THE WAY THINGS ARE .....

 After months of steadfast refusal, Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy just announced his ransom demands in exchange for avoiding economic default.

His plan, among other things, would slash funding for the Social Security Administration, leading to closed field offices, shorter hours, and longer wait times for people applying for benefits.

His plan wouldn’t touch the $2 trillion tax giveaway to millionaires and billionaires that Republicans passed under Trump. In fact, it would make it easier for the super-rich to cheat on their taxes by defunding the IRS.

That’s right: McCarthy's plan lets millionaires and billionaires cheat on their taxes and pays for it by making it harder for you to get Social Security.

Bad ideas and lies, coupled with political partizanship can be  informative, but not about the real world, for they have ceased faithfully to reflect that world, but about the subjective state of the person who nourish those ideas. Bad ideas do not just happen, people are responsible for them. They result from carelessness on our part, and selfishness when we cease to pay sufficient attention and care to the relational quality of ideas and their applications, or worse, they are a product of the willful rejection of objective facts. 

Congress is still going through the legislative text, but there are plenty of other cuts to vital programs, from food stamps to student loan relief, to cutting medical insurance from millions of Americans. There’s even a giveaway to oil companies!

McCarthy knows that his unpopular cuts will never pass on their own merits―that’s why he’s threatening to destroy our economy and throw millions out of work if Democrats won’t meet his demands.

Speaker MaCarthy relentless desire to attain his current leadership position, led him to a position where he can no longer control the extreme core Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Green and others. This is the price America end up paying for MaCarthy's political ambitions. 

We have less than two months until default―we must stand united and STOP McCarthy’s scheme!

My usual many thanks to all

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL.....

 

As we go through this period of the year, where there's a jam of religious holidays, for all three monotheistic religions and their various different derivatives and sects, I thought of summarizing it all with these few good and insightful words, written and forwarded by a good friend, a subject discussed in too many different books and high intellectual levels and circles, including me , check my blog "A God called Jesus". April 27 2015. it surely reflects my own personal  understandings and beliefs.....   

Jesus and Christ

We say Jesus Christ as if they were one and the same. But Jesus or Yessu is a real person in history while Christ is an article of faith.

Easter prompts one to read and learn more. One school of thought believes that indeed

historically there was a man called Jesus (see attached), he preached to the poor and the sick in Judea. While he did not directly challenge Rome (Give what is to Caesar to Caesar, and what is to God to God) he was critical of the local Judaic establishment and posed a challenge to their

traditional leaders (The Pharisees).  He developed something of a following but was tolerated

until he decided to come to Jerusalem.....Palm Sunday, thus challenging the Pharisees in the heart

of their seat of power, so they decided to get rid of him. Less than a week later he was executed

by crucifixion which was the common Roman method of execution. That is about Jesus the real

man.

But being Christ, son of God, and all the miracles, immaculate conception, rising from the dead

etc....etc....  that is where myth and faith come in. The stories about Jesus were largely built up and

embellished by St. Paul who was a great spinmeister. Together with James (brother of Jesus) Paul developed the stories about Jesus and added the miracles and made a deity out of the man. Paul was also a gifted activist and organizer, and he set about creating from the followers and stories of Jesus an institution which became the Church. Paul was not from Judea, he was a full Roman citizen born in Tarsus (now in Turkey). While Peter promoted the message of Jesus in Judea,

Paul recognized that Rome was the center of power so he worked and organized very hard in Rome. Thus Christianity as an institutionalized Church was formed.

Paul was not one of the 12 Apostles. In the New Testament, the books of the apostles Mark and Luke were written early on and contain very little of miracles and superlative acts. The books of

Matthew and John were written later and contain considerable embellishment.

As always, my profound thanks to all my good readers and friends, stay safe and well. 

UNSOLVABLE GUN MANIA .......

There have been more mass shootings than days so far this year, for the year 2023 only, the US experienced and lived 128 massacres as a result of horrific mass shootings, data base shows, this older article, one of many, explains and warns of loose regulations adjusting the ownership of lethal guns and assault armaments.....  

By Kara Fox, Krystina Shveda, Natalie Croker and Marco Chacon, CNN Updated November26,2021.

