NOW TOO MUCH FOR US? FDR was full of hope!

TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2023

Observing our tribe, we aren't: The Washington Post's Perry Bacon grew up in Louisville.

Also, he lives in Louisville now. This morning, he offers a column in which he reacts to yesterday's mass shooting right there in his hometown.

Below, we'll return to the first thing Bacon says in his column. For now, let's concentrate on the way he says he's been affected by yesterday's mass shooting.

Here's how his column starts:

LOUISVILLE — The only path out of America’s cycle of gun violence is for the Republican Party to change course and join Democrats in backing far-reaching gun control. Otherwise, Americans will continue to be victims of gun violence, see friends or relatives shot, or be haunted by those possibilities.

I joined the third group this week.

Writing from Louisville, Bacon says he's now haunted by the possibility that he'll see friends or relatives shot, or become such a victim himself. 

Bacon is writing from his hometown. As he continues, he describes the backdrop to his new state of apprehension:

On Monday, a man fired shots at a downtown building in Louisville, killing at least four people and injuring numerous others. I had been at the building, which housed a bank branch as well as office space, for a news conference in December, as Mayor-elect Craig Greenberg announced top aides in his administration.

The ongoing national wave of these shootings has made me increasingly leery of attending large events or visiting schools or other venues where mass carnage is all-to-easy to imagine. Five years ago, a high school friend of mine was shot (but thankfully survived) in a mass shooting in nearby Cincinnati. Monday’s shooting makes me even more nervous—I had been in this physical space before.

Perry Bacon—a good, decent person—had been at the scene of Monday's mass shooting only a few months ago. He says that yesterday's shooting—along with the prior wave of such mass killings—has left him leery of attending large public events.

Did we mention the fact that Perry Bacon is a good, decent person? We're fairly sure that we did. The fact that he is reporting such feelings identifies a second level to the rolling disaster emerging from the nation's endless wave of mass killing events:

Along with the many good, decent people who have died in these events, we have the many good, decent people who are, perfectly sensibly, being affected in the way Bacon describes. 

Making matters even worse, many of those people are children, including children in the early elementary grades. They're first and second and third graders—children who go to school every day.

Such is the emotional carnage proceeding from these events. That said, American news orgs may not be sure about how to treat these repetitive events. 

In this morning's New York Times, the Louisville mass shooting isn't a front-page event. The report about this latest mass shooting appears deep inside the National section, on page A18.

On that page, the news report from Louisville shares space today with two related reports Online, the dual headlines on the three reports look exactly like this:

Gunman Kills 5 Co-Workers at Louisville Bank on Livestream, Police Say
The police did not give a motive for the shooting in the Kentucky city but said that the gunman, who also died, had been a bank employee.

Charges Filed Against Mother of 6-Year-Old Who Shot a Teacher
Prosecutors had previously decided not to charge the boy, a first grader who took the gun to his Newport News, Va., elementary school in January.

Expelled Democratic Lawmaker Is Sworn Back in to Tennessee House
The move to reappoint Representative Justin Jones was a swift rebuke to the Republican supermajority over its decision to expel him and another lawmaker for leading a gun control protest.

In this morning's New York Times, the Louisville shooting is consigned to page A18. By way of contrast, the shooting played a dominant role lon much of cable news last night, and reactions were highly familiar.

With that, we return to Bacon's column—indeed, to his very first statement. Bacon is a good, decent person. As noted earlier, this is the way he begins:

BACON (4/10/23): The only path out of America’s cycle of gun violence is for the Republican Party to change course and join Democrats in backing far-reaching gun control. Otherwise, Americans will continue to be victims of gun violence, see friends or relatives shot, or be haunted by those possibilities.

I joined the third group this week.

The highlighted presentation is very familiar. But does it make any real sense?

Right there, in his very first statement, Bacon makes a debatable pair of claims. He claims that there actually is a "path out of America’s cycle of gun violence," and that we know what it is.

He also this this. He says that if we don't take that path, we Americans "will continue to be victims of gun violence [or] see friends or relatives shot." 

