Guns in America

Last Wednesday, Walmart announced that they will stop the sale of military style semiautomatic rifles. They are simply not restocking, from my point of view,  I wish they had destroyed their inventory, but of course that would be too much to expect.
It is a start, but it is not enough. 

There are days that I will never forget 9/11/2001 and 12/14/2012 for example.

This photo is burned into my memory as the reminder of that horrific day in Newtown....

......all of those babies gone forever.

I was so sure after that massacre, after the killing of all those children that we would finally enact sensible gun laws, but we did not. $$$ and the NRA prevailed again, and so the list of the dead continues to grow.

Last week on live TV more lives were lost and Alison Parker's father has vowed to add his voice to the many crying in the political wilderness for much needed laws and reforms. 

I wish I could be hopeful, but I am not. Gun reform will happen when and only when our campaign funding is reformed. When those running for office no longer need to sell themselves in order to raise the millions needed to run a campaign, only then will our Congress grow the balls needed to say, "Enough, no more".

Senator Cruz strikes again

Senator Cruz has been telling anyone who will listen and those who won't that the "104,000 violent criminal aliens' have been released because of one of President Obama's immigration policies.

Sounds terrible doesn't? you read that and ask what the devil are they doing? we have enough citizens who are criminals, why is he increasing the number?

That number is true and it is also fault. It is apples, oranges, grapes and any other fruit you can think of thrown into a bag and sold as grapefruit.

Senator Cruz has taken poetic license to new heights with this number, as his object was to present his case in the worse possible light.

This article breaks down the numbers and gives the Senator not 1 but 2 Pinocchios.

The Clown Car

A passing thought based on headlines.  What is it about running for public office, especially the Office of President of the United States of America that makes otherwise smart people (hoping they are smart) say and do really dumb things?

Of course so far in the 2016 cycle the catalyst is Trump.

The Donald’s sister is being attacked by Jeb Bush’s camp. Really guys, who knew he had a sister and since she is a Judge, they may want to consider the possible consequences.

We read the despicable statements made by the DT (sounds like a disease, doesn’t…the GOP is suffering from a terminal illness, which is being passed amongst the members of The Clown Car. It is known as TMDT or toomuchDonaldTrump) about Mexicans when he announced.  So as not to be out done, we have Chris Christie saying that immigrants should be treated like FedEx packages.

Including Jindal as a candidate is a stretch, and his asking the President not to mention climate change or the government’s responsibility for protecting its citizens from the effects of that change when he visits New Orleans is dumb. Never mind, he had been saying dumb things before he ever boarded the car.

Can these people stop being so stupid? Again, I ask, what happened to the party of Lincoln? Why are they so determined to follow the Whigs into the history books?

As the Madness continues ......

...we are all on thin ice.

5 years ago on 8/26/10, the Times printed an opinion piece about the lies being told about President Obama, relative to the usual, his religion, his birthplace etc.

And here we are at the beginning of another long, tedious, lie-filled campaign for President and the madness will be with us for over a year.

Today, many of us watching the rise of Donald Trump, noticing the response of the mainstream press to his treatment of Jorge Ramos are starting not to be amused.

If he, (Trump) were to emerge victorious from the Clown Car, this country and the world will be in for a tumultuous and dangerous 4 years of his presidency and all of the years after that would be needed to repair the damage.

Which brings me to my second concern about the 2016 Presidential election - the Democratic nominee.

I am concerned that Hillary is vulnerable, too much baggage from being married to Bill.

Sanders is playing to huge crowds, he is the truthsayer of this cycle and therefore unelectable.

So, my choice, the Vice President Biden should run with Elizabeth Warren as his VP, he should not run in 2020, Warren should and I believe she would be a 2 term President.  That would give the Dems at least 12 years with a leader who believes in science, and the maintenance of the safety net for poor Americans and most importantly, is not looking for any excuse to start a war.

DISGRUNTLED REPUBLICAN

I have a friend who is a faithful Republican Party member. Well, right now, not a contented, happy Republican member.

He has started sending me memes that show the displeasure of Liberals and the sentiments with which he agrees. I think that says a great deal about what is going on today with the GOP.

Today we have the Trump Republicans and we have the, I am not sure what Republicans. I can’t say Lincoln, Eisenhower or Reagan. I have no one with whom to compare the present day love the rich and hate the poor GOP.

