Honestly, I don’t know why some people don’t just keep their mouths shut:
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. Sadly, there are some issues, like homelessness and these shootings, where we simply don't have all the answers.
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) August 4, 2019
And:
As our nation mourns the senseless loss of life in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio and prays for the victims and their loved ones, we must also raise our voices in rejection of these heinous and cowardly acts of hate, terror and violence.
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) August 4, 2019
Seriously. Just shut UP.
But we all know that won’t happen. What a terrible weekend.
I was a no-show at the end of last week because a) I was exhausted; and b) all my energy went into this interview with Marianne Williamson that I did with my colleague Violet. Very interesting woman. Not presidential timber, but in a race with 20 more-or-less front-runners, she’s more interesting than, say, Tulsi Gabbard and Amy Klobuchar. Afterward I told her press secretary that if the Democrats win in 2020 — huge if, I know — I’d like to see her run a truth and reconciliation commission. I’d also like to see her take the fight to Fox and the rest of the right-wing news bubble. I think women in particular would be responsive to some of her ideas.
As to why we didn’t press her on some of her goofball ideas about health, meds and weight loss, I plead only that we were given 45 minutes, and she tends to filibuster. If you read her answers, you see a lot of preacher tricks in there. Ultimately, we thought we’d press her on policy over some of her past statements. Time is finite. But we could have talked a lot longer.
And now it’s Sunday, another week looming ahead. Honestly, after this weekend it is tempting to sell everything and light out for a saner country. Europe sounds tempting right now. Hell, Canada sounds tempting. Of course, they have no mental illness in either of these places, nor violent video games, so no mass shootings.
Let’s see if we can get through it without another. (Don’t bet on it.)
Sherri said on August 4, 2019 at 5:49 pm
If I die because some white nationalist terrorist shoots me, my death has already been politicized, just by the wrong people. I want my ashes thrown in the face of Moscow Mitch.
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LAMary said on August 4, 2019 at 6:50 pm
Someone whom I used to think was very smart wrote on facebook that the problem isn’t guns. It’s people without God in their hearts, prayer in school, and discipline at home.
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Sherri said on August 4, 2019 at 7:10 pm
I can pretty much guarantee that was the sermon at many white evangelical churches today, LAMary.
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susan said on August 4, 2019 at 7:23 pm
This.
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Suzanne said on August 4, 2019 at 7:23 pm
Oh yeah. A relative of mine posted this on Facebook: Hate didn’t just start in 2016. Maybe if so many would stop pushing God out of their lives, they would understand the real power of prayer. I won’t be “prayer shamed”.
Mind you, she and her husband have 6 marriages between the two of them. Her kids went to parochial school K-12; one flunked out in 10th grade and at some point was in prison for theft. He has, I think, 4 kids by 3 different women, the first when he was 15 or 16. The other son’s wife had a kid from a previous relationship and was pregnant with his 2nd kid when they got married. I don’t think any of then attend church with any regularity. They do have jobs, and have never shot anybody though, so I guess that’s all that matters.
But, this gun violence is caused because a teacher in a public school can’t lead the class in a Christian prayer. Ok,then.
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beb said on August 4, 2019 at 8:35 pm
Some good comments about these young mass shooters:
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2019/08/were-trying-to-avoid-making-mass.html
These people are being radicalized on 4chan and 8chan not by the mainstream media.
Sherri@1 — I upvote your idea.
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Jakash said on August 4, 2019 at 10:18 pm
“funny how in Chicago where intracommunity violence is actually very much bound up with untreated trauma, depression and PTSD no one ever says shooters were mentally ill. it’s an ableist red herring used to conveniently absolve white supremacists while also reinforcing stigma.”
https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/1157925550113087488
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Jakash said on August 4, 2019 at 10:52 pm
“El Paso is the most Latino big city in America, and the one with the largest percentage of immigrants.
Last year, just 23 people were murdered in El Paso.
Today, a man apparently motivated by politicians and pundits who claim Latino immigrants are dangerous … murdered 20.”
https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1157827857307058178
From a link in the replies to that tweet: “For the third straight year, the city of El Paso was ranked as the safest of its size in the country…”
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Diane said on August 4, 2019 at 11:24 pm
Susan’s link @4 has me beside myself-Gloria nailed it.
