America's War on Prevention

If America keeps failing with gun violence, that's fundamentally because she's waging war on prevention, and because the forces that feed upon these failures have faced impunity for too long.

Worse: constant mass shootings are only one of the nation's most obvious self inflicted traumas. At least, there, everybody knows the rules of the game: 

• more people die of guns in the US than anywhere else, and not just because 332M Americans own 400M of them
• implementing basic gun control laws (e.g. background checks) have always showed spectacular results, including in the States between the moment Bill Clinton signed the last batch and the moment Republicans blocked its prolongation
• even if a vast majority of Americans (including within Republicans) support these laws, the NRA and the GOP keep distorting the 2nd Amendment to push even harder against any kind of oversight or accountability. 
• the situation keeps worsening: Republicans are likely to sweep the Middterms, and the Supreme Court they reshaped against the will of the people is likely to dismantle the few remaining safeguards. This self-proclaimed 'pro-life' crew prefers to protect guns to protecting the lives of kids or pregnant teens.
  

America is not just sick, she doesn't want to heal.  

And that's exactly the same story with health in general. Even before the pandemic, America spent one third more per capita on healthcare than any other developed country, and yet saw her life expectancy plummet, the average health of her citizens being more worthy of a laggard.

Like with guns, there's a lot of money involved, but here, at least two families of lobbies are working in sinc to sink the boat: where everywhere else the focus is on prevention, Big Pharma and Big Food make sure that prevention is withdrawn from all policies, and that only the 'cures' they propose are considered. Because they couldn't gain more shares of stomachs, Big Food had the genius idea of supersizing our stomachs, and Big Pharma certainly can't complain because they make more money selling drugs that no one needs when they follow just a normal diet. And don't count on health associations to defend consumers: most of them are bankrolled by the same lobbies, and promote the very behaviors they're supposed to fight against.

The prevention of gun violence, obesity or heart diseases are national causes everywhere except in the US, where they would mean the end of the party for lobbies who need America to keep getting sicker instead of healing.

If these lobbies reach across the aisle, they've always worked in symbiosis with the Republican Party. But that party itself has given up all restraints, any ambition for common ground or common sense. And it's now waging war at all levels. 

Solutions to major problems are no-brainers? Let's dumb everybody further down, let's ban books, let's reject facts, truth, reason, and science. We want you to feel stupid, victimized, angry, we want you to replace critical thinking with systematic, blind criticism, we want you to forget about moderation and to live on a permanent conflictual mode.

The GOP not only stopped fighting racism, it's deliberately fueling it now, crushing voting rights for minorities, promoting voices that fuel hatred (exhibit A: Tucker Carson spreading the Great Replacement fallacy). The big tent has turned into a dangerous tin foil hat under which thrive the worst of the worst (Holocaust deniers and white supremacists are more welcome than ever).

Even if they know better, these guys will tell you with a straight face that the Earth is flat, that Trump won in 2020, and that arming teachers is the solution when even a squad of trained police officers are scared to face a teenager carrying assault weapons.

Pew Research on bipartisan support for gun control
NB: more data on Brady Campaign's website: bradyunited.org/resources

blogules 2022
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!! and Twitter (@stephanemot, @blogules)
Enjoyed my neuroses? Check my prose: dragedies.com.

Some light at the end of the barrel?

Will this time be different, or will Parkland just be one more line in the endless list of mass shootings silenced by Amerika's almighty gun lobby?

What's most different so far, beyond the powerful voices of Millenials (from The Gunshine State*, of all places!) is the fact that heavyweight household names Delta Airlines and American Airlines stopped their NRA group travel discounts. We've entered #metoo-like, it-s-gonna-hurt-my-bottomline territory, and there's a momentum to sustain early enough before the mid-term elections to prevent the usual cover ups.

The NRA's role is not to defend Americans, but to sell more guns. And all their 'solutions' reach the same goal. If even trained cops cowers away from school shootings, tell me what would arming teachers with weapons achieve, beyond securing new streams of revenues for them, and funded by taxpayers?

History will look back at lawmakers who today broadcast NRA's corrupt narratives the way people look today at those who defended Big Tobacco and helped them cause hundreds of thousands of deaths that should have been prevented.

Change must also come within the NRA, which evolved into a dangerous caricature of itself, like Billy Graham's movement under his son's helm (now a fundamentalist program fueling hatred against other religions). That's possible because there will be more money to make in the pedagogy around guns than in their sales.


blogules 2018
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!! and Twitter (@stephanemot, @blogules)

Follow Us

* a.k.a. Florida, see "Red blogule to the Gunshine State - shootfirstlaw.org Hammered down by the NRA"

Mitt Romney detonates himself, the fifth victim of the Benghazi attack

Mitt Romney officially became the fifth casualty in the Benghazi attack, and he did that to himself in a defining moment of the presidential campaign.

This was not about who knew what when, nor even about winning an argument: the Republican candidate simply proved unfit for the job, and certainly not credible as a potential Commander in Chief. Barack Obama was not just "presidential", he was The President, the man in charge, a world leader strong on principles, doubtless about what he stands for, confident in his ability to cope and to deliver.

