U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

Republicans have become a ‘death cult’ in favor of ‘mass human sacrifice’: MSNBC panel



The Republican Party was described as a "death cult" on MSNBC for fighting against gun safety legislation by a panel on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House."

Host John Heilemann discussed the current state of the GOP with Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and historian Kurt Andersen.

"We've got new criticism this week of the Republican Party's stepped up and intentional promotion and glorification of guns — including the kind that was used to kill 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

Heilemann showed photos of Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) posed with guns and showed clips of Pennsylvania U.S. Senate hopeful Dave McCormick and gubernatorial candidate Mehmet Oz showing AR-15 style rifles in campaign ads.

"There is something going on here more than public policy argument and more than an argument about the second amendment," Heilemann said to Anderson.

"There is a culture war going on within this fight over gun safety and gun regulation," he continued. "Talk about the way in which of all the signifiers out there now in the Republican Party of 2022, being for guns, just full stop, is kind of what it means to be Republican.

"Yeah," Anderson replied.

"It is — when you overuse the word icon, but this is a fetishized icon of not just guns, yes, guns in general, but especially now these assault weapons," he explained. "Which, of course, by doing this it owns the libs."

"It is another of the most grotesque and society-destroying way of owning the libs, which is to say upsetting these people who don't think guns ought to be political play things and symbols," he continued. "I mean, we all say, 'Oh, nothing surprises me anymore,' but it keeps getting worse. It keeps getting lower."

"It's extraordinary I wrote, as you know John, a piece some months ago looking at the anti-vaccine movement for the last two years by the Republican Party as a kind of mass human sacrifice. But, of course, their increasingly hysterical, absolute opposition to gun control — making it impossible, really, to have effecrtive gun regulation in this country is what preceded that as effectively, a mass human sacrifice before and will continue because it's worth the price of freedom, that is their argument,"

Heilemann said, "it is like the Republican Party has become a death cult. And I know I am going to get hit for that, but there's a lot of it that's true, I'm afraid.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Republican says there are no solutions to gun violence – and blames legal abortion
https://www.rawstory.com/billy-long-2657442378/

[Rick Plant]

Today's #JOLTS data shows manufacturing in America is resilient, with 506,000 workers hired in April after a record 514,000 in March. Still, there is more to be done. It's time for Congress to pass the China competition bill so we can continue to expand opportunity in the U.S. but President Biden has gotten us out of the disastrous Trump manufacturing recession.

U.S. manufacturing sector regains speed in May-ISM
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-manufacturing-sector-regains-speed-may-ism-2022-06-01/

[Rick Plant]

Lauren Boebert, American menace
The Colorado congresswoman is responsible for causing personal harm to multiple people



Many public officials are guilty of bad behavior. But few can as readily be held responsible for harassment, personal threats and violence as Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

What’s worse, ghastly conduct represents the totality of her public service. Her legislative record is a dismal exhibition of performative gestures that offer no real benefit to Coloradans and serve mainly to complement her TV segments and social media showboating.

And if she were just an entertainer who happened to possess a congressional pin, her constituents might be content to wait out her place-holding stint as the representative from the 3rd Congressional District until a true public servant were ready to succeed her.

But she is more than a mere circus act. She is responsible for causing personal harm to multiple people.

The latest example involves Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert whom the Department of Homeland Security assigned to lead its new Disinformation Governance Board. The board was meant to ensure the delivery to Americans of reliable information about homeland security, until disinformation about the board itself and vile abuse directed at Jankowicz prompted the department in May to abandon the project.

Boebert, with a trademark style of dishonesty and provocation, helped lead an anti-board mob and inspire personal threats against Jankowicz. In an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” Jankowicz described the outcome of vitriolic rhetoric from members of Congress, such as doxxing, sexually abusive language, body-shaming, allegations of pedophilia, and violent threats.

“They’re encouraging this sort of abuse from the people who listen to them and follow them,” Jankowicz said. “One person said, ‘This is a hill to die on. Get ready. We will not tolerate this.’ And this to me seems to have come directly from a tweet that Rep. Lauren Boebert sent out saying that this was Stalinist or Mao-level and this was a hill to die on — so, directly echoing her language in the threat.”

A white supremacist last month who gunned down Black shoppers in a Buffalo grocery store was motivated by the “great replacement” theory, which falsely holds that white Americans are intentionally being replaced by non-white populations. The racist Fox News host Tucker Carlson is the most visible promoter of this erroneous narrative, but Boebert is arguably its most influential proponent in Colorado.

“This is why the Southern Border is wide open,” she tweeted in September. “They want to replace the unvaccinated with foreign workers at a lower price. Get ready, they will replace you if you won’t comply.”

The “great replacement” falsehood was behind other acts of violence, including mass shootings in El Paso and Christchurch, New Zealand.

Bigotry is baked into Boebert’s character. In November, she was caught in a video suggesting that if Democratic Rep. Ilhah Omar were wearing a backpack she would suspect the Minnesota lawmaker, who is Muslim, of being a suicide bomber. The comments were “hateful and dangerous,” as Omar herself described them, and, as was depressingly predictable, death threats against Omar followed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi characterized Boebert as making “repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic comments and actions against another Member of Congress.”

