We have a denier problem, not unknown from the past. This type of indiscrimant slaughter was a daily practice in Nazi Germany. Many in society turned away and even denied that something horrific was happening.
When the U.S. and British troops came to free the Nazi concentration camps, residents of nearby towns and villages were taken through the camps. Many had denied that something horrific was happening and more than a few actually benefited from the money the SS troops spent locally.
Rep. Burchett's comments are unbefitting someone in his position. He is one of only 535 Americans at the highest place in our society. Those elected to Congress are there to govern effectively and solve problems not retreat into denial and fatalism.
Tragically through gerrymandering, incompetent creatures get voted into office. I’d venture a guess that well below 50% of those eligible voted in the 2022 election in his district!!!
Let’s face it- according to Republicans, gun ownership is a “ god given “ right and basically who cares if children are killed as collateral damage in their fetish worship of flesh destroying weapons of war. They blame everything and everyone under the sun but not the reality of irresponsible gun sales, gun ownership and lax gun laws. After the announcement of this latest gun atrocity I watched the business as usual responses from Republican empty mouth pieces and told my daughter “ well, so much for anything getting done on gun legislation, sadly on to the next massacre “. And we know now to expect another mass shooting. It’s our gun fetishized culture ingrained into our DNA for many Americans. I honestly don’t care if someone has legally obtained hunting rifles, antique collections or whatever as long as they are registered, and proper storage is used. But I object to the availability of weapons of war that are designed to inflict massive damage to humans. They should not be available at all. I really don’t care if gun nuts object to restrictive access to certain death machines, too bad. My grandchildren and great grandchildren’s right to exist and go to school safely and for all of us to live our lives without fear of being wiped out by a “ machine gun “ supersedes somebody’s wrong headed 2nd amendment beliefs. Because let’s face it- they are wrong about the 2nd amendment allowing anyone other than under military conditions to use what would be considered weapons of war. As long as legislators are bought and sold by the NRA and gun companies “thoughts and prayers “ are the only solutions they offer. Unfortunately it will probably be the younger generation that have been in the trenches experiencing the carnage who may hopefully change our country to sane gun policy.
Simple solution: Ban all assault weapons. Give civilians 6 weeks to turn them in for a buyback. After that, anyone caught with one gets, upon conviction, a mandatory 25-year sentence. Of course this won't happen but, in a sane country, it's not that hard.
The self-proclaimed "pro-life" party is also the self-proclaimed "second amendment" party supporting unrestricted access to any and all fire arms. Given the fact that gun related deaths are currently the number one cause of childhood deaths in the U.S., these two positions are irreconcilable to any rational mind, the insanity is undeniable.
The anti-woke rhetoric of protecting children by legislating against books, drag queens, history, etc. must be countered and exposed for the hypocrisy that it is. The focus must be on protecting the lives of real children who already exist providing them not only in a safe society, but also seeing that each has access to safe shelter, healthy food, unlimited health care, and a survivable world in which to live.
I support the comment that exposing Congress to the consequences of the slaughter of children by these weapons may be the place to start.
We need to expose the voters to the carnage. The Legislators are influenced by the money only. They are exposed as deficient in human empathy and morals already. Any changes they would express would be tempered by their skills in lying.
It was the journalism in Vietnam that printed photos of that poor child burned by napalm that fueled the push to end the war. The military since restricted journalist access to war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan for this reason. I feel the current restrictions are playing into these murdering liars hands as they are able to say that the school shootings are fake and they are actors. This has got to end and the people who are in fantasy land need to come back to reality. Those that are fighting for military grade weapons are not patriots or protecting the 2nd amendment, they are traitors planning to overthrow Democracy.
Agreed! Several years ago, a member of the pro football team was accused of beating his girlfriend! Not until a video of him hitting her was released did the NFL and the team discipline him!
These legislators with their blase attitudes and their matter of fact ‘ we cant get rid of criminals’ lines, they just do me in .
These are little children who obeyed the law and went to school did not know that they would loose their lives that day because Republicans cannot bear to look at life without guns.
What a choice we make when we choose deadly hardware over kids lives.
The descriptions of the damage done to a human body should make us all ready to do what needs to be done so kids can be relieved of some of their fears .
This attitude that ‘you cant beat these AR 15 toting individuals so might as well join them ‘ is ridiculous and just plain lazy and stunningly careless.
I wonder what the response would be if it was their child that was blown apart and never coming back .
Explain to another child that ‘we cant be rid of criminals , but go to school anyway .’
How about stop giving the criminals these horrifying weapons.
