Maine Is One Big Small Town & Now We Have Mass Shootings, Too

Awoke to news that an Army Reserve firearms instructor who is living with psychosis (hears voices, and was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment recently) shot up a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston last night. The above photo is allegedly security cam footage from the bowling alley. The shooter is white and in his 40's, on the run, and considered dangerous.

Bowdoin (pronounced Boh-den) is really taking a beating lately. The shooter is from that very small town as was last summer's shooter who came out of prison in another state and immediately massacred his parents and two of their friends. Then went out to Interstate 295 and started shooting at cars.

The college by the same name, which is in Brunswick not Bowdoin, is on lockdown this morning. So is Bates College where my gun-loving representative, Marine veteran Jared Golden earned his degree after returning from killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why can other countries control gun violence but the U.S. won't or can't?

Shooter Robert Card's social media presence was that of a right wing nut case. You know, kind of like the new Speaker of the House whose first act in office will be bringing forward a bill to send Israel more billions to continue their slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Not achieving gun control is a Democratic Party strategy akin to not saving abortion access -- so useful to fundraise off of that there is low motivation to solve the problem. 

In Maine, a hunting state with weak gun control laws, the Democrats control both the Senate and the House, and the Governor is a Democrat also. Will this be enough to pass strong gun control laws in the wake of last night's massacre? Doubtful, but I can hope.

When I say Maine is one big small town I mean things like my grandson's cousins on his mom's side live in Auburn, a twin city to Lewiston. His older cousin will not attend school today as all schools for miles around are closed while the manhunt continues.

Back in 2020 when I ran against Susan Collins for her senate seat, Project Veritas "tricked" me into admitting I believe in gun control. Subsequently Collins voted "no" on background checks, a fact being circulated widely on social media. 

Both corporate parties profit from violence, domestically and abroad. Neither will do anything meaningful to stop it. We have lost our representation in government, which breeds fear, which spikes gun sales. Meanwhile we have hugely inadequate mental health care because we have hugely inadequate health care of any sort.

It doesn't have to be this way, but it will continue until the people wrest control of their government back from corporate interests. Second Amendment defenders will tell you that's why they need to cling to their guns, to ward off tyranny. Sorry fellas but the government's drones, robots, lasers, and directed energy weapons are not threatened by your AR-15.

But you are, because the people most likely to die of gun violence are...gun owners.

The way to bring down this miserable government is a general strike. But that is a subject for another time.

Azov Neo-Nazi Symbol On Armor Worn By White Mass Murderer Of Black Elders In Buffalo

Source: all over Twitter

At least ten Black people were killed and several more were injured by an 18 year old white supremacist who traveled to Buffalo, New York to shoot up a grocery store in a predominately Black zip code. Many of the victims were elders known for supporting the needs of their communities.

The image above on the left is allegedly the home page of Buffalo shooter displaying "black sun" logo which can also be seen as background on a patch worn by uniformed Azov Batallion neo-Nazis in Ukraine today. You can see it here on a Ukranian magazine called "Black Sun" from 2015.

Source: Global Thinker on Twitter

It's the same symbol used by the mosque shooter who shot up Muslim congregations killing 50+ in Christchurch, New Zealand three years ago, displayed on his manifesto and backpack (see left image below).

Source: Fake Believe on Twitter

Why would it matter what designs or logos mass shooters use when targeting Black or Muslim people? 

The "black sun" logo links directly to a powerful far-right militia being armed as part of the billions from U.S. taxpayers flowing to Ukraine.

Provision in the obscene military spending bills was not made for keeping money out of the hands of far-right militias that the Ukranian government is allied with and uses for military projection. An amendment with that provision was defeated in the U.S. Congress, a body which primarily represents weapons manufacturers at this point in history. 

As we gallop toward the risks of a nuclear WW3 by waging proxy war on Russia via Ukraine. many who get their information from mainstream, lockstep media ask: But how could President Zelensky, who is of Jewish ancestry, be allied with Nazis?

Maybe, like the rest of us, Zelensky just wants to live another day.

