Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Durham Witch Hunt Flops: Michael Sussman Acquitted



John "Bull(shit)" Durham's politically motivated prosecution that was supposed to blow the lid off the Clinton campaign's nefarious plot to tie the Malignant Loser to his Russian patron has fizzled:

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The case against Michael Sussmann was the first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham since his appointment three years ago to search for government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. The verdict represents a setback for Durham’s work, especially since Trump supporters had looked to the probe to expose what they contend was egregious bias by law enforcement officials who investigated the former president.

The jury deliberated on Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning before reaching its verdict.

“While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service. I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case,” Durham said in a statement.  (our emphasis)

Bull(shit) Durham still has a trial pending against a Russian analyst who provided dirt to a dossier of oppo research.  But, three years and Bull- shit has this to show for his efforts?  He's on track to be the Hamilton Burger of modern day prosecutors.  Sad!

(Image:  Bull(shit) and Low Barr, his political commissar)


Tweets Of The Day

 

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock... -- 



Jewish laser / gazpacho police / peach tree dish woman has thoughts on meat -- 



Trumpist Senate candidate and elitist hillbilly projecting again --  



Going off-script, mushy brain. Prepare for angry Trump bombardment --  

 


Russian goons fantasize about kidnapping foreign leaders --  

 


Decompress ---  

 

 

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Rob Rogers, Counterpoint)

(David Horsey, The Seattle Times)

(Daryl Cagle, caglecartoons.com)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)

(Michael de Adder, Toronto Star)

(Jen Sorensen, gocomics.com)

(Tom Chitty, @weeklyhumorist)


The Funerals Begin In Uvalde

 


Yesterday marked the beginning of the funerals for the victims of last week's assault rifle massacre in Uvalde, TX. Amerie Jo Garza, 10, and Maite Rodriguez, 10, had visitations at local Uvalde funeral homes, with Amerie's held directly across the street from where she and 20 others were murdered. From AP's heartbreaking report:

"On Monday, some mourners at Amerie’s visitation wore lilac or lavender shades of purple — Amerie’s favorites — at the request of her father, Angel Garza. Many carried in flowers, including purple ones.

The little girl who loved to draw had just received a cellphone for her 10th birthday. One of her friends told Angel Garza that Amerie tried to use the phone to call police during the assault on her fourth-grade classroom.

Among the mourners at Amerie’s visitation were some of Maite’s relatives. Like many people, they were attending both."

Meanwhile, a "bipartisan" group of Senators are said to be talking in a working group to "try to see if we can agree on a basic framework about how we go forward," according to Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell's point person Texas Sen. John Cornyn. We know from history that there's no good faith on the part of the Republican / Shooters Party on the topic of gun safety legislation. Indeed, the "working group"  is most likely to be used by Republicans as a stall tactic, one that they've used after every mass shooting comes and goes. We're on to them and their National Rifle Rampage Association benefactor. As we noted below ("The Bad"), McConnell's pattern has been established (more documentation here), and shame on anyone who believes they'll ever act in good faith when it comes to saving children -- or anyone else -- from assault rifle attacks.

(photo: A field of flowers outside of Robb Elementary School. Jae C. Hong / AP)

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced the introduction of a bill that would place a national freeze on handgun ownership across Canada.

"What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada," Trudeau said in a news conference.
"In other words we're capping the market," he added.
If passed, the new anti-gun legislation will fine gun smuggling and trafficking "by increasing maximum criminal penalties and providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearm crimes," Trudeau said.
The new legislation would also require that long gun magazines "can never" hold more than five rounds.
"Gun violence is a complex problem, but at the end of the day the math is really quite simple: The fewer the guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be," the Prime Minister said.

The bad:

On Sept. 14, 1989, a disgruntled employee entered the Standard Gravure printing plant in downtown Louisville and, armed with an AK-47 and other guns, killed eight and wounded 12 others before taking his own life — in what remains the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history.

At the time, mass shootings had not yet become the staple of American life that they are now, and McConnell said he was “deeply disturbed,” declaring, “We must take action to stop such vicious crimes.”

But he also added: “We need to be careful about legislating in the middle of a crisis.” And in the days and weeks after, he did not join others in calling for a ban on assault weapons like the AK-47 used by the shooter.

