Shootings and August links

In less than 24 hours, there were two major mass shootings, following up a mass shooting at a festival in California (so three in fairly short span). The shooting in El Paso, TX targeted Mexicans. The shooting in Dayton, OH was by a young man with a long history of violent fantasies, including having a kill list and a rape list while he was in high school. (Google these shootings for details. I won't choose one link as representative). This article about the background of the El Paso shooter is chilling: mostly 'normal' but with all too familiar undercurrents including bullying at school along racial lines, hopelessness about job prospects while automation continues, and open racist sentiments expressed after Trump was elected.

Ignore the headline of this article (Washington Post again - a good source). It's not so much that there's pushback from the NRA on gun legislation, as there is deep worry from GOP legislators. Can they stay in office if they sign on to gun legislation? Probably not if they depend on votes from GOPers, which they do. According to polls, the wide majority of Republicans are still against even partial gun control measures. So it's less the NRA standing in the way, but instead the very popular Guns R Us ethos among Republicans.

Faltering Dem candidates. A Politico author contrasts the Republicans, who understand the importance of legacy and a winning historical narrative, with the Democrats, who are sniping at each other over the party's recent past. Part of this is due to a leadership vacuum since Obama is gone and the Clintons are gone, and both failed in some major ways.

Stealth reform measures for Social Security. Why hasn't this been big news? With funding issues looming, the Dems in the House are working on a big change to SS. This should be drawing a lot of attention, debate, number-crunching, and fact-checking, but the press barely utters a peep. Sure, it's not likely to get through the Senate, but it's a real proposal with seemingly real numbers, and these numbers are likely to be the basis for future work on SS.

Zero interest on bonds. A big difference from when I was young is that now the return on bonds is almost nothing. I find this fascinating. The world is awash in money chasing after profits. We've created so much wealth, and so much paper or digital money that there isn't enough ways to spend it or invest it. This doesn't worry me, however. We won't turn dirt poor even if there's a crash. There will just be another inflation via QE (quantitative easing) as there was last time.

Update on Gaza. Tensions rise and fall, but nobody wants a repeat of the last useless, destructive war. Progress!

Image: wikipedia.org

Extras. Gun control (now called gun safety) advocacy group shows how common private sales are without a background check.

Research in the anti-semitism situation in Montana

Most media outlets haven't dug into this story yet. If and when they do, they'll have better resources than me, and maybe reveal more than I've found.

With that caveat, this is what I've found. The mother of a white supremacist political leader Richard Spencer lives in Whitefish, Montana. She owns and manages a building that she developed. Allegedly she's allowed her son to operate from real estate that she owns. Allegedly she was threatened with boycotts and demonstrations if she didn't sell the building. (Please assume "Allegedly for the rest of this post.) The person making the threats was a realtor who also wanted to find a buyer, make a commission, and collect a donation for a local human rights group.

Mom contacted The Daily Mail, which ran a story that was then picked up by a neo-Nazi website. That website printed her side of the story, then also gave names, addresses, emails addresses, personal phone numbers, and business phone numbers of the realtor, a local rabbi, the wife of a local retired rabbi, the retired rabbi, the realtor's teenage (or younger) son, and the realtor's husband.

Here are some of the insults they use in the article:

vicious... evil race of hate-filled psychopaths... a people without shame... she also posts slut pics on the internet... Jew hate group... confirmed super-Jew... extreme Jew... Jew agenda... Jew terrorist group... his whore mother’s vicious attack on the community of Whitefish... kike attorney... get a leash on that hoe...

Oh, but they also admonish their followers, after requesting a troll storm, to do this: "And as always: NO VIOLENCE OR THREATS OF VIOLENCE OR ANYTHING EVEN CLOSE TO THAT."

It looks to me that the message is to harass them, and whatever, but don't threaten them, wink, wink. I mean, there's nothing threatening in this photo, is there? Nothing bad ever happened from wearing or labeling anyone with that yellow star, right?