Within the tents of our own blue tribe, that's a very familiar insinuation, suggestion, statement or claim. But does it make any real sense?

Flashback! As we noted on Saturday, everywhere President Roosevelt looked, he said he saw "one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished."  He made that statement in his second inaugural address, but he said he painted that picture not in despair, but in hope.

That's what FDR saw everywhere he looked. Everywhere we look today, we see tribunes of a blue tribe who seem unable to come to terms with the size of the problem we face.

We have no confidence in those tribunes, or in the new heroes they anoint. We have no confidence in their judgment. In many cases, we'd say they're badly compromised, though that may not be a conscious state.

We have no confidence in our tribunes. We have no confidence in their judgment.

We have no confidence in the new stars they quickly anoint. When we see Joan Baez singing the anthem all over again, we sense that all may be lost.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but our self-impressed blue tribe may not be all that impressive. One of our shortcomings may be this: 

We can't see this about ourselves.

Our own blue tribe is unimpressive; the red tribe includes Tucker Carlson. Has our nation possibly reached a point which, to borrow from the poet, is "now too much for us?" 

We'll start to examine that question this week. Our own blue tribe is unimpressive, the red tribe may well be worse.

Tomorrow: Where to begin?


42 comments:


  1. Well, apparently when good-decent (and ioho clinically insane) gender-dysphorians buy and shoot guns, that's perfectly fine. According to the NPR.

    ...tsk. So, what can be done? Nothing, obviously...

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Well, Bob you have this Mao fellow, obviously a degenerate, amoral personality on par with Carlson, posting
      here. You do nothing, I tell him to
      go fuck himself almost every day.
      What’s YOUR problem?

      Delete
    2. Mao pluralizes this shooter (saying dysphorianS) when there is no evidence that the shooter was even trans. NPR says:

      "But this week has seen a surge of anti-trans rhetoric after police said the shooter, who attacked a Christian school in Nashville, identified as transgender. The shooter's gender identity remains unclear. "

      However, the hate coming from the right wing is clear.

      Delete
    3. Over and over again, to the point of asphyxiating boringness, you characterize "liberal" as being brain dead. Calling the kettle black much, with your latest brain dead observation?

      Delete
    4. Hallucinating much, dear AC/MA?

      ...is it something in the water?.. is W. R. Grace still operating in your neighborhood?...

      Delete
    5. AC/ MA,
      Yeah. Are you hallucinating that there is a Republican voter who isn't a bigot? If so, you may have drank toxic water causing the logic centre of your brain to misfire.

      Delete
    6. Do better Mao. Of course gender-dysphorians can buy and shoot guns.Gun supporters even fight for blind people in a bar to be allowed to buy and shoot guns. It's a free country after all. Got a grievance?, buy a gun and start shooting. It's the American way. It don't matter how it's hanging.

      Delete
  2. Somerby makes no sense today either. His tone is gloom and doom. He says that the left and right joining together to enact gun control makes no sense. He calls for tribunes to get us out of our mess, but he again implies that journalists are such tribunes (when that doesn't fit the meaning of the word), and he complains because a mass shooting at a bank was on pg 18 of a national newspaper on the day after the shooting. He asks "is now too much for us?" as if we are all feeling overwhelmed but current events.

    Somerby sounds personally depressed. I think he needs to see someone and talk about his mental state. He has been calling others mentally ill lately, but perhaps the problem is that he himself needs to talk to his doctor.

    Given the lack of specifics in his essay and his overall feeling of malaise, he seems to be asking for help, not writing any kind of political analysis. It is OK to feel bad but it would be better for him to talk it over with a carefully selected physician, because lack of hope is a symptom, especially given the inability to pin down what exactly he is upset about.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The shooting in Louisville was seemingly not political. The shooter was a former employee of the bank. There is no reason for it to be reported on the front page today when the gunman was not at large and the deaths had already been reported on Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "We have no confidence in the new stars they quickly anoint. When we see Joan Baez singing the anthem all over again, we sense that all may be lost."

