Showing posts with label Second Amendment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Second Amendment. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Premonition: enforced citizen loyalty pledges to Trump are coming to the former United States

A richly detailed comic-book illustration depicting a humanised Statue of Liberty as a wounded young woman in a tattered white robe, kneeling amid rubble. She weareth Liberty’s spiked crown and reacheth outward in distress. Four imposing figures in ornate star-spangled military armour and capes loom over her, one pointing, another holding aloft a great American flag. The US Capitol dome appeareth behind beneath a dramatic swirling night sky with Saturn. The tone is political allegory—democracy or liberty under threat.
generated via ChatGPT

After that public relations catastrophe at MSG on Monday night, I am more convinced than ever that Trump is going to go to drastic lengths to enforce loyalty from the general population. Though he may thrive from confrontation with his chosen media and political enemies, his ego cannot abide by being hated by the masses. I have been having intense visions of this for years, and it came very close to happening, had the January 6 coup attempt succeeded. Now, after ten years, we are nearing the end game and Trump hath never been more wounded. But, we all know what they say about a wounded animal being at its most lethal. He is not going down without a fight, and not without bringing everybody else down with him. Very well could be a forced loyalty pledge that will be universally compulsory, enforced by door-to-door canvassing from an army of Christian nationalist thugs and law enforcement officers. This is going to happen, and most of the gun owners and authorities are going to be backing him. Most will comply in fear of their lives, or because they want fascism (and this is a huge part of the population, no more pretending it is not true). Pray.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Copyright 2026, Arthur Newhook.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Cruelty enthroned as creed: the Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones’ appeal, but the permission to be vile is sacrosanct in Trump’s #Murica and he will never be compelled to pay a single penny to the Sandy Hook families

A grave, allegorical image depicting the death of the United States of America. At its centre stands a weathered tombstone inscribed “United States of America, 1776–2012, R.I.P.”—its surface cracked, its dignity eroded. Draped across the stone is a torn, fading American flag, its edges frayed by wind and neglect. Atop the monument perches an eagle, wings folded, a symbol of vigilance turned to mourning. Around the grave lie the ruins of civic life: a rusted ballot box chained shut, a copy of the Constitution half-buried in dust, and a forgotten football—tokens of a republic that once prized freedom, reason, and unity. Beyond the graveyard, a ruined city smoulders under a pallid sun, skyscrapers collapsing into silhouette. The air is thick with desolation. This is not metaphor but epitaph—a requiem for a nation that, having exhausted its virtue, buried itself beneath the weight of its own decline.
image generated via Google Gemini

{USA Today 14 October} ‘Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones' appeal of $1.4 billion Sandy Hook judgment’

The Supreme Court of the former United States hath declined to hear broadcaster Alex Jones’s final appeal, thereby upholding the $1.4 billion judgement against him for his monstrous defamation of the Sandy Hook families. One might have hoped this would mark the end of his grotesque spectacle—but Alex Jones holds no intention of paying a penny to those he so cruelly tormented for profit, attention, and the hollow currency of infamy. Bankruptcy merely another pageant upon his stage.

And mark me: Trump will wade in—perhaps on the orders of the puppetmaster in Moscow—to absolve Jones of culpability. A pardon, a reprieve, some grotesque political gesture—nothing should astonish us. We are dealing with a cabal that hath proclaimed open war upon Reality herself, hellbent on turning Americans against one another, and therein they have triumphed beyond their wildest fantasy. These individuals do not merely distort the world; they unmake it, and demand applause for the wreck.

Long hath Jones sheltered behind the corruption of ‘free speech’, wielding the First Amendment as both shield and cudgel, whilst his retainers bleat about liberty even as they crush its very heart beneath their heels. If they cannot pardon him, they shall canonise him; if not canonise, they shall martyr him, à la Charlie Kirk, demanding again that homage be rendered at football games and flags be flown at half-staff in mock mourning. One way or the other, the next phase of the farce shall be redemption, not remorse. Millions will once more dutifully follow along, for this country—God deliver it—long since bartered sanity and decency for spectacle.