 Ubiquitous gun violence in the United States has left few places unscathed over the decades. Still, many Americans hold their right to bear arms, enshrined in the US Constitution, as sacrosanct. But critics of the Second Amendment say that right threatens another: The right to life. America's relationship to gun ownership is unique, and its gun culture is a global outlier. As the tally of gun-related deaths continue to grow daily, here's a look at how gun culture in the US compares to the rest of the world.

 How firearm ownership compares globally The United States is the only nation in the world where civilian guns outnumber people. Falkland Islands Rate of civilian firearms per 100 people 120.5 US 62.1 Falkland Islands : 33 Note: Gun ownership rates are estimates as of 2017. Some entries have been combined to calculate rates for Cyprus, United Kingdom and Somalia. Data not available for Christmas Island, Nauru and Vatican City. Source: Small Arms Survey (Civilian Firearm Holdings 2017) There are 120 guns for every 100 Americans, according to the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey (SAS). No other nation has more civilian guns than people. The Falkland Islands -- a British territory in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, claimed by Argentina and the subject of a 1982 war -- is home to the world's second-largest stash of civilian guns per capita.

 But with an estimated 62 guns per 100 people, its gun ownership rate is almost half that of the US. Yemen -- a country in the throes of a seven-year conflict -- has the third-highest gun ownership rate at 53 guns per 100 people. While the exact number of civilian-owned firearms is difficult to calculate due to a variety of factors -- including unregistered weapons, the illegal trade and global conflict -- SAS researchers estimate that Americans own 393 million of the 857 million civilian guns available, which is around 46% of the world's civilian gun cache. About 44% of US adults live in a household with a gun, and about one-third own one personally, according to an October 2020 Gallup survey. 

Some nations have high gun ownership due to illegal stocks from past conflicts or lax restrictions on ownership, but the US is one of only three countries in the world where bearing (or keeping) arms is a constitutional right, according to Zachary Elkins, associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the Comparative Constitutions Project. Yet the ownership rate in the other two -- Guatemala and Mexico -- is almost a tenth of the United States. The gun debate in those countries is less politicized, Elkins said. In contrast to the US, Guatemala and Mexico's constitutions facilitate regulation, with lawmakers more comfortable restricting guns, especially given concerns around organized crime, he said. In Mexico, there's only one gun store in the entire country -- and it's controlled by the army. In the US, firearm manufacturing is on the rise, with more Americans buying guns.

 In 2018, gun makers produced 9 million firearms in the country -- more than double the amount manufactured in 2008, according to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). More recently, January 2021 marked the biggest annual increase since 2013 in requests for federal background checks necessary for purchasing a gun -- a nearly 60% jump from January 2020. And in March 2021, the FBI reported almost 4.7 million background checks -- the most of any month since the agency started keeping track more than 20 years ago.

 Two million of those checks were for new gun purchases, making it the second highest month on record for firearms sales, according to the National Shooting Sports Federation, the firearms industry trade group that compares FBI background check numbers with actual sales data to determine its sales figures. The US has the highest firearm homicide rate in the developed world In 2019, the number of US deaths from gun violence was about 4 per 100,000 people. That's 18 times the average rate in other developed countries. Multiple studies show access to guns contributes to higher firearm-related homicide rates. Rate of guns owned per 100 people Gun-related homicide rate per 100K people.

 Bulgaria Gun-related homicide rate Rate of guns owned 0.6 8.4 US Gun-related homicide rate Rate of guns owned 4.1 120.5 Note: Developed countries are defined based on the UN classification, which includes 36 countries. Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Global Burden of Disease 2019), Small Arms Survey (Civilian Firearm Holdings 2017) Almost a third of US adults believe there would be less crime if more people owned guns, according to an April 2021 Pew survey. However, multiple studies show that where people have easy access to firearms, gun-related deaths tend to be more frequent, including by suicide, homicide and unintentional injuries. It is then unsurprising that the US has more deaths from gun violence than any other developed country per capita.

 The rate in the US is eight times greater than in Canada, which has the seventh highest rate of gun ownership in the world; 22 times higher than in the European Union and 23 times greater than in Australia, according to Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) data from 2019. The gun-related homicide rate in Washington, DC -- the highest of any US state or district -- is close to levels in Brazil, which ranks sixth highest in the world for gun-related homicides, according to the IHME figures. Globally, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean suffer from the highest rates of firearm homicides, with El Salvador, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras topping the charts. Drug cartel activities and the presence of firearms from old conflicts are both contributing factors, according to the 2018 Global Mortality From Firearms, 1990-2016, study.