What the f**k is the religious right (I will not call these people Christian because they are not) doing to this country?
But maybe their thoughts and prayers shouldn’t be belittled-I’ve done it myself but I do know genuinely Christian people who find prayer meaningful. But I would suggest that God helps those who help themselves and thoughts and prayers are not mutually exclusive with action. Let’s have both.
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lisa said on August 5, 2019 at 1:58 am
I live in a city between Columbus and Dayton. Three of the murdered in the mass shooting in Dayton lived in my city. I just heard from a relative that the bastard who killed the 9 in Dayton murdered his sister in part because she had started dating a black guy. The mass murderer, as usual, was white.
In El Paso, another bastard murdered 20 inside a Wal-Mart. I’m a 24-year associate with WM. So, this all is too much and too close to home. I’m with you about wanting to pack your shit and move. Trump and his rhetoric inflames these bastards, IMO. I truly believe that no gun laws will ever change in America until someone in power loses someone they love to gun violence.
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Dexter Friend said on August 5, 2019 at 3:47 am
I had the TV on when breaking news reports came in from Dayton. I thought it was an old tape of that “Live PD” show or an episode of “Dateline” on msnbc. It took a minute to realize that no, this was live active shooter stuff, although the killer was gunned down dead 45 seconds after his first salvo, and he was first hit 30 seconds after his first shot. Amazing first class cop work.
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Dave said on August 5, 2019 at 7:15 am
It’s a club district and the club district was regularly patrolled, the main reason that they arrived so quickly but no matter. Of course, the governor of Ohio stated that it wasn’t the time to talk about any gun legislation, which is what they always say. The Republicans want to blame it all on mental health care, which they helped to diminish. Oh, and Ohio has legislation on the table for open carry without a permit, I believe, unless I’ve missed where it was already enacted.
I would have thought a Walmart in Texas would have been full of good guys with guns.
Off topic, friend of NNC, Laura Lippman, was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air last week, discussing her new book and late-in-life motherhood.
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Dorothy said on August 5, 2019 at 7:26 am
Nancy a few days ago basset asked you to share his email account with me since he’s going to be in Dayton in the near future. Could you please give him my gmail account rather than the hotmail account address? I rarely use the hotmail account, but I keep the Gmail one on my phone. Thanks.
And basset, would you mind telling me the date you’re going to be in Dayton?
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nancy said on August 5, 2019 at 8:20 am
Dorothy, I’m not sure I have that Gmail address. Could you text it to me at seven three four-548-oh-oh-33?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 5, 2019 at 7:31 am
Universal background checks, and a ninety day waiting period for anything that’s not a muzzle loading blackpowder firearm. I’d take that as a start. Anything semi-auto long gun probably should be restricted to law enforcement only, but I don’t see the political will for a ban and buy back — a serious waiting period, though, should be a next step a consensus would come together around.
Hand guns, like semi-auto 9mm or .45s, I don’t know.
Interrupted the sermon yesterday, and on a day awkwardly with four child dedications, to say that racist language and divisive rhetoric has to stop, from the White House to our house, and I used citations (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11) to boot. We prayed for Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton with some context added (personal connections around the congregation), then I preached a sermon that still allowed for some allusions to the need to reject supremacy and divisions for the sake of protecting privilege. And of course the one person who was vocally upset with me after the service was the father of one the kids I’d dedicated who’s an avid 2nd Amendment advocate and Trump supporter.
Then I went back out to the county fair where I’d done a dawn ecumenical service, and saw not one but two Trump Gear tents selling t-shirts and caps and flags for Trump 2020; they were some of the busiest on the grounds, and I saw lots of newly purchased stuff being carried around.
It’s going to be a long year.
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basset said on August 5, 2019 at 8:23 am
saw a Trump t-shirt over the weekend with a cartoon of him giving two thumbs-up labeled “Polls are for strippers!” Well, he does know something about strippers…
Jeff TMMO, as I have mentioned here before I have several guns and a concealed carry permit but I rarely carry, it’s a huge responsibility. Guess I wouldn’t make an effective “good guy.”
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susan said on August 5, 2019 at 9:24 am
As I said at the tail-end of the previous comment thread, people who own guns need to buy goddamn insurance policies to own and operate them. Just like you need to buy insurance policies to own and operate a motor vehicle. Why isn’t that brought up as one step to take? I hardly ever hear that idea. In addition to real, actual background checks.
