The carnage is rarely visible to the public. Crime scene photos are considered too gruesome to publish and often kept confidential. News accounts rely on antiseptic descriptions from law enforcement officials and medical examiners who, in some cases, have said remains were so unrecognizable that they could be identified only through DNA samples.

'As Sakran put it: “We often sanitize what is happening.”...'

IMO, the AR-15 and weapons like it do NOT belong in a civil society where teenagers can purchase them without a license or training. (Missouri and Texas)

The only purpose for an AR-15 is to kill. Period.

The 2nd Amendment is not unlimited. We banned AR-15s before; we can ban them again.

GO TO THE LINK BELOW...

 

and enjoy this brief video of an amazing artist.

WHO WILL THEY BLAME THIS ONE ON?

 

Well, they can't blame it on taking God and prayer out of school.

The Covenant School is a small academy housed at a Presbyterian church.

They can't say it was a bad guy with a gun because it was a 28-year old female, armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.

IT'S. THE. GUNS.

We have more firearms than people in this country, and that means we'll continue to have school, church, theater, hospital, -- you name it -- shootings. 

America has decided that massacres of children and others are the price we must pay in order for teenagers and adults to own and conceal carry weapons of war.

America used to be a nice country.

ANOTHER SCHOOL SHOOTING

"A heavily armed female assailant opened fire at the school, the police say. A heavily armed woman entered a Christian school in Nashville on Monday morning and fatally shot three children and three staff members before she was shot and killed by the police, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said. 

 The spokesman, Don Aaron, said that investigators were working to identify the woman who had opened fire at the Covenant School, which serves about 200 students from preschool through 6th grade, according to its website. The 28-year-old woman was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun, the police said, and it was not immediately clear if she had any connection to the school." 

On the same day 3 children and 3 adults died by gun at a school in Nashville, Arkansas introduced legislation giving students permission to have hand guns at school.

***********************

Below is a Christmas card sent out by Andy Ogles, Congressman for Tennessee's 5th district, which makes up part of Nashville, where a shooter just took the lives of 7 Americans, including 3 children.  

Can someone explain to me why an American who lives in a country where the main cause of death for children and teens are firearms -- why would he, his wife, and children pose brandishing assault rifles for a Christmas card? 

What is his message? Can someone explain it to me?  Andy's a Christian. Don't Christians call their Savior the "Prince of Peace?" 

What do assault rifles symbolize in this photo?

And why do people elect these sort of dumbass idiots to represent them?

Nashville school shooting victims identified 

The six victims fatally shot by the active shooter at Covenant School are identified as: 

Evelyn Dieckhaus, 

Hallie Scruggs, and 

William Kinney, 

all age 9, 

Cynthia Peak, age 61, 

Katherine Koonce, age 60, 

and Mike Hill, age 61. 

Koonce was the headmaster at the school.

Just a reminder...

  

about the violence-inciting rhetoric that Trump spreads to his cultists at his "rallies."

Trump never mentions anything about policy or what he'd do to help the American people. It's all grievances, and promises of retribution.

In Waco, Texas, on Saturday, he suggested revenge and killing the "Deep State":

TRUMP:   “They're coming after you!” Trump screamed at his Waco rally cultists. 

He spent 95 minutes attacking the many criminal investigations against him: Manhattan DA Bragg, judges, prosecutors, SCOTUS. 

“We'll get retribution!!: He bellowed to the crowd; and then he promised his cultist this ominous threat: : 

"Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state."

Grievance. Victimhood. Vengeance. Threats. Violence. Death. 

That's it. That's his platform.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

The original -- the incomparable Bobby Freeman:

 

ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST WORKS OF ART, BY MICHELANGELO, CAUSED A PRINCIPAL OF A FLORIDA SCHOOL TO BE FIRED!

 

h/t Possumlady:

The culture wars, led by ignorant Trumpistas, continue:

We are truly entering into an Age of Ignorance and Fear. And it's being led by the crackpot Trumpistas in Florida, and encouraged by Florida's performative governor.

David -- by Michelangelo Buonorotti

By Antoinette Radford

BBC News

A principal of a Florida school has been forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to pornography.

The complaint arose from a Renaissance art lesson where students were shown Michelangelo's statue of David.

The iconic statue is one of the most famous in Western history.

