Violence, Provocation Bastardizing Patriotism, Prayers, and Duty to protect

Unattended Scope of America’s Problem

Gun Violence Archive August 31, 2020 

Published latest figures

G

un Violence Deaths

Total Number ALL Causes: 28,114

 

Homicide/Murder/Unintentional/DGU: 12,010	Officer Involved Incident- Killed: 42
	Officer Killed or Injured-Injured: 236
Suicide: 16,104
	Officer Involved Incident- Killed: 891
Total Number of Injuries: 24,713	Subject-Suspect Killed or Injured- Injured: 639
Mass Shootings: 415 ♦ Mass Murders: 15	Defensive Use: 935
Number of Children (age 0-11) Killed: 195 ♦ Injured: 455	Unintentional Shooting: 1,442
	Murder/Suicides-Incidents: 373
Number of Teens (age 12-17) Killed 656♦ Injured 1,875

[DGU (Defensive gun use) is a labeling of firearm “use or presentation” as “self-defense,” “defense of others”; or, in some cases, “protection of property”; a contentious notion, particularly in US gun politics and criminology, in terms of its relevance to or “effectiveness in providing safety and reducing crime.” DGU themes rise often in “discussions over gun rights, gun control, and armed police, open and concealed carry of firearms.”]

News media reporting from Portland, Oregon, August 29, 2020

P

resident Trump and the “Praying” “Patriots”

Pro-Trump rally organizer, “who recently coordinated a similar caravan in Boise, Idaho, said in a video posted Saturday on Twitter that attendees should only carry concealed weapons and the route was being kept secret for safety reasons.”

Incidents

“The caravan gathered earlier in the day at a suburban mall”; then grouped and “drove to the heart of Portland.

In its third consecutive Saturday of rallying, a caravan of “Trump supporters” arrived in downtown Portland “just as a planned protest was getting underway. The chaotic scene came two days after US President Donald Trump, “in a speech at the Republican National Convention,” had “invoked Portland as a liberal city overrun with violence.”

“As they arrived in the city, protesters tried to stop them by standing in the street and blocking bridges.”

Video footage “showed sporadic fighting … [and] Trump supporters firing paintball pellets at opponents and using bear spray as counter-protesters threw things at the Trump caravan.”

“An Associated Press freelance photographer” reported hearing “three gunshots” then seeing “police medics attending a victim….” The photographer also said the injured person “was wearing a hat bearing the insignia of ‘Patriot Prayer.’”

Police Department Statement

Police reported the victim had been “shot in the chest” and “was not immediately identified.” The identity of the shooter was “unclear.”

“Police issued a plea for videos, photos or eyewitness accounts of the killing late Saturday night, which happened about 15 minutes after a caravan of about 600 vehicles that were part of a ‘pro-Trump’ rally left downtown.

It wasn’t clear if the shooting was related to the clashes between Trump supporters and counter-protesters in Portland.”

Day before incidents  

P

ortland’s Chief Executive to US Chief Executive August 28, 2020 

“We have already seen your reckless disregard for human life in your bumbling response to the COVID pandemic. [W]e know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection.… When you sent the Feds to Portland last month, you made the situation far worse. Your offer to repeat that disaster is a cynical attempt to stoke fear and distract us from the real work of our city. …

“Yet again, you said you offered to aid Portland by sending in federal law enforcement to our city. On behalf of the City of Portland: No thanks. We don’t need your politics of division and demagoguery.”

“Stay away, please.”

Portland, Oregon-native Edward Tevis “Ted” Wheeler

The current mayor of Portland holds graduate degrees in public policy and business administration from Harvard and Columbia, respectively, and a baccalaureate from Stanford. Before being elected as Portland’s mayor, Oregon’s 28th Treasurer (March 11, 2010 – January 1, 2017) and Multnomah County Commission Chair (2007–2010).

 

US President Donald Trump is without a single qualification for the position he holds. Sarah Iannarone, running to unseat Portland’s current mayor also is without a single qualification for the mayoralty. Perhaps she would be suited for some job where her experience as “small business founder, owner, and operator” would be relevant and useful.

Day After incidents  

W

heeler to the US president August 30, 2020

“To act as though [you are] shocked (at the shooting Saturday) is appalling to me.…

“It’s you who have created the hate and the division…

“You’ve tried to divide us more than any other figure in modern history and now you want me to stop the violence that you helped create …

“… America needs … you to be stopped so we can come back together as one America.”

Please, Mr. Accidental 45^th

Go back to where you came from—

Brit Mark Burnett’s unreality telly world of “Apprentice” (clb)

  

Sources

Gun Violence Archive “Gun violence and crime incidents are collected / validated from 7,500 sources daily” Incident Reports and their source data are found at the gunviolencearchive.org website.

