YESTERDAY WAS THE LAST DAY OF NRA SUPREMACY IN THE UNITED STATES

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Sunday March 25, 2018 · 6:00 AM PDT

2018/03/25 · 06:00

Photo © By The Brennan Center For Justice

The NRA leadership always has been paranoid that this fall from public grace would come.

All their advertising showed it — the illogical and misleading slippery slope arguments that even the most sensible gun law would result in the confiscation of ALL guns, the money funneled from foreign governments like Russia into politicians campaign chests, the huge investment the weapons industry spent on lobbying Congress and all 50 statehouses across the nation, the huge advertising campaigns attacking anyone brave enough to speak out against them — all showed a level of paranoia rare among corporations or industries in the USA.

Membership in the NRA is something around 3 million to 4.2 million, depending on whose data one gives credence to, or around 1% of the total USA population of around 340 million people, not counting several key Russian citizens working for their intelligence organizations. It is estimated that 3% of Americans own over 50% of the guns extant in the nation. The tip of the tail was successfully wagging the entire dog.

But their whole act was exposed and countered effectively by over a half-million marchers in Washington D.C. on Saturday, March 24th, 2018, backed by hundreds of other marches in cities in states all around the USA and even several large ones in cities around the world. The NRA was effectively killed off NOT by a huge advertising campaign nor a political movement plotted and organized by adults, but by our children, reacting emotionally to the straw that broke the NRA's back, the tragic mass murder in a suburban high school in Florida.

The chant most heard among the huge crowds sent shivers down the spine of every gun manufacturer, every gun store, every gun show aficionado and every politician with a high NRA loyalty rating; "VOTE THEM OUT."

That means the days of their political supporters are now numbered; they are under attack by a force they could not have imagined a month ago. The wave sweeping many politicians from their comfortable seats much talked about as a Democratic wave has now become a non-partisan tsunami.

Out of the mouths of our children came the most literate, emotionally charged arguments heard in our nation since the marches against the Vietnam War in the 1970's. And THAT 1970’s wave led to the ending of that war with the USA in ignominious defeat.

The same fate now awaits the NRA. The Emperor of Weapons in the hands of citizens now is naked, exposed by signs reading, for instance, "THE FREEDOM TO BEAR HARMS," and “YOUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IS ‘TRUMPED’ BY MY RIGHT TO LIVE.”

Out of this one school will come several of our politicians of the future; just based on their determination and their savvy use of logic mixed with emotion to stir us all to tears.

Yes, you can mark this day as the day the NRA began its quick and ignominious fall from the grace of our politicians who courted them just yesterday. We adults could not do it.

The kids did it.

P.S.: Slipped into the 2,000 page Federal Budget that Congress passed last week and the President signed into law Friday afternoon is full funding through September 2019 for the CDC, (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta GA to research the effects of gun violence on the health of Americans.

No one knows, as yet, who slipped it in because no Representative nor Senator has taken credit for the line item.

THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE GRIND SLOW, BUT EXCEEDINGLY FINE

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Saturday February 24, 2018 · 5:36 AM PST

2018/02/24 · 05:36

It has been a long wait for many of us, who, upon reading of the cascade of scandals breaking around the Drumpf and his minions, became impatient with Special Prosecutor Mueller’s investigation. We wanted results, and we wanted them NOW!

But complicated criminal activity has many facets, many elements to investigate — and conviction depends heavily on the Prosecutor having all the evidence solid, cinched down, with paper trail backup and personal testimony. He must convince a jury that the crimes were committed, the what, how, when, who and whys all answered and provable to regular citizens sitting on a jury.

And this investigation IS complicated: It centers on a massive criminal enterprise within — and without — the Drumpf’s administration.

It involves bank fraud, income tax fraud, money-laundering on a massive scale through myriad off-shore shell companies, agreements with an enemy nation to favor them in legislation and international action in return for help in winning an unwinnable election, election fraud and meddling, possible bribery of foreign politicians, and obstruction of justice charges stemming from an entire administration (the White House) trying to stop or impede the investigation into all of it.

And those are just the main points. Smaller side issues could go on for years. People could be tried and sentenced to jail over this scandal for a decade.

