“Dirty Rubles”: Trump is an Existential Threat to America

One of the problems with keeping up with the Trump/Pence Russiagate scandal is the plethora of different threads to the story line.  Other than political junkies, many lack the time or the patience to try to stay on top of what is happening and the accumulating evidence that things are very rotten in America in 2018. Trump, of course adds to the confusion via his endless tweet storms aimed at distraction, especially whenever damaging news is leaking. I have noted how it now seems that America is lying a real life spy novel.  Now, a new book, "Dirty Rubles" pieces the multiple story lines together and paints a very damning portrait not only of Trump - and his lie repeater, Mike Pence - but the larger GOP that he believes is complicit in the Russiagate scandal.  A piece in Salon looks at the book with an interview of its author.  Here are some highlights:

Americans would do themselves a gigantic favor by reading the new nonfiction book from acclaimed novelist Greg Olear, “Dirty Rubles: An Introduction to Trump/Russia.”

Olear brings his sharp literary scalpel to what promises to emerge as one of America’s most enormous and consequential scandals, operating under the belief that it takes a novelist’s ability to understand and tell stories to truly capture the essence of the “stranger than fiction” Trump-Russia conspiracy. The result is a riveting, infuriating and, against all the odds, uplifting book. It's essential reading for all Americans, especially those in the apathetic majority who view Russian meddling in U.S. elections as insignificant.

I recently interviewed Olear about “Dirty Rubles.”

I think it’s hard for people to square the avuncular guy on TV who cracked jokes and fired people with the real Donald J. Trump. The truth is, the guy’s been mobbed up for decades, with ties to both La Cosa Nostra and Russian organized crime. Trump is a money launderer for the latter, and has been for quite some time. “Money laundering” sounds cute, like something Danny Ocean and his merry men do, but it’s a euphemism for something unspeakable. The Russian mob has become so vast and successful because it eagerly participates in the worst of the worst: human trafficking, child pornography, sex slavery, opioids, illegal arms deals, blood diamonds — all the grisly, awful stuff that Trump accuses MS-13 of doing. By taking those dirty rubles and making them legitimate, Trump is a party to all of that.

The media also likes to forget that Trump is a serial rapist and sexual predator. We can use the “allegedly” qualifier if you like, but he has bragged about this on many occasions. There are more than 20 accusers now, and I believe them.

The kompromat, by the way, does not involve tinkling Moscow prostitutes, but far more heinous activities. This is a person who sexually assaulted a reporter from People magazine at his house -- while his wife was home. You don’t think he’s capable of greater depravity halfway around the world, when he thinks no one is watching?

Treason is a vague term. Unlike rape or murder or even petty larceny, it’s not visceral. But it’s the worst crime there is, because Trump actively betrayed 330 million Americans. He conspired with the Russians to contaminate the election, he lied about it, he continues to lie about it, and we have yet to find out exactly what he has promised his Russian master. I’d like to think that Americans across the political spectrum would agree that the POTUS should not be a compromised asset of the Russian Federation.

Helsinki reaffirmed what I’ve known for two years, and what Hillary told us in the debate: Trump is Putin’s puppet. Has a powerful world leader ever presented as submissively, as weakly, as Trump did in Finland? He makes Neville Chamberlain look like Rambo.

Real estate is a good way to launder money, as Trump well knows. Another is campaign finance. So much dark money, so many ways to donate anonymously. It seems clear now, given the latest round of indictments, that Russian money was funneled into the Republican National Committe via the NRA and other avenues. Anyone who took that money is complicit. This is why the Paul Ryans and Dana Rohrabachers and Devin Nuneses of the world have gone to great lengths to throw water on the Mueller investigation, in my estimation. And why so many GOP members of Congress are retiring. They are not trying to save Trump; they are trying to save themselves.

Trump/Russia is a complicated story, with a bunch of different threads. It’s just like a novel — except that it more or less proves the old saw about truth being stranger than fiction.

