No Lives Matter

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Terrordome

Memorial Weekend, 2022: the year American intransigence on gun-control stopped apologizing. Armed nihilism sans regret.

This isn’t about the N.R.A. anymore. —Hasn’t been for a long time. The N.R.A. has been in disarray for years. What remains are dissenting factions of all kinds, and no longer a single lobby to promote a unified position on “gun use.” How quaint.

You may wonder, “Well, who’s representing the gun companies? Who’s Mr. AR15? Do we lay this at the feet of Colt’s ancestral trademark?”

No. The gunmakers’ financial destinies are not scored to redneck retail. They really aren’t. They’re playing an international arms economy level that has little to do with Mom and Pop gun stores. They take their page from Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, and others.

What is propping up tinpots like Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, Mitch McConnell, or the Goebbels-like juggernauts of Fox News?

Follow their names and their fortunes.

“Guns Before Life” is a successful branding strategy. It is a political power operation, in which red-meat, dick-inferiority politics is leveraged in the service of totalitarianism.

The beneficiaries of mass-shooting adrenaline events are competing political and media dynasties. This is their money and power-play, not the NRA’s. —The Aristocrats joke write large. They’ve fucked everyone up one side and down the other, and they wouldn’t stop if their throne was dripping in their own children’s entrails. There’s no morality in their thinking.

Trump was a slap to America’s faux-decorum, the court jesters. He adored other dictators who ruled by the sword. But Donald’s dead-clown-walking now. The GOP, and their Democratic Party sycophants, attack the very quiver of democracy— a propaganda campaign and territory grab that resembles an incel’s wet dream. These men are the mirror of the mass shooter— there’s no psychological tissue between them.

The Christo-Fascist crew revolutionized the Southern Strategy from Nixon’s era. How *much* could they exploit racial supremacy delusions and poisonous misogyny?

They’ve been busy finding out.

This is their agenda:

- Crisis propaganda 24/7 - sex/race/sex/race/sex/race/round-the-clock

- Wholesale destruction of democracy institutions (voting)

- Privatization of all (public education, public health, et al)

- Labor/union demolition, back to feudality

- Military junta-like oversight, no matter how incompetent

This is the trail of historical religious fascist movements. You’ve seen the movie, you’ve read the books.

Americans look at the Ukraine stuggle in awe — not only because of the carnage, but because Ukraine citizens have spines. They have education, determination. They understand Putin. They’re right to see Americans as naive beyond comprehension. Yankees simply haven’t lost ENOUGH.

The Uvalda murders this summer are not enough, again. Instead, they’re an opportunity for brownshirts to drive families out of public schools, and to deny school funding— except for Dickensian warehousing and juvenile incarceration prototypes.

Case in point:

The Texas GOP don’t care whether the cops on scene in Uvalda did anything— that’s not the goal. This school is nothing to them. Incompetence is ideal. If more people give up on the political process, and give up on public education, it’s a win for Senator Cruz and Governor Abbott. If those two lose their election, they’re through, and they will commit any crime to stay in power. They have nothing without their terror props.

Texas GOPers see a gubernatorial candidate like Beto O’Rourke as Satan Incarnate, “a sick sonnuvabitch.” Beto pointed a finger at Texas patriarchs and said, “This is on YOU.” —Talk about speaking for millions.

In another era, Beto would be a mainline liberal. His support of voting, public schools/public works, and gun control now make him a right-wing sniper target. And he’s just a “famous” one. We all know our friends in Texas who are fighting for their lives every day, who go unheralded. (Please share some of your noteworthy TX organizations and individuals).

For Texas Republicans, defeating gun control IS about restricting voting, it is IS about mandating forced birth; it is ALL the same Klan-warmed blanket.

In the old days, you might be anti-gun-control, but also pro-abortion— or not particularly religion-spewing, and relish your public school district. You might be an active member of the NAACP and support the 2nd amendment.

No more.

That sort of “mixed-bag person” is a fossil now. I could fit all of them in a teacup.

If you carry the totalitarian tote-bag, it’s full package. You can’t pick and choose. It’s a death cult. Like all KoolAid, unquestioning obedience is essential. No Lives Matter.

What do we do next? Chop wood, carry water: there is no standing still. Stop pissing about these issues as if we’re shopping for a smart position. We’re fighting for our lives.