More mass murder by a right-wing fanatic in Pittsburgh. This one is clearly driven by anti-semitic bigotry. We’re getting the usual excuses.
This is an absolute tragedy. These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans. My thoughts right now are focused on the victims, their families and making sure law enforcement has every resource they need.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) October 27, 2018
The governor of Pennsylvania says “These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans.” I wish that would go away. It is who we are as Americans — we’ve got a few perpetrators and a vast mob of people who are fully supportive of allowing weapons available to any one — they’re enablers. We’re living in a violent country where the people in power want to encourage more violence.
Like our president*.
Trump says
protection inside the templewould have changed things…if the Pittsburgh synagogue that was attacked by a gunman on Oct. 27 had armed security,the results would have been far better.
We will solve our problems with guns with more guns. Right.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/27/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting
IIRC, that’s part of his boilerplate response, which is totally not stigmatizing mentally ill people.
And the “solution” is for all religious gatherings to be held under armed guard. (To heck with the Atheists of course). Because we totally want to live under armed guard at all times and we welcome the Police State, right?
Yeah, where are our leaders?
Oh, that’s right. They are at the bank making money. Well! That is WAY more important than actually ensuring the safety and normal lives of the regular folks. I mean… the regular folks are not rich so who cares, amirite? After all: I pledge allegiance to the Buck of the United States of America, and to the Credit Cards for which it stands, one nation, under Gold, in dividends, with liberty and justice for some. for those who are sarcasm impaired.
OK. That should have had {/sarcasm} right after “for some.” but apparently I used the wrong tags. SIGH.
It seems clear, from the outside, that right wing Americans will not be happy until every single building, sports arena, park, school, university, hospital, church, is full of heavily armed guards and just as heavily armed people. Hell of a way to live, guys.
At least neither Wolf nor Trump™ asserted that the worshippers would have lived if they’d only had more faith…
The gentle journey jars to stop;
The drifting dream is done.
The long-gone goblins loom ahead.
The deadly, who we thought were dead,
Stand waiting, every one.
Walt Kelly, “For Lewis Carroll and the Children” (mid-50s)
I feel like I’m living in hell. And there’s every possibility that it will go right on, with the Republicans keeping the House and Senate, with Trump winning a second term, and the killings, ignorance, arrogance and anti-science sentiment moving ahead as if we’ve learned NOTHING. Where is the military? Aren’t they supposed to protect us against threats foreign and DOMESTIC? Is there no end to this madness?
Whoa, whoa, there, PZ. Too soon! Too soon! All the GOPers haven’t had time to get their thoughts and prayers in order yet.
Good questions Weylguy I think we are screwed. These folks in office only care about money and power.
I can see this slow-motion train wreck coming from a mile away, powerless against the seething hoards. Unless the dems wake up big time.
One of those “very good folx on both sides” I hear tell about.
There were a lot of good guys with guns at the scene.
The police and a SWAT team.
Four of them were wounded while 11 other people were killed.
Armed guards won’t help too much if they get taken out by gunfire first.
Maybe.
I’m just going to echo the others.
Do we want to live in a society where all public places have armed guards?
The churches, synagogues, Temples, libraries, schools, McDonalds, Walmart, the post office, etc..
Do we even have enough armed guards for all those places? And money since they aren’t going to work for free?
PS I’m as tired and bored with Trump as I’ve been with anyone ever. He’s a dumb guy who just babbles a lot, very little of which intersects with reality.
Yeah, I feel the same way these days.
This is the third right wingnut atrocity this week.
The Florida man pipe bomber.
Two old Black people killed in a store.
And 11 dead in a PIttsburgh synagogue.
With every right wingnut atrocity, the right wingnuts just double down and scream “false flag, and blame it on Hillary, Obama, and Soros.
To borrow a phrase from another bad time that I lived through, there is so far, no light at the end of the tunnel.
@14 raven:
The idea is that everyone has a gun, so anyone there at the time of a shooting becomes an impromptu, unpaid security guard. Of course, anyone witnessing the rise of these civilian defenders can’t tell them apart from the instigator, so they draw their guns on the makeshift guards. Soon enough you have gunfights roaming around like storm fronts, which the good guys can avoid by listening to shootout forecasts the bad guys are too busy to pay attention to, and the problem solves itself.
Tempus loquendi, tempus tacendi. The trick is knowing which.
Trump doesn’t think that way, and neither do his followers. They’re having a rally tonight. “Lock her up!”
Well, we shouldn’t mimic foolish people. Gentle as doves and shrewd as serpents; that’s one thing the bible got right.
@weylguy, the military is either deployed or on their bases, where they belong. The military has no place policing our streets, per the Posse Commitatus Act, which explicitly prohibits that.
@10, I totally concur.
#5 omnomnomdeplume:
I imagine trumpists are thinking that arrangement puts us halfway to Gilead, so it’s a win-win for them.
If there’s one thing Jews never get tired of, it’s being told that if only we’d fought back (insert bad thing here) would never have happened to us. It is something people have been saying, literally, since before there was an English language to say it in.
@5 nomdeplume It would certainly help the unemployment numbers.
@14 raven If too many of you (Americans that is) get tired and bored with Trump, you could end up with him as dictator for life. Stay awake!
@11 willj The word you need is hordes.
Here in Australia one of the few good things prime minister John Howard achieved was gun control. Semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns were banned. There is a political party here (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, our equivalent of your NRA) which is attempting to have those laws overturned. They have some representation in the state governments but haven’t achieved more than 0.3% of the national vote. I know you think you live in the best country in the world, but I’d rather be here than there. The thought of being involved in a mass shooting isn’t even at the back of one’s mind for most Australians.
Seriously? This is the world Trump and Republicans want? Every temple, church, synagogue, mosque, etc staffed with armed guards? I remember being greeted and welcomed at the doors to the church by ushers handing out the weekly bulletin and a photocopy of the day’s hymns, I can’t fathom those doors flanked by guards in Kevlar, wielding assault weapons.Or maybe they’ll be sneaky and just hide snipers among the organ’s pipes.
That’s what I call the “shoot-out at the OK Corral” approach to self-protection.