My book doesn’t cover any new ground. It takes the stuff we already know and gives it narrative structure, to make it easier to absorb for readers lucky enough not to know the difference between Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Gorkov. That’s all I’m trying to do. I’m not David Corn, a seasoned Washington bureau chief with sources out the wazoo. I’m not James Comey, who has intimate first-hand knowledge of the events.

And I’m certainly not Michael Wolff, who basically crashed the Trump party and wrote about it in a lurid but lame way. I’m a long-form writer who has carefully followed Trump/Russia, who has written and tweeted about it for almost two years — who has done the research, as a historical novelist might say — and I’m telling the story the best way I know how to tell it. I’m perfectly, if not uniquely, qualified to do that.

As I wrote in the book, Donald Trump comprises the gravest existential threat to the republic since the Civil War. That is not hyperbole. But here’s the thing: if the American experiment is going to end, it won’t be because of that fucking guy. In that, I have the fullest confidence.

NRA Affiliated Russian Woman Charged with Spying for Moscow

Russian spy and NRA affiliate, Maria Butina.

On the same day that Donald Trump was throwing America under the bus and serving as Vladimir Putin's bitch boy, Maria Butina, 29, a Russian national affiliated with the National Rifle Association ("NRA"), was indicted for meeting with U.S. politicians and candidates to establish ‘back channels’ and secretly reporting to Kremlin.  Stated more directly, she was indicted for being a Russian spy.  Unlike the other Russians indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, Butina was physically taken into custody and will face active prosecution.  This comes atop stories that the $30 million thrown into the 2016 presidential election to back Trump by the NRA may well have been monies sourced from Russian nationals.   One can only hope that Butina spills her guts to strike a plea deal and helps expose the NRA's nefarious activities.  A piece in The Guardian looks at her arrest.  Here are highlights:

A Russian woman has been charged with spying for Moscow in the US by infiltrating the National Rifle Association (NRA) in an attempt to influence the Republican party and American politics.

Maria Butina, who purported to be a pro-gun activist, met American politicians and candidates to establish “back channels” and secretly reported back to the Kremlin through a high-level Russian official, according to the US justice department.

Prosecutors said in a statement that Butina, 29, had been “developing relationships with US persons and infiltrating organisations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian federation”.

Butina was charged with conspiracy to act as a Russian agent within the US without notifying the attorney general. She was arrested on Sunday and appeared before a magistrate in Washington on Monday, officials said. In an affidavit, an FBI agent said investigators had searched Butina’s laptop computer and mobile phone.

The NRA did not respond to requests for comment.

Butina has come under increasing scrutiny amid the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Footage emerged of her asking Trump a question in front of an audience at a conservative event in July 2015.

She is known as a protege of Alexander Torshin, a senior official at the Russian central bank, who is also a longtime associate of the NRA. Torshin, who met Donald Trump Jr at an NRA event in 2016, was placed under sanction by the US in April.

Charging documents unsealed on Monday say Butina was directed by a “high-level official in the Russian government”. The unnamed official’s biography matched that of Torshin, but he was not identified by name.

Two unidentified Americans, one of them described as a “political operative”, were said in the charging documents to have assisted Butina in her efforts to make political contacts in the US. Neither was charged with a crime.

Butina has a longstanding working relationship with Paul Erickson, an NRA member and conservative operative based in South Dakota. Erickson did not respond to a voicemail left on Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors said Butina emailed the first American associate in March 2015, suggesting a specific political party “would likely obtain control over the US government after the 2016 elections” and noting the powerful role in this party played by a certain gun rights organisation.

According to prosecutors, she reported that a Kremlin official had given approval for the back channel she was building, and she told the American: “All we needed is ‘yes’ from Putin’s side. The rest is easier.”

Officials said the investigation into Butina was conducted by the FBI’s Washington office and was being prosecuted by the national security sections of the US attorney’s office in Washington and justice department headquarters. The office of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, played no immediately apparent role.

