28 Dead in Shooting At Church - Republicans Offer "Prayers" Instead of Gun Control

UPDATE: Kelley - a white male - was an Air Force veteran and firearms enthusiast. He served on active duty between 2010 and 2014, but received a dishonorable discharge after facing a court martial in May of 2014, CBS News said.

It has been a little over a month since the mass shooting carnage in Las Vegas and now at least 25 are dead after a shooting spree at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas (a member of the Southern Baptist Convention), not far from San Antonio.   As is always the case when such avoidable tragedies occur, Republican elected officials - GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott among them - disgustingly "send prayers" but meanwhile block and kind of responsible gun control that might lessen the frequency of such horrible events.   Not to sound cruel and heartless in this moment of grief and mourning, but I cannot help but find an element of irony in the fact that the Southern Baptist Convention has doggedly supported anti-gun control Republicans and bows down to the gun manufacturer lobby which hides behind the NRA which is now little better than a front organization for international gun manufacturers. Most upsetting is the fact that children appear to have been among the victims.  Here are some details from the New York Times:

A gunman walked into a small Baptist church in rural Texas on Sunday and opened fire, killing at least 25 people and turning a tiny town east of San Antonio into the scene of the country’s most recent mass horror.

Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas confirmed the death toll, which has steadily increased throughout the day after the shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.

Accounts of the number of dead have varied: Paul W. Pfeil, a Wilson County, Tex., commissioner, said that he did not have a total count of those killed but that it was “more than 20.”

Albert Gamez Jr., another Wilson County commissioner, told CNN that he was told by an emergency medical technician that 27 people were dead and 24 others were injured. He said he was told by the police that the gunman was chased into the next county and was killed, but it was not clear whether the police shot him or he killed himself.

Mr. Gamez said the victims were still inside the church. Sutherland Springs is a small community where everyone knows one another, he said.

Devin Keen, a constable in Wilson County, said “there were kids involved” in the shooting at the church.

Sheriff Joe Tackitt of Wilson County told The Wilson County News that a man had entered the church and begun firing.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Twitter: “Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act. Our thanks to law enforcement for their response.”

Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, said in a statement: “The thoughts and prayers of all Texans are with the people of Sutherland Springs as tragic reports come out of First Baptist Church.

The San Antonio Express-News reports that the shooter who is as yet unnamed, is dead although whether by shots from the police or his own hand is unclear.  At least 9 injured victims are in the trauma unit.  I will wager that when the shooter is identified it will tun out that the gun(s) used was/were purchased legally - just like the guns involved in every mass shooting to date.   This mayhem could be stopped if Republicans would put the lives of innocent citizens above money from the gun lobby. 

14 Major Corporations Warn Texas Not to Pass Anti-LGBT Laws

Republicans in Texas like to brag that the state has lead the nation in job creation.  What they leave out is the fact that the vast majority of jobs have been low paying jobs with no benefits.  They also leave out the fact that California, a state that is maligned by wingnuts and Republicans for being "liberal" is far out performing Texas in terms of job creation.  Facts, of course, do not matter the the GOP or their brain dead supporters. Now, having learned nothing from North Carolina's HB2 debacle and the self-inflicted economic harm that arose therefrom, Texas Republicans are hell bent to pass myriad anti-LGBT laws before the legislative session ends.  Indeed, Texas' lunatic governor has threatened to call a special session if the legislation fails to pass before the end of the regular session. Fourteen (14) major corporations have now warned Texas against pursuing the Christofascist inspired bills.  The Dallas Morning News looks at this development.  Here are excerpts:

The CEOs of 14 top companies, including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, have sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott urging him not to pass discriminatory legislation.

"As large employers in the state, we are gravely concerned that any such legislation would deeply tarnish Texas' reputation as open and friendly to businesses and families," the CEOs wrote Abbott in a letter dated May 27. "Our ability to attract, recruit and retain top talent, encourage new business relocations, expansions and investment, and maintain our economic competitiveness would all be negatively affected. 

In addition to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook, the letter was signed by Amazon CEO Jeff Wilke, IBM Chairman Ginni Rometty, Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The leaders of Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco, Silicon Labs, Celanese Corp., GSD&M, Salesforce and Gearbox Software also signed the letter.