 

But gun-related violence in Latin America and the Caribbean is also exacerbated by weapons that come from the US. About 200,000 firearms from America cross Mexico's border every year, according to a February 2021 US government accountability office report, citing the Mexican government. In 2019, about 68% of firearms seized by law enforcement in Mexico and sent to the ATF for identification were traced back to the US. And around half of guns the ATF checked after they've been seized in Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama were manufactured in or officially imported to the US. 

The US was home to 4% of the world's population but accounted for 44% of global suicides by firearm in 2019 The country recorded the largest number of gun-related suicides in the world every year from 1990 to 2019. Afghanistan Gun-related suicides United States 23,365 44% of global suicides by firearm in 2019 Mexico 914 Argentina 1,204 Brazil 1,259 Pakistan 710 India 6,145 France 1,748 Venezuela 702 Russia 1,053 Germany 899 Nigeria 458 Canada 686 Turkey 585 Iraq 428 SouthAfrica 397 Ukraine 525 Italy 507 Colombia 478 China (mainland) 467 DRCongo 395 : Note: American Samoa, Antigua and Barbuda, Brunei, Cook Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Sao Tome and Principe reported no gun suicides in 2019. Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Global Burden of Disease 2019), UN Population Division While personal safety tops the list of reasons why American gun owners say they own a firearm, 63% of US gun-related deaths are self-inflicted. Over 23,000 Americans died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 2019. That number accounts for 44% of the gun suicides globally and dwarfs suicide totals in any other country in the world. 

At six firearm suicides per 100,000 people, the US rate of suicide is, on average, seven times higher than in other developed nations. Globally, the US rate is only lower than in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory with relatively high gun ownership (22 guns per 100 people). Multiple studies have reported an association between gun ownership and gun-related suicides. One of those studies, conducted by researchers at Stanford University, found that men who owned handguns were almost eight times as likely to die of self-inflicted gunshot wounds as men who didn't own a gun. Women who owned handguns were 35 times as likely to die by firearm suicide, compared to those who didn't, according to the 2020 study, which surveyed 26 million California residents over a more than 11-year period.

 No other developed nation has mass shootings at the same scale or frequency as the US Half of the world's developed countries had at least one public mass shooting between 1998 and 2019.* But no other nation saw more than eight incidents over 22 years, while the United States had over 100 — with almost 2,000 people killed or injured. * Mass shootings are defined as gun-violence incidents in a public locations within a 24-hour period that result in four or more deaths, excluding the perpetrator, with victims chosen at random or for their symbolic value. They exclude incidents involving profit-driven criminal activity, state-sponsored violence and familicide. † The dataset includes casualties from the only three mass shootings involving organized terrorism that occurred in the developed world in the timeframe (May 2014 Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting, January 2015 Île-de-France attacks and November 2015 Paris attacks). Note: Developed countries are defined based on the UN classification and those with no mass shootings are not shown. Source: Jason R. Silva of William Paterson University Regular mass shootings are a uniquely American phenomenon. The US is the only developed country where mass shootings have happened every single year for the past 20 years, according to Jason R. Silva, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at William Paterson University. 

To compare across countries, Silva uses a conservative definition of a mass shooting: an event that leaves four or more people dead, excluding the shooter, and that excludes profit-driven criminal activity, familicide and state-sponsored violence. Using this approach, 68 people were killed and 91 injured in eight public shootings in the US over the course of 2019 alone. A broader definition of mass shootings reveals an even higher figure. The Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit based in Washington, DC and which CNN relies on for its reporting of mass shootings, defines a mass shooting as an incident leaving at least four people dead or injured, excluding the shooter, and does not differentiate victims based upon the circumstances in which they were shot. They counted as many as 417 mass shootings in 2019. And this year, 641 incidents have been recorded. State gun policies also appear to play a role.

 A 2019 study published in the British Medical Journal found that US states with more permissive gun laws and greater gun ownership had higher rates of mass shootings. President Joe Biden's administration has renewed calls for gun reform after mass shootings in Colorado, South Carolina and Texas this year. In March, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would require unlicensed and private sellers, as well as all licensed sellers to do federal background checks before all gun sales -- and to ensure that buyers are fully vetted before making the sale. The bills are now stuck in the Senate where, despite some Democrats' efforts to build bipartisan support, there has been no indication they have the votes to overcome the 60-vote filibuster. 

