Yesterday, an 18-year-old white man murdered 10 people and wounded three others with an AR-15. The shooter traveled more than 200 miles to get to a predominantly Black neighborhood, where he put on heavy body armor and live streamed his attack as he gunned down people grocery shopping. Eleven of those he shot were Black.
I think that the saddest thing I’ve discovered is that the roots of democracy in this country are clearly nowhere near as deep as I believed them to be………..especially when it comes to certain groups trying to make sure that certain other groups “know their place”. 😢
I was raised and lived not too far from Rockport, Indiana for 50 years and did not know this. Heather, your vast knowledge and ability to equate the past and present is why I read your daily posts! Thank you, just thank you!
America has entered a period where the violence predicted after 1/6 may well be unrolling now. There will be the 1/6 hearings in June, hysteria leading up to the midterms, and another potential upswelling of white on non-white terrorism. It would be unsurprising if there was retaliation.
Both sides realize the stakes could not be higher politically. A long hot summer lies ahead.
It is desperately important that the commentators on the right and the Republican Party not feed the flames. But the odds of this, though non-zero, are pretty close.
This is a time of fear and anguish - the greatest test of America’s stability since the Civil War. Heather’s descriptor of “blood on their hands” could not be more apt.
Heather, when I read about the Buffalo massacre yesterday I wept. I am far away from the daily mass shootings in the United States. I live in Yucatán State, México where homicide is rare and by firearm virtually nonexistent. Every day I ask myself, what is left worth salvaging in the United States? The electorate have chosen thugs and criminals to represent them at the local, state and national levels. Wall Street, big business and oligarchs like the Kochs, Mercers, Musk, Bezos and others have undue influence on every aspect of life. Human and Civil Rights are being snatched from every conceivable group except for white Christian men, decent education is crumbling, healthcare is declining, public health and public safety are a vicious joke.
And where is the public outcry? Yesterday I attended a Bans Off Our Bodies online event sponsored by Democrats Abroad where less than 70 people worldwide showed up. The Mérida chapter of Democrats Abroad's idea of a meeting is getting together for cocktails and a movie. WTF?
In December I lamented the fact that people on the right simply don't care about their country, or their community. Well, I'm coming to the conclusion that unless it's within an echo chamber such as this, people in the center and on the left don't care much either.
I am profoundly sad and shaken by the deterioration of the United States and am afraid for every single soul on American soil. I am afraid for us all.
This is the first news that I saw today. I have been a hunter most of my life the only thing that I ever hunted with an AR-15 was people which is what it was designed to do, that was 50 years ago and I have never had a desire to own one since. I think it is insane that the AR-15 and all of the evolution’s of it’s design are being marketed so effectively, that there are millions of them all over our nation, and that lunatics just like the one in this letter can get their hands on them so easily. Our system of government is broken, if it wasn’t this would not have happened. Ten innocent people that were shopping for groceries, something everyone of us does, are gone thanks to a guy who has the IQ of a rock. Where did he get this gun, who sold it to him, who else was he in contact with? He didn't dream up this attack out of nowhere would be my guess. Our government, the one we elect to protect us, needs to start playing hardball, very hard ball. Arrest anyone connected with this tragedy and keep them locked up, if a judge wants to release them lock up the judge. This could have happened to any one of us or any member of our families. Bulldoze the store where the gun was sold along with everything in it, no insurance claim against loss, the same with the factory that made it, go after the advertising agency that promoted it, make it as though they were promoting cancer. I know that's over the top, but what we have been doing that's not over the top isn't working.
" ... [A]nd lived stream his attack." I believe NY Governor Hochul was one of the first to mention the potential liability of the unamed "live streaming" digital Platform. This weekend, MSNBC & others have correctly idedtified the Platform as "TWITCH" actually now 'Twitch Interactive' circa 8/25/14. I will leave it to NY State Prosecutors to explain wny Twitch's Section 9, "Terms of Service" purporting to indemnify the Platform from "prohibited acts" will not protect this renegade subsidiary from the results of its "live streaming" hate. Prosecute Twitch Interactive & any legally responsible parent company both civily & criminally to the fullest extent of of the law.