Boebert shared blame for the danger that befell elected officials in her own party during the Jan. 6 insurrection, when members of Congress fled for their lives. In the lead-up to the event, her office reportedly was in communication with organizers of the protests that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, during which rioters angry at the then-vice president chanted “Hang Mike Pence” — a call for an execution of which former President Donald Trump approved.

Boebert helped foment mob grievances by promoting falsehoods about the election and, on the morning of Jan. 6, tweeting, “Today is 1776,” which was understood by her followers as a call to arms.

Worst of all, in light of the routine slaughter of school children in America, is Boebert’s pathological promotion of firearms. Other crises in America might directly affect more individuals. Not a single human in the world can escape the adverse effects of climate change. The erosion of democracy threatens constitutional order. The elimination of abortion rights would be a staggering reversal of progress. But the proliferation of gun violence — in that it manifests so grotesquely in mass murder, and because conservative political obstruction so clearly precludes obviously effective gun safety measures — most starkly portends a cratering of national stability, and few figures in the country embody its blood-drenched gun culture with more diabolical gusto than Boebert.

Boebert might have mostly forsaken her constituents in Colorado, but she has amassed a fanbase that extends way beyond the state’s borders. She could use her platform to help improve people’s lives, promote the interests of vulnerable Americans, heal the divisions that jeopardize the country’s future.

But she does the opposite. She degrades and attacks people, particularly those who are vulnerable. She thrives in and exploits divisions and leaves them deeper.

There’s a word for this sort of person. She is a menace.

https://coloradonewsline.com/2022/06/02/lauren-boebert-american-menace/

[Rick Plant]

Watch: Jim Jordan gets repeatedly slapped down at hearing after complaining Dems 'rushed' to pass gun laws



Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) complained that Democrats were rushing to pass gun safety laws following the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, and he was repeatedly met with criticism.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Thursday on the Protecting Our Kids Act, and the Ohio Republican opened his remarks by expressing sympathy for the families of those killed in Uvalde, Texas, as well as those killed in Buffalo last month and then Tulsa on Wednesday, but then complained that Democrats wanted to pass legislation in response to the murders.

"No one wants another tragedy, no one wants this to happen again," Jordan said. "That's why it's regretful that Democrats have rushed to a markup today in what seems more like political theater than a real attempt at public safety or finding solutions. The Democrats never once reached out to us to seeking out before the legislation we are considering today. Protecting children is not a Republican or Democrat issue."

Jordan pointed out the Democratic majority had already passed gun safety measures in the House of Representatives, but he claimed the narrowly divided Senate wouldn't vote on the because, he claimed, they were too radical.

"Those bills are radical attempts to legislate away Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens," Jordan said. "The Senate has not taken up the legislation, just like it won't take up this bill. What we're doing is designed to appeal to Democratic primary voters."

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) was the first to fact check Jordan, saying comprehensive gun safety laws had been delayed for decades.

"The Democrats are not rushing anything," Cohen said. "The public is demanding we take action because they have seen what happened in Uvalde, Texas, they have seen what happened in Buffalo, they have seen what happened in Tulsa. It is happening all too often. It is deadly. Assault weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004, it was constitutionally permissible. It wasn't until 2008 and the Heller decision, when Justice [Antonin] Scalia said that people had a right based on the Second Amendment to protect their homes with reasonable weapons and said that that was not something that would prohibit government from having more restrictive laws on people with mental health problems or people who have criminal backgrounds or other possible changes in the law."

Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) went next, saying that Americans had failed the children killed in Uvalde, whom she identified by name, but she singled out Republican legislators for blame.

"One young man pulled the trigger, but we all have failed them," Garcia said. "America failed them and the other thousands of children who died as result of gun violence. Republicans are complicit in negligence and neglected to responsibly address comprehensive gun reform. Republicans are complicit in the shooting in Buffalo, for encouraging white supremacy and promoting replacement theory. The Republicans are complicit in the lives lost in Pulse [Nightclub] Florida for their homophobia and anti-human rights narrative. Republicans are complicit in El Paso for their anti-immigrant narrative and putting gun lobby interests over people's lives. House Democrats stand with the victims and the loved ones."

"We stand to act with the people, not gun interests," Garcia added. "We have been consistent, we are not rushing. We have already passed some bills. There are solutions, they are not premature. We have passed reforms and measures to ensure we are protecting our community, and most especially our little children, our angels."

Then Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) took his shots, reminding Jordan that guns were the leading cause of death for children and that more than 311,000 students had been exposed to gun violence since the Columbine massacre.

"Tell the parents who lost children, tell the family members who saw loved ones slaughtered that we are rushing," Cicilline said. "The real question is why has it taken us so long, and there is one reason: We don't have Republican colleagues in the fight with us. We passed two bills to strengthen criminal background checks. Our ranking member described those as radical attempts to take away the Second Amendment. That is a bill supported by 90 percent of the American people. Common sense, as well as closing the Charleston loophole. Enough with these bogus arguments about the Second Amendment. This is about fulfilling our responsibility to keep our constituents safe from gun violence."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Rep Greg Steube (R-FL) shows his guns during House Judiciary Cmte hearing on gun control.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) says "I hope the gun isn't loaded"

Rep. Steube responds, "I'm at my house. I can do whatever I want with my guns"

[Rick Plant]

Desantis will veto the bill to fund the Tampa Rays new Spring Training facility because of their recent statements about bringing awareness about gun violence statistics following the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings.