There will be a special place in hell for Alex Jones

Tucker Carlson is praising Alex Jones tonight as a great "journalist." Carlson said Jones is mocked, but tells his audience "the truth is he's been a far better guide to reality in recent years" than mainstream reporters.

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) December 2, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee 

The good, the bad, and the ugly

A week after the Paris attacks:

The Good--President Obama.  While he's had a few missteps over the last nearly seven years, he hasn't had any this week.  First, for not knuckling under pressure to send ground troops into Syria, and reminding America that republicans are the only ones who think sending our soldiers into that quagmire is a good idea, and second, for bitch slapping republicans over their decidedly un-American calls to allow only Syrian Christians into America.  What wouldn't Jesus do, right?

The Bad--Virtually all republican Governors (unconstitutionally) rejecting the Syrian refugees.  Led by Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who this week told two relief agencies to send back two families that had already been approved to relocate in Indianapolis (and then got shown the real meaning of Christian charity by Democratic Gov. Malloy of Connecticut who welcomed one of the families to his state), republicans embarrassed themselves with their bigotry, intolerance, and ignorance.  Some surprise there...

The Ugly--The complete and utter lack of courage demonstrated by the republican party in the face of the terrorist attack in Paris.  Republicans are absolutely wetting their pants over allowing a few thousand refugees into America, and yet France, who lost 150 of its people in a terrorist attack just a week ago, is agreeing to take in more than 30,000 Syrian refugees.  What we Democrats have known for quite some time is coming to fore:  the party that's "tough on defense" really isn't so tough after all.  Fucking wimps, the lot of them.

Peace,
emaycee

King Jeremy the wicked

Another mass shooting, this time at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, leaving ten dead.  Ten more families whose lives have been irreparably shattered.  Another heartfelt address from President Obama on the shootings, and another well-reasoned plea for sanity in our gun laws.  More breaking news reports, more press conferences, more candlelight vigils, and more prayers.

And the same sinking feeling that once again--at least on a national level--that absolutely nothing will be done to reduce the chances of another mass shooting.

If Congress couldn't find the moral courage to strengthen our gun laws after 20 six and seven-year-olds were shot to death at Sandy Hook elementary school, it's hard to see how today's events will transcend previous attempts and suddenly give them the intestinal fortitude to pass stronger gun control laws.  Or provoke us to vote out of office those beholden to the NRA and its minions.

But still we can hope that finally this will be the mass shooting to force us to end all mass shootings.

Peace,
emaycee

Gotta get down to it

Another day in America, and another mass shooting--last Friday night near the University of Santa Barbara in California and it left seven dead and seven wounded.  As is always the case after such shootings, there has  been much teeth gnashing and numerous calls for sensible gun laws.

And as is always also the case, absolutely nothing will change.  As much as I sympathize (and could not begin to imagine the sorrow of) with angry parents and as much as I agree with lawmakers and gun control advocacy groups calling for tighter gun legislation, the plain truth is that gun manufactuers and ammunition makers don't give a good goddamn what psycho-nut buys their products, or who gets killed with their products,  as long as they can keep as many people in the market to buy their products as is possible.  And they have an absolute stranglehold on our legislators through the NRA.

If we couldn't muster the political will to pass simple background checks after 20 six and seven year old children were shot to death in Newton, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it's kind of hard to imagine a scenario that would lead to any serious changes to our gun laws for the forseeable future.

Peace,
emaycee

Changing the rules

"When the rules of the game prove unsuitable for victory, the gentlemen of England change the rules." --Harold J. Laski

The recently passed Farm Bill allows states to continue offering higher food stamp benefits if they increase the amount of heating assistance they give to low income families.  Connecticut and New York (at a cost of $1.4 million and $6 million respectively) are doing just that.  Therefore while we still struggle through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, needy folks in Connecticut and New York will not have to get by on $90 less for food each month.

This is exactly the kind of thinking the Democratic Party needs to embrace wholeheartedly--where there's a will there's a way to look after those most in need and not let them suffer because of republican callousness and obstructionism.  Then maybe instead of getting our votes only because they're better than the alternative, they will actually have earned them.

Peace,
emaycee

True profiles in courage

Between 28 Democrats voting to cut spending on food stamps and the endless Liberal angst over the NSA spying revelations without a commensurate response to a report showing that one in six Americans has been food poor, I've been about as disillusioned with Democrats, Liberals, Congresspersons, and politics over the past couple of weeks as I can ever remember.

