The Public Political in Book Five: Working Through the Maze 2018

Just wanted to throw two things up at the moment:

(1) My heart is broken for Chicago this morning. I have a friend who was shot, she’s doing okay but.... Chiraq, indeed. What is most shocking and sickening to me is how the media see “Chicago shooting” and treat it like an everyday thing. I know it is, or seems like it. But damn. CNN didn’t even have the story on the front page. BBC had it buried in the US News and World Report section under 9 stories about Trump. And I get it. Trump is trying to start wars, Trump is admitting collusion and then denying… Trump is a flaming dumpster fire of a shit show and will always sell Papers because he is the malignant scrotal tumor that is so disgusting we can’t look away. But this is 1 weekend. 60 people shot. Most of the shooting was gang-related but civilians taking the bullets.

FROM THE BBC PRESS ROOM:
Police in the US city of Chicago have asked for more help to combat gun violence after more than 60 people were shot over the weekend.

At least 10 people were killed in the city and police say most of the shootings were gang related.

“We will not be defeated,” police chief Fred Waller told reporters on Sunday.

“We need more help from our judicial system. We need more help from our federal partners, and we are getting it,” he added.

Most of the shootings happened on Sunday with 30 people shot between midnight and 03:00.

The majority of the incidents reportedly occurred in Chicago’s south and west sides.

“It’s one of our most violent weekends, there’s no question about that,” a police spokesman told a news conference on Sunday.

Donovan Price, a pastor and emergency administrator, told CBS News that the city was like a “war zone”.

“This is just out of control right now,” he said. “It’s a war zone going on right now. Chicago is just crazy.”

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” one police officer who was stationed outside a hospital told the Chicago Sun Times newspaper. “It’s hot right now. There’s a lot of tension… and it might get worse.”

But officials say the spike in violence is at odds with the general trend in the city, where shootings are said to be decreasing.

Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune reported that there had been 532 fewer shootings this year compared to 2017.

Police chief Waller told reporters that shootings had decreased by 30% from 2017, and murders by 25%.

He said that much of the weekend’s violence was a result of gang members shooting at large crowds indiscriminately.

“An offender or some type of rival gang sees a large group of people… and they shoot into a crowd, no matter who they hit,” he said.

“We won’t be overrun by that small group, that small element that is committing these reckless acts.”

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to intervene in Chicago, and last year he said that crime and killings had reached “epidemic proportions” in the city.

Last June, officials announced the creation of the Chicago Gun Strike Force which comprises city police officers, state troopers, federal agents and intelligence research specialists.

It was created to help curb the flow of illegal guns and to target repeat gun offenders, who authorities say are responsible for the city’s violence problem.

(2) In a political entry last week, I shared some of the horrifying and frankly Anti-American posters and T-Shirts being worn at Trump Rallies. Apparently, I had not seen the worst of it. Now, in full disclosure and fairness, I did try to Reverse Image Search the following picture. I wanted to see if it was a meme, a photoshop, or authentic. The image search returned “2018 Republican Convention”. Which means that it was, if that is to be believed, likely photographed in Texas this year.

I am overwhelmed with deep sorrow and unfathomable rage at seeing that shirt. I’m sure those men simply thought “We support Trump and hate liberals, and this’ll really get to ‘em” but the statement, whether they know it or not, is so wildly and painfully anti-American in every way that I choke on my own emotions to see it.

First of all, if you “support Trump and hate liberals” fine. But, if you wish to call yourselves patriots or Americans, you should “support America, support Trump, and hate liberals.” If you “support Trump” to the point where you no longer care about National Security, you’re an un-American imbecile that would be likely to applaud Trump all the way to a coup.

Second of all, if you would rather be Russian? Look at Human Rights. Look at ‘Free Press.’ Look at ‘Free Expression.’ If you are actually saying that you would rather be Russian than have a Democrat as President… you’re saying “I’d rather have extremely fewer freedoms and less liberty than have a possible tax hike.” Fucking. Idiots.

Third of all, how can you wear a shirt like this and then reasonably argue against Single Payer Health Care as “Communist?!” What?! What the fuck is wrong with these people?!!?!?!?!?!?!??