The Standard Gravure massacre provided an early glimpse of how McConnell — now the Republican Senate minority leader — would handle mass shootings and their aftermath over the next three decades, consistently working to delay, obstruct or prevent most major gun-control legislation from passing Congress.

McConnell would go on to follow a similar playbook time and time again during his seven terms in Congress, offering vague promises of action, often without any specifics, only to be followed by no action or incremental measures that avoided new gun regulations. As a Republican leader, he also helped dissuade his conference — as after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — from supporting gun legislation and, as majority leader, refused to bring up significant gun-control measures for a vote.

The ugly:

A resident of Bremerton, Washington is calling foul after being accosted by a Trump supporter at his doorstep over potential "voter fraud."

As the Seattle Times reports, an organization called the Washington Voter Research Project has been sending canvassers door to door to ask residents about their voter registration status in an effort to find "voter fraud" in the state.

Bremerton resident Michael Simonds tells the newspaper that he came away disturbed after one canvasser came to his door recently and "kind of went off the deep end" when she started ranting about undocumented immigrants and forging ballot signatures.

"It seemed like a misinformation campaign," he said.

Even more disturbingly, Simonds said that the woman falsely implied she was there on behalf of the county auditor's office, which is something that Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton tells the Seattle Times is simply not true.

O Canada!  What a difference a border makes.


Monday, May 30, 2022

Tweets Of The Day

 

Rude awakening inbound --

 

 

 

Go after them, Texas- style -- 


 

 

Malignant Loser's defense consists of gamely telling you not to believe your lying eyes --

 


Gotta stay off the bottle, Ronnie --

 

 

Ride 'em cowboy! --

 

 

 

Today's Tomorrow Cartoon: Typical Week

 (click to enlarge)



It's all covered here: the Republican / Shooters Party death cult, platitudes and prayers, good guys with guns, make schools (and stores, libraries, churches, theaters, etc. etc.) into fortresses. A typical horrific week in America where families are destroyed and we can predict it won't be the last of its kind.

Memorial Day 2022

 

Memorial Day in America is a day we remember those service men and women in all wars who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We gratefully honor their service. 

As has been a tradition with us, we're recognizing Memorial Day with "Beneath the Southern Cross," part of the original Richard Rodgers' soundtrack for the NBC "Victory at Sea" World War II documentary series from the early 1950s.  The title refers to the constellation Crux (or Southern Cross) easily visible in the South Pacific.  The RCA Victor Orchestra led by Robert Russell Bennett performs the song, also familiarly known as "No Other Love Have I."

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Across The Universe, Cont.

 

(click on image to enlarge)

From NASA/ ESA, May 23, 2022: The muted red tones of the globular cluster Liller 1 are partially obscured in this image by a dense scattering of piercingly blue stars. In fact, it is thanks to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that we are able to see Liller 1 so clearly in this image, because the WFC3 is sensitive to wavelengths of light that the human eye cannot detect. Liller 1 is only 30 000 light-years from Earth — relatively neighbourly in astronomical terms — but it lies within the Milky Way’s ‘bulge’, the dense and dusty region at our galaxy’s centre. Because of that, Liller 1 is heavily obscured from view by interstellar dust, which scatters visible light (particularly blue light) very effectively. Fortunately, some infrared and red visible light are able to pass through these dusty regions. WFC3 is sensitive to both visible and near-infrared (infrared that is close to the visible) wavelengths, allowing us to see through the obscuring clouds of dust, and providing this spectacular view of Liller 1. 

Liller 1 is a particularly interesting globular cluster, because unlike most of its kind, it contains a mix of very young and very old stars. Globular clusters typically house only old stars, some nearly as old as the Universe itself. Liller1 instead contains at least two distinct stellar populations with remarkably different ages: the oldest one is 12 billion years old and the youngest component is just 1-2 billion years old. This led astronomers to conclude that this stellar system was able to form stars over an extraordinary long period of time. 

Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro

 

Russia Steps Up Propaganda Effort In Ukraine

 

Along with the war crimes in Ukraine (conducting a terror campaign targeting civilians, and trying to erase Ukrainian culture), Putin's Russian invaders are also stepping up their propaganda efforts in captured regions of Ukraine. One such effort in southern Ukraine is led by a company calling itself "Southern Front," which produces pro-Putin / anti-Ukraine propaganda echoing the false and cynical "de-Nazification" theme of the Kremlin. As BBC reports:

"The Southern Front news site posted its first message on day one of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and now has several correspondents filing stories on a daily basis.

