I have to admit Gnusies, looking for good news was not fun for this post. As with all of you, I feel such heartbreak for this country. The mass shootings are just one of the horrific things we face, yet also the most disturbing. I have lived through a lot of political turmoil but I have seen nothing on this level before in my lifetime. On the other hand where evil raises it’s ugly head, there is always those who stand up for goodness and fight to overcome what is being wrought on the vulnerable and innocent among us, they fight to right the injustice, they fight to right the world. Out of darkness sunshine will push through. You here at the GNR are the sunshine and we will push through, one post at a time.
Onward...
Quick note, with our awesome CC celebrating her 100th post, I realized August 1st was my one year GNR blogavversary (whatever sp :) ), time flies with all you amazing people!
First up, 2 former rethugs see the light.
Former GOP Rep To Dems: 'Beat The Republicans. Beat Every Single One Of Them.'
Former Republican Representative from Florida, David Jolly, dropped the bluntest of truths on Deadline White House yesterday. After back-to-back mass shootings over the weekend, the third mass shooting in the span of a week, Jolly had the most emotional and brutal assessments of his former political party. Nicolle Wallace expressed appreciation for Beto O'Rourke's response to a reporter's inane, predictable question about the domestic terrorist slaughtering 22 now in El Paso, and his calling out the media for asking questions to which they already knew the answer. But Jolly's evaluation went further.
Jolly acknowledged this was a chance for the candidates to be authentic and show what kind of leader they'd be. But he does not want us to forget the REPUBLICANS' role in this. Their inaction. Their silence.
JOLLY: I find myself today offering the same insight I did at the night of the Parkland shooting a few hours from our home in Florida, which is this: Republicans will NEVER do anything on gun control, nothing, EVER. They won't. Think about Las Vegas. They did nothing when 500 people were injured. The Pulse nightclub, 50 killed. The question for the nation was, do we allow suspected terrorists to buy firearms? Republicans did nothing. Parkland, they did nothing. Emanuel AME in South Carolina, nothing. Go to Sandy Hook in Connecticut, nothing. Jewish temple in Pittsburgh, nothing. Jewish temple in San Diego, nothing. Sutherland Springs, evangelical church in Texas, nothing. Now you have Texas, now you have Ohio in the same weekend and all we get is silence. I say that because if this is the issue that forms your ideology as a voter the strength to draw in this moment is to commit to BEATING Republicans, BEAT them. Beat every single one of them. Even the safe ones in the House, BEAT them. Beat them in the SENATE. Take back the Senate.
“Former Rep. Scott Rigell was shocked his fellow Republicans wouldn’t agree to keep guns away from criminals after the Sandy Hook shooting. He doesn’t think anything has changed”.
This Republican Was Attacked For Pushing Gun Control Legislation. He Doesn’t Think His Party Can Pass Even Commonsense Laws.
In the wake of back-to-back mass shootings, some lawmakers are looking to tighten gun laws, but one former Republican member says Congress won’t pass gun control now because his party couldn’t get the most “benign” things done after Sandy Hook.
Former representative Scott Rigell, who represented an Eastern Virginia district from 2011 to 2017, said Republicans won’t move on gun control because they're told not to politicize gun tragedy, pointing to Congress’s history of failed gun control attempts, all of which have been blocked by Republican leaders since the Sandy Hook shooting. The three-term Congress member faced opposition from fellow Republicans and pro-gun organizations when he tried to cross the aisle to pass gun control.
“There was no appetite — zero — for advancing any substantive legislation like the legislation that I proposed with [Democratic Rep.] Elijah Cummings, even though it was very, in my view, benign,” Rigell told BuzzFeed News on Monday.
“I mean, we’re talking about, by definition, the people I was going after were criminals,” Rigell told BuzzFeed News. “They were criminals. That was the definition we were using, so I thought, Well, who’s going to have a problem going after criminals and increasing the penalty for criminals?
“But my own party was,” he added. “They had no interest in advancing that.”
