Lifetime ecstasy use is associated with lower odds of impairments in social functioning, study finds
2023/04/07


A study of a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. adults has revealed that those who reported lifetime use of ecstasy (i.e., using ecstasy at least once in their life) were less likely to report having difficulty dealing with strangers, participating in social activities, and being prevented from participating in social activities by their mental health issues. Participants with lifetime use of mescaline also had lower odds of difficulty dealing with strangers. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

Human are social beings. We live in a society and performing literally any activity requires at least some interaction with other people or the use of things other people have created. Even activities that are by their very nature solitary are at least partly performed using tools and resources created by other people or using spaces created or respected by other people. Due to this, being able to interact with others competently and function in a society is a key faculty of all humans.

However, impairments in social functioning are a hallmark feature of many different mental health disorders. These include generalized anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and others. Social impairments of individuals suffering from these disorders represent a large share of the cost to both individuals and society that these disorders inflict.

Unfortunately, methods for treating impairments in social functioning are still very limited in their effectiveness. Due to this, researchers are constantly exploring novel ways in which these impairments could be prevented or treated. One venue of research that started attracting a lot of scientific attention is using the drug ecstasy or classic psychedelics for this purpose.

Ecstasy or 3,4-Methylenedioxymetahmphetamine (MDMA), as it is scientifically called, is one of the most widely used recreational drugs in the world. It produces prosocial feelings and enhances empathy and sociability. It is also known to produce hallucinogenic effects and to facilitate a host of adverse mental health consequences through prolonged use.

Created first in Germany in the scope of researching a possible appetite suppressor, it is now banned in most of the world. However, preliminary evidence indicates that there might be a way to use ecstasy and classic psychedelics for treating or improving symptoms of multiple mental health disorders.

The lead author of this study, Grant Jones, and his colleagues wanted to explore possible protective associations between the use of ecstasy and classic psychedelics and social impairments. They analyzed data from 214,505 participants of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2015-2019), an annual survey on substance use and mental health in the United States population aged 12 and older.

The researchers analyzed data on impairments in social functioning caused by mental health problems and emotional difficulties. These impairments were difficulty of interacting with strangers (“How much difficulty did you have dealing with people you did not know well?”), being prevented from interacting with strangers due to mental health issues (“Did problems with your emotions, nerves, or mental health keep you from dealing with people you did not know well?”), difficulty in participating in social activities (“How much difficulty did you have participating in social activities, like visiting friends or going to parties?”), and being prevented from engaging in social activities due to mental health issues (“Did problems with your emotions, nerves, or mental health keep you from participating in social activities?”).

Jones and his colleagues also analyzed participants’ answers on questions about the lifetime use of ecstasy, psilocybin, LSD, peyote and mescaline, and various other legal and illegal substances as well as risky behaviors. These were yes/no questions. The person was supposed to answer yes if he/she used the particular drug at least once in his/her life. Sociodemographic data were also used in the study.

Results showed that people who reported using ecstasy at least once in their lives (lifetime use of ecstasy) had lower odds of three of the four studied social impairments. Lifetime use of mescaline was associated with lower odds of one of the social impairments.

Additionally, people who reported lifetime use of ecstasy tended to be younger, a bit more often male, and less often married. They reported more often engaging in risky behavior. There were no differences in household income between participants reporting life time use of ecstasy and those that did not report such experience.

“The association between use of MDMA/ecstasy and reduced odds of social impairment is possibly linked to the drug’s effects on several critical neurotransmitters in the brain, namely, dopamine and serotonin—which lie upstream of other potential mechanisms at the neural and behavioral levels, mentioned later,” the researchers wrote.

“Some evidence exists to suggest that MDMA-induced changes to these neurotransmitter-receptor systems in the brain are indeed long-lasting, offering a plausible explanation for how limited intake of MDMA could be linked to persistent changes in social behavior. Given that MDMA mainly impacts serotonin levels, it is worth considering that the association between lifetime use of MDMA and lowered odds of social impairment can be ultimately linked to changes in serotonergic neurotransmission.”

The study contributes to scientific knowledge on associations between psychedelic use and behavior. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Notably, the study does not allow any cause-and-effect conclusions to be made. It is possible that the use of ecstasy indeed has effects on social functioning or can prevent social impairments. However, it is also possible that people with better social skills and more resilient to social impairments are also more prone to trying ecstasy in the scope of their social activities. Additionally, all assessments were based on self-reports.

