62 Comments
May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

I *wish* I could still get enraged about mass shootings, I think it would be healthier. At this point I’m numb: “oh another mass slaughter? And little kids this time? Shit. It’s too bad there won’t be any significant change.” The Republicans are heinous scum and the Democrats are ineffectual cowards who somehow -- against facts, evidence, and experience -- are STILL saying to the GOP “Surely you are reasonable people. Come, let us reason together.”

Truthfully, I just feel bleak despair. It goes beyond gun control and this latest atrocity in Texas, it’s everything. It’s the mid-terms. It’s 2024. I can live with going down fighting. But we are way past Lucy and the football territory, we’re watching most Democrats blithely lay down in front of an authoritarian steamroller because they believe in their heart of hearts the GOP would never *really* run them over. It’s incredibly demoralizing.

Sorry to be a downer, I have no jokes today.

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May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Don't think we'll hear the "what about Chicago?" chirping on this one.

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May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

God bless the mass shooters, for without them the Frenches and their ilk would have NOTHING to write except the mind-melting panderings to the wannabe ubermenschen...

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May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Ted Cruz: “We know what works, it’s what we’re doing now, or maybe less, or actually nothing at all. I mean, it’s not like every schoolchild has been shot to death. It’s some tiny fraction of all schoolchildren, just like the women who die during pregnancy are just a small percentage of all women. And not like Biden and Harris opening our borders and letting the entire population of Mexico come here and take all the jobs and drive up the price of gas and drink all the baby formula.”

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Sigh... another day where the media will spin spilled blood & human carnage as a problem of extremes on gun control, between "the Left" and the GOP, who might offer up "mental illness" as the root cause instead. Between such extremes how can anything be done, amirite?

These things have weaponized toxic white male grievance at their root. The attention showered upon the Buffalo shooter just emboldened the next one, who seems to have stepped out for his turn. [This guy is supposed to be 18 as well.] The state of Texas will go ahead making uteruses into Fort Knox & tell us this happened because not enough of us are Christians of the right faith or fervor. It fits with the program.

And there is not a single Democratic politician with the fortitude or support to do much about any of it, sorry to say. Can't even speak the problem so far...

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May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Excellent post, Roy.

I expect this stupid shit from the right-wing, even the "good" kind, but can we take a moment to mention Matthew Yglesias' stupid fucking tweet from yesterday? If anyone didn't see it, it was basically a variation of "Yeah, America has the bloodshed equivalent of a third world country embroiled in a civil war, but people still like it here due to the abundance of FroYo shops and central air conditioning."

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May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Thoughts:

The brothers at LGM illustrated a post on the School Killings of the Week with a screencap of a tweet from Greg Abbott urging Texans to buy more guns so they’re not in second place to California in the number of guns owned.

The subhuman monsters who oppose gun control and pols who support it cannot be changed. But the problem is that whatever their size, they’re the only part of the electorate our awesome elected leaders respond to in the least. Them and the special interests that have fully captured and corrupted (or vice versa) the system. The Powers That Be are both fully cool with the lack of gun control as well as doing nothing about climate change -- that statement from HSBC that’s going a little viral says a lot. (They’re also cool with the state subverting voter rights and the power of the vote among other societal issues that need resolving and addressing which they’re blocking.)

As for French -- who, after my beloved Tulsi, is the wannabe POTUS who made me go: Him? Seriously? -- I’d take a pass on any and all gun control in exchange for affordable healthcare and available, competent mental healthcare. Not that either will happen. But, you know, give me the healthcare and I’d be cool with no gun control.

But, of course, the voters referenced above are satisfied with offering thoughts and prayers, faith and hope, instead of doing the work to fix things to make the world any better. And that failure together with constantly electing unfit pieces of shit that have brought us an extractive, hollowed out economy, a federal government whose ability to address a global pandemic is now severely limited by a court decision based on insanity, etc., etc., etc., is why I have the contempt for those people. In any way that matters, they are wholly lacking in decency, so that yesterday’s killings will happen again and again and again. Nothing will be done on the national level because assholes and worse are calling the shots.

JFC, I’ve been watching shit like this without anything being done to ever expect better from this nation.

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May 25, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

On a serious note, Ted Cruz blamed Democrats by name for politicizing gun massacres while Senator Coons called out “we” for not doing anything. That’s the rhetorical part of the problem. Republicans are fine with saying Democrats are to blame for whatever but Democratic politicians, including Biden in a national address, refuse to say “This is because our country is infested with Republicans.” It’s the same with the abortion debate, voting rights, etc., Democrats speak about “we” need to do this or that instead of “This is what Republicans have done, this is what Republicans want.” If they spoke this truth loudly enough, “Republicans” could easily become the next “Nazis,” a term so vile only the most hateful and amoral would embrace it.

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Remember: Children being gunned down in mass shootings in their schools is just the price we have to pay for freedom, BUT . . .

. . . asking those children to wear a surgical mask to ward off disease is a far worse imposition of tyranny than any massacre.

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I couldn't eat enough to puke enough.

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I can't. I'm numb to the point of paralysis. I did block Matthew Ygleisias because fuck THAT guy, I'm sick of seeing him on my timeline. My 28 yr old son--my only child--and his lovely wife had a beautiful baby boy on Saturday. 5 years from now he'll be starting kindergarten. I doubt anything will have changed (for the good) in this gun-mad country.

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#NoMoreDeadChildren

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French's commenters: red flag laws don't work, so why bother?

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It long past time for prayers. More thoughtful action please.

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I do get tired of raging at Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott (as much as they deserve it) when the core of the problem is the millions and millions of people who are horrified by this and agree we should do something about it, and even express some support in polls for gun restrictions and then come November they vote Republican because they voted Republican in the last election and the one before that and the one before that...

Do these folks give ANY thought to how they're voting beyond "How am I going to fit in 20 minutes to vote on Tuesday between soccer practice and grocery shopping?"

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May 25, 2022·edited May 25, 2022

April 20th, 1999 - I was teaching in an elementary school on the 3rd floor of a huge educational complex on east 67th (JREC) when I heard the news about Columbine.

• I had 1010 WINS on the radio in my classroom as the kids trickled in for a Warhol styled self portrait lesson. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing - a kid shooting up a school, AND a possible bomb threat too?

• A few teachers came into my room to hear the radio - so much info was being spread throughout the 5 floor building, much of it was wrong (remember, this was WAY before social media, and cell phones (if you had one) only made phone calls. (I had a Nokia 3210)

• I called my sister to see if she was watching the news on TV - she had CNN on, and we both couldn’t believe it. I looked at my kids as they came in the room, blissfully unaware of what was going on while my colleagues and I were FREAKING THE FUCK OUT. I hung up the phone, put on a smile, and turned on some Disco music so the kids could get their ya-ya’s out before getting back to their portraits.

• I kept thinking that this was so FUCKING CRAZY, that it would NEVER happen again…our government would act swiftly and MAKE SURE this would never happen again, right? Clinton was in office, he was smart and could help get the gun-nutty republicans to work across the aisle, right? I mean - there’s nothing but conservative White people who think just like them in Colorado, right?

• It’s been 23 years, and this America…it doesn’t want to let WOMEN make choices about THEIR BODIES after they’ve been raped, and will put you in jail for having an abortion…but it won’t do a fucking thing to prevent actual children from being murdered.

I’m really wondering why people are only going back as far as Sandy Hook🤔

PROTECT FETUSES! FUCK THEM KIDS!

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