But, this…
Republicans Fear ‘Extinction in the Suburbs’ Over Gun Control
After two gruesome mass shootings in a 24-hour span, some Republicans are raising alarms that their opposition to new firearm limits is making the party toxic to the suburban women and college graduates who will shape the 2020 election.
“Republicans are headed for extinction in the suburbs if they don’t distance themselves from the NRA. The GOP needs to put forth solutions to help eradicate the gun violence epidemic,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor and oil-and-gas executive who supports President Donald Trump.
“The GOP needs to make several moves such as universal background checks, eliminating loopholes and banning military-style assault weapons to neutralize the issue,” he said. “Otherwise, Republicans will lose suburban voters just like they did in the midterms on health care.”
They never will because Moscow Mitch Mcturtle Face will never allow it and I hope the rethug party rots in hedoublehockeysticks.
Well Mexico is not building the wall, and they are now ever more ticked off.
Mexican government seeks justice in wake of El Paso terrorist attack
Thoughts and prayers. Video games are fucking folks up. He's white so let's call it mental illness. Apologists for the far right talking shit. It's always the same song and dance anytime some asshole with a credit card buys an assault rifle to do what they feel entitled to do to innocent souls. As an outsider who watches terrorist acts like the one that unfold unfolded in El Paso this past weekend, one after another, it's a tune that I'm tired of hearing.
That's not the case, however, where a grieving nation is concerned. During the El Paso terrorist attack, seven Mexican nationals were killed. Six were wounded. Their nation's government, in their grief, has decided that it's had enough.
Mexico is implementing it’s own investigation and could extradite the arse to face trial there.
Oh, and the NRA, thoughts and F them.
NRA deals with internal turmoil as gun control activists call for reform
A silent protest outside the National Rifle Association's Virginia headquarters capped a summer of turmoil within.
"When I see the scale of the personal indulgences, the cronyism, it's really disappointing," said Rob Pincus, a longtime NRA member and firearms instructor in Florida.
While the NRA opposes universal background checks, congressional backers now see an opening.
"Their day has come. Their day is over. We can get this done," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Boo Hoo Not.
I know there are problem with the video game community but to always blame this on them and not on the real problem just really strikes my nerves. I have 3 sons and now a grand son who just love gaming, they are not shooting at crowds of people.
Millions of gamers manage not to shoot people. #VideoGamesAreNotToBlame is for them.
In the wake of two mass shootings over the weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, public debate has broken out yet again over the societal role of video games — as manifested in two competing hashtags: #VideoGamesAreNotToBlame and #VideoGamesAreToBlame.
But blaming video games for gun violence is a longstanding political meme whose origins predate the Columbine shooting, 20 years ago. The moral panic over video games is part of a larger recurring wave of hysteria aimed at what’s seen as subversive culture, from rock ’n’ roll to the occult, that spans decades.
Equally full of comedy and frustration, the trending hashtags encapsulate the public’s exasperation with the whole topic. After all, we’ve heard both sides of this argument all before, and the recurring video game debate is part of a larger, frustrating cycle of political debate that leaves us nowhere on the main issue of gun control.
The main argument driving these dueling hashtags isn’t actually about whether video games are or aren’t to blame: It’s that, regardless of the root causes of violence, America needs stronger gun control.
No brainer, right?
This just cracked me up, but also a liberal country singer, yass.
30 to 50 feral hogs, explained
It all began with a simple question to alt-country singer-songwriter Jason Isbell from William McNabb, an Arkansas resident who describes himself on his Twitter page as “Husband / Father / Christian / Libertarian / WCU [West Carolina University] Alum / & Fan of Pearl Jam & Red Sox”
Isbell had, like many celebrities, expressed support for gun control (specifically a ban on assault weapons) in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings.
So McNabb attempted to rebut him by naming a legitimate reason to own AR-15s and other advanced semiautomatic rifles: mowing down the feral hogs that menace him and his young children.
