Rick Kinnaird

Friday September 20, 2019

411 Days until the 2020 election and 493 days until the Inauguration

Aren’t we still at war with terrorism? Or drugs? Don’t we have to be at war to declare someone to be treasonous? Isn’t the punishment for treason death? I’m just asking.

The crimes are coming so fast that I can’t even get out a screed before the next news bit is upon us. 

So the other day or so, there was a news item that said that there was a whistle blower that was in the intel community that filed a whistle-blower complaint. That it was deemed “urgent and credible” and therefore should be given immediately to the House Intel Committee. At that point there was speculation about who the person was that the whistle was being blown on and what they had done. We knew that a promise had been made to a foreign leader.

I immediately thought it was Trump telling Putin that he wasn’t going to give the $251M to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia. I was partially right.

It seems that it was Trump (with a Candlestick in the Ballroom – no wait) but with the leader of the Ukraine threatening to withhold the $251M unless said leader investigated Joe and Bo Biden.

Okay, this is a high crime. This is an impeachable offense. Maybe, not treason but I would say there’s a pattern of behavior here that is not in the best interest of the United States. Let’s not forget the money the president cancelled that was supposed to go to strengthening countries defenses against Russian aggression. Who is our president working for? Not the people.

In other news, Moscow Mitch has decided to attach his name to a bill that would give money to states trying to defend their elections against attack. 

The Trump administration has decided to release the money to Ukraine.

This is what it has come to. Our leaders have to be berated and shamed into doing the right and lawful thing.

But not all the time. When it comes to Trump’s misdeeds and screwups William Barr or Rudy Giuliani will do whatever it takes to defend or stonewall. 

Elise Jordan had the perfect comment on Rudy’s latest gaff (Can we say gaff when it’s not Joe Biden?)  Lat night heRudysaid he asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. Seconds later he said he didn’t say that, then he said he did.

Elise Jordan said that, “Drunk Grandpa ought to be put in hospice.”

I think that about sums it up.

It also shows a generational divide.

Bill DeBlasio is ending his campaign for president. Good move. He realizes he’s not catching on, for whatever reason. Two things of interest. New York City is seeing the lowest crime rates since the 1950s. Why? DeBlasio thinks it has something to do with his Pre-K programs and other initiatives to help people. He was reminded of his comments on Joe Biden when he entered the race. He said that Biden was a moderate and that the party had become “more progressive.” 

I think he is correct. 

We’ve tried “Republican Lite” and moderation. It hasn’t worked. History tells us that big changes are created quickly and by bold action, not timidity.

People are struggling. They need help, lots of help, not little baby steps.

In other news, there was a piece about Guatemala. The reporters went way out in the boonies to interview children in a school. They go to school because the school provides them with a meal. The kids are hungry. Climate change has effected their environment and they are starving. When the children were asked did they know anyone who had gone to the United States. Every hand went up.

If people are starving walls and intimidation won’t matter.

PS The Sandy Hook Parents have made a video called Back-To-School Essentials

You have to see it.

It’s the reality in our country today.

Here’s a link. The YouTube link wouldn’t work:

https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/campaign

411 Days until the 2020 election and 493 days until the Inauguration

PS How to use a skateboard to bust out a window to escape and active shooter.

Thursday September 19, 2019

412 Days until the 2020 election and 494 days until the Inauguration

The week isn’t over and the crimes just keep coming. I think if our forefathers had any idea what would be wrought, they might have rethought a few things. 

When Cornwallis surrendered to Washington the band played, “The World Turned Upsidedown.” It seems we are in a Midsummer’s Nightmare. 

We have the second amendment being used to shield psychopaths and spread fear throughout our population.

We have an administration that ignores the law and Congress seems unable to do much about it.

We have a president who lurches from one self imposed disaster to the next without understanding or caring the consequences.

Every time one thinks it can’t get worse, it does. 

The latest problem is a whistleblower whose report is not being turned over to the proper authorities. Big deal you say? Well, yeah, it is. In this case it appears that what the case is about is that the president promised Putin something. It is so outrageous, so treasonous that a career intelligence official put his career on the line. That’s saying something. But wait, it gets worse. And more perverse. (Worse – perverse? I should be a rapper.) 