Little surprise that the NRA and Erickson failed to respond to inquiries.  The irony, of course, is that it is quickly turning out that those who have been the loudest about their supposed patriotism are the ones supporting treason.  Sadly, I doubt the news of the last couple of days will sink in with some "friends" who continue to post what is little better than Russian/Trump propaganda on Facebook.   I sincerely hope that before all of this is over, the Republican Party will become synonymous with treason and traitors. 

"Stand Your Ground Laws" Linked to Inreased Homicide Rates

In many ways the National Rifle Association ("NRA") seems determined to bring back the gun slinging days of the Old West.  We hear from the NRA and its political whores ad nausea that law abiding citizens should have the right to be armed for self protection - including with assault weapons.  Yet a new study at Texas A&M University suggests that rather increasing safety and reducing homicide rates increased gun ownership and so-called "stand your ground" laws that have increased the sphere where lethal force is permissible have increased homicide rates, not lowered them.  An NPR story looks at the findings of the study and the reality that the actions of the NRA and its adherents are making us all less safe.  In reading the article and this post, as previously stated on this blog here, the real financial backers of the NRA are gun manufacturers who are always seeking to increase gun sales, not your neighbor who may go hunting from time to time or who may have a basic hand gun.  Here are some highlights:

If a stranger attacks you inside your own home, the law has always permitted you to defend yourself. On the other hand, if an altercation breaks out in public, the law requires you to try to retreat. At least, that's what it used to do.

In 2005, Florida became the first of nearly two-dozen states to pass a "stand your ground" law that removed the requirement to retreat. If you felt at risk of harm in a park or on the street, you could use lethal force to defend yourself. The shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., drew national attention to these laws.

Now, researchers who've studied the effect of the laws have found that states with a stand your ground law have more homicides than states without such laws.

Now, researchers who've studied the effect of the laws have found that states with a stand your ground law have more homicides than states without such laws.

Hoekstra obtained this result by comparing the homicide rate in states before and after they passed the laws. He also compared states with the laws to states without the laws.
 
"Our study finds that, that homicides go up by 7 to 9 percent in states that pass the laws, relative to states that didn't pass the laws over the same time period," he says.

As to whether the laws reduce crime — by creating a deterrence for criminals — he says, "we find no evidence of any deterrence effect over that same time period."

[B]ased on the available data, it appears that crafters of these laws sought to give good guys more latitude to defend themselves against bad guys. But what Hoekstra's data suggest is that in real-life conflicts, both sides think of the other guy as the bad guy. Both believe the law gives them the right to shoot.

In a separate analysis of death certificates before and after stand your ground laws were passed in different states, economists at Georgia State University also found that states that passed the laws ended up with a higher homicide rate.

That study also tracked the increased homicides by race. In contrast to the narrative established by the Trayvon Martin shooting — many people believe black men are more likely to be the victims of stand your ground laws — this analysis found the additional deaths caused by the laws were largely concentrated among white men.

Stanford law professor John Donohue, on the other hand, praised the study done by Texas A&M's Hoekstra. Donohue has been studying crime and violence for more than two decades and is working on his own independent analysis of stand your ground laws. So far, he says, he's getting the same results Hoekstra did.

In short, what the researchers are seeing is more death and mayhem compliments of the NRA and the gun manufacturers who fund it.

Israel Debunks NRA Lunacy On Guns in Schools

As seems to be the norm with the far right in America - and the NRA in particular - the truth and objective reality are never allowed to stand in the way of the right wing talking points.  A case in point: claims that Israel has a very low incidence of school shootings because all schools have armed personnel on site as evidenced by the image above.  This sound bite sounds good at first, but under examination, Israeli authorities quickly demonstrate that the claim is untrue.  Moreover, Israel has very strict gun laws - including limits on quantities of ammunition - that would drive the NRA and 2nd Amendment nut cases absolutely apoplectic.  A piece in Daily Kos looks at the real truth of why Israel has very few school shootings.  Here are excerpts:

In the wake of Sandy Hook now we see this from the Israelis: Israelis shoot down NRA's claim that the Jewish State uses more weapons to keep schools safe

Appearing on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, NRA honcho LaPierre said: “Israel had a whole lot of school shootings, until they did one thing. They said we’re going to stop it and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then.” But Yigal Palmor, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said the situation in Israel was “fundamentally different” from that in the United States.