If laws don't stop criminals then why do we have any? And if we don't need any laws why do we need these morally deficient Legislators? I think he just talked his way out of the reason his job existed.
Images don't work. Didn't work for Emmett Till and won't work now. We desensitize very quickly. And worse (I really hate to say this but), the images end up on some sicko child porn site or in a video game. Yes, there's a first-person, virtual reality video game in which you are the Sandy Hook shooter. I've seen that one; I'm sure there are many more. What works is what Australia did; ban assault weapons. 60 Minutes did a great piece showing the difference between an AR-15 wound and a .22; .22 clean wound, straight through. AR-15? Literally blows your guts/brains to smithereens. No useful purpose whatsoever. Can't hunt, meat is no good. Maximum gore killing, that's all it is.
Why on Earth do Americans need AR15s or other weapon of war? You are right about desensitizing bloodshed in video games. It’s so sick!! I need to watch that 60 minutes.
In a capitalist society that is not a functioning democracy there are no governmental restrictions to profit maximization at any price and external costs, like a dead children are unimportant as it does not hinder profit taking. This mentality that so long as businesses generate profits for their owners who in turn generously donate a small portion to elected officials is not illegal is pervasive. A coal mine operator can have several hundred safety violoations and when there is the resulting "disaster" with hundreds of miners killed, no one goes to jail. Same applies to industrial pollution and medical fraud and hundreds of other crimes that go unpunished in the USA.
“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.” FDR 1938
The corporations of the 1% control Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court and the White House so the golden rule applies, with those having the gold making the rules.
Maternal mortality is 10 times higher in the United States than in Australia. The infant mortality rate is increasing each year. Life expectancy for the American worker is steadily declining. These are symptomatic of our fascist government. Few people appreciate that many leaders in the United States and the United Kingdom applauded the takeovers by Mussolini and Hitler and the Japanese military as it helps with profits when worker unions are banned and the use of slave labor is facilitated.
Thanks Thom: I a,m also listening to your show at the moment on Ch 9415, Freespeechtv. Dish network
One of your callers made a point about insurance. I don't think that you grabbed the gist of it all, as you rushed on past him to the next caller.
Here is why insurance companies would be motivated to use their money to bribe politicians,if not at the federal level then the state level, which is where all of the culture war starts.
The auto insurance industry pushed and lobbied states, ro require drives to be insured, then they did the same for seat belts and safety (to keep down pay outs).
The Insurance industry can use that same clout to require gun owners to be registered, and with them their guns.
In fact it is the car that is insured, not the owner, that doesn't stop some insurance companies from
rating your policy on the basis of drivers in the family.
Advertisers are increasingly using various cartoonish characters who are sometimes almost indistinguishable from real actors or models to hawk their products. Computer simulations are used for all sorts of imaging. This is a way to avoid having a specific parent make a sacrifice and a specific real victim’s body being depicted in a published photo. The visual imagery can be as graphic and horrifying as the photo editor or graphic artist chooses to make it, and the message would be just as powerful and searing. Once it is in circulation, it will be difficult to ignore and more likely to make an impression on people who haven’t become aware of the stark reality of this insane violence.
While we are on the topic of school shootings, I would be remiss if I did not talk about the one thing that is totally glossed over in this discussion EVERY SINGLE time. Schools have been targeted in every single case that I know of because of bitterness, rancor, and rage by students or former students because the way they were treated in those specific places. Most were rejected by others and many were bullied. Much of the frustration, humiliation, anger, and anxiety that these tortured souls experienced came from the clear failures of authorities, officials, and bureaucrats who knew certain of their students had major issues and problems but who chose to do nothing or felt powerless to do what should have been done to deal with alienation and marginalization. WHY DON’T WE TALK ABOUT THAT ON THIS SHOW SOMETIME???? Is talking about school failure too much of a sensitive topic even though it leads to mass murder and myriad other social conflicts and dislocations? Is neglecting that very real aspect any different than the Republicans blowing off the idea of gun proliferation as a root cause?
This is part of our neglect of both mental health issues and of the support of bullying. The schools do very little to discipline those kids who attack others, then the same kids grow up to brutalize their way to the top of our Corporations and Government. The focus is power, might makes right over service and morals.
