More Tuesday Male Beauty

Republicans’ "Thoughts and Prayers" Are a Cruel Joke

Whenever a mass shooting occurs, Republicans are quick to offer "thoughts and prayers" which translates to "we are not going to do anything to stop these events." Sadly, gun lobby money and appeasing an increasingly toxic and knuckle dragging party base are more important than passing legislation that might actually reduce the increasingly regular carnage. The worse hypocrisy, of course, when Trump offers "thoughts and prayers" after inciting extremist followers to vent their hate and suggests violence against those with opposing views or different skin color.  A column in the Washington Post looks at this cruel joke that is the norm in today's GOP. Here are excerpts:

Back-to-back massacres in El Paso and Dayton kill 31. Cue the thoughts and prayers!

“Melania and I send our heartfelt thoughts and prayers,” tweeted President Trump, who vows to veto gun control.

“Elaine’s and my prayers go out to the victims,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocks votes on gun control.

Do they not realize that “thoughts and prayers” has become a meme, a cynical punchline conveying inaction on guns? It’s what people say when they plan to do nothing.

Republicans’ reflexive response to the endless massacres has become a cruel joke, as effective as a Hallmark sympathy card. They seem to realize how weak it sounds: CNN reported that it invited 50 Republican lawmakers to talk about the shootings; only one accepted. Democrats mentioned thoughts and prayers too — as insufficient. Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.) complained: “My Republican colleagues cut and paste the words ‘thoughts and prayers’ into a tweet and then do nothing on gun violence.”

Trump proposed action, tweeting Monday in support of “strong background checks.” But, as after Parkland, Fla., he quickly dropped the idea, omitting it from his on-camera remarks.  Instead: More thoughts and prayers!

Trump, who last week shared the sentiment that “DEMOCRATS ARE THE TRUE ENEMIES OF AMERICA,” said “now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside.”

Eventually, disgusted Americans will force Republicans to act. Until then, here’s a thought: We don’t have a prayer.

Vote Democrat whenever possible.  Send your "thoughts and prayers" to the GOP.

GOP Ohio Rep. Blames Mass Shootings on Gay Marriage, Drag Queens and Obama

GOP Rep. Keller

The absolute lunacy and bigotry of the Republican Party was on open display in the wake of the weekend's mass shootings as GOP Ohio Rep. Candice Keller took to Facebook and blamed the tragedies on "drag queen advocates," "homosexual marriage," "open borders" and even former President Barack Obama.  Sadly, this type of insanity and bigotry - not to mention homophobia - is the norm with far too many Republican candidates and office holders.  Here in Virginia, despite her sanitized campaign web page, GOP candidate Colleen Holcomb running for the 91st House of Delegates seat is just as nuts as Keller as I pointed out in a post here.  Holcomb subscribes to the same mindset as Keller and has many disturbing affiliations, not the least of which are her ties to Eagle Forum, an ultra-far right organization.  

But back to Keller.  USA Today looks at Keller's batshitery Cincinnati which even alramed a few Republicans in Ohio.  Here are story highlights:

A Southwest Ohio [Republican] politician has stirred anger for a Sunday post on social media in which she blamed mass shootings on "drag queen advocates," "homosexual marriage," open borders and even former President Barack Obama. 

In the Facebook post, Ohio Rep. Candice Keller complained about liberals playing the "blame game" after every shooting and asked why not place the blame where it belongs. The Republican lives in Middletown, about 30 miles south of Dayton, where a gunman killed nine people early Sunday. 

Keller, in the post, placed the blame for mass shootings on "the breakdown of the traditional American family(thank you, transgender, homosexual marriage, and drag queen advocates); fatherlessness, a subject no one discusses or believes is relevant; the ignoring of violent video games; the relaxing of laws against criminals(open borders); the acceptance of recreational marijuana; failed school policies(hello, parents who defend misbehaving students): disrespect to law enforcement(thank you, Obama)."

The post went on to blame others, including the Democrats in Congress, and other lawmakers who don't value the Second Amendment.  Keller is running for the Ohio Senate in Butler County in 2020 against fellow Republicans: Rep. George Lang, R-West Chester Township, and West Chester Township Trustee Lee Wong. Democrats have yet to announce a candidate for the heavily Republican district.  