“We didn’t have a series of school shootings, and they had nothing to do with the issue at hand in the United States. We had to deal with terrorism,” said Palmor.

“What removed the danger was not the armed guards but an overall anti-terror policy and anti-terror operations which brought street terrorism down to nearly zero over a number of years,” he said. “It would be better not to drag Israel into what is an internal American discussion,” he added.

“There is no comparison between maniacs with psychological problems opening fire at random to kill innocent people and trained terrorists trying to murder Israeli children,” said Reuven Berko, a retired Israeli Army colonel and senior police officer.

Having lived in Israel and trained in courses in Israeli Tactical Point Shooting, I can say that this is very true. There is a very strict emphasis in Israel on gun safety and much less of a "cowboy mentality". Guns are highly regulated and the only people that are out there "carrying" are Soldiers and others connected to Security.
Here are Israeli Gun Control Statistics and Regulations. A sampling of that is here:

Gun Owner Licensing
Genuine Reason Required for Firearm License: Applicants for a gun owner’s license in Israel are required to prove genuine reason to possess a firearm, for example, self-defence, hunting and sport.

Minimum Age for Firearm Possession:  The minimum age for gun ownership in Israel is 27 years and 21 years if served in the military30

Gun Owner Background Checks:  An applicant for a firearm licence in Israel must pass background checks which consider health, mental and criminal30 records

Gun Owner Licensing Period:  In Israel gun owners must re-apply and re-qualify for their firearm license every 3 years

Licensing Records:  In Israel, authorities maintain a record of individual civilians licensed to acquire, possess, sell or transfer a firearm or ammunition

Limit on Quantity, Type of Ammunition:  A licensed firearm owner in Israel is permitted to possess a limited quantity of ammunition.

As one can see... It is not quite the picture that the Right and the NRA like to push.  .  .  .  .  I strongly believe the adage "Guns don't kill people, People kill people - But GUN'S Sure make it a lot easier". They do, and it is time, as Americans, that we understand this and begin a rational discussion around just this issue so that incidents like Sandy Hook, Aurora, and the horror of daily events in our urban areas that go unreported don't ever happen again.

Even Right Wing New York Post Slams NRA and LaPierre - As Do Connecticut Authorities

You know things are bad PR wise for the NRA when even the far right New York Posts describes the NRA's LaPierre as a nut case.   One can only hope that by making its insane statements yesterday the NRA has finally succeeded in repulsing even many Republican political whore who in the past sold their integrity for NRA money.  Meanwhile, officials in Connecticut are piling on to condemn the NRA:

An article in Think Progress looks at the condemnation hitting the NRA from all sides in Connecticut.   Here are highlights:

Teachers, school superintendents, mayors and police chiefs in Connecticut are rejecting the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) response to the shooting in Newtown, describing the gun lobby’s proposal to equip schools with armed guards and more guns as too simplistic, shameful, and opportunistic.

One Connecticut school superintendent dismissed the NRA’s suggestion as “an ill-conceived reaction from an organization that does not have any credibility or expertise with respect to addressing school violence” and said that the idea “is an excuse for not addressing the need to enact meaningful safe gun legislation in conjunction with an investment in mental health services.” Putnam Police Chief Rick Hayes called the proposal “scary,” noting that teachers can’t possibly have the kind of training necessary to safely handle large weapons.