The letter, which has not been made public but was released to The Dallas Morning News, was sent just days before state lawmakers were scheduled to gavel out the 2017 regular legislative session. The year's most controversial and divisive issue has been a Senate proposal to block transgender Texans from using restrooms that match their gender identities. 

Abbott has urged lawmakers to find a compromise on this issue before they're scheduled to go home on Tuesday, but the Republican leaders of the House and Senate have been at loggerheads over the issue for months. 

The disagreement reached a head Friday, with House Speaker Joe Straus refusing to pass legislation he said could harm "some very vulnerable young Texans." Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who heads the Senate, then asked Abbott to make lawmakers stay until they passed a so-called bathroom bill.

Business groups have openly objected to this and other legislation that they say would hurt Texas' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, but the opposition has done little to thwart Patrick's efforts.

Abbott's and Patrick's self-prostitution to Christian extremists and "family values" hate groups would make a tawdry whore look virtuous.  Unfortunately, neither Abbott nor Patrick is alone in the GOP when it comes to such self-prostitution to hate group extremists and is a main reason why I do all I can to oppose EVERY Republican candidate anywhere in America. Only by electoral defeats and continued harsh economic backlashes to GOP bigotry and misogyny will the GOP do what it has needed to do for decades now: cast out the Christofascists and send them into permanent political exile.

Jade Helm - The Insanity of the Far Right Intensifies

Tropical Storm Bill

Just when you think the base of the Republican Party cannot get any more insane, these demented folks take it to a new level.  Now, some on the far right are afraid that Tropical Storm Bill that just lashed much of Texas was a government induced storm aimed at weakening Texas ahead of a July 2015 "federal military invasion" known as Operation Jade Helm. I swear, you cannot make stuff up this crazy!!  And note who the ultimate villain is - America's first black president.  Meanwhile, the far right continues to claim the massacre in Charleston was an attack on Christians and not racially motivated.  These folks belong in a mental asylum!!  Here are highlights from the Houston Chronicle:

In some deep, dark corners of the Internet, folks are crying foul at the weather, and pointing fingers at Uncle Sam.

Could it be, they wonder, a secret plan to pummel Texas with crippling rains, weakening its civilian defenders before the troops swoop in for operation Jade Helm on July 15? That's the latest from many of the first websites to foment Jade Helm fervor in Texas.

"Speculation and actual evidence has been released in the last two days that has many believing that Texas is under attack with weather manipulation technology," wrote the website Intellihub, the "Civilian Intelligence Agency," on Wednesday. "Some believe the reason for this attack is to soften up the area in advance of Jade Helm 2015 going live."

"HAARP Attack: Tropical Storm Bill to Get Stronger Over Texas," wrote the website Before It's News on Monday.  HAARP, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, is a real but decomissioned Alaska-based research facility for the U.S. Air Force that studied the highest levels of the atmosphere—or at least that's what they told NBC News in 2014. But a certain bloc believes it is a project for weather manipulation, from which the military can cast great storms unto their enemies.

And this bloc is connecting the dots. Memorial Day floods. Rainiest May in Texas history. Tropical Storm Bill. Jade Helm 15. Something is afoot, conspiracy theorist say. Is this heavy-handed punishment for the sly Texans who saw through the thin veil of conspiracy by which Obama thought he could sneak his invasion forces into the Lone Star State?

Jade Helm is a seven-state 1,200-person military special operations drill which will bring among the nation's most elite warriors—Navy SEALS and Green Berets—to more than a dozen Texas cities for eight weeks. In March, fears spread online that the U.S. Military was deploying soldiers to Texas to suppress resistance ahead of the implementation of martial law. By May, rumors became so pervasive that Gov. Greg Abbott sought to qualm Texans' fear by ordering a branch of the Texas Military to monitor the exercise.

Greg Abbott is as nuts as the conspiracy theorists.   Having lived in Texas in the past, I now wonder what has been added to the water supply to trigger such lunacy.

