A killing spree is defined by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics as “killings committed by a person or group of persons who kill two or more victims at two or more locations in a short period of time.” It is entirely possible for a killing spree to continue over a great span of time if the perpetrators are not captured and brought to justice, and it is precisely why the Republican killing spree not only continues unabated, it is increasing in its scope and frequency. For three years Republicans have been on a nationwide job-killing spree, but they have also targeted poor Americans’ lives nationally with their best efforts playing out in Republican-controlled states. Although a fair amount of the killing is swift and effective, the majority of the deaths are meant to be deliberately slow and painful either to avoid detection and capture or to cause the greatest degree of victims’ suffering; with Republicans involved, it is likely both.
There are several ways to extinguish the life out of human beings, and Republicans are using some of the more atrocious methods of killing Americans; particularly working-class and poor Americans. However, they are broadening their scope to include all Americans. If they aren’t taking food out of the mouths of the poor to kill them by slow starvation, they are eliminating healthcare to kill them by untreated sickness and disease, but that is not all. The preponderance of Republicans pandering to the NRA and gun-zealots is taking its toll on innocent Americans murdered by gun-play, and although the deaths are quicker than starvation or ill-health, it is still Republican-caused killing. The goal shared by the NRA and Republicans is every man, woman, and child carrying firearms to defend themselves from other Americans who will target them for their skin color, political affiliation, and failure to obey fundamentalist Christians exercising their religious liberty.
Since their preferred manner of killing is slow death, Republicans are methodically defunding the Environmental Protection Agency to either abolish the agency or eliminate its ability to protect Americans from poison in the water they drink and toxins in the air they breathe. It is slow death by environmental poison the Koch brothers and dirty energy industry are paying ALEC-directed Republicans to implement, and this week Republicans are demanding that the Supreme Court eliminates the EPA’s authority to regulate the poison the dirty energy industry’s coal-fired power plants, chemical facilities, and oil refineries are releasing into the environment with impunity.
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The question the court will address today is if the EPA extended its authority by including greenhouse gases to the list of pollutants it may regulate under permits it said was necessary because new emissions standards for passenger cars “triggered” a need to regulate greenhouse gas pollutants under permits for new facilities. The greenhouse gases have been deemed an endangerment to “public health or welfare.” According to the Clean Air Act, the environmental watchdog is allowed to review permits to decide if the necessary technologies to limit poison in the air are being used in the construction and powering of plants. Republicans in the employ of the Koch brothers and dirty energy industry have already boasted slashing the EPA budget 20% over the past three years, and passed legislation in the House banning the agency from inspecting and enforcing clean air and water regulations in the states, so it is no surprise they are appealing to the High Court to ban the EPA from fulfilling its mandate to review permits for compliance with the federal Clean Air Act.
In a brief to the Court filed by perennial moron Michele Bachmann and other House Republicans, they claim the 2010 EPA regulations are “an intolerable invasion of Congress’s domain that threatens to obliterate the line dividing executive from legislative power.” The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Energy and Power, Ed Whitfield (R-KY), complained that “the agency has been expansively construing its legal authorities under the Clean Air Act, and this ever-growing web of regulations has the potential to be the most complex, far-reaching and expensive in the agency’s history, and reflects an unprecedented expansion of regulatory control over the U.S. economy.”
Whitfield, like every murderous Republican fails to comprehend that the EPA’s regulatory control is not over the U.S. economy, that purview belongs to the Federal Reserve. The EPA’s regulatory control is over the dirty energy industry’s wanton disregard for Americans’ lives and whether they have the right to clean air and water that Republicans contend they do not. One of the reasons Republicans are taking the EPA to court is to secure a ruling against the environmental agency to reinforce their contention that climate policies under the Obama Administration are an abuse of power. One wonders if Republicans consider it is an abuse of power because the President is attempting to thwart their killing spree, or simply for attempting to protect Americans while being Black; it is likely a combination of both.
It is glaringly apparent that there is no end to the ways Republicans are attempting to kill Americans and there is little doubt that even the dirty energy industry knows clean air and water regulations are critical to protect the lives of Americans. In fact, the CEO of Exxon recently joined a lawsuit detailing the deadly consequences of fracking in close proximity to his home in Texas at the same time he complained about EPA environmental oversight. When the EPA attempted to fulfill their mandate and oversight in drilling operations he said “This type of dysfunctional regulation is holding back the American economic recovery, growth, and global competitiveness. There are important questions about the things that people worry about, and we have an obligation to address them, and we devote a tremendous amount of effort in addressing those. But as long as we as an industry follow good engineering practices and standards, these risks are entirely manageable. It’s all just a matter of perspective.” True, it is a matter of perspective until him and his family’s life is endangered by the unregulated dirty energy industry and then his perspective changes to join a lawsuit to keep the poison away from his home.
The GOP’s barbaric killing spree is only matched by their method of killing off Americans slowly at the hands of the energy industry whose concern is killing the EPA, regulations, and Americans. At least the Republicans’ embrace of the NRA’s gun proliferation scheme for regular street shootouts means a quick death whereas starvation, ill-health and disease, or carcinogen-laden air and water is a slow painful demise that no animal deserves. Republicans have proven time and time again there is nothing Americans need that they will not kill whether it is jobs, unemployment benefits, good wages, regulations, the economy, and poor working Americans who are barely surviving. Killing the EPA is a new standard because all Americans, rich and poor, are dependent on clean air and water Republicans will kill by toxins. It is unclear if Republicans will ever end their killing spree, and the danger to Americans is they are in a veritable killing frenzy like ravenous sharks in a feeding frenzy, and with ALEC, the Koch brothers, the oil and coal industry providing unending campaign cash as an incentive to continue, no American is safe.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