You are right about the focus being power and might makes right over service and morals. However, the ancient canard about disciplining students and “mental health issues” is precisely how we got to this pathetic state of affairs. Discipline is absolutely essential. However, the application of “power” and the principle of “might makes right”, as in what the teacher says goes and authority is in place to enforce proper conduct is bass-ackwards and 180 degrees off the mark. The lesson of a top-down, authority-based paradigm is that bullying is okay as long as the bullies are smarter and superior and the whole enterprise is about sorting out those who are good and better from those who don’t quite measure up – and then administering negative consequences to the lesser individuals. Meanwhile, teachers and authorities are too preoccupied with their appointed and anointed duties and roles to notice that one-third of the class is not up to snuff and that some kids are receding into the background, while others are asserting their superior status. Even if they do notice and care, their hands are tied and there are other priorities upon which their very survival in the field depend. When school is about behavior modification and “education” mental health or other actual social services and compassionate attention are too complicated and insignificant to matter. The lives of children will never matter as long as the laws are in place which specifically establish their insignificance and subservience.
The best picture I saw was Joyce Vance yesterday had a picture of a little girl crying 😢 and holding up a cardboard sign saying "If I die in a school shooting leave my body on the steps of Congress "
Needs to be on billboards nationwide, especially in the DC area 😤 to get the message across ASAP
Yes exactly. We’ll always have criminals shouldn't mean that every criminal should have access to assault weapons but what a offhand dismissive comment by that legislator. Vote him out . Theres always that, too.
Before anyone suggests this route, I would like them to consider the times. What is the value of common decency in America in 2023? Didn't 75 million votes for Trump answer that question?
The only thing both sides can agree on is the mental health issue. Yes, there are some on the right fighting the red-flag laws, but not the majority of them. So if some brave "Mamie" out there decides to show the public in conjunction with a brave broadcaster, it would be wise to do a campaign that brings up the weapons, mental illness, and bullying.
Every part of what went into any child's murder must be addressed in a forthright manner. Just saying and showing what these weapons do will not resonate without the insanity involved. Each time someone on the right says guns are just a 2ND Amendment fact of life, we have to say so is mental illness and violence against the innocent.
Many of the parents have already become activists. Mamie Till Mobley did what she did without being asked and dedicated her life to the cause---what a hero!
We have a denier problem, not unknown from the past. This type of indiscrimant slaughter was a daily practice in Nazi Germany. Many in society turned away and even denied that something horrific was happening.
When the U.S. and British troops came to free the Nazi concentration camps, residents of nearby towns and villages were taken through the camps. Many had denied that something horrific was happening and more than a few actually benefited from the money the SS troops spent locally.
Rep. Burchett's comments are unbefitting someone in his position. He is one of only 535 Americans at the highest place in our society. Those elected to Congress are there to govern effectively and solve problems not retreat into denial and fatalism.
Tragically through gerrymandering, incompetent creatures get voted into office. I’d venture a guess that well below 50% of those eligible voted in the 2022 election in his district!!!
Let’s face it- according to Republicans, gun ownership is a “ god given “ right and basically who cares if children are killed as collateral damage in their fetish worship of flesh destroying weapons of war. They blame everything and everyone under the sun but not the reality of irresponsible gun sales, gun ownership and lax gun laws. After the announcement of this latest gun atrocity I watched the business as usual responses from Republican empty mouth pieces and told my daughter “ well, so much for anything getting done on gun legislation, sadly on to the next massacre “. And we know now to expect another mass shooting. It’s our gun fetishized culture ingrained into our DNA for many Americans. I honestly don’t care if someone has legally obtained hunting rifles, antique collections or whatever as long as they are registered, and proper storage is used. But I object to the availability of weapons of war that are designed to inflict massive damage to humans. They should not be available at all. I really don’t care if gun nuts object to restrictive access to certain death machines, too bad. My grandchildren and great grandchildren’s right to exist and go to school safely and for all of us to live our lives without fear of being wiped out by a “ machine gun “ supersedes somebody’s wrong headed 2nd amendment beliefs. Because let’s face it- they are wrong about the 2nd amendment allowing anyone other than under military conditions to use what would be considered weapons of war. As long as legislators are bought and sold by the NRA and gun companies “thoughts and prayers “ are the only solutions they offer. Unfortunately it will probably be the younger generation that have been in the trenches experiencing the carnage who may hopefully change our country to sane gun policy.
Simple solution: Ban all assault weapons. Give civilians 6 weeks to turn them in for a buyback. After that, anyone caught with one gets, upon conviction, a mandatory 25-year sentence. Of course this won't happen but, in a sane country, it's not that hard.
The majority is sane, we need to vote these idiots out.
That’s the crux of the issue, it is a minority of eligible votes who show up at the polls not a majority!
The self-proclaimed "pro-life" party is also the self-proclaimed "second amendment" party supporting unrestricted access to any and all fire arms. Given the fact that gun related deaths are currently the number one cause of childhood deaths in the U.S., these two positions are irreconcilable to any rational mind, the insanity is undeniable.