Heather, thanks once again for following the threads from the past to the present. Mike Pence is complicit with his complaint to Victor Orban (Prime Minister of Hungary) about a declining birth rate in the US. It’s very obvious that he’s not talking about the birth rate of brown babies. So he gets to attack POC and insinuate that white women are only good for incubating and birthing all in one statement.
Every day I read your entry and fathom at the American history I did not learn in grade school, nor high school, perhaps a smattering in college (yet still woefully ignorant. I’m 62 soon, entrepreneur since 8, hardworking, female, avid reader and, admittedly, a prior loyal cable news watcher, pre-entertainment-fetching years. I am now an avid news reader, still self employed but finally seeing the fruits of this journey enough to maybe feel like I can be more creative in years to come instead of so dialed in to business. White. Appalled by what my next years look like with the view of this political landscape ahead. The style in which you thread history to current affairs is brilliant and for that I am appreciative. However the reality of what I feel and think post-self analysis (after my daily reading) is at once daunting and incredulous. I am hopeful that in this light of truth, the spreading and sharing is rapid, positive energy manifests. May I please be so hopeful? Or am I completely ignorant, it’s too late baby. Go on then, spin the Carole King.
TRUTH: isn’t this at the core of Democracy? I’m currently browsing through a book I found in the online library, “How Do You Kill 11 Million People: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think” (2020) by Andy Andrews. It’s purported to be nonpartisan, so readers of any party could pick it up. You could share it with your repub friends or family. Maybe. I probably won’t read it all, but this passage makes me think about the lasting effects of TFG: “You see, the danger to America is not a single politician with ill intent. Or even a group of them. The most dangerous thing any nation faces is a citizenry capable of trusting a liar to lead them. In the long run, it is much easier to undo the policies of crooked leadership than to restore common sense and wisdom to a deceived population willing to elect such a leader in the first place. Any country can survive having chosen a fool as their leader. But history has shown time and again that a ‘nation of fools’ is surely doomed. “ I wonder if “we” are a nation of fools. Or just our repub neighbors.
The haters stoke anger that leads to violence. I believe there is a much larger undercurrent of fear that includes many who don't hate, per se, but neither understand nor have a place in their hearts for others who look and behave differently. We are a country of immigrants; I think there is probably no other place on earth that continues to look as attractive to every conceivable group of persons looking for greater opportunity, less discrimination, greater personal and family safety than the US. They may be mistaken in their beliefs, but believe they do, in spite of what we see and read in the news. Fear, mistrust and hate for other groups of people is exhibited across history in every corner of the world, and we Americans demonstrate that same human characteristic with every wave of immigration across our history. It takes significant effort to bridge the gaps of race, language, skin color, customs, habits, dress, diet, religion that allow us to distinguish immigrants who have not "integrated" adequately to blend into the background. Groups that remain more insular in their habits and ethnic identities remain targets of discrimination for generations. Our very nature tends towards tribalism, surrounding ourselves with folks who are similar in many characteristics to ourselves. Tribe is a word applied exclusively to Native Americans in this country, but our Anglo Saxon majority could be divided into a number of groups that demonstrate tribal behavior, separate from ethnic background. One of the first steps in eliminating the extreme expressions of fear and anger is to recognize the potential for these tendencies to occur in every one of us and to take action to counter them; We can choose to travel and live in other countries, get to know other cultures and find common ground with them. We can choose to educate our children to have curiosity and compassion for others, regardless of their origins. We can promote experiences that expose ourselves and our children to the melting pot that is our national heritage, like universities, museums, history, cultural celebrations and the like.
