Today is Friday, June 17, 2022. The shitshow known as the American shooting gallery marches on with yet another shooting so soon after the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting that resulted in 19 children being killed as well as two teachers. This time, a much older gunman, a man of 70 years old, now gunned down three people at a church group meeting in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, Thursday night, authorities said. We ‘re certainly getting a geography lesson here with all of the new sites for mass shootings emerging in the national consciousness. Fortunately, this incident did not qualify as a mass shooting since only – which is still too many anyway – three people were killed. The elderly gunman was taken into captivity by law enforcement authorities.

This new story concerning another person on a gun rampage appeared in the online ABC News article by Elwyn Lopez and Will Gretsky entitled “70-year-old who allegedly killed 3 at church ID’d.”

It was reported that the suspect, who occasionally attended Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church, was at a church event known as the “boomers potluck dinner” when he took out a handgun and opened fire, Vestavia Hills Police said at a news conference today. As a result of the newest carnage, three people were fatally shot: an 84-year-old man who died at the scene, a 75-year-old woman, and an 84-year-old woman who later died at a hospital, police said.

Luckily, a church member subdued the suspect until police arrived, which authorities noted helped save lives. The suspect is now identified by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office as Robert Findlay Smith, who was booked on capital murder charges and is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on no bond. At this time, no motive has emerged that would explain why this elderly suspect decided to kill three aged parishioners.

The reverend’s wife, Ann Carpenter, told ABC News the suspect was at church most Sundays, adding that he “sat in the back” and “didn’t have much interaction with anybody.” Already, a typical profile is emerging which portrays the 70-year-old gunman as a solitary figure. About 25 people were in the church at the time of the shooting, the Rev. Douglas Carpenter said.

In answering a question from reporters as to whether he ever thought a shooting could occur at his church, the reverend sadly, matter-of-factly replied, “At Saint Stephen’s? Why not? It happens at peaceful places. That school that got shot up was a peaceful place. That grocery store was a peaceful place.” This is the juncture we have reached in this crazy gun-worshipping country: a shooting can now occur at any time, at any place, considered initially to be a “safe place.” Aren’t we fed up enough to change this tragic situation? I’m afraid the answer will be a terse “no” as long as repugnicans are still in office blocking any commonsense gun control measures from being passed by Congress. We’re still waiting for a supposed bipartisan bill to be voted on in the House and the Senate.

The mayor of Vestavia Hills, Ashley Curry, said the community, located about 7 miles outside of Birmingham, is “close-knit,” “resilient,” and “loving.”

A very sad anniversary occurred today, according to Jonathan Capehart for MSNBC, which is the seventh anniversary marking Donald Dumpf’s descent on that escalator in Trump Tower to declare his candidacy for president. Boy, don’t you wish we could go back in time to erase that whole event? So much has occurred since that fateful day that has contributed to the sorry state we find ourselves in as a result of that ride down the escalator. There are too many ways to enumerate all of the low points that have been attributed to this one man’s influence on national politics and the general zeitgeist. Now with the public hearings being conducted by the January 6 committee, what more evidence of criminality does the American people need to prosecute the last president? There are several more hearings scheduled before the committee provides its final report to the nation, so let’s reserve judgment of the former president’s role in a criminal conspiracy until the last session is held. You don’t think I really mean this, do you?

In the meantime, the pernicious far-right media acts as if the proceedings are just a Democratic distraction from what people are really interested in, which is inflation. I watched a cringeworthy loop consisting of Fox News and other outlets condemning the proceedings occurring right now. I wanted to retch; all these commentators succeeded in doing was deflect, deflect, and deflect. It’s just abominable. To them, the preservation of democracy has less priority than talking about the economy, which this party has no stated policies addressing it if they should ever win the 2022 midterms. Democracy itself is on the ballot now and these neofascists continue to pursue an agenda of dangerously avoiding it because of the simple reason that they themselves were behind the fucking insurrection! Damn them all!

On the Jonathan Capehart show tonight, I was horrified to hear about another bugaboo of far-right politicians, which is campaigning against the most vulnerable, which is the LGBTQ+ community at the moment. They are most despicable in declaring war on women, the gay community, the trans community, Black and Latino communities, Asian communities, Muslim communities, and others who are still marginalized in this society, but they will never recognize white supremacism and the devastating effects of gun violence on this country nor the stinking rot of Donald Trump and his iron grip on the entire repugnican party. So Capehart provided a segment on an openly gay state senator in Michigan who gave a stirring speech against his fellow senators who voted against a resolution declaring June as Pride Month, even though this was passed last year. Can you believe this nonsense? Other Pride events have been canceled across the country because of threats posed by hate groups against event organizers. What is happening in this country now, with hate sprouting everywhere in so many circles? What happened to “Love thy neighbor?” It has now been replaced by “Hate thy neighbor” in many instances. How do we diminish the barrage of antipathy being directed toward such groups? What do you think?

I’m too upset over all of this bad news. It doesn’t seem to recede. It’s also the 50-year anniversary, I heard, of the Watergate hearings. Compared to what happened on January 6, 2021, those events that brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency pale in contrast to what happened on that day at the Capitol, I strongly believe. No one was trying to dismantle the foundations of democracy 50 years ago.

Have a good weekend somehow.

Stay safe and be well.