Coffee klatch: talking to a 9-year-old about what happened this week, the 1994 assault weapons ban, NRA convention, Trump's loss of credibility, and Bob's positive prediction for the midterms
Coffee klatch: talking to a 9-year-old about what happened this week, the 1994 assault weapons ban, NRA convention, Trump's loss of credibility, and Bob's positive prediction for the midterms
Thank you professor. I hope you are right, I am afraid, you are not. This has been a tough week, month, year, decade, in fact, tough adult life. I suppose it is too late for me. I am awake in the middle of the night, simply unable to visualize a better world. In that, I hope that I am alone.
The coffee klatch this morning is encouraging, and not pollyanna -ish. Whenever the extreme right want to distract they pull out the old 'sanctity of life' anti choice argument. Then there is the 2nd amendment misinterpretation. Now we have a collision between their 'pro life' nonsense and the gunning down of another classroom full of children and their teachers. Even for the dug in sycophants, it's not a good look! As hideous as these events have been, (reversing settled law for women's medical care and now, another terrible slaughter of innocents) ; these nauseating attacks on our rule of law and sanity should help in the midterms. How can anyone miss the conflict between their 'pro life' lie and the gun rights mantras? Sickening! It speaks for itself ; The GOP is in league with Putin and his killing of innocents, and trampling on human rights for his people.
I seem to recall reading that, in 2020, guns killed more children than automobile accidents. Just yesterday, four local teens in my area were arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at an occupied school bus.
The gun industry, through advertising agencies, has cultivated a gun culture, with the express intent of raking in more and more profits by selling more and more guns. They have convinced millions that they need guns to keep themselves safe from criminals, or that they can be heroes by taking out the bad guys and saving the day ("the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"), or fomenting anger at "the other" (immigrants, Black people, etc.), or that they need guns to defend themselves against "the government," which is poised to take away their freedom at any minute.
It was reported that, as with other mass shootings, there was a dramatic increase in gun sales after the Uvalde massacre. Shooting children is good business for the merchants of death gun industry. How much are our children worth?
On guns in America: After the Port Arthur shootings, the Australians showed themselves photos of the carnage caused by the weapons used. (Australia is a country that required cigarette packs carry a photo of a diseased lung.)
It made me think of the Driver's Ed classes back in Michigan in the 60s -- and the films we had to watch -- in full color -- of the results of traffic accidents taken right at the scene. The crushed and mutilated bodies. Filming an officer as he arrives at a home to inform the parents their child had died in an accident. The films had their intended effect on me.
We Americans insulate ourselves FAR too much from the real consequences of our decisions. I would require that every gun shop and gun show -- and NRA convention -- be required to keep on display some of these photos of their handiwork -- blown up to wall-size proportion. (I think of the mother of Emmett Till -- and what she did to affect the hearts and minds of Americans.)
A second suggestion comes not to ban the military-grade weapons outright, but to recognize (classify) them as such, and make it so that a request for purchase to own one is, in essence, an enlistment in the state's National Guard -- with all that entails. (Let's not forget that "keep and bear," as written in our second amendment, meant military/militia service. As Madison proposed in his original draft, drawing from state constitutions: "but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person..."
These numbers are staggering. 20 million assault weapons in this country? The ability to acquire one in FIVE clicks? Say it ain’t so 😢
There is a glimmer of hope in that so many of the former guys endorsements lost their elections.
I agree that there will be huge turnouts at the polls in November because we cannot stand by and allow Roe v. Wade to be overturned and we cannot stand by and be traumatized by children with assault weapons to kill innocent children at school.
You both help ground folks like me that are so confused right now; thank you. 🌻
I write principally because a reply I received this morning from a fellow LFAA ( Letters from an American) subscriber read, at least to me, like a stunningly reassuring predicate for the two themes—“women’s right to choose” and “children’s right to safety”—the Professor cites as particularly impactful for galvanizing voters this fall.
This LFAA subscriber wrote, “As forlorn and cynical as I can be, I also hold hope in my heart that some one thing will flip that switch. The answer is simple, I think—one word, ‘ENOUGH!” coupled with aggressive campaigning to oust the monsters in power by physically showing our will in the voting booth. The complacent will be the hardest to budge but it can be done. It can be done.”
As one who periodically is haunted by the question of whether we are up to the task of salvaging democracy in this moment, my hearing this morning both from Reich and from this subscriber was enormously restorative, though admittedly, I don’t yet claim to have any definitive answers.
