What's Left Special Report: Guns

What's Left Special Report: Guns

Welcome Jon Swift Memorial Roundup readers. If you would rather see the video of this, it's at http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2018/06/whats-left-special-report-guns_13.html.



February 14, 2018: Seventeen are killed, 17 more wounded, in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Broward County, Florida

May 18, 2018: Ten killed, 13 wounded, in a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.

May 25, 2018: Two injured, happily none killed, in a shooting at Noblesville West Middle School in Noblesville, Indiana. According to CNN, this was the 23rd school shooting of 2018 - just 22 weeks into the year.

And of course we heard from the right wing and from the gun nuts all their sorrowful expressions and their thoughts and prayers and of course their excuses and diversions and distractions, blaming the massacres on mental illness, bullying, Hollywood, violent video games, socialism, single parents, Godlessness, abortion, and now Ritalin. Everything but the guns.

Well, you know what? I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anything they have to say, now or ever again. I don't want to hear the gobbledygook, the nonsense, the lies, the garbage. I don't want hear any of the noxious venom spewing from the fangs of the snakes at the NRA. I don't want to hear the slimy excuses, the shopworn slogans, the stale talking points.

There have been well over 60 mass killings in US over last 30 years. One every couple of months for 30 years. In the vast majority of those cases, the guns involved were obtained legally. Of the weapons used nearly three-fourths were either assault weapons or semiautomatic handguns.

So I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anything from the gun nuts or their bought off lackeys in Congress. I don't want to hear their lies, I won't tolerate their distractions, I won't abide their trickery, I won't fall for their attempts to talk about anything other than the damn guns.

What's more, I also don't want to hear it from the Democrats, I don't want to hear any of the mealy-mouthed blather from political cowards who will whine that they're doing the best that they can even as the body count rises and members of their own party continue to either worship at the altar of the NRA or run and hide at its approach.

And that's nothing new. Even Mr. Nobel Peace Prize himself, President Hopey-Changey, talked big about "meaningful action" on guns while the only thing he did was to expand the areas where people can legally carry them. Thanks to legislation approved and actively defended in court by the glorious Mr. O's administration, you can transport a gun via Amtrak train, which you couldn't before. Even better, you can now carry a loaded, concealed gun around in a national park, which you couldn't before.

And I don't want to hear, as we have always, invariably, inevitably heard after every tragedy and as sure as the sun rising in the morning will hear after the next one that "now is not the time" to talk about doing something about the carnage. Because if that's true, then what the hell time is "the time?"

Know this: The mass murders, especially the ones at schools, grab our attention, take our breath away, break our hearts and break through our indifference but they are in fact only a small part of the reality, a small part of the daily, grinding, carnage that guns bring to our nation.

Over the past five years, on average, 13,000 people in US are killed, murdered, every year by gun. Over the past five years, on average, nearly 22,000 commit suicide by gun every year. Over 35,000 gun deaths a year - 96 a day - including seven children and teenagers. Ninety-six a day: that's three Parklands plus four Santa Fes a day, every day, day after day.

The suicides are especially tragic because while gun suicides account for 60% of gun deaths and 50% of all suicide deaths, they only account for about 10% of all suicide attempts - because 90% of those who attempt suicide by gun succeed, while 90% of those who try by other means fail and rarely try again.

So I have to ask: When is it "the time" to talk about the guns? How many more have to die before it's "the time?" How many more have to be shot down before it's "the time?" How many mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, daughters, sons, have to lie in spreading pools of their own blood before it's "the time?"

How many children have to cry out for mommy after a fall or a bee sting until someone has to gently as they can explain again that mommy is no longer there before it's "the time?" How many wives have to wake in the night and reach across the bed and have that moment of confusion before the pain of remembering - yet again - why there's no one there? How many parents have to suffer the repeated gaping empty ache of being in the grocery store and reaching for something before realizing - again - that they no longer have to buy that sort of cereal or that particular brand of peanut butter?

The days of those children, those spouses, those parents, are not measured in minutes but in pains; they are not marked by hours but by aches. So what time is the time? And why is this time, whatever time it is, not the time?

So I don't want to hear it; I don't want to hear any of it. Not the time? Of course it's the time, it's way past the time, way past time to face the truth that there is only one issue here: there are too damn many guns that are too damn easy to get.

Part of the problem is, we don't actually know how many people own guns or how many they own. Keeping official records on that sort of thing, thanks to the NRA and political cowardice, is illegal. So the information we have is all by survey.

But based on that, there are by various estimates anywhere from 270 million to 310 million guns in private hands in the United States - close to one firearm for every man, woman, and child in the US and about one-half of all weapons owned by civilians in the entire world.

But while those numbers about ownership may be close to the actual totals, they remain indefinite, imprecise. Still, one thing is for sure: more guns equals more gun crime, more gun deaths, more murders, more suicides. That's what the research shows, over and over again.

In 2013, researchers from Boston University looked at the relationship between gun ownership and gun homicides over the 30-year period from 1981 to 2010 in all 50 states. They found a "robust correlation" between the two factors.

Also in 2013, a team lead by Dr. Eric Fleegler, a physician in pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, used information on state laws from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence to create a list of 28 possible laws states could enact to in some way control guns or access to them. They also used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding gun violence. Putting those data sets together, they found that the more such laws a state had, the lower the level of gun violence there. The states in the top 25% of gun legislation strength had a 42% reduction in gun deaths compared with the states in the bottom 25%, including a 40% drop in homicides and a 37% drop in suicides. Notably, when gun violence was lower, other types of violence did not go up, suggesting people without guns do not kill themselves or others by other means.

In 2014, a team lead by David Hemenway, director of the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University, assembled a list of nearly 300 experts on guns, which they established by going through about 1,200 articles on firearms that had been recently published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Hemenway began sending monthly surveys to the authors of these articles. The results showed that a heavy majority the experts responding agreed that having a gun in the house makes it a more dangerous place to be, makes it more likely that a woman living in the house will be killed, and increases the risk of suicide. Heavy majorities also agreed that having more guns around does not reduce crime and that strong gun laws do reduce homicide.

In 2016, a report by researchers from the University of Nevada-Reno and the Harvard School of Public Health used World Health Organization data to compare gun violence and murder rates across 23 developed (or "high-income," as they are also called) nations, including the US. Among the findings were that Americans are 25 times more likely to be violently killed with a gun - murdered - than in those 22 other nations; we are six times more likely to be accidentally killed with a gun; eight times times more likely to commit suicide using a gun; and overall 10 times more likely to die by gun than residents of other developed nations. It found that homicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans 15 to 24 and the third leading cause of death among those 25 to 34. Americans 15 to 24 are 49 times more likely to die from gun murder than similarly aged young people in other high-income nations; for those aged 25 to 34, the risk is 32 times greater.

Despite having only one-half the total population of the other nations studied, the US accounted for 82 percent of all firearm incidents. What's more, the US accounted for 90 percent of all women, 91 percent of children aged up to 14 years, and 92 percent of youth aged 15 to 24 years who were killed by guns.