Indeed, a renewed campaign to ‘redeem’ Alex Jones is already underway this afternoon—a grotesque rehabilitation in the name of populist grievance. Observe how brazen in general the right-wing sphere hath waxed since Trump’s return to power; their confidence is absolute, their scorn unveiled. They know the nation’s fracture runs too deep to mend, that the peasants are itching to begin slaughtering each other en masse, and they lick their lips thereat. These be heady, halcyon days for American Fascists, theocrats, white supremacists, and the like.

The tragedy lieth not only in what was wrought upon the Sandy Hook families—hunted, exposed, and driven from their homes in Newtown—but in the cold indifference of the nation that beheld it. Who rose in their defence, in earnest? None. Barack Obama then sat upon the presidential throne, conjuring up a rather infamous tear, and the trembling voice, and the familiar elegy of ‘thoughts and prayers’—a pantomime of pity so practised it might have been writ in advance (and probably further encouraging malevolent fools in their conspiracism). Yet when the curtain fell, nothing changed.

I remember that dreadful day with nauseating clarity: even whilst the bodies of children lay cooling in their classrooms, the national conversation was already pivoting—not to grief, nor justice, but toward the largely phantasmal tyranny of gun control. In this land, the right to bear arms hath been elevated to a sacrament, sanctified above human life itself. School shootings are now so routine they scarcely interrupt the afternoon news cycle, each massacre met with the same weary shrug and constitutional catechism: ‘necessary evil, price of freedom’.

That any soul could gaze upon those parents, those tiny coffins, and pronounce them deserving of their woe is thought enough to curdle the spirit. Yet here we are, a republic whose moral arteries have calcified beyond cure—a nation that hath mistaken cruelty for conviction and named it liberty.

We stand upon the brink of that which, in my youth in the late 20th century, had been unspeakable: civil war, and a rot of conscience so absolute that compassion itself is spent. Would that I could summon hope—for the families of Sandy Hook, for the country—but the abyss hath already opened. What awaits is no mere politics, but total civil collapse: cruelty enthroned as creed. And Alex Jones shall yet be laughing all the way to the bank. —Arthur Newhook, 14 October 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook).

Friday, May 12, 2023

‘A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a law banning licensed federal firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults under 21 violates the Second Amendment and is unconstitutional’

stock photo

What a country: Those between 18 and 21 cannot legally drink, or buy cigarettes and marijuana, or gamble, or even rent a car. Owning firearms, though? Perfectly fine. Shipping them off to war? No problem there. I am not a gun grabber by any means - nor am I necessarily advocating young people engage in the vices listed above - and the judge probably made the constitutionally-correct legal decision, but those are some glaring and blatant double standards right there. {AP 5/12}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Another in a long string of mass shootings in America: Gunman kills an ‘unknown number’ at Dallas-area outlet mall

KARE

One way or another, this has to stop. FTA: ‘A gunman stepped out of a silver sedan and began shooting people at an outlet mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, on Saturday, killing an unknown number and sending hundreds of shoppers fleeing in panic in the latest gun violence to strike the country.’ {AP 5/06}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

At least one dead in shooting at downtown Atlanta medical facility

Alex Slitz/AP

Killed while sitting in the waiting room. Nothing changes if nothing changes; but this state of affairs has to change if this country is going to survive. {AP 5/03}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Selfishness and coldness: What #Murica is all about


Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Upstate New York man charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting woman who turned into his driveway by mistake

Washington County Sheriff's Office

#Murica: Nobody is safe anywhere, in any situation, in such a violent, mean-spirited country. {NPR 4/18}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Four confirmed dead, multiple others injured following shooting at a birthday party in an Alabama dance studio

Going to Hell in a handbasket, we are. {AP 4/16} 

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Guns now the leading cause of death for American children, and America is broken beyond repair, but at least we’re not Russia

