McConnell’s Secret Weapons

Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has continued to work hard in derailing any attempts by Democrats to get bills passed in the U.S. Senate. When he was majority leader he could just simply refuse to allow bills to be brought before the Senate and with a solid majority prevent passage of those that did make it to the floor for a vote.

But, now McConnell has to use other means to stop Democrats and he has the perfect secret weapons to do it.

Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are two undercover Republicans in the Democratic Party. Described as Democratic centrists, these two politicians are thwarting efforts by Democrats.

Joe Manchin is the most public about his support of the Republicans in the Senate. He opposes doing away with the filibuster, which pleases McConnell, as well as standing in opposition to Senate Bill S.1, the For the People Act, that would set federal law protecting the rights of voters in America.

It seems that Manchin had an epiphany after the January 6th insurrection. In his “come to Jesus” moment he contends that he believed in bipartisanship to advance legislation in the Senate. He came to think that blocking out Republicans input on bills was not the way to bring healing to American politics. So, now he pushes for Democrats to include those poor Republicans and find value in what they espouse.

Never mind that those very same Republicans Manchin suddenly loves never cared about bipartisanship when they controlled the Senate and Trump was president. Never mind that Manchin sat in the Senate and watched Mitch McConnell rule over the chamber like he was some kind of god and treated the opposition like they were cockroaches infecting the Senate. Never mind that they backed every bit of Trump’s authoritarian rule and supported (and still support) Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

Nope, Manchin doesn’t see any problem with overlooking the transgressions of the Republicans. He doesn’t need to since he sits in McConnell’s back pocket, bought and paid for. I can easily imagine McConnell dancing in his office at the good fortune of the Republicans to have Manchin as one of the roadblocks in the Senate.

The other roadblock, Krysten Sinema is just as bad, though she seems to keep a lower profile in her opposition to her own party. She, like Manchin, opposes doing away with the Senate filibuster rule. Again, like Manchin, the answer to the Senate’s problems is bipartisanship. Apparently she believes that’s what the country wants (Huffpo article).

Has Sinema paid any attention to what’s going on outside the ivory tower of the Senate? Has she not seen the white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and such raising hell? Has she not seen right wingers blasting America about the southern border being overrun by those pesky “illegal” immigrants? Has she not seen the huge number of bills in Republican controlled states that are instituting laws to suppress voting in their states to insure Republicans maintain control of government. Has she not seen how the Republicans in her own state are carrying out an insane ballot audit to “prove” that the election was stolen from Trump?

She must spend her time watching reruns of Sesame Street while wearing rose colored glasses.

It’s clear that these two are Republicans in sheep’s clothing. Neither one of them has the courage to just come out and officially join the Republican Party. It’s clear to anyone with a brain that these two are more interested in obstructionism that bipartisanship. They’re as out of touch as the Republicans are in America.

There won’t be any healing currently or in the foreseeable future. Not as long as we have uncontrolled racism, cops murdering minorities, politicians suppressing minorities, hate towards any immigrants, propaganda masquerading as news, etc., there will be no healed America.

Until next time

Republicans, 99% Stupid!

And I can prove it.

Republicans are so far off the rails that the rest of us should consider banning them from political involvement due to their incapacity to use their brains for something other that soaking up conspiracy theories and outright lies. I will credit Donald Trump, he sure used his talent to spew propaganda to good effect. Joseph Goebbels would be so proud of him.

Republicans have become out of touch with reality. So many of them, both citizens and elected officials, have given up on using common sense, reasoning, and critical thinking. Instead they prefer to follow each other off the cliffs of sanity like good little lemmings. Since most Republicans would say I’m lying, I’ll prove my case.

First up we have Anthony Antonio, who according to a CNN article of his appearance on Chris Cuomo’s “Prime Time,” got caught up in the lies spewed on Fox News about the election being stolen from Donald Trump. “Foxitis” his attorney called it in court. He admits his participation in the January 6th insurrection/riot and takes full responsibility for it. His mea culpa sounds like German citizens after the end of World War Two saying they didn’t know of the evils of the Nazi regime.