In 2017, a working paper by John Donohue, an economist and law professor at Stanford University, addressed the question of relating gun ownership to gun crime at a time during which violent crime in the US has been and continues to decline. He found that the introduction of so-called right-to-carry laws makes violent crime rates 13-15% worse and the gun homicide rate 9% worse over 10 years. That is, even as violent crime is dropping, it would have dropped significantly more in the absence of those laws. More guns around, more guns carried, more crime, more death. The result was based on an analysis of 37 years worth of data comparing gun crime rates in states with and without right-to-carry laws, including how the rates changed in states that adopted right-to-carry during those 37 years.

And just last fall, evidence from a massive database maintained by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death, showed the US as a shocking outlier on gun deaths.

Measured by socioeconomic success, such as income per person and average education level, the US ranked 9th highest among the nations of the world - but on death by gun violence, it ranked 31st highest. That is, of the 195 recognized nations of the world, only eight nations had higher socioeconomic success than the US, but 164 nations had lower levels of death by gun.

The rate of gun death in the US in 2016, the most recent figures available, was eight times higher than the rate in Canada, 27 times higher than in Denmark, 33 times higher than Germany.

But oh, we're told, even if all that is true, well, it's unfortunate, it's terrible, but it's the price we pay for freedom! The freedom we are guaranteed by the Second Amendment, the Amendment that itself guarantees our freedom!

Bull.

I'm going to have to get a little legalistic on you, but it's necessary because you can be damn sure that the gun nuts are going to trot out the Second Amendment argument over and over, the argument that goes "I can have my guns - the Constitution says so!"

So first, let's be clear on what the Amendment says:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The first important Supreme Court decision about the Second Amendment was Presser v. Illinois, which was decided in 1886. In it, the Supreme Court found that the Second Amendment limited only the power of Congress and the national government to control firearms, not that of individual states. States could essentially put on whatever restrictions they wanted. That decision was affirmed in Miller v. Texas, decided in 1894. Now, this was before the idea of incorporation, the idea that the protections of the Constitution extend to the states as well as the federal government, became commonplace, so these decisions are not truly relevant the legal situation we face to today. But they do mean that right away this idea that from the very beginning the Founding Fathers wanted everyone to be able to own whatever and however many guns they wanted is totally bogus.

The next big case, the important one, was United States v. Miller. This was in 1939 and it concerned the National Firearms Act of 1934. That Act required that certain types of weapons be registered and taxed. A unanimous Court upheld the law, saying there was no conflict with the Second Amendment. The Court found that:

In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a [weapon of the sort involved in the case] has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument. ... With obvious purpose to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness of such forces the declaration and guarantee of the Second Amendment were made. It must be interpreted and applied with that end in view.

The syntax is rather stilted, but the meaning is clear enough.

For 69 years, that was precedent, relied on by all lower Courts and occasionally referred to by the Supreme Court itself. For 69 years, the legal standard was that states and the federal government were within their legitimate powers to regulate sale and possession of weapons which were not related to maintaining "a well-regulated militia" - which, in the absence of state militias (except to the degree that the National Guard could be considered such), pretty much meant any weapon at all.

Put another way, the guarantee under the Second Amendment was understood to describe not an individual right but a collective one: It applied to the people as a whole, not to discrete individuals, and referred to the right of the people of a state (or a nation) to collectively defend themselves against attack.

After 69 years, the narrowest majority of the Supreme Court, 5-4, decided to ignore those decades of precedent, or more to the point, to regard them as irrelevant. In 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court ruled for the first time that the Second Amendment does provide an individual right to own a gun.

To do that, they had to go through some real mental contortions. They treated the reference to a militia as merely "prefatory," as having no legal effect, no legal meaning, even though there doesn't seem to be another example of such a "prefatory" anywhere in the constitution. What's more, the phrase "keep and bear arms" has traditionally referred to serving in a military force (including a militia). To get around that, the Court majority broke the phrase into two separate pieces - so it's not a right to "keep and bear arms" but a right to "keep" arms and an entirely separate right to "bear" arms as part of a military.

This decision only applied to federal enclaves such as the District of Columbia. However, two years later, in McDonald v. Chicago, the Court ruled in another 5-4 decision that the finding in Heller applied to the states as well.

That is what the gun nuts now rely on, that is what they now argue: "Can't have gun control. Second Amendment. Supreme Court has ruled. Debate is over." Now, if you're ever faced with that argument, the first thing you should do is to ask those wackos if at any time during those 69 years that the Court said otherwise, in all that time did any of them just say "the Court has ruled, the debate is over, we lost." Of course they didn't. So don't expect us to do it now.

Especially because I'm going to advance an argument that the interpretation of the Second Amendment relied on by the gun nuts and the NRA and the right-wingers on the court is wholly bogus even beyond the majority's mental contortions.

First, again, here is the text:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Here is James Madison's original proposed text:

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

Note that expressed this way, the tying of the article to a militia is specific and undeniable; it makes no sense to regard the reference to a militia as some sort of passing observation with no relevance to the rest of the text.

What's more, the "Powers of Congress" as listed in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution include these (among others):

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States;

Note well: Congress can maintain a navy but only raise an army and that for only two years at a time - and meanwhile, can call out the militia to "suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions."

The expectation was that the US would not have a standing army, that one would be raised in the event of need but that the militias would be the first line of defense against attack. Despite that - and this is something that then-Justice John Paul Stevens noted in his dissent in Heller - there still was a concern at the time that Congress would disarm the state militias and create a national standing army and the Second Amendment was intended as a guarantee to the states that their militias could be maintained. Which means that yes, it was about a militia from the very start. Which means the Miller decision got it right and the Heller decision should go to hell.

But there's another thing that is equally if not more important: The gun nuts - and, in fact, a lot of gun control advocates - don't know what the Heller and McDonald decisions actually said.

In Heller and reasserted in McDonald, the majority of the Supreme Court actually embraced the concept of the 1939 Miller decision that the federal government and the states have the authority to regulate firearms. What's more, that majority argued that the protections of the Second Amendment only apply to weapons "in common use for lawful purposes." In fact, in Heller, the Court said the ruling, quoting here,

should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

The majority also said that other existing or potential prohibitions, such as banning concealed weapons or the carrying of "dangerous and unusual weapons" were unaffected by the decision.

So the gun nuts who claim that the Second Amendment gives them the right to have pretty much any kind of gun they want and as many of them as they want and carry them wherever they want are, happily, completely wrong. Heller and McDonald are far more limited than gun nuts hoped and than control advocates feared.

Carrying concealed guns can be banned. Carrying guns into schools or government buildings - or, for that matter, on Amtrak trains or in national parks - can be banned. Assault weapons can be banned. Semiautomatic handguns can be banned. High-capacity magazines can be banned. Safety locks can be required. "Dangerous and unusual" ammunition such as hollow-point bullets and armor-piercing rounds can be banned.

Michael Waldman, who is president of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, has noted that even since Heller, courts have upheld nearly all gun rules, finding that yes, individuals have a right to a gun, but society has the right to protect itself, too.

And in fact that society agrees. A survey by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and published in the May issue of the "American Journal of Public Health" covered 24 proposals of varying severity restricting access to guns. A majority supported 23 of them; significantly, a majority of self-described gun owners supported 17 of them and in most cases the approval gap between gun owners and non-gun owners was in the single digits.

And in terms of societal right to self-protection, it's wise to recall here that gun ownership is a distinctly minority position in the US: Based on surveys, no more than about 30% of Americans own one or more guns and the figure may be as low as 22% and only 42% live is a household where anyone owns a gun.