The study, “Examining associations between MDMA/ecstasy and classic psychedelic use and impairments in social functioning in a U.S. adult sample”, was authored by Grant Jones, Joshua Lipson, and Erica Wang.

© PsyPost

Why are animal-to-human diseases on the rise?

Agence France-Presse
April 07, 2023

AFP
From Covid-19 to monkey pox, Mers, Ebola, avian flu, Zika and HIV, diseases transmitted from animals to humans have multiplied in recent years, raising fears of new pandemics.


What's a zoonosis?

A zoonosis (plural zoonoses) is a disease or infection transmitted from vertebrate animals to people, and vice versa. The pathogens involved can be bacteria, viruses or parasites.

These diseases are transmitted either directly during contact between an animal and a human, or indirectly through food or through a vector such as an insect, spider or mite.

Some diseases end up becoming specifically human, like Covid-19.

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, 60 percent of human infectious diseases are zoonotic.

What types of diseases are involved?

The term "zoonoses" includes a wide variety of diseases.

Some affect the digestive system, such as salmonellosis, others the respiratory system, such as avian and swine flu as well as Covid, or the nervous system in the case of rabies.

The severity of these diseases in humans varies greatly depending on the disease and the pathogen's virulence, but also on the infected person, who may have a particular sensitivity to the pathogen.

What animals are involved?

Bats act as a reservoir for many viruses that affect humans.

Some have been known for a long time, such as the rabies virus, but many have emerged in recent decades, such as Ebola, the SARS coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2 (which causes Covid-19) or the Nipah virus, which appeared in Asia in 1998.

Badgers, ferrets, mink and weasels are often implicated in viral zoonoses, and in particular those caused by coronaviruses.

Other mammals, such as cattle, pigs, dogs, foxes, camels and rodents, also often play the role of intermediate host.

All the viruses responsible for major influenza pandemics had an avian origin, either direct or indirect.

Finally, insects such as ticks are vectors of many viral diseases that affect humans.

- Why has the frequency of zoonoses increased?

Having appeared thousands of years ago, zoonoses have multiplied over the past 20 or 30 years.

The growth of international travel has allowed them to spread more quickly.

By occupying increasingly large areas of the planet, humans also contribute to disrupting the ecosystem and promoting the transmission of viruses.

Industrial farming increases the risk of pathogens spreading between animals.

Trade in wild animals also increases human exposure to the microbes they may carry.

Deforestation increases the risk of contact between wildlife, domestic animals and human populations.

Should we fear another pandemic?

Climate change will push many animals to flee their ecosystems for more livable lands, a study published by the scientific journal Nature warned in 2022.

By mixing more, species will transmit their viruses more, which will promote the emergence of new diseases potentially transmissible to humans.

"Without preventative strategies, pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, kill more people, and affect the global economy with more devastating impact than ever before," the UN Biodiversity Expert Group warned in October 2020.

According to estimates published in the journal Science in 2018, there are 1.7 million unknown viruses in mammals and birds, 540,000 to 850,000 of them with the capacity to infect humans.

But above all, the expansion of human activities and increased interactions with wildlife increase the risk that viruses capable of infecting humans will "find" their host.

© 2023 AFP

Daft Punk member who performed as robot says AI has him 'terrified'
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 07, 2023

Daft Punk may have performed as robots, and yet one part of the iconic French electronic duo says that the advent of AI was part of the reason for the group's split in 2021. David Ebener/dpa

Daft Punk may have performed as robots, and yet one part of the iconic French electronic duo says that the advent of AI was part of the reason for the group's split in 2021. David Ebener/dpa

Thomas Bangalter, formerly one-half of electronic music duo Daft Punk, said this week that his fear of artificial intelligence was a factor in why the group split in 2021.

Bangalter reflected on the duo's fictional persona in a recent interview with BBC News, saying that he always felt the group's thesis was about making sure there is an absolute line "between humanity and technology."

"It was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and going away from them," he said. "I love technology as a tool [but] I'm somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves."

Throughout their nearly 30-year career, Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo hid their faces under gold and silver robot masks, while on their way to nabbing Grammy Awards and putting out chart-topping hits and club anthems. Albums by the duo, who hardly ever broke character, created a universe for their fictional personas to live in.

