Things That Make Filosofa Grrrrrrowl

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Free Press Issues, guns, Law and justice, Social commentary

I could only shake my head when reading the following headline …

Six Deaths Linked To Drug Overdoses In Northeast Washington

… but probably not for the reason you are thinking.  While I have empathy for the families of those six people, in just the last three days, there have been 117 reported gun deaths, but nowhere will you see that mentioned in the media.  THAT, my friends, is what astounds me.  Has the free press succumbed to the demands of the NRA and the gun manufacturers to downplay gun violence?  Or are we simply so desensitized by the massive levels of gun violence in this nation that we just shrug our shoulders, that it is no longer considered newsworthy?

To date, there have been 11,798 gun deaths this year alone in this country.  Of those, 5,132 were homicides and 6,666 were suicides.  84 children under the age of 11 were killed, 192 injured.  350 teens were killed, 849 injured.  And that’s just in the first 101 days of this year!  Extrapolating the numbers, we stand to see 42,636 gun deaths by the end of this year!  Do we continue to just shrug our shoulders and allow the gun industry to control our lawmakers to the extent that they are unwilling to do anything to stop this madness?

When the framers of the U.S. Constitution drafted that document, this was not what they had in mind.  Back then, there were muskets … not high-velocity assault weapons that can kill hundreds within a few minutes, and they damn sure didn’t intend people to carry guns into grocery stores and schools and simply start shooting.  They did not intend people to own arsenals.  They did not intend parents to buy guns for their children.

So yeah … drug overdose is a terrible thing, and with over 100,000 deaths by overdose in a 12-month period last year, it must be taken seriously.  However, drug overdose is self-inflicted, whereas about half of gun deaths are not, so let us not ignore the horrible gun madness that is plaguing this country.  Surely, we can care about both?

Last month, as I’m sure you’ve heard since it has been plastered all over the media, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and idiot extraordinaire, purchased 9.2% of the stock in Twitter for a purchase price of $2.64 billion.  Yeah, wrap your head around that one, my friends.  That amount of money could have bought food for 44 million children for a year!  But Musk has never pretended to give a whit about human causes, so why am I surprised, shocked, and sickened by his wastefulness?

Long story short, many trumpeters in the nation were hoping that Musk would take a seat on Twitter’s Board of Directors and instantly re-instate the former guy on Twitter.  Funny, though … when offered the seat, he declined it.  If, in fact, his only purpose for joining the Board would have been to re-instate the former pig guy, then perhaps it was this announcement by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal that changed Musk’s mind …

“Twitter is committed to impartiality in the development and enforcement of its policies and rules.  Our policy decisions are not determined by the Board or shareholders, and we have no plans to reverse any policy decisions.”

Then again, some are speculating that Musk declined the seat on the Board because board members are limited to owning 14.9% of the company’s stock, and Musk may be plotting to ultimately own a majority 51%.  The games people play with their billions of dollars 🙄.  Isn’t it pathetic that they are so high up in their ivory towers that they cannot see the rest of the world down here struggling simply to survive?

After last week’s acquittal of Matthew Martin, one of the insurrectionists who aided the mayhem and murder in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th last year, I was pleased to read yesterday that another such insurrectionist didn’t get so lucky as to have a Trump-appointed judge who refuses to defend the U.S. Constitution.

Thomas Robertson, a former Virginia police officer, was found guilty on all six counts by a jury.  The charges included impeding law enforcement officers, obstructing an official proceeding, entering and remaining in restricted grounds and tampering with evidence.  Prosecutors provided video evidence and  cited online posts Robertson wrote a month before the attack where he called for an “opened armed rebellion.”

This ‘man’ is a threat to human life … investigators said they found a rifle and bomb-making material in his home and learned that he bought another 37 guns on the internet after his original arrest in January 2021.  Just what was he plotting this time?

Of the more than 2,500 people who entered the Capitol illegally on that day, just over 800 have been arrested in connection with the attempted coup, and this is only the second jury trial for any of the defendants.  Apparently, federal prosecutors are either understaffed, else they don’t see this as the high priority I see it as being.  No sentencing date has been set as yet for Robertson, but the combination of his charges could net him up to 20 years in prison.

28 thoughts on “Things That Make Filosofa Grrrrrrowl”

  1. Pingback: A Man Without A Heart | Filosofa's Word

  2. Well, I am going to play the Devil’s Advocate on some of the replies to this post. The main point of this post is to take in that gun violence is downplayed by our government and ignored by the media. The opioid epidemic in this country has been self-inflicted (whether by choice or government-induced addiction) since the 80s, but it is only getting noticed now since Fentanyl and Oxycodone. Guess who started the drug crisis in this country? That’s right…government agencies, namely the CIA. Now, back to the point that Jill was making. The framers of the Constitution could have never guessed that guns would be able to shoot a whole cartridge in less than a minute. Their main focus was to protect the house and homes from unwanted invasion because the crimes were not like they are now. The guns were for the citizen to be protected in a time of war in this country. They were not to go into a subway in Brooklyn or to Sandy Hook Elementary and take revenge on folks. That is the point of Jill’s message. How many of you, before reading my comment, heard about the shootings in Brooklyn today or the shooting of a picnic in Arkansas last week? If you haven’t heard about these two shooting tragedies, that’s the point of this post…not to dismiss the drug problem in the US.

