Politicize The Shit Out Of This

I had a take on the mass shooting.  But then I saw Colbert, and now I have a different and better take.

But first -- so yeah, another mass shooting.  This one of a Congressman.  This time, however, it's a Republican, and that totally changes things.

I mean that seriously.  Ever since Trump's been elec ... no, wait, ever since Obama was elected, most politically-based and hate-based shootings and mass shootings were perpetrated on minorities, namely Muslims.  This is the first time I can remember where the victim -- and possibly the target victim -- was a Republican.  Those last two sentences may seem not to have any relation with each other.  You know goddamn well they have everything to do with each other.

Steve Scalise is in critical condition, but also in stable condition, so he'll live.  Credit goes out to the capitol police, trained shooters who murdered this white domestic terrorist ... who, believe it or not, happens to be a Democrat, and is in fact a Bernie Bro who snapped when Trump and the Republicans swept into power in November (with the help of Russia and voter suppression).  He wasn't the only one.  This James Hodgkinson fellow railed against the rich for years ... and he isn't the only one.  Besides his long history of running afoul of the law (including dragging his foster daughter around ... dude sounds like a Republican), he actually was thinking the same way many of us have been thinking.

Well, thinking -- we didn't actually purchase a gun and use it.  But hey, he was a hunter and avid gun owner.  Also, he was in Virginia, known to have the most lax gun purchasing laws in the United States (and that's saying something).  And Hodgkinson has in the past scorned Scalise in the past ... who, and it has to be said, received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.

Easy access to weapons, made law by the Republican party.  And one mentally ill nut decides to use that easy access against one of their own.  Seriously, what the fuck did you expect?

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I don't want to downplay what happened to Scalise.  But everyone there is going to live.  Meanwhile, a few hours after that shooting on a ball field, on the other side of the country, in a UPS facility in San Francisco, a disgruntled ex-employee bursts in and murders three workers before killing himself.  Charlie Pierce said it one way, but I'll go a step further: This is much more important than what happened to Scalise and his staff because people in the UPS facility were killed.  Innocent people, not just because of a guy who decided to kill but, more importantly, because that killer had an accessible way to make good and commit to the ultimate act of violence.  But it'll be forever forgotten because it happened on the same day a Representative got shot.

I rely -- maybe even demur -- to Pierce a lot.  But he's right.  Why is one person getting shot more "valued" than another?  Is it because he was elected to office?  If you lose your life, that seems a very flimsy difference.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the three people murdered by that human in San Francisco.

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I was having trouble formulating my thoughts on this, but then I saw Colbert (and later Meyers) talk about unity and bipartisanship and coming together, and this stupid baseball game that's supposed to happen today  between two parties, one of which has gridlocked the federal government for decades now.  Bullshit.

This shooting of Steve Scalise is the result of a deadly cocktail of Republicans expanding gun rights to suck the NRA's dick for money, then Republicans fomenting race wars to induce white people to buy more guns.  The chickens came home to roost.

The left-wide media ombundsman Mediaite put out a list of the worst left-wing tweets reacting to the shooting.  That came after they published a list of the worst coming from the right.  I'm looking at this list.  Most of the tweets are talking about how Scalise is a whore for the NRA and I'm going, what's so crazy about that?  I don't see any of those tweeters going nuts.  They're just pointing out irony, or the fact that a gun nut Representative got shot for advocating the easy gun laws he has dedicated his political career to advancing, or reminding people that Scalise spoke at a white supremacist meeting once, easily (and correctly) predicting "thoughts and prayers" go out to the victims, blah-blah-blah.  They're totally right.

Meanwhile, right-wing media and Republicans have flipped their shit over this.  There are conspiracy theories all over the place after the shooting.  Look at this shit from Mediaite: Conservatives are saying that weeks and weeks of hate have resulted in this terrorist attack.  And Republicans are blaming Democrats, Kathy Griffin, the staging of Julius Caesar at Shakespeare In The Park, and Snoop Dogg for this shooting.  What the fuck does Snoop Dogg have to do with this?  And one Republican prick said that the blood is on Democrats' hands.  Man, no one does projecting and blaming the victim like Republicans.

This is the reasoning behind me being disappointed that Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers have decided that this is a time for "unity."  This is no time for unity.  Politicize the shit out of this!  Because that thought leads to looking inward and assessing your own mistakes, and that leads to Both Sides Do It.  Both sides don't do it.  Only one party, the Republican party, wants guns for everyone (including wife beaters and domestic terrorists).  Only one party, the Republican party, has started a media-industrial complex based on bullshit conspiracy theories made up in people's own addled heads.  Only one party, the Republican party, has poisoned the federal government to the point of paralysis.  Only one party, the Republican party, has adherents who have committed terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11.

And now I hear that we should all take a step back and be civil towards one another?  One fucking party started this.  This is the time for those Republicans to be held responsible for these fucking crazy gun laws.  This is the time for them to realize that it's their tax cuts that have created class warfare.  This is the time for those people to start apologizing for starting and exploiting people who believe in conspiracy theories about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and even devote their waking hours to watching a network dedicated to those conspiracy theories.  This is the time of those goddamn Republicans to stop being selfish, arrogant and cruel assholes, and to finally start running the government on all our behalf, not just for theirs and the rich people they want to become.  And it sure as hell no time for a baseball game.

This pause to reflect is just an opening for Republicans to continue doing their worst.  They have all the levers of federal government and, if you haven't been paying attention, the Senate is crafting a bill repealing Obamacare in secret while the House is giddily stripping financial protection for consumers by killing Dodd-Frank.  And there's still the Russia investigation going on -- that seems to be more important than a guy who's going to live, isn't it?  But the Republicans are going to clutch their pearls and say, "Oh, this is no time for us to hammer at President Trump.  A Congressman has gotten shot!"  And I'm really scared that the Democrats, in the name of peace, are going to roll over, like they usually do, and that will allow Republicans to get away with treason and fuck the middle class -- guys like James Hodgkinson -- all over again.

I've got to be honest.  Unless Scalise or the staff members who've been shot have their lives severely affected by this I'm going to save my sympathies.  Instead, my sympathies go to the families of the 13 kids killed at Columbine, or the 32 killed at Virginia Tech, or the 49 killed in Orlando, or the 26 killed, most of them young children, in Newtown.  My sympathies do not go out to a man in power whose beliefs and actions allow this to happen.

But because I have to go along to get along: Thoughts and prayers and blah-blah-blah.