By Elizabeth Stauffer
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/3803244/progressivism-is-killing-americans/

Three savage acts of violence, unfolding in rapid succession, reveal just how profoundly progressive ideology has infected America. What began as far-Left dogma spread gradually at first, mostly through academia, then accelerated until it took root in the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Today, the consequences are impossible to ignore: progressivism is killing Americans.

In recent weeks, we’ve lurched from one act of depravity to the next. First, a mentally ill transgender man opened fire on children during a back-to-school Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, killing two and wounding 18.

As disturbing as the tragedy was, the surreal, and at times even grotesque, reactions from the Left were nearly as unsettling — responses that ranged from callous indifference to outright empathy for the killer, Robert “Robin” Westman, who identified as a female.

One far-Left activist made it clear that her sympathies lie not with the innocent victims, but with the perpetrator himself. In a video posted on social media, she said, “That poor girl who attended the school and went in there and shot up the school after transitioning and after attending that school, and we can only assume that that school, as a Catholic school, did not welcome her, did not make her feel seen, included, safe, during her confusing years, during her transitional years, during her becoming who she needed to become.

“But the goal was to become happy when you transition. And so this is going to feed a lot of conversation about mental illness around trans people and this is why people shouldn’t encourage people to transition. And it’s just so sad because it affects the LGBTQ+ community.”

Regrettably, there are many similar videos out there from progressives whose reactions to this diabolical act were to reaffirm their support for the brave souls who have the “courage” to transgender.

Possibly even more alarming were the messages from Democratic leaders and influencers such as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. At a press conference following the killings, Frey had the audacity to lecture reporters on the hatred being directed toward the trans community as a consequence of the violence.

He made a remarkable statement: “I have heard about a whole lot of hate that’s being directed at our trans community. Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community, or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity.”

Next came the horrifying video of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska being brutally stabbed to death on the Charlotte Light Rail by a repeat offender with more than a dozen priors — someone who would have been behind bars were it not for liberal judges and a no-cash-bail system.

The murder occurred on August 22, but did not make headlines until footage from the train’s surveillance camera surfaced nearly two weeks later. It showed Decarlos Brown Jr. — a large black man with a lengthy rap sheet — pulling a knife from his pocket and, without provocation, savagely stabbing his unsuspecting victim multiple times before walking away, blood from his knife dripping onto the floor as he muttered, “I got that white girl.”

Unbelievably, the legacy media failed to report the story. When they were called out for their silence, they were forced to cover it.

Axios was among the first liberal outlets to acknowledge the story. But instead of confronting the horror, they twisted it into yet another “Republicans pounce” narrative. Their headline read: “Grisly Charlotte stabbing video fuels MAGA’s crime message.”

The article began: “MAGA influencers are drawing repeated attention to violent attacks to elevate the issue of urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases.”

Before even acknowledging the tragic — and preventable — death of a 23-year-old woman, Axios trained its fire on those “opportunistic” Republicans. This framing might please its regular readers, but the author’s barely concealed contempt gives the game away to the rest of us.

Just as we were catching our collective breath after that atrocity, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University. A towering figure in the conservative movement, his murder sent shockwaves through the Right and ignited outrage across the country.

Even as Kirk lay dying, the character assassins over at MSNBC could not set aside their reflexive contempt, smearing this man of deep faith as a purveyor of “hate speech.” [Derogatory comments from the Left in the aftermath of his death were truly shocking, but are beyond the scope of this article.]

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, Kirk’s assassination was a pivotal moment for America. It changed the dynamic between the Right and the Left and the country will never be the same.

But, rather than rioting in the streets, destroying public property, and looting stores as the Left would do, the simmering rage that lies beneath the surface of our collective grief will turn into a steely resolve to take back our country from those who have quietly engineered its destruction. 

We will grab the reins, ruthlessly rather than politely, and break the dangerous grip of progressive ideology that’s taken hold in our once great nation. We will restore America to its former glory. 

Alternet on MSN: Bloodthirsty Republicans need to stop their praying | Opinion

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a meeting with House Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, U.S., on November 13, 2024. ALLISON ROBBERT/Pool via REUTERS© provided by AlterNet

More than 60 people, including two dozen children at a summer camp, are dead in Texas because of yet another tragedy that might have been prevented if one of the two major parties in this failing country would come to its warped senses and take the deadly heating of our planet seriously.

You are goddamned right I am going to politicize this gruesome event.

