NRA

It’s About Dead Children: Fox News Military Analyst Advocates Banning Semi-Automatic Firearms

Posted by on February 24, 2018 at 1:58 pm. 7 Comments :

Despite the sharply reduced attention span, and constricted news cycles, of the 21st century in America, the nation is still immersed in the aftermath of the tragic massacre in Parkland, Florida. It is totally out of character for the public and the media to remain so focused on a single issue. Much of the credit goes to the passion and eloquence of the students who survived the shooting rampage.

Fox News Ralph Peters

However, this story’s staying power isn’t the only unexpected fallout from Parkland. While most Republican stalwarts continue to be whores to the National Rifle Association (NRA), along with their accomplices in the media, there have been a few surprising defectors. And one of them was interviewed by Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto on his Fox Business program on Friday.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army Lt. Colonel who has been serving as a military analyst on Fox News for several years. He generally falls in line with the hard-right narrative espoused on the network. In fact, he often wanders off the farthest right ledge of conservative wingnutism. For instance, he was once briefly suspended by Fox News for calling President Obama a “pussy” on the air. And then there was the time he argued for censorship and “military attacks on the partisan media.” But his comments on the availability of semi-automatic guns, like the AR-15 used to murder seventeen people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, were more than a little shocking (video below):

“I support the Second Amendment. I do not support the cherry-picking we’re seeing of it right now. […] I’m a gun owner. I know guns. My family’s a gun family going way back. But these weapons – AR-15 and similar weapons – are not for sporting purposes. You don’t take them hunting because they’re meant to tear bodies apart. They tear up the meat. They’re lousy for target shooting. They’re not even good for defending your home in the middle of the night against an intruder.”

And Peters didn’t stop there. He recognized that “my position is unpopular to many Fox viewers,” but that this is “a moral issue. It’s an ethical issue. It’s about dead children.” And he even defended the officers in Parkland who failed to enter the school as it was under assault saying that:

“Having those weapons in civilian hands is absolute madness. And by the way, those four deputies who didn’t go into the school. I think I can tell you what happened. They’re outside with handguns and they’re hearing that semi-automatic fire inside. Pop, pop, pop. It’s like going in there with bare hands.”

Peters also discussed the vagaries of the Second Amendment noting that gun fetishists always leave out the part about a “well regulated militia.” He mocked that omission by observing the hypocrisy of the amendment’s staunchest supports who insist on absolutely literal interpretations of the Constitution, but ignore that the language only protects the right to bear arms, but not to fire them.

The NRA and the Republican Party better wake up. When you’ve lost the support of someone like Peters, you pretty much have to acknowledge that your position is just plain nuts. Peters cannot be dismissed as a liberal snowflake who wants to confiscate every gun in America. Having been trained for battle he knows that a teacher, or other school employee, is unprepared and outmatched for combat with an opponent wielding an AR-15, even if the teacher has served in the military.

It’s fair to say that Peters is far better qualified to comment on these matters than Cadet Bonespurs (aka Donald Trump), who got five deferments to evade service during the Vietnam War years. And the same goes for cowards like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the Trump-fluffing media who never served their country in uniform. Make no mistake, Peters is very likely the same right-wing crackpot he has always been. But that only makes these remarks all the more noteworthy and foreboding.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

NRA Shill Says the Media ‘Love Mass Shootings,’ ‘Crying White Mothers are Ratings Gold.

Posted by on February 22, 2018 at 2:12 pm. 4 Comments :

If you were still uncertain as to whether the NRA is an organization steeped in partisan rancor and vile, hate-filled hysterics, the remarks by its chief spokesperson, Dana Loesch, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), will put an end to your doubts.

Dana Loesch

On Wednesday night Loesch appeared on the CNN Town Hall featuring student survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School along with some parents, teachers and politicians. Loesch attempted to present herself as a rational, open-minded participant in a discussion seeking to find solutions to a serious problem. But the very next day she let her true feelings come out in her speech at CPAC (video below):

“Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. Now, I’m not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you and many in the legacy media.”

It’s not surprising that she didn’t say this to the faces of the “crying white mothers” in CNN’s forum. She is a deceitful, manipulative hack who who will happily lie in order to achieve her ends and those of her benefactors in the firearms industry. To make the broad accusation that the media “loves mass shootings” in a public address demonstrates her utter lack of decency and humanity. And her ability to turn around in a few hours to display both ugly sides of her face is something that only comes with an innately grotesque personality.

But Loesch went even further to insult the parents of murdered children as if they were disingenuous contestants on a reality TV show. And the interjection of a racial component only makes the insult many times worse. Her CPAC performance was like watching a cartoon villain giving away all her secret, evil plans, secure in the belief that her opponents would soon be dead and unable to stop her. That may be why she also unleashed this bit of BS:

“The government has proven that they cannot keep you safe, and yet some people want all of us to disarm. And then they also call Trump a tyrant, but then say they want the president to also confiscate our firearms. Try to figure that one out.”

Of course, no one is proposing to disarm the entire nation. Likewise, no one has suggested confiscating all firearms. These are just the NRA’s standard lies to whip up fear among their followers that a tyrannical overlord is plotting to enslave America and only the NRA can prevent it. They screeched for eight years that President Obama was coming for their guns, never mind that it never happened, nor was there any threat of it. The NRA is fear machine and it has to have an enemy to survive. Preferably a dark-skinned one.

Loesch’s remarks were not a one-off or gaffe. It’s an NRA mantra as seen in this video from NRA-TV. The commentator uses the identical language that Loesch used about loving mass shootings, repeating it for emphasis. And he spent the rest of the time spewing the NRA line in a monologue of deceit.

That’s what the NRA does. It is their whole purpose for existing. They do not represent gun owners. They shill for gun manufacturers. Which is why they push for more guns as the solution to every problem. No matter what it is, the only NRA approved response is to buy more guns. They are about marketing and nothing else. And if innocent people die, that’s just the price of capitalism.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Donald Trump in His Own Deplorable Words/Lies: ‘I Never Said Give Teachers Guns’

Posted by on February 22, 2018 at 9:49 am. 4 Comments :

Thursday morning’s tweetstorm from Donald Trump is typically filled with nonsense. It’s tempting to ignore these psychotic outbursts. They rarely have anything of substance or value in them. But he leads off with such a brazen and dangerous lie that it would be journalistic malpractice not to point it out and give it the ridicule it deserves. So buckle up. This is, unfortunately, our president talking.

Donald Trump AR-15

OK, I’ll give you that. You never said “give teachers guns.” But you did say to arm teachers (an utterly boneheaded idea). So they would have to buy the guns themselves? That fits your soulless agenda to cut funding for schools and school safety. And you just signed a bill that disallows tax write-offs when teachers use their own money for supplies. Also, note what you said about guns in schools a couple of years ago.

Immediately? You mean after they recognize that there’s an emergency situation, retrieve the gun from a safe location, load the gun, and – oh never mind. The teacher would be dead before any of that could happen. And in the meantime the kids would have been left on their own without the guidance of the teacher to secure their safety.

Parkland had had an armed security guard and police presence. That didn’t deter Nikolas Cruz. And even if there was a deterrent, it would only result in the shooter selecting another target, like a church, restaurant, mall, park, concert, etc. We would have to have armed guards, sales clerks, pastors, and more patrolling everywhere in your prison-like, dystopian world.

See above. And WTF do you mean by offensive? Do you intend to have teachers go out and hunt potential shooters?

Not sufficient. The availability of military assault weapons will insure higher body counts when “sickos” act out.

And you love the NRA. Why not? You took $30,000,000 from them to help Russia get you elected.

You’re the master of “all talk, no action,” so as usual, nothing will get done. Just like DACA. Correction: You do sometimes take action, but it always makes things worse.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The Media Needs to Stop the False Argument of Arming Teachers and Fortifying Schools

Posted by on February 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm. 5 Comments :

One week ago a deeply disturbed young man entered his old school in Parkland, Florida, with an AR-15 and ended the lives of fourteen students and three adults. Ever since then the survivors and classmates of the victims have demonstrated a rare and inspiring resolve to make Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School the last site of a such a tragedy. If they succeed they will have beaten the odds, because survivors from Columbine to Sandy Hook have said the same thing.