    The link leads to a photo of Baez with Justin Jones. It is unsurprising to hear Somerby diss Jones, after trying to trash him yesterday (as a not perfectly accurate truth-teller). Jones was already an elected representative of his constituents, but has anyone made him a tribune of the rest of us? I don't think so. But he was at least joining a gun control protest when tossed out of his elected office (now reinstated). That is more than Somerby is willing to do. He says today that efforts at gun control don't make sense. No wonder he is depressed. If that doesn't make sense, what does?

    ReplyDelete
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    2. Apparently this troll doesn't believe that others should have the chance to express their opinions here.

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    3. Nor does Somerby, who won’t remove the crap.

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      Delete
    5. I have reported you to Twitter.for violating terms of service.

      Delete
  5. Joan Baez is a former fok singer, not any kind of tribune.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Our President’s oratory is often sprinkled with
    FDR like faith in the Country’s future.
    On the other hand, should he ever teeter
    towards the “I welcome their hatred” side
    of FDR ( and we certainly had awful
    Garbage on the Right as never before)
    and Bob is all over him like a cheap
    shirt. But when it come to history,
    Bob only recalls what serves his
    moment.
    The above poster is correct, Bob
    is just very confused today. But at
    least he’s not mean spirited. Why does
    he call someone a good, decent person?
    He’s doesn’t go on to insult them.
    Another bit of history. Joan Baez
    needs to be thrown on the scrap heap
    of it. Her viscous treatment of Hillary
    Clinton was ugly and stupid. She
    should not be excused from her role
    in giving us Trump. As the record shows,
    MLK wasn’t good enough for her
    either.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "He also this this. He says that if we don't take that path, we Americans "will continue to be victims of gun violence [or] see friends or relatives shot."

    Within the tents of our own blue tribe, that's a very familiar insinuation, suggestion, statement or claim. But does it make any real sense?"

    Of course it makes sense. In fact, it is obvious. These mass shootings are increasing, not decreasing. Other countries don't have as many as we do, and they do not have as many guns as we do either. If Somerby is seriously suggesting that the sheer number of guns in our society doesn't contribute to our gun violence problems, he is very wrong. So wrong as to be among the gun advocates denying the truth of the cost in gun deaths we suffer as Americans who fetishize guns.

    But at least we now know where Somerby stands. Jones joined a gun control protest and Somerby called him dishonest. Somerby recounts a gun concern editorial and says it makes no sense, when it is clear to the rest of us that no one is safe from guns in a public place anymore.

    It is Somerby who is avoiding the common sense conclusion that we need to enact the reasonable gun controls favored by even gun owners themselves. We are not a nation of laws when any disgruntled person can shoot up others out of hatred and anger, any more than we are a nation of laws when a criminal president escapes prosecution, a supreme court justice is bought off by billionaire friends, or the Republican half of Congress will not govern for the good of their constituents.

    The Republicans need to change their ways. We voters can convince them of that at the polls. We still have the power over their wrong direction, but only if we vote.

    ReplyDelete
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  8. “we see tribunes of a blue tribe who seem unable to come to terms with the size of the problem we face.”

    Is Bacon one of those “tribunes?” It doesn’t seem to me that he is underestimating the size of the problem. He is merely stating the solution, as he sees it, which is “far-reaching” gun control.

    Somerby seems to doubt that as a solution. He doesn’t discuss why he thinks this isn’t a solution, or is “debatable” as he puts it.

    Is Lawrence O’Donnell one of those “tribunes”? His now almost nightly editorial is advocating the outlawing of the AR-15. That seems a simple, obtainable first step. But he himself never says that it would be easy to enact such a ban, just that it would be a good thing to do. He takes the Republican party to task every single time he does this editorial because of their intransigence on this issue. Not only do they refuse to ban this weapon, they make it easier for everyone to obtain it.

    Is Justin Pearson one of those “tribunes”? He is the legislator from Memphis who was expelled by the Tennessee legislature. He’s very eloquent, and he’s very passionate about enacting some sort of gun control. But he is not in despair, he is hopeful. He represents the wishes of his constituents.