Again, Keller is not unique in her bizarre beliefs. In Virginia, we need to make sure Colleen Holcomb is defeated in November, 2019.

More Monday Male Beauty

The GOP Lie That Mental Health Issues Are to Blame for Mass Shootings

It is amazing to observe the lengths Republicans will go to rather than admit that America's insane gun laws and GOP rhetoric are to blame for America's growing mass shooting epidemic. Once upon a time - i.e., before the Christofascists hijacked the GOP base - Republicans respected knowledge, science and legitimate research.  Now, the GOP base celebrates ignorance and bigotry and rejects science and knowledge, be it in respect to climate change or the tired and false GOP meme that mental health issues - or even more ridiculously, video games - are fueling mass shootings. Far too easy access to guns, especially assault style weapons, and politics of hate practiced principally by the GOP and Trump in particular are the real causes.  An article in the Washington Post debunks the Trump/GOP effort to lie to the public and blame anyone by themselves and their policies and hate speech for the actions we saw over the weekend in El Paso.  Here are article excerpts: 

Every time a mass shooting occurs, the country talks about mental health. Many politicians are quick to point to the shooters’ disturbed minds. News reporters probe for “loner” tendencies or signs of instability.

“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger. Not the gun,” said President Trump on Monday, after two mass shootings in less than 24 hours.

So is mental illness to blame for America’s mass shootings? Not according to research.

Some mass shooters have a history of schizophrenia or psychosis, but many do not. Most studies of mass shooters have found that only a small fraction have mental health issues.

And researchers have noted a host of other factors that are stronger predictors of someone becoming a mass shooter: a strong sense of resentment, desire for infamy, copycat study of other shooters, past domestic violence, narcissism and access to firearms.

[S]aid Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. “The fact that somebody would go out and massacre a bunch of strangers, that’s not the act of a healthy mind, but that doesn’t mean they have a mental illness.”

In a 2018 report on 63 active shooter assailants, the FBI found that 25 percent had been diagnosed with a mental illness. Of those, three had been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. In a 2015 study that examined 226 men who committed or tried to commit mass killings, 22 percent could be considered mentally ill.

Research has long debunked another common explanation among politicians: that violent video games are driving the mass shooting crisis. The idea was floated again by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Trump, who talked of restricting “gruesome and grisly video games."

There is, however, no statistical link between playing violent video games and shooting people, said Jonathan Metzl, director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University.

A 2004 report conducted by the Secret Service and the Education Department found that 12 percent of perpetrators in more than three dozen school shootings showed an interest in violent video games. Despite a continuing lack of a link, lawmakers and public figures continue to blame the gaming industry.

 “When politicians like President Trump perpetuate this narrative, to me, it is the height of irresponsibility, because it’s perpetuating a falsehood,” Metzl said. 

The eagerness to blame mental health and video games means society is searching for answers in the wrong places, experts say.

“The irony is clearly we do need more robust mental health system,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., a psychologist who heads the American Psychological Association. “But that’s separate and apart from these shootings."

“We like to think that anyone who kills others is somehow mentally ill,” said Phillip Resnick, who served as a forensic psychiatrist in cases including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. In an interview last year, Resnick said, “you have to remember, people kill for all sorts of reasons. They kill for profit or love or greed.”

Mental health advocates say comments such as Trump’s labeling shooters as “mentally ill monsters” can exacerbate false stereotypes about the mentally ill.

“When you blame people with mental illness for things like mass shootings, it’s not just untrue,” said Angela Kimball, head of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “It keeps people from seeking help even when they need it. It spreads unjustified fears about the mentally ill and worsens the stigma around it."

Researchers point out that other countries have similar rates of mental illness but a small fraction of America’s gun deaths. Similarly, video games are widespread in Europe and Asia, yet their rates of gun deaths are much lower than that in the United States.

Epidemiologists say that what sets the United States apart from the rest of the world is guns.  America has nearly 400 million civilian-owned firearms, or 120.5 guns per 100 residents — meaning that the country has more guns than it has people. The second-closest country, Yemen, had 52.8 guns per 100 residents, according to the Small Arms Survey.

"Mental illness is not the real issue, because mental illness is something that happens across the globe. Mass shootings? Not so much,” Kimball said. “The sad truth is that in America, it’s easy to get a gun. It’s very difficult to get mental health care.”

