GOP Response to Mass Shootings: Blame the Left
The Tampa Bay Times got their hands on a House GOP caucus memo that gave members talking points to respond to constituent questions about mass shootings and the need for common sense gun safety legislation. The answers are as disgusting and disheartening as you would imagine. They contain the normal boilerplate bullshit, repeating the mental health and video game mantra, even though those myths have been debunked for decades. No Republican can explain, since mental health problems and violent video games proliferate throughout the world, why the US is a singular outlier when it comes to gun violence generally and mass shootings specifically. They will dance around the issue, blaming EVERYTHING except the actual problem – the omnipresence of guns and the ease by which they can be obtained.
Worse, this memo coached House members how to answer the problem which is the answer in the room…violence of extreme right-wingers and white supremacists. Here’s the coached question: “Do you believe white nationalism is driving more mass shootings recently?” Here’s the official House caucus answer: “White nationalism and racism are pure evil and cannot be tolerated in any form. We also can’t excuse violence from the left such as the El Paso shooter, the recent Colorado shooters, the Congressional baseball shooter, Congresswoman Giffords’ shooter and Antifa.”
The letter actually called the El Paso shooter, who was a white supremacist and hated immigrants, a person “from the left”. They later tried to say that was “a mistake” – no shit, Sherlock. What the letter blatantly did, though, and what they always do, was to discourage members from telling the truth and to try and frame a false equivalency that “both sides do it”. Well, both sides don’t do it. Not even close. The Anti-Defamation League actually keeps track of domestic violence, and through 2018, not even counting the violence from this year, 73% of domestic violence in America was committed by rightwing extremists and white supremacists.
So, let’s sum up. The messaging experts for the GOP are coaching their members to lie, equivocate, obfuscate, and distract from the actual problem of gun violence in America. That problem is fourfold –
- It is well known that there are now 400 million guns in circulation in America today.
- Guns are easily obtainable in many states, and Republicans have been systematically dismantling gun safety laws for the last 3 decades. The assault weapons ban was allowed to expire by Republican leadership and the GWB administration in 2004, kicking off massive growth in assault weapons manufacturing.
- White supremacism and rightwing extremism exploded during the Obama administration, driven by the corporate backed Tea Party movement which normalized the anti-government, pro-gun culture.
- Trump has encouraged this culture and has used social media to vilify everyone non-white and non radical conservative.
The combination of these forces has been explosive. Our homicide rate, which is multiples above the rest of the developed world. Even so, that rate has been declining, however, in recent years, as red states have stupidly weakened gun laws and encouraged the proliferation of assault weapons, our homicide rate is increasing. Worse, the incidence of mass shootings has also exploded. To date this year there have been 262 mass shootings. There have been almost 9,300 deaths and almost 19,000 wounded. The gun violence in America eclipses the entire developed world. Travel advisories have been issued in other countries advising against traveling to the US due to our gun violence.
And what are Republicans doing about this? What is Moscow Mitch, Trump, and the other shitbags in Congress doing? Lying. Deflecting. And hiding. They’re all hiding. Now is the time for the spotlight of normal Americans calling bullshit on the do nothing Republicans. Call your Congressperson and Senator. Write to your local paper.
Raise hell. Until we get His Orangeness out of the WH, that’s all we can do.
Questions for Republicans trying out these talking points:
Q: “Wouldn’t closing the gaps in the background check system make it easier to keep mentally ill people from buying firearms?
Q: “Wouldn’t a computerized system for tracking firearm sales make it easier to track down the folks selling firearms to criminal gangs?
– Follow-up question for anyone babbling about “government seizing guns” : “If the government wanted to illegally seize peoples’ firearms, couldn’t they spot gun owners via their browser history and credit card purchases?”
1Raise hell. Until we get His Orangeness out of the WH, that’s not quite all we can do. Not at all. Here is the result of Trump confronting some people from my birthplace –
FORCED FEALTY
Look at these faces, shining with anticipation, in a sea of MAGA hats.