One of the most tragic videos from Uvalde, Texas, was the Anderson Cooper interview with the young first-responder/medic who headed for the elementary school and encountered a young child running from the scene and soaked in blood. He immediately asked if she were hurt and she was not; she had covered herself with the blood of a dead classmate and played dead, which was what some of the kids did as their only defense. The thing got a lot worse when the girl sobbed that her best friend had died in the assault. At which point, the young man asked the name of the best friend, only to learn that it was his own daughter. I do not know how that young man and Anderson made it through the rest of the exchange; I do not know how I made it through the interview on my distant computer screen. But I wondered then and I wonder now: Why are any of us here if it is not to make the nation (and the world) better for ourselves and, most importantly, each other? Why have we decided that ego-centric, wealthy and powerful men should decide when we live--and when we die by the most inhumane and violent means possible? Is life ultimately just a question of personal wealth or do family, friends, co-workers, our communities and nation, our world, matter? We had better decide pretty quickly and opt for truth, service to others, and kindness toward everyone in need of our presence and involvement whose path happens to cross our own.
Dr. Reich I hope you're right. I think the best thing this nation could do is go back to teaching Civics - not just in high school, but starting in Kindergarten. Explaining to children about sharing and respect is part of Civics. Discussion of the social contract in 6th grade is part of Civics.
On abortion, I really do not understand how this can be a Constitutional issue since it isn't even mentioned in the Constitution. We don't allow the government to dictate who can have an appendectomy, open-heart surgery, or kidney removal, so why do we allow the government to determine who can or cannot have an abortion. Religion has NO place in the government according to Amendment I. The only input government has over health care decisions is in licensing Medical practitioners.
On issue after issue, there is widespread popular and majority support for reform. Yet, time and time again the Republican Party has been able to keep a minority or majority in POWER in Washington, and have used that power to block anything and everything significant Democrats try to do (plus those two DINOs in the Senate of course). They have used that power to appoint more SCOTUS justices than Democrats. Despite this I cannot fathom why so many people vote for these craven, greedy, spineless, sleazy weasels that are perfectly willing to let children be murdered in exchange for NRA checks. The NYT asked all 50 Republican senators about gun reform, and also listed their lifetime NRA blood money. Mitt Romney. MITT frigging ROMNEY has taken over $13M!!!
The sad and pathetic truth is that more people and children will have to die from guns, covid, climate change, air pollution, food contamination, PFAS, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and so on because our regulations are pro-business and not pro-consumer. Plus a slow creep erosion of voting rights, reproductive rights, and other rights we have taken for granted will be stripped away by the billionaire funded forces out there, to a point where we will have to collectively snap out of our streaming entertainment distraction bubbles, get off the couch, walk out of our jobs, shut down everything, and throw the bums out of Washington! Human history does repeat itself, and it always seems like things have to get really ugly, scary, and terrible before the masses say enough is enough.
Oh and we need more than two political parties. This two party system ain't working very good. One is completely bonkers, and the other is ineffectual and sucks at messaging. Some Dems believe what they say, others say things in public, but take the influence money in private and vote or water down accordingly, and then we have DINOs on the rubbery end of the backbone spectrum.
p.s. I just watched the HBO documentary on George Carlin, so I'm feeling very cynical about my country and fellow citizens given everything that's happened since 2016....
Got up this morning a bit too early and put coffee on. And now, as I pour my first cup, I find your invitation in my Inbox. (I saw Mr. Friedman's post and I know I'll be thinking about it too, as I listen.)
[podcast reaches the end...}
I want to add that I'm writing from Cobb County, north of Atlanta, where we've lived for nearly 40 years now. I come from a blue-collar family in Detroit, served during Vietnam, and lived for about 8 years in Seattle before moving to Georgia. I've been involved in politics, and it's been a long, patient effort to help move Georgia in the direction it's been going. I cried tears of joy when the returns came in from the run-off election on January 5, 2021 -- to learn our state had elected two Democrats to the US Senate. (And then came the shock and horror of January 6.)
That's what it seems like life has been serving up: a brief moment of victory followed by a terrible feeling of loss. I want to comment on the gun thing in a separate post, as I pour my second cup. Really enjoyed coffee with you and Heather this morning.
Thank you, Robert and Heather. Very cogent, as usual.
