As we learn that one of the victims of yesterday’s mass murder at a synagogue was a 97 year-old Holocaust survivor, I want to add a note of optimism from the aftermath of another mass shooting. I’ve been following the students who organized March for Our Lives on Twitter, and their feeds have been notable more for their absence and calculation rather then their presence. They’ve been busy running voter registration drives and GOTV events, and most of what they tweet is related to that. They’ve written a book that has made the Young Adult best seller list.
Because they aren’t vulgar, ridiculous liars and clowns, they don’t garner a lot of media attention, but they are out there, working. They are focused, determined and dedicated. I am excited and optimistic about their work.
Open thread.
Update:That tweet was from Jennifer Epstein, White House correspondent for Bloomberg, and she’s since deleted it since it wasn’t well sourced. Thanks to Mike S for pointing that out.
Mike S.
the linked tweet, establishing that a victim is a holocaust survivor, is already deleted?
deleted before a single comment on the thread.
twitter is a shit platform.
OzarkHillbilly
They are better people than I.
MazeDancer
Rise up and write, People.
Seeing how many people are willing to work hard for change by writing PostCards brings much optimism. Today and tomorrow are our last days of PostCard writing.
We have addresses for BJ Candidates Heidi Heitkamp in ND and Antonio Delgado in NY. So you can help Win the Senate and Flip the House.
You can print free PostCards from the site.
Don’t just sit there. Write someone.
PostCardPatriots.com
kdbart
Can’t wait for the hot takes from the right stating if only Rose was packing.
Nicole
Thanks for this post, Mistermix. It does make me feel a wee bit better. The kids are all right.
schrodingers_cat
I am cautiously optimistic too. We outnumber the R bobble heads. Their current success is not set in stone. We give up depressed, they win by default.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mike S.: Deleted because the reporter didn’t get confirmation first.
Schlemazel
I have been following those kids too. They give me hope & the very best part is they are winning. The NRA is on the run
Kay
I think there will be a rush after the election to say they didn’t mobilize the youth vote, to measure them by some miraculous standard where they bump up 18 to 25 vote by 30 percentage points or something and that’s unrealistic and a ridiculously high benchmark to meet, and one they will fail at meeting.
So don’t fall for it. It’s hard to take a group of people with low turnout and turn them into people who vote. It’s grinding, inch by inch WORK. Don’t hold them to a standard no one could meet. If they make gains look at the gains.
Kay
I;ve been watching Ohio debates and following Ohio campaigns and there has been a shift already. The R’s who are running have dropped the most extreme NRA rhetoric and they’re trying to dodge the gun issue altogether, except when they’re speaking to their base. It’s one more issue (along with health care and taxes) where Republicans are not actually running on their record and their issues. This whole cycle has been like that in Ohio- the Republicans are NOT running on what they do and their actual positions. They know this shit isn’t popular. If they thought it was popular they would be running on it.
rikyrah
Gillum is so in his head ???
https://twitter.com/jennholtonFOX/status/1056200418601111558
feebog
Read a local article this morning about early voting in El Paso. After two days it has already exceeded the full 12 days in 2014. Most importantly, 14% report as new (and mostly young) voters, registered after the 2016 election. Even a slightly larger share of the vote from young voters could move the needle in any election because they ten to vote much more Democratic than any other age group. Now El Paso may just be because it’s Beto’s hometown, but early voting numbers are up across Texas as well. Man, would I like to see Ted Cruz do a Hindenberg.
Kay
I’d also just like to point out how anti-freedom gun nuts are. They refuse any regulation on themselves or their fetish object which means the rest of us are ordered to accept having every public and private space bristling with “security”.
They’re taking away our freedom. They’re insisting we operate in this fucking police state where you can’t go anywhere without elaborate security in place. That’s not “free” at all. It’s turning our public and private spaces into prisons.
So gun nuts can be “free” the rest of us have to operate like we’re in lockdown. That’s how they want us to live- in an armed police state bristling with security and checkpoints.
You heard what Dear Leader said, did you not? He wants religious spaces locked down- he’s an authoritarian thug- of course he does. They won;t regulate guns- instead they want to regulate all of us, every minute of every day. It’s a horrible way to live, and that;s what they want for us. We’ll be locked inside to “stay safe” from the gun nuts roving outside. The gun nuts have all the freedom- we have none.
