#1700

Whether or not President Shithole is guilty of colluding with Russian remains to be seen. Regardless, his tenure continues to be sullied by scandal and corruption.

In other words: fire remains hot; water wet.

There are some rather unsettling developments at the margins, however. For example: there is a new executive order banning trans gender folx from serving in the armed force. It’s the same ban as before only reworded to exploit the fact that cisgender people know next to nothing about gender dysphoria and medical interventions related to it. (To be clear: I do not support the U.S. military one whit, however: anyone dumb enough to want to join should be allowed in.)

Also: the Department of Health and Human Services removed resources from its site pertaining to issues effecting lesbian and bisexuals.

At a hearing two weeks ago, the Secretary of the Interior was questioned by a congresswoman from Hawaii (whose parents were held in American interment camps during WWII) about the discontinuation of a funding for a program related to Japanese American history. The secretary responded konichiwa (japanese for “good day”). When chided about the offensive nature of the comment he played the typical bigot card and implied that things are too PC when you can’t even wish someone good morning.

Then there’s the entrance of John Bolton as National Security Advisor. Bolton is an ultra hawk and an Islamophobic bigot. Who has openly rallied for war against both Iran and N. Korea. Effing cute.

On that note and before moving onto the main topic of this post: I’d like to note that contemporary conservatism is nothing more and nothing less than full-throated white supremacy apologia. Full stop.

With that thought in mind let’s shift to gun violence. I’ll get to the mass shooting at Marjory Stonerman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL in a bit. First, you really should be aware of two related but grossly under-reported stories.

First, Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man in Sacramento, CA was shot 20 times by police in his backyard because they thought he was holding a gun. He wasn’t. He was talking on his cell phone. (Compare this with the fate of the MSD shooter.) The protests that have resulted are being overshadowed by this weekends March For Our Lives action organized by Parkland students–but part of what’s at issue here is that there is a disparity between the way numerous cohorts along the political spectrum view and process this issue.

I’ll admit my bias up front. I don’t like guns. And unlike most folks, that’s not because I’ve not been around them/used them. The constitution is pretty clear when it comes to gun ownership–it should be allowed. The difficulty is that “well-regulated militia” part.

There’s also the fact that the historical context has changed rather substantively. When the Bill of Rights was written and ratified, this country was still using freaking muskets–which fired one projectile ever two minutes or something like that. (Given Emma Gonzalez’s 6:20 speech–which is genius on about seven different levels–that would mean you could kill three people if you had really good aim and nerves of steel.)

There’s a fuck tonne of different information out there but it seems that an AR-15 can fire between 100 and 300 bullets per minute. In other words, the founding fathers never could’ve anticipated our current reality. (Also, gun enthusiasts are being intellectually dishonest when they toss around the defense against tyranny argument. The stand off at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX in 1993 was ostensibly over the stock-piling of weapons and anti-government rhetoric. And in that case the government just rolled a tank up to the front door. So if people arguing that their right to own assault weapons is a defense against tyranny–why aren’t they also trying to get access to predator drones, tanks and nuclear launch codes as well? (But more on that in a minute…)

The recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was pretty good at taking the NRA to task. But I’d like to present that as a chaser for this Vice report where a Republican strategist talks with current and former NRA members about the current issues with gun violence in the U.S.

The Vice video is important because I actually mostly agree with the only guy who identifies as a former member. And the rest of the folks seem to at least share common ground. It’s interesting that the two men who are the most rabid in their pro-gun rhetoric are representative of the actual NRA organizational platform.

I just don’t get where we’ve arrived at the point where any time someone mentions the need for increased regulations pertaining to gun ownership, the NRA and it’s crisis actors start spewing about how the government is going to come to take your guns. Really what’s being suggested is a ban on assault rifles–which the majority of highly trained military folks feel civilians should not be able to procure. It would also be great if you know it was harder to get a semi-automatic rifle than it was to get a driver’s license or an abortion. (AJE points out that the lax gun laws in the US are fueling violence in Mexico.)

Specifically with the MSD massacre it’s been interesting to see the visceral fury the right directs at these kids. There was the guy running for state congress in Maine who referred to Emma Gonzalez as a “skinhead lesbian’. Yet, most of the commentary among conservatives focused laser-like along the trajectory of this meme. A couple of things about this: first, I actually confronted several folks who posted this asking them politely if the support Gay Straight Alliances in H.S. Most won’t answer because they don’t and the fact that they don’t disproves their objections on their stated grounds.

However, this meme is also extremely pernicious because it’s victim blaming in that it suggests the problem of gun violence is a problem that only kids can fix themselves and that only by preventing bullying will any changes to gun violence happen. (This is why conservatives are such godawful artists, their message is more important than the medium or any sort of consistency in application of conceptual underpinnings.) Basically, this meme is suggesting that the threat of a white man buying a gun legally and walking into a school and killing a bunch of people is what’s at stake if kid’s don’t stop straight white kids from being bullied. (Make no mistake that they fully support bullying of non-white kids as well as immigrants and LGBTQ folk.)

And to put the kibosh on this BS about arming teacher–let’s not forget Philando Castille, who worked at a school and was licensed to carry a gun and was killed by a cop while complying with his instructions during a routine traffic stop. When you hear anyway upon but especially including the president calling for arming teachers… you should hear it as white male teachers. (As a corollary: consider how the Austin bombing was originally reported. It’s interesting that the culprit is still not being widely termed a terrorist and that any suggestion that this was a result of bigotry is being de-emphasized.)

The lack of coverage over the impact of gun violence on communities of color up to and including Stephon Clark is especially disturbing. But I was chilled by this CNN town hall where survivors of MSD confront craven NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch. I applaud the kids but it’s upsetting the way that both sides keep inviting law enforcement mediation. (On a related note: it’s upsetting to me that even folks that are more liberal seem to be adopting the you can’t take guns away mentality. For example, RtJ’s Killer Mike appeared on NRAtv saying he disagrees with taking away guns. But that’s again and for the thousandth time what is not being suggested here. Banning further sale of assault weapons is not taking away the ones that already exist–even though I personally would support that sort of movement. And I do think that he has a point with regard to folks in places where the police aren’t going to show up in time, if at all. But I lose any respect for someone who dictates that his political ideology on one issue intimately linked to white supremacy overrides filial duty. EDIT: Killer Mike has wisely distanced himself from the interview.)

The problem is that we need to take a good hard look at this nation’s infatuation with guns and then something needs to change.

To close this out, just bear in mind that Ani DiFranco wrote To The Teeth just shy of 20 years ago now. It’s reads as disturbingly prophetic now.