Even so, Bangalter shared that many fans misinterpreted their act as an uncritical embrace of tech and digital culture.

"We tried to use these machines to express something extremely moving that a machine cannot feel, but a human can," Bangalter said in the BBC interview. "We were always on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology."

To express his concerns about "the rise of artificial intelligence," Bangalter referenced Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." He credited the filmmaker for asking "the question that we have to ask ourselves about technology and the obsolescence of man."

In recent post-Daft Punk work, Bangalter set electronic music production aside to collaborate with French contemporary choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, composing an orchestral score for a ballet that premiered in July. The score will be released as an album Friday.

"As much as I love this character," Bangalter said of his helmeted Daft Punk persona, "the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot."

Bangalter's wariness of AI aside, a 10th-anniversary reissue of the duo's final album, "Random Access Memories," is on the way. The album — which won four Grammys in 2014, including for album of the year — is due out May 12 and will feature previously unreleased music.

But fittingly, given Bangalter's AI apprehension, the duo decided for the 2013 album to largely abandon the synths and drum machines that colored their previous work. Critics heralded their decision to rely on live musicians — real-life humans who plucked bass lines and banged out acoustic drum riffs.


This slogan from an German IT industry event shows that even creativity in the advertising industry has the potential to drastically change under the influence of AI. 

Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa

Mount Everest supply transports delayed amid high numbers of tourists

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 07, 2023


Due to too many foreign trekkers and too few yaks and jopkyos, small items such as food, equipment or medicine cannot be brought up the world's highest mountain as quickly as usual. 

Due to too many foreign trekkers and too few yaks and jopkyos, small items such as food, equipment or medicine cannot be brought up the world's highest mountain as quickly as usual. Sina Schuldt/dpa

Mount Everest's main expedition season is about to begin, and yet planned climbs are being undermined by delays in the transport of supplies for mountaineers.

Helicopters are currently only flying large items of equipment - such as large tents and tables - to the base camp of the world's highest mountain on the instructions of the local government.

Food, ropes, gas for cooking and medical equipment, for example, will be carried up by local porters or on animals, Tashi Lhamu Sherpa, the deputy mayor of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Municipality, told dpa ahead of the start of climbing season in April.

Traditionally, yaks and jopkyos (a cross between yaks and cows from the Himalayas) trained to carry loads are used for this purpose.

However, according to the general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Mohan Lamsal, there are not enough people and animals who can carry small objects up quickly - also because many of them are currently being used for trekkers from abroad.

About 30 tonnes of material from various expedition companies are now stored in the small town of Syangboche, where the airport closest to Mount Everest is also located, he said.

In recent years, he said, expedition organisers have increasingly relied on helicopter transport because it is faster but similarly expensive.

Expedition companies are hoping for a solution soon. The season on Mount Everest lasts from about the end of April to the beginning of June.

The Expedition Operator's Association Nepal expects about 500 climbers from abroad to camp at Everest base camp for several weeks with approximately 1,500 to 2,000 local helpers, who cook for them, carry their luggage and guide them up the mountain.

After acclimatising to the altitude, the climbers try their hand at Everest and Lhotse, both more than 8,000 metres in height, and the 7,000-metre Nuptse.

Foreign Everest climbers pay around $40,000 each for an expedition, according to US mountaineer and blogger Alan Arnette. Around $10,000 of this is for a climbing permit from the Tourism Ministry.

'History repeating itself': Rachel Maddow charts a new outbreak of Nazism in the US

Sarah K. Burris

Rachel Maddow 011014 [MSNBC]

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow explained that over the last several years, there has been a rise of extremism in the U.S., and added that it isn't just about the far-right and their cozy relationship with conservatives.

In one case, author Jodi Picoult had one of her best-selling books banned from a Florida library because a parent objected to the telling of a story involving the Holocaust.

Maddow explained, "it is about a county in Florida, and they have banded from their school libraries under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' broad, vague, new laws about what kids can and cannot read. The Storyteller is a novel about the Holocaust, anti-semitism, and fascism in Germany. It was a strange irony that they wanted this particular book removed because it was like history repeating itself. That feeling and stuff we thought we left behind is rearing its head again and that feeling is happening a lot these days."