That young man wasn't born a racist destined to enact a vicious hate crime. He acquired the prerequisite world view from somewhere, most likely from very obvious experiences and exposures in the short time between early childhood and teen age in his short life. I seriously doubt he came to the the conclusions that led him to that action all by himself. Somewhere there were mentors and peers who helped him along his way. The assault rifle and armor aren't the cause of his crime, although they certainly magnify the impact of it. His peers existed long before machine guns. Mass shootings are now daily occurrences in the US and we have to address the indoctrination of the shooters along with the issue of access to paramilitary hardware.
I firmly believe in the “great replacement theory.” All ignorant bigoted White men should be replaced by every-colored people who can critically think….
I nominate Mitch McConnell for the Oskar Schindler [Schindler’s List movie] Award. This clearly is not a Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award. Schindler was a despicable person who did one noble thing—risked his life to rescue 1200 Jews from death during the Holocaust.
I consider Mitchell a scurrilous sloth with the principles of an alley cat. However, his recent senatorial visit to Kyiv and his meeting with President Zelensky sent a powerful message that he opposed the isolationist ‘America First’ babbling of Trump [sought to kill NATO] and his sycophants.
Bipartisanship is essential in American lock-step support for Zelensky and the sovereignty of Ukraine against Putin’s ‘huff and puff’ threats after his disastrous ‘special military operation.’
Like the war against Hitler and Japan and the Cold War, this will require sustained personal sacrifices by Americans and those in many other countries riposting against a moral-less autocracy intent on ‘nibbling’ other sovereign countries.
Mitchell, making a cold-blooded political calculation, is opposing Trumpists [including his weird Kentucky fellow senator, Rand Paul] in placing his physical body on the line for bipartisanship. However, in no way does this absolve him from his Garland/Barrett travesty.
Some time ago I proposed Liz Cheney for the Oskar Schindler Award, though she did not match the depths of Mitchell’s despicableness. .
I think that the saddest thing I’ve discovered is that the roots of democracy in this country are clearly nowhere near as deep as I believed them to be………..especially when it comes to certain groups trying to make sure that certain other groups “know their place”. 😢
I was raised and lived not too far from Rockport, Indiana for 50 years and did not know this. Heather, your vast knowledge and ability to equate the past and present is why I read your daily posts! Thank you, just thank you!
America has entered a period where the violence predicted after 1/6 may well be unrolling now. There will be the 1/6 hearings in June, hysteria leading up to the midterms, and another potential upswelling of white on non-white terrorism. It would be unsurprising if there was retaliation.
Both sides realize the stakes could not be higher politically. A long hot summer lies ahead.
It is desperately important that the commentators on the right and the Republican Party not feed the flames. But the odds of this, though non-zero, are pretty close.
This is a time of fear and anguish - the greatest test of America’s stability since the Civil War. Heather’s descriptor of “blood on their hands” could not be more apt.
Yesterday in Buffalo
Hot lead tore through the bodies of thirteen human beings
Targeted for being Black
Daring to do their weekend grocery shopping
Shot dead by a man
Cloaked in armor
Fueled by worthlessness
Internet spawn
Armed
With blessings from most high
The nation’s soul is breaking
The bonds that hold it together
cannot stand the strain
This silencing
Of voice
Of life
Trumpeted
Drowning reason and compassion
A swelling frenzy of moral abandon
Awake
This is happening on our watch
The worst is winning
Heather, when I read about the Buffalo massacre yesterday I wept. I am far away from the daily mass shootings in the United States. I live in Yucatán State, México where homicide is rare and by firearm virtually nonexistent. Every day I ask myself, what is left worth salvaging in the United States? The electorate have chosen thugs and criminals to represent them at the local, state and national levels. Wall Street, big business and oligarchs like the Kochs, Mercers, Musk, Bezos and others have undue influence on every aspect of life. Human and Civil Rights are being snatched from every conceivable group except for white Christian men, decent education is crumbling, healthcare is declining, public health and public safety are a vicious joke.
And where is the public outcry? Yesterday I attended a Bans Off Our Bodies online event sponsored by Democrats Abroad where less than 70 people worldwide showed up. The Mérida chapter of Democrats Abroad's idea of a meeting is getting together for cocktails and a movie. WTF?