An important sidebar here is that I would not approve of all the proposals in the Johns Hopkins survey, as some made a history of mental illness a bar to gun ownership - and the fact is that the best and recent research shows no reliable predictive value in associating mental health and gun violence. Put another way, the research says that people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent toward others, especially to commit mass violence, than anyone else is. We can't simply dismiss the harsh truth of mass violence with the slogan "better mental health programs." They are justified on their own account - but not because they will address the issue of mass shootings, because they will not. They are a gun lobby-pushed distraction. The issue is the damn guns. Stay focused.

So staying focused, here's the last thing, a bottom line: Based on current jurisprudence, the truth is that pretty much any kind of gun other than basic hunting rifles, shotguns, and ordinary handguns could be banned outright.

And dammit, they should be - ban them all. You want to hunt? Go with a basic rifle. Don't even try to tell me that you need an AR-15 to go after deer. In fact, why don't you use a bow? Or is the extra effort involved in having to track the deer to get close enough to take it down with a bow instead of dropping it from a couple of hundred yards away with your manhood too much for you?

You want to target shoot? Use a pellet gun. Yeah, yeah, I know, they can be dangerous blah blah blah - but don't even try to tell me you need a Glock to shoot out a paper bulls-eye.

Ban them all. I know that's not going to happen. I know there is no chance of that in my lifetime and probably much longer, if ever. But it's not going to stop me from saying it and from wanting it - and as long as I am 100 times more likely to be killed by a gun here than in the UK, I'm going to keep on saying it and keep on wanting it.

I am not usually a one-issue voter. but this year, on this issue, on there being too damn many guns that are too damn easy to get, I am. So this year, this time, this election, if you are not with me on this, I am against you.

Because all I can think is that until we Americans as a people, as a culture, grow the hell up and throw away our childish fantasies that somehow we are all living on the frontier in the 1870s with nothing between us and who knows what danger except our trusty guns, until we grow the hell up and ditch the infantile vision of ourselves as action movie heroes ready to leap into action to defend the defenseless and save the day, until we grow the hell up and realize the our guns have brought us death and not deliverance, until that time the tens of thousands of people who die by gun every year in this country will continue to die by the tens of thousands - because there are too damn many guns that are too damn easy to get.

What's Left #13

What's Left
for the week of March 2-8, 2017

This week:
Good News: minimum wage raise in St. Louis
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/28/1638759/-Minimum-Wage-in-St-Louis-Unexpectedly-Jumped-Today-from-7-70-per-hour-to-10-00

Good News: voting rights victory in Virginia
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/1/1638995/-Major-win-Supreme-Court-reverses-ruling-that-protected-Virginia-GOP-s-legislative-gerrymander
http://electionlawblog.org/?p=91402
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/1/1638995/-Major-win-Supreme-Court-reverses-ruling-that-protected-Virginia-GOP-s-legislative-gerrymander
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-680_c07d.pdf

Good News: 5th circuit says filming cops is 1st Amendment right
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/27/1638392/-Federal-Appeals-Court-rules-in-favor-of-the-First-Amendment-you-can-film-cops
https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/photographers-rights/filming-and-photographing-police
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/divided-federal-appeals-court-rules-you-have-the-right-to-film-the-police/

Clown Award: Bill O"Reilly
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/politics/louie-gohmert-gabby-giffords/
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/28/education-secretary-betsy-devos-faces-twitter-backlash-after-linking-hbcus-with-school-choice/21858125/
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/devos-tries-to-walk-back-statements-historically-black-colleges-school-choice
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/welcome-to-the-trump-plantation-historically-black-college-vandalized-after-betsy-devos-gaffe/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/19/1635487/-Trump-proclaims-new-terror-attack-Look-at-what-happened-last-night-in-Sweden-Sweden
https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/02/24/bill-o-reilly-hosted-fake-swedish-defense-advisor-fearmonger-about-refugees/215463
http://mobil.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/fake-sweden-expert-on-fox-news-has-criminal-convictions-in-us-no-connection-to-swedish-security/
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/02/25/Fox-News-claims-Swedish-unknown-Nils-Bildt-is-national-security-advisor/3121488075119/

For the Record: Amnesty International says US not safe for refugees
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immgration-canada-border-idUSKBN1602NG

For the Record: Shell Oil knew about climate change in 1991
https://thecorrespondent.com/6285/shell-made-a-film-about-climate-change-in-1991-then-neglected-to-heed-its-own-warning/692663565-875331f6?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

For the Record: Grace Slick donates Chick-fil-a money to Lambda Legal
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/27/1638374/-Singer-Grace-Slick-licenses-song-to-Chick-fil-A-and-then-donates-money-to-LGBTQ-organization
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/28/jackie-evanchos-transgender-sister-juliet-just-won-lawsuit-over/21858875/

For the Record: DOJ back to using private prisons
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2582-good-news-federal-private-prisons.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doj-private-prisons-sessions_us_58af529ce4b0a8a9b780669a#pt0-135499

Update: Dakota Access Pipeline
https://www.governor.nd.gov/news/burgum-issues-emergency-evacuation-order
http://www.alternet.org/activism/dakota-access-pipeline-protesters-set-fire-camp-ahead-evacuation
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/24/politics/trump-keystone-xl-dakota-access-pipelines-executive-actions/index.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/the-dakota-access-pipelines-final-stand/516225/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dakota-access-standing-rock-deadline-1.3993636
http://standwithstandingrock.net/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-asks-federal-court-set-aside-trumps-pipeline-reversal/
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-11-25/trump-s-stock-in-oil-pipeline-company-raises-concern
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dapl-pr-firm-wrote-pro-pipeline-letter-sent-by-three_us_58ac8bd7e4b0acc17645d7e6

Footnote: Seattle cuts ties to Wells Fargo over DAPL
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/seattle-cutting-ties-with-wells-fargo-over-dakota-access-pipeline/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/seattle-wells-fargo-dapl_us_589b56b2e4b0c1284f29da4b?7wtielrujdfs9k9
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/quotes

Outrage of the Week: GOPpers attack First Amendment right to assemble
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2017/02/113-rules.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/arizona-bill-protesters-racketeering_us_58af3692e4b060480e05e81d
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2017/02/23/arizona-senate-oks-racketeering-charges-riots/98296298/
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/legislature/2017/02/23/5-things-know-arizona-bill-arrest-protesters-riot/98302932/
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/plan-a-protest-lose-your-house-bill-sb-1142-killed-by-arizona-house-9121181
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/28/1638615/-In-a-victory-for-Democracy-Arizona-s-House-kills-Republican-led-anti-protest-bill
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/24/republican-lawmakers-introduce-bills-to-curb-protesting-in-at-least-17-states/?utm_term=.7e71adf974a8

What's Left #12

What's Left
for the week of February 16-22, 2017

This week:

Good News: Boy Scouts accepting transgender boys
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/30/boy-scouts-of-america-to-begin-accepting-transgender-boys/21703534/

Good News: NCAA will extend ban on games in NC if HB2 is not repealed
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/search?q=HB2
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article131008644.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/02/06/ncaa-reportedly-is-on-the-verge-of-blackballing-north-carolina-for-years-over-bathroom-bill/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.4f2c0a2e6dbd

