;)
June 5, 2022
Afternoon Update:
** Along Came Trump. Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein in the Washington Post's Outlook: "As reporters, we had studied Nixon and written about him for nearly half a century, during which we believed with great conviction that never again would America have a president who would trample the national interest and undermine democracy through the audacious pursuit of personal and political self-interest. And then along came Trump.... In a deception that exceeded even Nixon's imagination, Trump and a group of lawyers, loyalists and White House aides devised a strategy to bombard the country with false assertions that the 2020 election was rigged and that Trump had really won. They zeroed in on the Jan. 6 session as the opportunity to overturn the election's result. Leading up to that crucial date, Trump's lawyers circulated memos with manufactured claims of voter fraud.... By legal definition [Trump's actions] is clearly sedition -- conduct, speech or organizing that incites people to rebel against the governing authority of the state. Thus, Trump became the first seditious president in our history."
So Unfa-a-a-air! Taiyler Mitchell of Business Insider, via Yahoo! News: "Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, of Texas, said Friday that the Peter Navarro indictment points to 'a two-tiered justice system.' 'If you're a Republican, you can't even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they're coming after you,' Gohmert said during a Newsmax appearance.... 'They're gonna bury you. They're gonna put you in the DC jail and terrorize you and torture you,' the Texas official went on." Thanks to Patrick for the link. MB: I'm pretty much anti-torture, but if it's gotta happen, it couldn't happen to a more deserving person that Navarro. If I go to D.C., I'll definitely carry my Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Democrat card, which should save me from terror & torture, should the FBI throw me in jail.
U.K. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Queen Elizabeth II delighted crowds on Sunday with a surprise appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, closing out the celebrations on the final day of her jubilee. Wearing a bright green outfit, the queen smiled and waved at the crowds below. She stepped out alongside Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Prince William and his wife Kate, and their children George, Charlotte and Louis.... The queen was last seen in public on Thursday, the first day of celebrations during her record-breaking platinum jubilee.... The queen's Sunday appearance wasn't scheduled.... She still managed to be the star of a concert at the palace on Saturday night, where she featured in a filmed sketch with Paddington Bear."
At long last, we find out why Queen Elizabeth carries a purse wherever she goes: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden was briefly evacuated Saturday from his beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., after a small private plane accidentally flew into restricted airspace, according to White House and Secret Service officials.... A White House official told reporters that Mr. Biden and the first lady were briefly evacuated and then returned to their residence.... Steve Kopek, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said that the plane entered restricted airspace shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday. 'The aircraft was immediately escorted out of the restricted airspace,' Mr. Kopek said in a statement. He did not provide more details, but several people in the area tweeted that they saw two military jets flying overhead around the same time." Politico's report is here.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. -- President Dwight Eisenhower, January 17, 1961
Ike Warned Us This Would Happen. Joyce Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "As global attention focused on Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, the Saudi-led coalition carried out more than 150 airstrikes on civilian targets in Yemen, including homes, hospitals and communication towers, according to the Yemen Data Project. It was the latest uptick in bombing during a grinding, and often overlooked, civil war that has upended the lives of Yemeni civilians for the better part of a decade and spawned one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises.... The devastating air campaign alone ... has killed nearly 15,000 people, according to conservative estimates.... Indiscriminate bombings have become a hallmark of the Yemen war.... New analysis by The Washington Post and Security Force Monitor at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute (SFM) provides the most complete picture yet of the depth and breadth of U.S. support for the Saudi-led air campaign, revealing that a substantial portion of the air raids were carried out by jets developed, maintained and sold by U.S. companies, and by pilots who were trained by the U.S. military." ~~~
(~~~ Here's the text of Eisenhower's final speech as POTUS.)
Saving Pogo. Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "The Army Corps of Engineers is blocking a proposed strip mine for titanium set outside the fragile Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, reversing an earlier decision, after the project drew opposition from environmental groups and political leaders. Environmentalists and federal agencies had previously cited the harm that the mine would inflict on the wetlands. But after the Trump administration rolled back various regulations, millions of acres of wetlands were no longer subject to federal environmental oversight. Those rules, however, were thrown out by a federal judge last year, affording renewed protections to streams, marshes and wetlands. The Army Corps, a unit of the military, said in a memo Friday that the previous decision allowing the project to move ahead was no longer valid because the corps had failed to properly consult with tribal stakeholders."