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LAMary said on August 5, 2019 at 9:24 am
Some asshat being interviewed on NPR said the shooter chose that mall in El Paso because it’s gun free zone. He knew there would be no good guys with guns.
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ROGirl said on August 5, 2019 at 9:30 am
Of all the communities that Marianne Williamson could have lived in when she was in Detroit, I wonder why she ended up in Grosse Pointe, and not the Birmingham-Bloomfield Hills area . I enjoyed the comment about GP in the article.
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Sherri said on August 5, 2019 at 10:45 am
Better be careful, Jeff(tmmo), you’re going to force that trump supporter to vote for trump with your radicalism!
In a FB thread on local issues over the weekend, someone was complaining about being an underrepresented minority because his special snowflake views were adequately being represented on council, boards. Mayor, etc. I commented on how fascinating I found it when well off white male single family homeowners tried to use the language of diversity and inclusion to suggest they didn’t have a seat at the table, and *that* made some people uncomfortable.
Some people need to learn some basic life lessons. Not getting your way is not the same thing as not being heard.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 5, 2019 at 10:48 am
Oh, he doesn’t need my help.
65 days of this summer of killings, starting May 31 in Virginia Beach VA with 12 deaths, 5 wounded, then the eight days in July & August of Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton — total of 120 casualties of which 47 were killed outright. And I keep running into this factoid: The US has the highest per-capita gun ownership in the world with 120.5 firearms per 100 people; the second highest is Yemen with 52.8 firearms per 100 people. Yemen.
And now we have to worry about Toledo. [see Trump speech for fubar]
Ruby Sales has suggested, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, that some of us in the white Christian community (forget evangelical or mainline or such for the moment) need to develop a White Liberation Theology. If a white theological colleague had suggested this, I’d have snickered — coming from Ruby, I have to think about this. But she said in reply to my initial confusion: “History is not dualistic. It is simultaneous. Yes the culture of Whiteness is fraught with moral nihilism and spiritual malformation. However throughout history White individuals have broken with this culture and sought to upbuild democracy.” So I’m mulling over the concept. The only think like it I’ve ever seen is Martin Mull’s “The History of White People in America.”
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Sherri said on August 5, 2019 at 11:36 am
I don’t know the details of what Ruby Sales has suggested, but I would certainly say that white Christian religion in this country has become too inextricably intertwined with white supremacy, capitalism, and nationalism, most obviously in some parts of the community than others, but none are immune from it.
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JodiP said on August 5, 2019 at 11:53 am
I am just feeling sick about the shootings. I’m so angered by Trump stating we need better regitration lwas, then bakcing down and not even calling McConnell to give the House-approved bill a hearing. His statements against bigotry, etc also infuriate me. I also just listened to Dahlia’s latest podcast, with a law professor whose written a lot about white supremacy and misogynoy. It was super depressing, even though they tried to put a hopeful spin on things at the end. I’m not reading any more news today.
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beb said on August 5, 2019 at 12:45 pm
The Ohio governor was speaking about the Dayton shooting with the usual pablum which incited the crowd to chant “Do Something.” I doubt that he will but at least he knows where Ohians stand.
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Jakash said on August 5, 2019 at 12:47 pm
“…two Trump Gear tents selling t-shirts and caps and flags for Trump 2020; they were some of the busiest on the grounds, and I saw lots of newly purchased stuff being carried around.”
I was always curious about how a country like Germany got transformed into a Nazi state. How everyday, intelligent, “good people” were captivated by a racist, pompous charlatan to the extent of not just going along, but being fervent supporters. Gotta say — while it’s been instructive, watching this 21st-Century tutorial on how it can happen here unfold has gone well beyond what I needed to witness to get the point across.
Many of my ancestors were German and, having been born not all that long after WWII (it *seemed* long, until I realized how quickly 50 years go by) I always kinda wondered if I should feel guilty about that heritage. (My ancestors left for America in the 1800s, FWIW.) Never would have imagined that I’d now have a similar sense of nebulous guilt about having grown up in Ohio, but the evident desire of its Republican citizens to turn it into Mississippi North is appalling. (“Not all Buckeyes,” I realize.)