Monday Morning Male Beauty

It's Time to Admit the USA Has a White Nationalist Terrorist Problem

I can't wrap my head around what level of hate motivates one to murder innocent people that one does even know and who have never done any direct harm to you merely because they have a different skin color or speak a different language.  Yet such hatred seems to be growing in America and the occupant of the White House continues to give a knowing nod to such hatred even as he on occasion makes disingenuous condemnation of violence.  Such is white nationalism in America today.  And making matters worse is law enforcement's failure to treat white national extremists with the same level of concern and surveillance as that given to Islamic terrorism even though white nationalists have killed more Americans than Islamic terrorist since 9-11.   Add to this toxic mix the fact that America's insane gun laws allow such murderers to legally buy guns with which to inflict their carnage (both shooters in El Paso and Dayton appear to have legally purchased their weapons).  An editorial in the New York Times looks at the problem over taking America that literally leaves no one safe.  As the piece notes, you are either against such violence or not and, I would add, if you are a Trump supporter, at a minimum, you tacitly support it).  Here are highlights:

If one of the perpetrators of this weekend’s two mass shootings had adhered to the ideology of radical Islam, the resources of the American government and its international allies would mobilize without delay.

The awesome power of the state would work tirelessly to deny future terrorists access to weaponry, money and forums to spread their ideology. The movement would be infiltrated by spies and informants. Its financiers would face sanctions. Places of congregation would be surveilled. Those who gave aid or comfort to terrorists would be prosecuted. Programs would be established to de-radicalize former adherents.

No American would settle for “thoughts and prayers” as a counterterrorism strategy. No American would accept laying the blame for such an attack on video games, like the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, did in an interview on Sunday when discussing the mass shooting in El Paso that took 20 lives and left 27 people wounded.

Even a casual observer today can figure out what is going on. The world, and the West in particular, has a serious white nationalist terrorist problem that has been ignored or excused for far too long. As President George W. Bush declared in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we must be a country “awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.”

There are serious questions about how the United States has approached Islamic extremism, but if even a degree of that vigilance and unity of effort was put toward white nationalism, we’d be safer.

White nationalist terror attacks are local, but the ideology is global. On Saturday, a terrorist who, according to a federal law enforcement official, wrote that he feared a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” was replacing white Americans opened fire in a Walmart in El Paso. In a manifesto, the gunman wrote that he drew some inspiration from the white nationalist terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead. The F.B.I. is investigating the El Paso mass shooting as a possible act of domestic terrorism. The motive behind another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, is under investigation.

In April, another terrorist who opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, Calif., echoed the words of the Christchurch suspect, too, and appeared to draw inspiration from a massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last fall.

An investigation by The Times earlier this year found that “at least a third of white extremist killers since 2011 were inspired by others who perpetrated similar attacks, professed a reverence for them or showed an interest in their tactics.” White supremacy, in other words, is a violent, interconnected transnational ideology. Its adherents are gathering in anonymous, online forums to spread their ideas, plotting attacks and cheering on acts of terrorism. Online communities like 4chan and 8chan have become hotbeds of white nationalist activity. Anonymous users flood the site’s “politics” board with racist, sexist and homophobic content designed to spread across the web. Users share old fascist fiction, Nazi propaganda and pseudoscientific texts about race and I.Q. and replacement theory, geared to radicalize their peers.

These communities aren’t new. . . . Yet, in recent months, conversations in one anonymous 8chan forum in particular have evolved. They increasingly focus on carrying out acts of white nationalist terror. . . . Posts actively incentivize the darkest impulses of the most dangerous users. In May, an anonymous user posted a screed on “Target Selection,” providing a blueprint on how to increase the body count during mass shootings. The community celebrates and compares the number of casualties from shooting to shooting. . . .

Technology companies, too, appear unwilling to treat white nationalist terror online the way they have dealt with the online spread of radical Islamic terror groups, such as the Islamic State. Companies like Facebook and Twitter took bold action to remove tens of millions of pieces of ISIS and Al Qaeda propaganda and accounts between 2014 and 2018. Similar standards have not been applied to white nationalists, perhaps because, as a 2018 report from researcher J.M. Berger, who specializes in online extremism, notes, “The task of crafting a response to the alt-right is considerably more complex and fraught with land mines, largely as a result of the movement’s inherently political nature and its proximity to political power.”