I’m So Glad – Cream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3GIQ86eu6c
Workers Were Reportedly Ordered Not to Protest or Show Any ‘Resistance’ at Trump Rally in Pennsylvania
“Field reports from the Banana Republic of America.”
EDIT: Workers in attendance at President Donald Trump’s rally at a Shell plant in Pennsylvania on Tuesday were ordered not to protest or do “anything viewed as resistance” during the event.
“No yelling, shouting, protesting, or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event,” read orders from one contractor. “An underlying theme of the event is to promote good will from the unions. Your building trades leaders and jobs stewards have agreed to this.”
According to the Post-Gazette, “Several union leaders said they were not consulted about the arrangement before it was sent out.”
The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was clear Tuesday: Either stand in a giant hall waiting for President Donald Trump to speak or take the day off with no pay.
“Your attendance is not mandatory,” said the rules that one contractor relayed to employees, summarizing points from a memo that Shell sent to union leaders a day ahead of the visit to the $6 billion construction site. But ONLY those who showed up at 7 am, scanned their ID cards, and prepared to stand for hours , THROUGH LUNCH BUT WITHOUT LUNCH.
NO SCAN, NO PAY,” a supervisor for that contractor wrote.
Trump’s Pennsylvania event was funded by taxpayers, and thus legally not supposed to be a campaign-style rally—but the president wasted no time making it exactly that.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/17/workers-were-reportedly-ordered-not-protest-or-show-any-resistance-trump-rally
Banana Republic?… You’ve never been?…
Z – ‘”he lives!” | political thriller | (1969) | Costa Gavras | full movie with english. subs
2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBiT0_poxEU
megasoid @ 2,
I think Rump and minions would use the Bill of Rights as toilet tissue if they could. When corps are allowed to tell workers what they may speak and how express themselves they trampling on our right to free speech.
How long will it be until people have had enough and push back?
Rick Steves on PBS is doing a travel series on the roots of fascism in Europe. Hitler demanded the same of the crowds then. History repeating itself here…
3Papa @3
I remember the same thing happening to me at a printing press in Beaver County. We were all told to punch off the clock so a friend of the owner could give each employee a sales pitch for an insurance policy. I remember being really pissed about it and couldn’t wait to say no to his face.
The thing here was Rump used taxpayer funding as an ATM for campaigning purposes. ILLEGAL.
4And the children in Michigan have been calling Trump a dictator ever since her was elected. Out of the mouths of babes!
5Back in the 60s anyone with thirty bucks could clip an ad out of a magazine and send off for a genuine military M-1 carbine and we didn’t have all these mass shootings then.
6Back in the 60s a kid could get out of high school, get a good paying job, buy car, buy a home and support a family.
Wages were better, stress was lower and the food was better, except maybe for the 100% trans fat Crisco.
Some things have changed over the years and it isn’t the increased availability of guns. Just saying.
Ray @6, I agree on the gun issue* and there certainly have been changes, most of them detrimental to the working and middle classes.
Those crushing economic forces were, still are, actively wielded by the Republican Party, with a bit too much passivity by Democrats.
Things like the near destruction of unions, so-called’ free trade [offshoring jobs, capital, tech, whole industries], the healthcare mess [including ‘privatizing mental healthcare’], extreme wealth gaps [way beyond previous ones], distorted tax structures disproportionately easy on wealth, etc.
And too many other things that have a too-close to a majority of ‘Murikans pissing their pants in fear, jingoism, and xenophobia; almost all this negative stuff brought to us by the Rethugs.
* I bought some that way back then, M1 Garands too, and custom sporterized Mausers. The two M1 models being semi-automatics of course, although with limited magazine capacities and ‘weaker’ ammunition [the Garand’s 30-06 is very powerful, but .223/7.62 arguably even more lethal today].