Unfortunately for McNabb, the mental image of a violent army of pigs facing off against one AR-15-wielding hero quickly got the better of Twitter and, before long, it was trending nationwide with over 50,000 tweets.
They were good tweets. It was probably the only good day on Twitter in the website’s history. And it wasn’t just Twitter. There is already an interactive web game where players can defend their small children from 30 to 50 hogs.
Sorry, no goats in that story.
The Tangerine Tool is not very welcome in the communities affected by gun violence this past weekend, who would have thought…
Dayton Mayor Will Tell Trump ‘How Unhelpful He’s Been’ On Guns During His Visit
Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday dismissed President Donald Trump’s response to the shooting in her city that left nine people dead after a gunman opened fire outside a bar in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Speaking to reporters, Whaley said she intended to tell the president “how unhelpful he’s been on this” when he visits Wednesday.
El Paso massacre puts freshman Rep. Escobar in consoler role
Long before then, Escobar took on Trump for his immigration policy and his denigration of Mexicans as rapists. In June 2018, she and O'Rourke led protests against Trump's family separation policy.
And when Trump in his State of the Union address falsely attributed El Paso's designation as a safe city to its border fencing, Escobar, seated on the House floor, looked exasperated and openly scoffed.
Now, she says she won't attend Trump's visit to the city Wednesday unless she has "the opportunity to talk directly to him."
What would she say? She sees a connection between the way the gunman saw his victims in Walmart and the language Trump uses to talk about immigrants as an infestation and an invasion.
She said she would tell the Republican president: "I need you to acknowledge that you've dehumanized people who are good and equal to all of us. And you need to rehumanize everyone."
On Tuesday, Escobar said the White House had told her Trump "is 'too busy' to have that conversation."
"I refuse to be an accessory to his visit," Escobar tweeted. "I refuse to join without a dialogue about the pain his racist and hateful words & actions have caused our community and country."
Out of darkness comes positive actions.
11-year-old El Paso boy creates #ElPasoChallenge calling for 22 acts of kindness in honor of those who lost their lives
They day after the shooting, when Ruben began to ask his mom even more questions about why the shooting happened and what he could do to help, Gandarilla challenged her son to think of an idea that would “show the kindness of El Paso.”
Nearly 30 minutes later, Ruben, an incoming sixth grader, emerged with a notebook full of ideas. At the top of the notebook he had written out a hashtag, #ElPasoChallenge.
Ruben’s challenge is for people to do 22 good deeds or acts of kindness in memory of the 22 people killed in the shooting.
On Saturday, a gunman killed 22 and wounded dozens in a shooting in El Paso, Texas. The next day, a team of specially trained "facility dogs" arrived to help provide comfort to those impacted by the traumatic event.
The pups, Chanel, Lady and Rudy, have been hard at work since they arrived, with the hospital system's
Facebook page posting regular updates featuring the dogs posing with first responders. One post shows two of the dogs posing next to three men who appear to be firefighters on a fire truck.
"They are already providing their unconditional love and support to first responders helping them cope through this traumatic time,"
Puppy break:
Well, well, well…
Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), chairman of a subcommittee with oversight of federal courts, made the request. Activist groups have long been demanding an investigation into Kavanaugh’s background, claiming the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to carry one out before approving his nomination last year.
The committee is seeking Kavanaugh’s records from his time in the White House counsel’s office from 2001 to 2003 and in his role as staff secretary from 2003 to 2006. It is pursuing these records as part of its review of ethics and transparency legislation for the Supreme Court, according to the request letter. The letter further states that the committee’s request also relates to its oversight of judicial misconduct and the organization of the Supreme Court.
“This is a critical first step in conducting the real investigation of Brett Kavanaugh that Senate Republicans prevented from happening last year,” Brian Fallon, executive director at Demand Justice, the liberal judicial activist group leading calls for an investigation into Kavanaugh, said in a statement. “We applaud House Democrats for demanding such documents and urge that they be turned over immediately and released to the public in full.