    Liked by 1 person

    • THANK YOU, my friend!!! You have clarified my point far better than I was able to do and I greatly appreciate it! This nation has gone gun crazy, our children are no longer safe in school, we are not safe in any public venue. And yet, the problem is largely ignored in the media, and the Republican Party, being very much in the pockets of the gun lobby, refuses to even talk about gun regulations. I read today that Governor Brian Kemp (Georgia) signed a bill into law that allows people to carry a concealed weapon with no license. It’s easier to buy a gun and carry it in your pocket than it is to get a driver’s license. Sigh. Thanks again, Amy … I appreciate your help!

      Liked by 1 person

      • You are always most welcome, my friend! I am finally getting back into a rhythm again lol. My sister and I have this conversation a lot about gun control. She was in the Army, and she talks about how she would never think of just going to get an assault rifle to protect her home. She got a little gun with a big bang, and it’s locked in a safe that only she has the key to. That’s how it should be and how it was intended to be. Not this BS of going to get a gun to intentionally take out dozens of people…*sigh* Big hugs, my dear friend!

        Liked by 1 person

        • It takes some time after a few days out of the saddle! I fully understand! I remember when my kids were very small, we were visiting a neighbor who had kids about the same age as mine. One of them came down the hallway into the living room holding … a gun. The mother, my friend, calmly said, “Junior, go put daddy’s gun back on his dresser”. I was stunned … horrified! She said, “Oh, don’t worry, the safety is probably on.” I took my kids and went home! People have such a lax attitude toward guns! You weren’t reading my blog yet a few years ago when I wrote about a couple who, after one of their children accidentally shot his sibling with a gun that was lying around in plain sight, were told to get rid of the guns, else lose their children. Guess what? Their kids are now in foster care and the parents still own their guns. Sigh. Big hugs to you as well, dear friend! ❤

          Liked by 1 person

  3. Biden wants ghost guns registered but the republicans and some gun lobby are going to fight against it tooth and nail. This will never go away…our government is corrupt and our people have gone insane.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Pingback: THINGS THAT MAKE FILOSOFA GrrrrrrOWL. |jilldennison.com | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

  5. And The USA now has to process the injuries of 13 folk in an NY subway.
    The numbers of dead are staggering enough. How many injured and how many relatives, friends and associates of those killed and injured? How many witnessed the shooting? How many friends, relatives and associates of the witnesses. How long before everyone is associated with a gun death or injury, or is associated with someone who was associated?

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yep, every morning there is at least one major shooting to greet us. Sigh. The subway shooting is horrific, but do you think it will make anybody re-think the stance on guns in this country? Hell no! I think we’re already to that point where everyone over a certain age has been personally affected by the gun culture, by someone with a gun. Sigh. Luckily, wolves don’t use guns. 🐺

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Jill, I like the way we portray this as an epidemic of gun deaths. The US dwarfs in gun deaths that of other first world countries, even those that like their guns like we do. Why? This is an old statistic and I think its source is JAMA, but the US has three times the rate of gun deaths as in Canada. We also have a higher rate of gun deaths than the next 22 countries combined. We’re number 1!! Keith

    Liked by 1 person

    • The Trace frequently puts out statistics that are very similar to the ones you mention. Yep, we’re #1, Numero Uno, when it comes to giving people the tools to murder. Sigh.

      Like

    • As I said to rawgod … the difference, as I see it, is that the victims of drug overdose had a choice — they CHOSE to take drugs — whereas the victims of gun violence (excluding the suicides) were never given a choice in the matter. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, I do agree that both are sad and need to be addressed. xx

      Like

  9. Pingback: Things That Make Filosofa Grrrrrrowl | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  10. Drug deaths may be construed as self-inflicted, if you only look at the fact the person willingly took the drug that killed them. The truth is, in 99+% of those deaths, the user did not take the drugs intending to kill themselves. Yes they used the drug, but they used it expecting to be alive the next day. Very few drug users take a drug expecting to die from it. No, these people are being murdered. They might have been living horrible lives, or they might have enjoyed their lives. But they want3d to live, for the most part.Theg did not want to die.
    Elon Musk is not worth my time or effort!
    Gun violence is worth my time, but the people who buy these guns are not.

    Liked by 2 people

    • What it boils down to, though, is that the person who died of a drug overdose CHOSE to take the drugs. He or she had a choice. The kid walking to his class in school, the 10 people riding the subway, the woman in the grocery store … they didn’t get to choose. At least, that’s my view. Again, I’m not without empathy to drug overdose victims, but if I had to pick between them or gunshot victims to advocate, I would advocate for the gunshot victims. Sorry.

      Like

      • No, Jill, you only think the person doing the drugs had a choice, by your standards.They do not always do drugs for entertainment, or even simple escape. A lot of them take drugs just to cope with life. They did not have the advantages you had, or even the advantages I had, which were less than you had. We survived by our strengths. Many people are taught they have no strengths. That they were born to fail. I don’t have room here to discuss this fully, but people are destroyed by their families, their teachers, other authority figures, even by their supposed friends, and sometimes by total strangers. I was an addictions counsellor, I saw first hand how injured many people are. To you they may look like normal human beings, but you cannot see inside their minds or hearts. I know you know this. But I think sometimes you forget how broken some people can really be.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Sorry, my friend, but I’ve fought all my life … not as ‘advantaged’ as you seem to think. Sometimes I’ve been fortunate, sometimes not. But I think that strength to deal with what life throws you comes from within. You fight, or you give up. But THIS was NOT the topic of my post and … frankly, it’s a discussion for some other time, for I’m wiped out tonight. LuL

          Like

Comments are closed.