Such a whistle blower complaint should be turned over to Congress within seven days. That did not happen. The whistle blower then got the word to Congress and the head of the House Intelligence Committee asked the head of intelligence (the DNI) WTF?   Guess what? The DNI said he’s not turning it over. Okay, why not? Well here’s where it gets perverse. A complaint has to be turned over within seven days if it is deemed credible and an immediate threat. It was so deemed. However, the head of DNI said he doesn’t think so, therefore he’s not turning it over. What makes this perverse is that the law is not subject to judicial review. This was put in so that the complaint had to be turned over without interference from the administration or agency involved. However, the Trump folks have taken it as an excuse not to turn over the complaint and now Congress will have to sue to get the complaint, but the admin can say, “No, no, no! No judicial review. Ha ha.”

It’s a similar game to what Corey Lewandoski and the Republicans tried to play this week at his hearing. 

Well, how serious is this?

According to intelligence types, other than threatening our system of government, our democracy, …

Yeah, see, we have this system of “checks and balances.” That’s what allows our system of government to function and to not allow someone to run wild and do whatever they want without consequence. It turns out, we are discovering in a real life civics lesson, that it depends on people acting in good faith and respecting the ideas behind the laws and ideas that our nation was founded on. What do you do if you get a bull in the China shop situation where none of this is understood? It’s not clear if our democracy can withstand such a battering. If the president, in league with his party, decides to circumvent the rules and procedures what can the general population do? 

In other countries this has led to revolution. How nasty it gets depends on how desperate the population is. However, violent revolution generally flames out and a strong man (or woman) comes to power and thing are worse than before. 

Will this bring Trump down? Who knows. Typically, (or the words used often “in any other administration” ) the Attorney General would be given Contempt of Congress citations (or whatever they call it) and the AG would bring charges. But not this guy! He’s acting as the personal attorney for Donald Trump. Without that check in place what do we the people do? It’s not clear. 

Moving on.

We are on the verge of war in the Middle East. A situation that was created by this president’s idiocy and bluster. Okay, neocons you got what you’ve been asking for, how’s it working out for ya?

Before we jump into the details let’s remind ourselves that the last time this kind of situation came up the neocon VP got us into a war in Iraq, which destroyed that country and put Iran at the throat of Saudi Arabia. We are still trying to clean up that mess.

But now? Well Obama and Hillary had what was considered the best ever negotiated and effective nuclear deal with Iran. Of course, the presidential candidates for the Republicans in 2016 puffed out their chests and said without anything to back it up, what a terrible deal it was, and how they would have been a lot tougher and they wouldn’t let Iran push the U.S. of A. around. So they got their wish. Trump pulled out of the deal. It’s not a treaty because Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans in Congress wouldn’t vote for it. So it’s a deal, and as Mr. Art-of-the-Deal knows deals can be broken. So he broke it, about a year ago. So what’s happened?

We have no new deal with Iran, so Iran has started up it’s nuclear program again. The president and his lackeys have put sanctions on Iran. They are under some sort of delusion that Iran will come to the table and negotiate. The tough guys forget that Iran already came to the table and negotiated and that was what the Iran Nuclear Deal was all about. They aren’t coming to the table. Their economy is suffering big time. They seem to think they’ve got nothing to lose so they attacked tankers in the Persian Gulf, and now they’ve attacked Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities. Okay tough guys, “What ya gonna do?”

Well we know what Trump does. He backs down. He’s a bully and a chicken. He doesn’t have the guts to really do anything. He has no foreign policy. He has no national policy. He’s got nothing. He just caroms from one shelf of China to another in the shop. He twists his head this way and that, lots of plates fall and break. Then he charges off somewhere else. When asked about anything he uses the same set of adjectives to describe the situation, whatever it is. This situation is classified as “horrible.” (Women who disagree with him are “nasty.” Newspapers that disagree or say things he doesn’t like are “failing.” Actors that say things he doesn’t like “aren’t very good.” etc.)