The BBC has found evidence that the site's reporting contains falsehoods and misleading claims.

In early March, Southern Front's correspondent was at the scene in Berdyansk. They reported that Russian soldiers had apparently thwarted an attack, and killed two Moroccan men involved. The reporter alleged the men were working as mercenaries for Ukraine. But it appears elements of the video were staged.

The two Moroccan men identified in the attack were allegedly found with their Ukrainian residency permits still on them.

The BBC tracked down one of the men implicated. According to the report he was dead, but we spoke to him on social media. He requested anonymity but says he was not aware of the Russian report and that he left Ukraine before the invasion and returned to Morocco.

Southern Front regularly posts videos containing unsubstantiated claims."  (our emphasis)

Putin's authoritarian, Soviet KGB-style regime knows it can never win the hearts and minds of the vast majority of Ukrainians, who rightfully despise it for their unprovoked attack and their cruelty. But that won't stop the Russians from trying to indoctrinate as many as possible into Putin's view that Ukraine doesn't really exist, and that the territory belongs to Russia. That's the reason for their deportation and "filtration" of Ukrainian citizens, a demonstrable war crime. 

There's some hope through the creativity of the Ukrainian people and their cyber skills that Russian propaganda can be countered. The Southern Front website was recently hacked, and a sign proclaiming that the southern city of Kherson is Ukrainian was posted:

"Kherson Is Ukrainian"


More of this. Slava Ukraini!

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Examiner, KY)

(Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Geneva)

(Gary Clement, National Post, Toronto)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Kevin Necessary, gocomics.com)

(Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal, FL)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Barry Blitt, The New Yorker)


What's That Musk-y Smell? It's Repellent Obliviousness!




Multi- billionaire uber- "libertarian" Elon Musk has taken to Twitter again to say he welcomes the prospect of a recession.  Why?


 

"Raining money on fools"?  Captain Repellent Obliviousness has a "rude awakening inbound," courtesy of The Guardian:

It’s tough talk from a man said to be worth north of $218bn, more than anyone in the world. And it conveniently overlooks the considerable handouts Musk himself took in the process of growing his net worth after plunking down $6.5m for a majority stake in Tesla in 2004. How did Musk weather the economic storms and rude awakenings thereafter?

“This is actually a good thing,” Musk said in response to a question from a Twitter user. “It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen.

“Also,” he continued, “all the Covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!”

It’s tough talk from a man said to be worth north of $218bn, more than anyone in the world. And it conveniently overlooks the considerable handouts Musk himself took in the process of growing his net worth after plunking down $6.5m for a majority stake in Tesla in 2004. How did Musk weather the economic storms and rude awakenings thereafter?

In 2008, the company rolled out its only product – a Lotus Elise knockoff called the Roadster. At a starting price of around $80,000, the coupe wasn’t exactly priced to move; 2,450 global sales made Musk’s vision of mass-producing electric cars look like a pipe dream. But a year later, Tesla received a $465m loan as part of a federal stimulus package – money that essentially paid for the development and manufacture of the groundbreaking Model S.

Musk, who’s quick to note that Tesla paid that loan back early, moves those cars with help from considerable tax breaks for electric vehicles. And he further takes advantage of his cars’ absence of tailpipe emissions by reselling his cache of carbon credits to high-carbon emitting rivals under pressure to clean up – at least $517m since 2015. There’s a reason why Bill Ackerman and other short-sellers bet big on Tesla to fail. The company would probably be as dead as Nikola Tesla himself if it hadn’t been for the government “raining money on fools”.

Musk also claimed on Twitter that a recession would be good because “companies that are inherently negative cash flow (ie value destroyers) need to die, so that they stop consuming resources”. From 2010 to 2018, Tesla raised $20bn in capital while producing a negative cash flow of $9bn; 2021 was the company’s first full year of profitability.

It isn’t just Washington that has been generous. Tesla also benefits from state tax income tax breaks for green vehicles and routinely helps itself to corporate subsidies. Since last August the company has received roughly $64m in incentives to move to Austin, Texas, and build Giga Texas – the spanking new factory that’s expected to produce another gonzo Musk idea, the Tesla Cybertruck.