She went on to cite a recent hearing about the COVID-19 crisis and how it was handled that welcomed a witness named Nicholas Wade’s who penned a book called A Troublesome Inheritance. The New Republic wrote a review describing it as "a book which argues, among other things, that Jews possess a genetic 'adaptation to capitalism.'" He was a witness welcomed by the Oversight Committee chair, Republican Rep. James Comer (KY).

"He is famous for writing a book claiming that Jewish people are genetically evolved and biologically programmed to love money. That was the expert they brought in on the science of COVID," said Maddow.

Meanwhile, she pointed to Donald Trump's son Eric, who is traveling the country with an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist who says "the Jews did 9/11" and that "Hitler was fighting 'the same people that we are trying to take down today.'" They headed to one of the Trump properties in Florida for a weekend soon.

Hundreds of anti-Semitic flyers have been dumped all over West Palm Beach, where a group with Eric Trump and his Hitler-loving pal are headed. The person was ticketed for littering.

In Jacksonville, Florida, individuals were seen projecting a five-story tall swastika linked with a cross on a building.

In Ohio, during a drag queen story hour, a hoard of Nazis shows up to protest the event.

"Many of them were armed and a lot of them were carrying swastika flags and shouting," described Maddow. She ran a video of them chanting "Sieg Heil" and giving the Nazi salute. There were more Nazi chants as well.

These are the people that Republicans and conservatives are allying themselves.

"They are talking about Hitler overthrowing the republic," Maddow explained. "You know what his solution was? Again, these guys are out in numbers and enforce screaming at Ohio kids this weekend. We got some folks on the right trying to ban books about the rise of nazism and anti-Semitism in 1930. Others are literally trying to make it happen all over again."

IT'S WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Trans youth in US facing a conservative offensive

AFP
April 07, 2023

Supporters of LGBTQ rights during the 'Transgender Day of Visibility' in Washington

Washington (AFP) - Leo is 14 years old and has been taking testosterone for about six months.

"It definitely helps me. It makes me feel more confident," the teenager from rural Pennsylvania told AFP. "I feel more in tune with my gender identity."

Leo is worried, however, about laws adopted in a number of conservative US states that ban hormone treatments for minors like him, who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

"I just want to be able to take my shot every week," Leo said, adding that he feels "less depressed" thanks to the testosterone that blocks his menstrual periods and stimulates muscle and hair growth.

Leo said he is one of just a few "queer kids" in the coal country region of Pennsylvania where he lives.

For the moment, local lawmakers have not proposed any legislation that targets trans youth and, for his own mental health, Leo hopes it stays that way.

Before receiving the hormone treatments, "I hurt myself because of being queer," he said.

More than half of trans youth had seriously considered suicide and nearly one in five made a suicide attempt during the past year, according to 2021 survey by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit engaged in suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth.

They are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, eating disorders, risky behavior and self mutilation than other adolescents.
'More comfortable'

Jack Drescher, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, said studies show that kids "feel more comfortable being allowed to express the gender that they feel themselves to be."

Nevertheless, citing the irreversible effects of some treatments, lawmakers in a dozen Republican-ruled states have adopted laws restricting or prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors.

"There may be some children who are confused and may think they're transgender," Drescher said. "And therefore you don't want to do something that they might regret later on.

"But they're trying to protect those children at the expense of children who will benefit from treatment," he said.

In addition to banning medical intervention, Republican-led states have passed a raft of laws determining what trans students can or cannot do -- from which school bathrooms they can use, to which sports teams they play on.

Pushing back against trans rights has become a rallying cry for the current generation of US conservatives, and advocates fear children are increasingly being caught in the middle.

Rachel Smith, 47, a trans woman who works as a behavioral health therapist with trans youth in Baltimore, said "a lot of kids are very depressed, not hopeful about the future" because of the anti-trans bills.

"There is a high level of anxiety," Smith said.

According to the Trevor Project, 86 percent of trans or nonbinary youth say the legislative frenzy has a negative impact on their mental health.
'I fear for my kids'

Smith and Leo recently attended an event in Washington called the "Transgender Day of Visibility" during which an artist dressed in white was covered in fake blood to draw attention to the suicide risks in the community.

Also attending was Jaclynn, a 44-year-old mother of four children -- "one trans, one queer" -- wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Proud Mom" underneath a rainbow.