Samuel Zeif Parkland

Many of the Stoneman Douglas students have made passionate and rational cases for taking military style assault weapons off the market. That solution has been predictably opposed by conservatives and NRA shills in Congress. And, of course, Donald Trump is siding with the obstructionists and mass murderers union. But one of the most galling responses to the demand for common sense gun safety reform is the notion that teachers should be put on the front lines by arming them with commensurate fire power.

That is maybe the most boneheaded solution imaginable. For one thing, it only makes the teachers more likely to be the first victims of the shooter. It also requires the teachers to turn their attention away from securing the students while they engage in a firefight. And it relies on the assumption that an armed teacher will be at the the specific location of the shooting with a weapon in hand. In real life scenarios that is an unrealistic assumption. The teacher might be in a different classroom. And their guns would probably be locked up for safekeeping. Since shootings like the one in Parkland usually last about three minutes, the tragedy would have occurred before an armed teacher could show up.

But what makes this suggestion so inappropriate as a potential solution is its narrow focus on schools. What would happen if every school in America were to be rebuilt as a fortress with armed teachers and security guards and snipers on the rooftops? Besides, that is, making our kids go to school in prison of war style institutions? If a shooter were to plot a mass murder under these circumstance, he would simply select a different target.

How would fortifying schools protect children who gathered at McDonalds on the way home after school? How would it protect them in the mall, or a concert, or at church, or at a playground in the park? Would all of those places also have to be re-envisioned as prisons with weapon-toting sales clerks and volunteer parents on patrol? Would American society be turned into one big gulag where any suspicious person might be gunned down by an overeager pseudo-cop?

Trump met with a group of students, parents, and teachers on Wednesday afternoon and told them that he supports concealed carry for teachers. He ignored entirely the subject of taking these weapons off the streets. The only other solution he proposed was for opening old-school mental hospitals where people with psychological problems could be held after being “nabbed” by the thought police. Bear in mind that the vast majority of people with mental illness are not dangerous or violent.

Why isn’t the media addressing these obvious flaws whenever the armed teacher solution is proposed? Our kids and country will not be safer because schools are converted into frightening destinations where learning would be nearly impossible. The only things that all of the potential sites for a massacre like the one at Stoneman Douglas High (or Las Vegas, or the Pulse nightclub, or the Sutherland Springs church) had in common was the means of execution and the tears of grieving friends and family.

No matter how many times the gun fetishists insist that guns are not the problem – guns ARE the problem. There may be many other facets of a comprehensive response, but the problem will never be solved until the weapons that produce the severity and quantity of casualties are removed from the equation. And that won’t happen until the NRA whores are removed from politics. That may be the silver lining that is being revealed by the brave and passionate Parkland students who are finally getting the voices of victims to be heard. Students like Samuel Zeif:

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Warning Signs: Is Donald Trump the Next Mass Murderer? (See Something, Say Something)

Posted by on February 15, 2018 at 11:29 am. 4 Comments :

It is unbelievable that it’s become so redundant and tedious to respond to yet another senseless massacre of children. But that’s where we are now in America. There have been eighteen school shootings so far this year, and it’s only February. And what have our “leaders” done about? Well Republicans have taken millions of dollars from the NRA and passed, with Donald Trump’s signature, a bill making it easier for the mentally ill to buy guns.

Donald Trump AR-15

There are actually ways to prevent these killings, but they are being actively suppressed by right-wing politicians and organizations. They say that after heinous shootings it is “not the right time” to discuss taking deadly weapons of war out of the hands of dangerous miscreants. But apparently, it is always time to offer “thoughts and prayers” (which worked so well the last time?). The callousness of people who refuse to seek common sense solutions are escalating the body count. They insist that there is no gun problem in America, only mental health issues.