    Somerby once again seems hopeless because the “blue tribe” cannot enact gun control legislation, or reduce the gun violence. And yet the Republican party’s intransigence is a big reason why this always goes nowhere in this country. Somerby takes both sides to task, but it seems to me that Bacon is essentially correct here. The right wing doesn’t even seem to be interested in TRYING to reduce the problem. Their gun rights absolutism becomes more and more entrenched, despite the wishes of a majority of the population, even in Tennessee. Why doesn’t Somerby see that as essential to the discussion?

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  9. "to borrow from the poet,"

    This is a link to nowhere. The post is missing.

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    2. Obviously, antelope meat knows more about economics than any Right-winger.

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  10. Run toward the sound of gunfire, because that's where the freedom is.

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  11. NYT put it on page 18 because the shooter was pro-BLM and anti-Trump.

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    1. And yet, the MSNBC shows last night all led with the story. Imagine that.

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    2. Did they mention that he was a lefty wokester?

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  12. "Flashback! As we noted on Saturday, everywhere President Roosevelt looked, he said he saw "one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." He made that statement in his second inaugural address, but he said he painted that picture not in despair, but in hope.

    That's what FDR saw everywhere he looked. Everywhere we look today, we see tribunes of a blue tribe who seem unable to come to terms with the size of the problem we face."

    Somerby thinks FDR felt hope. We don't know what he felt, and neither does Somerby. We know what he said, and we know that it was his job as president to instill hope in our nation, but we also know that he was widely hated by Republicans and I doubt THEY felt hope after hearing FDR's words.

    As today, Republicans in FDR's time largelty obstructed his efforts.

    To feel hope in FDR's time, people needed to not only hear FDR's encouraging messages but also work to improve our nation and our lives.

    Somerby seems to spend most of his day immersed in right wing cable shows and the rest of his day attacking the efforts of those who want to improve things in our country, and as in FDR's time, those people are on the left, not the right, and especially not in Trump's camp.

    Somerby has a lot of nerve claiming that today's blue tribe is not as inspiring as FDR was. For sure, Somerby's message of nihilism today doesn't help anyone reading it feel hopeful about anything. If Somerby were doing some good in the world, he would feel much better about our future together and his own self-worth. His kind of sour attitude is unhealthy, especially in the context of real problems that many of us are actively trying to address.

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  13. The Republican party will never change. They must all be voted out.

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  14. "Florida state Rep. Webster Barnaby (R) apologized after he called transgender people “demons” and “mutants” during a hearing on a bill that would make it a misdemeanor offense for someone to use a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex they were assigned at birth, Politico reports.

    Said Barnaby: “The lord rebuke you, Satan, and all of your demons and all of your imps who come parade before us. That’s right, I called you demons and imps, who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world.”

    Even FDR would feel less hope if he were up against legislators like this guy.

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    1. FDR’s Democratic Party controlled two thirds of Congress beginning in 1933, and had filibuster-proof majorities for most of his 4 terms. That allowed FDR to be a bit hopeful, I would think.

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  16. One reason why Republicans don't want gun control is because they envision using those guns against Democrats.

    https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2023/04/its-only-matter-of-time-before-right.html

    It wouldn't be hard to become as paranoid as the right is, seeing the right as enemies of our own rights and freedom.

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    1. From Digby:

      There are now no more farmer-generals, no more abbés, no more monks: the life of gastronomy resides in physicians like you, who are epicures by predestination. It is for you to hear with still greater firmness the weight with which you are laden by destiny. May you wipe out the fate of the Spartans at the pass of Thermopylae!"