Good News: Andrew Puzder out
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/02/15/trump-labor-secretary-nominee-andrew-puzder-withdraws/21714888/
http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2017/02/food-workers-puzzled-over-andrew-puzder-secretary-labor
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-real-reason-why-andy-puzder-wont-become-labor-secretary/

Clown Award: Kellyanne Conartist
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/education-department-misspells-apology-for-misspelling-w-e-b-du-bois-name
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reports-flynn-apologized-to-mike-pence

RIP: Mary Tyler Moore
http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Mary-Tyler-Moore-who-turned-the-world-on-with-a-10883884.php
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/mary-tyler-moore-dead-age-80-article-1.2955361?cache=snyfr%2525252525252525253fq%2525252525252525253dxs%2F

RIP: Irwin Corey
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/irwin-corey-comic-who-styled-himself-the-worlds-foremost-authority-dies-at-102/2017/02/07/b39560ae-ed36-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.0ef3ee9b8e2c
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/07/513879165/the-worlds-foremost-authority-has-died-prof-irwin-corey-was-102

Outrage of the Week: Glenn McCoy's racist cartoon
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/devos-blocked-from-entering-dc-public-school
http://fusion.net/story/386858/glenn-mccoy-betsy-devos-cartoon/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Problem_We_All_Live_With
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges
http://arthistory.about.com/od/famous_paintings/ss/The-Problem-We-All-Live-With-By-Norman-Rockwell.htm
https://twitter.com/NotFaulty/status/831586468170723328/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/08/white-people-think-racial-discrimination-in-america-is-basically-over/?utm_term=.531dc1d74003
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/21/white-people-think-racism-is-getting-worse-against-white-people/?utm_term=.96776c8a3a3f

Update on the resistance
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/heres-what-happened-to-the-25-protesters-arrested-at-sessions-hearing/article/2611440
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/domestic-home-care-workers-protest-obamacare/515505/
https://www.abqjournal.com/942506
https://www.yahoo.com/news/evangelical-christians-protest-trump-refugee-ban-outside-prayer-breakfast-170516935.html
https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-national-prayer-breakfast-begins-with-religious-protesters-58142ecfe6ea#.jvw7uowmu
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/3/1629773/-OMG-too-good-New-Yorkers-hold-vigil-for-Bowling-Green-Massacre-AT-Bowling-Green
https://www.rt.com/usa/376166-san-francisco-suspend-fbi/
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/thousands-anti-trump-protesters-march-mar-lago/gZVty0uyraYKTwLdwM9OhK/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/7/1630823/-CBS-News-calls-out-Trump-for-Presidential-Statements-Divorced-from-Reality
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/devos-blocked-from-entering-dc-public-school
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/11/1632686/-500-rally-in-St-Paul-to-defund-Planned-Parenthood-More-than-5-000-counter-protesters-greet-them
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/13/1633320/-Milwaukee-march-brings-thousands-to-protest-a-Sheriff-s-profiling-his-reply-is-abhorrent
http://wbay.com/2017/02/13/thousands-from-wisconsin-to-rally-against-milwaukee-county-sheriff/
http://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/day-without-latinos-milwaukee-march-voces-de-la-frontera-sheriff-david-clarke
http://fox6now.com/2017/02/13/day-without-latinos-hundreds-march-in-milwaukee-to-show-the-power-of-the-people/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/05/womens-march-mass-protests-scientists-immigrants-climate-change?CMP=share_btn_fb
https://taxmarch.org/
https://www.marchforscience.com/
https://peoplesclimate.org/
https://www.facebook.com/events/245084992585200/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1949652305264195/
http://www.juggalomarch.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/05/1630216/-TN-Republican-finally-reveals-and-deletes-his-downright-laughable-evidence-protesters-are-paid
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Its-time-for-the-lamest-lie-in-US-politics-to-do-away.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/6/1630552/-Totally-detached-from-reality-White-House-spokesman-says-protesters-are-paid-professionals
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/11/1632598/-Rep-Chaffetz-says-some-of-the-overflow-crowd-in-Utah-were-paid-protesters-from-out-of-state
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/13/1633252/-After-accusing-protesters-of-being-paid-Utah-rep-is-getting-invoices-from-protesters
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/06/1630517/-Living-in-the-Trump-bubble-anything-he-doesn-t-like-isn-t-real
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/7/1630993/-WH-official-pledges-to-smear-press-as-fake-news-until-it-starts-being-nice-to-cry-baby-Trump
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/lamar-smith-donald-trump-news/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/29/1627100/-Kellyanne-Conway-goes-on-bonkers-rant-calls-for-Trump-s-media-critics-to-be-fired
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/03/trump-travel-ban-temporarily-blocked-nationwide
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827867311054974976
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/feb/08/neil-gorsuch-donald-trump-tweet-federal-judge
http://us.cnn.com/2017/02/09/politics/travel-ban-9th-circuit-ruling-immigration/index.html
http://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-02-14/injunction-ordered-barring-trump-travel-ban-in-virginia?context=amp
http://crooksandliars.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/trump-white-house-aides-strategy.html?_r=0

Why the resistance cannot be limited to targeting GOPpers
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2017/02/just-for-record.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/trumps-russia-detente-collides-with-foreign-policy-reality-in-leaked-call-with-putin/2017/02/10/4dedd4fa-ef7c-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.5610d38c25e6&wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2017/01/97-footnote-russian-hacking.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/14/donald-trump-campaign-russia-intelligence-contact

What's Left #11

What's Left
for the week of February 2-8, 2017

This week:

What we face
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/28/1626645/-Trump-removes-DNI-and-Chairman-of-Joint-Chiefs-from-National-Security-Council-And-adds-Bannon
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2017/01/25/trump_issues_gag_orders_on_science_agencies.html
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/06/trumps-information-wars?mbid=gnep&intcid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/business/media/stephen-bannon-trump-news-media.html?_r=1
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/30/watch-kellyanne-conway-wonders-why-media-members-who-talked-smack-all-day-long-about-donald-trump-havent-been-fired/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/26/1625364/-Trump-Disconnected-WH-Line-so-Bernie-s-Team-Set-Up-Way-to-Call-the-White-House-Satellite-Locations
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/29/white-house-defies-courts-as-chaos-protests-and-lawsuits-erupt-over-immigration-ban/
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/31/state-department-memo-to-trump-we-are-better-than-this-ban/21704020/
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20170126_Inquirer_Editorial__Trump_s_first_days_resemble_those_of_a_dictator.html

Celebrating resistance
http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstration-us-history-map
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1xa0iLqYKz8x9Yc_rfhtmSOJQ2EGgeUVjvV4A8LsIaxY/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/donald-trump-responds-to-womens-march-protests-w462359
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/29/protests-erupt-at-airports-following-trump-travel-ban/
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/nyregion/outraged-mayors-vow-to-defy-trumps-immigration-order.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/28/1626470/-March-against-Betsy-DeVos-in-her-hometown-exceeds-expectations
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/26/1625461/--Shame-Shame-Massive-crowd-gathered-outside-Philadelphia-hotel-hosting-Trump-and-Republicans
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/25/1625289/-Now-They-re-All-Doing-It
https://enewspf.com/2017/01/31/breaking-news-nationwide-courthouse-protests-trumps-scotus-pick-judge-neil-gorsuch/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/31/1628167/-The-resistance-is-evolving-the-crowds-continue-to-grow-and-so-does-the-evidence-it-is-working
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article128373144.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/01/24/are-scientists-going-to-march-on-washington/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.db892e3520ab