Mike S.
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Leaving the tweet in place while updating (with another tweet) to acknowledge the reporter’s failure is better than deletion.
Twitter is garbage in part b/c it allows destruction of record rather than correction.
Wapiti
@Kay: Gun nuts appear to want all of the nation to bow to their wants. That’s sort of like slaveholders pre-Civil War.
Starfish
Here is a link to the list of people shot as stated by the local paper. No one credible that I have seen has confirmed that the oldest member of the group had survived the Holocaust.
JanieM
@Kay: Yes. This is another pervasive rhetorical trick: the co-opting of the word “freedom” to mean its opposite. To them, freedom always means freedom to do things [they want to do; not, of course, things I want to do, like get married]. It never means freedom from. Interesting that Roosevelt’s four freedoms included two “to” and two “from”:
Freedom of speech
Freedom of worship
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear
Of course, these same people all hate Roosevelt, so that would cut no ice with them.
Anyhow, thanks for making that point so clearly.
Woodrow/Asim
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: “Deleted because the reporter didn’t get confirmation first.”
Seconded. I was going to use that tweet as an anchor for my FB post on this, this AM, but could not find a 2nd source and thus dropped it.
What I did find was this sadly relevant post from a Tree of Life Rabbi, on their blog in July:
“Despite continuous calls for sensible gun control and mental health care, our elected leaders in Washington knew that it would fade away in time. Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the mid-term elections, I fear that that the status quo will remain unchanged, and school shootings will resume. I shouldn’t have to include in my daily morning prayers that God should watch over my wife and daughter, both teachers, and keep them safe. Where are our leaders?”
Tokyokie
@MazeDancer: I’ll be doing postcards for both of the later today.
foucault swing voter mistermix
@Woodrow/Asim: Yeah, I feel bad about it – I checked that it was a reporter for a major media source before linking it and obviously that wasn’t enough. I updated the post.
@Kay: I agree that savvy politicos will try to characterize anything but an astonishing youth wave as a failure but I think the MFOL organizers will simply ignore that, as they have been ignoring a lot of the similar bullshit that drags down other movements. I think we’re going to see some movement in 18-25 voting. Republicans – especially in red states – make it very hard for this group to vote.
Elizabelle
I was thinking of the Parkland kids yesterday; how I don’t hear anything about them. (Mind you, I’m not online that much lately.)
I guess, sadly, that may change now that we have another mass shooting with assault weapon, although none of the victims were teens or young adults (sounds like middle age and up)?
Go, Parkland kids. Go, us.
Woodrow/Asim
@Wapiti: “Gun nuts appear to want all of the nation to bow to their wants. That’s sort of like slaveholders pre-Civil War.”
The parallels are horrific and unsettling. Esp. as the slaveholders abused State’s Rights — when it was convenient for them, see Fugitive Slave Law — as a cover to gain power to spread and enforce slavery.
They also abused the Constitution — just a gun folks love to speak of the 2nd Amendment as inviolate, so too do you read of references, by slave-lovers, to the 3/5ths compromise and other “compromises” to the Liberty all Americans deserve, as “proof” of the Founders’ intent that America should be a slave-holding Nation.
The truth — at least the bits I’ve been able to look into, so far — seems far more complex. But these are not arguments around complexity and goodwill in debate, to say the least.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mike S.: No, because it would continue to be shared. Instead, she deleted it and put up an explanation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yeah, I always think that’s the sign of a stand-up tweeter.
I followed a link that referred to her as a “Holocaust survivor” and the actual story said “grew up during the Holocaust”, which reads to me like she was born in the US, but there were no details.
Mike in NC
If the upcoming election yields results that displease Fat Bastard, he may very well try to institute an actual Purge, where straight white males will be permitted to commit any crime against anybody who isn’t of their tribe for a period of 24 hours, with an automatic pardon the following day.
Elizabelle
@Mike in NC: Calm thyself.
Really.
James E Powell
I’m thinking it’s a good thing that their registration and GOTV efforts are not getting media attention.
waratah
@foucault swing voter mistermix: the 18 to 25 are a big part of Beto’s volunteers. I have seen them work very hard for him. Texas is so big he has needed all his volunteers of all ages. I hear senior citizens say they have not seen a campaign like this in Texas. He is going to win and his campaign will be studied.