I hate to keep preaching it, but I have to quote Thomas Paine again: "To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Assuming there are a few people who might still be capable of reason, here are a couple of very recent scholarly editorials (with links) on gun violence and the politics, in case anyone needs talking points. PLEASE pass them on.
In the past few months when abortion has been in the news I had a sense (hope?) that this issue alone might do the gop in. Then when Uvalde happened I thought, "THIS should finally put an end to the gop". They have been determined to ignore major national public opinion concerning both abortion rights and gun control. They have angered the majority of women and now they have angered the majority of EVERYONE. Especially with Uvalde, they show how insensitive, how tone deaf, and how married to the NRA they are. They have expressed absolutely no remorse, and the total bungling by LEO is the last straw. I agree with the Professor. The "eleventh hour" timing of these things could not be more perfect in terms of elections. I hope our predictions are shared by voters who will RACE to the polls.
The United States of America has a culture that embraces guns and a culture that does not. The people with weapons are repugnant and despicable to me, but can kill me. Therefore I should leave them. I live in Massachusetts, a state with relatively sane gun laws. But the culture of weaponry is here. Laws don't matter to the people of the gun culture. Wayne La Pierre just announced that owning a gun is a god given right. Well, let's see. I don't do gods, or rights given by gods. I guess Wayne and I aren't in the same culture. We can vote the monsters out of office over abortion and murdering children, but that won't stop the hateful ignorance spread by Fox and lousy public education, christian churches and plutocrats. Here is one thing that will work: If the rest of the world boycotts the USA.
Like every other horrendous mass shooting, this should be a teachable moment. Advocates of sensible gun regulation should be bombarding the media, the general public, and especially elected officials, with the obvious message that SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE. The voice and money of the NRA and its' followers has to be drowned out by the voice of the people. To succeed in 2024 will take a concerted effort by Dems, Progressives, Leftists, and all people of conscience. Gun control can be a wedge issue for that coalition, but the other pieces of a Democracy Platform also must be in place to give the voters a real contrast with the oligarchy and crypto-fascist agenda that the Trump wing is pushing.
Thank you professor. I hope you are right, I am afraid, you are not. This has been a tough week, month, year, decade, in fact, tough adult life. I suppose it is too late for me. I am awake in the middle of the night, simply unable to visualize a better world. In that, I hope that I am alone.
The coffee klatch this morning is encouraging, and not pollyanna -ish. Whenever the extreme right want to distract they pull out the old 'sanctity of life' anti choice argument. Then there is the 2nd amendment misinterpretation. Now we have a collision between their 'pro life' nonsense and the gunning down of another classroom full of children and their teachers. Even for the dug in sycophants, it's not a good look! As hideous as these events have been, (reversing settled law for women's medical care and now, another terrible slaughter of innocents) ; these nauseating attacks on our rule of law and sanity should help in the midterms. How can anyone miss the conflict between their 'pro life' lie and the gun rights mantras? Sickening! It speaks for itself ; The GOP is in league with Putin and his killing of innocents, and trampling on human rights for his people.
I seem to recall reading that, in 2020, guns killed more children than automobile accidents. Just yesterday, four local teens in my area were arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at an occupied school bus.
The gun industry, through advertising agencies, has cultivated a gun culture, with the express intent of raking in more and more profits by selling more and more guns. They have convinced millions that they need guns to keep themselves safe from criminals, or that they can be heroes by taking out the bad guys and saving the day ("the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"), or fomenting anger at "the other" (immigrants, Black people, etc.), or that they need guns to defend themselves against "the government," which is poised to take away their freedom at any minute.
It was reported that, as with other mass shootings, there was a dramatic increase in gun sales after the Uvalde massacre. Shooting children is good business for the merchants of death gun industry. How much are our children worth?
On guns in America: After the Port Arthur shootings, the Australians showed themselves photos of the carnage caused by the weapons used. (Australia is a country that required cigarette packs carry a photo of a diseased lung.)
It made me think of the Driver's Ed classes back in Michigan in the 60s -- and the films we had to watch -- in full color -- of the results of traffic accidents taken right at the scene. The crushed and mutilated bodies. Filming an officer as he arrives at a home to inform the parents their child had died in an accident. The films had their intended effect on me.
We Americans insulate ourselves FAR too much from the real consequences of our decisions. I would require that every gun shop and gun show -- and NRA convention -- be required to keep on display some of these photos of their handiwork -- blown up to wall-size proportion. (I think of the mother of Emmett Till -- and what she did to affect the hearts and minds of Americans.)