The risks imposed by psychological deviants are all too real. But there is more to the matter than that. These sick individuals are helped by arming them with ever more destructive methods of killing. But if conservatives, who love their guns more than they love their kids, aren’t willing to do anything about that, than let’s take a look at those who truly present a danger to our society.

The preindicators for mentally disturbed persons who could pose a risk of becoming the next mass murderer are well documented. And, frighteningly, they are all observable in our president, Donald Trump. We have been told by law enforcement authorities that when we “see something, say something.” So in the spirit of community service it is critical that we take note of these warning signs:

Donald Trump:

  • Has amassed a lethal cache of deadly weapons. And he he’s seeking to expand it even more in his current budget proposal.
  • Has spoken casually of committing grievous crimes of mass violence and the use of nuclear arms: “If we have them, why can’t we use them?”
  • Has posted violent images attacking Hillary Clinton, the media and more on social media.
  • Is filled with resentment toward perceived enemies and yearns for revenge.
  • Incites violence among his followers and even offers to pay their legal fees.
  • Displays a near constant, uncontrollable rage.
  • Feels isolated and threatened by a world that he thinks is out to get him.
  • Has delusions of grandeur and imagined respect.
  • Associates with unsavory characters who share his flaws (i.e. Vladimir Putin, Rob Porter, Bill O’Reilly).
  • Dreams of vindication and making his persecutors sorry.

Allowing someone with these troubling psychological deviancies to remain in a position of power is asking for trouble. Trump tells us almost everyday that he is seething with animosity that could boil over into hostility. And the more he feels pressured and under attack, the more likely he is to explode into a tantrum of hatred and vengeance. That’s especially dangerous since he currently has the worst approval ratings of any president on record. Add to that the fact that is being investigated for serious and impeachable crimes. If ever there was someone who might be viewed as a threat to society, it is Donald Trump. And now that we’ve seen this, it would be irresponsible and potentially catastrophic not to do something about it. #Impeach #25thAmendment

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump Said Shooting Was a Mental Health Problem, But Signed Bill Easing Their Access to Guns

Posted by on November 6, 2017 at 12:54 pm. 3 Comments :

Once again Donald Trump and every Republican NRA shill in America is serving up their “thoughts and prayers.” Meanwhile, the families and victims of another gun slaughter are suffering for the abject negligence of a cowardly Congress. The shooting in a Sutherland Springs, TX, church is just the latest episode of senseless violence that is turning the country into a war zone. But the absence of affirmative solutions isn’t the worst part of the right-wing response. They are proactively enabling the almost certain continuation of these tragedies. And it starts at the top with Trump himself.

Donald Trump

The President’s first remarks on the Texas massacre were given just hours after it occurred from his junket in Japan. As usual, he couldn’t help politicizing the subject. Absolving his friends in the gun lobby of any responsibility, Trump speculated on the cause despite having no facts. “This isn’t a guns situation,” he reckoned. “This is a mental health problem.”

With regard to the latter half of his comment, it’s unarguable that mental health played a role in this shooting. In fact, it plays a role in every mass shooting. None of these incidents can be described as normal psychological behavior. So Trump is telling us nothing by stating the obvious. However, the first part of his comment completely ignores reality. These tragedies are only exacerbated by the easy access to such dangerous assault-type weapons.

The Republican Party marches in lock step with the NRA to preserve access to virtually all weaponry. They oppose regulating cop-killer bullets, military firearms, and “smart” guns. They are even blocking regulation of the “bump stock” accessories that modify conventional weapons into fully automatic ones. That was what the Las Vegas gunman used to kill fifty-eight people just last month.

But the GOP position on mental health is no better. They are currently proposing cuts to mental health programs in their budget and tax bills, More to the point, they are determined to protect the rights of violent offenders, domestic abusers, and other unstable miscreants to own whatever guns they want. Donald Trump even signed a bill in February for that precise purpose. As reported by NBC News at the time:

“President Donald Trump quietly signed a bill into law Tuesday rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun. […] President Barack Obama recommended the now-nullified regulation in a 2013 memo following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns.”

