Guns don't kill, people do outdated and boring

August 14, 2019: Commentary on gun violence

393 million guns for 326 million people - Why guns kill  

Is this what gun rights people mean?
Makes as much sense, duh!

The time has come to look at America's gun culture and realize that we are a country of gun violence simply because of our gun laws which stem primarily from the Republican Party with the regular incitement of Wayne LaPierre and his National Rifle Assn. (NRA). We are a nation of gun nuts, defined as follows...

You are a gun nut if... 

You think assault weapons should be legal...
You object to universal background checks...
If you favor weapons straw purchases...
You oppose red flag gun laws
You think you should be able to carry your gun anywhere...
You are afraid of a national gun registry

There's more, but this is the essence of the gun rights movement that has been instilled in the minds of gun owners since Wayne LaPierre took over the NRA. The years outdated 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct, and no one must question its meaning or validity, according to these gun nuts. But 70% to 80% of NRA members want universal background checks, plus other changes, meaning the gun nuts are in the minority. They're just the ones with the loudest mouths.

NRA in turmoil...

Elie Mystal from The Nation says, "It’s Time to Repeal—and Replace—the Second Amendment," an article that no doubt makes LaPierre shudder to think anyone would attack his fabricated piece of outdated ideology. She says...

"The meaning of the amendment has been so badly mangled that our only choice is to start over with something that allows for real gun control."

Yes, and the mangled interpretations of the 2nd Amendment clearly come from the propaganda spewing of the National Rifle Assn. and its minions promoting gun violence. But lately NRA board members are dropping like flies with Julie Golob, a professional sport shooter and a strong public advocate for gun rights resigning before her tenure was up. The fourth member in the past two weeks to desert the sinking ship.

Three other board members, Esther Schneider of Texas, Sean Maloney of Ohio and Timothy Knight of Tennessee left when...

"they were stripped of their committee assignments after they asked questions about allegations of lavish spending by NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and other financial excesses."

Former SCOTUS Justice Stevens wanted to repeal 2nd Amendment...



Newsweek reports that the NRA's tax-exempt status is in danger as donors revolt with the most recent development the New York State Department of Financial Services investigation of "the NRA's now-defunct Carry Guard insurance product, which purported to insure gun owners when they kill another individual." The inquiry reportedly involves...

"kickbacks that the NRA is alleged to have received for facilitating the purchase of insurance policies. The NRA is not licensed to provide or market insurance policies and their involvement in the development of insurance services could run afoul of state law."

The NRA is in a shambles and most of it can likely be traced back to head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre. In a former post, I blogged former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens made a push recently to repeal the 2nd Amendment, following the Parkland, Florida shooting massacre. Another recent post, Big time NRA donor, David Dell’Aquila, wants Wayne LaPierre dumped, calling him radioactive. Just now realizing Wayne LaPierre has been threatening for years.

Pathetic!

Ken Cuccinelli's an idiot like all Trump appointees

August 13, 2019: TODAY'S BREAKING NEWS

This Donald Trump rant shows even more volatility  

Get this. Today...

Donald Trump coming off the spool

"US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Ken Cuccinelli revised the iconic poem adorning the Statue of Liberty. The poem, written by Emma Lazarus, welcomes the world’s 'tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'”

Cuccinelli's version...

“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”

T-rump, of course, fully approved spouting off...

“I don’t think it’s fair to have the American tax payer … you know, it’s about America first,” the president said. “I don’t think it’s fair to have the American taxpayer pay for people to come into the United States,” he added. “I am tired of seeing our taxpayer pay for people to come into the country that immediately go onto welfare and various other things.”

Here's an example of the White House mental case going berserk...

There's more, like an Epstein conspiracy tweet, calls Chris Cuomo an animal and wants to know if Bill Clinton went to Jeffrey Epstein’s island. He did this all today at a natural gas plant in Pennsylvania. Is there any correlation between this and the Oval Office lunatic's gasbag rhetoric? Back in April Vox said Trump's tweets are becoming more unhinged. Several psychologists have said that keeping pressure on Donald Trump will make him eventually break.

But when?

Why did Bill Barr visit Jeffrey Epstein

August 13, 2019: TODAY'S NEWS BYTES on PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk

And did Bill Barr make a secret visit to the jail just before Jeffrey Epstein's death?  

Why did Trump's AG visit Jeffrey Epstein in jail?

The time has come to nail down some facts on the Jeffrey Epstein suicide, but the folks at the New York Metropolitan Correctional Center don't seem to have any answers. The only thing we are sure about is that the infamous pedophile is dead, and he took a treasure trove of information with him about the underage girls he provided for some very important people. Or maybe now that he is dead, his mansions, penthouses, even planes and boats will provide the final exposé.

Jeffrey Epstein taken off suicide watch...

And why did Donald Trump's AG, Bill Barr, make a suspicious trip to the New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center two weeks before Epstein's death? Here's the scenario...

Lewis Kasman, a former mobster and top associate of John Gotti Sr., told the New York Post that Barr made a secret visit to Metropolitan Correctional Center two weeks ago “about the time Epstein was found in his cell with bruises around his neck.”