StringOnAStick
We went to a concert by Kamasi Washington Friday night (jazz, a touch of funk and some “out” experimental jazz); here in near Lily white Denver, it was a huge crowd that packed the Ogden venue. The opening act was Victory Boyd, a young black songwriter with serious guitar skills and a gorgeous round voice, playing with her sister on bass and a keyboardist, all 3 WOC; the audience was immediately thrilled and welcoming when she first walked out and played solo, then even more so when her two sidewomen came out. It made me proud of this town that the love pouring from the audience was so tangible. She talked a lot about loving each other and our diversity, to roars of approval. At the end of their set they turned on some house lights so they could see how big the audience was; the look of happy surprise on her face will stay with me for a long, long time.
Kamasi has a following larger than just jazzheads I think because he does riff-based extended jams (at 60 we were some of the oldest people there). He also talked a lot about love and diversity, saying that we are all formed from the same source and it is our differences that make us beautiful. It was such an inspiring night!
I’m not going to let the horror of yesterday take away what I felt at that concert: love and acceptance. But I am ramping up my situational awareness and my husband the not-too-interested in politics Jew has realized he has to do more than just vote; yesterday made that clear. I agree with what Kay has started above: the gun nuts want us to have no rights and have to cower in fear at all our social spaces. NOT cowering; I’m standing up! As for the Mango Moron, just what every person wants is to worship after making their way through the armed guards, metal detectors, pat downs, etc.; all this to celebrate God’s love in a community seems rather oxymoronic, no?
Ohio Mom
One small thing I take hope in is that my current Republican state rep appears worried about keeping his seat in Columbus. As much as I like his Democratic challenger, I can’t objectively say that she seems a strong candidate. And this is a very Red and gerrymandered district.
But I am still getting pretty frequent robocalls from his campaign. First they were push polls (“Does learning that the Democrat candidate eats live babies make you more or less likely to vote for her? Does learning that Republican candidate saves cats from trees make you more or less likely to vote for him?).
Now they are are GOTV calls. Yeah, I’ll be sure to vote. Not for you though.
Even if he wins again, I take pleasure in knowing he’s sweating.
Doug R
@Kay:
This. The tyranny of deadly weapons everywhere. I think that’s one big reason I stay in Canada, we’re more free here. There’s still one gun for every three people but it just doesn’t oppress us.
kattails
@MazeDancer: I downloaded and had printed the card #8, but later realized they’d said that one was maybe too strong for undecideds. I have a list for Harley Rouda in CA, I’m in NH so need to print some of the more moderate ones. I was planning on writing tonight and tomorrow night, it seems like you are very involved in this; do you think I could use the first ones for Heitkamp or Delgado? I’ve had crazy scheduling all week and been doing local work as well. I could send to Delgado with no worries about them arriving in time as I live in NH.
debbie
@Kay:
You give them too much credit. They will stick with blaming it on Soros and Jews.
debbie
@Kay:
Every GOP ad I’ve seen here says they support keeping pre-existing conditions. An out-and-out lie. Only topped by their next lie that the Democrats want to end Medicare.
Other than saying Cordray voted to raise taxes 100 times, I don’t see how they could be more craven. Sure they’ll find a way, though.
Doug R
@Elizabelle:
Emma González Verified account @Emma4Change
Voting on November 6th is what all the cool kids r doing ? (( they’re also hydrating and doing they’re homework eyyo ))
8:50 AM – 28 Oct 2018
https://twitter.com/Emma4Change/status/1056573809938051077
rikyrah
Just finished voting?
From check-in to finish, took 15 minutes. Came before the church crowd.
gene108
@Kay:
It is not just Ohio. In Southern NJ, Philly, they are all in on negative ads, and very little on their record or policy positions.
