Any thoughts on Attorney General Session's impact? I think that position is one of the few that has a direct influence on people's lives in the US for better or worse. My concern is he will be more willing to turn a blind eye to abuse by police departments (confiscating property, profiling, etc) than prior AGs of either party had been while hiding this under the guise of being "tough on crime".
Sessions has said as much. He and the prez don't seem to understand that civil asset forfeiture - as practiced today - violates constitutional rights spelled out in the 4th 5th and 14th amendments.
I wrote this article to 'splain -esp to my Republican family members (aka/all of my family older than me). For a while I was writing about 'issues that unite us' to bring my family back from their propaganda news feed addictions. But I'm so disheartened I've given up for a while. The stuff they believe it just hurts my heart to even engage. But ... my dad did call his rep to ask him to co-sponsor a HJR48(115th) based on
this other article, so I guess I should see the progress and be happy. But then Rick Perry - murderer of Cameron Todd Willingham / doofus who couldn't recall the name of the Dept of Energy - just got appointed to head up, that's right: the Dept of Energy. It's all just too too much.
On WWII -
I found this video interesting: "the fallen of WWII to put the death toll in context - it includes the effects of the nuclear bombs. I live in Europe now, and sometimes I wonder how different it would be here had WWII not happened. I know that people often refer to it as a war that was worth fighting, but I think back to the stupid origins of WW1,
General Smedley Butler's War is a Racket, how the peace treaty tilled the soil for WW2, how corporations profit so handsomely from war, and it all seems so callous and unnecessary to me. But the messaging I get from discourse in the US is that I'm some sort of naive hippie for thinking of war through this perspective, and I'm dishonoring the fallen for questioning our part in these wars. Never mind that I lost an uncle in one of the dumbest wars of all: Vietnam. I'm apparently some sort of idealistic/cynical peace / love / happiness kind of fool, and I'll never be happy til I conform to a worldview where humans are units of production in a capitalistic machine - of which - war is a necessary tool to fight those who would take from us the profits of our own hard work. And how dare I express the opinion that patriotism is just a first step toward nationalism and they're both just
excuses to hate people we don't know, and take credit for accomplishments we had no part in. As per the usual y'all inspired a bit of a rant. I'll stop now.