Well Bunky, the analysis is you created it. You boxed yourself in. So what would happen in any other administration is the national security team would be convened and they would come up with assessments, options, and strategies for the president. But here? With this guy? First off, there is no national security team to convene. He’s either not appointed people and the slots are empty or they are filled with “acting” folks. And he’s shown he doesn’t care, know, read, believe anything he’s given from these folks preferring instead to learn from Ping, Putin, and Un. 

So after months of Bolton and Fox News and whomever else puffing out their chests and talking tough the Iranians are calling the bluff. 

Your choice Mr. president. 

Uh, what choices do I have?

Beats the hell out of me sir.

Edward Kienholz was a sculpture back in the 60s. He did tableaus and installations. One of his famous ones was a reduced scale model of a famous trolley car restaurant called “Barney’s Beanery,”  a well known little place in San Francisco. Much of his art was political or social statements. He did several pieces that had a similar theme. Look up “My Country ’Tis of Thee” and you will see politicians stepping around a barrel, dressed from the waist up, One hand is clutching an American flag, the other hand is reaching behind them to grab the man behind them’s scrotum and penis. 

That’s kind of where we are right now. I mean it’s always been that way to some degree, but …

In other analysis, it seems that the election of Donald Trump can be considered not only a sign of the times but likely to happen again. In any close election the Republicans have an advantage, given the Electoral Collage, and they have a 65% chance of winning close elections. Not that this is really a surprise when you consider one county in California has more voters that all the empty states in the west.

This imbalance is not going to go away anytime soon.

To sum up this week so far we have seen two explicit reasons to impeach the president given the testimony of Mr. Lewindowski. Iran has attacked Saudi Arabia and basically put it out there as “What ya gonna do?” (Our president being so smart is waiting for the man that ordered the brutal assassination of a journalist to tell him whether we should go to war.) The administration in another ignoring of the law is refusing to turn over a whistle blower complaint that has been found to be credible to the Congress in direct violation of the law. Meanwhile more details of the military spending money at Trump’s failing golf course in Scotland are coming out, and more details about how much money the Saudis are spending at Trump hotels is also coming out.

So let’s see: 2 impeachable offenses via Lewindowski, Doorstep to war with Iran which would consume the whole Middle East, all of which was created by the president’s actions and he’s got nothing in the way of a solution. Ignoring the law. Foreign and domestic entities spending money at president’s businesses in direct violation of the Constitution. (Not the stay there, but the spending money there is the violation. The president is forbidden to enrich himself in any way from his office. He is only allowed to take a salary)

So many crimes. So little time.

412 Days until the 2020 election and 494 days until the Inauguration

PS Mud! (On the way to Dos Pilas)

Day 986 – Oh Really?

Wednesday September 17, 2019

413 Days until the 2020 election and 495 days until the Inauguration

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting around wondering what to do next. I turned on the TV to discover that the hearing with Corey Lewandowski was about to start. I watched the first two hour of it. If you remember the old Miller Lite commercials where one group yells “Tastes Great!” and the other responds with “Less Filling!” that’s pretty much what went on. Every once in a while there would be a break and a question would be asked of Corey to which he’d reply that the White House told him not to answer. Republicans said it was all a sham, that the Dems weren’t following procedure, they had a point of order, a point of Parliamentary procedure, call for a vote, call for a roll call. They said there was no collusion with the Russians, no obstruction of justice by the president or others, and that this was a sham. (I guess that’s why they tried so hard to obstruct the meeting.) 

I have to hand it to Jerry Nadler for keeping his cool. The lead guy for the Republicans by the name of Collins it said under his name that he had been a chaplain in the Air Force. If so it’s no wonder that Christianity is in trouble. There was nothing civil or Christian about his behavior. He tried to pick ditsy little fights (“This isn’t an impeachment inquiry. It’s a House procedure.”, “You can’t let hired contractors speak, only staff.” Forgetting that the House Republicans had done the same sort of hearings, using the same sort of contractors when they were in charge.) I’m not that familiar with these kind of proceedings but Lawrence O’Donnell is because he worked on the staff on Capitol Hill and he said he’d never seen anything like it. The flagrant disregard for the norms, rules, and procedures was startling to him. He didn’t have words to describe or suggestions how to move forward. 