Jeffg
There are other links to the story. This is one.
https://forward.com/fast-forward/412872/97-year-old-holocaust-survivor-among-victims-of-pittsburgh-synagogue/
Fleeting Expletive
My daughter’s magnificent outdoor wedding was the most fabulous, joyous, perfect outdoor wedding you could ever imagine. This was a spectacular gay celebration and totally worth the hard 500 mile train trip. Hard. There were maybe >100 guests from all over the country! There were sequins and velvet and halloween costumes galore, and babies and flappers, oh my. This mother of one of the brides had precious young folk escorting her around, there was make-up and dancing and food and balloons…I was so glad to be able to be a part of it.
The train ride was just long. Not uncomfortable, there’s plenty of room and all, it was just bouncy. My inner ears still felt the motion for days afterward, but I’m glad we undertook the big trip.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Fleeting Expletive: Congrats on a wonderful affair.
Bill Arnold
On Medium, Jonathan Albright has a piece on the migrant caravan, specifically, on how the story developed in social media. This counts as optimism because people are starting to seriously dissect these propaganda networks.
Rumores Sin Fronteras – The rumor ⊂⟑r⟑v⟑n: journey of a seeded controversy from @reply, comment, and aliased op-ed to an election-impacting narrative covered on network television (Oct 25, 2018)
It’s long, and I have the impression that he has gathered copious material using twitter APIs and etc, and that the article is just the highlights. [If it’s not clear why this is newly more interesting, the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter was frothed up about “The Caravan” and G. Soros.]
So he did some poking. Interesting piece.
FelonyGovt
Anyone seen the “vote Republican” TV commercial? Nancy Pelosi “back in power” and looking scary. Immigrants pouring in. Government-run health care! Liberals! Impeachment!
I said to my husband, “it all sounds pretty good to me”.
tybee
@FelonyGovt: exactly my response when i saw that commercial.
gene108
@Kay:
What makes it more insidious is they keep moving the goalposts on what they consider acceptable.
If we rolled back gun laws to where they were 10 years ago and thus no “constitutional” carry or open carry laws would be on the books, the gun lobby would be screaming about the end of freedom and the start of moving towards outright gun confiscation.
My only hope is the majority of people, who are not gun owners keep getting more politically organized and the resulting gun legislation will be far more restrictive than the gun nuts worst nightmares.
debbie
@FelonyGovt:
I’ve seen it. Ridiculous.
A Ghost To Most
I’ll be optimistic when the last dictator is strangled with the entrails of the last “holy” man.
Kattails
@MazeDancer: Was just in touch with someone there via email, very quick response, thoughtful and well organized. Nice! I’ll do me some Delgado names as well.
CaseyL
@Kay: This is wonderful. You’ve said what I keep saying, but better than I do. May I post your comment on my FB page?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kay:
I think it’s interesting that around where I live (NE Ohio) except for the primaries, none of the candidates advertise that they’re apart of a political party, R’s or D’s. That includes those running for state-level office as well.
I really don’t get it, since the ballots say so anyway.
A Ghost To Most
@Kay: The identical comment could and should be said about christians. They think their ilk deserve extra credit. It’s not just gun nuts.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Woodrow/Asim:
I like aside from the “elected leaders” bit. We know who controls Congress (and the SC now). The elected Dems would have but not the authoritarian R’s.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kay:
Excellent argument and it’s completely true. These people fancy themselves freedom loving patriots, but they’re actually just reactionary authoritarians. If the government every truly became oppressive, as long as it was ideologically compatible with them, they’d be it’s enforcers, not unlike the early Nazi regime’s SA.
tokyokie
@waratah: I live in Fort Worth, the heaviest Republican big city in the state, and I have not detected noticeable enthusiasm for Cruz around here. (And why should there be? Cruz’s campaign pitch is little different from what the GOP was barking in the mid-1980s, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a campaign slogan as risable as Cruz’s “Tough as Texas.”) I’ve seen Beto bumper stickers and yard signs for months, and I honestly cannot recall having seen a single Cruz bumper sticker. In recent weeks, I’ve seen some Cruz yard signs pop up, but I’m guessing campaign workers have been going by known Republican households, asking if they could stab one into their yards. (I had to go by Beto HQ to get one, and I’m guessing that’s how most of the signs/stickers were obtained.) And I’ve maintained from the get-go that a large part of Beto’s base — young people and/or Hispanics — are first-time voters and not folks whom the pollsters are calling.
geg6
@FelonyGovt:
Ha! We’ve been seeing that one a lot and my John and I say the same thing!
condorcet runner-up
This is about as perfect and as succinct of an indictment of our current media as anyone could have written.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My foolish sister in Dallas always votes for Republicans because reasons and screams at me any time I mention anything remotely political. I talked her into voting for Beto last week so that makes me happy.