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney (R), whose district includes Sandy Hook Elementary School, called the proposal “ill-timed.” “I also don’t think his idea of undoing or repealing gun-free school zones is a good idea at all,” he said. “I’ve always understood, and believe, that our Second Amendment is an integral part of our Constitution, and people should have the right to bear arms … but I think we should have a fair conversation in this country about what the limits to those rights are.”

Tom Moore, assistant superintendent for administration for West Hartford schools, told the Hartford Courant that his district “won’t be taking our advice on how to keep kids safe from the president of the NRA.” He added, “I come from a family of hunters; I have four brothers who are hunters and members of the NRA. All I’ll be asking for for Christmas, after hearing Wayne LaPierre essentially blame school officials for the shootings, is for [my brothers] to resign from the NRA.”

In fact, newspaper headlines across the state flatly rejected militarizing Connecticut schools.

NRA Proves It's A Front for Gun Manufacturers

I previously did a post on who funds the National Rifle Association ("NRA") here which has garnered a good deal of traffic.  In the post, the data documented that the real financial backers of the NRA are gun manufacturers, not individual NRA members who are trotted out like simpleton puppets whenever the utterly dishonest leadership of the organization senses an increased demand for rational gun control laws.  Yesterday, in a bizarre press conference National Rifle Association spokesman Wayne LaPierre made it crystal clear that (i) the NRA only represents gun manufacturers who want o limits of any kind on the deadly products and (ii) the NRA doesn't give a damn about the lives lost or damaged by the nation's lunatic gun laws.  It is all about the gun manufacturer's bottom line.  That's why the NRA's solution to school shooting is placing armed police - at tax payer expense, of course - in every school as opposed to any limits on assault weapons.  No mention was made of shopping malls, theaters and the growing number of other venues where got toting lunatics have used automatic weapons to commit mass murder.  The irony is that just shortly before LaPierre's deranged press conference a killing spree took place in rural Pennsylvania that left three people dead, including a woman decorating a church for a Christmas party for children, and several state police officers wounded before the shooter was killed by police.  For a demonstration of how insane gun ownership has become in America, this chart is illuminating. A column in the Washington Post looks at the insanity that the NRA represents.  Here are excerpts:

Absurd, unbelievable, tragic, obscene — I grope for words to describe the National Rifle Association’s proposal for how the nation should respond to last week’s slaughter in Newtown: More guns in the schools.

The idea is so insane that as far as I’m concerned — and, I hope, as far as a still-grieving nation is concerned — the NRA has forfeited the right to be taken seriously on matters of public policy. Newtown is still burying six-year-olds and Wayne LaPierre, the organization’s chief, wants more freaking guns in the schools. Wow.

Where to begin? Let’s assume, for the moment, that we decide to pay the multi-billion-dollar cost of placing one gun-toting officer in every school. What would the officer’s orders be? Shoot anyone who looks suspicious? If not, the officer would wait until an assailant — someone like Adam Lanza — displayed a gun or started firing. What sort of arsenal, and itchy trigger finger, would the officer need to be certain of shooting the assailant before the assailant shot the officer?

Now consider the profile of these mass shooters, such as Adam Lanza. These disturbed young men are meticulous in planning their unspeakable crimes. Does it occur to the NRA that if a would-be shooter knew there would be armed police officers at the school (or movie theater, or grocery store), he might be sure to wear body armor? So will the school cops wear body armor, too? Do we require students to wear uniforms of Kevlar too?

The NRA will never, ever admit that the problem is too many guns, not too few. As Post columnist Fareed Zakaria pointed out so eloquently in his recent column, there is mental illness in all industrialized countries. There are violent video games in all those countries, too. But we’re the only country that makes guns, including military-style assault weapons, available to anyone who wants to buy them. This is not freedom. It is a tyranny of death and destruction — a tyranny of which the National Rifle Association is proud. This may be the word I’ve been looking for: evil.