In December I lamented the fact that people on the right simply don't care about their country, or their community. Well, I'm coming to the conclusion that unless it's within an echo chamber such as this, people in the center and on the left don't care much either.
I am profoundly sad and shaken by the deterioration of the United States and am afraid for every single soul on American soil. I am afraid for us all.
This is the first news that I saw today. I have been a hunter most of my life the only thing that I ever hunted with an AR-15 was people which is what it was designed to do, that was 50 years ago and I have never had a desire to own one since. I think it is insane that the AR-15 and all of the evolution’s of it’s design are being marketed so effectively, that there are millions of them all over our nation, and that lunatics just like the one in this letter can get their hands on them so easily. Our system of government is broken, if it wasn’t this would not have happened. Ten innocent people that were shopping for groceries, something everyone of us does, are gone thanks to a guy who has the IQ of a rock. Where did he get this gun, who sold it to him, who else was he in contact with? He didn't dream up this attack out of nowhere would be my guess. Our government, the one we elect to protect us, needs to start playing hardball, very hard ball. Arrest anyone connected with this tragedy and keep them locked up, if a judge wants to release them lock up the judge. This could have happened to any one of us or any member of our families. Bulldoze the store where the gun was sold along with everything in it, no insurance claim against loss, the same with the factory that made it, go after the advertising agency that promoted it, make it as though they were promoting cancer. I know that's over the top, but what we have been doing that's not over the top isn't working.
Republicans. The party of hate and delusional thinking.
" ... [A]nd lived stream his attack." I believe NY Governor Hochul was one of the first to mention the potential liability of the unamed "live streaming" digital Platform. This weekend, MSNBC & others have correctly idedtified the Platform as "TWITCH" actually now 'Twitch Interactive' circa 8/25/14. I will leave it to NY State Prosecutors to explain wny Twitch's Section 9, "Terms of Service" purporting to indemnify the Platform from "prohibited acts" will not protect this renegade subsidiary from the results of its "live streaming" hate. Prosecute Twitch Interactive & any legally responsible parent company both civily & criminally to the fullest extent of of the law.
Heather, thanks once again for following the threads from the past to the present. Mike Pence is complicit with his complaint to Victor Orban (Prime Minister of Hungary) about a declining birth rate in the US. It’s very obvious that he’s not talking about the birth rate of brown babies. So he gets to attack POC and insinuate that white women are only good for incubating and birthing all in one statement.
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-donald-trump-health-courts-summits-f135330d4d7cd945ce90e279725f4d21
Every day I read your entry and fathom at the American history I did not learn in grade school, nor high school, perhaps a smattering in college (yet still woefully ignorant. I’m 62 soon, entrepreneur since 8, hardworking, female, avid reader and, admittedly, a prior loyal cable news watcher, pre-entertainment-fetching years. I am now an avid news reader, still self employed but finally seeing the fruits of this journey enough to maybe feel like I can be more creative in years to come instead of so dialed in to business. White. Appalled by what my next years look like with the view of this political landscape ahead. The style in which you thread history to current affairs is brilliant and for that I am appreciative. However the reality of what I feel and think post-self analysis (after my daily reading) is at once daunting and incredulous. I am hopeful that in this light of truth, the spreading and sharing is rapid, positive energy manifests. May I please be so hopeful? Or am I completely ignorant, it’s too late baby. Go on then, spin the Carole King.
TRUTH: isn’t this at the core of Democracy? I’m currently browsing through a book I found in the online library, “How Do You Kill 11 Million People: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think” (2020) by Andy Andrews. It’s purported to be nonpartisan, so readers of any party could pick it up. You could share it with your repub friends or family. Maybe. I probably won’t read it all, but this passage makes me think about the lasting effects of TFG: “You see, the danger to America is not a single politician with ill intent. Or even a group of them. The most dangerous thing any nation faces is a citizenry capable of trusting a liar to lead them. In the long run, it is much easier to undo the policies of crooked leadership than to restore common sense and wisdom to a deceived population willing to elect such a leader in the first place. Any country can survive having chosen a fool as their leader. But history has shown time and again that a ‘nation of fools’ is surely doomed. “ I wonder if “we” are a nation of fools. Or just our repub neighbors.