His “excuse” for his behavior doesn’t hold water. He’s an adult and supposedly capable of thinking for himself, but he didn’t. Instead he argues he was led by the nose into the depths of the lies. While he now accepts responsibility for his actions, it should not sway the judge in his case to go easy on him. He tried, with a great many others, to take down the government.

Next is an article in Huffpost about the Republican Arizona state senator, Paul Boyer, who now regrets supporting the recount of the November 2020 election in Maricopa County. Apparently he now believes that the recount “makes us look like idiots.” Gee, why would anyone think that an “audit” of those ballots by Cyber Ninjas seem ridiculous? The audit is only being led by the Trump partisan CEO of the company, a company which has NO experience in ballot audits. An audit that hunted for watermarks on ballots that supposedly were printed up by Trump to show fraud in the voting. Also, hunting for ballots with bamboo in the paper to prove they were inserted into the election by the Chinese.

State Senator Boyer needs to explain to the voters in Maricopa County why he believed the lies that Donald Trump had votes stolen from him and given to Joe Biden. There were recounts and audits done by election officials that verified the findings that Joe Biden won the election. This sham audit that he supported seems to be saying that all the election officials, to include the Arizona Secretary of State and the Arizona Governor, were crooked operators in the first place.

Yes, I certainly agree with Senator Boyer, they look like idiots.

We all know, or should know, who House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is in America. If not, he’s a California Republican who is the House version of Mitch McConnell. Of late he and the other Republicans in the House have ginned up a vote to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her position in the Republican leadership (note: I don’t like Cheney either).

So, he sent a letter to all the House Republicans and something he said in that letter is eye-catching. In an MSNBC article report, “We are a big tent party,” McCarthy wrote. “We represent Americans of all backgrounds…. And unlike the left, we embrace free thought and debate.“

“Free thought and debate.” If that were the truth Kevin, then why are you removing a member of the Republican House leadership for having “free thought” when she publicly called out Trump’s election lies and said Biden was the winner of the election and the rightful president? Umm, seems to me that there was no common sense or critical thinking on the hypocrisy of that statement in McCarthy’s letter. Idiots abound Kevin. Put on your dunce hat and go sit in the corner.

Then we have the certain Republican loving media personalities (who shall remain nameless) who are just as much fools as any I’ve already spoken about above. It just so happens that these particular idiots work at the Trump-loving Fox News. I’m speaking of the multiple personalities at Fox News who paraded out the story of the great American hamburger theft they spouted off about in April. They told the American public, mostly Republican dupes for Trump, that President Biden’s climate plan will force the reduction of the consumption of beef by Americans is coming to a McDonald’s near you.

Who failed to do some due diligence on this story? We know Fox News hates anything Biden’s doing as president, but to honestly believe, and report to America, that you’ll be limited to one hamburger a month to help save the climate is so stupid that the Fox personalities are in the same boat as the Republicans in the Arizona Senate. They clearly look like idiots.

Good work people. Fox News ended up having to make an on air retraction of this ridiculously asinine story. You can read all about it in this Media Matters article.

Need I give any more examples of the lunacy of Republicans? I mean, I could go on and talk about the nonsense that comes out of the mouths of QAnon nuts, Representatives Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Senator Ted Cruz, etc, etc, etc. But, why huh? If you haven’t gotten the idea by now of the crazy Republicans, you never will.

This is what you get with them. Do you really think they should have any positions “leading” this country?

Until next time

Guns, Guns, Guns!

The Supreme Court and New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Corlett.

In the 2021 term, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Corlett. This is a Second Amendment case that could have far reaching consequences on carrying guns in America.

The case basically revolves around the right, under the Second Amendment, to carry guns in public for self-defense. Two people who applied for an unrestricted license, in New York state, were denied a license and sued.

Now the Justices will determine whether or not the rights under the Second Amendment can be restricted. The Court’s decision could be very bad for America. Should the Court rule that plaintiff’s rights have been violated, it would potentially affect every gun law in the country. You can bet that the lawsuits will begin flying should this happen. The gun nuts will be frothing at the mouth to get to carry concealed guns in public.