The Washington Post's editorial board ended its main page editorial that ripped Mr LaPierre as new asshole with this summation of the problem:

Indeed, Mr. LaPierre dodged the really big question: When will we muster the common sense to prohibit the sale of military-style assault weapons to civilians? President Obama has promised rapid action to revive the ban on semiautomatic rifles that expired in 2004 and still makes sense. These guns, such as the Bushmaster that Mr. Lanza used to kill 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, are modeled on military weapons. They load and shoot rapidly. Mr. La­Pierre asked, “Since when did ‘gun’ automatically become a bad word?” We would respond: Why do we allow weapons designed for war to be bought and sold on our streets?

 The New York Daily News editorial was equally blunt in its condemnation of LaPierre and the NRA:

Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association will forever now be known as America’s maddest gunman.  In style and substance, his performance Friday in delivering his organization’s response to the Newtown massacre revealed the obsessive, lunatic paranoia behind its worship of firearms.

A week after a gunman armed with an assault rifle murdered 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, and ever so shortly after the bells there tolled for the dead, LaPierre lashed out at everyone and everything but the weapons that were used to kill.

 

The Post's editorial board is correct.  The real solution that is obvious to anyone not on the de facto payroll of the gun manufacturers: ban assault weapons, limit the availability of automatic pistols, and leave hunting rifles and simple hand guns as the only type of guns available to hunters and those who in their delusions believe having a hand gun in their home makes them safer.  As for the gun manufacturers and Mr. LaPierre, they can go to Hell in my view.

How To Respond to Gun Rights Apologists

The next time you hear a right wing talking head blathering on about 2nd Amendment rights, recall the image above to mind and, if given the opportunity, remind the speaker of their complicity in the deaths of the individuals pictured above and the thousands of others who die each year because of America's insane and irresponsible gun laws.

Ken Cuccinelli Opposes All Meaningful Gun Control

This blog - and my December column in VEER Magazine (click on the images below to enlarge)  - has made the case that Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli poses a clear and present danger to the rights and freedoms of all Virginians other than perhaps angry white evangelical Christians who want to keep Virginia dominated by white conservative Christian.  Gays, women, blacks, Hispanics, non-Christians and others are all targeted by Kookinelli's toxic policies and his religious extremism.  But in the wake of the massacre of school children in Newtown, Connecticut, last Friday there is another way in which Kookinelli constitutes a danger to Virginians that needs to be called to the attention of Virginia voters he opposes any restrictions on gun ownership.  Don't believe me?  Here is what Kookinelli is disseminating on his campaign website:  

The 2nd Amendment is one of those key issues that define the differences between conservatives and liberals. Some (especially those on the left) believe that no one — with the exception of law enforcement and the military — should have the ability to possess firearms. While this seems unrealistic, the left has for years followed through with a "legislative war of attrition" on the 2nd Amendment — seeking to ban incrementally, specific types of firearms, ammunition and sales.
Ken has:

• Worked for the repeal of unreasonable restrictions on law-abiding concealed carry permit holders and worked with other states for reciprocity between states that issue concealed carry permits (for example, a concealed carry holder in Virginia would be allowed to carry and conceal in any other state with similar laws).
• Drafted and successfully passed legislation that stopped some liberal county governments from requiring duplicate background checks via the U.S. Mail when purchasing a firearm, resulting — as they intended — in a waiting period. While Ken supports the current process of instant background checks at the point of sale, his legislation eliminated local governments' attempts to impose waiting periods with the additional, duplicative check.
• Worked to expand locations where law abiding citizens with concealed carry permits can carry, including state parks.

Ken Cuccinelli's support of our rights are not born from politics, but rather from a deeply held belief that Constitutional rights as preserved by our Founding Fathers are sacrosanct — and we should fight on all levels to protect those fundamental rights guaranteed under the US Constitution.

As your next Governor, Ken will continue the fight to protect the 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding citizens and any attempts from liberals in Washington, or in Virginia, to restrict those rights.

