"The Texas victims were praying before the slaughter. Prayers won’t fix this" by Kevin Cullen Globe Columnist November 06, 2017
What if Devin Kelley was Sayfullo Saipov?
What if, instead of a disgruntled, disgraced American airman, the man who shot up a church in Texas, killing 26 men, women and children, was the disgruntled, unmoored Muslim immigrant who mowed down people in New York last week, leaving eight dead?
What if my grandmother had wheels?
Would President Trump be so quick to say this was about mental illness? Who or what would he propose bombing in retaliation? There’s not much in Sutherland Springs, with a population of about 600, to hit back at.
As any honest, sentient human being knows, what happened in Texas, what now happens with alarming frequency, is — yes — about mental illness, but it’s also about guns. Any person, sane or insane, can buy a rifle like the Ruger that Devin Kelley used to slaughter human beings as they worshipped a God who must be wondering if He made a mistake when He gave us so much free will.
I don't like it when people cite God as a driving force during tragedies, thank you.
"HE" had nothing to do with it.
Blaming mental illness is a bit rich. Trump supported the congressional rollback of an Obama administration policy that made it harder for the mentally ill to buy guns legally. But that was, like, nine whole months ago.
The setting, a small white church in a dusty rural town, was shocking. The fact that it happened at all isn’t. There are too many unstable people in these United States with unfettered access to weapons whose only utilitarian purpose is to kill human beings.
Will this, the obscene slaughter of people exercising the right to worship — the very right that led to the creation of this country in the first place — change things?
Why would it?
If the wholesale slaughter of 20 children and six of their educators in a school in Connecticut didn’t change things, why would the slaughter of children with their parents in a church in Texas change anything?
If the wholesale slaughter of 58 people enjoying a country music concert in Las Vegas doesn’t change things, why would the wholesale murder and grievous wounding of almost the entire congregation of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs?
The Las Vegas shooting happened a month ago, and I had to go online to look up the shooter’s name because in that time I had forgotten it. A whole month.....
Thankfully, none were immigrants of color. All were angry white men.
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Just wondering when the airstrikes are going to infuriate him.
Related: Texas gunman had domestic violence history that spanned years
It's a painful past with a trail of violence that they have followed to the end.
"A day after a gunman massacred parishioners in a small Texas church, the Air Force admitted on Monday that it had failed to enter the man’s domestic violence court-martial into a federal database that could have blocked him from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people. The conviction of the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, for domestic assault on his wife and toddler stepson — he had cracked the child’s skull — should have stopped Mr. Kelley from legally purchasing the military-style rifle and three other guns he acquired in the last four years. New details of the killings also emerged on Monday, including a possible motive. Law enforcement officials said Mr. Kelley may have been driven by anger toward his estranged wife’s family, the final chapter in a life full of domestic rage....."
Also a “rape complaint and threatening texts, it was not racially motivated. It wasn’t over religious beliefs. It was a domestic situation going on.”
Regardless of what you think did or did not happen at this latest mass casualty event, the agenda is clear. At least the domestic abuse issue is back (much more of a threat to women than the Hollywood harassers -- who are now conspicuously absent from the discussion).
"Despite Trump’s backing, the NRA treads water on Capitol Hill" by Annie Linskey and Evan Horowitz Globe Staff November 07, 2017
WASHINGTON — After an alleged Islamic State sympathizer born abroad plowed into pedestrians in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people, President Trump called for an enhanced version of his “extreme vetting” procedures for immigrants.
But in the wake of a mass shooting that left 26 dead in Texas on Sunday, Trump’s response was markedly hands-off. He declared that “mental health,” not guns, was the underlying issue.
It's a limited hangout fallback that validates the veracity of the event, be it staged and scripted fiction or false flag psyop. Or both. It then provides additional avenues for regulatory tyranny (while the issue of excessive use of force by police falls by the wayside, hmm).
The difference in the response to two cases of mass murder, according to critics, is the massive influence from the country’s largest pro-gun organization: the National Rifle Association.
The group endorsed Trump early in his presidential campaign, poured more than $30 million into his election campaign, and has even echoed Trump’s own anti-media messages in its advertising.
That support has translated into having a strong friend in the White House.
The clearest evidence: Despite Trump’s being in office when two of the top five deadliest mass shootings in US history were committed — and one additional crime in which members of Congress were targeted — there is almost zero pressure from the Oval Office for initiatives.