Kelly
This is how great human beings respond to heartbreaking tragedy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pbEBxQPWGc&app=desktop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9iYBifsOPI
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
The kids are alright. They have been organizing very effectively and holding regular rallies around the country. They are diving up youth registration & voting. They may well combine with women of color to save this country from becoming the shithole it has aspired to be the last couple of years
Immanentize
Thanks Mr. Adelson. Thanks Bibi. Thanks Michael Oren, Thanks Republican operative/Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer… Fill in further names of choice.
Did they really think they were part of the American right — on the TEAM? Let a little Soros hate go because of the bigger issues? Give the Eastern European countries of Hungary and Poland a little anti-semitic slack, because — IRAN! They never were on Team White Christ and they never will be. When the State of Israel is more important than the lives of actual Jews, well… — Here we are at this utterly unsurprising horrible place.
Immanentize
@Old Dan and Little Ann: You (one or both) are great patriots and did the right thing. Hard work, congrats!
debbie
@Immanentize:
Oren just humiliated himself bad-mouthing Macron. Is this what you’re referring to? Or just that he’s a POS? Either way, you’re totally right.
Villago Delenda Est
@Fleeting Expletive: Sounds like it was a VERY swingin’ event!
Villago Delenda Est
@condorcet runner-up: Not good for ratings. The only thing that matters to assholes like Les Moonves and Andy Lack.
rikyrah
@Fleeting Expletive:
Congratulations ??
Mandalay
Since this is a thread for optimism, here’s a nasty white racist busybody who got her comeuppance: public shaming, immediate dismissal from her job and four summonses from the cops after harassing two black women:
She’s obviously drunk, but even so I hope her life is ruined. I hope she is shunned by her friends and disowned by her family. I hope she has problems getting another job. I hope she is gets harassed when she shows her face in public, and has to move away.
This evil shit needs to end, and having the perpetrators face really ugly consequences for their behavior is a good way to help that happen.
debbie
@Mandalay:
You’ll want to stay away from the comments. :/
Tazj
@Fleeting Expletive: That’s sounds like a really cool and great wedding.
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Great job, and not easy to do without alienating people. One of my older sisters has been trying to convince one of our other sisters to stop voting with conservatives(she’s an evangelical) and isn’t having any luck yet.
I’m optimistic more people have finally had enough of this hell, and want a new direction for the country.
efgoldman
Poor Jennifer. Fell into the shit an coulfd’nt could n’t bet out
J R in WV
Y’all know how to tell a Republican is lying, don’t you?
Their mouth is moving!!!
Old but good.
Ruckus
@Kay:
This is what pisses me off about the gun issue on the political vs the realistic sides. Nothing conservatives say or want is about freedom, that being equal freedom for everyone.
They want the freedom to scare and offend everyone. They don’t want anyone else to have the freedom to speak, to assemble. They don’t want actual freedom. Actual freedom for everyone marginalizes them right down to their socks.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I’d go with they are breathing.
More realistic. And besides they are lying to themselves as well.
Dan B
@Fleeting Expletive: Your daughter’s wedding sounds wonderful. It’s great to hear the stories about these weddings and to tell stories about them. After same gender marriage became legal in WA State we were at several. All if them were small and in wonderful places – a houseboat so small that it started to tip into the lake during the ceremony. 10 people on one side was the limit. Our friends had been together for more thsn 30 years. Everyone cried. Part of the tears were for the decades when their relationship had no chance of being valid in the eyes of the state. All of us had friends who were kept away from their partners during the AIDS crisis, either in hospital or when parents separated them in their hometowns.
One couple, a pair of incredibly handsome abd talented guys, had a big wedding near their home in the San Juan Islands in a field overlooking the Straight and seaside cliffs. It drizzled lightly until the ceremony. The sun came out if the mist as a Bald Eagle flew and some Orcas swam past.
Billionaires couldn’t have more fantastic and meaningful ceremonies.