And then I read about the families of the Newtown shooting victims, people who have suffered the worst loss most people can ever suffer,  going back to D. C. to continue the fight to get those without a conscience, those in the pockets of the NRA, to make our country safer....

In the end it may just be habit, but as long as we're still fighting our goals ain't dying.

Peace,
emaycee

The worst among us

Twenty children--children, for God's sake--were shot to death, and this is the gutless reaction of Mitch McConnell to none of the proposed gun control legislation passing:

Any nation--any nation--that allows a cowardly and inhumane politician to gloat in the faces of the families of twenty dead children, and doesn't run his ass right on out of this country forever, deserves no blessings from God, and, in fact, deserves whatever hell She rains upon it.

Pro-life, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee

Thanks guys! Part I

You hate to get too overconfident (we do like to stay home on election day when we're peeved), but republicans are making it so easy on us--it's like a shark taking on a fucking guppy.

After yesterday's massive fail by John Boehner with his fiscal Plan B (mercifully preventing a bad bill, as luck would have it), it's become obvious to fucking everyone that the republican party has gone off the deep end.  The President gave up far too much, and still the Antoinettes rejected it.  Their plan?  Fuck over 99% of us for the 1%--the usual republican plan. 

And as if that wasn't enough, Wayne LaPierre, chief mouthpiece for the NRA, gave a press conference today that, in the wake of last week's mass murder in Newtown, could have been culled from the chaos of one of Dante's circles of hell.  He blamed ancient movies (Natural Born Killers for fuck's sake?), video games, the media, and President Obama in a speech that was completely divorced from reality.  It was a pathetic spectacle--and another nail in the coffin of conservatism.  Average Americans will see the NRA as tone deaf and callous; won't matter to republicans--nary a one of them will vote for an assault weapons ban or clip size limit.  And for all LaPierre's talk about putting a police officer in every school, they ain't about to pay for that without taking food out of mouths of the starving.

With each passing day it becomes more obvious that the ills of America are caused by the republican party.  From the economic collapse under Bush the Lesser to the deaths of children in Connecticut, the problems plaguing America hang over the mantle of the republican party. 

And Democrats and the President should point this out every single chance they get.

Peace,
emaycee

All the playing's stopped in the playground now

When I got home from work tonight, the Beautiful Boy was sitting in his mother's lap watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see the twinkle of the lights on our Christmas tree, and I turned my head and looked at it like I probably haven't since we put it up a few weeks ago.  I noticed the stockings hung above the piano, and the Christmas cards lined along its top.  At the first commercial break the Beautiful Boy came up to me and I beckoned him into my arms and I kissed him and squeezed him again and again.  He, I am certain, had no idea why those hugs and kisses were especially needed tonight.

There are twenty parents in Newtown, Connecticut this evening--not to mention the families of the six murdered adults--who would give everything they own and more to have these simple few moments that I shared with my family tonight.  They will never have them again.

The blood of the children killed today is not, as one gun rights organization suggested, on the hands of gun control advocates. It's on the hands of gun advocacy groups like the NRA who lie to the American people about the efficacy of guns and insist that, unlike any other right we possess via the U. S. Constitution (speech, assembly, press, etc.), that somehow the second amendment is sacred and cannot have limits that keep the peace.  The killings today are not the result of taking God out of the classroom, as Mike Huckabee so callously said today.  They are the result of pseudo-Christians who can quote every picayune detail of the Bible to support their agenda (usually interpreted incorrectly) but always seem to forget Christ's admonition that we love each other as we love ourselves; God-loving people who sold their souls to further their beliefs and in the process proved that they are not pro-life, as they claim, but rather, pro-birth.

I was very glad that Barack Obama is the President of the United States today and not some soulless republican who would have stood before the American people this morning and babbled on while still keeping their lips on the teats of the NRA.  As much as I appreciate the President's acknowledging that we need "meaningful [gun] reform" I don't hold out much hope that change to our gun laws will be coming any time soon (especially since an administration spokesman almost immediately responded that today is not the day to discuss such gun law reforms--and to which we should all respond, "why not?").  I don't believe this will make our will any greater.

And so we'll sit in our cars at lunch and cry while we're chewing on a bologna sandwich, and give thanks that when our workday is done, we're going home to a family that's still in one piece.

Peace,
emaycee