Meanwhile, Trump has addressed NRA events multiple times since he launched his campaign for president, and in April he had warm words for the organization.
“You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you,” Trump said at the NRA Leadership Forum in Atlanta. “You have a true friend and champion in the White House.”
He also made a pledge: “As your president, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Never ever.”
It’s a promise he’s kept.
That is certainly new for a politician.
No wonder the establishment and its pre$$ mouthpieces hate him so much.
Gun-control advocates were hoping Trump might take a more moderate tack once in office. They point to Trump’s earlier and more flexible position on firearms in 2000, as he was pursuing the Reform Party nomination for president, but after spending heavily on Trump, the gun lobby has been struggling simply to defend the status quo, unable to advance its agenda in Congress for expanding gun-friendly laws.
The NRA’s top agenda item is to pass a federal law that would allow a gun owner with a permit to carry a concealed weapon in one state to conceal that weapon in any other state that issues such permits, which is virtually every state in the country. Opponents say that would usurp state officials’ authority to regulate those deemed too dangerous to carry a concealed gun in their state.
Despite Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress and more than 200 co-sponsors on the main bill for the measure, called “concealed carry reciprocity,’’ there have been no hearings held on the bill, and it seems to be stalled.
“The weaker the White House becomes, the more difficult it is to have those hearings,” said Richard Feldman, a former NRA lobbyist and founder of the pro-gun group Independent Firearm Owners.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of help to move the agenda forward. I would think they were expecting a lot more from Trump. . . . Usually to the victors go some spoils. But they were the victors. Where are the spoils? I don’t see them.”
The gun lobby also failed this year to pass a law that would deregulate the sale of silencers, in part due to poor timing. The legislation was headed for the House floor when the Las Vegas massacre occurred, with the gunman firing on a country music concert, killing 58 people in the worst mass shooting in American history.
OMG!
What a coincidence, huh?
Part of the problem is that the White House has so far been unable to pass any major legislation on any front. But Trump also tends not to talk proactively about pushing a pro-gun agenda and has instead focused on repealing Obamacare and enacting a massive tax cut.
In the 2016 election cycle, the NRA and its affiliates spent roughly $60 million on political activities, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Gun industry titans were among the biggest contributors. Ugo Beretta, president of the gun company that bears his name, and his wife, Monique, are celebrated members of the NRA’s “ring of freedom” circle of donors, as is Smith & Wesson’s CEO, James Debney.
But the group’s power goes beyond money. It has a track record of being able to mobilize small-dollar donors.
The bulk of the NRA’s money comes from membership dues and programming fees — the small amounts that people pay to get an NRA card, receive one of the organization’s magazines, take a gun-safety class, and participate in a powerful social movement.....
The elite pre$$ despises a real grass roots movement.
That's why they are taking shots at it.
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You know how to protect yourself, right?
So what to do now?
It's a litmus test for them, and here is a primer.
"The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the execution of an Alabama inmate who, after several strokes, cannot remember the 1985 murder that sent him to death row. The court’s opinion was unanimous, and there were no noted dissents. But three of the court’s more liberal justices filed concurring opinions saying the case presented a substantial legal question to which the court should return....."
I wonder if the death penalty would deter corruption.
Would sure knock some doors down.
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Republicans propose last-minute changes to tax bill
That NYT piece must have been a last-minute change to my print -- which was itself changed at the last minute.
Judge not ready to remove ex-Trump aides from house arrest
That was nowhere to be found.
Nor was this:
Putin associate sides with Harvey Weinstein and says America is too uptight
That has got some people hot.
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There’s a mayoral election on Tuesday. Has anyone even noticed?
The Globe tells you everything you need to know, and the crucial swing vote is Asian.
Mass. House leaders look to scale back Senate crime bill
From heroin addict to helping people get clean
‘I do it because I love him,’ says school van driver accused of driving boyfriend to heroin drug deal
Anthony Weiner begins prison stint in Devens for sexting a 15-year-old
It was all out of love, and he will always have the memories of it all.
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‘The Mooch’ is making it tough on the nurses (oh, the sexual harassment stories they could tell, 'eh?).
Rather than disrupt things, they should just waive off the advances and partner up for the night with someone new.
