A Sickness in Texas - and the Nation

Morning Joe nails it, laying the blame for the recent Texas massacres squarely at the feet of bobblehead governor Greg Abbott and his minions:

 

CNN has an excellent summary and analysis of recent Texas events here.

Chuck Todd of NBC's Meet the Press summarizes the national deadlock that makes rational change impossible:

 

For the record, I haven't blogged about the horrific recent massacres here in Texas because I simply have nothing to say.  What can anyone say, in a state, in a nation, where mass murders have become routine events?  Where they happen more often than days in the week?  Where no one is safe, from babies to the aged - and no place is safe, neither schools nor churches nor grocery stores nor anywhere else, public or private.

All that can be said has been said many, many times in the last 20 years and more.  And still the red tide flows on, higher and higher.

Nothing will change here in Texas while the fanatical idiots who control the state government absolutely refuse to lift one finger to make a difference.  You'd think the point-blank massacre of a whole classroom of little kids in Uvalde last year - with nearly 400 police officers on the scene, inexplicably doing nothing to stop the killing - would have softened even the stoniest of hearts.

But no.  Nothing moves those stinking jackasses in power, and the voters who keep them there, except fanatical hatred and self-righteousness.  Oh sure, they say they are working on "long-term solutions" - but don't believe a word of it.  They will do nothing.  They don't care who dies or how many.  

The same could be said about the powers that be in many other states, and in Congress.  Until the balance of power shifts away from the fanatical religionists, nothing will change.

But I blame the other end of the political spectrum, too.  For fifty years or more, some people on the leftward side have encouraged a culture of unlimited "free speech" and "do your own thing" that has allowed the glorification of violence and narcissism.  Step by step and bit by bit, our whole culture has become saturated with images and voices of violence and horror - brutalizing the mind and deadening the conscience of young and old alike - to say nothing of the effect on the mentally deficient.  But now good "enlightened" folk are aghast and bewildered at the state of the nation.

Why are you surprised, I would ask them.  Monkey see, monkey do.  Humans are imitative animals.

Last Christmas, M.P.'s four adult children, their spouses, and four kiddos came for dinner, the one day a year that they all pile into "Papaw's" little bungalow.  And for a few hours, I was quietly reassured to see that despite modern clothing and slang and toys, these nice young people and their kids were behaving just as parents and kids did fifty and sixty years ago at Christmas time, with glee and wonder and even good manners.  There are still good people in the world, and the ceremonies of innocence continue still.

But it seems to me that the country, and the whole Western world in fact, is simply falling apart like a rotten melon, and both sides are to blame.  The center cannot hold.  Extremism on the right or on the left is equally toxic.  Liberty is not license; and democracy is not anarchy.  

I don't care to argue the point with anyone, that's just how I see it, and from my vantage point a little apart from the crowd, I have been watching it happen all my adult life.  I know what I know.

It is a sick society that acquiesces in the slaughter of innocents.  Extremely sad.  But what can you do when are there no tears left to cry?  

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In Memoriam: The Innocents of Uvalde

I have no words for this unspeakable horror, only tears. And rage at the unspeakable politicians who allow these massacres to go on and on, and do nothing about it.

FYI:  Contrary to what President Biden and Senator Chris Murphy have said today, these mass shootings do not happen "only in America."  They have been happening all over the world in the last quarter-century, even in totalitarian states like Russia.  But other countries have done something about it.  Here are a couple of Wikipedia articles for further reading and reflection:

• Mass shooting (with links to articles on individual countries) 

• Overview of gun laws by nation 

• The Gun Violence Archive has a wealth of verified statistics on mass shootings in the U. S.

Update:  See hotheaded Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke get in the face of bobbleheaded Governor Greg Abbott:

 

And watch the running sore known as Senator Ted Cruz flee from questioning by a British newsman:

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Bucha

I have no words.

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The Whole World Is Watching

 For Ukraine

 

Chicago recorded this song in 1968, which includes a chant by protesters at the Democratic convention held there. Somehow, it seems to fit the events of 2022 as well. 

The slaughter of defenseless innocents, the murder of a nation, is horrible beyond the power of words to express. I was keeping up with the war news night and day for the first two weeks; then I had to take a break from it - a luxury no Ukrainian has, I am well aware. A few piddling projects here at home have occupied my time since then - between which, I weep for Ukraine, I rage at the rampant evil, I gnash my teeth at the nuclear standoff, the moral dilemma. Maybe you do, too. 

I have no power to change anything. All I can do is witness to the truth here on my little blog. It may do no one any good, but -- we are all witnesses to this enormous crime. That is our moral duty in this dark hour of human history, if we can do nothing else.

The whole world is watching.  

And we will not forget.

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From Radio Free Europe - "Who Will Bring Back Our Children?":

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Screen capture from CNN.  Click to enlarge.

The Guardian reports:  Mariupol: Russia accused of bombing theatre and swimming pool sheltering civilians.  Excerpt:

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of further atrocities in the besieged city of Mariupol, including an airstrike on a theatre where hundreds of displaced people were believed to have been sheltering and a strike on a swimming pool where pregnant women and young children had gathered. Russian forces were also accused of shelling of a convoy of cars of civilians fleeing the city.

Mariupol has been facing a humanitarian catastrophe for days, and Russia continued to rain down fire on it and other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday, even as the two sides projected optimism over efforts at peace talks to negotiate an end to the fighting.

There was no immediate confirmation of numbers of deaths or injuries in what the Mariupol city council said was a “bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding.” “We don’t know if there are any survivors,” one witness said. “The bomb shelter is also covered with debris … there are both adults and children there.”