Marco Bello/Reuters

CDC: Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children - Nothing will be done. The far-right makes up, approximately, 40% of the overall population, and upwards of 80% or more of the rural population. They are, by far, the largest percentage of gun owners, and their ranks include many police officers and military personnel. The Constitution is written in such a way that privileges small states and rural areas over cities. The Supreme Court is heavily biased in their favor. Most of the state legislatures are controlled by the GOP, and they are gerrymandering congressional maps anywhere and everywhere they can get away with doing so. They may not control academia, the entertainment industry, or pop culture in general (though they are working hard to change all of that), but politically and legally they have this country by the proverbial balls. January 6, 2021, was just a taste of what is to come, and the rank-and-file of #Cult45 are just waiting for the word to begin slaughtering the rest of us. I’ve been saying all along, dating back years, that America is a lost cause. Yet we still have to fight: After all, we will eventually have to give an account to God of whether we stood up to evil, or helped facilitate it. I am not anti-gun and would be opposed to just outlawing them altogether; but some basic measures to ensure to the greatest extent possible that only trained, qualified, and law-abiding individuals are allowed to possess them would not be an ‘infringement’ on the Second Amendment. No private citizen needs to own weapons of war, such as an AR-15. All rights come with responsibilities and limits, so do tell why gun ownership should be exempt? But, as I said, nothing is going to happen, except more bloodshed. America today is akin to places like Iran, much of the Middle East, Russia, etc., where ignorance and superstition is increasingly becoming enforced, and intellect and reason are gradually being suppressed. Go down fighting. (Axios 5/26)

Damon Winter/NYT

Michelle Goldberg: America may be broken beyond repair - Do ‘we simply stumble on, helpless as things keep getting worse?’ That has been the state of affairs for a couple of decades now, but simmering rage can only build up for so long before it explodes. It is very hard to see any scenario now where the country can heal these riffs and be held together. Therefore, the question becomes: Is this union worth persevering, or would it be for the best for the United States to be dissolved and a series of new, smaller states to emerge from its ashes? If it is the latter, there will be extreme disparities between the new states that emerge in terms of their economies, laws, standards of living, and so forth; and there will be bloody wars between some of these states from time-to-time. If one looks at the history of Europe over the centuries - and even within the last 100 years - borders are constantly changing, alliances come and go, and those processes always entail great conflict and bloodshed. So, just breaking America up does not guarantee there will no longer be strife between the peoples of this vast continent. But it would appear people in New England, or California, or in Chicago no longer want to be ruled over by people from the rural South and Midwest, and vice versa. Each side wants to impose their lifestyles and values (or lack thereof) upon the other, neither is in the least bit interested any longer in compromise and going along to get along. Something will have to give. (New York Times 5/27)

Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/WP

Russians face prospect of Soviet-style shortages as sanctions bite - Excerpt: ‘Stung by Western sanctions, Russia is starting to devolve into a secondhand economy dependent on poor substitutes, where shortages are stirring memories of the consumer wasteland that was the Soviet Union. While it may be able to find new purveyors for some Western-made goods and components in friendly countries such as China and India, Russia is increasingly determined to make its own — returning to policies of import substitution that yielded a vast, if globally uncompetitive, industrial complex before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Already, Moscow is facing serious challenges.’ (Washington Post 5/26)

Roger Dean

Fourteen warning signs that you are living in a society without a counterculture - Serious food for thought here. We are not living in a vibrant culture that rewards independent thought and creativity. I think that’s something we all should be ashamed of, and be working to fix. (Ted Gioia 5/28)

Rest in Peace, Alan White: Hall of Fame drummer of YES fame dies at 72 (AP 5/26)

This is beautiful. The Beach Boys serenade Alan White, sometime within the past few years. RIP to a great drummer and human being

Never really 'got' The Band, and I believe that holds true for most who came after that '60s generation. But, any musician who had a positive impact on peoples' lives as Ronnie Hawkins did deserves to be celebrated. (CBC News 5/29)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Our darkest days grow colder: Shooting at elementary school in Texas leaves 18 small children dead, Trump wanted to hang his own VP for not cooperating with the J6 insurrection, and the dangerous despot in Hungary seizes more power for himself