Image: dailystormer.com

So some Jewish groups complained about the treatment of the Jews identified (by name, picture, address, etc.) by The Daily Stormer, The website then raised the call to march through the town armed, expressing displeasure with any people or businesses that were supporting Jews or anti-hate groups. This could ratchet up even more, particularly if the march does occur. Hopefully, this will die down with no show of strength by neo-Nazis. But certainly I and many others will be watching.

Extras/links. Original Daily Mail story. First story on The Daily Stormer site. Emails provided by Spencer's mother. Her first-person account of the situation. Jewish news organization coverage and follow-up. The Daily Stormer follow-ups. Local coverage. CBS coverage with video about the call to march. Check out more of the lovely graphics and sentiments of The Daily Stormer, versus the anti-hate group they are targeting.

Image: dailystormer.com

Fight to the death

I had an awesome idea. Pamela Gellar hates Muslims. ISIS hates Pamela Gellar. There are all these haters in the world who would really like to kill other groups/people. Maybe we should give them a place to fight it out just like a cage fight. They would have one spot on Earth. They could all go there and blast away to their heart's content. After all, it's what they obviously want to do. It would also spare the innocent bystanders.

My sweetie even suggested the perfect place: Texas!

The problem is that logistics always kill great ideas like this. Oh, darn.

Image: dailymail.co.uk

What conservatives convey when they say "unAmerican"

So Obama is unAmerican, yet again. This time it's Rudy Giuliani making the accusation, but he's had to walk it back a bit. It's no longer that Obama doesn't love America and doesn't love the American people. According to Giuliani, Obama just doesn't tell us often enough, so we're left sad, wondering and bereft, uncertain whether the Great Father loves us.

What a bunch of nonsense, yet it plays over and over again.

If these conservatives had any idea about the connotations of calling someone 'unAmerican,' they'd be a whole lot more careful. As part of a minority group, I know what it means to be degraded and treated as subhuman. It doesn't happen often, but the sting of it is visceral. It goes right through the core, and spawns amazing anger.

Image this. I was born in America, so I must be American, right? The only way I wouldn't be an American is if:

• I decided to go to another country and become a citizen there.
• I was a traitor to my country.
• I wasn't human enough to deserve the title of being an American.

Since I haven't emigrated and I'm not selling military secrets, people who would call me unAmerican must mean that I'm subhuman.

Just consider this contrast: in my family, I'm loved as one of 'us.' We have powerful mutual bond of caring. But to some people, I'm lower than a dog--a blight on the earth. In their selfishness and hate, they wish I didn't exist even though I haven't done anything against them. Those feelings are at the opposite ends of a spectrum, and that's what being the target of prejudice is like.

For someone who has been the victim of prejudice, the pain is a memory seared into your soul. This talk about Obama as 'unAmerican' brings back the memory with great intensity. I remember exactly what it felt like to be bullied and hated for being different, and I will never be on the side of those bullies. So I'll never be on the side of the Republicans who do this.

I don't think I'm the only one who reacts with visceral emotion to this kind of language. I think this is a common reaction among people who've been discriminated against. I've certainly heard first-hand stories with that undercurrent. We may not be able to rid ourselves of all prejudice, but we don't have to throw these kinds of insults like grenades.

But some people don't get it. It's as though they've always been on top, always been in the majority, always had enough money and advantages. They don't realize that calling someone 'unAmerican' is dehumanizing. They don't know that visceral feeling of being rejected and discriminated against. It's ironic that you have to go through a particular kind of pain to understand it. I guess some Republicans literally don't understand.

But that's not an excuse for being so nasty and lacking empathy. It doesn't take a lot of sense to learn that 'unAmerican' is an insult of major proportions, and it shouldn't be used carelessly. The ire that it creates, and the counter-charges of racism, are completely understandable. No more excuses from those who use this language.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Maybe I'm cooling down, and can apprehend other meanings. Perhaps people who use the term mean something closer to "this isn't good for America as a whole." That's plausible too. But they are still blind in the implications of using a word that so often means 'traitorous' or 'subhuman' in many contexts. As I said, no more excuses.

Image: flicker.com