Romney blindly persisted in the very role he was asked to distance himself from: a partisan, non-presidential candidate, barking where national unity is required, positioning himself at a lower level than his rival, and ultimately losing face when moderator Candy Crowley delivered the independent verdict: I checked the facts, and the president is right on that one, you just lost the elections.

After the debate, I shortly switched to Fox News. Somebody obviously died in the family, they all looked like they were at a funeral. 

Only 20 tweets during the debate? I'm getting rusty

I presume the former BCG exec heard about the Peter Principle but today, he faced his own incompetence. And body languages spoke volumes: a 65 year old businessman without a vision for the future and without a clue about what public service means, facing a strong, consistent, wise world leader leagues above him.

From the start, Mitt Romney didn't seem on a good day: when he came forward to answer the first question, he did it a bit awkwardly, then he shot his rehearsed story too fast for it to seem natural. The former Governor fared better later in the debate, but remained mostly on the defensive, even on his supposedly own turf.

And this time, Barack Obama was there, and enjoying the debate.

Yes, again, he missed easy opportunities, juicy, low hanging fruits any trained debater would die for. Again, he wasn't the one who raised the 47% issue. And sticking to economics when it came to similarities between George W. Bush and W. Mitt Romney... how about values and contradictions, how about foreign policy? Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize, restored America's honor worldwide, and got Bin Laden. The overwhelming majority of Romney advisors on foreign policy worked for Bush-Cheney, and last summer, Romney himself almost provoked a war with England!

But Barack was there, back with his mojo, his bright eyes, his firm coolness.

And there was the defining moment when Romney detonated himself.

Who cares what happened before and after? Who cares if Romney persisted in his outrageous sales pitches? Who cares if Obama oopsed a "when I was President"? Who cares if the NRA supports Romney more than ever after that chat on gun control?

By the way: I must praise Candy Crowley for her choice of questions from the audience. Without her, this kind of critical issues would have been obliterated from the campaign.

There was a moment when I thought the moderator lost the control of the debate, and when both candidates where getting at each other at close range in an inaudible non-dialog, I was hoping she'd come up and say "hey kids, recess is over, back to work". But she eventually stood up and won the day.

Now back to work, indeed. Everybody. Barack Obama in the White House, where he belongs. Mitt Romney back to Bain and the Caymans, where he belongs. And the Republicans back to the drawing board, as far from the White House and the Congress as possible, where they belong until they - at long last*! - reform the GOP into a party fit to govern.


blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!! and Twitter (@stephanemot, @blogules)

* see "Grand Old Parting: fix your party before causing more damage to your country"

---
(UPDATE) illustration: twitter posts during the debate  (@stephanemot)

Bawling for Columbine

"Bawling for Columbine: if you plan to go to a mall or a movie theater, check the NRA forecast first (Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, or any other hatemonger will do)."

One more tragedy, this time in Aurora, CO. Even if the Rush-Aurora connection is less direct than the Sarah-Tucson one (Limbaugh ranted at the Bane-Bain villain in the latest Batman movie, Palin at Gabrielle Giffords herself), gun control - or lack of - remain the issue.

Gun control is to weapons what democracy is to politics. The NRA imposture is undermining democracy.

(20120722 UPDATE)

Join the Brady Campaign petition to demand Congress stop arming dangerous people: http://www.bradycampaign.org/dangerouspeople

blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!!

Blood Libel

Precooked Palisms tend to go in pairs. A couple of years ago, McCain campaign came up with "gotcha politics" when journalists couldn't get any decent answer from the Veep candidate.

Now Palin staff produced a splendid "blood libel" to retali/refudiate/whateverate against those who accused her and fellow hatemongering FOXnews barkers of fueling violence. Vintage Karl Rove 101 : when accused of being an enemy of democracy, I call my accusers by the same names, with a marketing gimmick for the general public to memorize the expression.

Sarah Palin didn't pull the trigger : Jared Lee Loughner did. But politicians are responsible for what they say and the laws they vote for.

Just days before the shooting, GOP paraded at the Congress reading the Constitution, but they would have read a Lehman Brothers brochure or a NRA leaflet with more conviction.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle Giffords is fighting for her own life. Without any gun. Without any two-penny, double-barrelled palinism.

blogules 2011

John Thune raises his profile and his guns

Senator John Thune's idea of raising his GOP profile is to raise his guns : the Republican Policy Committee Chairman from South Dakota wants to allow gun owners to carry concealed firearms into states with similar gun regulations.

In other words : Weapons of Mass Destruction will pass seamlessly between members of the Axis of Smith & Wesson.

This just follows a law allowing guns in National Parks (see "Open Season for Yosemite Sam"). I mean come on : the only political platform these guys seem to consider is a shooting gallery ! Don't be evil, GOPgle !