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Suzanne said on August 5, 2019 at 1:11 pm
I’ve thought the same thing, Jakash. Always wondered what it was like to have lived in pre-war Germany and how all these people could fall for it. Surely, I thought, we were smarter. Now, I am surrounded by Trump supporters, gun hoarders, and well meaning people who think our laws and norms and traditions will save us from a similar fate as Germany and I realize it can happen any time, any place.
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Jeff Borden said on August 5, 2019 at 1:28 pm
Jakash, I read William L. Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” a few years ago. . .all 1,700+ pages of it. What’s striking is how long the Nazis were viewed both by many Germans and certainly by outside diplomats as foolish, ignorant poseurs. No one believed the nation of Goethe and Beethoven would fall under the spell of a wild-eyed, raving Austrian of low social lineage. (This view is echoed in Erik Larson’s “In the Garden of the Beasts,” which tells of Germany in the mid-30s through the eyes of the U.S. ambassador at the time.) Well, they obviously were wrong and tens of millions of people perished as a result.
What is harder to understand is why the Orange King’s rants resonate in a nation that is, by and large, economically strong and militarily superior to the rest of the world. Weimar Germany was neither. It was in the grip of a horrible Depression. Inflation was rampant. Unemployment was off the charts. And Germany had been humiliated by the treaty of Versailles by the dismantling of its armed forces.
Whether tRump’s appeal is based on the economic uncertainties felt in rural and small town ‘Murica, or whether he has tapped into a vein of hatred and fear that is wider and deeper than we might have thought, is largely superfluous. He and his minions are flouting legal, political and moral norms and they’re getting away with it. The cowardice of the Republican Party guarantees they pay no price.
Remember, Hitler did not seize power. It was given to him.
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Bitter Scribe said on August 5, 2019 at 1:44 pm
Nancy, you did as good a job with that Williamson interview as anyone could, because you’re a first-rate journalist, but honestly, I still think she’s just annoying and an embarrassment to have around. I also think it’s worth pointing out that many disabled and chronically ill people consider her a menace.
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Jakash said on August 5, 2019 at 2:02 pm
Neil Steinberg visits the mid-summer carnival in his leafy, suburban paradise, in-between the weekend’s mass shootings. (Well, it was held in a parking lot, but whatevs…)
“I snagged a blue clear plastic 6-inch ruler that read ‘Measure up — Be a friend—not a Bully.’ … At least they’re making an effort, though it’ll take a lot of little rulers to counterbalance our big ruler, our Bully-in-Chief, stoking the hatred that at least partially encourages these killings.”
…
“It was my wife who noticed the inflatable assault rifles. Slung over the shoulders of kids, who won them at the ring toss and at the test-your-strength. The blow-up AK-47s came in camouflage green and, for you fans of irony, red white and blue, with stars, like an American flag. You couldn’t make a thing like that up. It would look trite in fiction.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2019/8/4/20753710/mass-shootings-farewell-guns-safe-steinberg
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Jakash said on August 5, 2019 at 2:10 pm
Yeah, Jeff B., I read both of those books and your comment is apt, as usual. If the only folks supporting Hair Furor were actually “economically anxious” due to this late-capitalist, disastrously-skewed economy, that would still be awful, but not as dangerous as the reality. Massacre/Moscow Mitch is *not* economically anxious, nor are the slew of prominent Republican enablers allowing this regime to undermine American values.
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Suzanne said on August 5, 2019 at 2:27 pm
I know I’ve recommended it before but I keep returning to Karen Armstrong’s The Battle for God:A History of Fundamentalism as it chronicles the rise of fundamentalist extremism world wide as a backlash to modernity. Frightening because all forms of it, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, are not afraid of failing in their missions. God is on their side; he will ensure an outcome in their favor. He will not let his chosen ones fall. And we have so many of the Christian nationalists in high office right now. Trump is not one of them; he is simply their tool.
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Deborah said on August 5, 2019 at 6:32 pm
I can’t say I’m “enjoying” the original Nancy post and comments here today but they sure are interesting. Im in Abiquiu where it’s hot, not supposed to be this hot because the monsoon season should have started weeks ago. Global warming of course. I read that July was the hottest month on record globally. Grrrrrr.