Must-See TeeVee. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "Almost a year after the formation of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, lawmakers are set to take their case public. On Thursday night, Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) will launch a series of televised hearings featuring a combination of live witnesses, pretaped interviews with figures that include Trump family members and previously unseen video footage." ~~~
~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of CNN: "Democratic Rep. David Cicilline said Saturday 'disturbing' new evidence would be presented at the upcoming January 6 committee hearings, stressing the significance of this upcoming process.... The select committee formally announced Thursday its first public hearing will take place on June 9 at 8 p.m. ET.... The first January 6 hearing will be a broad overview of the panel's 10-month investigation and set the stage for subsequent hearings, which are expected to cover certain topics or themes, sources previously told CNN."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post (June 3) has quite a good outline of the tense interactions of Trump & Pence over the June 6 certification. Bump bases his account on reporting from various "insider" journalists.
Quoctrung Bui, et al., of the New York Times: "If the key gun control proposals now being considered in Congress had been law since 1999, four gunmen younger than 21 would have been blocked from legally buying the rifles they used in mass shootings. At least four other assailants would have been subject to a required background check, instead of slipping through a loophole. Ten might have been unable to steal their weapons because of efforts to require or encourage safer gun storage. And 20 might not have been allowed to legally purchase the large-capacity magazines that they used to upgrade their guns, helping them kill, on average, 16 people each. Taken together, those four measures might have changed the course of at least 35 mass shootings -- a third of such episodes in the United States since the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, a New York Times analysis has found. Those 35 shootings killed a combined 446 people.... But in a nation awash with guns, the majority of mass killings might have been unaffected -- either because assailants obtained their guns illegally or because they were older adults using weapons that wouldn't have been subject to any proposed restrictions. Another proposed measure, a ban on the sale of military-style semiautomatic guns known as assault weapons, could in theory have had greater impact." The article breaks out the incidents. ~~~
~~~ Eleanor Klibanoff of the Texas Tribune: "Major Republican donors, including some that have contributed to Gov. Greg Abbott's campaigns, joined other conservative Texans in signing an open letter supporting congressional action to increase gun restrictions in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead last week. The letter, which is expected to run as a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News on Sunday, endorses the creation of red flag laws, expanding background checks and raising the age to purchase a gun to 21. More than 250 self-declared gun enthusiasts signed it."
Vimal Patel of the New York Times: "Abbott Nutrition, the company that fueled a national shortage of baby formula when it shut down a leading production plant in February because of contamination concerns, said on Saturday that the site has restarted producing EleCare and other formulas. The restarting of the plant in Sturgis, Mich., which was the result of an agreement with the federal Food and Drug Administration, renewed hope that the formula shortage that has sent stressed parents scrambling would ease." The AP's report is here.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Alex Traub of the New York Times: "A former Air Force sergeant who participated online in an extremist anti-government movement was sentenced on Friday to 41 years in prison for murdering a federal security officer and injuring another outside a courthouse in Oakland, Calif., according to court documents. Steven Carrillo, who was on active duty at the time of the attack but has since been discharged from the military, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of a government employee and attempted murder of a government employee. The murder took place on the night of May 29, 2020, during an intense period of protests focused on the killing of George Floyd, and that was by design, according to court documents. Mr. Carrillo aimed to heighten a period of civil unrest, with the ultimate goal of destroying the government, court documents said.... In the months leading up to the attack, according to court documents, Mr. Carrillo had espoused the extremist ideology found in internet forums known as the boogaloo movement, which calls for a second civil war and seeks the destruction of the government." A Law & Crime report is here.
New York. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A 911 dispatcher has been fired after a Tops employee trapped inside the Buffalo supermarket during last month's mass shooting that killed 10 people said she was hung up on. The Erie County dispatcher was placed on administrative leave last month after Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at the Tops supermarket, told the Buffalo News and WGRZ that she called 911 and whispered to the dispatcher in hope of making the official aware of the mass shooting unfolding at the grocery store. But instead of assistance in a moment when she was 'scared for my life,' Rogers said the 911 dispatcher dismissed her in 'a very nasty tone.'... A county spokesman confirmed in a statement that a hearing took place Thursday, at which the dispatcher, whom the Buffalo News identified as Sheila E. Ayers, was terminated after eight years with Erie County's Central Police Services Department."