So, in summary, the Republicans in the opening hours managed to demonstrate how to obstruct justice. The very thing that was being investigated. They were quite successful. Corey Lewandowski’s opening statement was enough for the president to give a positive tweet about. 

Corey’s performance, and I have to call it that, was pretty much, in hindsight, what should have been anticipated. Yet, the Democratic members on the committee didn’t seem ready for it. First, he asked Chairman Nadler for the exact reference within the Mueller Report so he could look it up (and I guess “refresh his memory”) then he said he didn’t have a copy of the report and one had to be provided him, Then he took his sweet time looking it up. Then he said he wasn’t going to answer due to the White House claim of Constitutional Immunity  ( a new and novel privilege asserted by the White House). In the middle of all this Rep Collins said Nadler’s time had expired so we had to have a vote then a roll call vote on procedure. 

At some point Corey told the committee that he hadn’t read the Mueller Report. 

The core question the Democratic members were trying to get at was a note, dictated by Trump, that Lewandowska wrote down. He then had it typed up and was supposed to deliver it to Jeff Sessions the Attorney General. The note directed Sessions to un-recuse himself from the Russian investigation and to direct the Special Counsel to limit his investigation to election tampering in future elections only, and that if Sessions was unwilling to do that he was fired.

Think about this, if you haven’t already. Here a private citizen, Corey Lewandowska, was directed by the president to fire the Attorney General. I would imagine old Chaplin Collins would be jumping up and down yelling procedural impropriety if it had been Obama or Hillary doing a stunt like that. 

What did Corey do? He went on vacation. He put the letter in his safe. Later he gave the letter to someone else and told them essentially, “You do it.”

(Reminds me of the Life Cereal Ad, “I’m not going to eat it. You eat it.” “I’m not going to eat it. Let’s give it to Mikey.” Except, in this case our proverbial Mikey wouldn’t touch it either.)

In short, the letter never got delivered to Sessions.

Now this is interesting because Lewandowski was known to be Trump’s right hand man, willing to do anything for the boss. Somehow he wasn’t willing to do that. (Cue the Meatloaf music, “I’d do anything, but I won’t do that!”) 

Why was that the committee members asked?

The excuses were interesting:

“I went on vacation.”

“It wasn’t a priority for me.”

“I didn’t want to go to the Department of Justice.”

“I wanted to have a meeting with Jeff in a more relaxed atmosphere.”

“I wanted to have a meal with Jeff.”

The last three reasons were challenged as to his motive. Many asked if in fact he didn’t go to the Department of Justice because he didn’t want a log of his visit. He was asked if he didn’t want a log of his visit because what he was doing was illegal. He said he hadn’t gone to Harvard Law School so he didn’t know, but he said he never did anything illegal. When asked anything about conversations or events in the White House he claimed he couldn’t talk about them because of the White House memo.

I turned it off. A few hours later I turned it back on, just as the Republicans were arguing that the consultant that the Dems had for their thirty minutes of questioning shouldn’t be allowed to do so because he was a consultant and not a member of staff. After Jerry sat through that charade, the guy got to ask Corey questions for thirty minutes. Boy, oh boy, I see why they didn’t want him to ask Corey questions.

While the Congressional Dems seemed unorganized and not prepared this guy was. He played TV clips from Fox News, MSNBC and maybe others that showed that Lewandowski had many recollections about what went on in the White House. The questioner asked Lewandowski if he was lying to the American people on a particular segment of MSNBC or was what he said to Robert Mueller the truth. The two were mutually exclusive. Corey said he was under no obligation to tell the truth to the media (as they were liars or some such thing.) 

As far as conversations in the White House which he was not allowed, he said, to comment on, the questioner pulled up quotes from one of Corey’s books where he had a very good recollection of those meetings. 

When all was done, it was clear that Lewandowski had lied and was willing to do the president’s bidding up to, but maybe just short of committing an obvious crime. It was interesting to hear prosecutors talk about Lewandowski’s behavior. They said that the way he acted was the way a guilty person acts, not an innocent one.

Because of the way Lewandoski acted Eric Swallwell asked that Lewandowski be held in contempt of Congress. The two that didn’t show up will also be held in contempt. The problem here is that the person who has to bring charges is the Attorney General. 

