Mass Murder: Our Wounded Humanity, by Robert C. Koehler

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by Robert C. Koehler
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
April 15, 2023

Once again… once again… once again….

I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. Yeah, another — the latest (?) — mass shooting in the United States, this one at Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 10, two days ago as I write. Five killed, eight injured. The shooter, an employee of the bank, was killed in a shootout with police. Three officers were injured, including a rookie officer (ten days on the job), who was shot in the head and is struggling to survive. The gunman’s weapon was a nice, reliable AR-15-style rifle, legally purchased at a local gun shop a week earlier.

How Does An Economic System So Hostile To Life Endure For Centuries? by Pete Dolack

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Feb. 28, 2023
March 2, 2023

When we conceptualize the power that maintains capitalism, violence and ideology readily come to mind. Despite the vast inequality, grotesque exploitation, contempt for life and the environment, chronic instability and the rebellions that repeatedly arise and sometimes take power, capitalism seems firmer in the saddle than ever, spreading its suffocating tentacles to virtually every place on Earth.

Lee Camp and Alex Vitale: Should We Abolish Police?

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Dandelion Salad

“One way to undermine this lionization of violence and guns would be to downsize policing in as many ways as we possibly can and undermine these kind of cultural myths of people with guns as the solvers of all our problems.” — Alex Vitale

Uh Oh, Here Comes the Occupying Army, by Robert C. Koehler + Goodbye, Tyre, by Leslie D. Gregory

Image by Tony Webster via Flickr

by Robert C. Koehler
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
February 2, 2023

America, America … God kicks thee in the head.

The twisted irony here — the irony of the brutal murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee last month — is that his killers were the ones hired and trained to keep the city safe. Instead, they created half an hour of hell for the young man, kicking and beating and tasing him to death a short distance away from his mother’s house, after a random, and perhaps unjustified, traffic stop.

Dancing on the Edge of Hell, by Robert C. Koehler

Image by Chad J. McNeeley via U.S. Secretary of Defense via Flickr

by Robert C. Koehler
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 8, 2022

Two dogs walking. One of them says to the other: “I bark and I bark, but I never feel like I effect real change.”

Political Violence is the Currency of Fascism, by Kenn Orphan

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by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
November 1, 2022

Whatever one thinks of the politics of Nancy Pelosi, American Democratic Speaker of the House, the violence perpetrated against her husband was nothing short of terrifying, and for many reasons. No spin can erase the fact that this was political violence. And it is becoming normalized in a country that has been rapidly unraveling for several years.

What Would We Do Without Police, Prisons, Surveillance, Borders, Wars, Nukes, and Capitalism? by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Sept. 27, 2022
October 1, 2022

What would we do in a world lacking police, prisons, surveillance, borders, wars, nuclear weapons, and capitalism? Well, we might survive. We might sustain life on this little blue dot a little longer. That — in contrast to the status quo — ought to be sufficient. We might, in addition, do a lot more than sustain life. We might transform the lives of billions of people including each person reading these words. We might have lives with less fear and worry, more joy and accomplishment, more control and cooperation.

We Have A Violence Problem — Campaign Nonviolence Strives To Solve It, by Rivera Sun

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by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
September 13, 2022

We have a violence problem. It runs through our nation like an invisible road system, touching every front door, cutting through each town and city. Mass shootings kill our children in their schools. Forty-five thousand people will take their own lives this year. An additional 14,000 are likely to be killed by gun violence. Twelve million of our fellow citizens will experience intimate partner violence this year. More than ten million children face violence in the forms of maltreatment, verbal abuse, sexual assault, extreme neglect, and physical abuse.

The Chris Hedges Report: Inside the Minds of White Nationalists

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Aug 19, 2022

On Jan. 9, 1966, the White Knights of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan murdered the Black civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer in Hattiesburg, Mississippi after fire-bombing and shooting into his house. It was one of thousands of hate crimes conducted in the south by whites who waged a reign of terror against Blacks to frighten them from abandoning calls for desegregation and voting rights.

The Chris Hedges Report: Breaking the Cycle of American Violence, with James Gilligan

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Jul 22, 2022

Chris Hedges speaks with the Psychiatrist Dr. James Gilligan about our rash of mass shootings and his book Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and it’s Causes.

The Chris Hedges Report: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the US and Around the Globe, with Vijay Prashad

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges and Vijay Prashad

TheRealNews on Jun 17, 2022

Chris Hedges speaks with historian Vijay Prashad on the rise of authoritarianism in the US and around the globe and what we must do to fight back.

At Least 36% of Mass Shooters Have Been Trained By the U.S. Military, by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
March 23, 2021

It is extremely easy in the United States to obtain guns, to find places to practice using them, and to find trainers willing to teach you to use them. There’s no need to have any contact with the U.S. military in order to dress and act as if you’re in the military, as many mass-shooters do, some of them waging their own delusional wars against immigrants or other groups. But it is remarkable that at least 36% of U.S. mass shooters (and quite possibly more) have in fact been trained by the U.S. military.

Drawing Links Between US Militarism Abroad and Gun Violence at Home + Militarizing US Schools and Society Only Creates More Gun Violence and Police Brutality

Image by Tony Webster via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews on Jun 18, 2018

Boston teacher Nino Brown, of the ANSWER Coalition, speaks with TRNN’s Ben Norton about the links between US militarism, gun violence, and police brutality. He connects the epidemic of school shootings domestically to the endless wars internationally.

John Pilger, et al: Australia’s Guns: Control, Culture, Bias

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the videos below

Dandelion Salad

with John Pilger

goingundergroundRT on Jun 8, 2018

Co-hosts Tyrel Ventura and Tabetha Wallace venture down under to Australia to interview a number of experts, including Pulitzer Prize winner John Pilger, on gun violence, gun culture, and the differences between gun ownership in the US and Australia.

Socialism: Change Has to Begin at the Roots by William T. Hathaway

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by William T. Hathaway
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Germany
August 3, 2013

Terrorists, serial killers, domestic murderers — their ghoulish deeds fill our news and popular entertainment, interspersed with wars, riots, and brutal repressions. Violence surrounds us.

Where does it come from?

The answer propagated by the mass media is that violence is human nature. It’s just the way people are.