The Rules
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2009/06/over-and-done.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2011/01/rules-all-of-them-so-far.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/spicer-insists-order-not-a-ban-though-he-and-trump-describe-it-as-one
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html?utm_term=.cd63bcc28817
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Miller
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-20/mcconnell-rules-out-vote-on-garland-even-if-hillary-clinton-wins
http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=018CC8B8-4273-48C5-8F75-76E305C98853
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/10/17/supreme-court-is-an-issue-again-after-mccain-suggests-clinton-blockade/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.7aa5191c88af

What's Left #10

What's Left
for the week of January 19-25, 2017

This week:

Good News: sentence of Chelsea Manning commuted
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-manning-idUSKBN15130B
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning

Footnote: on the legalities
http://lifehacker.com/how-presidential-commutations-and-pardons-work-1791306461

Clown Award: Reince Priebus
http://fair.org/home/wapo-organ-of-extreme-center-calls-mlk-true-conservative/
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/riot-language-unheard-9-mlk-quotes-mainstream-media-wont-cite
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/15/1620765/-Republicans-in-lather-over-question-of-Trump-s-legitimacy-want-wait-for-it-Obama-to-step-up
http://www.wbrc.com/story/34264012/the-latest-obama-wants-to-stop-future-election-interference?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics
http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/donald-trump-birther-obama-119945

Outrage of the Week: Dems choose Big Pharma over consumers
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/12/big-pharma-backed-dems-join-gop-block-sanders-effort-end-drug-price-gouging
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/-booker-and-the-other-big_b_14150632.html
http://www.drugguide.com/ddo/view/Davis-Drug-Guide/109517/all/Canadian_and_U_S__Pharmaceutical_Practices
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/tell-congress-stop-21st-century-cures-act/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/13/obama-paying-tribute-to-biden-and-bipartisanship-signs-21st-century-cures-act-tuesday/?utm_term=.57db35b48c3c
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-21st-century-20161205-story.html
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/grab-bag-goodies-21st-century-cures-act

Protests continue and grow
https://pen.org/
http://www.pen-international.org/our-history/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/our-democracy-risk-writers-resist-martin-luther-king-jr-day-n707316
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0116/Days-before-Trump-inauguration-writers-gather-to-celebrate-the-power-of-language
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/15/nationwide-rallies-are-ourfirststand-against-gop-assault-healthcare
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrats-protest-defense-obamacare_us_587bd3e9e4b09281d0eb741d
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-bernie-sanders-michigan-healthcare-rally-20170115-story.html
https://www.bustle.com/p/these-our-first-stand-protest-photos-show-thousands-of-americans-fighting-for-their-lives-30602
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/01/15/thousands-protest-health-care-repeal-faneuil-hall/CMBwr3f8vGpp7gTsyi7lCM/story.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-protest-idUSKBN15202G
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/04/technology/loveathon-facebook-live/index.html
https://www.womensmarch.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2017/01/12/200-buses-have-applied-for-city-parking-on-inauguration-day-1200-have-applied-for-the-womens-march/?utm_term=.79a444756015
https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/three-times-as-many-bus-permits-have-been-issued-for-the-wom?bftwnews&utm_term=.qyM92Z92N#.prEz0Mz0R
https://www.womensmarch.com/
http://gofossilfree.org/resist-reject-denial/?akid=19322.1038033.pVwONq&rd=1&t=1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionkit

Climate change: 2016 hottest year on record
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-just-had-2nd-warmest-231445894.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-07/record-breaking-temperatures-will-be-new-normal-by-2030/8001720
http://wwlp.com/2017/01/09/u-s-had-near-record-heat-costly-weather-disasters-in-2016/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/17/the-north-pole-is-an-insane-36-degrees-warmer-than-normal-as-winter-descends/?utm_term=.affd41459fa9
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/science/global-warming-alters-arctic-food-chain.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/tufted-puffins-die-off-bering-sea-alaska-starvation-warm-water-climate-change/
http://krqe.com/2016/11/29/great-barrier-reef-sees-record-coral-deaths-this-year/
http://www.livescience.com/57016-west-antarctic-ice-shelf-melting-inside.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/not-even-trump-can-easily-reverse-our-progress-on-climate-change/2017/01/16/3d719356-dc25-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/23/1603345/-Trump-to-scrap-all-NASA-climate-research
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-fools-the-new-york-times-on-climate-change-180323fa5980#.tinsiugbo
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-09/trump-team-s-memo-hints-at-broad-shake-up-of-u-s-energy-policy

And Another Thing: total solar eclipse, August 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_2017

What's Left #9

What's Left
for the week of January 12-18, 2017

This week:

Not Good News: bumblebee listed as endangered
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-lists-first-bumble-bee-species-endangered-212930972.html
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6045/20140215/ignores-petition-list-rusty-patched-bumblebee-endangered-species.htm

Not Good News: civil war in South Sudan continues
http://worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article61350
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/01/1404-bad-news-south-sudan.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/01/1416-update-south-sudan.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/09/2184-more-tragedy-still-hope-in-south.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2416-not-good-news-un-excoriates-south.html

Not Good News: internet consumer protection rules under attack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/01/04/its-begun-cable-companies-are-pushing-to-repeal-obama-era-internet-privacy-rules/
http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14167832/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-fcc-chair-net-neutrality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCQTyheuvU4

Clown Award: Kellyanne Conway
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/07/nypd-captain-suggests-unsolved-rape-cases-are-not-a-trend-that/21649689/
http://gawker.com/5938849/a-recent-history-of-republicans-talking-about-rape
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conway-trump-heart
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/26/donald-trump-mocks-reporter-with-disability-berman-sot-ac.cnn

Outrage of the Week: TheRump considering panel desired by anti-vaxxers
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/12/1844-footnote-invalid-immunization-fears.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/04/2006-clown-award-robert-f-kennedy-jr.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal_controversy
https://theoutline.com/post/870/trump-kennedy-anti-vaccine-meeting-wont-make-america-great
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/01/10/the-facts-about-vaccines-autism-and-robert-f-kennedy-jr-s-conspiracy-theory/
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2017/01/what_unites_trump_and_rfk_jr_is_a_scary_denial_that_they_re_anti_vaxxers.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/11/30/vaccine_skeptic_andrew_wakefield_is_excited_about_donald_trump_s_presidency.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-meets-anti-vaccine-activist-after-raising-fringe-theory-trail-n705296
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/10/509185540/despite-the-facts-trump-once-again-embraces-vaccine-skeptics

Outrage of the Year 2016: Democratic Party presidential race
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2364-rare-and-potentially-my-only.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2455-what-now-for-progressives.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/after-new-york-win-clinton-campaign-says-bernie-sanders-attacks-help-republicans
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/06/2485-disqualifying-change-by.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/06/2492-part-2-issues-that-wont-be.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/36-democrats-refusing-to-recognize.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/22-but-we-have-to-carry-on-as-best-as.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/34-importance-of-continuing-protest.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/45-excuses-for-failures-of-democrats.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/58-latest-clintonite-excuses-for-losing.html