Wisconsin. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A retired Wisconsin judge was shot and killed in his home on Friday in what the state attorney general [Josh Kaul (D)] described as a 'targeted act' against the judicial system by a man who also had several high-profile government officials as potential targets.... After nearly four hours of negotiations with the suspect, a tactical team entered the home where they found the 68-year-old man dead and zip-tied to a chair, according to WISN. While Kaul did not identify the victim, the Wisconsin Department of Justice confirmed in a Saturday news release that John 'Jack' Roemer, a retired circuit court judge in Juneau County, was killed in the attack. When police went to the basement, they found the suspect, Douglas K. Uhde, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said. Uhde, 56, was transferred to a hospital and is believed to be in critical condition, Kaul said.... Zack Pohl, the deputy chief of staff for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), confirmed to The Washington Post that law enforcement notified the governor's office that Whitmer was on the Wisconsin suspect's list of potential targets.... Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) was also among those listed as potential targets for the Wisconsin suspect, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was also on a list found in the suspect's vehicle, WISN reported." ~~~
~~~ Aaron Keller of Law & Crime: "A Wisconsin man who killed a judge and then wounded himself Friday morning had been previously sentenced to serve nine years in prison by the same judge he attacked. That's according to statements by the Wisconsin Department of Justice and state court records. The case that connected alleged triggerman Douglas K. Uhde and Judge John Roemer was a burglary and weapons case which resulted in a legally awkward appeal, but Uhde's criminal history is much more complicated.... According to Wisconsin court records, Judge Roemer sentenced Uhde as part of a four-count case that commenced in August 2001 in Adams County. Uhde was charged in that matter with (1) burglary while armed with a dangerous weapon (a felony), (2) carrying a concealed weapon (a misdemeanor), (3) possessing a short-barreled shotgun or rifle (another felony), and (4) possessing a weapon as a previous felon (yet another felony). Roemer sentenced Uhde on Nov. 10, 2005." ~~~
~~~ In Case You Think Far-Right Conspiracy Theories Don't Matter. Jessica McBride of Heavy: "Douglas K. Uhde, the 56-year-old felon who is accused of murdering retired Wisconsin Judge John Roemer in his own home, urged people to vote for ... Donald Trump and advocated against gun confiscation on Facebook.... 'Make America great again, duct tape this lying b****'s mouth shut,' read a graphic Uhde shared in October 2016 that showed Hillary Clinton with duct tape over her mouth.... Uhde [posted] a now deleted YouTube video that warned of looming martial law and 'FEMA CAMPS.'... Other posts dealt with typical conservative foils like George Soros and expressed concern about gun confiscation."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Emmanuel Macron of France's assertion that Ukraine and its allies should refrain from humiliating Moscow to improve the possibility of a negotiated settlement touched off a fiery response from Kyiv. 'Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it,' Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in a post on social media.... Ukraine and Russia exchanged the bodies of 320 soldiers in the Zaporizhizhia area. The operation took place on Thursday and followed a negotiated agreement to transfer the remains of soldiers on a one-to-one basis." ~~~
~~~ The Times' summary of Saturday's developments is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "Ukraine and Russia are locked in an intense street-by-street fight for territory in the key eastern city of Severodonetsk and surrounding areas, as Kyiv's forces said they regained ground. While Moscow says Ukraine is suffering 'critical losses' and retreating, the Ukrainian counter-attacks are 'likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained,' according to the latest assessment from Britain's Defense Ministry. Severodonetsk is one of the last cities standing in the way of Russia controlling the entire Luhansk region.... Kyiv and Moscow also traded barbs on Saturday over a fire that engulfed a towering wooden monastery in eastern Ukraine, with each side accusing the other of sparking the blaze.... Two districts in Kyiv were hit by missile strikes Sunday morning, leaving one person hospitalized, its mayor said.... Ukrainian investigators have exhumed more than 1,300 bodies of civilians in the Kyiv region as part of the nation's ongoing investigation into potential war crimes. The identities of more than 200 people found dead have not yet been determined." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary of developments is here.
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The United States prepared Saturday to launch a sprawling naval exercise in the Baltic Sea with Sweden, Finland and 13 NATO allies, a visible sign of an expanding partnership as Stockholm and Helsinki apply to join the military alliance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Baltic Operations exercise involves more than 40 warships and has been held annually for decades, but will shift this year to include more involvement from Finland and Sweden, said Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He visited Stockholm on Saturday in a show of support for Sweden's membership bid, one day after a similar stop in Finland.... The new dynamic was evident as the 843-foot amphibious warship USS Kearsarge sat in a narrow waterway running through Stockholm while packed with attack helicopters and other aircraft and more than 2,000 U.S. Marines and sailors."