Musk’s other companies have benefited from corporate welfare schemes too. In 2015, the LA Times reckoned Musk’s companies had benefited from almost $5bn in government support. That includes SpaceX, which just landed a $2.89bn contract with Nasa and a $653m air force contract, both in 2021; and SolarCity, which capitalised on $1.5bn in government aid and haemorrhaged cash too before the solar energy company was absorbed into Tesla –which itself accepted payroll benefits from Donald Trump’s $600bn pandemic stimulus package.

Musk can scold work-from-homers all he wants. But when it comes to benefiting from handouts and loans, few have been rained on more than him.

Perhaps Musk, who has fed and continues to feed gluttonously at the public trough, is unaware (charitably) or unconcerned (more likely) about the devastating effects that a global recession would have on millions upon millions of lives already affected by two years of COVID- related economic strains.  As for those lazy work- from- home people, they should learn from Musk to use other people's money and tax breaks to enrich yourself so you can work hard tweeting repellent, oblivious shit like he does all day, every day.

(Photo:  "What?  I don't smell anything!")

Sunday Reflection: Paralyzed

 

"Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook — and ten days after Buffalo — our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies. It's long past time for action, any kind of action. And it's another tragedy — a quieter but no less tragic one — for families to wait another day." -- former President Obama's reaction to last week's gun massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, TX.  The hold that the gun manufacturers lobby has on the Republican / Shooters / Great Replacement Party, and the hold that party has on the political system, hasn't been substantially weakened since the 1999 massacre at Columbine, CO. Perhaps it will now, slightly, but we're not optimistic. Each day, each week that goes by the general public -- the voters -- become numb and turn their attention elsewhere, and that's what the shooters and their party are counting on.

Long Ago And Far Away

 

Here's Antwerp, Belgium, over 100 years ago (colorized film).  Many of the structures seen in the film were destroyed by the Germans in World War II.  The review of city housing toward the end of the film is brief but interesting.  Hope you enjoy.

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Michael L. Martin, @mmandmm1967)

(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)

(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)

(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)

(Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune)


(Robert Ariail, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, SC)


(Michael de Adder, Washington Post)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Marshall Ramsey, Mississippi Today)

(Emanuele Del Rosso, CartoonArtsInternational, Netherlands)


Tweets Of The Day

 

Doors Don't Kill People, Assault Rifles Kill People -- 



At NRA, Malignant Loser Trump mangles names of Uvalde victims, then dances -- 



Imagine if the NRA supported howitzer ownership for 18 year-olds --  

 

 

Another bogus "Cancun Ted" Cruz claim demolished  --


Lock him up! (Read entire thread) --  



And he still managed to score a run --  


 

Jim Jefferies On Gun Ownership (2014)

 

Aussie comedian Jim Jefferies gave this biting, NSFW takedown of the rationales for gun ownership in a special back in 2014, just two years after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and before dozens of other massacres with assault rifles since then (tip of the hat to Crooks and Liars).   It's painful that, despite the laughs, nothing has changed in six years to make these clips irrelevant (and that he mischaracterizes the Second Amendment as protecting us from a tyrannical government, rather than to arm State militias to provide for the common defense).

 


QOTD -- Full Of Shit

 

"Shortly after the massacre, Governor Greg Abbott first addressed the shooting at a news conference. In a state that had seen five other mass shootings in his tenure, four of which involved similar assault-style rifles, Abbott said—with passionless delivery—that the killer acted 'incomprehensibly.' Without any specifics whatsoever, he pledged the state would 'do everything that is necessary' to prevent a seventh bloodbath. Then, he stopped by a fundraiser five hours away. [snip]

"On Friday, Abbott was scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston. Under intense pressure, he changed gears, deciding to stay in Uvalde rather than attend. But he didn’t condemn the convention or call for its cancellation. No, instead he announced he’d send pre-recorded video remarks for the gathering, a congregation of those politically committed to the prospect of more Uvaldes, to enjoy.

"It’s classic Abbott. With nothing meaningful left to say, and no policy agenda to address the crises Texans face, he puts his finger to the wind and shifts slightly when it blows too hard, backtracking when it dies down. After all, it wasn’t moral courage or bettering ordinary Texans’ lives that got him this far, so why change now?
" -- Gus Bova, writing "Greg Abbott Is Full Of Shit," in the Texas Observer, a plainly true observation that nonetheless merits constant repetition.  His first remarks on the Uvalde massacre, in which he solely blamed mental illness for the tragedy and praised law enforcement for their "quick response," richly deserve the derision they're receiving.  Yet, the odds are that a critical mass of Texas sub- morons will re- elect him this fall.  