Jacob Langston/NYT

Testimony before the House January 6 committee reveals that Trump allegedly stated that Mike Pence needed to hang - Nothing is shocking anymore with Donald Trump, and this revelation is no exception. In normal times this one anecdote alone would have been the scandal of the decade, and there would be widespread outrage. America has undergone a ‘shock treatment’ of sorts for the past twenty-one years, and desensitization has set in for many. And others are embracing the evil lurking inside them, as we will see in the next paragraph. Welcome to Hell. (New York Times 5/25)

Reuters

Another f**king school shooting, another bloody day in #Murica - Mass shootings are now an almost-daily occurrence in this sick country. No hyperbole, people everywhere are cracking. Eighteen kids, and one adult dead; the shooter, probably another one of these teenage incel types, killed by police. Americans are once again horrified, and once again no action will be taken. Guns are only part of the problem, and guns are an effective deterrent when used responsibly and lawfully by qualified individuals - no, many of these kids are being doped up on Ritalin, overstimulated on video games and electronics, most are not reading, they are largely not allowed to play outside. They are no longer taught manners, seeing as so many of the grown-ups around them are rude and stupid individuals, and genuine role models are few and far between. Even most of those in #Murica who present themselves as upright and full of wisdom turn out to be scam artists and charlatans; wolves in sheep’s clothing. I’ve long had a vague suspicion that the new Babylon spoken of in prophecy is the United States of America. At this moment, I am not suspecting anything; this may as well be Babylon, and it deserves to die. All of that good, patriotic stuff about America that people still cling to is simply gone, long past us in all but facade. May the Lord Jesus have mercy on us. (BBC News 5/24)

Olivier Hoslet/AP

Hungarian despot Viktor Orban seizes more power for himself with ‘state of danger’ declaration - Using the war in neighboring Ukraine as a pretense, the populist strongman and Putin ally erodes democracy further. Remember, this is the model the GOP is openly praising and emulating. (AP 5/24)

Sen. Mitt Romney warns that the United States must be prepared for Russia to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine (KSL 5/23)

The U.S. supplies Ukraine with lethal ‘Switchblade’ drones that can target Russian tanks and artillery from miles away (Ukraine 24 5/24)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Saturday, May 21, 2022

‘Learned helplessness.’ #Murica is now a glorified death camp. Plus, Trump cronies installed in the Inspector General’s office found to have targeted certain SSDI recipients, the emergence of ‘Dark MAGA,’ Liz Cheney tells it like it is, more

COVID-19, shootings: Is mass death now tolerated in America? - ‘Learned helplessness’ is how one expert spoken to for this AP article describes the atmosphere in modern #Murica. Where, oftentimes, cowardice is mistaken for courage, mass stupidity is mistaken for independent thought, and pure callousness is mistaken for godliness. Excerpt - ‘After mass shootings killed and wounded people grocery shopping, going to church and simply living their lives last weekend, the nation marked a milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID-19. The number, once unthinkable, is now an irreversible reality in the United States — just like the persistent reality of gun violence that kills tens of thousands of people every year. Americans have always tolerated high rates of death and suffering — among certain segments of society. But the sheer numbers of deaths from preventable causes, and the apparent acceptance that no policy change is on the horizon, raises the question: Has mass death become accepted in America? “I think the evidence is unmistakable and quite clear. We will tolerate an enormous amount of carnage, suffering and death in the U.S., because we have over the past two years. We have over our history,” says Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist and professor at Yale who, before that, was a leading member of the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP. “If I thought the AIDS epidemic was bad, the American response to COVID-19 has sort of ... it’s a form of the American grotesque, right?” Gonsalves says. “Really — a million people are dead? And you’re going to talk to me about your need to get back to normal, when for the most part most of us have been living pretty reasonable lives for the past six months?”’ (AP 5/21)

National Council on Aging

Trump crony installed in the Inspector General’s office directed employees to grossly abuse a program meant to investigate disability fraud, levying excessive fines over petty violations against more than 100 individuals - If the GOP cannot destroy Social Security by legislation or public consent, they will do so by stealth and incrementally. Remember this, anyone and everyone, when going to the polls in November. (Washington Post 5/20)

