By Michael Bryan
Let us all take some time today to remember and mourn those 2,977 human beings (I always exclude the 19 murderous scum from the death toll of 9/11) who were murdered on 9/11/01. But let us never forget the over 6,381 military personnel who have subsequently died in the wars we were drawn into by those atrocities; and let us not forget to mention the tens of thousands of Americans who have been wounded, in body and/or in mind, in those same wars. It has become the norm to commemorate the victims of 9/11 on this day, but we should also contemplate those who have been lost or harmed as a result of our reaction to those attacks.
Nor should we neglect to recall and contemplate the tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan that have perished or been seriously hurt by our reactions to the 9/11 atrocities in the subsequent 17 years. Further, we should consider the hundreds of thousands killed, wounded, or displaced by the knock-on effects of our “war on terror” in places like Syria, Lybia, Sudan, Chad, Yemen, and others. The atrocities of 9/11 have created a legacy of death and misery that we should contemplate as a whole on this day. We should resolve to do better for the victims of 9/11 than to continue perpetuating the killing and the dying.
Now, some graphical realness. How many thousands of Americans lose their lives and health every year to accidents caused by distracted driving? It is an established fact that our mobile devices are simply not compatible with safe driving, yet the AZ Lege still will not take action to ban distracted driving:
Next, a little video for you Feeders. This has got to be the most bizarre and thought-provoking economic critique I’ve seen in a minute; puppets, rap, and economic theory!
Now, just click on Continue Reading for the rest of your Feed…
Arizona:
- Parents and teachers take to the streets to fight voucher expansion in Prop 305.
- Just a reminder, AZ Attorney General Mark Brnovich is still trying to destroy Obamacare via lawsuit.
- One of Southwest Key’s kiddie concentration camp workers was convicted of seven counts of sexual abuse of a minor.
- It seems not all kids want guns in their schools, even if it’s a cop who has it.
- Reporter Blake Morlock breaks down the AZ CD2 congressional race.
- Think climate change doesn’t have a local impact? Ask the families of the record number of 172 people who died from the heat in Phoenix this year.
- AZ Senate and Governorship races are both within margins of error in latest polling, with GOPers having a slight lead.
- Cap Times’ podcast The Breakdown covers the flamin’ hot races in Arizona’s general election.
- Four GOP AZ Reps. have announced plans to run for AZ Speakership.
- Vote NO on Prop 306; it disallows Clean candidates from buying access to VAN and other party resources:
- Jim Nintzel’s always informative and entertaining Zona Politics:
National:
- When unions fight and strike, we all win.
- The Trump Administration threatens the International Criminal Court if they investigate American troops in Afghanistan for war crimes.
- Amy Siskind documents week 95 of the long emergency.
- What we learned from the Great Recession and what we’ve already forgotten.
- Mental health professionals are increasingly ignoring the rules for commenting on the mental state of non-patients to sound the alarm about Trump.
- Kavanaugh’s nomination should be denied on many bases, but his record of shading the truth is the most concerning.
- Irony alert: Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit Merrick Garland asked to probe whether Kavanaugh perjured himself during original confirmation.
- Have Supreme Court confirmation hearings become a useless farce?
- The FL Gov. and Sen. races are neck and neck with very few undecided voters, and Dem chances at taking the Senate hang on FL.
- The Trump Administration held secret talks with rebel Venezuelan military officers about a possible coup against the democratically elected regime.
- Obama directly criticizes Trump and shifts left on health care, embracing Medicare for All. Full transcript here.
- Los Angles residents will get to vote on a ballot prop to create a local city public bank.
- In Utah, Medicaid expansion is gaining ground with a grassroots ballot initiative campaign, even though Democrats may not be.
- Despite the Blue Wave, the GOP is outraising the Democratic Party this season:
Thank you for including the deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq due to two illegal and never ending wars, along with our soldiers.
If people in the Middle East stopped to remember every day when we dropped bombs on them they’d be at it 365 days a year.
Obama failed America when he did not prosecute the Bush administration for lying about the wars, and we can trace a direct line from that failure to John Bolton’s offensive speech about the ICC yesterday.