Texans won't be having nice things anytime soon.

BONUS:  More reporting on Abbott's response to the Uvalde massacre here.


Trump Loses Again In Federal Court




A Federal District Court judge yesterday dismissed the latest attempt by the corrupt grifter the Malignant Loser to derail the State of New York's investigation into his Trump Organization's financial and business dealings. The State's Attorney General Letitia James launched the investigation after the Malignant Loser's former personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress that Trump has misstated the value of his assets for financial gain to obtain loans or avoid taxes. Judge Brenda Sannes wrote in her decision that there is well-established precedent for federal judges not to interfere with ongoing state legal cases, something one would think his lawyers would have known (unless it's Sidney Powell or Lin Wood).

Just the day before, a New York state court had ruled that the Malignant Loser has to give a sworn deposition in the same case, along with his corrupt offspring Princess Ivanka and greasy Don, Jr.

BONUS: Now that primary elections have ended in Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is moving ahead rapidly with the grand jury investigation into Trump's "find me 11,780 votes" fraud, including possible racketeering charges.

(photo: the Malignant Loser losing)

Friday, May 27, 2022

Experts Report On Russian Genocide In Ukraine

 

While we deal in this country with the horrific violence brought on by the broad accessibility of assault-style weapons, a systematic campaign of genocide has been waged since February 24 on the people of Ukraine by Putin's invading forces. International observers and legal experts on genocide have been documenting hundreds of cases perpetrated by Russian armed forces, and are now releasing a comprehensive report on the carnage. From CNN:

"Russia's actions in Ukraine provide enough evidence to conclude that Moscow is inciting genocide and committing atrocities intended to destroy the Ukrainian people, according to the first independent report into allegations of genocide in that country.

The legal report, signed by more than 30 leading legal scholars and genocide experts, accuses the Russian state of violating several articles of the United Nations Genocide Convention. It warns there is a serious and imminent risk of genocide in Ukraine, backing the accusations with a long list of evidence including examples of mass killings of civilians, forced deportations and dehumanizing anti-Ukrainian rhetoric used by top Russian officials.

The report was put together by New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a US-based think tank, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights which is based in Canada, and is set to release on Friday, with the authors sending copies to parliaments, governments and international organizations around the world. An advance copy of the report has been shared exclusively with CNN."  

'We assembled top legal experts from around the globe who then examined all the evidence and they came to the conclusion that the Russian Federation bears responsibility for breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine,' Azeem Ibrahim of the New Lines Institute told CNN. Ibrahim visited Ukraine in March to gather evidence for the report.

'This is a very thorough and detailed examination of extensive evidence,' he said. 'What we have seen so far is that this war is genocidal in its nature, in terms of the language being used and the manner in which it is being executed. That's very, very clear.'" (our emphasis)

The latest horror committed by Putin's people is the forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia to endure "filtration", i.e. forced indoctrination in Putin's rationale for his invasion and more, with the purpose of eventually returning them to Ukraine to serve as advocates for Russia. 

The more that Russia's crimes in Ukraine can be documented and verified, the better the likelihood that at least some of the perpetrators will face justice. It's also the best case for making sure Russia -- not taxpayers in the West -- bear the costs of Putin's criminal war of aggression and territorial expansion.

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)

(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)

(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

(Stuart Carlson, gocomics.com)

(Walt Handelsman, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans)

(Kevin Necessary, The Cincinnati Enquirer)

(Phil Hands, Wisconsin State Journal)

(Matt Reuter, The New Yorker)


Tweets Of The Day


A:  It was when the ban on assault rifles was lifted (2004) --

 


 

What gun fetish?! --

 



Jesus H. Christ --

 


There are feral pigs in the Republican party/ cult that might want to take note ...  --

 


... Like Wisconsin's gift to America, Sen. Ron Johnson --

 

 

Next do "support for upholding Roe v. Wade" --

 

 

It's Friday -- smile for a moment --

 

 

 

Weekend Music

 

Singer/ songwriter Sophie Regina Allison (better known as Soccer Mommy) and her band have a new album, "Sometimes, Forever,"  coming out in about a month.  In the meantime, she's released several singles, including our music today, "Bones."  Hope you enjoy.