News Ledes
AP: "Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed Sunday morning in the Gulf of Mexico on a track to come ashore in southern Florida with heavy rains and gusty wind. National Hurricane Center forecasters said in a 5 a.m. advisory that Alex had sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and was located about 270 miles (435 kilometers) northeast of Fort Pierce, Florida. Parts of South Florida were experiencing road flooding from heavy rain and wind Saturday. Officials in Miami warned drivers about road conditions as many cars were stuck on flooded streets. 'This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Traveling during these conditions is not recommended. It's better to wait. Turn around, don't drown,' the city of Miami tweeted."
Saturday Night in America, Ctd. Washington Post: "Three people died and at least 11 others were injured in a shooting in Philadelphia late Saturday, authorities said. Shortly before midnight, police officers on patrol in a popular nightlife area heard gunfire and witnessed 'several active shooters' firing into a crowd, Inspector D.F. Pace of the Philadelphia Police Department said at a news conference early Sunday. An officer fired at one of the gunmen as he was shooting, but it was unclear whether the man was hit, Pace said. The man dropped his weapon and fled when he was fired upon, he said. The whereabouts of the shooters were not immediately known, he said." ~~~
~~~ The story has been updated: "Shootings overnight left six people dead in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tenn., continuing a spate of deadly gun attacks as Congress prepares to take up gun-control legislation.... [In Chattanooga,] three people were killed, two by gunshots and one after being struck by a vehicle.... The investigation was ongoing. 'Multiple shooters' were involved..., but police did not have anyone in custody."
Another Texas Massacre. Guardian: "Mark Collins had brought his four grandsons Waylon, Karson, Hudson and Bryson up to his ranch north-west of Houston on Thursday.... While Collins knew authorities had been looking in the general area for a convicted murderer with ties to a Mexican drug cartel who had broken free from a prison bus three weeks earlier, he may not have known that the fugitive had apparently burglarized a home next door to the ranch, according to family friend David Crain. And within hours of their arrival, Collins and his grandsons were dead at the hands of the escapee, 46-year-old Gonzalo Lopez, who stole guns, clothes and a truck from the ranch before police shot him dead more than 200 miles away.... Armed with an AR-15 rifle and a pistol that were apparently stolen from the Collins ranch, Lopez subsequently died in a shootout with police. No officers were wounded."
New York Times: "Ann Turner Cook, a retired schoolteacher..., died early Friday at her home in St. Petersburg, Fla., her family confirmed on Saturday. She was 95. Ms. Cook was the bona fide Gerber baby, the winner of a nationwide contest in 1928 that has since seen her portrait reproduced on billions of jars of baby food and other items sold round the world. In 1990, The New York Times described the sketch, by the artist Dorothy Hope Smith, as being 'among the world's most recognizable corporate logos.'"
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Reader Comments (14)
A few days ago, I outlined a hypothetical scenario of all the steps a grade school teacher would have to go through to arm herself if a heavily-armed intruder burst into the classroom. But what could go wrong if the teacher was alerted before the guy got to her classroom? A New York Times story I linked yesterday (well, actually I didn't link it; the link got busted but I've since fixed it), has the answer to that, and it's consistent with the scenario I imagined:
"Khloie Torres had been watching a movie with her fourth-grade classmates in Room 112 when her teacher, Irma Garcia, told the class to go into lockdown. Ms. Garcia turned off the movie, and then rushed toward the classroom door to lock it. But she struggled to find the right key for the door. Gunfire could be heard in the hallways. Ms. Garcia finally got hold of the right key, but the gunman was already there. 'He grabbed the door, and he opened it,' Khloie said. Ms. Garcia tried to protect her students. The gunman began firing." Emphasis added.
Perhaps if Ms. Garcia had practiced the drill 20 times (and maybe she did, I don't know), she would have located the right key immediately. But in the panic of the moment, she couldn't find it. I don't fault her. Even a well-trained person doesn't always react to a real threat the way she reacts in play-acting practices. And if Ms. Garcia had found her key, it's likely the gunman would have found his way into the room or into another room. Those classroom doors at Ross Elementary reportedly had breakable windows.
The answer is not to arm teachers. It's to dis-arm potential murderers. As the Times story I linked above makes clear, sensible gun laws will not stop every mass murderer. But laws, if they're enforced, will deter some.