Footnote: Russian "hacking"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-government-hackers-do-not-appear-to-have-targeted-vermont-utility-say-people-close-to-investigation/2017/01/02/70c25956-d12c-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/05/russia-cyber-attacks-are-major-threat-congress-probe-hears/21648476/
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/06/us-intelligence-report-putin-ordered-a-hacking-campaign-to-har/21649595/
https://soundcloud.com/war_college/the-kremlin-had-a-plan-donald
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-intercepts-capture-senior-russian-officials-celebrating-trump-win/2017/01/05/d7099406-d355-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?postshare=2211483657557606&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.ff07e992b361
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-history-of-the-u-s-interfering-with-elections-elsewhere/?utm_term=.b2f193660bbe
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-us-intervention-foreign-elections-20161213-story.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-us-has-been-meddling-in-other-countries-elections-for-a-century-it-doesnt-feel-good_us_57983b85e4b02d5d5ed382bd

What's Left #8

What's Left
for the week of January 5-11, 2017

This week:

Good News: support for the death penalty continues to decline
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/28/u-s-ends-year-with-fewest-executions-since-1991/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/29/support-for-death-penalty-lowest-in-more-than-four-decades/

Good News: Americans support tougher environmental laws
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/14/most-americans-favor-stricter-environmental-laws-and-regulations/

Good News: public support for transgender rights
http://www.pewforum.org/2016/09/28/3-public-split-over-bathroom-use-by-transgender-people/

Good News: Obama signs law to include non-believers in protections against religious persecution
http://www.snopes.com/2016/12/21/obama-signs-law-protecting-atheists/
https://americanhumanist.org/
https://americanhumanist.org/featured/international-religious-freedom-bill-heads-president-includes-language-protect-humanists-nontheists/

Good News: 120 million acres of federal waters protected from fossil fuel exploration
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/12/20/obama-bans-new-oil-gas-drilling-off-alaska-part-of-atlantic-co/21632127/

Good News of the Year, 2016: peace settlement in Colombia
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2341-good-news-potential-breakthrough.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2361-good-news-progress-on-cure-for.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2342-good-news-parasitic-disease-on.html
http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-the-last-days-of-guinea-worm/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/32-good-news-tpp-is-dead.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/51-good-news-victory-at-standing-rock.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/44-outrage-of-week-standing-rock.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2587-colombia-and-farc-sign-peace-deal.html
https://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/no-wins-colombians-narrowly-rejects-peace-accord-with-farc/14639
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/53-good-news-peace-settlement-in.html
http://colombiareports.com/peace-vote-delayed-farc-demobilization-colombias-peace-commissioner/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/29/colombia-approves-amnesty-deal-for-thousands-of-farc-rebels
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-congress-approves-amnesty-law-3-days-farc-demobilization-deadline/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35929399
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37677853
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38486897
https://www.yahoo.com/news/colombias-war-traumas-leave-deep-mental-scars-060028256.html

RIPs of 2016
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2335-rip-john-trudell.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2345-rip-david-bowie.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2352-rip-alan-rickman.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2353-rip-glenn-frey.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2379-rip-paul-kantner-and-signe-toly.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2394-rip-al-jazeera-america.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2417-rips-keith-emerson-and-ben.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2434-rip-patty-duke.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2469-rip-dan-berrigan.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/09/2604-rip-vin-scully-sets-retirement-date.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/27-rip-john-zacherley.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/38-rip-leonard-cohen.html

Clown of the Year Award 2016, Basic Stupid Category: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2336-clown-award-right-wing-troll.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2056-clown-award-immigration-judge-jack.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/57-clown-award-christina-alesci-of-cnn.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2435-clown-award-idaho-gov-butch-otter.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2354-clown-award-sc-gov-nikki-haley.html

Clown of the Year Award 2016, Total Jackassery Category: GOPper Rep. Steve King
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2395-clown-award-right-wing-attorney.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2445-clown-award-florida-gov-rick-scott.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2344-clown-award-clown-award-new.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/07/2544-clown-award-rep-steve-king.html

7.2 - Why is New Year's Day on January 1?

Why is New Year's Day on January 1?

So now the natural follow-up: Why is January 1 New Year's Day? Because that wasn’t always true. So why?

In large part, the reason has to do with the convenience of the Roman senate, a calendar almost no one uses any more, and the stubbornness of tradition.

The earliest recorded New Year's celebrations are believed to have been in Mesopotamia about 4000 years ago, that is, about 2000 BCE. Babylonians began the year with the first new Moon after the vernal equinox and greeted it with a multi-day celebration called Akitu. This actually is a logical time to start the year, since the vernal equinox is the first day of spring, in mid-March, and spring is traditionally a time of beginnings, of renewals, of planting crops and the birth of new farm animals.

Some other ancient cultures used different days, but all had some astronomical or astrological significance:

The Egyptians used the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major or the Big Dog. This took place in mid-July and it predicted the annual flooding of the Nile, an event so important to their agriculture.

Persians used the vernal equinox; the Phoenicians, the autumnal equinox, which is the first day of fall; while the Greeks used the winter solstice, the first day of winter.

All these choices carried some meaning beyond the date itself. January 1 doesn’t. So why January 1?

An early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the first day of a new year. This also explains something else you may have wondered about: If March is the first month of year, September is the seventh - and the Latin for "seven" is septem. Likewise, October, November, and December: octo being Latin for "eight," novem for "nine," and decem for "ten." Those months were named as they were because they were the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months of the year.

That early Roman calendar was a lunar one, based on the Moon. The problem is, the average lunar month is about 29 and a-half days and there is no way that can match with a solar year of roughly 365 and a-quarter days. You're going to be off by something like 12 days a year. And it is the solar year, not the lunar year, which drives the seasons.

Janus

What’s more, that calendar consisted of 10 months and a 304-day year and didn't even count the days between the end of December and the beginning of the year at the vernal equinox, with the vernal equinox apparently being designated March 1.

The calendar was reformed around 713 BCE to add the months of January and February, creating a year of 355 days, still 10 days off the solar year. To correct this, the Romans from time to time inserted a leap month of about 22 days into February, which served to overcorrect the disparity between the calendars, giving them some time before the error again got so big that another leap month was required.

Next, according to general but apparently not universal agreement among historians, in about 153 BCE the Roman Senate moved first day of year to January 1 because that was beginning of the civil year, time that newly elected Roman consuls began their terms in office, and it was felt to be just more convenient to have the civil year and the legal year start on same day. January is also a reasonable time because January was named for Janus, the Roman god of gates, doors, and beginnings - that is, the god of all transitions - who had two faces so that he could see both the past and the future.

Julius Caesar

Despite all the attempts at correction, by the time of Julius Caesar, the calendar was again seriously out of whack with the solar year. So in 46 BCE Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar. This Julian calendar, as it came to be called, also introduced the use of leap years to keep the calendar year from drifting too far from the solar year and came with a decree that firmly fixed January 1 as the start of the new year.

After the Roman empire fell, the generally-accepted year for that being 476, and as Christianity began spread across Europe, the Catholic church, which remember had previously adopted and adapted a fair part of the merry side of Saturnalia, now felt it was in a position to downplay "pagan," "unchristian" festivals such as those that had come to surround the new year in Rome.

In 567, the second Council of Tours banned the use of January 1 as the first day of the new year. Remember, this is at a time in European history when the authority of the church in civil matters, not just religious ones, was all but unquestioned. If the church said do it, governments did it.

