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There's been another mass shooting in America.
Yes. I know. I barely looked up from my Corn Flakes, either. They've done these things at the rate of one a week this year. You get to expect it. It is not shocking.
Or so my inner grump thinks: Well, if they're daft enough to think that arming teachers is the way to stop crazies walking into schools with assault rifles and killing 19 children, let them get on with it.
But then, reality hits again. Just when we thought we were inured to the madness of guns in America, something new happens. It goes to a new level.
The images from July 4 are literally explosive. Watch ordinary people in Philadelphia celebrating the fireworks of Independence Day - the day on which the birth of the republic is celebrated. And then some shots ring out and there is panic.
And this wasn't even the biggest shooting on the day. That was in Highland Park, north of Chicago where six people were murdered. The gunman had climbed on a roof, shooting randomly at spectators using a high-powered rifle.
In May, 19 children and two teachers were killed in a Texas school and 10 people were killed in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
Every time, the ritual is repeated. Weeping friends and family; a statement from the President (Mr Biden was "shocked"); and then stalemate. Attitudes to guns are a political badge - like abortion. The tribes are entrenched.
Those bloody guns.
On recentish figures, there are more guns in America than there are people. According to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project based in Switzerland, there were 120 guns for every US resident in 2017 (and the figures are unlikely to have gone down). That's a lot of firepower, some of it in the hands of deranged people.
Which brings us neatly to the attempted coup on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
The participants (at least the ones on the ground) were mostly simple-minded and easily led. That's not the way to mount a coup.
There is a better way - and some people are working on it.
The key is "states' rights", a term that's been controversial from the early days of the Republic: what "right" do the states have to make their own laws unfettered by pesky legislators in Washington?
The Supreme Court's decision on abortion was not about the medical procedure's pros and cons. It was about where law on abortion should be made, in state capitals or the national capital. The Supreme Court gave the power to the states.
But that was only the start of it.
A week ago, the Supreme Court which is dominated by judges appointed by Republican presidents announced that it was looking at a claim by Republican lawmakers in North Carolina who argue that their state parliament (which is dominated by Republicans) should make the laws on electoral boundaries. Electoral boundaries matter - draw them carefully and the weight of the Black vote, for example, can be diminished.
If state legislatures can control electoral processes - over-turning results - the way is open for them to decide who gets elected, whatever the people decide.
It would be outrageous. It would be undemocratic. It would be the end of the America many of us came to love.
But it may happen.
May we rejoice in the differences between Australia and America, united by a common language but divided by deeper values.
And may we mourn as America loses its mind.
HAVE YOUR SAY: What do you think about what you see in the United States right now? What are our shared values these days? Would you travel to the US right now or would you steer clear? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Australia's central bank lifted interest rates to combat surging inflation. The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday enacted a 50 basis point hike, bringing the official cash rate to 1.35 per cent.
The police in the US have arrested "a person of interest" after a shooting that killed six people and wounded more than 36 when a man with a high-powered rifle opened fire from a rooftop at a July 4 parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.
THEY SAID IT: "Whatever abilities you have can't be taken away from you," the super-successful investor Warren Buffett said when asked about a good investment in a time of inflation.
"They [skills] can't actually be inflated away from you," he said. "The best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it's not taxed at all."
YOU SAID IT: The Boomers versus Gen X (or was it Gen Y?) debate got you going.
"Boomers had it very hard back in the day," Bronwyn said. "I was charged 18 per cent on my home loan in the earlier part of 1970 and we just paid the loan each month."
I wondered if Boomers, Gen Y, Gen Z, Millennials were just journalese. Ann put me right: "As one of the first of the Boomers, I know that the 'baby boom' phrase was invented by demographers and serves a valid demographic purpose."
On the interest rate rise, Greg says: "The real problem here is not the transient inflation that has originated outside of Australia, and has nothing whatsoever to do with low interest rate here, but the fact Australian economic theory is locked into the inadequate and outdated monetarist thinking whereby one tool, interest rates rises, can do the trick. It can't."
John wonders if "class" rather than age matters more (though he doesn't use the word): "Perhaps looking at the income divide may be more enlightening than the generational divide. Who has more in common? Person A, a Baby Boomer earning $200,000 per annum, Person B, a Millennial also earning $200,000, and Person C, a Baby Boomer earning $40,000pa.
"I think A and B may be members of the same club."
Rosemary says: "The older generations rode the waves of the ups and downs of the economy, particularly women whose wages were much lower than men's. The younger generation have a whole lot more support."
And you have views on whether the Prime Minister is spending too much time abroad. "It is so lovely not to be embarrassed by our political leaders being on the world stage. The LNP were cringeworthy." - Shirley.