The anti-woke rhetoric of protecting children by legislating against books, drag queens, history, etc. must be countered and exposed for the hypocrisy that it is. The focus must be on protecting the lives of real children who already exist providing them not only in a safe society, but also seeing that each has access to safe shelter, healthy food, unlimited health care, and a survivable world in which to live.
I support the comment that exposing Congress to the consequences of the slaughter of children by these weapons may be the place to start.
We need to expose the voters to the carnage. The Legislators are influenced by the money only. They are exposed as deficient in human empathy and morals already. Any changes they would express would be tempered by their skills in lying.
Amazing how the alleged pro-life advocate sees no hypocrisy in also being pro-assault weapon!
Obviously, some lives don’t matter to them!!!
As I wrote last June after Uvalde, let's BEGIN with the folks in Congress and state legislatures -- a full viewing of faces and bodies that look like they've been through a Cuisinart: https://whowhatwhy.org/politics/a-thousand-words-why-every-senator-must-see-a-uvalde-corpse/.
It was the journalism in Vietnam that printed photos of that poor child burned by napalm that fueled the push to end the war. The military since restricted journalist access to war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan for this reason. I feel the current restrictions are playing into these murdering liars hands as they are able to say that the school shootings are fake and they are actors. This has got to end and the people who are in fantasy land need to come back to reality. Those that are fighting for military grade weapons are not patriots or protecting the 2nd amendment, they are traitors planning to overthrow Democracy.
Agreed: SHOW, don't tell.
Agreed! Several years ago, a member of the pro football team was accused of beating his girlfriend! Not until a video of him hitting her was released did the NFL and the team discipline him!
These legislators with their blase attitudes and their matter of fact ‘ we cant get rid of criminals’ lines, they just do me in .
These are little children who obeyed the law and went to school did not know that they would loose their lives that day because Republicans cannot bear to look at life without guns.
What a choice we make when we choose deadly hardware over kids lives.
The descriptions of the damage done to a human body should make us all ready to do what needs to be done so kids can be relieved of some of their fears .
This attitude that ‘you cant beat these AR 15 toting individuals so might as well join them ‘ is ridiculous and just plain lazy and stunningly careless.
I wonder what the response would be if it was their child that was blown apart and never coming back .
Explain to another child that ‘we cant be rid of criminals , but go to school anyway .’
How about stop giving the criminals these horrifying weapons.
If laws don't stop criminals then why do we have any? And if we don't need any laws why do we need these morally deficient Legislators? I think he just talked his way out of the reason his job existed.
Images don't work. Didn't work for Emmett Till and won't work now. We desensitize very quickly. And worse (I really hate to say this but), the images end up on some sicko child porn site or in a video game. Yes, there's a first-person, virtual reality video game in which you are the Sandy Hook shooter. I've seen that one; I'm sure there are many more. What works is what Australia did; ban assault weapons. 60 Minutes did a great piece showing the difference between an AR-15 wound and a .22; .22 clean wound, straight through. AR-15? Literally blows your guts/brains to smithereens. No useful purpose whatsoever. Can't hunt, meat is no good. Maximum gore killing, that's all it is.
Why on Earth do Americans need AR15s or other weapon of war? You are right about desensitizing bloodshed in video games. It’s so sick!! I need to watch that 60 minutes.
Once the decision is made to show these photos, the time and place for maximum affect will be chosen.
In my opinion, that time and place would be right next to M.T. Green and L. Boebart when they show their photos of fetuses.
In a capitalist society that is not a functioning democracy there are no governmental restrictions to profit maximization at any price and external costs, like a dead children are unimportant as it does not hinder profit taking. This mentality that so long as businesses generate profits for their owners who in turn generously donate a small portion to elected officials is not illegal is pervasive. A coal mine operator can have several hundred safety violoations and when there is the resulting "disaster" with hundreds of miners killed, no one goes to jail. Same applies to industrial pollution and medical fraud and hundreds of other crimes that go unpunished in the USA.
“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.” FDR 1938
The corporations of the 1% control Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court and the White House so the golden rule applies, with those having the gold making the rules.
Maternal mortality is 10 times higher in the United States than in Australia. The infant mortality rate is increasing each year. Life expectancy for the American worker is steadily declining. These are symptomatic of our fascist government. Few people appreciate that many leaders in the United States and the United Kingdom applauded the takeovers by Mussolini and Hitler and the Japanese military as it helps with profits when worker unions are banned and the use of slave labor is facilitated.