I’m sickened by the mass murders as we all here are. When will the Republicans change their ways? And the answer of course is never as long as they are in power.
Half of my heritage is German (well a couple of generations back anyway, it’s more complicated according to 23 & me). I too always wondered how the Germans came to be so evil before WW2, and of course now I get it. Jeff B, says it accurately, that Hitler didn’t seize power, he was given it. The German people at that time were ripe for what he had to offer. Hard as this is to say, Trump isn’t instigating his power, he’s exploiting the people who enthusiastically thrust it on him. Which is the saddest damn thing. Not just sad, it’s horrendously depressing.
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Sherri said on August 5, 2019 at 9:18 pm
What was that I was saying about white Christianity having become too intertwined with nationalism?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/25/why-some-christians-dont-believe-in-gun-control-they-think-god-handed-down-the-second-amendment/
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diane said on August 5, 2019 at 11:48 pm
The NYT got a lot of heat for its print headline https://twitter.com/betoorourke/status/1158549774490120193?s=21
and actually changed it.
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LAMary said on August 6, 2019 at 12:18 am
People who know me on Facebook probably notice I post things about beautiful crystal formations, colorful birds and lots of flowers. I do this because I also share a lot of articles from The Atlantic and The New Yorker and New York Magazine about the current state of politics. I need to be reminded of the amazing beauty of the world. So if you get tired of my pictures of geodes or Chaco Canyon or fields of wildflowers, too bad. We need to remember how nature gives us things to inspire wonder. It’s my way of taking a breath.
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Dexter Friend said on August 6, 2019 at 2:42 am
LA Mary, I returned from the army 48 years ago and my first post-army girlfriend lived on Ardmore Avenue in Fort Wayne. I then discovered May Stone and Gravel pit, just up Ardmore five minutes. It’s now a helluva lot bigger and is called Ardmore Aggregates or something, and is billed as one of Fort Wayne’s “biggest tourist attractions”. I bet that billing makes the Top Ten for weirdo attraction anywhere. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjk14Oe0O3jAhVESq0KHbf8DdQQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pitandquarry.com%2Findiana-quarry-fortifies-relationship-with-community%2F&psig=AOvVaw3ZCqU2Cxmd8cooqDrUpUxX&ust=1565159621921583
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lisa said on August 6, 2019 at 4:59 am
My MIL, husband and I went to the Champaign County Fair yesterday. It’s in Urbana, Ohio. I had never been to this fair. It was a nice time. We were sitting in a tent area with chairs, taking it easy. A well dressed white woman who looked about 70 years walked up. She began talking to us, very friendly.
She brought up Trump and the three of us just sat there, saying nothing. Then she said, “oh, you three must be Democrat’s.” I said that “yes, I am but my husband isn’t political.” The next words out of her mouth were “well I hate Obama for a lot of reasons and everyone better be glad I didn’t go to DC when he was in the White House because I would’ve shot his black ass dead.”
I had to get up and leave. I didn’t want to start an argument in the middle of the damn fair. I feared I probably would’ve been outnumbered also.
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David C. said on August 6, 2019 at 6:05 am
Look on the bright side Lisa. She’ll be dead soon.
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Suzanne said on August 6, 2019 at 7:19 am
Sherri, re: Christian nationalism & the 2nd amendment. Oh yes. You have no idea. Local pastors in our area get together occasionally to shoot their guns. A man I know who pastors a church out west (Oklahoma, maybe? Texas?) has a gun range at the church. My brother packs heat fairly often when he attends church. I have been told, flat out, that God gave the man the responsibility to protect his family so therefore, he should be armed when at all possible.
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Sherri said on August 6, 2019 at 9:56 am
Powerful.
https://mobile.twitter.com/morganLOOKS/status/1158519016576737282
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Dave said on August 6, 2019 at 10:36 am
That’s Rep. Jordan country, Lisa, and a good demonstration of how he stays in office.
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Alan Stamm said on August 6, 2019 at 11:16 am
Marianne earns a hat tip Tuesday in the NYT as columnist Ross Douthat writes that “the president’s bigoted rhetoric is obviously part of this” mass shootings epidemic.