Early reports suggest that the law Trump revoked was just the sort of regulation that might have kept the Texas shooter from obtaining his guns. He was discharged from the Air Force for “bad conduct.” Specifically, he was found to have assaulted his wife and child. Not coincidentally, domestic abuse has been found to be a consistent and accurate predictor of mass shooting perpetrators. Samantha Bee happened to do a segment on this subject last week. It should be required viewing for every member of Congress and law enforcement:

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Trump-Fluffing Psychiatrist Tells Fox News That CNN ‘Contributes to Mass Shooting’

Posted by on October 3, 2017 at 2:51 pm. NO Comments :

In the world of conservative politics and punditry, the right time to talk about common sense gun safety is never. And they are especially adamant that such discussions be avoided following any gun-related tragedies. Which effectively nixes any dialog ever since these tragic events occur almost every day.

Fox News

However, talking about how Democrats and the liberal media are responsible for firearms massacres is fair game at any time. For example, Tuesday morning Fox News aired an interview with forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner (video below). Welner is a devoted supporter of Donald Trump. His appearance with the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends was in keeping with the network’s obsessive partisanship. They acted together to brazenly politicize the horror of the Las Vegas calamity.

Welner began with a wholly invented proclamation that “people who are gun enthusiasts, and who are populists or nationalists in this country, are dehumanized. They’re demonized.” It’s impossible to know where he got that from. While there are protests aimed at the National Rifle Association (NRA) and politicians who kowtow to them, citizen gun owners have never a target of scorn. In fact most NRA members actually support measures like background checks and banning assault weapons. However, Welner’s inclusion of “nationalists” in his diatribe was peculiar. Whether or not they own guns, they are associated with the white supremacy movement. Welner apparently considers them victims in the same mold as he does gun owners.

Welner’s analysis of the shooter’s mindset was equally as bizarre. He led off by saying that “This is a sixty-four year old with no dramatic mental illness. No major decline. Someone who’s intact.” On the basis of what examination did he draw those conclusions? There have been no reports as to the shooter’s psychological profile from either the press or the police. Following that, Welner spouted off a stream of incoherent psychobabble that makes one wonder if he got his degree from Trump University. He asserted that all mass murderers are either seeking notoriety or advancing a cause. He left out many other possible motivations including racial or other prejudice, retribution or redress of perceived wrongs, and just plain insanity.

Welner’s primary theory involved looking at the victims and working backwards to establish a motive. So when Fox’s Brian Kilmeade asked what the country music fans at the concert represented, Welner replied, “Americana.” Between the two of them, the only notable characteristic of the victims was the entertainment venue they patronized. That led to this disturbing exchange between the two:

Kilmeade: Jeff Zelany [of CNN] says that country music fans are for the most part Republicans, and the President, by showing this type of sympathy is doing something for his base. Are country music fans symbolic of Republicans?

Welner: Well, I think that CNN is gonna have to answer for how they demonize gun enthusiasts and how CNN actually contributes to mass shooting. And I believe that they do.

First of all, Welner didn’t bother to answer Kilmeade’s embarrassingly biased and asinine question. And the answer he gave was embarrassing enough in it’s own right. That was the professional diagnosis of an allegedly trained psychiatrist? Actually, it’s the opinion of a quack who closed this segment with another absurd allegation. He complained that “We don’t demonize mass killing enough, and that’s why people feel they can do it for a cause.” Really?

Statements like these are not unfamiliar at Fox News. They frequently trade in slander and defamation that is unsupportable and way out of bounds. In this case, Welner may have even exceeded whatever flimsy standards Fox News maintains. Because later in the program, Kilmeade issued a disclaimer to note that the views Welner expressed were his own did not represent Fox. When Fox News is ashamed to be associated with you, that should be a wake up call that the doctor might need professional help himself.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

The Republican Party Platform Is More Worried About You Getting Off Than Getting Shot

Posted by on July 12, 2016 at 7:13 pm. 7 Comments :

The nation is currently undergoing the heart-wrenching anguish of senseless violence and loss of life. Last week saw an unusually painful series of events that included the killings of citizens by over-zealous police officers, followed by a brutal attack on good cops who were protecting a peaceful protest of such killings. In both cases guns played a prominent part in needless slaughter.