      But the cry of the decadence of cookery is an ancient one, and occurs periodically, like that of the failure of vintages. It has always existed, and always will exist. It is the old burden, with Ronsard's modification:

      "Le temps s'en va, le temps s'en va, ma dame;
      Las! le temps non, mais nous nous en-allons."
      (Time hast'neth on, time hast'neth on, my dear;
      Nay, Time doth stay, and we the journeyers here.)
      Age and circumstances, surroundings and lack of hygienic observances, may dull the susceptibility of the most appreciative palate; the sense of taste also has its decrepitude. Celebrated chefs pass away, and with them passes the celebrity of famous restaurants. But other artists appear, and fresh successes are achieved—

      "Thus times do shift, each thing his turn does hold;
      New things succeed as former things grow old."[15]
      [80]


      OLD ENGLISH DISHES
      "In the olde time,
      * * * * *
      When Beefe, Bread & Beere,
      Was honest mens cheere,
      and welcome and spare not;
      And John and his Joane,
      Did live of their owne,
      full merily, though but all meanely."
      Cobbes Prophecies, His Signes and Tokens, 1614.
      The main attraction of the very early English cook-book, it must be confessed, is its rarity, to which may be added its quaint title-page and foreword, and sometimes its frontispiece and woodcuts. No new salads will be discovered in its repertory to tempt the epicure, or few dishes that will provoke his appetite. The text is usually difficult to interpret, and, beyond singular alimentary mixtures which attest the remarkable receptive qualities of our forefathers, it contains little to interest the aver[81]age reader. In this respect it differs largely from the olden works on gardening, through whose leaves still wantons the breeze of June, and chaffinch, cushat, and throstle sing. The fact is, it requires a master to render even a modern culinary treatise entertaining; the majority of ancient cook-books are for the most part mere curiosities. There is no Andrew Marvell of eating, or Parkinson of dining. "The reflection that appreciates, applied to the science that improves," as M. de Borose has aptly defined gastronomy, is a comparatively recent product, an outcome of advancement and civilising influences, and therefore it is hardly to be looked for in primitive compilations.


      FIRST OF SEPTEMBER

      From the engraving after A. Cooper, R.A.

      A poetical cook-book might have been composed by Walton had he devoted as much attention to the saucepans as he did to the rod; for the "Compleat Angler" shows him to have been fond of a good repast as it was then understood, even to preparing the fish himself with the limited conveniences available at the Thatched House. As it is, some of his numerous recipes and his allusions to barley-wine are poetical in an eminent degree, and cause one to regret that he is not also the author of a "Compleat Housewife." No modern, it is true, would wish to experiment with his prescripts for cooking trout and chavender, unless by proxy; like most of the recipes of the olden school, they are infinitely more amusing to read than they would prove pleasing to savour.

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  17. The plea for gun control is wrong, for two vital reasons

    1. The kind of gun control that many European countries have simply cannot be attained in the US. Our Constitution forbids it, at least under current Supreme Court interpretation. That ruling is not likely to change, because of stare decisis. Also, gun ownership is widespread and very popular. The Right to Bear Arms is the number 1 issue for many voters.

    2. The US murder problem is mostly a problem of a relatively few large cities. Coincidentally or not, they're mostly governed by Democrats. So, the unacceptably high US murder is more a local problem -- that is, in a few localities. The problem can be solved with appropriate local policies. Sadly, the recent election in Chicago suggests that this city is not going to institute effective policies that will bring down the murder rate.

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    1. Things can be a hell of a lot better than they are. Preventing accidental deaths and suicides is worthwhile. None of this explains why guns cannot have safety features and why guns cannot be kept from teens, domestic abusers and mentally ill people. Nor does it explain why anyone needs an AR-15.

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    2. Chicago instituted community policing under the last Democratic mayor, Lightfoot, that has already reduced the murder rate. New Orleans is now the murder capital. Doesn’t exactly fit your stereotype.

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    3. "That ruling is not likely to change, because of stare decisis. "

      LOL. That's what they said about legalized abortion.
      The Supreme Court can rule guns are illegal anytime they want. That's how power works.

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    4. Crime is down in San Francisco.
      Funny how you never hear the "Fuck your feelings" crowd, complain that feeling crime rates are up is what is ruining this country.
      Same with how low U.S. tax rates are (historically, or in comparison to other industrialized nations), despite so many feeling taxes are too high.

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