But one parent complained the material was pornographic and two others said they wanted to know about the class before it was taught.

The 5.17m (17ft) statue depicts an entirely naked David, the Biblical figure who kills the giant Goliath.

The lesson, given to 11 and 12-year-olds, also included references to Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" painting and Botticelli's "Birth of Venus".

Principal Hope Carrasaquilla of Tallahassee Classical School said she resigned after she was given an ultimatum by the school board to resign or be fired.

From a friend:

"I want to remind folks that Michaleangelo’s statue of David was commissioned to be installed in a niche in a cathedral. 

 "However, once Michaelangelo unveiled it, the people who paid for it changed their minds: they decided that it was too magnificent to be displayed up in the cathedral where it would be 80m away from its viewers. Instead they installed it in Florence’s municipal square: the most visible and public possible place of honor. 

 "Those Florida parents who objected to their children seeing it would have been considered backwards and ignorant in 1504." 

 ~ Miles Kurland, pointing out that FL parents are more ignorant than the early Renaissance.

It is difficult to understand...

 

but a third of the people in America want this sociopath to be POTUS again. In my, and many others', lifetime we never, never imagined a person as depraved as Trump would become the representative of the American people, and yet he did. And even when Americans saw his corruption, perversion, and degradation of that office, they decided that they wanted more.

I don't recognize America anymore.

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE LAND OF THE FREE

 

Student shot 2 faculty members at Denver high school, police say; suspected shooter at large 

Story by Grace Hauck, USA TODAY •  A male student who was being patted down in a routine safety check shot two faculty members at a Denver high school early Wednesday morning, police and school officials said.

YOUR WEEKLY "CRAZIEST THING" ON THE INTERNET:

 

"BUT ANY BOOK WITH A GOOD MESSAGE IS THREATENED AND KIRK CAMERON HAD TO CANCEL A READING TODAY BECAUSE OF THREATENED VIOLENCE. 

 Cameron is against gay marriage and believes homosexuality is hurting the underpinnings of Western society. 

 He doesn’t hate anyone, he just believes differently than most of the Left and some churches and synagogues. So he MUST be censored and threatened?"

"He doesn't hate anyone..."

Right. Cameron's just telling his audience that "homosexuality is hurting the underpinnings of Western society!"

That's a pretty damning and dangerous statement! And the blogger thinks that's just "believing differently?"

Weak-minded individuals reading that would immediately see it as a threat to their well-being and, who knows, maybe want to do something -- anything -- about saving Western civilization from the gays who are "hurting the underpinning of Western society!" 

The blogger appears to have sympathy for Cameron's point of view, and apparently feels it is unfair for anyone to consider his opinion as hateful, which, of course, it actually is.

Cameron believes it is homosexuality that threatens Western society! Not greed, mendacity, wars of aggression, poverty, pandemics, climate change, etc. Nope. It's the gays! And Cameron's hateful opinion stigmatizes a group of human beings who have, over millennia, contributed some of the world's greatest literature, music, art, and science.

That's not publishing a "different opinion." What Cameron is doing is vilifying an entire group of human beings, our brothers and sisters, blaming them for hurting Western society. That is the very definition of "hateful" because it has no basis in fact. His statement is a reflection of his own despicable bigotry, and every person of good will should condemn it.

It wasn't that long ago in Germany when the Nazis made these sorts of statements about Jews, homosexuals, and other minorities, which made it easy for the state to dispose of these people and save Germany from perceived threats to its purity.  Yet the blogger has empathy for poor Kirk Cameron (I've never heard of this guy), who singles out the gay community as a THREAT to Western society?

What in hell does that blogger think "THREAT" means? What kind of ideas will the weak-minded folks who listen to Fox News' lies get from this report?

Let me remind everyone:  Fox New (FAUX NOOZ) has been exposed in the Dominion lawsuit as knowingly and deliberately broadcasting lies about the 2020 election. FAUX NOOZ LIED AND LIED AND LIED. FAUX NOOZ knew Trump lost, but for monetary reasons kept telling their viewers a dirty dangerous LIE!

It's amazing to understand that these facts about FAUX NOOZ are indisputable -- Murdoch himself admitted to Fox promoting Trump's Big Lie for money -- yet people like the blogger above, remain loyal consumers of Fox's lies, their disinformation, and propaganda -- anti-gay rubbish -- that they find on that deplorable pile of crap called Fox News.