Thanks Thom: I a,m also listening to your show at the moment on Ch 9415, Freespeechtv. Dish network
One of your callers made a point about insurance. I don't think that you grabbed the gist of it all, as you rushed on past him to the next caller.
Here is why insurance companies would be motivated to use their money to bribe politicians,if not at the federal level then the state level, which is where all of the culture war starts.
The auto insurance industry pushed and lobbied states, ro require drives to be insured, then they did the same for seat belts and safety (to keep down pay outs).
The Insurance industry can use that same clout to require gun owners to be registered, and with them their guns.
In fact it is the car that is insured, not the owner, that doesn't stop some insurance companies from
rating your policy on the basis of drivers in the family.
Advertisers are increasingly using various cartoonish characters who are sometimes almost indistinguishable from real actors or models to hawk their products. Computer simulations are used for all sorts of imaging. This is a way to avoid having a specific parent make a sacrifice and a specific real victim’s body being depicted in a published photo. The visual imagery can be as graphic and horrifying as the photo editor or graphic artist chooses to make it, and the message would be just as powerful and searing. Once it is in circulation, it will be difficult to ignore and more likely to make an impression on people who haven’t become aware of the stark reality of this insane violence.
While we are on the topic of school shootings, I would be remiss if I did not talk about the one thing that is totally glossed over in this discussion EVERY SINGLE time. Schools have been targeted in every single case that I know of because of bitterness, rancor, and rage by students or former students because the way they were treated in those specific places. Most were rejected by others and many were bullied. Much of the frustration, humiliation, anger, and anxiety that these tortured souls experienced came from the clear failures of authorities, officials, and bureaucrats who knew certain of their students had major issues and problems but who chose to do nothing or felt powerless to do what should have been done to deal with alienation and marginalization. WHY DON’T WE TALK ABOUT THAT ON THIS SHOW SOMETIME???? Is talking about school failure too much of a sensitive topic even though it leads to mass murder and myriad other social conflicts and dislocations? Is neglecting that very real aspect any different than the Republicans blowing off the idea of gun proliferation as a root cause?
This is part of our neglect of both mental health issues and of the support of bullying. The schools do very little to discipline those kids who attack others, then the same kids grow up to brutalize their way to the top of our Corporations and Government. The focus is power, might makes right over service and morals.
You are right about the focus being power and might makes right over service and morals. However, the ancient canard about disciplining students and “mental health issues” is precisely how we got to this pathetic state of affairs. Discipline is absolutely essential. However, the application of “power” and the principle of “might makes right”, as in what the teacher says goes and authority is in place to enforce proper conduct is bass-ackwards and 180 degrees off the mark. The lesson of a top-down, authority-based paradigm is that bullying is okay as long as the bullies are smarter and superior and the whole enterprise is about sorting out those who are good and better from those who don’t quite measure up – and then administering negative consequences to the lesser individuals. Meanwhile, teachers and authorities are too preoccupied with their appointed and anointed duties and roles to notice that one-third of the class is not up to snuff and that some kids are receding into the background, while others are asserting their superior status. Even if they do notice and care, their hands are tied and there are other priorities upon which their very survival in the field depend. When school is about behavior modification and “education” mental health or other actual social services and compassionate attention are too complicated and insignificant to matter. The lives of children will never matter as long as the laws are in place which specifically establish their insignificance and subservience.
The best picture I saw was Joyce Vance yesterday had a picture of a little girl crying 😢 and holding up a cardboard sign saying "If I die in a school shooting leave my body on the steps of Congress "
Needs to be on billboards nationwide, especially in the DC area 😤 to get the message across ASAP
Yes exactly. We’ll always have criminals shouldn't mean that every criminal should have access to assault weapons but what a offhand dismissive comment by that legislator. Vote him out . Theres always that, too.
What America needs is a tsunami of sanity to engulf the voting populations
Before anyone suggests this route, I would like them to consider the times. What is the value of common decency in America in 2023? Didn't 75 million votes for Trump answer that question?
The only thing both sides can agree on is the mental health issue. Yes, there are some on the right fighting the red-flag laws, but not the majority of them. So if some brave "Mamie" out there decides to show the public in conjunction with a brave broadcaster, it would be wise to do a campaign that brings up the weapons, mental illness, and bullying.
Every part of what went into any child's murder must be addressed in a forthright manner. Just saying and showing what these weapons do will not resonate without the insanity involved. Each time someone on the right says guns are just a 2ND Amendment fact of life, we have to say so is mental illness and violence against the innocent.
Many of the parents have already become activists. Mamie Till Mobley did what she did without being asked and dedicated her life to the cause---what a hero!