While its modern roots predate the Trump administration by many decades, white nationalism has attained a new mainstream legitimacy during Mr. Trump’s time in office.

“You will not replace us,” white nationalists proudly chanted at Charlottesville in 2017. (Mr. Trump himself proclaimed that there were “fine people” on both sides of that deadly event.)

In May, bemoaning an “invasion” of immigrants, Mr. Trump asked how immigrants could be stopped during a rally in Florida. “Shoot them,” someone in the crowd yelled. Mr. Trump gave a smirk and said, “That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that stuff,” as the crowd exploded in ghoulish laughter.

Far more Americans have died at the hands of domestic terrorists than at the hands of Islamic extremists since 2001, according to the F.B.I. The agency’s resources, however, are still overwhelmingly weighted toward thwarting international terrorism.

Moderate members of the political right must do more to condemn white nationalists, even if the president condemns them from one side of his mouth and extols ethnonationalism from the other.

Most importantly, American law enforcement needs to target white nationalists with the same zeal that they have targeted radical Islamic terrorists. Ensuring the security of the homeland demands it.

There can be no middle ground when it comes to white nationalism and the terrorism it inspires. You’re either for it or against it.

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

Guns and America's Deep Sickness

In less than 24 hours, two mass shootings occurred.  One in El Paso, Texas at 10:00 am yesterday morning killing 20, seemingly targeting Hispanics and motivated by hatred and white supremacy beliefs by a shooter enamored with Donald Trump, and the other in Dayton, Ohio at 1:00 am this morning that took 9 lives where details are still emerging.  The common thread: guns capable of rapid fire that no sportsman would need for hunting and that no average person would need for self-defense. No other developed nations has the number of now regular mass shooting - mass murder - for a simple reason.  They have sane gun laws and bar civilians from having military style weapons designed for one purpose only: killing and killing rapidly. Despite this reality, earlier this year at the NRA convention, the Texas Observer reports the governor of Texas made these bullshit statements:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said religion and the Second Amendment are the best ways to curb gun violence and mass shootings.

“The answer to gun violence is not to take guns away, the answer is to strengthen the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Abbott during his brief speech to about 5,000 firearm enthusiasts. “The problem is not guns, it’s hearts without God.”

I'm sorry, but God is not the answer.  The answer is sane gun control laws and the ban and confiscation of all assault weapons in the hands of civilians.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the disturbing sickness of mass shootings in America.  Here are article excerpts (note: since the end of the assault weapon ban in 2004, the number of mass shootings has increased)

The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.

Public mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of the country’s gun deaths, but they are uniquely terrifying because they occur without warning in the most mundane places. Most of the victims are chosen not for what they have done but simply for where they happen to be.

There is no universally accepted definition of a public mass shooting, and this piece defines it narrowly. It looks at the 164 shootings in which four or more people were killed by a lone shooter (two shooters in a few cases). It does not include shootings tied to gang disputes or robberies that went awry, and it does not include domestic shootings that took place exclusively in private homes. A broader definition would yield much higher numbers.

This tally begins Aug. 1, 1966, when a student sniper fired down on passersby from the observation deck of a clock tower at the University of Texas. By the time police killed him, 17 other people were dead or dying. As Texas Monthly’s Pamela Colloff wrote, the shooting “ushered in the notion that any group of people, anywhere — even walking around a university campus on a summer day — could be killed at random by a stranger.” The people who were killed came from nearly every imaginable race, religion and socioeconomic background. Their ages range from the unborn to the elderly; 189 were children and teenagers. In addition, thousands of survivors were left with devastating injuries, shattered families and psychological scars. Semiautomatic rifles have been used in some of the country’s deadliest shootings, such as those in Newtown, Orlando, San Bernardino and Las Vegas. The AR-15, a lightweight, customizable version of the military’s M16, soared in popularity after a 10-year federal ban on assault weapons expired in 2004. Some of the Las Vegas shooter’s guns had been fitted with legal devices called “bump-fire stocks,” which allow semiautomatic rifles to fire as quickly as automatic ones.