The blogger who posted Cameron's anti-gay propaganda hasn't the ability to see that posting Cameron's opinion -- and that's what it is; it is his hateful opinion, not a fact, -- isolates and endangers the gay community as a threat to Western civilization.

My challenge to that blogger would be this: Substitute "Jews," for "homosexuality," in Cameron's statement, and test it to see if, as the blogger who posted it believes, it is "just believing differently than most of the Left and some churches and synagogues."

IMO, it is people like that blogger who give voice and legitimacy to bigotry and hate. Shame on all who do so.

GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

Let’s believe them.

If there’s one axiom everyone should know and understand in politics, it’s this…

Believe what they say.

Period. Full Stop.

Believe what they say.

We should believe Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when he says what is happening in Ukraine was not a full scale invasion by Russia, but rather, a simple “territorial dispute”. Forget the the video and pictures you’ve seen of Russian soldiers and missiles destroying lives and buildings hundreds of miles from the Ukraine/Russia border.

The millions of people in Ukraine who have been displaced, killed and left homeless by the year long Russian attacks are not dying as a result of a war foisted on them by an invading aggressor. Instead, according to the Florida governor and potential US presidential candidate DeSantis, all of that mayhem and destruction is simply a territorial dispute.    

We should believe him, pure and simple.

Anyone who cannot see that what he said was both inaccurate and wrong should never be anywhere near a command position of the US military. Either Governor Desantis is woefully uninformed, intentionally stupid or lying to win the votes of a small minority of the GOP base.

Either way, he has shown himself to be an unqualified and unserious candidate to be President of the United States.

But there’s more. As there always is.

Recently former President Trump stated…

“The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the Deep Staters and put America first.” 

And this…

“…the greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia… it is probably, more than anything else, ourselves and some of the horrible, USA-hating people that represent us.”

We need to believe the former president. He wants to decimate the the Defense, State and other US departments built to defend us in the face of foreign aggression. But not only that, there’s another kernel within his statement many have missed.

He wants to replace those people he deems insufficiently “America First” with his people. The best people as he boasted in his first presidential campaign. A cursory review of how this might work out is to look at the “best” people Trump hired in his first campaign and administration.

Six of those best people have been indicted on 51 counts of, among other charges, lying under oath, money laundering, tax fraud, witness tampering and working as a foreign agent.

The former president has shown himself to be more interested in personal loyalty than in hiring the “best” people. When he says we should reconstitute the entity of the US defense system, ultimately pull back from NATO and support Russian Dictatorial President Vladimir Putin, we should believe him.  

We should also believe him when he says the greatest threat to the US are people who essentially disagree with him. People like you, me and your parents. Fellow Americans. In the eyes of Donald Trump, according to his own statements, he believes his fellow American citizens, those with whom he disagrees, are a bigger threat to America than Vladimir Putin.

Like Governor DeSantis, Trump should also not be allowed anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His unseriousness about our defense departments and his whole scale dismissal of the love millions of Americans have for this country rightly disqualify him.

In closing, I am not saying we cannot improve our defense and state departments. Everything from procurement to spending should be considered. As should our inclination to solve all the world’s problems with military force. Jesse Jackson in his 1988 presidential run advocated for reforming how much the US should fund security of Europe, and by extension, NATO. Former President Trump rightly worked to reset or open relations with North Korea.

The US is not, nor should it be on any unreversible path.

But the inability or unwillingness of both Governor DeSantis and former President Trump to seriously address these issues, as evidenced by their actual words, shows that both of them are unqualified to be President of the United States of America.

We should believe them. 

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

To Governor DeSantis of Floriduh:

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

 

By the way…. I don’t understand why paying off Stormy Daniels was problematic… even if he DID (and the checks Cohen has shared make it look BAD)…what man in public life hasn’t? 

And, if it’s because it blocked the fact that he’d had an affair before the 2016 election, HOW IS THAT DIFFERENT THAN THE MEDIA HIDING THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP INFORMATION BEFORE THE ELECTION OF BIDEN… so people wouldn’t know he was a corrupt monster?

Sláinte!

 

STOP ELECTING STUPID PEOPLE!!!!!!

