Monday Reads: Enough is Enough!

#Unload

Good Morning Sky Dancers!

The number of mass shootings in this country is horrifying. I don’t know about you, but everyone is like one layer of trauma on top of another.  Try this one on for size.  ABC News reports, “There have been more mass shootings than days in 2023, the database shows. There have been 202 mass shootings so far this year.” The carnage continues to pile up in Texas, and parents leaving a mall that had been the shootout scene were told to cover their children’s eyes so they would not see the bodies covered by bloody sheets.   CNN Reports that the “Outlet Mall shooter had received firearms training as a security guard.”

The Texas outlet mall shooter, Mauricio Garcia, had worked for at least three security companies and had undergone hours of firearms proficiency training in recent years, according to a database maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

None of the companies immediately responded to requests for comment.

The 33-year-old was approved to work as a security guard in Texas from April 2016 until April 2020, when his license expired, according to his profile in the Texas Online Private Security database.

As part of his work, Garcia received Level II and Level III security training. Level II covers security laws in Texas. Level III, which is required for all commissioned security officers and personal protection officers in Texas, includes firearm training and the demonstration of firearm proficiency, according to Jonah Nathan, vice president of Ranger Guard, a security guard service in Texas not affiliated with Garcia’s employers.

In 2018, Garcia completed a separate firearms proficiency training course, which required six hours of continuing education, according to the database.

It’s unclear why Garcia’s license expired.

Private security guards in Texas undergo background checks and are disqualified if they have committed certain crimes such as assault, burglary or sexual offenses, among others, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety website and state codes.

They are also disqualified if they have been dishonorably discharged

#Unload

Right-wing trolls on Twitter immediately characterized the shooter as belonging to a primarily Hispanic gang. They tried identifying a tattoo showing his membership in a prison gang Pure Tango Blast. No one egged this crap on Twitter more than the Congresscritter MTG. This is from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.“Marge Greene, Worst of the Worst, Mass Shooting Edition.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, just the worst kind of racist degenerate who somehow has managed to become the de facto leader of House Republicans in the new Congress.

This morning Greene went on Twitter to note that the shooter “appears Hispanic” and had what she decided “looks like a gang tattoo on his hand.” And then added “Title 42 ends on Thursday and CBP says 700,000+ migrants are going to rush the border.”

The shooter has been identified as Mauricio Garcia, a 38-year-old security guard from Dallas. I haven’t seen any reporting on Garcia’s immigration or citizenship status. But it seems likely he’s an American citizen. If he was working as a security guard that makes it highly unlikely he was undocumented. Regardless, for Greene the shooting is about Title 42 and keeping undocumented migrants out of the country.

In the real world, law enforcement officials told NBC News and other news outlets that “Garcia had several social media accounts and appeared to be drawn to neo-Nazi and white supremacist content. He was also wearing, when he was killed, a patch on his chest with a right-wing acronym.”

In other words, basically your garden-variety mass shooter and far-right terrorist.

In other words, your homegrown terrorist that MTG considers to be a hero as long as he’s white. This is pure right-wing propaganda and was everywhere on Twitter yesterday.   Maya Boodle from Alternet.org reports, “Texas mall shooter wore neo-Nazi symbol and shared ‘white-supremacist content online.'”

The man who murdered eight people using an AR-15 at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, Saturday likely identified with neo-Nazi beliefs, The Washington Post reports.

Allen resident Mauricio Garcio, according to The Post wore a “patch on his chest” at the time of the shooting that read “RWDS,” meaning “Right Wing Death Squad,” a “phrase popular among right wing extremists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists.”

Additionally, NBC reports Garcia “interacted with neo-Nazi and white supremacist content online.”

Last year, an Anti-Defamation League’s Center (ADLC) on Extremism report revealed “all extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists,” adding, “More than four out of five extremist-related murders last year were committed by white supremacist right-wing extremists.”

#Unload

The New Republic has this op-ed from Michael Tomasky. ” The Gun Industry Wants America’s Malls and Schools to Be War Zones. The bodies pile up. Republicans say it’s in God’s hands. And the new weapons coming to market are even deadlier. There’s only one logical conclusion.”

Steven Spainhouer’s son worked at the H&M at the Allen, Texas, outlet mall and called his father Saturday night when the shooting started. Spainhouer raced to the scene and arrived before the first responders. And here is the sight that greeted him: “The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side, and she had no face.”

For the record, it’s the 199th mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The 200th will happen today, or maybe has already happened by the time you’ve read this. We’re on pace for close to 600 shootings, and perhaps 60,000 willful, malicious, or accidental deaths (there’ve been 20,200 so far this year, according to the GVA, in the first four months and one week of 2023). That 60,000 is roughly equal to the number of Americans who died in Vietnam in nearly a decade. We’ll witness the same amount of carnage in one year. Shopping zones are war zones.

But it would seem that little girl getting her face blown off as if she lived in Stalingrad in 1943 is just God’s will. This was the verdict of the congressman who represents Allen, Republican Keith Self, who went on CNN after the shooting. He offered his prayers. The anchor interjected that some people think “prayers aren’t cutting it.” Self responded: “Well, those are people that don’t believe in an almighty God who is absolutely in control of our lives. I’m a Christian. I believe that He is.”

Closing arguments for the E. Jean Rape case are being held this morning. Lauren DeValle at CNN is following the session. 

Attorneys for Carroll and Trump rested their respective cases last Thursday. Carroll’s legal team put on 11 witnesses in her case including the writer herself over seven trial days. Trump did not put on a defense and ultimately opted not to testify.

District Judge Lewis Kaplan gave Trump a window to change his mind about testifying over the weekend, giving him a Sunday evening deadline to petition the court to reopen Trump’s defense case for the sole purpose of allowing the former president to testify.

“He has a right to testify which has been waived but if he has second thoughts, I’ll at least consider it and maybe we’ll see what happens,” Kaplan told the attorneys.

The judge said in court Thursday evening that he ordered the precautionary measure in light of Trump’s public comments also made Thursday.

Trump, who has not appeared in the courtroom at any point during the trial, told reporters in Ireland on Thursday he’ll “probably attend” the trial.

“I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile,” Trump said while golfing in Doonbeg, Ireland.

No such motion was made by the deadline Sunday and his attorneys confirmed he will not attend the trial.

So Trump was a no-show.  None of us expected him but the Judge had to cover a potential reason for him to appeal as he does incessintly.

Sixty Minutes actually acted like its oldself when it reported this.  Can an entire state be guilty of child abuse for allowing this? “This ancient atrocity” shown on Sunday on 60 Minutes.  “A Nebraska middle school’s concerns about the safety of its students led to one of the largest investigations into illegal child labor in this country. 60 MINUTES’ Scott Pelley looks at the Department of Labor probe that uncovered how for years children as young as 13 worked overnight to clean slaughterhouses across the country”   One hundred and two minors in  13 different slaughterhouse plants in 8 different states.

Watch it here.  Also, remember Huckabuck’s Arkansas and Iowa also have implented this plus others I’ve yet to shame.

What has happened that people are getting elected and turning the country back to the 19th century?  Seriously.  The Republican party seems to be the party of Grand Old Pscychopaths.

Anyway, I can only take so much of this.  The children’s art is from #UNLOAD. It’s an arts-based initiative that seeks to reduce the amount of gun violence in our country.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?