Data Sources Verified: August 29, 2020

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

 

Defensive Gun Use (DGU) Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_gun_use

Associated Press via KPTV “Patriot Prayer founder: Dead man in Portland was a supporter” by Gillian Flaccus Associated Press, contributor AP freelancer Paula Bronstein, August 30, 2020 Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. https://www.kptv.com/news/patriot-prayer-founder-dead-man-in-portland-was-a-supporter/article_39ac2c38-647b-5e11-bc6d-f415283b495d.html

Portland Government “Mayor Wheeler’s Open Letter to President Trump” News article August 28, 2020 https://www.portland.gov/wheeler/news/2020/8/28/mayor-wheelers-open-letter-president-trump

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Wheeler

https://ballotpedia.org/Sarah_Iannarone#Biography]

https://ballotpedia.org/Ted_Wheeler

The Oregonian/OregonLive “Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to President Donald Trump: ‘support us’ or ‘stay the hell out of the way’” by Hillary Borrud August 30, 2020 https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/08/portland-mayor-to-president-donald-trump-support-us-or-stay-the-hell-out-of-the-way.html

 

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

 

“You have to have … education.”

Quanah Parker Brightman’s nugget of truth teased from a brief segment of KPFA’s Evening News Saturday August 29, 2020.

Fiftieth-year remembrance of elder Lehman Brightman and the occupation of Mount Rushmore, renamed “Crazy Horse Mountain.”

 

L

ehman L. Brightman, father of Quanah Parker Brightman, remembered in the Lakota Times

Lehman L. Brightman was, in the Lakota language, “an ‘icke wicasa’,” a common man living by a particular set of principles: 

“He does not put himself above others. He works as a warrior for his people, and lives his life in a good way—with respect and caring for the people.”

Lehman Brightman was said to be “a proud Sioux and Creek Indian” 

• Son of Lehman (Poogie) Brightman (Muscogee Creek, Eufaula, Oklahoma), and Phoebe Kingman Brightman (Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, South Dakota) 
• Husband of Trudy Felix Brightman (Member Rosebud Sioux Tribe) 
• Father of Quanah Parker Brightman 
• Grandfather of Quanah Parker Burcell, Lozen Brightman, Phoebe Brightman and Star Brightman

He served his country (the United States of America), and the American Indian People as educator, activist, college professor, US Marine Corps Veteran (wounded in Korean War, awarded Purple Heart), and Social change Icon for Indian Affairs.

S

oldier, athlete (All-American), scholar, writer, editor, activist

After military service and earning his baccalaureate degree at Oklahoma State University and master’s and doctoral degrees at UC Berkeley, his activism extended from the California Bay Area to the world.

• 1968, he founded United Native Americans, an Indian nonprofit organization to promote the progress and general welfare of American Indians. 
• 1969, while working on his doctorate, he established and coordinated at UC Berkeley the first Native American Studies program in the United States. 
• He participated in “the occupation of Alcatraz, the takeover of Wounded Knee.
  
• 1970, he led the takeover of Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.
  

He led investigations into seven Indian boarding schools and reservation hospitals, and testified in US Senate hearings “on the poor service and abusive treatment of Indian people.” 

He spoke out against “the sterilization of Native women in Indian hospitals and the medical experiments performed on Native people, including children, without their full knowledge and consent.” 

He was “editor of the first National Indian newspaper, ‘Warpath,’ and author of numerous articles on federal boarding schools and the history of Indian Education.”

The lifespan of Lehman L. Brightman: April 28, 1930-June 18, 2017.

W

arrior, Pride, Spirit of resistance

Final Weekend August 2020: Celebrating an historic moment and the life and work of Dr. Lehman Brightman

Son, Quanah Parker Brightman

“Nowadays,” said Quanah Parker Brightman, “being a warrior means you have to have some education.”

“You have to know about laws, you have to know about policies that are going on that affect your community; you have to be able to combat those things.

As an advocate, you have to have some form of education to be successful in changing policies, in advocating correctly; and in being strategic in how you can create systemic change.”

Quanah Parker Brightman, who has worked on defeating “fossil fuel projects in recent years,” leads United Native Americans (UNA), the organization founded by his father.

A

pproaching the Saturday fiftieth-year remembrance, Quanah Parker Brightman spoke to the press at an Oakland, California, airport. 

“I’m coming in to teach and educate people about the facts of what has really happened in the (Native American) civil rights movement which is what has led up to today.

“I’m going up there to honor my father and to honor our group’s accomplishments.”

The gathering takes place “amidst renewed calls and actions to return the monument (Mount Rushmore) and rest of the Black Hills to the Lakota people.”

All without a drop of blood wasted

Without a single shot fired

Without one weapon wielded.

 

Sources

The KPFA Evening News (Saturday) – August 29, 2020, https://kpfa.org/episode/the-kpfa-evening-news-saturday-august-29-2020/

Lehman L. Brightman, Lakota Times July 6, 2017, https://www.lakotatimes.com/articles/lehman-l-brightman/

Rapid City, South Dakota Journal “Group to gather Saturday for 50th anniversary of Mount Rushmore occupation” Arielle Zionts August 27, 2020 updated August 28, 2020 https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/group-to-gather-saturday-for-50th-anniversary-of-mount-rushmore-occupation/article_10c6ba30-5109-5c81-bc4f-25879d6fa94d.html

WBUR “50 Years After Mount Rushmore Occupation, Native Americans Are ‘Still Fighting’” by Peter O’Dowd and Samantha Raphelson July 3, 2020 (audio program “Hear and Now”), https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/07/03/native-americans-mount-rushmore-protest

 

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights Reserved

 

Beyond Wishes and Dream states, there’s not a scintilla of substantive difference

Democratic and Republican: One party, one line

Democratic and Republican: One party, one line—Adapted from Andrew Gripp’s 2016 “50 Ways the Democratic and Republican Parties Are The Same.”