A second suggestion comes not to ban the military-grade weapons outright, but to recognize (classify) them as such, and make it so that a request for purchase to own one is, in essence, an enlistment in the state's National Guard -- with all that entails. (Let's not forget that "keep and bear," as written in our second amendment, meant military/militia service. As Madison proposed in his original draft, drawing from state constitutions: "but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person..."
These numbers are staggering. 20 million assault weapons in this country? The ability to acquire one in FIVE clicks? Say it ain’t so 😢
There is a glimmer of hope in that so many of the former guys endorsements lost their elections.
I agree that there will be huge turnouts at the polls in November because we cannot stand by and allow Roe v. Wade to be overturned and we cannot stand by and be traumatized by children with assault weapons to kill innocent children at school.
You both help ground folks like me that are so confused right now; thank you. 🌻
I write principally because a reply I received this morning from a fellow LFAA ( Letters from an American) subscriber read, at least to me, like a stunningly reassuring predicate for the two themes—“women’s right to choose” and “children’s right to safety”—the Professor cites as particularly impactful for galvanizing voters this fall.
This LFAA subscriber wrote, “As forlorn and cynical as I can be, I also hold hope in my heart that some one thing will flip that switch. The answer is simple, I think—one word, ‘ENOUGH!” coupled with aggressive campaigning to oust the monsters in power by physically showing our will in the voting booth. The complacent will be the hardest to budge but it can be done. It can be done.”
As one who periodically is haunted by the question of whether we are up to the task of salvaging democracy in this moment, my hearing this morning both from Reich and from this subscriber was enormously restorative, though admittedly, I don’t yet claim to have any definitive answers.
One of the most tragic videos from Uvalde, Texas, was the Anderson Cooper interview with the young first-responder/medic who headed for the elementary school and encountered a young child running from the scene and soaked in blood. He immediately asked if she were hurt and she was not; she had covered herself with the blood of a dead classmate and played dead, which was what some of the kids did as their only defense. The thing got a lot worse when the girl sobbed that her best friend had died in the assault. At which point, the young man asked the name of the best friend, only to learn that it was his own daughter. I do not know how that young man and Anderson made it through the rest of the exchange; I do not know how I made it through the interview on my distant computer screen. But I wondered then and I wonder now: Why are any of us here if it is not to make the nation (and the world) better for ourselves and, most importantly, each other? Why have we decided that ego-centric, wealthy and powerful men should decide when we live--and when we die by the most inhumane and violent means possible? Is life ultimately just a question of personal wealth or do family, friends, co-workers, our communities and nation, our world, matter? We had better decide pretty quickly and opt for truth, service to others, and kindness toward everyone in need of our presence and involvement whose path happens to cross our own.
Dr. Reich I hope you're right. I think the best thing this nation could do is go back to teaching Civics - not just in high school, but starting in Kindergarten. Explaining to children about sharing and respect is part of Civics. Discussion of the social contract in 6th grade is part of Civics.
On abortion, I really do not understand how this can be a Constitutional issue since it isn't even mentioned in the Constitution. We don't allow the government to dictate who can have an appendectomy, open-heart surgery, or kidney removal, so why do we allow the government to determine who can or cannot have an abortion. Religion has NO place in the government according to Amendment I. The only input government has over health care decisions is in licensing Medical practitioners.
WHEN CONGRESS AND PRES. CLINTON PASSED LEGISLATION TO BAN ASSAULT RIFLES
IN 1994, MASS SHOOTING DROPPED BY 43%.
AFTER REPUBICANS LET THE BAN EXPIRE IN 2004, THEY INCREASED BY 243%.
DON’T TELL ME BANS DON’T WORK…. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOUR LIES..
On issue after issue, there is widespread popular and majority support for reform. Yet, time and time again the Republican Party has been able to keep a minority or majority in POWER in Washington, and have used that power to block anything and everything significant Democrats try to do (plus those two DINOs in the Senate of course). They have used that power to appoint more SCOTUS justices than Democrats. Despite this I cannot fathom why so many people vote for these craven, greedy, spineless, sleazy weasels that are perfectly willing to let children be murdered in exchange for NRA checks. The NYT asked all 50 Republican senators about gun reform, and also listed their lifetime NRA blood money. Mitt Romney. MITT frigging ROMNEY has taken over $13M!!!