“Marianne Williamson put it best, in the last Democratic debate: There really is a dark psychic force generated by Trump’s political approach.” https://nyti.ms/2T7PbwU
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Icarus said on August 6, 2019 at 11:24 am
God gave the man the responsibility to protect his family so therefore, he should be armed when at all possible.
or maybe He could have created a world where that wasn’t necessary?
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Jakash said on August 6, 2019 at 11:54 am
“well I hate Obama for a lot of reasons”
One needn’t wonder what the first and most compelling reason was.
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Joe Kobiela said on August 6, 2019 at 12:18 pm
Lisa,
Seriously?
Completely out of the blue in a crowd full of people a 70 year old total stranger walks up to you and says she wished she would have shot the former president? Sorry but I find it a little hard to believe. All I’m saying is I travel all over this country and nothing even remotely close has ever happened to me or anyone I know. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, people here have said they would like the current president dead which to me is just sickening so I guess what is the difference between your encounter and what some here say?
My suggestion if this happened to me I would find the first police officer and report her.
Pilot Joe
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alex said on August 6, 2019 at 12:41 pm
Joe, you know you don’t find it sickening. You find it exhilarating. Except for one small detail, which is that it never happens. Or you’d have called the cops on us.
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Mark P said on August 6, 2019 at 12:46 pm
Joe, you must interact with a higher class of racists
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 6, 2019 at 12:54 pm
Joe, I find it more than plausible; she described three stages of the conversation that are very familiar to me, and then “I would have shot (him)” with an unnerving cackle I infer but she didn’t mention. In this county, I have versions of this conversation all the time. I have a certain amount of insulation given my role and status here, but that just means that often people skip one or two of those intermediate steps and jump right to nastiness they assume a former Marine/court officer/tall male/minister would be in agreement with. I disengage variously depending on the context.
I used to, on my varied round of community program speaking gigs, do presentation to the Republican Women’s Club, usually on Lincoln or Thanksgiving or somesuch topic I do for other groups like Soroptimists or DAR or our local Monday Talks group. I’ve stopped doing them because, while they pay as well as feed you (most are hoping for a free interesting program, and I’m usually game for that if the date works), the dinner conversations were excruciating — and I stopped doing them two years before Trump was elected. It went to ugly and hateful before the salad plates were cleared.
Noting, against interest, that I’m still a registered Ohio GOP primary voter. As my wife and I have been discussing, we’ll see how much longer. One problem in our neck of the woods is that registering Dem gives you very little to do in the primaries . . .
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Scout said on August 6, 2019 at 12:59 pm
I for one, Lisa, believe every word you wrote. And she totally gave her motivation away when she used the phrase “shot his BLACK ass dead”. Pay no mind to our resident troll. He’s annoying but harmless. Except for the way he votes, that is.
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Jakash said on August 6, 2019 at 1:35 pm
I just think that it’s interesting that, despite all the shit that’s going down in this country, PJ’s first political comment in quite a while was prompted by Lisa. He’s compelled to essentially cry “Fake News” about an eyewitness account from a Fair-going citizen in heartland Ohio, aka “real America.” Why would somebody who has seldom (never?) commented here before wake up today and think “Hey, why don’t I put up a bullshit story on a random blog?”
Unsurprisingly, PJ’s remarks do display classic Trump-like thinking, of course. If it hasn’t happened to him, personally, it must be “a little hard to believe.” (Though Mark P.’s “higher class of racists” joke is a keeper.)
Thank you, Jeff (tmmo), for citing your experience with folks such as the woman from Lisa’s comment.
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Sherri said on August 6, 2019 at 1:51 pm
Joe, watch the video at the link I posted.
That is all.
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Icarus said on August 6, 2019 at 3:24 pm
Pilot Joe,
Use this thing called Google and search “Obama” and “hanging” and you will see evidence that Lisa’s encounter isn’t that far of a stretch.
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Dorothy said on August 6, 2019 at 5:23 pm
Well I know that none of us are the least bit surprised that PJ would accuse Lisa of lying about a conversation with a stranger that ended the way it did. It would never occur to him that since the two of them were not acquainted, it gave the woman a sense of freedom to say exactly what she felt and thought. She was likely thinking “I’ll never see these people again so what do I care what they think of me?”
