By Donald A. Collins | 18 January 2023
Church and State

Rodney King’s beating by white policemen in LA in 1992 was replicated in Memphis this week when 5 African American officers beat a young black man so badly, he died 3 days later. As with King and George Floyd, the filming of this horrific incident is getting national attention. Bravo for the Memphis authorities who have taken appropriate and swift action.
Here is video from a street camera as the #Memphis cops use everything to beat #TyreNichols One takes out a baton. The other one uses his hands to punch him in the face. The other one kicks him in the face. You are witnessing a murder. Horrible! #TyreNicholsVideo #TyreeNichols pic.twitter.com/YtTVbXPf73
— Rebecca Aguilar (@RebeccaAguilar) January 28, 2023
Message: Bad policing. More? How about everyone’s mental stress?
Anger rises globally as we can read daily. Examples:
Historically high Israeli killings in Palestine after two rockets from Gaza were launched and intercepted. Keep the mad violence going!! As the 1/29/23 AP story entitled” Benjamin Netanyahu’s new Israeli government will make West Bank expansion a priority” violence will escalate. Read here.
Israeli settlements themselves are already illegal under international law. Nearly all of the UN membership agrees. Netanyahu is aggravating a war crime in the Palestinian occupied territories, at a time when we reject the same in Ukraine.https://t.co/au4QHYpKXI
— ᴅʀ ʜ.ᴀ. ʜᴇʟʟʏᴇʀ (@hahellyer) December 29, 2022
40 plus mass shootings here in less than the first month of 2023 in the USA but the MAD AT EACH OTHER US CONGRESS refuses to ban assault weapons or raise the age of young male buyers. Why are no women yet assaulting us? By all means had we better continue to take away their dangerous terrorist rights to exit fetal matter from their uteruses?
My point: The potential for violence and human madness of all humans has escalated since the 1992 Rodney King beating (US population then 255 million now 340 million) and will continue to rise as more of us confront more of us going into stress, as the gap between rich and poor, educated and less educated keeps growing.
Growing selfish self-interest, lack of moral anchoring, greater belief that integrity is naive—like the old DC adage “If you want a friend in Washington buy a dog”—are not far from madness.
Like marriage it takes fidelity to make it work, and because human failings cause some glitches in marriages, unfaithfulness to integrity such as Trump caused can be repaired and overcome at the ballot box.
However, today’s widespread divorce of trust generates fear.
And its companion feeling “What can I do except to try get or keep my place” like those GOP House Congressmen who kissed Trump’s ring!
The human growth from 2 to 8 billion in my 91 years, so well delineated by environmentalists as furthering the likelihood of a 6th Extinction!
NEW REPORT: According to the 2022 Living Planet Report we’ve seen an average 69% decrease in monitored wildlife populations since 1970. Read more: https://t.co/gZwySENeOw. #LPR2022 pic.twitter.com/4PIdY82TyX
— World Wildlife Fund (@World_Wildlife) October 13, 2022
This planetary devastation keeps getting ignored by religious zealots, too many feckless humans ignoring reality, or to many powerful wealthy people who don’t apparently care and many who believe they can survive even as many of the world’s nations lose stability!
This worldwide terrorist madness will continue until it doesn’t—likely in the lifetimes of many alive now!
Most scientists not on the payroll of the dishonest wealthy now see the effects of climate changes, environmental impact, starvation, wars, and other causes as disastrous to the survival of worldwide habitability by the end of this century.
What possible cure for this madness? None is apparent, but the widespread acknowledgment of this scientific truth if comprehended might cause enough people here in the USA and other democracies to stop the lethal virus of madness, eschew the stupidity of religious dictators and bought off politicians to start voting for real COP progress and the understanding that the stormy divorces in human behavior fostered by MAGA governing leads to fatal ends.
One starting key initiative now would be restoring women’s rights to choose abortion without any government interference. And insuring contraception for all women worldwide. Neither is likely to happen in time to avoid dangerous consequences.
However, here’s a glimmer of hope, as most Americans favor abortion choice and the trend both legally in the state courts and in state constitutions indicates many states that seemed likely to ban abortions will not. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in bucking that trend in Florida makes his anti-choice Presidential candidacy very problematical!
Read here the outstanding 1/29/23 NY Times article entitled “Do Abortion Rights Hang On State Constitutions?” which explains the complex anomalies emerging as the abortion issue gets treated at the state level!
With U.S. federal protections for abortion overturned with Roe, the fight for abortion rights has moved to state courts and legislatures. No matter what state you live in, you deserve access to essential health care. #ReproRightsAreHumanRightshttps://t.co/XjIDyrIYjS
— Center for Reproductive Rights (@ReproRights) January 30, 2023
These state actions could lead to reestablishing a national right to abortion sooner than we have projected. With the GOP House in great disarray the 2024 election could result in a landslide GOP defeat of the Trumpian authoritarians.
The GOP is now selling their tyranny under a MAGA like freedom banner to those who don’t understand in history of how dictators take power.
Will that happen? Who can say, as daily more madness prevails with seemingly intractable issues such as gun control, and, yes, saving our earth!

“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
Cecile Richards: 17 states have banned abortion, but it’s clear the Republican Party isn’t satisfied
Why Overpopulation is Actually a Problem
Earth currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction, according to scientists | 60 Minutes
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Sir David Attenborough on overpopulation
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