When Rick Gates plead guilty to even more charges on Friday, and more and more indictments are announced even on Russian citizens and companies, it means the investigation is swinging into high gear. Ex-Campaign Trump Election Manager Manafort, who considers himself the most brilliant thinker on earth, is cornered by his own greed and is being forced to flip on The Drumpf and his staff. The main battle lines have been drawn, and anyone in the scandals can expect to be outed, pilloried, publicly shamed, forced from their jobs and even sentenced to real, down-home jail time.

We may not be the end of the investigation, but we are at the beginning of the end of the investigation.

GOP HANDS BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS TO THE DEMOCRATS

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Thursday December 21, 2017 · 11:00 AM PST

2017/12/21 · 11:00

gettyimages-896192688_custom-c20e844efbfc57bd74bb51e96a7e50f81f6c320d-s800-c85.jpg — © Getty Images

The GOP has slipped into a fantasy world since the days of Eisenhower. They have convinced themselves that down is up, bad is good and lies are the truth.

They believe American voters will reward them for enriching the already enriched, for instance.

They believe Americans will appreciate a two dollar a month cut in their taxes, [which they will not notice until April, 2019, five months AFTER the midterm elections] and ignore Wells Fargo announcing the tax bill will increase their profits in 2018 by 18%, or tens of billions of dollars a year.

They believe the fiction that the ‘middle class’ will reap the benefits of this (or any other tax cut legislation). That belief is based on a simple mathematical error — they define the middle-class as those with their own salaries of around $200,000 a year, (the top 1.6%, actually) and not the $15,000 to $45,000 in individual annual income the actual 50 percentile middle class brings home. [IRS Database]

They believe advertising will ‘fix’ any opinions against the tax bill they danced around about last night. They completely ignore that polls have clearly shown that the 17 million dollars in advertising already aired have had a negative effect. The public’s opinon of the tax bill has fallen, not risen, as a result of that advertising. The opinions of Americans that tax cuts favor the rich AT THEIR EXPENSE is well ingrained, (whether true or not) and each tax cut bill only reinforces the popularity of that opinion.

They completely ignore history. After Reagan’s famous 1980’s tax cut he lost both the House and the Senate for the rest of his Presidency. After Bush’s famous tax cut he too lost both houses of Congress. So did Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama.

In ancient times the indignity of a fallen warrior was that he might be killed with his own weapon, hence the phrase, ‘hoisted on one’s own petard.’

The GOP stands to be hoisted high on their own petard.

Pit Bulls Eat Their Owner While She Walked Them

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Sunday December 17, 2017 · 6:00 AM PST

2017/12/17 · 06:00

“It was an absolutely grisly mauling. In my 40 years of law enforcement, I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew said during a briefing December 16, 2017 about the death of 22-year-old Bethany Lynn Stephens. Stephen’s body showed many defensive wounds indicating she tried to fight off her own pets.

Her two dogs are brindle-colored pit bulls. Pit bulls are especially dangerous around crawling babies, which they see as weak prey, or in numbers more than one, when their inbred instinct to pack hunt can flare up suddenly and without warning. Animals that have been docile pets for years have suddenly and without any warning turned on their owners or bystanders.

Pit bull owners continue to defend the dogs against all evidence that they are dangerous not only to babies, but to their adult owners as well. The breed was designed as dog fighters, placed in pits to maul and kill one another and any other dogs or animals put with them. The fights were staged throughout the world by gamblers, and had a large following before being outlawed practically everywhere. Many dogs were killed by other dogs or even by their owners if they were the surviving losers in a fight.

Animals bred for the specific tendency to kill do not make great pets, in spite of the pit bull owners efforts to defend them.

[Added Clarification, December 20, 2017]

In response to the comments of several readers complaining about the word “eat” in the title to this article, the following was testified to by the local sheriff’s office; “We found her dogs eating on her rib cage…”

Also, some were concerned that the dogs (pictured) were not true Pit Bulls. Brindle-colored pit bulls are a true AKC breed, though differing in looks from the most common breed. [KRM]

TIME TO LEGALLY STRUCTURE SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASES?

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Friday December 08, 2017 · 6:08 AM PST

2017/12/08 · 06:08

man-touching-woman-s-knee-sexual-harassment-office-business-80728837.jpg — © 2017 dreamstime.com

So far most sexual harrassment cases have been litigated through social and not legal means. Companies decide on the fly whether or not to fire or keep on people who have been accused of sexual harrassment. The government decides through their political parties whether to force out those accused or whether to keep them in for political expediency.