"I fear for my kids," said Jaclynn, who lives in a small town in North Carolina she described as being in the heart of the "Bible belt."

"Both are in therapy," Jaclynn said, fighting back tears, and one had attempted suicide.

"That's part of why we are here," she said. "I came with my kids. I think it's very important that they see that I support them and that the rest of these people support them."

Leo was accompanied by his stepfather who said it "feels good being here."

"There is a good turnout," his stepfather said. "There don't seem to be any folks shouting at us."

That was not the case the following day when there was an altercation between trans activists holding signs reading "Protect Trans Youth" and a handful of right-wing demonstrators outside the Supreme Court.

Police rapidly intervened and no one was injured.

RUDI AND DONALD LOOK FOR SCENTS

WITH JUST A WIFF OF HYPOCRISY

 

'Incapable of understanding the reality': Scott Walker’s meltdown about Gen Z voters blows up in his face

Maya Boddie, Alternet
April 07, 2023

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


Former Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker (R), recently suggested Republicans are losing significant elections because of Generation Z voters and "years of radical indoctrination," Media Matters for America reports.

During a Thursday, April 6, interview with Fox News, host Trace Gallagher asked the former governor, "The Wall Street Journal says the following here, 'the left wins big in the midwest elections.' Quoting again, 'Progressives had a banner day in the midwest Tuesday with victories for Chicago mayor and a swing seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The results will energize the left within the Democratic party and the badger state results are a five-alarm warning to Republicans about 2024.' Is it? We said this before in the intro. Is this a five-alarm fire for the Republicans?"

Walker replied, "To me the larger issue here, we've seen it particularly in Wisconsin but across the country, is younger voters. In Wisconsin, last fall, we saw about a 40-point margin that younger voters gave to the Democrats running for senate and governor. We saw similar margins in Pennsylvania."

Reiterating his point, the GOPer tweeted a clip from the interview, writing, "Younger voters are the issue. It comes from years of radical indoctrination - on campus, in school, with social media, & throughout culture. We have to counter it or conservatives will never win battleground states again."

During the interview, he insisted, "Part of the reason why you have John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate in Arizona and Georgia and elsewhere. And just this week in Wisconsin, we don't yet know the numbers by age, but we do know that Dane County, which is where the University of Wisconsin's flagship campus is at, about 50,000 students are enrolled there, Dane County cast more ballots in the race for the Supreme Court than the largest county in the state, Milwaukee County. And in Dane County, 82% of those votes went for the radical. So unless we turn young people around -- and it's not as simple as one campaign ad or some sort of a coalition. This is years of liberal indoctrination coming home to roost. And we've got to turn it around if we're gonna win again."

The Hill reports, "Generation Z voters overwhelmingly align with Democrats on issues like gun control, abortion, climate change, and LGBTQ issues, posing a challenge for the GOP as it looks to appeal to the younger demographic," adding, "Seventy-seven percent of Generation Z voters said they voted for a Democratic candidate for Congress, compared to only 21 percent who said they voted for a Republican, according to a Pew Research study released late last year."

Walker added, "I can't blame a lot on this generation. Because all they've heard are radical ideas and climate change and defunding the police, on abortion, and all these sorts of other issues. And so they have never heard the opposing viewpoint. And so if that's all they hear in college and high school and social media and culture, you can see why they've gone so lock step in that regard. We've got to turn that around."

The former governor's comments backfired significantly on social media.

@GoodPoliticGuy: "Republicans are incapable of understanding the reality of how their economic and political agenda has f**ked my generation. It's not indoctrination, it's capitalism and corruption."

@AOC: "If your assessment is that it's 'radical indoctrination' to not want some creepy legislator to control one's uterus, your problems are way bigger than voting. You will never win the argument that you should have more power over a woman's body than she does. That's a promise."

Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta: "'Young voters are the issue.' This is giving real Scooby-Doo villain energy. We would have gotten away with it without those meddling kids."

Heather Cox Richardson: "Did it ever occur to you that your people are the ones who have been indoctrinated with a false and radical worldview by right-wing media, while younger Americans are seeing the world for what it really is?"

Neil Hopkins: "Our policies suck and are super unpopular to educated young people - so we should get rid of education and stop young people from voting."