In another fascinating piece of distraction, one of the Congressmen remarked that the committee was wasting its time on this sham investigation when they had so many other things to do like looking into illegal immigration and those people smuggling guns and drugs into our country (who were of course illegal immigrants.)

In other news, Elizabeth Warren held a massive rally at Washington Square in NYC. Twenty thousand is the number now being assigned to the size of the crowd. Obama had a rally there too, back when he was running for president. I’m not sure what the size of his crowd was but Warren’s was equal to or larger than Obama’s, I think.

There was also polling about how she is doing. Her numbers keep going up. She seems to be the only one whose numbers are steadily. slowly increasing. Her numbers are challenging Biden’s and if Bernie or some of the others were to drop out I think she would surpass Biden easily. Her comment “I’ve got a plan for that!” seems to be really resonating with folks. She also is talking about the future, not the past. Folks seem to like that as well.

Most Democratic voters haven’t made up their minds so there is time for someone else to climb in the polls, but for whatever reason that isn’t happening. 

As I look over the field of Democratic candidates I see a terrific cabinet.

Compare it to the candidates Trump beat to win the election. There’s really no comparison.

There was also a series of speeches on the Senate floor about gun legislation. Not surprisingly, nothing has happened. I think many people are realizing the only way to make change on things people care about is to vote the dead weight out. 

I’m hoping to see the biggest electoral victory in years. I’m hoping the Dems take the Senate and we can finally get something done for the people.

413 Days until the 2020 election and 495 days until the Inauguration

PS “I’ve seen the world from both sides now…”

Day 985 Can You Keep Up?

Tuesday September 17, 2019

414 Days until the 2020 election and 496 days until the Inauguration

Between the scandals and crimes it’s hard to keep up. If I list only one a day I’d fall behind. Let’s see what I can list:

– Kavanaugh is back in the news. There’s a New York Times article that lists what we knew at the time he was confirmed. What is different, I guess, is that it has come out that the FBI didn’t conduct a real investigation and Chuck Grassley knew it and hid it from the public and fellow Congressional folks. 

Because he’s back in the news there were clips of him at his hearing. Forget about whatever he did as a younger man, look what he did at the hearing. He was belligerent and accusatory toward at least three Senators. He lied; he cried; he made stuff up. He accused his confirmation process as a hit job by the Clintons. What? I felt sorry for his wife who sat behind him with a sad look on her face.

People forget that when Kavanaugh first came to Washington he was a Republican hack, hanging out and partying with Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson and the rest of the younger right wing crew.

– Oh let’s see what was the crime of the day? Is it the refusing to give information to Congress that they are allowed by law to see? Yeah, I’ll go with that. But to be fair, there were only two cases today so lets not be so picky. Okay?

– What about the moral repugnant moment? I’d go with Ivanka saying that she got her moral compass from her father.

– What about foreign policy screw up of the day? Hum. How about starting a war with Iran? 

This because Trump pulled us out of the Iran Nuclear Deal with no plan for what to do.

But we won’t start that war right away. We are waiting on Saudi Arabia to tell Donald what to do.

– In the environment it turns out that the Trump administration has thrown out the regulations on methane that Obama put in place. It’s so bad that Shell Oil says it will continue to do what it can to meet the old standards. Currently, the Permian Basin, an area bigger than many states that straddles Texas and New Mexico, is flaring natural gas. Enough gas to heat thousands of homes. This adds a huge amount to the dangerous climate emissions. The air is so polluted in the area that people are leaving. 

– In politics, Trump held a rally in New Mexico where he told the crowd that he was brining lots of defense contracting money to the state. What he didn’t tell them was he was stealing $125 million from two of their air force bases to help build his wall.

Meanwhile Elizabeth Warren held a huge rally in New York City. Some 8,000 to 20,000 people showed up (depends on who is counting.) Reports say she has enthusiastic crowds and that she’s talking policy! She also is talking about the future.

– In ongoing investigations, the White House has told various congressional committees that Corey Lewandowski can not testify to Congress asserting executive privilege. This is curious because old Corey was never an executive in the White House.

