and I'm all out of "thoughts and prayers."
We are the only country that pretends there's nothing we can do about these firearm massacres
The fact is that there are many things we can do, but America is led by cowardly politicians who are kept in power by the NRA and by their constituents who insist that the 2nd Amendment means no restrictions whatsoever on who owns weapons of war and what sort of weapons of war any American wants to own.
Now go sing "God Bless America! My home sweet home." while our neighbors bury their dead from another massacre by firearms.
What are YOU giving thanks for tomorrow?
UPDATE:
Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate, Mike Pompeo said this:
"Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is “the most dangerous person in the world,” prompting disbelief from the union chief."
How long will it take for some triggered and/or deranged MAGAt to internalize those inflammatory words and go after Ms. Weingarten or other educators and shoot up a school to get rid of "The Most Dangerous Person in the world!?"
What kind of irresponsible, violence-provoking instigator of mayhem uses this dangerous language about a fellow American with whom he disagrees with? A pandering idiot looking to score points with Trump's thugs, law breakers, and goons -- the ones who attacked the Capitol and caused the deaths and maiming of LEOs. That's who. Mike Pompeo placed Ms. Weingarten in mortal danger. He just proved it with what came out of his own words.
Ms. Weingarten is NOT on an FBI Most Wanted List, nor has she been charged with any crime. Yet this pandering agitator for violence has declared Ms. Weingarten "the most dangerous person IN THE WORD!"
I fear for her and her family and hope responsible Americans reject Pompeo's fanatical demagoguery that risks the life of this woman who has committed no crime.
But the Mother Ship of Fools agree (naturally) with what Pompeo said:
"Anyone or anything who destroys or corrupts the minds of our children is an enemy of our republic." 
There she goes again, "An enemy of our republic." (This same woman called anyone who voted for Biden in the 2020 election her "enemy.")
The above is the opinion of a woman who's a teacher.
It never enters her or her fellow commenters' minds that there are Americans in this country who believe it is THEY who are corrupting the minds of our children with their malignant rhetoric. But when one lives in a bubble and knows nothing but hatred for the other and fear of what they don't know, one says such provocative and life- threatening words.
Those words quoted above are the sort of words one hears from the Ayatollahs and every authoritarian tyrant and despot. Whoever doesn't think like them is their enemy.
We live in a sick society where too many people have too many guns. And when a sick or vengeful mind is triggered by words such as "...the most dangerous person in the world..." And "...enemy of our republic.." Death is often the result of those violence-provoking words.
17 comments:
All us libs should just not offer a single solution. We should be done. Because anything we offer up is met with derision, ridicule and all the reasons why we can't do anything these senseless tragedies.
It's now time for conservatives to bring some solutions to the table. Heck, forget one, bring one.
This is on conservatives on so many levels. They consistently oppose all efforts to curtail access to guns, [because guns aren't the problem] even to the most crazed ppl, [witness the Colorado shooter] their political statements are rife with deflections [let's invest in mental illness care, never offering up funding], they celebrate violence [take 'em outside and beat 'em] and more.
Unless and until conservatives come with solutions, these shootings will continue. Because the great majority of these shooters adhere to their political philosophies or their ideologies.
Whatever happened to the commandment "thou shall not kill"?
The "Prince of Peace", the man who challenged and rejected the "eye for an eye" mantra has probably been spinning in his tomb for centuries.
Of course the "Prince of Peace" was about compassion and love. Not the bastardized version that the Christian Nationalists love to project.
Rapid fire military assault weapons apparently express compassion and love like nothing else for these folks. Feeding into the madness of mass shootings in America. Now a commonplace occurrence.
All life is precious and the "do no harm" to any sentient being is what spiritual leaders of truly compassionate paths teach.
It's difficult to understand how weapons of death have become almost objects of worship among the Christian Nationalists.
But this is America... we should be used to it by now. Right?
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
May the nation find a way to be thankful for all that it is blessed with, and also a way to heal the deep political, economic, and cultural wounds that have been metastasizing for years.
We are all interconnected in profoundly deep and spiritual ways. Tapping into this interconnectedness can and will bring profound joy and contentment.
Isn't it time to stop "othering" those who look and talk differently or think differently than we do? We are a nation supposedly united. Isn't it time we started acting like it once again?
At the ripe old age of 63, I'm thankful for my good health, with the exception of one bad knee and bad back. I'm thankful that after 30 years with the same employer and being laid off in 2020, I rebounded working as an Independent Contractor. While not ideal (not having a steady paycheck, no paid sick or vacation days, and no health insurance), I'll take what I can get!
Early this week I was reading an article about finally identifying all the victims from the Colorado shooting. I was like "wait, why has it taken them so long to identify those roommates?" I was confusing the mass killing in Colorado with the mass killing in Utah (sigh).
Happy Thanksgiving to Shaw and everyone who comments at PE!
Fondly, Possumlady and her cats--Clementine, Mica, and Kiko
Oh man, the Mother Ship is hysterical that the guy who beat and threatened to kill his wife, who abandonded his children while screwing around with lots of women, who arranged more than one abortion for his girlfriends and who is suffering from CTE may lose the election in Georgia.