Kelly AuCoin: "Maybe they're sick of people like you poisoning the Earth they'll have to live on long after you’re gone. Maybe they'd rather not be shot in school. Maybe they reject your religious indoctrination. Maybe they want control over their own bodies. Maybe it’s you, Scott."

Mitch Dyer: "Young people participating in democracy is a problem for you huh"

Bradley P. Moss: "It can't be that they hate your policies. No, it has to be indoctrination."

Olivia Julianna: "Hey @ScottWalker my American Dream is being your worst nightmare. There are MILLIONS of young people exactly like me. I hope that fact haunts your every waking moment."

THE NEW CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERIKA
We are 'just beginning,' Tennessee GOP boasts in fundraiser after expelling Democrats

Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams
April 07, 2023

Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville gestures to supporters during a vote on his expulsion from the legislature at the State Capitol Building on April 6, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)

The Tennessee Republican Party waited less than 24 hours to start fundraising off the expulsion of two progressive lawmakers from the state House—openly bragging Friday about what critics have called a blatantly anti-democratic move that shows the party's growing authoritarianism.

State Reps. Justin Jones (D-52) and Justin Pearson (D-86) are two of three Democrats who joined protesters in interrupting a floor session on March 30 to demand gun control in the wake of last week's deadly school shooting in Nashville. Tennessee House Republicans on Thursday voted to expel both Black men from the chamber while a vote to expel their colleague Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-13), who is white, fell short.

In a Friday fundraising email, the Tennessee GOP said: "Their adolescence and immature behavior brought dishonor to the Tennessee General Assembly as they admitted to knowingly breaking the rules. Actions have consequences, and we applaud House Republicans for having the conviction to protect the rules, the laws, and the prestige of the State of Tennessee."

"Our fight is just beginning," the email concludes.

Progressives members of Congress had already denounced Tennessee Republicans for engaging in what U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) called "straight-up fascism in its ugliest, most racist form" before the fundraising email emerged.

Now, the Tennessee GOP is portraying the state's first partisan expulsion since the Civil War era as upholding "the rule of law" and is trying to capitalize on it.

Slate's Alexander Sammon warned that Thursday's vote "is a chilling portent of the future of Republican governance and the state of democracy nationwide."

"While Republicans have focused on gerrymandering and voter suppression as the primary prongs of their assault on democracy (as well as the occasional insurrection attempt)," he noted, "the willingness to expel democratically elected Democrats for minor-verging-on-made-up infractions portends a terrifying new development."

In a Friday statement, Public Citizen president Robert Weissman condemned Tennessee House Republicans for "summarily ending" the current terms of Jones and Pearson and "depriving their constituents of duly elected representation."

"This was a racist and disproportionate act of retaliation against legislators who had joined demonstrators chanting in the chamber, in protest of Republican refusal to adopt commonsense gun control measures in the wake of the March 27 school shooting in Nashville," said Weissman, who called Tennessee Republicans' move "flagrantly anti-democratic."

"American democracy is in a profound crisis... What just happened in Tennessee is yet another reminder of the perilous state of our country."

"In modern American history, expulsion of state legislators is very rare—not just in Tennessee but throughout the United States, and rightfully so. Legislators should expel elected officials only in extreme circumstances, not over policy differences or impingements on decorum," he continued. "Legislative supermajorities already have enormous power; when they wield that power to strip away even the offices of the minority, they are treading on very dangerous ground."

As Weissman pointed out, "Some Tennessee legislators—and a lot of MAGA commentary online—are un-ironically calling the state representatives' chanting an 'insurrection.'"

"Of course, the United States did witness a real insurrection on January 6, 2021," said Weissman. "Not one member of Congress was expelled for promoting [former President] Donald Trump's patently false claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' from him or for supporting the attempted coup carried out at Trump's behest. Only 10 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives would vote to impeach Trump in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, and only two of them were able to get re-elected."

"American democracy is in a profound crisis, riven by lies, right-wing extremism, conspiratorial thinking, and subservience to corporate and special interests, and racism," Weissman stressed. "What just happened in Tennessee is yet another reminder of the perilous state of our country."

Nevertheless, he continued, "a hopeful future is also a visible feature of our nation, demonstrated in the courage and principle of the targeted representatives... and the energy and commitment of the protesters—overwhelmingly young people—demanding justice and commonsense gun regulation."