Yesterday during my walk I stopped to chat with one of my neighbors when suddenly we heard what sounded like gun shots but quickly realized it was a car back firing. But when we heard the noise we both grabbed onto each other. We then talked long about how gun violence had changed our sense of security in our bubble like existence in a town of relative security and how our childhoods were free of anything like school shootings. Our sense of trust that it "won't happen here" has vanished.
The new revelations of more gun violence reported today is beginning to be common fare like reporting the weather. Marie's posting above points out the futility of outrageous solutions to curb this violence and those that refuse to address real change in our gun laws will pay the price in the long run and I'm hoping with as much hope that I can muster that that will be the case.
And since it's Sunday: God says he is overloaded with "thoughts and prayers" that for him are wisps in the wind––he blow them away on most days but some he puts into his cloud of "save for a rainy day"; one of the reasons we have had so much rain lately are the tears from these overcrowded clouds. Thus spake the Big Guy in the sky.
@Marie: Here's the solution to school shootings:
news.yahoo.com/kerr-want-end-school-shootings-090018765.html
D. Allan Kerr is a journalist who lives in Kittery, Maine.
Arm all school children, maybe starting at age 10, and only with
pistols, because the AR-15 is quite bulky for youngsters carrying
books, backpacks, etc.
All schools will need a shooting range for target practice. This can
be part of PE and might also include hand-to-hand combat training.
Older high schools kids can be responsible for protecting those under
the age of 10. They can get extra credit for every life they save.
This might work for churches also. Bible in one hand, gun in the
other.
And like restaurants with smoking and no-smoking sections, gun and
no gun sections.
I'm wondering if this guy is serious or if he wants to be a comedian.
@Forrest Morris: I hope Lindsey Graham doesn't hear about this. Arming the kiddies will be his next suggestion. If Kerr has any children, Social Services should stop by & make sure the kids are all right. What an idiot!
Opposition to a strong federal organization goes all the way back to the beginnings of the republic. Here is a jeremiad against the draft constitution, presented to the S. Carolina convention considering it for ratification in 1788, by Patrick Dollard who claims to speak the thoughts of his constituents.
https://books.google.com/books?id=HIJDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT405&lpg=PT405&dq=patrick+dollard+fears+a+corrupt&source=bl&ots=2XnBGaW00s&sig=ACfU3U390IptDi14QtMcwO7VR3mekU9zSw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiO5am1uZb4AhVStYQIHfYrD3UQ6AF6BAgREAM#v=onepage&q=patrick%20dollard%20fears%20a%20corrupt&f=false
It's a short speech, and allowing for its 18th century style, it contains many of the sentiments of today's RWNJ Tenthers and Freeeedumb Riders. In short, Dollard's constituents see the proposed constitution as the means whereby a US aristocracy will arise and crush the liberties of the people, and thence on to tyranny and monarchy.
Here is a salient extract:
"... they are led to believe it will commence in a moderate aristocracy, but it will in its future operations produce a monarchy, or a corrupt and oppressive aristocracy ... in this country, depraved as it is, there still remains a strong regard for liberty: an American bosom is apt to glow at the sound of it, and the splendid merit of preserving that best gift of God, which is mostly expelled (from) every country in Europe, might stimulate indolence, and animate even luxury herself to consecrate at the altar of freedom. My constituents are highly alarmed at the large and rapid strides which this new government has taken toward despotism. They say it is big with political mischiefs and pregnant with a greater variety of impending woes to the good people of the southern states, especially South Carolina, than all the plagues supposed to issue from the poisonous box of Pandora. They say it is particularly calculated for the meridian of despotic aristocracy - that it evidently tends to promote the ambitious views of a few able and designing men, and enslave the rest ... They say they will resist against it - that they will not accept of it unless compelled by force of arms, which the new constitution plainly threatens; and then ... your standing army ... must ram it down their throats with the points of bayonets. They warn the gentlemen of this convention ... to beware how they will be accessary (sic) to ... sacrificing their dear bought rights and privileges. ... it is an old saying ... that the general voice of the people is the voice of God. ... I shall never betray the(ir) trust ... therefore shall give it my hearty dissent."
How 21st century: fear of elites, fear of change, assumption of conspiatorial cabals and deceptions, reference to "the people" as God's will, threat of reprisal and resort to violence, and the "leader" (Mr. D) asserting that he is slave to the will of his constituents. Even the "ram it down our throats" histrionic is right there, in 1788.
