Assault weapons, mental health crises, and an unhinged GOP — what could possibly go wrong?
Flight into the Danger Zone
It’s becoming pert-near impossible to see how the current mental climate is going to improve any time soon. And that bodes ill — perhaps fatal — to human civilization. And perhaps that’s best, since we’re the only species on this planet that is destroying it.
But there are still so many good people here — people who want to do the right thing for everything and everyone on Mother Earth — that it is a crying shame things should end this way. There are the Jane Goodalls,the Greta Thunbergs, Native indigenous souls, and regular folks like you and me who “get it”; who want the powers-that-be to wake the hell up and do something besides joust, bicker and spout “the party line/the company line/ the big lies” that are turning We the People into warring camps.
My sister, a devout Christian (and a truly wonderful, but fearful person), bought a gun and was trained to use it last year, and this year she bought herself a “welome mat” (HA!) with the image of a handgun on it that proclaims something like, “If you have bad intentions, you’d better be ready to meet Jesus!”
And it wasn’t enough to just place it on the patio deck; she stuck it in her screen at reading height so everyone coming to her front door is more or less assaulted by this “welcome threat”. Talk about IN YOUR FACE!!! It turns my stomach to see it there instead of where MOST “welcome mats” are placed. (Even there, it would be appalling to me, but that’s just me. (“Enter here to receive Christian benevolence or violence — your choice.” What kind of welcome mat is that? )
(My welcome mat, on the back porch, in sharp contrast, reads, “HATE DOESN’T LIVE HERE” and a recognition of marginalized people and Constitutional — and I dare say, truly Christ-like — principles.
One of my nephews (also a decent, devout, but fearful person) frequently wears a tshirt that proclaims, “FAITH, FAMILY, FRIENDS, FIREARMS.” I remember an exercise in logic from grade school that asked us to choose “Which of these is NOT like the others?” Silly me, I would have picked FIREARMS!
Scripture reads, “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,” and “All who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (This was before firearms, remember.)
This is what the far right and Christian Nationalism have drilled into too many people’s heads: “A secular, diverse world is dangerous. Protect yourself.”
And so, the rest of us become “the other,” “the dangerous, ” the “libtards” which Jesus also had something to say about: “love your neighbor as yourself,” “the rich and the poor have a common bond, The Lord is the maker of them all,” “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.”
ASSAULT WEAPONS
And just mention banning assault weapons again (which we did from 1994 to 2004, which resulted in plummeting instances of mass excutions by lone assailants) and the demagogues on the far right claim the left is trying to keep them from having firearms, a “Second Amendment right!”
Really?! Let’s read that Second Amendment together, shall we? All together now. Here it is in its entirety:
Second Amendment
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
We have the National Guard, police departments and various other armed agencies (well-regulated militia) these days. And yes, people should have the right to handguns or critter-hunting-type rifles for self-defense purposes, but not an assault weapon, not a weapon of mass destruction, a weapon of war. We are not AT WAR with our brethren, neighbors, or even our desperate, homeless, and/or self-medicating brethren.
What we have is a mental health and hopelessness crisis, mostly of historically marginalized people whose desperation sometimes leads them to desperate acts, like stealing, armed robbery, dumpster diving, and setting up tents in our cities. What they deserve is our help and a hand up, not a coffin. Anything else is racist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic, or transphobic, and not helpful.
(Yes, armed robbers, murderers and rapists are bad. These (far fewer!) assailants should be removed from society and sent to jail; they should not be executed on the spot unless absolutely no other recourse is possible.)
The far-right wingnuts proclaim, “We don’t have a gun crisis, we have a mental health crisis!” (Tell that to every other major country on earth, all of which have mental health crises, but whose citizens don’t carry weapons as a matter of course. The death rate in those countries completely drawfs ours.)
BUT THEY KEEP VOTING DOWN THE EXPANSION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Oh, and if anyone has ever better exposed their NEED for mental health interventions than the far right, I haven’t seen it.
It took fifteen ballots and some pushing and shoving to get Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, which is usually a one-and-done vote affair. And it wasn’t the DEMS that caused it; it was the clown car fringe that caused it. And they have so hamstrung him that a single vote of no confidence in him by any of them can make him impotent.
AND WHO IS McCarthy PLACING ON CRUCIAL COMMITTEES?
The very same lunatic fringe that assisted in the attempted coup against our duly-elected representatives in the White House on January 6th two years ago! We have the “Jewish Space Laser Lady” on a committee. We have a QANON lunatic on another. We have Jim Jordan, who looked into asking POTUS (POS) Trump for a pardon, as did four other federal reps.
And we have Kevin McCarthy falling all over himself thanking the former Insurrectionist in Chief for helping him strong-arm his way to the Speakership position after 15 arduous votes.
Here’s his quote:
“I do want to especially thank President Trump. I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning … he was all in.He would call me, and he would call others. He really was — I was just talking to him tonight — helping get those final votes. What he’s really saying, really, for the party and the country, (is) that we have to come together… We gotta do so much work to do (sic) , and he was a great influence to make that all happen. So, thank you, President Trump.”
Gag a maggot. (Gag a MAGAt!)
Trump has the far right GOP (and the rest of the GOP, too, since they won’t push back) by the short hairs. The would-be tyrant is still pulling their strings.
If the judicial powers that be don’t put Trump in a cage (alongside his lietutenants in Congress who helped spread the big Lie that the election was stolen and voted NOT to certify the election results), and soon, it may well be all over for the country that courageous founders established. And if that action should cause another Civil War, then I guess it will be time to say, “Bring it on!” because the only way to beat back that degree of insanity is by extinguishing as much of it as we can. (I hope it won’t come to that, but all bets are off, right now.)
Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The law against what they did is already on the books, and we have their statements and their votes to prove their dereliction of duty. Why is the Justice Department delaying tossing them all out on their ear? Kevin McCarthy was among them, and he’s now leading the asylum.
Jesus Jumped Up Christ!
Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?
(borrowed from John Adams, 1776 Musical)
