This is not the blog entry I wanted to write.
My wife and I just came home from helping my best friend move his mother into an assisted living facility. Saturday was dominated by box unpacking, picture arranging, and getting her cat & SCA memorabilia in place. We figured Sunday morning would be similar. More packing and unpacking, moving from her old facility to the new one where she’d have ongoing supervision. I’d come home and write up this blog post discussing the latest shenanigans by A. J. Harris – my alter egotist. Maybe I’d also talk about the fact I’ll be heading to Glasgow for the World Science Fiction Convention. 
My big ambition (Aside from necropolis photography – anyone who knows my photos knows I love graveyards) is to run into Ben Aaronovitch and get him to sign my novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks, and my copies of Transit and The Also People. I was going to write about all that fun stuff.
Instead, I’m now terrified about the Red Shoulders marching on us because a 20-year-old from Western PA with a legally purchased AR-style 556 rifle took a shot at a Presidential candidate. As of this writing, no motivation has been established for the attempt from the young man registered with the candidate’s party. The attempt killed one and severely wounded two others. And I have no doubt it will boost that candidate’s popularity and sympathy to terrifying levels, possibly allowing a Bob Roberts style ascension into office where a plan to make a Francisco Franco 2.0 government will be implemented. This terrifies me in the near term.
In the short term, I’m terrified about the reprisals. This candidate’s followers wear shirts like: “My favorite presidents are my favorite calibers: .40 and .45.” They have targeted minorities and LGBTQ+ groups via policies and rhetoric. A recent post on Twitter (and I’m still calling it that) listed attacks from right-wing sources going back to 2015. And let’s not forget, right near my home, a full insurrection on January 6th. (In which a standing Representative in the candidate’s party said if she ran the attack, ‘We would have won.’). His followers proudly wear pins styled like the rifle that shot him. I can see them deciding that people like me, and those I love, are ripe for a 2nd Amendment Solution.
We must hold his supporters accountable for their words. They made, and continue to make, political violence an ‘acceptable solution’ in this country.
We must remind them they protections they tore down allowed the shooter to legally pick up this gun, and made it so easy for many others to commit acts of violence.
We must follow the examples of the UK and France by rejecting the right wing and their policies. We can’t splinter.
I would rather argue over policy with a Blue legislature and Executive working to undo the damage done by conservatives than giving power to foundations and faiths looking to create an American version of Francoism.
I’ll be voting. I’ll be volunteering to send postcards to voters in swing states. In the meanwhile, remember:
Biomechanoid Blues 