Some one has to do it:
Former DHS, intelligence leaders launch group to protect presidential campaigns from foreign interference
Two former Homeland Security secretaries, along with other former top intelligence officials, launched a non-profit group on Tuesday intended to protect presidential campaigns from foreign interference, such as cyber attacks, at no cost.
The new U.S. CyberDome group’s Board of Advisors will be chaired by former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson, who served under former President Obama.
The former leaders put together the organization due to alarm over how exposed political campaigns were to cyber interference and the lack of protection available to campaigns and voters to protect against these threats. It will work with charities and other donors to provide funding for cyber protections for presidential campaigns.
Keep fighting ACLU!
Judge Blocks 3 Arkansas Abortion Restrictions From Taking Effect
A federal judge temporarily blocked three Arkansas abortion restrictions from going into effect on Tuesday, including one that would ban most abortion at 18 weeks of pregnancy.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker’s decision is in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood on behalf of Little Rock Family Planning Services, one of just three abortion providers in the state and the only one providing surgical abortions.
Though she is taking more time to review the case, Baker said in her 186-page ruling that, so far, the plaintiffs have made the more compelling case.
Neat science news.
Tardigrades, the toughest animals on Earth, have crash-landed on the moon
In 1983, a team of Japanese scientists on a journey through Antarctica happened upon a pile of moss harboring a strange, strange creature.
Living in the moss were tardigrades, millimeter-long animals that resembled teddy bears crossed with caterpillars. The tardigrades (sometimes called “water bears”) and the moss they were found in were wrapped in paper, placed in plastic baggies, and locked away in a -4 degrees Fahrenheit freezer. There they remained — frozen and forgotten — for more than 30 years.
This sounds like the start of a horror movie. But rest assured: When scientists thawed the tardigrades in 2014, the microscopic animals did not seek vengeance upon humanity for their imprisonment. Instead, they moseyed around on a plate of agar gel like nothing had happened. And then they reproduced.
In April, the lunar lander Beresheet — a privately funded Israeli project — crashed on the moon. The mission originally started as a contender for the Google Lunar X prize, a contest to land a privately made robot on the moon before a 2018 deadline. As The Verge’s Loren Grush explains, it wasn’t a very robust scientific mission: It had planned to run some simple tests on the moon’s magnetism. The mission was more a proof of concept that ambitious space exploration can take place outside of big government programs.
Sadly, the craft crash-landed due to a computer error.
But a part of the mission lives on.
Awww...
More awww…
Most of you have more than likely already seen the Ben Folds Five Moscow Mitch video, but here is another take, h/t x15gal.
Your 3 weekly to-dos
- Check out our new toolkit to fight back against Trump’s racist deportation machine and start planning your September Defund Hate Week of Action event now. This September’s work on the budget will be the biggest advocacy fight of this year -- and there’s so much at stake. As our MoCs return to DC next month, we are organizing a national week of action for our Defund Hate campaign. The week of action starts with a national call-in day on Monday, September 9, and will build up to a major, nationwide mobilization on Friday, September 13. Start planning now to tell your MoC to cut funding for ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the upcoming Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill.
- This August, demand your representative publicly support a formal impeachment inquiry in the House. We’re proud to partner with MoveOn, Need to Impeach, Stand Up America, and others on the Impeachment August campaign. The ask is simple: find a town hall or register your own district office visit and demand that your representative in the House support a formal impeachment inquiry. As of today, a majority of House Democrats support an inquiry -- but we need many, many more to speak out to guarantee we learn the truth about Trump’s crime and corruption.
- Use this script to call your senators now to say their thoughts and prayers are not enough. After the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton this weekend, every senator should publicly demand Mitch McConnell call an emergency session to debate and vote on gun violence prevention legislation AND cosponsor S. 42, which would close loopholes and require background checks for all gun purchases. Read more in our updated resource here.
Follow Yosef52 for all the ways we can GOTV or 2020!
Join Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights
Well that is it for me, sorry for the focus on the weekend news but it has been hard.
I hope you will all share your good news, looking forward to it.
Peace!