"This is a powerful reminder that democracy does not die easily," Weissman added. "Indeed, the energy in Tennessee will help inspire and power the nationwide movement not just to defend but to expand and deepen our democracy, and we are committed to rising to the occasion, and being part of this movement to make our country a more just and equitable place for all."

Some evangelicals are marking this week as the Passion of Donald Trump

Trump's prosecution is not persecution. And his getting indicted doesn't constitute a sacrifice.

MAGA Jesus is not dead.Liza Evseeva / NBC NEWS

OPINION
April 7, 2023
By Anthea Butler, 

MSNBC Columnist

Holy Week has been hijacked by the spectacle of white evangelicals crying over their savior Donald Trump. The former president was charged by a Manhattan grand jury this week with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. While the indictments are related to hush money Trump allegedly paid to cover up affairs and improperly recorded as business expenses, some supporters see this as Trump’s passion play. That is, they see his prosecution as a persecution, as a punishment Democrats are inflicting on him because he was their chosen one, the messiah who gave them power.

Holy Week has been hijacked by the spectacle of white evangelicals crying over their savior Donald Trump.

Trump’s arrest may be a first in American history, but for evangelicals who support him, it is the fulfillment of their prophecy of persecution for Trump, for whom many of them have shoved aside Jesus to praise. But this new passion play, which is centered around alleged adultery and payoffs, isn’t anything like the story of Jesus. This week’s story revolves around alleged behavior antithetical to Christian belief, behavior that has historically been anathema to evangelicals: adulterous sex — with a porn star, no less — and lying. Yet, white evangelicals are still supporting Trump.

A group of Trump-aligned evangelical pastors came together on a call to pray for Trump’s victory after his arraignment, and James Dobson, the evangelical pastor who founded “Focus on the Family,” prayed that God would “restore him to influence and power.” But the support for Trump goes far past mere prayers for him.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., said Tuesday, “President Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus! Jesus was arrested and murdered!” Anna Perez, the host of a show called “Wrong Think,” said in response to Trump’s Tuesday arrest, “President Trump would take a bullet for me. President Trump is taking a bullet for me. President Trump is prepared to take a bullet for all of us. What he’s is doing is Christlike. I never thought that before today ... He’s literally going to prison for us.”

Comparing Trump to religious and political martyrs is both laughable and frightening. Late last month, Joseph McBride, attorney for some Jan. 6 defendants, tweeted that Donald Trump is just as important to the United States now as Martin Luther King Jr. was the month before he was assassinated in 1968. Tuesday, on the 55th anniversary of that assassination, McBride tweeted: “MLK: April 4, 1968” and “TRUMP: April 4, 2023.”

While it may be hard to believe that Republican politicians, MAGA devotees and white evangelicals would say such things on the anniversary of King’s assassination and during the week leading up to Easter, I assure you that such statements are in keeping with the intertwined persecution narratives and grievances of the Republican Party and white evangelicals.

Trump has long known that by playing upon their fears and their grievances, he can manipulate evangelicals into abandoning their principles. They want the world, but especially the United States and its government, to be shaped by their religious beliefs, which are not compatible with traditional Christianity.

Trump has long known that by playing upon their fears and their grievances, he can manipulate evangelicals into abandoning their principles.

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Undertow,” said it best when he described Trump’s indictment and arrest as the third stage of the theology of the Trumpocene - The Age of Martyrs. That age, he says, began with the killing of Ashli Babitt at the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But now Trump has shoved her aside to heave himself onto the cross of persecution.

This devotion to Trump isn’t mere loyalty to the Republican Party. It is religious fervor. Trump and the GOP have fused their fortunes together to become a religion of grievance and retribution. It’s why Trump’s last public appearance before his indictment was in Waco, Texas, where the Branch Davidian Compound engaged in a fateful standoff with the U.S. government.

Trump knows his followers want a theocracy. Look at the laws being enacted in places like Florida and Texas. The banning of books, the erasure of abortion access and the targeting of trans children and drag shows represent the deployment of wedge issues that has been a part of the evangelical and Republican playbook since the late 1970s. Trump himself is so adored because he gave them Supreme Court justices and judicial appointments at a level no other Republican did.