Abbott's Cowardly NRA Avoidance

 

Last night's news that pathetic, gun-pimping Gov. Greg "Abbadabba" Abbott (AR-15-TX) declined to appear in person at the National Rifle Rampage Association's sick convention in Houston is par for the course for this coward. Instead, he's scurrying down to Uvalde for another photo opportunity to feign sympathy for the 19 children murdered by an assault weapon-wielding teenager, instead opting to send the gun lobby loons a video message.

Abbott's law enforcement contingent has been trying to clean up the messaging and explaining why it took an hour to take down the shooter despite overwhelming police presence, and why the shooter was outside the school for 12 minutes firing off rounds before entering the school. Abbott's appearance in Uvalde will almost certainly be an effort to deflect from the questions about why an 18 year old is able to purchase two assault rifles so easily in that state. Rather, there will be talk about "mental health" issues* (even though the shooter had no documented history of mental illness) and locking exterior doors to create a "fortress" (despite the fact that the shooter was firing into the windows at one point). 

Abbott knows he and his rotted-out Republican / Shooters / Great Replacement Party is on the wrong side of public opinion now more than ever, as people register their disgust and anger at the non-solutions offered by them. He's following the Republican strategy of trying to defer any action or discussion of changes to gun policy into the future, until the next rampage.

*BONUSYeah, about that "mental health issue" in Texas --

Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a "mental health challenge" and the state needed to "do a better job with mental health" — yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs.

In addition, Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report.

Scumbag weasel.


Bold Prediction: "Sensible Gun Safety Laws" Will Go Nowhere For Now



Maestro of Bad Faith and wrecker of American democracy Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell (R-Hell), feeling the enormous heat and anger stemming from the Uvalde massacre, has another bad faith offer to take the heat off Senate Republicans:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Thursday he met earlier in the day with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and encouraged the senior Republican senator to begin discussions with Democrats, including Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to see if they can find a middle ground on legislation to respond to the tragic Texas elementary school shooting.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are facing enormous pressure to take action in the wake of the horrific shooting, but members on both sides acknowledge the uphill battle to find common ground given the highly polarized political climate around gun legislation and widespread GOP opposition to stricter gun control.
 
A "middle ground" on, for example, background checks and red flag laws, the very de minimus the vast majority of Americans are demanding??  What kind of poison pill might Republicans have in mind?  Well, in 2012, after the Sandy Hook massacre, Democrats tried to pass the Safe Communities Act, with a provision for expanding background checks.  It died in the Senate thanks to a Republican filibuster, but not after Republicans Ted Cruz (that loathsome weasel again) and Chuck Grassley proposed an amendment killing the background check expansion.
 
So, what is Sen. Cornyn's first thought out of the box?
Cornyn has also said that he does not want to see the shooting used as a way to infringe on gun rights.
 
"There's a whole list of things that we can consider, but I think particularly mental health, access to mental health treatment is high on that list," he said, adding, "I think we need to be open to whatever, wherever the evidence leads us. I would say that this is not an excuse to infringe the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens doing that will do nothing to fix tragedies like this."
 
Ah, the mental health, "guns don't kill people, deranged 18-year-olds kill people" script ripped from the National Rifle Rampage Association handbook!  The NRA, like white Christofascists, has long been an integral part of the Republican party/cult, and Republican "leaders" heading into an election cycle would sooner adopt "The Internationale" as their official anthem than decouple from those crackpots.  
 
(Of course, the better way to get "sensible gun safety laws" is to throw Republicans out of office -- at the local, State and Federal level.  Well, it's an aspiration to fight for.)
 
It seems at least some Democrats are finally wise to the bad faith rope- a- dope tactics of McConnell and his merry band of sociopaths, though. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) says the clock is ticking:
"I've been through this before," he said. "I know sometimes Republicans are more interested in talking than doing, so if we can't get some progress by the end of next week, then I'll say to Sen. Schumer it's time to take votes. And Sen. Schumer has committed that we're gonna have votes one way or the other on the floor of the Senate on issues like background checks."
 
In the meantime, we won't be cashing any checks written by Moscow Mitch.
 
BONUS:  These checks have already been cashed, though --
 
 

 

(Image:  Moscow Mitch at the 2014 CPAC nutfest)