There is nothing new under sun, just different grammar.
Marie writes:
“…sensible gun laws will not stop every mass murderer. But laws, if they're enforced, will deter some.”
Quite.
But this is one of the stupidest reasons the gunknobbers refuse to discuss even the smallest restrictions on the ability of your average Joe the Plumber, criminals, terrorists, the insane, and that kid holed up in his mom’s basement grinding his teeth at all the injustices in his life, real or perceived, and laying plans for his revenge on the world, including, perhaps, a room full of eight year olds, to purchase weapons at any time with zero oversight.
Gun laws won’t stop all the killings. So there! Hmmph.
No, morons, they won’t. Just like rules of the road, speed limits, traffic lights, and the need to be trained in driver safety before getting a license won’t guarantee that all roadway fatalities will be curbed. Just like exercise and a heathy diet won’t guarantee everyone a long and healthy life. Just like 12 years of basic education won’t guarantee that you’ll be smarter than the average rock.
As has been pointed out many times, handguns, not assault weapons, account for the vast number of GOP supported gun deaths in this country. But even if the carnage is reduced by 4 or 5 percent, it’s more than worth it. I’m not going to bother listing all the reasons high capacity, semi-automatic weapons are the favorite choice for potential mass murderers. You’re either a rational, decent human being, or you’re a Republican.
And when I hear smug rat bastards like Baby Killer Ted sniff that gun laws don’t work, I consider purchasing my own AR-15.
Restrictions on gun purchases DO work. The empirical evidence from around the world is unquestionably valid.
But the nuts have been trained that giving in even a tiny bit to common sense restrictions is the first step to total gun confiscation.
Unfortunately, Democrats have been sadly unable to devise a successful counter narrative. And if these assholes are unmoved by the possibility of keeping little kids in schools from being massacred, if being able to fondle your weapons is more important than the lives of children, nothing will move them.
That’s why trying to “work with” these idiots will never come to anything. Democrats have to do it themselves. While we still can.
Patrick,
Interesting that while those same anti-government sentiments fester today the same bunch who fly their “Don’t tread on me” flags lean heavily toward authoritarian rule and white nationalism. Governance is okay as they’re the ones in charge.
Patrick,
Thanks for the Sunday morning trip through time.
Yes, the push and pull, the give and take between individual freedom and community weal has been there from the beginning of our little experiment in government.
As I wrote yesterday, those who objected early on to the emerging Constitution did have a point. In the esteemed Mr. Dollard's case, likely the wrong one, but there were good reasons to be worried about the way in which the elites who were putting the new government together were giving themselves a leg up the ladder of the social order they were creating.
From yesterday, the syntax slightly revised:
From the beginning, our experiment in democracy hardly achieved a perfect balance between the rights of minorities (in this case, the elites who designed it) and the unwashed majority that worried them.
Thought of this way, the elites, defined as those who have the most money, have always been the minority, and it is those interests who are still most concerned with protecting their minority rights. Theirs.
In this sense, things, as you say, haven't changed that much at all.
and those referenced by Mr Dollard were concerned that the landed gentry would reduce them to equality with the 3/5 person part of the society.
That fight isn't over yet or even into extra innings.
Louie Gohmert says its unfair, if you're a Republican you can't even lie to the congress or to the FBI.
https://news.yahoo.com/rep-louie-gohmert-says-peter-001405116.html
I won't miss him not even one little bit. Not even half a bit.
Quiet part out loud, pt. 754:
Gohmert’s outraged assertion that it’s the right of every Republican to lie through their teeth. Truth, facts, decency, rule of law, humanity, intelligence…none of these are part of the Republican toolbox. Their primary tools are lies, treason, self dealing, and…did I mention lies?
Federal law banning automatic weapons, or grenade launchers, has never been challenged. Perhaps someone should, on the basis that it would be no different in principle from banning all semi-automatics, rifles, shotguns and handguns, and magazines holding more than three rounds, none of which any hobby marksman or hunter needs. Could backfire, of course (excuse the bad pun).
It's not just pregnant women's bodies that Republicans want to control. Here's a post about the Ohio law banning trans girls from playing sports in the state. Any player can be forced to undergo invasive exams to prove their womanhood. If the player refuses then they have not proven they are female and the accuser can collect the reward money from the school district and is protected from retaliation suits even if they are wrong or acted in malice.
RAS,
Being wrong and acting with malice are hallmarks of Republican hate mongering.