The sad and pathetic truth is that more people and children will have to die from guns, covid, climate change, air pollution, food contamination, PFAS, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and so on because our regulations are pro-business and not pro-consumer. Plus a slow creep erosion of voting rights, reproductive rights, and other rights we have taken for granted will be stripped away by the billionaire funded forces out there, to a point where we will have to collectively snap out of our streaming entertainment distraction bubbles, get off the couch, walk out of our jobs, shut down everything, and throw the bums out of Washington! Human history does repeat itself, and it always seems like things have to get really ugly, scary, and terrible before the masses say enough is enough.
Oh and we need more than two political parties. This two party system ain't working very good. One is completely bonkers, and the other is ineffectual and sucks at messaging. Some Dems believe what they say, others say things in public, but take the influence money in private and vote or water down accordingly, and then we have DINOs on the rubbery end of the backbone spectrum.
p.s. I just watched the HBO documentary on George Carlin, so I'm feeling very cynical about my country and fellow citizens given everything that's happened since 2016....
Got up this morning a bit too early and put coffee on. And now, as I pour my first cup, I find your invitation in my Inbox. (I saw Mr. Friedman's post and I know I'll be thinking about it too, as I listen.)
[podcast reaches the end...}
I want to add that I'm writing from Cobb County, north of Atlanta, where we've lived for nearly 40 years now. I come from a blue-collar family in Detroit, served during Vietnam, and lived for about 8 years in Seattle before moving to Georgia. I've been involved in politics, and it's been a long, patient effort to help move Georgia in the direction it's been going. I cried tears of joy when the returns came in from the run-off election on January 5, 2021 -- to learn our state had elected two Democrats to the US Senate. (And then came the shock and horror of January 6.)
That's what it seems like life has been serving up: a brief moment of victory followed by a terrible feeling of loss. I want to comment on the gun thing in a separate post, as I pour my second cup. Really enjoyed coffee with you and Heather this morning.
Thank you, Robert and Heather. Very cogent, as usual.
I hate to keep preaching it, but I have to quote Thomas Paine again: "To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
Assuming there are a few people who might still be capable of reason, here are a couple of very recent scholarly editorials (with links) on gun violence and the politics, in case anyone needs talking points. PLEASE pass them on.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.add1854?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=ebab02254b-briefing-dy-20220527&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-ebab02254b-43746085
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-is-clear-gun-control-saves-lives/?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=ebab02254b-briefing-dy-20220527&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-ebab02254b-43746085
In the past few months when abortion has been in the news I had a sense (hope?) that this issue alone might do the gop in. Then when Uvalde happened I thought, "THIS should finally put an end to the gop". They have been determined to ignore major national public opinion concerning both abortion rights and gun control. They have angered the majority of women and now they have angered the majority of EVERYONE. Especially with Uvalde, they show how insensitive, how tone deaf, and how married to the NRA they are. They have expressed absolutely no remorse, and the total bungling by LEO is the last straw. I agree with the Professor. The "eleventh hour" timing of these things could not be more perfect in terms of elections. I hope our predictions are shared by voters who will RACE to the polls.
The United States of America has a culture that embraces guns and a culture that does not. The people with weapons are repugnant and despicable to me, but can kill me. Therefore I should leave them. I live in Massachusetts, a state with relatively sane gun laws. But the culture of weaponry is here. Laws don't matter to the people of the gun culture. Wayne La Pierre just announced that owning a gun is a god given right. Well, let's see. I don't do gods, or rights given by gods. I guess Wayne and I aren't in the same culture. We can vote the monsters out of office over abortion and murdering children, but that won't stop the hateful ignorance spread by Fox and lousy public education, christian churches and plutocrats. Here is one thing that will work: If the rest of the world boycotts the USA.
Like every other horrendous mass shooting, this should be a teachable moment. Advocates of sensible gun regulation should be bombarding the media, the general public, and especially elected officials, with the obvious message that SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE. The voice and money of the NRA and its' followers has to be drowned out by the voice of the people. To succeed in 2024 will take a concerted effort by Dems, Progressives, Leftists, and all people of conscience. Gun control can be a wedge issue for that coalition, but the other pieces of a Democracy Platform also must be in place to give the voters a real contrast with the oligarchy and crypto-fascist agenda that the Trump wing is pushing.
"A determination..." If it is an abiding determination there is, finally, hope.