I'm sure Rush & co are wetting their pants just thinking about promising solutions to unemployment and depression (feeling depressed ? press the trigger and put a hole in'em vagrants on the dole !)... but I keep wondering what kind of vision of politics and education people like Thune have in mind.

John Thune's vision of the future ? Don't look further than the sight at the end of his gun.

Prisoner Of Wasilla - A short sighted Maverick

John McCain is a POW now. Prisoner Of Wasilla, he'll have to go all the way to November with the caricature of a Veep he picked in a last minute "hail Maria pass" (as Jonathan Atler splendidly put it).

Old Noah had to fill his Arch before the Gustav flood, but didn't have enough time to find a member of each species. With Sarah Palin, he filled a few checkboxes in one shot : Mac is targeting hardcore Hillarists ? Palin is a woman. Mac is turning 72 ? Palin is 44. Mac wants to rally ultraconservatives ? Palin is a mother of 5, against abortion rights, and a NRA activist. Mac wants to please Bush's fundamentalist base ? Palin prones the teaching of creationism / Intelligent Design at school.

Even better : as Mark Brown put it, "Palin gives them the reason (excuse?) they needed to vote for McCain, assuming they weren't already there. Now they won't be voting AGAINST the black man. They'll be voting FOR the woman." So the Palin quick fix is solving both the gender and race issues. Another way for McCain of evading the direct comparison with Obama.

Brilliant...

And pathetic.

This isn't a daring move but a purely defensive, tactical, and short sighted one. The kind of moves a cornered rookie chess player would try in an embarrassingly childish final display of bravado. John McCain has no long term vision whatsoever : he is simply everyday more desperate to please everybody, everyday more hollow and inconsistent.

Mac says he’s been keeping an eye on his Pal for years, but he actually met her 6 months ago, and called her only once about the job*. The "maverick" is gone, replaced by either a compulsive gambler, or someone who totally despises the Vice Presidency (after all, this very man already delivered a cristal clear definition for the job : "The vice president has two duties : one is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to attend the funerals of Third World dictators").

What a contrast with the Obama - Biden ticket ! Barack chose Joe because he respected him for his judgement and his ability to challenge him a positive way for the good of the country, like a trustable and unbiased partner would do.

McCain-Palin ? They don’t respect each other. They don’t even know each other, never worked together. Can’t work together... unless, of course, John McCain decides to give up totally to his darker side, and accepts to lose the McCainistan war. I don't know whether he's lost his bearings, but I hope Independents won't lose theirs and follow such a dangerous path.

Let Obama take care of him in the Presidential debates.

Meanwhile, Hillary has unfinished job to do and I expect her to come out and expose Palin's imposture (she personifies what feminists abhorr : a former beauty queen**, a militant against abortion rights, a NRA activist willing to nuke Roe vs Wade). That would prove she really meant what the said the other night.

Before Hurricane Hillary touches down, the McCain-Palin duet intends to surf on Hurricane Gustav, the perfect Weapon of Mass Distraction : imagine them facing the elements in a spectacular New Orleans acceptance speech - what a dramatic, un-Conventional, un-big-stadium-extravaganza change ! The perfect PR op' at the best moment.

And far less risky than facing a mob of dubious and angry Reps.

* read "The story behind the Palin surprise" (Jonathan Martin on Politico 20080829)
** When you say "I think that’s a pretty, pretty event-filled and record-filled resume", are you talking about the Miss Wasilla 1984 line, John ? Do you really believe in this "agent of change" who doesn't understand evolution ?, this untested, small town celeb one heartbeat away of leading 300 million Americans ?

Red blogule to die hard habits - blood on your face, big disgrace

At last, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the club of the really tough guys : instead of injecting steroïds in his own body, he had something more directly lethal injected in the body of Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Driving a Hummer wasn't enough for a Prez candidate, especially one pushing a rather environmentaly ambitious agenda ; hardliners prefer Gubernator when he's praising Adolf Hitler or when he's actually killing some punk (even without using his NRA right to shoot). Am I my brother's keeper ? Am I my Beta Kappa ? You are a beta beta now, Arnie ; welkome to the Fraternity.
At last, Saudi Arabians are diversifying their economy : instead of leading the world in oil production, they're going for a much more noble output : fertilizers. Smart move : at least, next generations will still find some stinking stuff when they dig their deserts.

Red blogule to the Gunshine State - shootfirstlaw.org Hammered down by the NRA

Remember this excellent ad sponsored by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence ? Well. One week after its publication, theShootFirstLaw.org website is down... or should I say it's been Hammered down ?
I would then pay a well deserve tribute to a former NRA president, Marion P. Hammer, now head of Unified Sportsmen of Florida and the main lobbyist behind this amazing law signed by Jeb Bush last april ("44" proudly declared the so called "Castle Doctrine" a "good, common sense, anti-crime issue").
The crime is to let these gangsters run the country. The Far West is heading further to the extreme right and still no sheriff in sight.
And where on Earth are the Dems ? They should be the ones shooting on sight : consider what a Rove could do with all the material this excuse for an administration delivers every day, how come no Dove is able to expose it ?