Here's the video where she shows off her ignorance.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t believe Putin plans to invade Europe. She calls it a lie. 

Greene: 'I’ve never seen Putin actually show in any detail his plans to invade Europe. No one has shown me that. So I don’t believe the lies that I’m being told about this.' ”

h/t Infidel753:

Who are the geniuses on her staff who let her loose to say such stupid things in front of the country and all the world? 

This woman was sworn in as the pro-tempore Speaker of the House recently, and America is shamed by her presence -- or maybe not. 

Maybe she's exactly the correct representative of the people who voted for her: smugly ignorant and proud of it.

To MT Greene: "It's is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth a remove all doubt."

She's the nincompoopery gift that keeps on giving:

There were 16 bank failures between 2017 and 2020.

SVB Bank is the first to collapse since Biden took office. 

"...[S]ourced data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which reports that eight banks failed in 2017, four in 2019 and four in 2020. 

 The eight banks that failed in 2017 were: the Washington Federal Bank for Savings, Chicago, Illinois; The Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Argonia, Argonia, Kansas; Fayette County Bank, Saint Elmo, Illinois; Guaranty Bank, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; First NBC Bank, New Orleans, Louisiana; Proficio Bank, Cottonwood Heights, Utah; Seaway Bank and Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois; and Harvest Community Bank, Pennsville, New Jersey. 

 In 2019, the four banks that collapsed were: City National Bank of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey; Resolute Bank, Maumee, Ohio; Louisa Community Bank, Louisa, Kentucky; and the Enloe State Bank, Cooper, Texas. 

 The quartet of banks that failed in 2020 were: Almena State Bank, Almena, Kansas; First City Bank of Florida, Fort Walton Beach, Florida; The First State Bank, Barboursville, West Virginia; and Ericson State Bank, Ericson, Nebraska.

 

This guy --

 

Ron DeSantis @GovRonDeSantis 

It is not "sinful" to prohibit the mutilation of minors. It is not acceptable for the federal government to mandate that procedures like sex change operations be allowed for kids. 

 

“Mandate they be allowed?" What incredible double speak. 

No Gov. DeSantis, it’s called “limited government” (isn't that what Libertarians and Trumpublicans are all about? -- allowing parents and children to make the decisions that work best for themselves. 

Parents, children, and their doctors should be making the decision, not politicians seeking to win over Trump's MAGA voters. 

The federal government DOES NOT MANDATE any medical procedures, including sex change operations, for children. 

 According to the AMA and other medical associations, gender-affirming care for transgender young people is not "mutilation" - it is essential health care that often saves lives. For the state of Florida to deny that care is nothing less than child abuse. 

Ron DeSantis should check his brain before opening his mouth on issues he knows nothing about.

Meanwhile: 

"DeSantis declared that Russia’s brutal and unjustified war of aggression against a sovereign Ukraine is actually “a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia” and that protecting Ukraine is not a “vital” national interest of the United States."

[skip]

"DeSantis, like Putin apologist Trump, might have misjudged the party whose nomination he he might seek. The majority of Americans, more than 70 percent, favor our role in the defense of Ukraine, and more than 90 percent have a negative view of Russia."

More pandering to the MAGA crowd.

And here's the little angry Trump wannabe pursuing red meat issues to get the MAGA vote:

DeSantis administration revokes Hyatt Regency Miami alcohol license after it hosted 'A Drag Queen Christmas' 

The minors were allowed in as long as they were accompanied by an adult. IOW, the minors were there due to PARENTAL DISCRETION -- the parents made the choice, not the state.  AFAIK, no children have been injured or killed watching a drag queen performance.

 

Definition of the word "discretion:"  "The freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation."

DeSantis refers to Florida as "Free Florida." LOL!

Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children.

 

3-year-old girl kills 4-year-old sister after finding loaded handgun in Houston

March 13, 2023

  

No other peer country has that distinction. 

And Americans are okay with that.

(PS. Drag queen shows are not included in the causes of childhood and teen death rates, yet MAGA governors are falling over themselves writing legislation to ban them.  We are a stupid country.)

The U.S. Is the Only Country Among Its Peers in Which Guns Are the Leading Cause of Death Among Children

Florida 3-year-old dies after shooting himself with gun he found in parents' nightstand, officials say

Katie Kustura

The Daytona Beach News-Journal