The cases usually arise when someone publicly (most often in the media) accuses another person of sexually harrassing or even physically assaulting and/or molesting them, (which is a crime). But the rules are fluid, and are not applied anywhere near evenly.

Senator Franken is hounded out by his party because he was accussed of kissing and/or groping several women during his comedy (not his Senate) career. Roy Moore of Alabama is encouraged to run for the Senate after written proof (his own signature on cards and in high school year books) of his predatory behavior with 14 year old girls is exposed in the press.

Those two are polar opposites in the degree of the offenses alleged and social punishment exacted, yet they happened during the same weeks.

And neither of the two has been called to task by criminal authorities. Neither has had a single day in court. Neither has had the United States Constitution Amendment 6 right to “…to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have assistance of Council for his defense.”

The law is a jumble on this issue. States are all over the place, and are mostly absent on the legal issues involved. Ethics committees are useless and sometimes even harmful.

Legal questions abound. What specific actions constitute a harrassment crime? When is it too late to accuse a person for old offenses? (Statutes of limitations.) What evidence is acceptable to prove a crime in a court of law? How many accusers constitute a pattern of behavior? How should witnesses be treated on the stand? What questions are out of bounds for the defense to ask? What is the legal recourse for those falsely accused?

I am suggesting it is time for legislators at all levels of government to take up these and other questions regarding legal liability for harrassment. It is neccessary to prevent rumors from becoming convictions, as well as for offenders to escape legal liability for their transgressions.

And it is time for all those concerned with this issue to pressure their elected officials to take such action.

DRUMPF’S DEUTSCHE BANK LOAN RECORDS SUBPOENAED BY MUELLER

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Tuesday December 05, 2017 · 5:08 AM PST

2017/12/05 · 05:08

In a move reminiscent of RICO money-laundering cases past, present and future, the Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller finally put a shot across The Drumpf’s bow.

He opened a personal attack on the hand-size-challenged politician and real estate developer [you know how honest THEY are!] by requiring the international Deutsche Bank to submit all records relating to The Drumpf’s loans and transactions.

This is most probably only the opening gambit. [Mixed metaphors much?] More international banks, including those controlled by Putin and gang, will most likely be served soon.

As the shadowy man in the parking garage reputedly said during the Watergate investigation, ‘follow the money.’

Mueller worked with the shadowy man in the underground garage. Turns out he too was an FBI agent.

Merry Christmas, Orange One. May the packages you open contain your just deserts.

THE DRUMPF IS IN THE FRYING PAN WITH FLYNN ON THE HOT SEAT

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Tuesday November 28, 2017 · 4:53 AM PST

2017/11/28 · 04:53

By Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

General Flynn’s value to the Mueller investigations are two-fold: Collusion and Obstruction. As detailed in Vanity Fair…

Flynn knows the inner workings of the effort to obstruct justice with the Drumpf’s firing of FBI Director Comey, and he has intimate knowledge of the collusion with Russia as the Drumpf’s point man after meeting(s?) with the Russian Ambassador over issues relating to election interference. And Mueller has Flynn’s son, also indicted, to bargain with.

Daddy talks, son walks. Classic John LeCarre plot.

Flynn’s lawyer met with Mueller Monday, presumably to discuss any possibility of a plea deal. It is assumed by investigation watchers that the deal would result in Flynn implicating the Drumpf’s campaign staff in the collusion with a foreign government to influence a national election. It is also assumed he would provide first-hand testimony into the Drumpf’s discussions about firing the FBI Director in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Russian investigation. If Flynn does all that, the thinking goes, then Mueller will absolve his son of any crimes resulting in the indictment and possible charges.

The response from the Drumpf has been a weird (so what's new?) mixture of tweets, off the subject asides and even veiled threats to Mueller not to cross certain red lines in the sand, mixed metaphors and all. From all accounts, Mueller is unfazed by those threats.

One must assume that as naive as the Drumpf is about the formal workings of government the Mueller investigation scares the bejeezus out of him. In one way or another, he mentions it nearly every day and deep into many nights, indicating it is at the forefront of his worries. And rightfully so.