As a result, in the Middle Ages in Europe, the official new year started at different times in different places, including December 25, by then the traditional birthday of Jesus; the old day of March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation and right around the vernal equinox; and even Easter, even though was a different day year to year.

But remember: Julius Caesar had set January 1 as New Year’s Day in 46 BCE - which means that by time the Council acted, the practice of keeping that as the first day of the year had been going on for 613 years and was so well established that a lot of people simply ignored the "official" date and kept to the older one.

Pope Gregory XIII

The Julian calendar also was flawed because the solar year is actually a few minutes shorter than 365 days and six hours, so the use of leap years every four years slightly over-corrects the difference. A few minutes may not seem like a big difference, but again the error accumulates over time and by the latter 1500s it had grown to 10 days.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII oversaw design of new, more accurate calendar, which changed the rule of leap years such that only century years divisible by 400, not 4, would be leap years, the better to prevent the over-correction of the Julian calendar. Thus, 2000 was leap year, but 1900 wasn't and 2100 won't be.

This still leaves a tiny over-correction but it will take over 3000 years for that error to build up to a single day, so nobody really cares.

Most significantly for our story here, Pope Gregory apparently knew a losing battle when he saw one and surrendered to tradition, restoring January 1 as the official New Year's Day for the church.

Catholic countries in Europe were quick to adopt the new calendar, with Spain, France, and Italy doing so the year it came out. But Protestant ones did so only gradually, suspicious that the “Antichrist in Rome” was trying to trick them into worshiping on the wrong days.

A Happy and Peaceful Year to all

Scotland, for one, didn't adopt new calendar until 1600. And England, which had used March 25 as start of year since sometime in the 1100s, didn't finally make change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar - along with its colonies, which included us - until 1752: 170 years later. By that time, the Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian, which was corrected by removing 11 days from the year: Wednesday, September 2, 1752 was followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752.

There are tales of riots breaking out with people believing their lives would be 11 days shorter or that they had lost 11 days of wages. While such sentiments existed, historians now are of opinion that the story of riots is a myth. However, the change of calendar was an issue in the 1754 parliamentary elections so it's hard to credit the idea that there were no protests of any sort.

Anyway, that's it: January 1 is the first day of year not due to any special meaning or relevance of date itself, but due to the convenience of the Roman Senate, the Julian calendar which almost no one uses anymore, and the surrender of Pope Gregory XIII to persistence of tradition.

So in the spirit of Constantine, let me say Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Chanukah, Happy Festivus, for all the atheists like me and all the pagans out there, Happy Winter Solstice, and to all of us, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. Like the man in the story said, we are halfway out of the dark.

7.1 - Why is Christmas on December 25?

Why is Christmas on December 25?

This show, for most of you anyway, will be seen in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. So I’m going to give myself a holiday of sorts and take the week off from heavy-duty politics to devote the show to two segments of our occasional feature called And Another Thing. That’s where we step away from political stuff in favor of something else. Usually it’s some cool science stuff, but this time it’s some cool history stuff.

So for the rest of the show I’m going to be answering two questions: Why is Christmas on December 25? And why is New Year’s Day on January 1?

To answer about Christmas, right at the top, you have to realize something. Based on how we celebrate the season, based on how we - and by that I mean Americans and to a perhaps even greater extent Europeans - engage and embrace the season, the traditions we follow in our celebrations, Christmas is expressed in symbols such as Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, brightly-wrapped presents, candy canes, wreaths, and mistletoe, along with local traditions.

It is not expressed by a creche.

Because you know those people who go around saying that "Jesus is the reason for the season?" He isn't. And he never was. Now that half of you are composing nasty emails, let me explain. The season is because of astronomical patterns.

Until relatively recently, people were much more aware of the movements of the Sun and Moon and stars than we are now unless you are either a dedicated stargazer or an astronomer.

Such movements were necessary signs of the changing of the seasons, of when to plant, when to reap, when seasonal rains were coming, when game would be plentiful, and so on. The sky was their almanac, their seasonal calendar.

Some of that awareness lives on in popular expressions and mythology. For example, did you ever wonder why the hot humid days of July and August still sometimes are called "the dog days?" Ancient peoples by their observations were able to realize that the star we call Sirius, which is at its highest point in the sky in the middle of the night in the middle of winter, is at its highest point in the sky in the middle of the day in summer. Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, or the Big Dog, and is known as the Dog Star. So the middle of summer becomes the dog days.

In prehistoric times and even well into recorded history, people believed that things like the Sun acted willfully or were controlled by gods that acted willfully - and each year watching it get lower and lower in the sky each day as winter approached, a fear developed that one year, one of these great cycles, the Sun would keep sinking until it disappeared below the horizon, leaving them in perpetual darkness and cold. So each year, when the Sun stopped sinking and began to rise higher in the sky each day, it was reason to celebrate.

This is the time of the winter solstice, which occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, depending an exactly where you are, around December 21 or 22.

"Solstice" is derived from two Latin words - sol and sistere - which together mean that "the Sun stands still," which is what it appears to do at the solstice: to come to a stop and then reverse.

All over the Northern Hemisphere, this was a time to celebrate: Ancient Egypt had celebrations, as did ancient Greece - in fact, in the earliest days, theirs involved a human sacrifice.

The Druids celebrated, it was celebrated in Iran, Native American peoples of North America, including the Pueblo and the Hopi, had their celebrations.

In pagan Scandinavia the winter festival was called the Yule. Great yule logs were burned; people drank mead around bonfires listening to tales of great stories of the past. A boar was sacrificed to the chief god Odin, who donned a broad-brimmed hat and magic blue cloak and sped around the world at night on his great white horse. Mistletoe, which was a sacred plant because it grew on the most sacred tree, the oak, was cut and a spray given to each family to be hung in doorways as good luck.

That is our first reminder that a lot of our holiday traditions - including the term "Yuletide," the time of the Yule - are drawn from pagan ones, including decorating with garlands, wreaths, and the Christmas tree itself, along with the man who can magically fly around the whole world in one night.

For the date of Christmas, though, now we're getting into the space that lies between history and interpretation.

No one knows the date Jesus was born, no one even knows for sure what season of the year it was - or even what year it was. To the extent that the Bible can be trusted as a source we can be very confident that it was not in the winter since shepherds did not watch their flocks by night at that time of year; the flocks would most likely have been corralled.

In fact, "watching their flocks by night" was most commonly done in the spring to protect the newborn lambs from wolves, which had lead some to argue he must have been born in the spring. But that is an awfully thin reed on which to try to build a foundation, much less a conclusion.

What's more, the earliest known use in English of the word "Christes-Maess," or the Feast of Christ, or Christmas, was in a list of Feast Days with Mass Days that was set down in England in 1038, a thousand years after Jesus died. No Saint's day listed for December 25th.

In fact, not only did early church leaders (I'm talking 2nd and 3rd centuries here) argue about when Jesus was born - the options included January 2, March 21, March 25, April 18, April 19, May 20, May 28, November 17, November 20, and, yes, December 25 - some, such as Origen, argued that the whole thing was pointless and wrong because it shouldn't be celebrated at all. Celebrating birthdays, he said, was for pagan gods.

Still, by the mid-third century, the idea for having a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus was getting established. Nonetheless, it took some time for that notion to become formalized and for a date to be fixed.