I was at the post office one day last year, I think more than a year ago, and I saw an elderly white man throw an envelope at a black male clerk behind the counter because he was angry about something to do with his held mail pick up. People feel emboldened these days to say and act out in whatever way they want because 45 behaves that way. He lashes out on Twitter, he lies over and over and over and over again in front of crowds, never apologizes, denies the information his own intelligence personnel provide him with, he claims he is the greatest person to ever hold the office, accuses everyone else of what he is accused of because he thinks that is an effective mechanism to turn around criticism of him. PJ lives in a bubble – he only hangs out here to poke us and annoy us and have a narrow window into the thought processes of open minded and clear thinking individuals who won’t tolerate bullshit. He is insignificant. He is a twit. He lacks common sense. He can’t recognize truth when it comes up and bites him in the ass.
Thanks for the story Lisa. I’m sorry you had to listen to that. If it had been me, I like to think I would have replied “You are the poorest excuse for a human being that I might have ever seen – not counting the current guy living in the White House.”
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Sherri said on August 6, 2019 at 5:37 pm
If Georgia were another country, we’d call their elections illegitimate.
https://news.yahoo.com/how-a-criminal-investigation-in-georgia-set-a-dark-tone-for-african-american-voters-090000532.html
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Suzanne said on August 6, 2019 at 7:45 pm
I have no problem at all believing Lisa. My husband had frequent interactions with one of the local pastors during the Obama years. He said the dear pastor generally referred to the President as the ni**er-in-chief.
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Mark P. said on August 6, 2019 at 9:01 pm
Sherri — It turns my stomach to see Kemp acting like the governor of Georgia.
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Dave said on August 6, 2019 at 9:11 pm
Nothing at all, but I see twelve years ago the discussion here was Fort Wayne radio, one of the more entertaining, to me, entries. Twelve years, though.
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jcburns said on August 6, 2019 at 10:50 pm
I’m going to keep an eye on Ohio, after watching citizens chant “Do SOMETHING!” in Mike DeWine’s face in Dayton after the shootings. There may be a Republican or two there who has had enough—like Mike Turner of Dayton. Here in Georgia, well, I agree with Mark P.—although I’m not sure I’d give Kemp even credit for acting. He’s guilty of wrongdoing in the last election, no doubt in my mind.
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Sherri said on August 7, 2019 at 1:13 am
JC, there’s little doubt in my mind that Kemp is guilty of wrongdoing, either. Unfortunately, Georgia doesn’t use voting machines that allow for an adequate audit. The new machines aren’t going to be a whole lot better.
https://undark.org/article/georgia-voting-machines-security/
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Dexter Friend said on August 7, 2019 at 2:20 am
A blog-friend of about 15 years dropped me just before I was going to block and un-friend him. He is a retired supervisor from the electrical grid system of California, having worked several areas all over, from SoCal to the Oregon border. When he retired, he moved to Texas, down by San Antonio, so he could more easily accumulate an arsenal of all sorts of weapons, join shooting clubs , and go blasting every chance he has. He is a militia guy at heart, and supports Trump on everything…I began reading his Facebook exchanges with his friends…they are screaming in all-caps to “lock and load!” and hunt down refugees and shoot them at the border. This is what we have become. I tried to get past all my friend’s political extremism, but this is it…no more. He is so good in supporting fellows in substance recovery, and writes such encouraging notes lifting up those who need advice or a long-distance hug that I was hoping he would reel the bullshit in and tell off the nut-job wanna-be people hunters…but it is getting more amped-up. So…bye bye , old buddy. So what’s the pool, 3 days? Three days until Trump says some more stupid goddam shit to take the temperature down from the issue of gun background checks or he says something about why he lets mentally ill folks buy legal WMDs from mail order companies in Texas? Have you noticed , for whatever reasons, the El Paso and Dayton murders have been a hot topic much longer than Gilroy and other slaughters were? And I wonder if you asked a random sampling of 100 people on any sidewalk if they knew what “Parkland” means, 75 would say they do not know.
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alex said on August 7, 2019 at 7:30 am
Glad to see that there will be protests of Trump’s unwanted visits and that local leaders are refusing to be part of his dog-and-pony show.
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Mark P said on August 7, 2019 at 8:27 am
What I would like to see is for El Paso officials to simply ignore Trump’s visit. Don’t even have local law enforcement around.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 7, 2019 at 9:16 am
Went to our version of a county fair last night (it’s actually a fair serving three counties, an “independent fair” that’s 162 years old), had a mostly good time.