To The Gun Lovers: Here's Why I Won't Stand With You Confronting White Supremacists If I Know You're Carrying Concealed

Mourners after the El Paso shooting targeting Latinx people according to the shooter's manifesto. Photo credit: DNYUZ

I live in Maine's 2nd district, now represented by a gun-loving combat veteran who I predict will do nothing to respond to the three mass shootings last week in the USA.

(Note: I do not count offering "thoughts and prayers" as doing anything.)

Rep. Jared Golden has his staff write back to me about gun control saying that my neighbors, his constituents, don't want it, and that he went to Congress to represent them. How much the corruption riddled NRA has to do with his position will remain a sore subject with liberals scrambling to defend Democrat Golden because he replaced the odious GOP incumbent.

Recently I got involved in a group on social media committed to standing up to anti-immigrant white supremacists here in Maine. A friend of a friend started a public group and it burgeoned quickly into a group with several angry-sounding males expounding the virtues of gun ownership and use. It wasn't taken kindly when I commented that I would not be joining in where guns were present to witness and document white supremacist activity, or to defend neighbors being snitched on to ICE storm troopers.

Apparently I am an old white boomer (redundant with old) whose privilege has protected me from violence and who doesn't understand. The fact that I am a woman and thus a default target of violence from childhood doesn't seem to occur to them.

My clearly stated objection -- that the probability of injury to everyone goes up significantly when loaded guns are present -- was mocked as "guns are icky" by the young men.

The group appeared to lack moderation and focus. Debate over strategy and/or tactics among activists who share a goal can be divisive, especially if conducted in public, so I left. I continued to think about and talk about the issue while absorbing news of three mass shootings by angry young white men in a week: Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton.

Here's one acquaintance's report on the Dayton shooter:

I don't know the shooters but I do know how they grew up: in a society steeped in violent images, with the opportunity to spend hundreds of hours pretending to shoot people on screens in order to "win." They also grew up surrounded by gun shops, gun shows, and heavy propaganda glorifying the death machine that is the U.S. military.

The Dayton shooter killed his own sister and 8 other people.

As reported in Heavy.com:

Betts was in ROTC in high school. A Dayton local newspaper purchased a social media background check on him that revealed he used words and phrases like “All Shall Be Annihilated,” “Bloodlust,” “Absolute Carnage,” and “Bloody Massacre.” 

According to a press conference given by Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl, the weapon Betts used on Sunday morning was obtained legally. “The rifle was ordered online from Texas and transferred at an area firearms dealer,” said Biehl.

Many blame the demagogue with bad hair for hate language inciting the angry young white men of the USA, and its quite likely that his rhetoric is a factor.

But the violence that plagues us began long before he was "elected" to "lead" us.

Other countries similar to ours -- founded on attempted genocide of the indigenous people -- have achieved gun control effectively and drastically reduced the incidence of mass shootings: Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Eric Garner being choked to death by armed police on Staten Island five years ago this week. They didn't use guns to kill him for selling loose cigarettes on the street, but they were emboldened by being heavily armed. Image credit: Wikipedia

Black and brown people in the USA continue to suffer extreme levels of violence from the trained and licensed gun-toting police, many of whom are clearly white supremacists hiding behind a badge and a uniform. (Many people of color believe carrying a gun will protect them, too; but it did not protect Philando Castile.)

I say disarm police, also.

I lived in Tokyo for four years and police did not carry guns. In the U.S. even "school resource officers" aka uniformed police carry guns. And they are often quite violent with students of color, and useless when a mass shooting is underway.

I say disarm combat veterans, also.

It will reduce the chances for them to shoot themselves or their families when experiencing PTSD symptoms that make them want to end it all.

These are short term solutions (that will not be used here in the gun-crazed USA). Long term solution for toxic gun culture? It might be to reduce the ratio of males to females significantly.

Could a Congress full of women like those of The Squad, i.e. not having clawed their way to the top of a system of violent patriarchy, pass meaningful gun control laws? 

Could an army of women who've had it with gun violence and were in charge of governance buy back a large portion of guns now in circulation? I think they could.