– In Dancing with the Stars, Sean Spicer had his debut. Folks can’t get over his lime green Salsa shirt. One person said the costume people are obviously Democrats. He’s being compared to Rick Perry, but they forget … They forget that politician, whose name I forget, called The Hammer. The guy who kept his exterminator’s license just in case the political gig didn’t work out. Sean was better than that guy. I’m not sure if the consensus is that Perry was better or worse than Sean. I can tell you this. It wasn’t pretty.

So to sum up, it’s been a standard Trump day in the U.S. The president went out and lied. His staff and cronies did what they could to get rid of regulations to help the environment, our position in the world, and anything else positive. There’s anther case of open criminality. Nothing to see here. Move along.

414 Days until the 2020 election and 496 days until the Inauguration

PS Hey! What are you looking at?

Day 984 Let Freedom Ring

Monday September 16, 2019

415 Days until the 2020 election and 497 days until the Inauguration

Okay so there’s been some really weird stuff going on, and by that I mean the same old BS, that from time to time I must call out.

In the last Dem debate Beto said that he would make it mandatory for people to give up their weapons of war, their AK-47s and AR-15s. Weapons that have no purpose other than to kill people. He said he’s had enough, as have over 90% of people in America. This prompted all sorts of outrage by the gun nuts. “An AR-15 is not a real weapon of war,” was one typical comment. Then a rather milk toasty looking guy (state rep in Texas maybe?) said something like, “Beto, just try and take my AR-15 and I’ll show you.” To which Beto responded, “Sounds like you are threatening me.” Oh boy, then the gun nuts teamed up with the semi-puffed up Constitutional scholars to say not only was Beto trying to take away their 2^nd amendment rights but their first amendment rights as well. I made a comment about all this on facebook to which a woman came back with the “you don’t seem to know much about history…” comment, suggesting that I didn’t know what the purpose of the second amendment is or was.

So I think it’s time for a little school house rock, (paper, scissors, gun). Okay? Okay!

The purpose of the Second Amendment was so that southern slave owners could pursue runaway slaves. Period. 

I know. I know. “The right to bear arms” and “State militias” blah blah blah. The argument used to be made that the amendment was so that a person in a militia had the right to take their musket off the wall over their fireplace and assemble with their other minute men and not have their said musket taken away by the Federalis. Although this kind of thing was discussed, as were being allowed to keep guns for hunting, as French law at the time allowed, it was not the reason for the amendment. Wording was argued over and no agreement could be reached so they went with the more anodyne wording that we now have. There was talk of including something about the military use, but consensus could not be reached. The main concern of the southern representatives was that a federal armed force could come into their state and take away the guns of the plantation owners. Hence, the idea of state militias. There was a lot of wording as to who was in charge of what. The states had the militias but the federal government had the leadership of the militias. 

None of this was a really big deal until guns were started to be manufactured with interchangeable parts. This in the latter late half of the 19^th century. Remember during the Civil War much of the weaponry were unrifled arms with three parts to the shot: a charge, a wad, and a ball. Grant had said a man could stand 300 yards away (or was it 100?) and someone could shoot at him all day with such a weapon and never get hit. The marksmen at Gettysburg had rifled weapons but that was about it.

Okay, so after the Civil War, when the wild west was being settled, interchangeable parts started coming on the scene and this meant more guns per capita. Gun manufacturers at the time seized on the 2^nd amendment as the idea that they had a right to arm everyone. They haven’t let go of that idea. This was never the idea, nor the intention of the founding fathers. In fact, in the south, only white men were allowed to have guns. Not women, or children, and lord almighty not them you know.

And let’s not forget the shootout at the OK Corral. That was a sheriff imposing the law with his brand of gun nut, telling them that you were not allowed to bring your guns into town. For some reason the NRA, Congress, and the Supreme Court don’t allow guns. I wonder why? I mean a guy in the gallery of Congress with an AK-47 could only mow down those Congressional people on the floor at the time and they’re aren’t that many on the floor at any one time so what’s the big deal? Does Wayne La Pierre fear his own members so much that he won’t let them carry guns into their meetings? Come on, if you’re going to talk the talk, walk the walk.