The Comey firing alone was the kind of crime that got Richard “Tricky Dicky” Nixon to leave office in disgrace. With the nasty odor of a willing Russian mole in the Oval Office clinging to the Drumpf like super glue, he might even be looking at an impeachment based on treachery.

THE FRANKEN KERFUFFLE

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Friday November 17, 2017 · 5:26 AM PST

2017/11/17 · 05:26

171116-al-franken-leeann-tweeden-airplane-se-1105a_cdbd11d4ba4f856a53dca9fe3803882f.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg — Publicity photo attempt on USO Tour

The Franken affair is a perfect example of both the mob mentality and the wolf-pack syndrome. Another term that comes to mind is ‘piling on.’ Even Rachel Maddow (of whom I am a major fan) succumbed to the emotional response to criticize unfairly.

As I undersatnd it this was publicized by a guy named Hannity of Faux News, whoever the hell he is, and is either a groteque misunderstanding of a comedian trying a skit idea out or a straight out setup of a progressive politician in response to and revenge for the mall-rat Republican Roy Moore story of nine minor girl-children who were molested by him in Gadson Alabama when he was a mere 32 years old.

I have read that the actress in the photo is an employee (at least part-time) at this Faux News cable studio and an openly avid Drumpf supporter. The photographer of the above picture said it was staged, and Leeann Tweeden was awake but faking it for the sake of comedy. [She did mention an unwanted kiss, with tongue. That IS a bit gross, I’ll admit. I’m happy to report I have outlived all of my high school classmates, so no one alive can charge ME with such a heinous crime. Of course I am neither rich nor famous, so no one would care anyway.] I also read that she did not think it was a big deal as it is made out to be. If the victim doesn’t think it a big deal, why would Rachel Maddow and the wolf-pack?

I also understand after checking out Neilson’s, that Faux News is a cable network station that draws a fat .006% of the national population as its weekly viewership, something over two million weekly viewers out of a 328 million (est) population.

I also understand the Faux News cable network has had mulitple sexual harrassment scandals of its own in the past year or so, resulting in several of its major stars and even its founder and boss being fired, along with a loss of multiple profitable advertising accounts.

So maybe this Frankel blip is a tiny attempt at ‘get-back’ or something.

THE ICIJ PARADISE PAPERS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF 2017…

macguru

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Wednesday November 08, 2017 · 5:06 AM PST

2017/11/08 · 05:06

THE International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, (ICIJ), is the group of fact miners that gave us the "Panama Papers," revealing the outline of money laundering setups abroad from the point of view of a single foreign law office.

The ICIJ was formed to counter the trend of downgrading local, state and national news organization’s abilities to do deep investigative journalism.

Budget cuts to nearly all levels of journalistic endeavors — worldwide — came about because corporations were consolidating their power by buying up news outlets, cutting their investigative units' budgets and personel assets, and thereby dumbing down the news available to the public. News programs were becoming one sensational story followed by simple paid advertising for corporate clients and the entertainment industry. Hard news was disappearing.

An uninformed public was, they posited, a more controllable public. And the cuts increased their profits. A win-win for the investor class.

The ICIJ is reversing that trend by providing a well-organized worldwide group of journalists with the assets to perform long-term deep investigations of topics critical to our collective futures.

Now they have begun releasing a series of articles called the “Paradise Papers,” (Link), detailing how the Aristocratic Investor Class of billionaires and wannabe’s hides and washes their money to avoid taxation from their home countries. It is, they have found, a huge, huge endeavor, robbing nations of their inherent right to fund critical services for their citizens through taxation.

The Paradise referred to is a planned service where the aristocratic rich of this world can earn without worrying about taxes or any national regulation over their actions at all. A Paradise for billionaires.

Over the next few months this subject will be the major topic of conversation among ALL the world’s powerful people. Trillions of dollars worth of taxable income is being hidden; citizens of nearly all countries are being swindled by this whole class of the very biggest investors — and major contributors to all political parties and their candidates.

Stay alert. Pay attention. Watch in the coming months as the ICIJ reveals more and more about this issue.

THIRD GOP SENATOR OPENLY DEFIES AND CONDEMNS THE PRESIDENT

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Tuesday October 24, 2017 · 4:00 PM PDT

2017/10/24 · 16:00

flake.nbcnews-ux-1080-600.jpg — SENATOR FLAKE DELIVERS HIS RESIGNATION SPEECH

Senator Flake’s Full Resignation Speech

Senator Flakes speech (linked above in its entirety) is valuable to any American of all political parties. It should be required viewing for all Americans.