For decades, political roadblocks have stalled such efforts in the US. And that partisan divide is reflected in the population as well, with 80% of Republicans -- and 19% of Democrats -- saying gun laws in the country are either about right or should be less strict, according to the April Pew survey. Meanwhile, mass shootings continue to drive demand for more guns, experts say, with gun control activists arguing the time for reform is long overdue. Researchers from Washington University at St Louis' Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute presented this argument to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2018, saying that the US government's "failure" to prevent and reduce gun-related violence through "reasonable and effective domestic measures has limited the ability of Americans to enjoy many fundamental freedoms and guarantees protected by international human rights law," including the right to life and bodily integrity.

 UN bodies have also underlined these concerns, pointing to America's "stand your ground" laws, which allow gun owners in at least 25 states to use deadly force in any situation where they believe that they face an imminent threat of harm, without first making any effort to deescalate the situation or retreat. A 2019 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report said that the law can encourage people to respond to situations with lethal force, rather than use it as a last resort. In a 2020 essay published by the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, gun control advocate Rukmani Bhatia said that the US gun lobby has seized a rights-based narrative "to justify, dangerously, the right to bear, carry, and use firearms." Stand your ground legislation, she said, "warps people's understanding about their rights to security and, in the worst cases, empowers them to take away another person's right to life."

 

Gun-related deaths reduced after the introduction of stricter laws in these countries Shortly after a mass shooting in Tasmania, Australia banned rapid-fire rifles and shotguns and tightened licensing rules. Over the next decade, gun deaths dropped by 51%. A decade of rising gun deaths in South Africa prompted the government to pass new laws prohibiting certain firearms, mandating background checks and tightening licensing requirements, which capped gun ownership numbers. A mass shooting in 1996 prompted the UK Parliament to further tighten the country's gun laws and ban private gun ownership.* Gun-related deaths fell by a quarter over the decade that followed. Three mass shootings in three years prompted Finland to overhaul its gun laws in 2011. Gun deaths were already falling, yet there was an additional 17% drop between 2011 and 2019. After a 2002 shooting by a 19-year-old. 

 Germany's parliament passed gun restrictions for young people, including banning large-caliber weapon sales and requiring psychological evaluation before purchase. It later mandated gun registration and storage security checkups after another mass shooting. Meanwhile, countries that have introduced laws to reduce gun-related deaths have achieved significant changes. A decade of gun violence, culminating with the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, prompted the Australian government to take action. Less than two weeks after Australia's worst mass shooting, the federal government implemented a new program, banning rapid-fire rifles and shotguns, and unifying gun owner licensing and registrations across the country. In the next 10 years gun deaths in Australia fell by more than 50%. A 2010 study found the government's 1997 buyback program -- part of the overall reform -- led to an average drop in firearm suicide rates of 74% in the five years that followed. 

Other countries are also showing promising results after changing their gun laws. In South Africa, gun-related deaths almost halved over a 10-year-periodafter new gun legislation, the Firearms Control Act of 2000, went into force in July 2004. The new laws made it much more difficult to obtain a firearm. In New Zealand, gun laws were swiftly amended after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. Just 24 hours after the attack, in which 51 people were killed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the law would change. New Zealand's parliament voted almost unanimously to change the country's gun laws less than a month later, banning all military-style semi-automatic weapons.

 Britain tightened its gun laws and banned most private handgun ownership after a mass shooting in 1996, a move that saw gun deaths drop by almost a quarter over a decade. In August 2021, a licensed firearms holder killed five people in Plymouth, England, marking the worst mass shooting since 2010. After the incident, police said the gunman's firearm license had been returned to him just months after it was revoked, due to assault accusations. The British government then asked police to review their licensing practices and said that they would be bringing forward new guidance to improve background procedures, including social media checks. Many countries around the world have been able to tackle gun violence. Yet, despite the thousands of lost lives in the US, only around half of US adults favor stricter gun laws, according to the recent Pew survey, and political reform remains at a standstill. The deadly cycle of violence seems destined to continue. An interesting study by the CNN journalists, it's affecting the entire world, and mostly the U.S and its neighbors. Unfortunately many people still don't realize or don't want to acknowledge the problem. 

My thanks to all my good readers all over, stay safe and well.