Gun Lady

Fox News, and the rest of the conservative media, immediately launched an assault on #BlackLivesMatter, branding them racists and hostile for their efforts to draw attention to the far too frequent incidents of African-Americans becoming victims of police misconduct. The blame from the right extended even further to include President Obama and Hillary Clinton, whom they alleged were directly responsible for the Dallas shootings. It requires an unfathomably perverse logic to make those associations but, as it turns out, it isn’t even the craziest thing the right has done this week.

Reports from the Republican National Convention’s Platform committee reveal that they have unanimously approved an amendment declaring that:

“Pornography, with his harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions. We encourage states to continue to fight this public menace and pledge our commitment to children’s safety and wellbeing.”

Everyone can agree that protecting children from nefarious types who would harm them, or exploit them for deviant purposes, is a worthy goal. However, Republicans are making an Olympian leap of reason by designating pornography in general as a “public health crisis.” Never mind that they don’t bother to cite any references to professional journals or medical studies to validate that claim. They simply expect it to be taken on faith.

RELATED: New Study Explains Why Fox News Is Obsessed With Sex And Porn

What makes this absurd is that these are the same Republicans who have fought fiercely to prevent gun violence from being studied as a public health crisis. The Republican majority in Congress, at the behest of the NRA, passed legislation that explicitly prohibits government agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control, from appropriating funds to conduct research on gun violence and injury prevention. And this was after prior studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine established that gun ownership is a risk factor for homicide in the home. The American Psychological Association agrees and has lobbied to eliminate the GOP’s freeze on funds for research:

“APA endorses the provision to end the freeze on federal gun violence research. This ban has significantly hampered psychological scientists’ ability to systematically assess the risk of assault and other weapons to the public, and to determine the effectiveness of various preventive measures. APA supports increased federal funding for research on the causes and prevention of gun violence, including attention to violence in media, to jump start this field after so many years of neglect.”

But none of these reasonable arguments has moved the the Republican Party to act reasonably. Under the banner of their presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, they are becoming more radically conservative than ever. With this platform they are asserting that pornography is a public health crisis despite the lack of any credible evidence. But they won’t allow gun violence to even be studied by medical professionals even though existing research indicates a very real problem. It is emblematic of the GOP’s shift to the ultra-right with other platform items that include opposing marriage equality, supporting gay conversion therapy, and declaring coal to be “clean” energy.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Today President Obama and others paid tribute to the fallen officers of the Dallas Police Department. And while these solemn events are unfolding, the Republican Party is making it easier for other maniacs, like the one that murdered five cops, to acquire and use weapons that escalate the body count. But at least we’ll be safe from the horror of nakedness.

MUZZLED: House Republicans Kill Live Camera Feed Of Democratic Gun Reform Sit-In

Posted by on June 22, 2016 at 1:30 pm. 2 Comments :

Democratic congress members of the House of Representatives launched an unprecedented protest in the chamber by staging a sit-in. The purpose of the protest is to force Speaker Paul Ryan and the Republican leadership into scheduling a vote on gun safety reforms (video here).

CSPAN Blackout

Shortly after the protest began, the Republicans who control the House called a recess saying that the House is not in order, and then shut off the chamber’s cameras to prevent the American people from seeing their representatives actually doing something worthwhile and in agreement with the majority of the people. It is a brazen act of censorship intended to make the courageous demonstration disappear and to help the GOP in their efforts to kill reform at the behest of their NRA masters.

By taking the unprecedented step of shutting off the cameras, CSPAN went dark. They later had to resort to broadcasting video from mobile phones in the chamber, which continues as of the writing of this article. And as if that weren’t bad enough, Rep. John Yarmouth just tweeted that “The Sgt at Arms is asking us to stop taking photos and video from House floor. Republicans should turn the cameras back on.”