Both of these memes I have seen. But when viewed through the eyes of my disgruntled pal, the story changes.

The Republican Party was against implementing Social Security.

And as usual, some of the comments were over the top.

“Daniel Reed, said we would feel "the lash of the dictator." Sen. Daniel Hastings announced that it would "end the progress of a great country."

Today’s current members of the GOP are still trying to destroy the program, which is the only thing that stands between millions of Americans and abject poverty.

As I have written before, the attempt to end Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid does not come up when the Republican Party controls the White House and Congress.

For those running for President and other elective office, ending Social Security provides very safe noise.

FLOTUS, what can I say about our First Lady? She has suffered the slings and arrows of American racists, many of who are members of the GOP, from the day she appeared in the public eye.

I admire her for many reasons, but her ability to not respond publicly to the nasty comments made is amazing.

I know nothing about Melania Trump, but I do believe that we would have to look far and wide to find a photograph of Mrs. Obama similar to the one in this meme. That is one of the many differences between Michelle Obama and many high profile women.

WE DON’T CHOOSE

Advantage over others, Winning and hording at all costs, We don’t cross vague boundaries __or centerlines, Squeeze smooth triggers Or launch ICBM’s To end all life.

We don’t choose anything That would finish things Or bring hurt to others__ For nothing;

Anyway, so that it might Be recognized or you could tell, All this superficial hiding out We don’t think a lot about; We, this world’s socially civilized And privileged preservers of life, Of freedoms and rights.

We don’t choose anything That would finish things Or bring hurt to others __for nothing.

J. Gallup

THE NEWSFEED COLUMN

I realized today that I could write an entire piece simply from the headlines in my Facebook newsfeed.

Daily Kos

And Donald Trump continues to rack up the endorsements.

Former KKK grand wizard David Duke: Trump ‘understands the real sentiment of America” (read story here)

WIWU: #No not one America, one racist, watches one station does not think for themselves America. Trump does not speak for me.

Daily Kos

So troubling the lack of national media attention this story has received. A Lynching? 17 year old black teen found hanging in NC mobile park – FBI investigating. (read story here)

WIWU [“more coverage by The Guardian than US papers,”] there is a lot of that recently, thanks to our media outlets being owned almost exclusively by corporations, read 1%

The New York Times

All of these neighbors were strangers until they met on Facebook. "Now I am obligated to speak to everyone when I leave the house."

Italian neighbors build their own social network, online and off. (read here)

WIWU Now this is an idea that I could get behind, especially for those living in large housing complexes.

And finally for today we come full circle from the Donald to JB.

Think Progress

What exactly does he mean when he says "women's health"?

Jeb Bush: Planned Parenthood shouldn’t get ‘a penny’ because they’re not ‘doing women’s health’. (read story here)

WIWU: Let’s step even further out on the lake shall we Jeb?

Keep attacking women and you will stand even less of a chance of moving into the White House than you do now.

BUSH SURPASSED JINDAL

The entire Clown Car is on thin ice, skated right to the middle of the “Don’t Go There Lake”.

In the middle of that Lake is immigration reform, one of the numerous third rails of American politics, created by politicians whom we elect to run this country, but who spend most of their time in office kowtowing to their donors and the extremists in their parties.

So Bobby Jindal, about whom I wrote yesterday and Jeb Bush are in the middle of the lake. For Jindal it does not matter, he does not have a chance in hell of being the Party nominee.

But, Bush does, he has the name (which is why I do not believe he will be the nominee and why he can’t win a general election) he has the money, all of those 1%s and he was a governor.

He also has a serious case of foot in mouth disease, which he demonstrated again this past weekend.

While standing at the US-Mexican border, Jeb discussed the 14^th amendment, in terms of the dreaded “anchor babies” a term which gets lots of people in an uproar, so as a potential resident in the White House, he should not use it.  

So, to try to dampen the fire, he created a new one. Everyone and their grandmother, dead or alive know that “anchor babies” is used to refer to babies born to women from Central and South America. So, Mr. Bush has informed us that he was not talking about Mexican babies; he was talking about Asian babies, born here due to “birth tourism”, another disgusting term.

Bush has two problems, one he was not talking about Asians, he was referring to women from south of our border, so when he explained himself, he was dishonest and in all probability offended the group of voters that has doubled between 1996 and 2012.

Good going Jeb, a few more gaffes like this one and you may as well go home.