7Based on Republicon logic, the solution is to ban crosswalks. It’s all too obvious and sciency. We’ve bred 2-3 generations too st00pid to cross a street without assistance. Another generation with crosswalks and this becomes a permanent genetic mutation. That’s science, dammit. Do away with the ” new math,” too, before the next generation has fingers so stubby from counting on them that they can’t use their twitter accounts. IQ4.5 must really be good at math; look at his short little digits and the typos in his tweets.
And, as Ray@6 reminds us, the lack of lead paint chips spread with 100% trans fat Crisco will kill all of us.
8I’m someone who directly benefited from having a union job (which led to a union scholarship that put me through an undergrad degree). In the 1960s, unions represented over 60% of workers in the U.S., one reason why you could earn enough to have a home, car, and family on a single income. Now, it’s 11.6% union membership for full time workers.
Megasoid@2: it’s worse than “cheer Trump or lose a day’s work”. Those workers are doing 56 hours a week, so by law they get 1.5 times pay for 16 of those hours. Losing a work day means they effectively lose 12 hours of pay, not just 8 hours. Of course that’s minor compared to the ability of employers to treat them like indentured servants, but it’s not minor if you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
9Surly Professor @9
I just read an update to that story which said the workers will get paid overtime for the hours off the clock and those that took a day off would lose approx. $700 in wages. I don’t trust the source so I won’t post it. It could also have been a psychological threat move by the company to cow them rather than actually docking them.
Same result. They still didn’t look like happy campers. (see
photo)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/17/workers-were-reportedly-ordered-not-protest-or-show-any-resistance-trump-rally
10Ray:
11Full disclosure, I was born in 63, so much of the following is based on conjecture.
Your example of the magazine M1 is misleading.
It ignores the fact that for decades the firearms/ammunition industry and their lobbyists have flogged the belief that the government is eventually coming for ALL our guns and ammunition. Thereby fueling the paranoid desire to purchase as many assault weapons and ammunition to protect themselves from guvment thugs trying to take away their means of defending themselves from Intruders, theives, and rapists. And government thugs trying to take away their guns and ammunition.
Notice a pattern?
I’m purty sure buying an AR-15 is easier now. Because they make them now, and aggressively promote them as everything from self-protection to sport guns.
And my conjecture leads me to believe that in the 60’s, the availability of sheer firepower to ordinary people was miniscule compared to what is aggressively marketed now.
It doesn’t stop with blaming the violence on left wing rhetoric: I spent too much time on social media, and though I don’t visit the likes of Fox, Breitbart, or Blaze, there is an abundance of people (paid) still stating the Hillary gave away millions and uranium and other dastardly acts. Obama and Clinton generally show up in their fulminations. Maybe they believe it… I check out their “sources” and it’s pretty dismaying. (They also post pictures of their dogs, animal rescue, fundrasing for sick children, and God).
12Linda Phipps: “They also post pictures of … God”. I’m enjoying trying to figure out how they got a picture of God; maybe he was in the background of the sick children. In any case, I’m sure God was shown as Anglo with light brown hair, maybe even blue eyes.
Megasoid@10: thanks for the link. You’re right, that was a picture of Unhappy Campers. My co-workers from 40 years ago would have been scowling, rolling eyes, or just outright girning. Any management that complained later would be told “I was just about to sneeze”.
Although nowadays they might just follow the lead of the Green Shirt Laughing Guy:
https://imgur.com/gallery/6JDmnu4
13I have never owned a firearm, but I am interested in things that go boom/bang. The M1 Carbine had as option 15 and 30 round magazines ^, precisely because it was a weapon of war. When hunting (with a rifle) prey doesn’t usually move in large packs/herds, and there are usually limits to the number of kills in any case. Why would any hunter need more than 5 shots? And then there is the home defense angle: who knows when the “zombie apocalypse” will occur. Large capacity magazines are for killing humans, period…
^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_carbine#Magazines
14I had a friend who was Republican precinct committee person.
Every day around 11 she would get the days talking points. It was the exact same as what was sent out to all the congresspeople, staff etc. She said all committee people got it.
That sure was keeping everybody focused and saying the same thing.
15