Stephan: I have been waiting for this to happen. The Republican Party doesn't like a free press, a very predictable fascist position. They only appear on propaganda operations like Fox that support their racism and male dominance and that broadcast conspiracies like Tucker Carlson promoting Replacement Theory. When was the last time you saw one of the MAGAts on CNN, PBS, or MSNBC?
MAGAt blocking press from entering the Mastriano/Barnette rally in Philadelphia. He would not answer any questions or make eye contact. Credit: Colby Itkowitz
WARMINSTER TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA — For nearly two hours Saturday, members of the media were denied entry to a routine campaign event featuring the GOP front-runners for governor and U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, by a security team who wouldn’t say who had sent them.
“I know my rights,” said a man in a tricorne hat and white knee socks, when pressed for answers about why he was preventing the media from entering.
“We’re just following orders,” another security man said.
The decision to ban reporters from a joint rally for Doug Mastriano, the gubernatorial candidate, and Kathy Barnette, the Senate candidate, turned a normal campaign stop at an office-park event space into a protracted confrontation between reporters and the campaigns of two far-right candidates.
The back-and-forth was emblematic of the relationship between the GOP and mainstream media over the last decade — primarily because it was so ridiculous.
The man in the colonial outfit was enforcing the ban in […]
If you live in the U.S. and watched television Sunday the 16th of May you know about the White supremacy mass murder in Buffalo, New York. What you may not know, since they have gotten very little coverage except locally is that those murders were just the beginning of what happened this weekend. So I have dedicated today's edition of SR entirely to the gun shootings and murders that happened in the United States this weekend, and I may not have gotten them all. Gun shootings and murders are so common they go largely unnoticed except locally.
In the United States, two trends have come together in such a way that gun violence has become the norm. The first is America's obsessive gun psychosis. There are more guns than people in the U.S. And there are more gun shops than grocery stores.
The second is the Republican Party's legitimization of what is called Replacement Theory. The core of White Supremacy is the belief that the White race has been responsible for most of the good things in human history: the great art, great science, and great thinking, and that Whites are inherently superior. You can hear Tucker Carlson talk about this almost any night of the week on the FOX propaganda network. The idea that Whites are being replaced by immigrants and people of color, be they Black, Hispanic, or Asian based on facts is factually absurd, but passionately believed by the MAGA world, which includes many Republican members of Congress.
As of March 2017, the Gallup Organization found that 42% of Americans “worry a great deal” about race relations, compared to only 17% three years earlier in 2014. And in 2022 the numbers are even greater. Why is this happening? Because somewhere between 2040 and 2045 we will become a majority-minority nation. For the first time in 500 years, since the beginning of the Age of Exploration in the 15th century, being born White will not automatically confer privilege.
To about a third of Whites, particularly White males this is an existentially threat and, when mixed with the largely White gun obsession it is creating almost daily terrorism and death, as the Buffalo killings, just the latest in a long list, make clear.
It is absolutely essential that the House and the Senate not only remain in Democratic control, but that their majorities significantly increase because the Republicans not only won't do anything about reasonable gun control measures, or White supremacy, they are actively using both the gun obsession and Replacement Theory as main motivators of their voter base.
As long as Republicans are in power America is going to become an increasingly violent place in which to live.
Stephan: This is the mass murder you probably know about since it has dominated the news since it happened. But from the perspective of gun murders, this is just the beginning.
Mass murderer 18-year-old Peyton Gendron consults with his attorney Credit: WGRZ
BUFFALO, NEW YORK — The Buffalo Police Department said the alleged shooter that claimed 10 lives and injured three others traveled to the city to commit what officials are saying was a hate crime.
The suspect’s name is Payton S. Gendron, 18, of Conklin, New York, near Binghamton in Broome County. Eleven of his victims were Black and two were white. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn says there is some evidence that the shooting had a ‘racial component.’ Gendron is white.
Police said he was heavily protected with tactical gear, heavily armed, and had a recording device active for social media.
He was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge which is the highest charge in NYS, a mental evaluation has also been ordered and in five days he will be back in court for a felony hearing on Thursday. Gendron has been remanded without bail.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said Gendron is […]
Chicago police this weekend at a shooting crime scene.Credit: NBC 5 Chicago
Chicago police say that five people, including a 16-year-old boy who was shot at Millennium Park, are dead and at least 11 others have been hurt in shootings across the city so far this weekend.
The teen was killed near the Cloud Gate statue at Chicago’s Millennium Park on Saturday evening.
According to police, the 16-year-old was struck in the chest by gunfire during a large gathering in the park. He was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Two persons-of-interest were taken to a local police station for questioning, and two weapons were recovered at the scene.
At approximately 7:24 p.m. Friday in the 6900 block of South Ada, a 17-year-old boy was standing near a sidewalk when he was struck by gunfire.
The teen suffered gunshot wounds to his chest and armpit area, and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. He was later pronounced dead, police said.
No suspects are in custody, and detectives are investigating the shooting.
Ashley Luthern, Mary Spicuzza, and Sophie Carson, Reporters - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Stephan: And here we have Milwaukee this weekend.
Police cleanup aftermath of the scene where 17 people were shot on Water Street, Milwaukee Credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee’s downtown entertainment district, a space to celebrate and come together as a city, was rocked by gun violence Friday night after three shootings left at least 21 people wounded — including 17 shot in one incident.
Hours later, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson imposed a curfew in the area for Saturday and Sunday nights.
“We’re going to do something about what happened here in this neighborhood last night,” Johnson said at downtown’s Red Arrow Park. “It will not be tolerated.”
The violence hit an entertainment district that has been battered by two years of the pandemic and other high-profile incidents of gun violence, including two homicides earlier this year.
By Saturday morning, police evidence markers, trash and personal belongings like shoes and combs could be seen along Water Street. Blood dotted the […]