 “When does that happen?” Kasman asked. “The attorney general never visits jails. Something’s not right there.”

Bill Barr visits Jeffrey Epstein in jail-WHY

There was also conjecture by Kasman that Jeffrey Epstein had received help from jail employees just like other wealthy inmates had in the past...

“There are cameras going 24/7 and they’re watching 24/7. Someone had to give [Epstein] the equipment to kill himself and he had to pay for it dearly,” Kasman claimed. “That facility for years had issues of corruption, with correction officers bringing in food or cellphones for wealthy people.”

But the glaring question is why Epstein's lawyers requested that their client be taken off suicide watch? If the psychiatric doctors gave the go-ahead, that would have made more sense...

"A new report form the Wall Street Journal claims that attorneys for billionaire accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein asked that their client be taken off suicide watch.

The Journal’s sources did not explain the reason for the attorneys’ request, which was reportedly made less than a week after Epstein was placed on suicide watch after he was found unconscious in his cell with marks around his neck."

Just two weeks after this, Jeffrey Epstein was dead. It isn't yet known how many of his well-known buddies this will affect, and just how high it will go in the pecking order. But the American public should be enraged over any attempt to hide the fact that grown men--no matter how important they are--were having sex with underage girls.

10 reasons Donald Trump won't be reelected in 2020

August 13, 2019: TODAY'S NEWS BYTES on PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk

Donald Trump won't repeat and here's why  

If you are looking for some sound reasons why Donald Trump will likely be back in his Trump Tower after 2020, look no more. Quinnipiac University reminds us that his approval rating is at 40 percent while his disapproval is at 54 percent and here is some of the logic thanks to AlterNet...

Donald Trump - The Washington bigot

1. Most Americans think Trump is racist.
2. Large majorities of both black and Latinos think Trump is racist.
3. Unlike Trump, 78 percent of Americans think it is never “acceptable for a presidential campaign to obtain information on a political opponent from a hostile foreign power.”
4. A huge majority of people (87 percent) believe campaigns should be forced to report receiving information from foreign governments.
5. 54 percent say they will “definitely not vote” for Trump.
6. Only 32 say they will “definitely” vote for Trump.
7. Voters aren’t buying Trump’s spin on the horrific conditions his administration forces upon immigrants.
8. Trump’s hope to make 2020 about the supposed dangers of immigration will probably fail.
9. 88 percent of people say “lack of civility in politics today is a serious problem.”
10. Indeed, more voters blame Trump for lack of civility than Democrats.

A vote whether Donald Trump should be reelected...

The 32%, above, who say they will definitely vote for Trump are the same double-digits you see standing behind him at rallies, and those who gloat over his online tweets. The 54 percent who say they will “definitely not vote” for Trump, and if they, in fact, come out to vote, will hopefully save this country from  another four years of a raving ego-maniac that is driving the U.S. into the ground.

Assuming the democrats are not dumb enough to let the Electoral College beat them again, there is a good chance this country will return to normal after the 2020 elections.

Jeffrey Epstein's final gesture: Suicide for for his buddies

August 12, 2019: TODAY'S COMMENTARY

Jeffrey Epstein may live on for another day with his "pals"  

Donald Trump-Jeffrey Epstein and "friends"

Think about it. Jeffrey Epstein had been on suicide watch for eleven days then taken off. Here's a man that is literally at the end of his rope. He's sure to spend the rest of his life in prison. Not likely the court would ever trust him on bail. It's a known fact that prison inmates hate child molesters, and if they didn't get him, well, his pals who stand to be exposed, the ones Epstein provided with underage girls, would certainly put out a hit on him. Here's how it was...

"Mr. Epstein’s social circle had included dozens of well-known politicians, business executives, scientists, academics and other notables, including President Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of Britain and Leslie H. Wexner, the retail billionaire behind Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works."

MSNBC on Jeffrey Epstein investigations...

No one knows how he managed the suicide when a guard is supposed to do a checkup every half hour. They didn't and Jeffrey Epstein hung himself, according to the chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson, from New York city's Metropolitan Correctional Center. There was talk that Epstein tried to commit suicide three weeks earlier, but like everything else connected to his death, prison officials are not sure what happened. Conspiracy theories are rampant...

"Mr. Epstein’s death has also unleashed a torrent of unfounded conspiracy theories online, with people suggesting, without evidence, that Mr. Epstein was killed to keep him from incriminating others."

Jeffrey Epstein demands for justice...

Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein, but "Business Insider reports, newly unsealed flight logs reveal that Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane — dubbed 'Lolita Express' — at least once in 1997." T-rump has also tried to connect Bill Clinton with the pedophile's death, a move, it might seem, designed to take the attention away from Trump's close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. My question is did Epstein have help with the suicide?...

“From the moment you walk onto that property, you are under camera surveillance,” Mr. Young said, adding that there should be video evidence of when the last checks were made and of anyone who approached Mr. Epstein’s cell. 