I am absolutely furious and will call this what it is, with the hope that everybody who has a brain in their head will join me. Are you listening, corporate media?

The Republican Party has had it out for America and Americans for decades.

They are a collection of stone-cold killers, who have never seen a single life worth saving just as long as there is enough money involved to allow them to cock their fat heads and look the other way.

Whether it’s climate change, guns, healthcare, a woman’s right over her body, poisoning our air and water, or rounding up hardworking landscapers and shoving them in alligator-protected detention camps, these bloodthirsty ghouls have proven to the world time and time again they aren’t interested in preventing catastrophes, they are interested in causing them.

Vaccines are being wiped away, measles are making a comeback, and more children will die needlessly because the sickly orange ghoul inside in the White House intentionally appointed a complete madman to incinerate our Department of Health and Human Services.

My God, even tooth decay is making a comeback in America because Republicans throughout the country, starting in Utah and Florida (it’s ALWAYS Florida), are removing fluoride from our drinking water.

Here’s a quote from the aforementioned madman, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on his attack on clean teeth:

”The more (fluoride) you get, the stupider you are, and we need smart kids in this country, and we need healthy kids.”

Are you reading this?

People who wear masks to suppress the spread of deadly disease are the enemy in Trump’s America, and people like Trump who attack our country are praised by the monster as “great people.”

What the hell are we supposed to do with this?

These Republicans aren’t interested in alleviating pain and suffering, they are interested in bringing it.

This heinous disaster along the Guadalupe River this weekend might have never happened if Republicans weren’t certifiable monsters.

Flash-flooding due to astronomical bursts of rain are happening with increasing frequency across the globe, and most certainly Texas, where they have become a regular deadly occurrence. In fact, it is the No. 1 storm-related killer across America. This is due to a fast-heating planet caused by burning fossil fuels.

There’s no dispute here. There’s no question.

So what do Republicans do?

They call it all “a hoax.”

THAT’S what they do.

Oh, and they also do whatever is inhumanly possible to make it worse. Because they ALWAYS make things worse. They attack science, and places like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is working tirelessly to study our warming planet and sound the alarms to millions of people who refuse to listen.

So what do Republicans do?

They devote pages and pages to it in their roadmap toward the end, Project 2025, where they describe NOAA as the “climate change alarm industry” adding “it should be broken up and downsized.”

Which, of course, is exactly what they are doing.

Public servants are treated as public enemies, and heinous Republicans treat themselves to the spoils by moving money from these vital programs into the bank accounts of the bloated billionaires who then move them around the halls of Congress to do their ghastly bidding.

So, tell me again how the tragedy in Texas and thousands of other places aren’t a byproduct of this sickening, soulless political game.

And when things get bad, I mean REAL bad like they are this weekend, here’s what else Republicans do every single time:

They pray.

Here’s House Speaker Mike Johnson, out Mike-Johnsoning himself in response to the senseless deaths of our children:

“In a moment like this, we feel just as helpless as everyone else does … all we know to do at this moment is pray.”

All the man who laid the groundwork for this massive loss of life knows to do is pray. All the man who degrades science and the people whose groundbreaking work can save lives knows to do is pray.

Johnson is a gruesome, pointy-nosed little man, who has never grown out of his oily smugness. Whenever he has nowhere to go, which is often, the man who would sooner burn a book than read one, leans on his two-ton Bible to keep him in the neighborhood of straight.

Lately he’s been seen on his knees of OUR House floor praying for the passage of a bill that will mean unmitigated holy hell for millions of Americans, who will no longer have healthcare or protections from killer storms like the one we are dealing with in Texas.

His orange idol uses him as a Christian circus prop while he fills his bottomless pockets with money that should be going to hardworking Americans who so desperately need it.

How long will we continue to let them get away with this?

How long will we put up with devils like this who make things easier for killer diseases, killer storms, and outright killers in Minnesota to wipe us out?

When the next ghastly shooting happens in one of our schools, and Republicans hit their knees to pray, we better be crystal-clear that the blood will already be on their clasped hands.

Among scores of poisonous ingredients that are stuffed into their big, brutal bill that are too awful to imagine was the provision that Senate Republicans have eliminated the $200 tax stamp for firearm silencers and scrapped a similar tax for short-barrel rifles.

I guess killing quietly is more palatable to these sickos.

And who was behind this push?

Why TEXAS Senator John Cornyn, of course.

Republicans are killing millions of us out loud, and it is a national emergency.

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.)