These GOP authoritarian tactics are nothing less than government suppression of free speech. This is the people’s house, not the private broadcast facility of the Republican Party. And despite the GOP’s tyrannical usurpation of power, Democrats are united in persisting with this protest. Participants include party leaders like John Lewis and Nancy Pelosi, and they have promised that everyone who wants to speak will be able to.

Republicans will have to shut down the building and evacuate everyone if they hope to end this. Which I wouldn’t put past them. Two years ago the GOP held a hearing on the alleged IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the committee, delivered a five minute opening statement, asked a few leading questions, then gaveled the hearing adjourned without allowing anyone else to speak. The ranking Democratic member, Elijah Cummings, objected to the adjournment, but Issa cut off his microphone and stomped out of the room. Cummings continued without the mic calling Issa’s conduct “absolutely un-American.”

This is pretty much what we can expect from the Republican Party if it is allowed to remain in control of Congress, or worse gain the White House with a victory by Donald Trump (who has revoked the press credentials of several media organizations and whose camp has advocated revoking the broadcast license of CNN). Democrats have to be united in voting out Republicans in every jurisdiction if the nation hopes to preserve its constitutional freedoms.

Donald Trump’s Plan To Arm Drunken Bar Patrons Is Even Too Sick for The NRA

Posted by on June 20, 2016 at 12:22 pm. 8 Comments :

Within hours of the horrific massacre in Orlando, Florida, Donald Trump was congratulating himself and seeking political advantage from the suffering of others. He spent the next few days lambasting President Obama for not saying ‘radical Islamic terrorism,” a right-wing mantra that is at best a trivial distraction that has no effect whatsoever on counter-terrorism activities. [See The Reverse Beetlejuice Doctrine]

Donald Trump

Yesterday Donald Trump escalated his grandstanding by repeating an ignorant trope about how different the outcome would have been if the patrons of the Pulse nightclub had themselves been armed. Every expert on public safety has repudiated that notion as being either ineffective or increasing the risk. But in this specific circumstance it would be so ridiculous that even the NRA distanced itself from Trump’s remarks. The NRA’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, told CBS’s Face the Nation that “I don’t think we should have firearms where people are drinking.” And Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the NRA, said that “no one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms.” Well, not on one. Some states are passing laws explicitly permitting it.

Still, for most sane folks the prospect of arming patrons of a crowded establishment where alcohol is being served is inviting tragedy even without any terrorists showing up. It would lead to common arguments having deadly results, as well as increasing the odds of lethal accidents. Trump’s phony machismo is just further evidence of how shallow he thinks through issues that can have profoundly disturbing consequences.

As a result of his quick-draw mouthing off, and the NRA’s equally quick disapproval, Trump tried to walk back his statement in a tweet (of course) falsely asserting that “When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees.” The dishonesty of that lame qualification is easily observed by revisiting his original comment:

“If we had people, where the bullets were going in the opposite direction, right smack between the eyes of this maniac — if some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist or to their ankle, and this son of a bitch comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in the room happened to have it, and goes boom — boom — you know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight, folks. That would have been a beautiful, beautiful sight. So don’t let them take your guns away.”

What’s obvious about that statement is that Trump was referring to the bar’s patrons. The security guard in the club was, in fact, armed. Trump was talking specifically about “those wonderful people” and then he warned his rally audience, who were not security professionals, to resist letting anyone “take your guns away.” Never mind that no one is trying to take guns away from responsible, law-abiding citizens. Trump was clearly recommending that everyone, including bar patrons, strap on loaded weapons and prepare for a night out Wild West style. And it’s not the first time he has pitched this idiocy.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

This whole affair is textbook Trump: Exploit the fear and bigotry of your followers by saying something stupid and indefensible. Then refuse to apologize, or even acknowledge the asinine nature of your statement, and lie about what you allegedly meant. It’s the strategy of an egocentric authoritarian who knows he can get away with anything because his glassy-eyed disciples won’t hold him to account and the media is too obsessed with ratings to do its job. Hopefully that situation will correct itself as the election season proceeds.