Michigan elections chief alleges Trump wished for her to be executed for treason for refusing to validate his claims of election fraud - There is no bottom, save for the remaining sane, rational, and humane people of America rising up and throwing all Fascists out of any and all positions of authority. #Murica needs ‘denazification’ - an incendiary term when used to describe Putin’s ‘special operation’ against innocent Ukrainians who did nothing to provoke Russia’s wrath; but a bit more accurate when describing millions of American nationalist populists who are displaying increasing levels of hostility toward the rest of society, to say nothing of recklessly engaging in scary, cult-like behavior. I am increasingly afraid this only ends with President Biden having to resort to drastic measures, and right now millions of populist Americans are determined to test him. (NBC News 5/19)

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Dark MAGA: ‘(E)mbracing the role of the villain and stripping away any facade of decency’ - As if it wasn’t dark enough to begin with. No, this is just all proving that the degradation can and will always get worse, and nothing can be put past those hellbent on dominating society and destroying anyone deemed to be an enemy. (Business Insider 5/15)

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images/Axios

Rep. Liz Cheney calls out her own party: ‘The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism’ - It is not every day we see a member of Congress display genuine integrity, but a fire has been lit under Liz Cheney. (Axios 5/16)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Oregon Public Broadcasting reports finds police across the U.S. to be covertly involved with white supremacist outlet that participated in the January 6 insurrection

AP

Under no circumstance can police officers or any public officials be allowed to be secretly (or not-so-secretly) involved with groups that are terrorist outlets engaged in sedition. Nor should the very existence of said terrorists be tolerated a day longer; but we all know terrorism in America is tolerated and even embraced by millions, along with one of our major political parties, when it is of the white nationalist populist variety. I’m not holding my breath than any of these police officers are ever going to be held accountable for this, and the closer we come to civil war the worse this ‘problem’ (not strong enough of a word) is going to become. Excerpt from the OPB report -  

In early summer 2018, it looked as though Oregon voters might get a chance to ban assault weapons in the state. 

It was barely two months since a shooter had killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 

The proposed Oregon ballot measure met stiff legal challenges and was kept off the ballot, but not before militia groups like the Oath Keepers used the proposed gun restrictions as a rallying cry to bring hundreds of people out to a gun rights rally in Salem. 

And those recruitment efforts by the Oath Keepers appear to have had some effect. 

Not long after the pro-gun rally in Salem, Portland police officer Joseph Webber appears to have joined the Oath Keepers militia, an anti-government, anti-immigrant extremist group that was thrust into the national security spotlight for its role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. 

According to data leaked earlier this month and reviewed by OPB, Webber — who is still a Portland police officer — is among more than two dozen current and former police officers, sheriff’s deputies, corrections officers, and members of the military in Oregon who appear to have joined the Oath Keepers militia since the group was founded in 2009. OPB compared data in the Oath Keepers leak against public records, social media and state law enforcement certification information to verify the information. 

Reached by phone on the same number appearing in the leaked database, Webber denied joining the group before hanging up. He didn’t respond to follow-up text messages. 

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said he expects officers to follow the bureau’s conduct and professionalism policies whether on or off duty. Potentially applicable policies include a prohibition against associations with people advocating criminal behavior or actions which might discredit the bureau or city. 

Lovell told OPB this case has been referred to internal affairs for investigation. 

The hacked Oath Keepers data was sent to the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets, which provided the information to journalists and researchers. In several cases across the country, journalists and citizen sleuths have been able to confirm law enforcement and military members using the leaked data. New York City police officers and a detective in the Hudson County prosecutor’s office were in the leaked data, prompting investigations from those two agencies. 

The data include names, membership join dates and contact information for nearly 40,000 people across the country who at one point paid dues to the organization, including more than 1,000 names in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Except where people paid the approximately $1,000 for a lifetime membership, it’s not clear from the data if people are still members. (Read more)

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.