Let’s consider this some. Many times in the aftermath of a mass shooting, someone spouts off about if only someone would have been armed, they could have intervened and stopped the massacre. I’m not buying that line of thought. Look at the Boulder, Colorado, shooting. Ten people died, including a veteran police officer. The large majority of people walking the streets are going to confront the triple F choices in a shooting incident of this type. Flight, fight, or freeze are those choices. Most untrained people will do the last, freeze. That’s perfectly understandable too. The shock of a situation like the Boulder shooting will freeze you while your brain is trying to process what’s happening. In Boulder, police were in a sustained gunfight with the shooter and could not take him down. Police officers are trained to confront violence, to overcome any fear and take action. Yet, the shooter was able to keep up the fight until deciding to peacefully surrender to the police.

Now, imagine yourself inside that store, carrying a concealed firearm. The only training you have is shooting at paper targets, that don’t shoot back. If you overcome your fear and break out of the freeze mode, you pull your gun and do what? Are you going to pull a John Wayne and have a high noon shootout with the bad guy? If you do, consider yourself dead. Are your going to tactically advance on the shooter and take him out? Do you even know how to do that from training, not watching television to give you your “training?” Somehow you get to where you see the bad guy and open fire. Have you considered who you might be endangering with your gunfire? If you miss, who might be hit and possibly killed? What about the bad guy shooting back at you, in which you might get hit and possibly killed by that fire? Think it through, you know the truth. Remember, your adrenaline is going to be pumping my friend.

Now, one BIG question. How are the police going to know YOU aren’t a bad guy and shoot you, possibly killing you? Do you expect the police to politely ask you who you are? Nope, likely you’ll likely be in a situation where police bullets are flying your way too. In dangerous situations the police are trained that everyone is a possible bad guy until proven otherwise, unless they are uniformed police. That’s for their own safety. So, still think you can take down a shooter John Q?

But, let’s look beyond a mass shooting incident to just plain everyday life. The Governor of Tennessee recently signed a bill into law allowing the carrying of concealed firearms without needing a license (Texas is working on the same type of law too). Now, your a police officer on patrol and make contact with a driver and passenger in a traffic stop. You know anyone can now carry a concealed weapon, so how are you going to approach the vehicle? The police I knew and worked with will do so with their gun in their hand. A police officer will be potentially dealing with a gun carrying citizen in any contact with members of the public. Can you blame them? I would pray that those citizens don’t make any move that a police officer would interpret as an act of reaching for a weapon, because you’d likely get a bullet or more for your movement.

Then, I consider having an armed public out there. How many hotheads will decide to handle their anger by pulling out and using their gun to settle disputes? Do you potentially want to die over a parking spot argument, or some other inane issue?

The hardcore Second Amendment believers want just what the Court may decide. They don’t believe in any laws “infringing” on their Second Amendment rights, most of them being of the Republican persuasion. Hopefully you know they’re lying right? They don’t want convicted violent felons to have guns, even if that felon has completed his/her sentence and paid “their debt to society.” Also, they don’t want those who are mentally ill from carrying guns either. After all, they are not in their right minds. Well, unrepentant felons don’t care about laws do they? If they want to they will go armed. As for the mentally ill, since they are not in their right minds they don’t know that they shouldn’t, or can’t, carrying a gun. Plus, if there is no licensing requirement, no one will put them on the radar to stop them from going around armed.

Do these type of laws guarantee our protection? No, they don’t. But, they can cause law-abiding citizens to refrain from unlawful activity. There are no absolute guarantees. Heck, the Boulder shooter was supposedly known to the FBI prior to him killing ten people. Yet, he was legally able to purchase the firearm he used to murder ten people.

I’m a gun owner and I support the Second Amendment. I just do support the belief that the Second Amendment prevents implementing reasonable gun laws, like concealed carry permits for instance.

You shouldn’t believe it either.

Until next time