 There you have it.  Cuccinelli supports the Wild West atmosphere that gun manufacturers, high capacity ammunition clip manufacturers and their minions in the National Rifle Association ("NRA") lobby for on a daily basis.   In keeping with this dangerous mindset, Cuccinelli has opposed the efforts of universities to limit concealed weapons on college and university campuses.   In addition, both in the Virginia General Assembly and as Attorney General Cuccinelli supported the repeal of Virginia's 17 year ban on multiple gun purchases in any given month.   For such advocacy Cuccinelli at the February 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in D.C., NRA President David Keene presented right-wing Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli with the NRA’s “Defender of Freedom Award” on behalf of the NRA.  And in 2009 during his campaign for attorney general Cuccinelli was endorsed as the darling of the NRA.

Any Virginian concerned about the proliferation of gun violence needs to understand that Ken Cuccinelli cannot be allowed to win the governorship of Virginia in 2013.  I can think of few things on the Virginia level more frightening than Ken Cuccinelli in the Governor's Mansion. 

Will Connecticut Massacre Finally Lead to Meaningful Gun Control?

The horrific massacre in Connecticut on Friday (three of the young victims are pictured above) underscores the need for federal legislation on gun control.  Piece meal state by state reform - assuming backward states like Virginia with Republican controlled legislatures would even pass stricter controls - will not do what is needed because guns purchased in lax states like Virginia simply cross state lines and end up in states like New York where much more  sane gun laws already exist.  The fix must be at the national level.  The question is whether Barack Obama and other politicians will have the spine to defy the madmen in the GOP base and the NRA and finally say no more to a continuation of Old West style carnage.  No other developed nation has the regular carnage seen in America for a simple reason: civilians are not allowed to have military style weapons such as these:

Click image to enlarge

Remember this - all of the guns used in Friday's massacre were purchased legally.  Just as has been the case with every other mass shooting spree.  So please, do not repeat the NRA mantra about "law abiding citizens" being deprived of gun rights.  And no more whining about "politicizing" tragedies like the one on Friday.  These tragedies continue to occur because of political cowardice plain and simple.  A piece in the Washington Post is hopefully is accurate and just perhaps there will be enough public outrage to kick the NRA and its political whore (mostly in the GOP) to the curb and strict, sane controls that respect hunting rights (no one needs a Bushmaster rifle to hunt) will be implemented.  And whether or not gun apologists care to admit it or not, anyone who opposes new restricts is complicit in the next massacres that will surely occur if nothing is done.Here are article highlights:

Friday’s rampage in Newtown, Conn., could be a tipping point in a national debate over gun rights that has faded in recent years. Advocates pointed to three reasons why this shooting may change the climate in Washington in a way that the one at a Colorado movie theater and the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) did not.

The almost unimaginable killing of so many 6- and 7-year-olds has sparked an outpouring of public emotion; Obama is on stronger footing to champion gun-control measures now that he has been reelected and will never again face voters, and the National Rifle Association has been weakened after spending millions of dollars backing candidates who lost.

The scale and frequency of mass shootings has grown so extreme that gun-control advocates believe they now have a strong case to make to enact strict restrictions on automatic weapons. Their challenge, though, will be turning the latest wrenching moment into a winning legislative strategy.  That, they say, requires presidential leadership.

Obama, in his statement Friday responding to the Connecticut shooting, sounded angry and resolved as he recounted a string of recent incidents of gun violence.

“If having dozens of people gunned down in an elementary school doesn’t motivate Washington to do even the easy things they can do, it’s not clear what will,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group chaired by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) that represents 750 mayors across the country.

Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center, a gun-control advocacy group, said she senses a change in the political atmosphere. “The general public is reaching the point of being fed up, and I think this will push it over the edge,” she said.

Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.) said in a statement Saturday that “to do nothing in the face of continuous assaults on our children is to be complicit in those assaults.”  .   .   .   .  Among the measures that Larson and other Democratic lawmakers have suggested are requiring background checks for all gun sales, closing the terrorist watch-list loopholes, banning
high-capacity ammunition magazines and reinstating the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

The article goes on to quote the typical gun apologist bullshit dished out by Republicans in particular:

 Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), the fourth-ranking House Republican, said Congress should be “careful” about suggesting new gun laws.

“We need to look at what drives a crazy person to do these kind of actions and make sure that we’re enforcing the laws that are currently on the books. 

I'm sorry, but I have more respect for the most tawdry whore than I do for Ms. Rodgers and her similarly spineless cohorts in the GOP and Democrats who accept NRA money like Harry Reid.  They dance around and refuse to accept the simple proposition that NO ONE needs assault weapons and, if one is crazy enough to be buying them to "plan for the worst" like Adam Lanza's mother is alleged to have done, then they are likely too crazy to be allowed to have such weapons. 

And those of us in the LGBT community need to acknowledge that the vast majority of the nuts in the NRA and the circles of their political supporters are the same folks who hate us and want us criminalized.  There's a reason why the GOP adopts positions on "God, guns and gays."

The Political Cowardice and Fear Must End

Adress Latif/Reuters

My earlier post looked at the whining by the usual suspects about the "politicization" of the gun massacre in Connecticut.  I made the case that the issue MUST be politicized because it is the only way that meaningful change can occur in order to make these horrible incidents much more rare.  A column in the Washington Post follows up on this theme. Here are some excerpts:

Twenty children and seven adults are dead in Newtown, Connecticut. This time, the cowardice, the fear, the evasion and the political convenience must end.

We have had enough. American politics is plagued by timidity and paralyzed by opportunism whenever we even consider talking action to curb gun violence. No other developed country in the world has these massacres on such a regular basis. In no comparable nation do citizens have such easy access to guns. On no public question other than gun violence are those who demand solutions after an ungodly episode accused of “politicizing tragedy.”

It is time to insist that such craven propaganda will no longer be taken seriously. If our political system does not act this time, we can deem it as totally bought and paid for by the representatives of gun manufacturers, gun dealers, and their very well-compensated lobbyists and mouthpieces.

"Regardless of politics.” That is what it will take. A president who no longer has to run for election is in a good position to say this, but he and the rest of us must change the politics of guns for those who will face the voters again. We cannot just be sad. We must be angry. We cannot just shake our heads. We must shake our fists, and wield our votes. We cannot just say that curbing gun violence is one issue among many. It is a paramount concern for our country.

And we will have to avoid the paralysis created by those who insists that every mass shooting is the work of one deranged individual and never, ever the result of flawed policies.



[W]e already know that it is far too easy to obtain guns in America. We already know that it is far too difficult to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. And we already know that weapons are available that should not even be sold. We must act now to curb gun violence, or we never will.

A second op-ed underscores the ridiculousness and cowardice of politicians' refusal to stand up to the gun lobby so as to protect children and innocent citizens.  Here are the money quotes|:

We live in a society that makes it very, very easy to kill kids, although we want to pretend that isn’t true.  The 20 young children gunned down inside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday were swaddled in federally regulated, fire-retardant blankets, rode in elaborate car seats plastered with safety stickers, and learned to ride bikes with elbow pads, knee guards and safety helmets. Some of them may never have had a Twinkie pass their lips.

We worry about the hormones in their milk, the violence in “Spongebob Squarepants,” and yet this country tolerates the existence of a military-style assault weapon built for no purpose other than killing lots of people on a battlefield — fast.

People will continue to say that the right to bear arms is written into our Constitution. It’s a sticker on a truck, a political statement swathed in red, white and blue, a stand on tradition, individualism and a huge gun lobby soaked in cash and merciless about winning, winning, winning.

But nothing will change when it comes to guns in America.  That is something rotten and infected in our culture. And it breaks my heart, at least 27 different ways.