The haters stoke anger that leads to violence. I believe there is a much larger undercurrent of fear that includes many who don't hate, per se, but neither understand nor have a place in their hearts for others who look and behave differently. We are a country of immigrants; I think there is probably no other place on earth that continues to look as attractive to every conceivable group of persons looking for greater opportunity, less discrimination, greater personal and family safety than the US. They may be mistaken in their beliefs, but believe they do, in spite of what we see and read in the news. Fear, mistrust and hate for other groups of people is exhibited across history in every corner of the world, and we Americans demonstrate that same human characteristic with every wave of immigration across our history. It takes significant effort to bridge the gaps of race, language, skin color, customs, habits, dress, diet, religion that allow us to distinguish immigrants who have not "integrated" adequately to blend into the background. Groups that remain more insular in their habits and ethnic identities remain targets of discrimination for generations. Our very nature tends towards tribalism, surrounding ourselves with folks who are similar in many characteristics to ourselves. Tribe is a word applied exclusively to Native Americans in this country, but our Anglo Saxon majority could be divided into a number of groups that demonstrate tribal behavior, separate from ethnic background. One of the first steps in eliminating the extreme expressions of fear and anger is to recognize the potential for these tendencies to occur in every one of us and to take action to counter them; We can choose to travel and live in other countries, get to know other cultures and find common ground with them. We can choose to educate our children to have curiosity and compassion for others, regardless of their origins. We can promote experiences that expose ourselves and our children to the melting pot that is our national heritage, like universities, museums, history, cultural celebrations and the like.
That young man wasn't born a racist destined to enact a vicious hate crime. He acquired the prerequisite world view from somewhere, most likely from very obvious experiences and exposures in the short time between early childhood and teen age in his short life. I seriously doubt he came to the the conclusions that led him to that action all by himself. Somewhere there were mentors and peers who helped him along his way. The assault rifle and armor aren't the cause of his crime, although they certainly magnify the impact of it. His peers existed long before machine guns. Mass shootings are now daily occurrences in the US and we have to address the indoctrination of the shooters along with the issue of access to paramilitary hardware.
A parody campaign web site for Elise Stefanik emphasizes replacement theory ("Let's keep it white").
https://www.elisestefanik2022.com
One recoils, yet stares in fascination and horror, at both the real news about her, and the parodies.
I have no doubt that those people are quite dangerous.
“ Then he warned white Americans not to become a political minority because minorities are never treated well.”
I firmly believe in the “great replacement theory.” All ignorant bigoted White men should be replaced by every-colored people who can critically think….
I nominate Mitch McConnell for the Oskar Schindler [Schindler’s List movie] Award. This clearly is not a Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award. Schindler was a despicable person who did one noble thing—risked his life to rescue 1200 Jews from death during the Holocaust.
I consider Mitchell a scurrilous sloth with the principles of an alley cat. However, his recent senatorial visit to Kyiv and his meeting with President Zelensky sent a powerful message that he opposed the isolationist ‘America First’ babbling of Trump [sought to kill NATO] and his sycophants.
Bipartisanship is essential in American lock-step support for Zelensky and the sovereignty of Ukraine against Putin’s ‘huff and puff’ threats after his disastrous ‘special military operation.’
Like the war against Hitler and Japan and the Cold War, this will require sustained personal sacrifices by Americans and those in many other countries riposting against a moral-less autocracy intent on ‘nibbling’ other sovereign countries.
Mitchell, making a cold-blooded political calculation, is opposing Trumpists [including his weird Kentucky fellow senator, Rand Paul] in placing his physical body on the line for bipartisanship. However, in no way does this absolve him from his Garland/Barrett travesty.
Some time ago I proposed Liz Cheney for the Oskar Schindler Award, though she did not match the depths of Mitchell’s despicableness. .