Constantine

In 313, Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan, legally allowing Christianity in the Roman Empire - actually, he went considerably beyond that; the text actually says it was "proper that the Christians and all others should have liberty to follow that mode of religion which to each of them appeared best."

Which shows a lot more tolerance than many here do today, especially among our right-wing so-called Christians, the fanatics who get such a kick this time of year every year out of playing the oppressed victim under the relentless assault of the atheistic socialistic hordes - even though Christians make up over 78% of the US population.

Oh, and as a sidebar and contrary to popular belief, while Constantine considered himself “an emperor of the Christian people,” he did not actually formally convert by getting baptized until shortly before his death in 337 and Christianity did not become the official religion of Rome until 380, 43 years after his death.

Getting back to the point, the first recorded date of the birth of Jesus being celebrated on December 25th was not until 336, 300 years after Jesus died. And it wasn’t until 350 when Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December.

But that just brings us back to the start. How did the chosen date, why did the chosen date, come down to December 25? That was the question, after all.

To answer that, first remember that these developments were taking place in Rome, which had become the nerve center of organized Christianity.

The date brings us back to the winter solstice. The Romans, like many other ancient peoples, had solstice celebrations. In Rome it was called Saturnalia.

Saturnalia

This was originally a feast day to the god Saturn, but over time it grew to a gigantic fair and a festival of the home. It began with sacrifice of a pig and involved riotous merry-making, feasting, and gambling. Houses were decorated with laurel and evergreens. Schools were closed; the army rested; no criminals were executed. Friends visited one another, bringing good-luck gifts of fruit, cakes, candles, dolls, jewelry, incense, and more. Temples were decorated with evergreens. Processions of people danced through the streets, with masked or blackened faces and wearing fantastic hats.

Masters feasted with slaves, who could do and say what they liked - supposedly, anyway. I doubt they really felt free to push the privilege very far since a day or at most a few days later they would be back to just slaves, but hypothetically they could.

(Notice, by the way: traditions including decorating your home. Laurels. Visiting friends. Gift-giving. Holiday parties. Not Christian traditions, Roman ones. Pagan ones.)

The old Roman goddess of the solstice was Angerona, whose festival day was, logically enough for a goddess of the solstice, December 21st.

But when Mithraism, personified by the god Mithra, was introduced to Rome in the mid-2nd century, the goddess was largely supplanted in favor of Mithra's day of seasonal rebirth, which was December 25. Mithra, himself a composite of earlier beliefs, became amalgamated with a Roman sun god named Solis Indigeni, a god which in turn came from the Pelasgean titan of light named Helios.

This new being, this combination of Mithra and Solis Indigeni, this composite of two composites, was Sol Invictus, the invincible or unconquered Sun, and Mithra's day, December 25, became Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or the birthday of the unconquerable Sun. When the emperor Aurelian proclaimed Mithraism the official religion of the Roman Empire in 274, the day became an official holiday.

Sol Invictus

So, put it all together. Before Constantine the Great issued his Edict of Milan, being a Christian in Rome could get you killed. Refusal to participate in the Imperial cult was considered treason.

During the Great Persecution carried out by the emperor Diocletian from 303 to 311, Christian buildings and the homes of Christians were torn down, their sacred books were collected and burned. Christians themselves were arrested, tortured, mutilated, burned, starved, and condemned to gladiatorial contests to amuse spectators.

So if you wanted celebrate the birth of the man you regarded as your savior - and the idea of having such a celebration was by then pretty widely accepted among Christians - you had to hide it. So since the time is purely symbolic and basically arbitrarily chosen because no one knows the actual date for certain and it's really based on tradition and nothing more, what better time to do it than during Saturnalia - when everyone else was celebrating and so no one would notice? And what better day to pick than December 25, when the birthday of the unconquerable Sun could be thought of as the birthday of the unconquerable “Son?"

Indeed, according to St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, writing in the late 4th or very early 5th century, just a few decades after Christianity had become the official religion of Rome, the "Roman Church purposefully placed the keeping of Christmas between two popular folk festivals, Saturnalia and the Kalends of January, in order to give Christians something to celebrate about [undisturbed] while others were engaged in secular merrymaking."

"Chrysostom," by the way, is I believe Greek for “golden-mouthed,” in praise of his eloquence.

By the year 354 CE, four years after Pope Julius I had designated it as such, December 25 had been accepted in Rome as the date of the Feast of Christ, or Christ-Mass, Christmas. Gradually most of the Christian Church agreed.

Once Christianity became the legal religion of Rome in 380, the church began appropriating what old pagan customs it could, with the result that the merry side of Saturnalia was gradually adopted and adapted to the observance of Christmas.

And so that is why Christmas in on December 25: Because Christians hid within, then adopted, then adapted, pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. By 1100 Christmas was the peak celebration of the year for all of Europe.

But let me finish up by saying that even then the idea was not universally accepted. Origen's conviction that celebrating the birth of a god was for pagans persisted among conservative Christians for centuries, including among the separatists and Puritans who settled Plymouth and Boston here in Massachusetts. They regarded Christmas as a pagan celebration with no Biblical justification. In fact, there were laws against it.

As an illustration of the attitude, we have the journal of Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford, who in the entry for 1621 recalled what he called a passage "rather of mirth then of weight." (Spelling in the excerpt has been modernized.)

On the day called Christmas day, the Governor called them out to work, (as was used,) but the most of this new company [Here is referring to some people who had arrived the month before, in November 1621, on a ship called “Fortune.”] excused themselves and said it went against their consciences to work on that day. So the Governor told them that if they made it a matter of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he led away the rest and left them; but when they came home at noon from their work, he found them in the street at play, openly; some pitching the bar and some at stool-ball, and such like sports. So he went to them, and took away their implements, and told them that was against his conscience, that they should play and others work. If they made the keeping of it a matter of devotion, let them keep to their houses, but there should be no gaming or reveling in the streets. Since which time nothing has been attempted that way, at least openly.

Recall that Bradford is writing here in about 1631 or 1632, about 10 years after the fact.

And not just here at home. In 1647, Great Britain's Puritan-dominated parliament abolished the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun, known in the US as Pentecost.

Back in the US, in 1659, the MassBay colony - that is, Boston - banned celebrating Christmas
altogether. The ban remained in place for 22 years, until 1681, and even then it was a governor appointed by the restored British monarchy who revoked the ban.

Despite the lifting of the ban, the first recorded celebration of Christmas in Boston wasn't for another five years, in 1686. For many years thereafter, Thanksgiving remained the important seasonal holiday in New England.

In the wake of the revolution, interest in Christmas in the former colonies faded because it was seen as a British holiday. In fact, Christmas did not become a major holiday in the US until a religious revival in the early 1800s spurred interest in the day, particularly in the South. As a result, it was Louisiana, in 1837, which became the first state to make the day a holiday.

Even then, New England continued to lag behind: In Plymouth, the first time Christmas was mentioned in one the town’s newspapers as far as anyone can tell wasn't until 1825. As late as 1856, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote that “The old Puritan feeling prevents [Christmas] from being a cheerful hearty holiday” in the region, but, he added, "We are in a transition state."

And so it was: By 1860 that same Plymouth paper was filled with ads for Christmas presents and by the end of the century Christmas was as much a part of Plymouth as it had become in the rest of the country.