July 26, 2022

The reason Mike Pence has been silent about Jan. 6 thus far: "So Help Me God."

Looks like Pence has a book coming out this fall, entitled So Help Me God.

https://about.simonandschuster.biz/news/mike-pence-so-help-me-god/

Interesting title, huh? Meaningful on so many levels! And GOP-loyalist to the end, note the post-midterm-elections publication date.

July 6, 2022

We need to do to gun stores and gun shows what anti-abortionists do to women's health clinics.

We need to stage protests in front of every gun store in the nation and at every gun show and at every sporting goods store where assault rifles are sold. Oh, and at the NRA, of course.

We need to bring signs saying, "BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS NOW!" and so on.

Being Democrats, we should NOT follow the anti-abortionists' acts of violence against people or property.

Yes, the gun lovers will be pissed. Yes, this could lead to violence. Yes, we will be arrested. But we need to be as relentless as the anti-abortionists.

Remember John Lewis and all the other civil rights activists in the 60s. They did what they had to do to bring about change.

June 28, 2022

So Trump said, "Take away the effing Mags! They're not here to hurt ME!" when his adoring fans

would not go through the metal detectors at the Ellipse because they didn't want their weapons taken away.

Wouldn't any normal, sane, and most of all, not-guilty-of-inciting-violence president have said, "Take away those people with weapons! They're not going to be allowed to hurt anyone here today!"???

June 27, 2022

Ya basta. Let's really divide the country.

I am starting to believe that due to the right's insistence on their way or the highway on everything from abortion to gun rights to what books can be taught in school, that it may be truly impossible to find common ground with them. Maybe it's time to physically divide the country into left and right. Yes, a gargantuan task, and how would this even be possible? I don't know.

I'm just writing this out of sheer exhaustion from the right's relentless attacks on democracy and individual freedoms, and it's early in the morning and I haven't thought it through—at all. But wouldn't it be nice if we could have our half of the country in which people were elected to office based on their qualifications and experience and intelligence and good intentions and desire to serve their community? A country where social and economic policies are based on common sense and concern for the success of everyone instead of just a few? A country where environmental and health policies are based on science? A country of inclusion, not exclusion, where people of all hues and sexual orientations are valued? A country where education seeks the truth above all things?

This is, I know, just pie-in-the-sky thinking, and I know I'm going to get a lot of "That'll never happen" responses. But damn, I'm just so tired of this, and I wish we Dems could just create our own little Denmark and let the Repubes just go and have their Taliban-esque society if that's what will finally shut them up.

May 26, 2022

Texas teachers, make that ALL teachers, should stage a walkout and not return in the fall until

assault weapons are banned.

There's only, what, a week and a half left of school in Texas, and Uvalde school district has already announced that their school year is over. But it would still make a giant statement for all teachers to walk out. NOW.

May 25, 2022

Here's an idea: If we can't get assault weapons banned, then buyers should have to pick up their

newly purchased assault weapon at their local police department. There, they would be interviewed and evaluated by a specially trained police officer, preferably a detective from their Homicide Department. That's all. No fingerprinting (although that would be nice). No official registering of the assault weapon (although THAT would be nice). Just an interview by someone with the training and experience to spot a nut job who should absolutely, positively NOT be allowed to purchase an assault weapon.

There would be no gun show loopholes. All assault weapons sold at a gun show would have to be delivered to the local police station for the purchaser to pick up at a later date and to undergo an interview with a police officer. And the same police department could do stings to catch people selling assault weapons online and attempting to deliver the assault weapon directly to the purchaser.

I think just the prospect of having to go to the police department to pick up their new assault weapon would deter many people from buying one.

I would, of course, rather see all assault rifles banned and make it so that all other guns would require registration and gun owners would need to pass a gun safety class to receive a license to own a gun, just like owning and driving a car. If we Democrats ever get a super-majority, those things would be possible. But these actions, apparently, are not possible as long as Senate Democrats can be blocked by Senate Republicans (and Manchin and Sinema, let's not forget those two gems).

Anyway, just trying to think of something, ANYTHING, that might possibly be possible. I know Republicans everywhere would be ALL up in arms (figuratively and literally) at my proposal, which they would see as anything but modest.