 

Nature of Two wings One bird Party

 

C

ontemporary Democratic and Republican parties are generally

• Liberal (or neoliberal), pro-capitalist, nonsectarian (though ideological)
• Extrajudicial: The Constitution of the United States does not mention political parties.
• Neither of the contemporary major political parties existed at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The mid-nineteenth century marks the start of the contemporary Democratic and Republican parties.

“Political parties in the United States are dominated by two major parties. Since the 1850s, they have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_the_United_States

 BOTH

Democratic and Republican parties

• benefit from gerrymandering
• thwart efforts to combat gerrymandering
• benefit from congressionally mandated single-member districts
• control the process of formally electing the president
• discourage support for third party and independent candidates—despite consistent polling showing that voters are unhappy with their limited choice of candidates and want more options in general elections

• benefit from strict ballot access laws that make it difficult for independent and third party candidates to contest elections
• benefit from narrow dual party control over the presidential debates
• view voting rights through narrow prism of what will benefit their members and candidates, or hurt the opposing party.
• receive considerable subsidies from the government at the local, state, and federal levels
• have altered their presidential nominating processes to protect their respective establishments to the detriment of outsider candidates
  

C

• ontinue to rely on super PACs for support—even though a majority of Americans believe there should be limits on the amount of money independent groups can spend on political campaigns
• remain highly dependent on lobbyists for campaign contributions and policy advice—though a majority of Americans believe lobbyists have too much power in politics
• part of the ‘revolving door’ in Washington— whereby former politicians become registered lobbyists or unregistered ‘government relations’ consultants
• are significantly wealthier than most Americans
• have been involved in scandals involving the solicitation and acceptance of foreign money

• have caused gridlock that has prevented the commission from enforcing federal election law
• engage in obstructionism and contribute to gridlock in Washington
• continue to win federal funding for "pork barrel" projects that benefit their constituents
• have used the federal government to monitor and silence their political opponents
• have used the federal government to monitor and silence their political opponents

 

B

enefit from ‘horserace’ election coverage that focuses primarily on strategy and personality

• have a dominant presence in the media
• continue [both candidates and parties] to deploy [negative advertising]— though Americans have consistently affirmed their opposition to negative advertising
• have access to vast amounts of information about voters’ lives— through contracts with privately-run partisan companies
• have supported taxpayer-funded bailouts—though highly unpopular in general population

• provided business favors to political supporters
• handed down controversial pardons and sentence commutations
• contributed to the growth of the federal debt
• approved policies that violated Americans’ civil liberties
• have deployed American forces without a congressional declaration of war

Regularly claim to speak for, represent the whole of ‘the American people’— despite a significant diversity in American public opinion, a plurality of voters self-identifying as independents

WAR PARTY (with two wings)

Both

•  recommend similar war policies—despite Americans’ split opinion on whether or how to fight ‘ISIS’
• have similar war positions—despite a diversity in US public opinion on war against/occupation of Afghanistan, and how to proceed
• present or hold similar ideas related to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  

TRADE 

Both

 

B

oast similar positions on trade, with neither platform embracing outright protectionism, or unconditional free trade

 FINANCE

Both

• Party platforms avoid advocating drastic changes to the central bank’s role or structure
• Support the Export-Import Bank (EIB), which provides financial assistance to American businesses
  

ENERGY

Both

A

void outright opposition to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) method of capturing fossil fuels—despite the public’s split position on the use

HEALTHCARE

Both

Party platforms fail to endorse single-payer healthcare system—though some accounts show a majority of Americans support a single-payer healthcare system

 US STATES 

Manifested party dominance

• partisan officials, exclusively, oversee and administer elections
• Democratic/Republican parties (in most states) control primary elections by requiring voters to use a single partisan ballot for multiple races—barring voters from selecting other candidates outside the Democratic or Republican party
• In states without mandatory open primaries—dominant two (usually) allow non-members to participate only when (one or the other dominant party) is in the minority
• National Party leaders (Democratic Republican) oppose opening primaries to non-members
  

VOTERS 

Partisanship, Party

•  Identification with both parties on steady decline

P

ublic overall holds negative opinions of both major parties

Members of party 1 or party 2 harbor negative feelings of opposite (1 or 2) party

 

 

 

Sources

Gripp. Andrew. “50 Ways the Democratic and Republican Parties Are The Same. August 3, 2016

https://ivn.us/2016/08/03/50-ways-democratic-republican-parties-same/

At the time of his article, Gripp described himself as a New York City-based writer on American politics, international affairs, philosophy, and literature; a former political science professor; and a Georgetown University master’s level graduate in democracy and governance

 

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights Reserved