Senator Flake (R, AZ) is the third US Senator, along with Senators Corker and McCain to openly defy the President of the United States for his crude and divisive behavior while in office. He mentioned the coarseness of his tweets, by denigrating the President’s habit of announcing policy and attacking friend and foe alike “in 140 characters.”

All three have announced they will not seek reelection. McCain will not run again because of his health, but Corker and Flake will not run again in defiance of the divisive and “low manner” of the President of the United States. All three have been vocal in their opposition to the President’s behavior and lack of qualifications for his position.

With three self-announced opponents in a Senate with only a two-seat majority, all of the President’s pet legislation is at risk of being voted down.

Should Senator Flake's resignation speech hit home with other Senators and House of Representatives members, it will be the start of a watershed event where an American political party abandons their leader because of his unacceptable behavior.

Megyn Kelly Finds Her Voice

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Monday October 23, 2017 · 4:18 PM PDT

2017/10/23 · 16:18

I just finished watching Megyn Kelly on her new NBC show, “Megyn Kelly Today". (Monday, Oct 23, 2017)

Since moving from Faux News, she has had a hard time finding her forte, her niche, her voice. I have been critical of her stumbling. I expected more from her.

She found her voice today. Her opening speech was well crafted, impashioned and important. It is on the MUST WATCH list.

Even when she was on Faux News, of which I have little good to say at all, she sometimes had a spark that set her apart. When she questioned The Drumpf during a campaign debate, for instance, she hit him where he lived, and he did NOT like it one bit. And then on women’s rights, she seemed more than eager to jump to their defense when someone was asking disparaging questions. She took risks doing that on Fox.

Today’s show was all about harrasment and unwanted sexual advances in the workplace, and Megyn made an impashioned and exceptional speech to start the show. THAT was the Megyn Kelly I hoped would jump to national non-propaganda stations.

Her guests were on point, and by the end of their testimony (it was much more than a simple discussion) one was left with a burning question:

WHY on earth is there not a well-known and publicized national organization that provides legal and psychological protection for women from such harrasment? A fully staffed national hotline? In every state, every large city? WHY is it that so many women (and they are legion!) are feeling all alone out there, without anyone competent to contact that will listen and take concrete action on their complaints?

My readers point to one organization, and claim there are many. That seems to check out. But none are well known enough to have been of help for these many victims of harrassment.

And, one more point:

The very existence of a legal copout such as a contract clause known as a ‘non-disclosure agreement’ is abhorent. It is a license for wealthy people to commit crimes and then to legally bribe the victims and witnesses into silence. How, in a free society, can that possible be legal?

IGNORANT VOTERS COME FROM PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION

macguru

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Wednesday October 18, 2017 · 6:18 AM PDT

2017/10/18 · 06:18

Fellow Progressive Janet Ramstack tells a truth here.

The seemingly wilful stupidity of so many of our fellow citizens comes from four decades of GOP cuts to, and downsizing of, public education.

One must be taught critical thinking and be given factual data about financial, political and historical subjects to effectively use those skills.

One cannot teach effectively on a shoestring, and the GOP has spent forty years privatizing education, using the smokescreen of 'charter schools.’ Complicated subjects like those listed require continual study from first grade up through 12th in public schools. That is not happening. It is forbidden in most Charter schools.

It started in 1980 with President Ronald Reagan's first public rants about schools teaching liberalism, and how that was a bad thing. (Liberal education? “Intellectual elite?” liberal media bias?) Critical thinking is the bedrock of a liberal education.

A for-profit corporation delivers product at the lowest possible cost and at the most profitable percentage, two factors that cause privatizing education to be a massive and inevitable and expensive failure. That is, privatization is a failure for everyone except GOP politicians, who owe their elections to the cumulative ignorance of their voter base who posses low critical thinking skills and little pertinent data.

That truth is that the for-profit corporate culture is generally very inefficient at delivering any type of public service. The privatizing experiment has not proven itself to be good for the citizenry in any public service institution.

And seemingly wilful stupidity is the end result of education being privatized and the resulting starvation of public education institutions.

Anyone who believes that was not a wilful plan is, of course, pretty naive.

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