Make no mistake: Evangelicals aren’t leaving Trump. Far from it. In fact, he now embodies the white evangelical penchant to believe that they are a persecuted minority. Now that the president who gave them three Supreme Court justices has been arrested, their embrace of him is stronger than ever. They have elevated Trump to a godlike status, one whom they worship even with more fervor.

For other Republicans hoping to contest him for the presidential nomination in 2024, good luck. You’re going to need it. MAGA Jesus is not dead. He is rising in the polls and may be impossible for any Republican to beat.

Anthea Butler is a professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Commentary: Eisenhower's misgivings about military power still ring true

2023/04/06

American President and former Allied General, Dwight D Eisenhower, addressing the nation in September 1958, on American intervention in Formosa. - Keystone/Hulton Archive/TNS

As an orator, Dwight D. Eisenhower was not in the same league with Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt. His roster of memorable speeches numbers a grand total of two, a paltry total for someone who served eight years as U.S. president. Yet some five decades after his death, those two speeches retain at least as much salience as anything Lincoln or FDR ever said.

The second and more famous of those speeches was his Farewell Address in which Ike warned against the danger posed by what he called the “military-industrial complex.” The first, arguably less well remembered, became known as his “Cross of Iron” speech.

Ike used his Farewell Address, televised nationally on Jan. 17, 1961, to offer his final reflections on his public life. “Cross of Iron,” delivered 70 years ago this month, on April 16, 1953, was his first formal presentation following his inauguration. So the two presentations book-ended his presidency.

Together, they addressed a common theme to which Eisenhower attributed singular importance: the problematic relationship between military power and the practice of democracy. The former five-star general worried that the two were antithetical.

In 1953, Eisenhower tallied up the costs exacted by the militarization of U.S. policy prompted by the onset of the Cold War. Policies advertised as essential to preserving freedom and democracy exploited the very people they purported to protect. “Every gun that is made,” he said, “every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

Expenditures justified as essential to preserving the American way of life subverted what they purported to uphold. “This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense,” Ike insisted. “Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

Eight years later, in his farewell to the nation, Ike took aim at the “disastrous rise of misplaced power” stemming from the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.” Abetted by a pliant Congress, military and corporate leaders collaborated to advance their shared interests with the well-being of the American people consigned to the status of afterthought. The resulting corruption, hidden in plain sight, perverted national priorities and suborned democratic processes.

Over the course of two terms in office, Eisenhower made minimal progress in lifting humanity from the cross of iron. Indeed, policies undertaken by his administration drove new nails into the bleeding body. The vast expansion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, covert operations undertaken by the CIA, and the first stirrings of America’s Vietnam War – each occurring on his watch -- testify to the gap between what Ike professed and what he actually did.

Even so, the two speeches merit careful reflection in our own time. Granted, the concerns that Eisenhower expressed may sound almost quaint. But quaint is not necessarily untrue.

The notion that expending the nation’s treasure on guns, warships and rockets diverts resources from more important purposes survives today only on the far fringes of American politics. In Washington, that military spending will increase from one year to the next is today simply taken for granted. So when the Afghanistan War, longest in the nation’s history, ended in defeat, President Joe Biden and the Congress responded by increasing the size of the Pentagon budget. In Washington, few objected.

As for the incestuous relationship between the armed forces and weapons makers, Republicans and Democrats actively compete with one another for a cut of the spoils. Both parties accept the military-industrial complex as permanent and ignore its insidious implications. Ambitious politicians know better than to object to its existence.

In the 1950s, not an especially peaceful decade, Eisenhower had professed to believe that peace defined the ultimate aim of U.S. policy. He also contended that peace formed a prerequisite if American democracy was to flourish. In our own time, these qualify as radical propositions.

Today, peace has become a chimera and American democracy is on the ropes. Suspicions that something has gone fundamentally awry are widespread. Yet neither Joe Biden nor any of those who aspire to succeed him have offered an adequate explanation of what that might be.

Where should Americans look for answers? I submit that Eisenhower had an inkling.

“Is there no other way the world may live?” This was Ike’s plaintive query. The place to begin is at least to acknowledge the possibility of another way. War is a choice. As a powerful nation, the United States can choose otherwise.

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ABOUT THE WRITER
Andrew Bacevich is chairman and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His most recent book is "On Shedding an Obsolete Past" (2022)

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