Anyway, . . . may God bless those babies and their teachers who died in Uvalde yesterday (and at Sandy Hook, and at . . .) and their grieving moms and dads and the rest of their family members.

May 20, 2022

Yesterday, I'm in the shower and my dogs go nuts because someone's at the door. Turned out to be

someone knocking doors and handing out literature for a Republican candidate running for a state House district office. I hadn't answered the door, so they stuck their flyer in the crack of the door where I'd be sure to find it.

I'm really glad I was unable to answer the door because I've been sort of seething with anger at all the Republican outrages of late and I don't know what I might have said to the person. I realize that erupting in anger and going off on that person would have accomplished nothing, except brand me as the crazy liberal Democrat who lives in that neighborhood. Plus, is that how I want to be treated when I go a door-knockin' for Democratic candidates?

Once I calmed down a bit, I realized that I wished that I had had my own literature to hand to the Republican door knocker. Just a list titled "The Top 10 Reasons Why I Do Not Vote Republican." This way, I could maybe, maybe have a teachable moment with the person, if they actually took the time to read it. And I wouldn't come off as a frothing-at-the-mouth crazy person. Plus, if I could be pleasant and "nice them to death" and dispel any illusions they have that Democrats are evil.

I've started my list for next time with a few recent items:

1. Republicans in the House of Representatives just voted against a bill that would provide money to ease the baby food formula crisis, while simultaneously supporting legislation to overturn Roe v. Wade, supposedly to protect the lives of unborn babies.

2. Republicans in the House of Representatives just voted against a bill that would prevent price gouging on gas during times of emergency.

3. Republicans such as Rick Scott of Florida want to "sunset" Social Security and Medicare so that these programs would be voted on every few years. They want to do this just so that these programs can be done away with.

4. Nine Black people were killed and others seriously injured in the Buffalo massacre, yet Republican senators and representatives refuse to enact commonsense gun control laws, including a law we used to have banning assault rifles like the one used in the Buffalo mass murder and other massacres.

There are really hundreds of horrible things the Repubes have done that I could add to my list (the insurrection, their support of twice-impeached, treasonous grifter Trump, their support of Russia instead of Ukraine), but I'm trying to stick to recent news items of which my Republican neighbors are likely ignorant, what with their getting all their news from Fox.

If anyone has any ideas of things I could add, that'd be great. Anyway, just thought I'd share.

May 16, 2022

I went inside a bank last week here in Montana. A sign on the door read "NO WEAPONS."

At the very least, could we pass a law making it illegal to bring a weapon inside any public building?

And I know that white supremacists like the shooter in Buffalo would not read the sign and say, "Oh, crap! I guess I can't go in and slaughter innocent people like I wanted to. Guess I'll just go home!" so additional measures would have to be taken, like metal detectors, which, I know, expensive.

But if we can't get the Repubes to pass a bill banning assault weapons, maybe . . . okay, this is me throwing up my hands in despair because I know we could never get them to pass a law making it illegal to bring a weapon inside a public building.

The only solution is to get a super majority in Congress, pass an assault weapons ban, and then keep the super majority forever.

May 4, 2022

Republicans are the "Take Away Your Freedom Caucus." We must repeat this over and over and over

and across all media, just like they repeated the "Stop the Steal!" and "Tax and Spend Democrats" phrases until they stuck.

April 6, 2022

If Putin is to be believed (I know, that's a mighty big IF) and he is most concerned about

an existential threat to Russia, then you would THINK that he is just saber-rattling with his veiled threat of using nukes. Yes, that's a dangerous gamble to act on the belief that Putin won't use nukes, but remember the hard calculations Kennedy et al. had to make during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

With that in mind, I think NATO should tell Russia to get out of Ukraine NOW or it will indeed make Ukraine a NATO member. Demand an immediate cease-fire and give Russia a deadline to leave Ukraine. If they violate the cease-fire or fail to meet the deadline to leave, then do it: make Ukraine a NATO member and immediately flood the country with soldiers from all NATO countries and begin providing military air support to Ukraine to enforce a no-fly zone.