Texas Governor Panders to Idiots On Possible U.S. Takeover of Texas

I mentioned in passing the extreme insanity in Republican circles in Texas where conspiracy theories are running a muck and the mentally and reality challenged members of the Texas GOP base believe that Barack Obama is about to call on the U.S. military to invade and take over Texas.  Such is the debased nature of today's GOP that such utter batshit crazy fantasies are main stream.  Indeed, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz have pandered to the lunatics spreading such utterly insane and ridiculous rumors.  Candidly, we are fast approaching a point where to admit that one is a Republican is tantamount to admitting that you suffer from mental illness.  Talking Points Memo looks at the craziness and the few lone voices calling out those who are pandering to the most insane and irrational elements of the GOP base.  Here are highlights:

A former Republican state lawmaker wrote a scathing letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday that slammed him for "pandering to idiots" who believe that a planned U.S. military exercise is cover for a forcible takeover of the state.

In a letter obtained by the Dallas Morning News, Todd Smith, who served in the state legislature for 16 years, wrote that he was "livid" about Abbott's request for the State Guard to monitor the military's upcoming training exercise, dubbed "Jade Helm 15."

"I am horrified that I have to choose between the possibility that my Governor actually believes this stuff and the possibility that my Governor doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to those who do," Smith wrote.

"I am appalled that you would give credence to the nonsense mouthed by those who instead make decisions based on internet or radio shock jock driven hysteria," he added. "Is there ANYBODY who is going to stand up to this radical nonsense that is cancer on our State and Party?"

As I have noted before, if one tracks the decline in the sanity and loss of respect for education and intelligence  in the Republican Party, it directly correlates with the rise of the Christofascists within the party.  Todd Smith has it right.  These people are a cancer in both the GOP and the nation.  They need to be driven into the political wilderness and treated as lepers by decent moral people.

Koch-friendly Texas GOP Loosens Chemical Safety Rules

I have said before that the Republican Party is seeking to restore the Gilded Age and make life as dangerous and harsh as it was for so many during that era while the wealthy lived the lives of near royalty.  Part of this agenda is to dismantle regulations that protect the public under the guise of freeing corporations from "needless regulations."  If one wants to see this batshitery taken to its loggical conclusion, look no farther than the Texas GOP which is dismantling chemical safety rules.  Now, a concerned parent cannot even verify if a toxic chemical storage facility might be located near a home they are seeking to purchase.  The Raw Story looks at this insanity.  Here are some excerpts:

In the wake of the devastating explosion in West, Texas, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Monday, state Republicans did nothing — except make it harder for the public to know what potentially dangerous chemicals are being stored by industry forces.

“The official advice from the Republican-controlled Texas state government to the citizens of that state is that Texas residents should go door-to-door in their communities trying to surmise whether or not there might be any dangerous chemicals stored in any facilities nearby.”

Specifically, she said, Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott issued that directive not long after holdings by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch began donating to his campaign. As The Dallas Morning News reported, Abbott’s campaign has received $50,000 in donations, as well as another $25,000 from Charles Koch’s son, David. Abbott was also flown on a Koch Industries jet to a Koch-sponsored event introducing candidates to more wealthy donors.

Abbott, who is running against state Sen. Wendy Davis (D), began getting the donations, Maddow said, in September 2013 — four months after the blast in West, which injured more than 200 people. Koch Industries dismissed the Morning News‘ report as “a vague and improbable quid-pro-quo ‘linkage.’”

Subsequently, she explained, Abbott scrapped the state’s public database of dangerous chemicals being housed at any given time in a May 2014 ruling. While businesses must still report that information to the state, Abbott decided, officials “must withhold” that information. 

When asked to explain his rationale, Abbott told reporters that residents were free to “drive around” and ask companies in person, or via email, for that type of information. Later, a spokesperson for Abbott was quoted as saying that local fire departments can also withhold it, since they were considered a “governmental entity” under Abbott’s ruling.

Abbott’s decision, she said, effectively removed one more tier of regulation from a state that already does not require companies to have sprinklers or many storage provisions of any kind for chemicals that — as the “apocalypse” in West demonstrated — can actively endanger communities. That lack of oversight, she said, can be traced to outgoing Gov. Rick Perry (R).

“Rick Perry is going to run for president again on the basis of ‘the Texas miracle,’ where he says things like not having any zoning laws and not having any fire codes, those are the things that make Texas great, and we should elect him president because he will apply ‘the Texas miracle’ to the whole country” she said. “And Greg Abbott is the man who’s running to replace Rick Perry.”

And people ask why I am no longer a Republican!