And she's blaming THE LEFT for Walkers horrific behavior and finding out about it?
Capt of the Mother Ship: "HERSHEL WALKER JUST LOST GEORGIA….the woman accuser has come forth again IN TEARS, "Do you have the guts to look me in the eye, ME, and tell me you don't know me?"
Oh, man, the LEFT IS SO F'ING GOOD…..And oh MAN< is SHE RICH NOW.
@#($*&@(#*$@(&$@(*#$&(*@#&$
SOme of you might have seen that yesterday; I didn’t…news to me. And all of Georgia, too, of course. And Obama’s coming….dayum"
Shaw... related to Weingarten, the "most dangerous person in the world" according to our former Sec of State Pompeo...
When you are dealing with unhinged ppl for whom rational thought or discourse does not matter, what can you do? Here's a direct quote that for many in that crowd, is not extreme. They believe it, 100%, because of folks like Pompeo, Hannity, Carlson and the rest of the "whip them into a lather" crowd.
"Our country cannot last with teachers literally teaching our kids to HATE OUR COUNTRY"
Where are these people living? Who teaches kids to "literally" "HATE OUR COUNTRY"?
Back to the original theme...
Yes, we had another shooting today. In a 100% open carry state. So tell me conservatives, how do we differentiate on sight, between a "good guy" with a gun and "bad guy" with a gun?
He walked into Walmart with his gun out, 100% legal, went to the breakroom and started killing people.
How do we prevent this?
Ban all guns.
More consistent regulation. A uniform national firearm registry. that all firearms mu
...st be accounted for in. Also, all private resale of firearms must be tracked.
And banning all guns is simply a unnecessary and bullshit approach to the problem.
Anon,
No one is advocating banning all guns. No one.
Dave,
We all know how to prevent this. But we are a stupid country where guns are concerned.
The argument is always "Why should responsible gun owners have to suffer for the few who are irresponsible?
But they never argue that when it comes to registering a car, having insurance in order to drive that car, and all the other requirements for owning a car.
I'm a responsible car owner. I obey the laws of the road, keep my car in good condition. Why should I have to register it? Get insurance?
People have to register their dogs! I don't see howls coming from those who do.
What the fanatical gun owners don't want to face is that in the US, the THIRD most populous country on the planet, there will ALWAYS be irresponsible gun owners, people who will use guns for revenge/anger killing or killing themselves. We'll continue to see this over and over and over again.
We know how to solve this, selfish Americans don't want to do it.
Dave
"Our country cannot last with teachers literally teaching our kids to HATE OUR COUNTRY"
Where are these people living? Who teaches kids to "literally" "HATE OUR COUNTRY"?
Teachers DO NOT teach children to "literally" "HATE OUR COUNTRY."
That's hyperbole coming from frightened, uninformed folks who are are seeing certain rituals being dropped from public schools, and they don't like it.
I have family in Italy and friends of 40 years in France. I'm in a relationship with a man who grew up in England. None of those countries require their children to pledge to their flags or say prayers (unless in a private religious school).
IMO, and generally speaking, requiring pledging allegiance to symbols is a feature of very totalitarian regimes.
So no. Nowhere in Europe, as far as I know.
This may be what that person is referring to. Or it may be her anger at American school children learning the authentic history of what this country did to the indigenous peoples and the slaves brought here against their will to help build this nation and enrich northerners and southerners.
That's NOT teaching children to hate their country. That's teaching the truth. People like the one who wrote the above quote will never understand that.
Anonymous
The folks on the Mother Ship have shown their true colors. They prefer a man who beat his wives, threatened to kill them, abandoned his several children with his several females, forced one of his several women to have an abortion, lies about his educational background and his professional life as well, and is obviously suffering from CTE.
They prefer that over a minister who serves in MLK's church.
They are loyal to a party, not to AMERICA. They prove it over and over with their inane reasons for supporting men like Trump, Walker, Gingrich, Giuliani, and women like Greene, Boebert, and Lake.
Les,
Those are common sense things we can do. The NRA and the weak politicians in both parties are afraid to do them.
Of course they are. However, they use the issue to maintain the destructive energies they thrive on. As is usually the case they are motivated by ignorance, greed, selfish self interest, and fear of change. No matter how positive or how many lives might and would be saved by said changes.
Try as one might there is just no understanding the mentallity of the unhinged gun nuts and spineless conservative politicians and conservative "news" media.
And our people and nation suffers for it.
"What are YOU giving thanks for tomorrow?"
I'm giving Thanks that the Biden/Harris administration is finally coming to an END.
Let's see. Looking forward with deep thanks in advance for the new Democratic senate that will stand in fierce opposition to the tRumpublican's ignorant, foolish, dishonest, divisive, racist, misogynistic, authoritarian, elitist, and ego driven destructive agenda.
PS: IMHO you may be calling VP Harris President sooner than you might think. :)
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