 Eric Young is president of the national council of union locals that represents guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. So, might one expect that surveillance tapes will reveal if anyone was complicit in Jeffrey Einstein's suicide? And, since the main figure in this controversy is dead, there is no one to stop authorities from thoroughly probing every nook and cranny of Epstein's mansions and penthouses. Here's Raw Story's version of what they might find and the outcome...

"videotapes of young girls and documents that may mention the names of people who were at his properties on specific dates. Had Epstein lived, and made it to trial, his attorneys could have filed motions to throw out that evidence. Now, however, no one has standing to put the brakes on the investigation."

If a whitewash is in the works with this likely applying to Donald Trump on down, it will no doubt show, or perhaps not show the strength of the state of New York in solving this issue along with the taxes of Donald Trump. Unfortunately, I don't have much hope for success in either incident. I hope I am wrong!

Republicans do like the N-word more and more

August 12, 2019: TODAY'S NEWS BYTES on PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk

Trump and his Republican minions loving N-word more each day  

Trump and cronies espouse the N-word

That headline is racism at its best considering the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, and Dr. Martin Luther King died for the cause in April of 1968. Having come from a South of Ku Klux Klan and other assorted racists, and the years in between where we thought we had at least made a little progress, it is tragic to see racism surging ahead in 2019. The Washington Post‘s Michael Tesler says, "Republicans don’t think Trump’s tweets are racist."

El Paso carnage...

Any balanced and fair-minded person knows he is, and the right takes their position to protect an out-of-control maniac that is destroying our country on many fronts. Racism is just one of them. But right now that is important since it fits in with T-rump's white supremacy beliefs that he has verbalized repeatedly, producing three gun violence carnages in a period of just three weeks. The Garlic Festival in California, then El Paso and Dayton one day apart.

Dayton carnage...

You can draw a straight line from these events to the Trump white nationalist tweet rants that began with the 2016 election, condemning Mexicans as rapists and murders just to please his base. The Oval Office lunatic says he's not a racist but white supremacists prove otherwise as they embrace T-rump's and other Republicans' use of the words "nationalist" and "invasion," each of which carries the implication of hate.

Here's an example...

"The Post reports that just one-third (33%) of Trump voters now consider it racist to use the n-word. By comparison, 86% of Hillary Clinton voters believe it is racist to use the n-word."

Here's another...

"Most recently, Trump tweeted that several black and brown members of Congress are “from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” and that they should “go back” to those countries. The tweets, aimed at Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)."

On the campaign trail for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump was quoted as saying, "I'm a nationalist, OK? I'm a nationalist." Keegan Hankes, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project comments...

"When they hear the President say things like, 'I'm not a racist,' they [his supporters] turn around amongst themselves and say, 'He just has to say that for practical reasons,' 'he just has to say that basically to get himself cover, to do the things that we want him to do,'" Hankes says.

The question is, just what is it that these poor lost souls really want him to do?

Donald Trump still inspires hate/white supremacy

August 9, 2019: Today's Commentary

Donald Trump responsible for El Paso/Dayton 


The shooter, Patrick Wood Crusius, age 21, with a legally purchased version of the AK-47, travels from Allen, Texas to El Paso and shoots 46 innocent people, killing 22 of them. He was targeting Mexicans because he felt they were invading America, the same rhetoric Donald Trump has used repeatedly to rouse his lowlife gang of followers. As if taking a page from T-rump's white supremacist book, he published a white nationalist, anti-immigrant manifesto on social media immediately before the attack. That was August 3.

El Paso shooting video...

Then we move on to Dayton, Ohio, just one day later, where another gunman shot 24 innocent people, killing 10, including his sister and a friend. He used a pistol configuration with a shortened barrel, chambered in .223 caliber ammunition and equipped with a 100-round drum magazine, a semi-automatic AM-15, based on the AR-15. The shooter was Connor Stephen Betts, a 24-year-old from Bellbrook, Ohio, wearing body armor. Apparently no political agenda, just hate and he liked killing people.

Dayton shooting video...

The El Paso shooter's mother called police with information that she was worried about her son's obsession with the AK-47 style weapon; they said it was legal and nothing they could do. Neither pursued the situation so it stopped there when the police should have asked more questions and the mother should have pushed on. Likewise, although the Dayton killer wasn't that political, he had retweeted posts that supported the Antifa movement and opposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and police officers. He was obviously violent.

And then after all the violent gun carnage, Senate head, the bottom-feeding Mitch McConnell, refuses to reconvene Congress to consider gun control measures that would have prevented this mayhem. Donald Trump expresses some support for gun control legislation but then gets a call from his buddy, Wayne LaPierre, at the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). Nothing happens, as it has been all the way back to Columbine, then Sandy Hook, to El Paso/Dayton and the numerous gun homicides and mass shootings in between.

McConnell says he will take action in September, but now that the Oval Office lunatic has been warned by the NRA, it is unlikely that we will see any real action. Until the people of this country finally come to their senses and rebel against the gun lobby, specifically the NRA, innocent children and adults will continue to die on a daily basis on the streets and in mass murders like those recently. The blame clearly goes on the Republican Party and its partner, the NRA.