The country’s most popular type of firearm, 9mm semiautomatic handguns, are used by many law enforcement officers. They are generally light and inexpensive, easy to conceal and control, and they fire as quickly as a person can pull the trigger. The gunman who killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in 2007 used a 9mm semiautomatic Glock 19 (and a .22-caliber Walther P22, another popular caliber). In this data, 9mm semiautomatic handguns show up more than any other weapon. In the 50 years before the Texas tower shooting, there were just 25 public mass shootings in which four or more people were killed, according to author and criminologist Grant Duwe. Since then, the number has risen dramatically, and many of the deadliest shootings have occurred within the past few years.

Australia drastically changed its gun laws in the mid-1990's after a mass shooting occurred.  Since then gun deaths have plummeted. Recently, New Zealand radically changed its gun laws after a deadly mass shooting occurred.  Only in America does the murder of innocent people mean nothing to politicians - mostly Republicans - who put NRA and gun manufacturer money above the lives of their constituents.

It's Time For Virginia to Ban Conversion Therapy

For years bills have been introduced in the Virginia General Assembly to ban gay "conversion therapy" - a practice condemned by every legitimate medical and mental health association in the country - and every year Republicans kill the bills in committee and prevent a full vote on the bills. Meanwhile, LGBT youths and young adults are subjected to psychological - and  on occasions, physical - torture. While the Virginia GOP continues to prostitute itself to far right Christian extremists (particularly those at The Family Foundation, Virginia's leading hate group) who support the myth that gays can "change," Virginia's licensing boards and other states are moving to ban the practice.  Click these links to submit your personal messages demanding a ban of the practice in Virginia.  Make sure to include your name & location! Board of Psychology, Board of Counseling, Board of Social Work   At the legislative level, Colorado became the 18th state to ban the dangerous and unethical practice as The New Civil Rights Movement reports: 

Today, Colorado House Bill 19-1129: Prohibit Conversion Therapy for Minors, goes into effect.

Sponsored by Representatives Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, and Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, and Senator Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, HB19-1129 bans a state-licensed medical or mental health care provider from engaging in the discredited, harmful practice of conversion therapy on a patient under 18 years of age in order to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. A physician or mental health care provider who violates this provision engages in unprofessional conduct under the applicable professional licensing board.

Colorado is the 18th state in the country to ban conversion therapy for minors.

A version of this bill was first introduced in 2015, and was introduced every session after. All were previously sent to kill committees in the Republican-controlled Senate after passing the House. This year, the bill passed with bipartisan support in both chambers.

 Meanwhile, in North Carolina, that state's governor has signed an executive order banning the use of state funds to pay for any form of gay conversion therapy.  Not surprisingly, the usual "Christian" hate merchants are not happy since they only find satisfaction when condemning or actively harming others.  The News & Observer looks at the development:

No taxpayer money should be used for “conversion therapy” practices that treat being gay as a mental illness, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday when he signed a new executive order targeting the controversial therapy.

Conversion therapy is the process of trying to force LGBTQ people to change their sexual identity or preference. It can use techniques ranging from prayer to electrical shocks.  The American Psychiatric Association considers it an unethical practice with “no credible evidence” to back it.

Cooper, a Democrat, said in a tweet announcing his executive order, “Conversion therapy has been shown to pose serious health risks, and we should be protecting all of our children, including those who identify as LGBTQ, instead of subjecting them to a dangerous practice.

Executive orders only affect state government, so Cooper’s order Friday can’t stop any private practice of conversion therapy. But his order stops the state from sending any money to groups that use conversion therapy on children.

Meanwhile, Virginia has an opportunity to change Republican blockage of needed legislation by voting in a Democrat majority in the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate in November. Meanwhile, Blue Virginia describes the current status:

Since the last legislative session, the three main relevant medical boards–Psychology, Counseling, and Social Work, with the assistance of Equality Virginia and the Northam Administration, have all issued letters of guidance declaring that conversion therapy “has the potential to harm patients…and should be considered as a violation of standards of practice.” 

But there is more work to be done, and that includes getting these licensing boards to support a complete ban on the practice. The licensing boards are now accepting comments from the public on whether to ban conversion therapy. Equality Virginia has a complete set of talking points and links to the public comment portals here. Please visit before August 7th to get your comments in!

Again, go to the portal and demand a total ban of conversion therapy.  Be assured that hate groups like The Family Foundation will be lobbying to block any ban.  Your action is needed.