Later Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional administration, claimed Russians had also targeted the Neptune swimming pool. “Now there are pregnant women and women with children under the rubble there,” he said in a post on Telegram. “It is impossible to establish the number of casualties from these strikes.”

A witness who posted a video of the aftermath of the attack said the pool had been destroyed and efforts were under way to rescue one pregnant woman trapped in the rubble. . . .

Ukraine’s ministry of defence has described Mariupol as the worst front of the war. Mass graves have been dug on the outskirts of the city and the bodies of men, women and children have been left on the streets. More than 400,000 of its inhabitants are either without or with dwindling access to running water, food and medical supplies.

Local officials have said more than 2,500 have been killed. But the reality is that, because of the shelling, the dead cannot be counted.

Ukrainian officials also accused Russian forces of shelling a convoy of cars of civilians fleeing the city, wounding at least five people, including a child.

Local officials shared photos and videos of the aftermath of the alleged attack. “Heavy artillery of the enemy forces fired on a convoy of civilians moving along the highway towards Zaporizhzhia,” the governor of the region, Oleksandr Starukh, said in an online post. . . .

Officials have told families to leave their dead outside in the streets because holding funerals is too dangerous.

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From Radio Free Europe - Elderly couple shot to death by Russian tank:

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"In the Name of God, Stop This Massacre"

From the Guardian:

On Sunday the Pope issued his toughest condemnation yet of the war in Ukraine, saying the 'unacceptable armed aggression' must stop. Speaking to thousands of people in St Peter's Square for his Sunday blessing, Pope Francis said the bombing of hospitals and other civilian targets was barbaric and had no valid strategic reason.

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Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov writes: 

I have long since run out of words to describe the horror brought by Putin to Ukrainian soil. Ukraine is the land of bread and wheat. Even in Egypt, bread and cakes are baked using Ukrainian flour. It’s the time of year to prepare the fields for sowing, but this work is not being done. The soil of the wheat fields is full of metal – fragments of shells, pieces of blown-up tanks and cars, the remains of downed planes and helicopters. And it’s all covered in blood. The blood of Russian soldiers who do not understand what they are fighting for, and the blood of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who know that if they do not fight, Ukraine will no longer exist. In its place there will be a cemetery with a caretaker’s hut and some kind of governor general sent from Russia will sit and guard it.

Bread was mixed with blood in Chernihiv as well when Russian bombers dropped “dumb” unguided bombs on a square next to a bread shop. People had lined up outside, waiting to buy some fresh, warm bread. Someone was just leaving the store with a bag of it. Many people died in this bombing raid. Amnesty International has documented this crime committed by the Russian army. Every day the list of crimes grows longer as more and more of Putin’s actions are added to it – the shooting of young volunteers who were carrying food to the dog shelter in Hostomel; the murder of postmen who were delivering pensions to elderly residents in Sumy region; the killing of five people in an attack on the Kyiv television tower. The list goes on and on. We certainly don’t yet know about all the crimes that have been committed, but we will definitely find out about them all, and the list will be presented at a new Nuremberg trial. It doesn’t matter where it takes place. The main thing is that we know who will be judged.

International lawyers have already begun to collect evidence of crimes. Ukrainians are looking forward to the verdict on the murderers and war criminals. But for now, they must survive under the shelling of the Russian army. They spend their nights in basements, in bomb shelters, in bathrooms – the latest advice circulating on the internet tells us that in case of a bombing raid, the safest places to be are inside your cast-iron bath or in interior corridors where there are no windows.

The people of Kyiv have grown suddenly much more attached to their metro, one of the most beautiful and deepest in the world. The metro is no longer a form of transport – it is a haven, like something from an apocalyptic movie. It is covered with signs of permanent presence of non-travelling “passengers” and there is living space everywhere. The station platforms are being turned into cinemas where films are shown for free – children’s films in the morning and films for a wider audience later in the day. Large screens have already been hung or are being hung right now at 14 Kyiv metro stations. There is a constant supply of tea, the internet is already there, but the connection is poor. There are not enough toilets, but people don’t complain about queuing for 40 minutes or more. Everyone waits patiently. They are waiting for the end of the war and the beginning of the trial – a trial that the whole world will have to follow, as the whole world followed at Nuremberg. . . .

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"They Have Orders to Erase Us All"

Soviet POWs covering a mass grave after the Babyn Yar massacre, October 1, 1941.
From Wikipedia - public domain.

 

After a Russian missile struck Babyn Yar in Kyiv, the site of a memorial and mass grave of more than 100,000 victims of Nazi massacres, Ukrainian President Zelensky made this statement today:

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The General Assembly of the United Nations voted today on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine:  141 nations voted for the resolution, 5 against, and 35 abstained.  The map shows how the vote went:

Click to enlarge.

This is a good time to review the founding principles expressed in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to regain faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS

• to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
• to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
• to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
• to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS

Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

By the way, have you ever read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?  A beautiful statement of fundamental principles all member states should try to live up to.  Read it here.

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Invasion map of Ukraine, March 2, 2022, 1800 GMT.
Click to enlarge.

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Not in My Name

As I wrote some time back, I no longer care to post many stories about the awful things that happen in the world.  Too much bad news makes me numb and listless.  But this horror in Afghanistan -  done by a soldier wearing the uniform of my country - it so grieves my conscience and all my moral sense, and is so utterly repugnant to contemplate that I have to speak out and say the only thing I can:

I'm sorry.  And I am so ashamed for my country.

That doesn't cover it or change it or make it any less terrible, I know.  But I hope the Afghan people know that this inexcusable massacre is not something the American people ever willed or wanted, nor the vast majority of our soldiers.

I'm so sorry.  I don't know what else to say.  So very, very sorry.

May God give peace to the dead, comfort to the grieving, and have mercy on us all.