But the demolition derby had vehicles with Trump spray painted onto their “decor,” one truck had a Trump 2020 flag on it as it banged around the double figure eight course. A lovely young lady with her beef cow was coming out of the show arena, and paused when she saw me taking a picture; couldn’t have been more than 12, cow couldn’t have been much less than a ton, taller than her. She halted the cow, gently urged it around to a nice pose, and I took the shot and thanked her. She was quick to inform me her cow was named “Trump.” The fact that it will after Saturday have a bolt fired into its head and be butchered for meat didn’t soften the blow of seeing that sweet smile and hearing her proudly state the name she’d given her pride and joy.
The Trump hats are everywhere, lots more this year in deep blue with a red line around the Trump 2020 logo in white on the front. Farmers, young men, a few women are wearing them. Our one Democrat running for countywide office is putting up a brave front, but she’s got a tough opponent and is not optimistic about her likely outcome in November. There are Democrats running for judgeships (non-partisan, but everyone knows the score) and they’re mostly roadkill.
More interesting is our county seat mayor’s race, which has a two-term GOP incumbent facing an African American gay candidate who has been a school board member and now city council office holder. He’s taking up a progressive agenda combined with a focus on street paving, local politics at its best. Newark has had Democratic mayors in living memory, usually riding a strong union push into office, but that’s a weak reed to lean upon these days. Jeremy is mobilizing volunteers and door knocking, and is helped by being just a genuinely nice guy. The incumbent is nice enough, but an older wonky guy who’d rather talk budget projections and millage rollbacks than about poverty and homelessness. And he’s not a door knocker.
I’m trying not to get my hopes up; we had a member of our church running for the ward adjoining us a year ago, and he literally knocked on every door, but lost to the GOP candidate who barely even campaigned. We both joked that if he’d kept “professor at Ohio State Newark” off the literature he might have done better.
My email inbox at the church is full of stories helpfully sent me about people who protected themselves against thieves, robbers, and exes with firearms, never mind that I’ve not said a word about supporting a ban. Just waiting periods and background checks. I can only imagine what elected officials get when they even hint they’re straying from NRA orthodoxy. I won’t say for sure Trump will win Ohio, but he’s still in a position to win it, for reasons after thirty years here I still don’t quite understand.
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lisa said on August 8, 2019 at 8:19 am
A heartfelt thank you to all who believed what I wrote.
I went online for first time in 2000. Somehow, I happened upon Nancy talking about Bob Greene and I’ve read her blog ever since. I have great respect for her and how she writes. I also agree with what she writes about. I realized that the only time I think I’ve ever commented was when Nancy went to some event and got dressed up and I’d drop a note to say how much I liked the outfit. I thought, “she’s going to think I’m a weirdo” and I told myself to start commenting more. Then I woke up Saturday (I think) to the news that someone had murdered 20 people inside a Wal-Mart. Earlier last week, a 20-year disgruntled male associate went into a Mississippi WM and murdered the store manager and an Assistant Manager. This really concerns me and upsets me. Lately at my store the teenagers are getting bolder and more and more out of control so it’s always in the back of my mind about someone shooting people inside our store. Then Dayton’s mass murder happened and Jesus, it’s just overwhelming. Literally, it affects sleep and mood and it’s hard to get out of my head.
So, no one really knows me but Joe, I’ll tell you two things about me that are the truth:
I don’t lie and I’m a very direct person. Who are you to say I lie?
What you say doesn’t matter but it pissed me off. I won’t let you send me running off.
I’ll just comment more.
If you read my words you’ll see I try to explain things exactly like they happen and I put as much description into what I’m writing so you get a clear picture of what’s going on.
The lady who said she’d kill Obama also told us that her husband owns a fencing company and that they live on a farm in Urbana and raise cattle. She was very friendly and seemingly nice until that last comment to me. What struck me after thinking about it is that SHE didn’t see one thing wrong in what she said!! She walks up to three strangers at a fair and after 5-7 minutes she openly says she wanted to murder the POTUS AND mentions his race. WTH? It amazes me how so many are openly racist and that’s ok with them.
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