The idea that individuals could have a gun was rejected over and over again by the Supreme Court. Six times, I think, until Scalia came up with a “novel” interpretation (that means “wild ass”) way to interpret the 2^nd amendment. In the DC gun law case known as the Heller ruling, Scalia wrote that why yes individuals could own guns and keep them in their home and that the idea of home extended to the glovebox of your car. (I mean who wants to run all the way to your house when you are pissed off and want to shoot someone?) The 2^nd amendment has a clause up in the front that says why they are writing the second part (the second part being “the right to bear arms shall not be infringed.”) Scalia in a novel understanding of grammar said that just because there’s a clause up front explaining exactly what the follow on clause is for doesn’t mean that’s the only reason for the second clause. For a guy who claimed to be an originalist (ie that he was trying to understand the original meaning that the founding fathers had and cleave to it) this is an original interpretation. And to be clear, by original I mean, ain’t no way this is what the founding fathers intended.

So now let’s return to Beto and his statement and his follow up to the Texas gun nut politician. 

1 – Is it okay, ie legal, to write a law making a certain kind of weapon illegal for the general public to have? Is it constitutional? 

Answer – Hell yes. After the Valentine’s Day massacre in 1934 Congress passed a National firearms act limiting the ownership of machine guns and requiring them to be registered and a tax (a heavy tax) be paid. This is pretty much what we have today, In the 1960s the gun lobby managed to gut a lot of that law but machine guns are registered and ownership is therefore tightly controlled and such weapons have not been used in mass shooting since that time. So yeah, you can limit the use of a firearm.

In 1994 an assault weapons ban went into effect with a ten year sunset provision. There were constitutional lawsuits filed, all were rejected. According to Wikipedia the overall criminal activity did not seem to be effected but there is tentative evidence that the number of mass shooting went down. The law expired in 2004. Since then the number of mass shooting has sky rocketed. 

So there’s all this talk by the gun nuts about their right to bear arms and not have it infringed. How about my right to not be in fear of being gunned down when I go to the movies, school, the mall, a street, or anywhere in America? No place is safe. What about my self evident truth that I have a right to pursue happiness? It’s kind of hard to do when you aren’t sure if a gun nut is stalking you or the place you frequent.

Certain rights have limitations. If you yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater and there isn’t one, you can be arrested. If I walk into a McDonald’s and someone is standing there with a weapon that they could unleash 100 bullets in seven seconds what am I supposed to do? Calmly go up to the counter and order a burger? 

I remember playing paintball with my son. They made a big deal about wearing eye protection and keeping your marker gun barrel corked when the game was over. When all the markers were supposed to be capped I walked by a kid with an uncorked barrel. I looked at him and he said, “Don’t worry, It’s not loaded.” Screw you kid. I am worried. 

Remember Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon? He was in a movie “The Crow.” There was a scene with a gun. The gun wasn’t loaded, but there was a bullet in the cylinder so that the camera could make it look like it was loaded. The firearms specialist had gone home for the day. It was a throw away scene, finishing up for  the day. There was powder or something in the gun so when the trigger was pulled it would make a loud sound. Bang. Projectile. He’s dead. It was an accident. Everyone is sorry. Screw you. 

(In fairness, the story has been updated. Brandon was holding a grocery bag and when the gun was fired Brandon was supposed to toggle something that made an explosion inside the grocery bag. It’s not clear whether the projectile was from the grocery bag or the gun. This was not the story at the time. However, Brandon suffered a hole in his body the size of a silver dollar and two arteries were cut.)

At least Brandon had a chance. From what I’ve read about the ammo used in AR-15s and the like, the victim’s body and internal organs are reduced to hash. But that’s okay the gun nuts say because an AR-15 isn’t a real military weapon. Screw you.

I want to be free in my country and I that includes the freedom to walk down a street, go to a movie, enter a mall or school and not have to worry if this is going to be the day some nut decides to pop off.

So please. No more talk about your rights to own weapons designed for hunting and killing humans. Stop whining about your constitutional right to whatever. I say a person’s right to safety and happiness trumps your fear or whatever it is that makes you want to own an AR-15 or the like. 

415 Days until the 2020 election and 497 days until the Inauguration

PS Yeah, it’s you honey. For sure.