Rep. Gaetz Thinks Berlin Wall Will Keep Americans From Conducting Mass Shootings – How Stupid Is That?

Day 862.  

Yesterday, there was a Congressional hearing by the House Judicial Committee on gun violence.  The hearing was the first one held in eight years.  The reason behind the hearing was universal background checks.

As expected, the members of the Politburo are not happy about this proposal.  They don’t think there should be background checks to ensure that criminals don’t legally buy guns.  That is something that the NRA is ardently against, and the Politburo is in lock step with then NRA.

Besides that, it would appear that the Politburo isn’t interested in anything but immigration and the wall that their cowardly leader so desperately wants.  And, Politburo member Matt Gaetz made that abundantly clear during the hearing.

Gaetz is an ardent supporter of trump.  He feels that trump is being “picked on” because the investigations are actually finding collusion and he doesn’t like that.  Plus, Gaetz, who is from Florida and does not share the southern border where a wall is supposed to be built is all in favor of it.

During his time to speak, Gaetz made a remarkable statement against universal background checks.  He said, with a straight face I may add:  “expanding background checks on gun sales would do nothing to stop murders by illegal immigrants.  A wall on the southern border would.”

In the audience were several survivors of the Parkland School mass shooting along with parents of those who were killed.  Needless to say, they didn’t take kindly to Gaetz and his comments.  One of the parents, Mr. Oliver who lost his 17-year old son in the killings interrupted Gaetz many times.  According to someone sitting next to him he said “that’s not true”.

Instead of either ignoring the incident or addressing it, Gaetz used the usual Politburo tactics.  He tried to get the parent kicked out of the hearing.  “Is there a process in the committee whereby if the very same people are repeatedly interrupting the time of the members that those people will be asked to depart the committee?” Gaetz asked, while pointing his finger at Oliver.

“I would observe that is three interruptions of my time by the same individual and that the chair is not utilizing his discretion to remove that individual,” Gaetz added.  As usual, when Politburo members say something so stupid in a hearing that the audience is willing to fight back, they simply want to throw out the people disagreeing with them.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the committee did rebuke the protesters.  But he did not order anyone to be removed.  “It is never permissible for members of the audience to comment or to vociferously object.  This is a hearing for member of Congress and the witnesses.  Everyone else in here as an observer.”

Mr. Oliver and the father sitting next to him, Mr. Guttenburg also attended the State of the Union Address the night before.  Of course, during his speech, our dear leader pointed out the murders committed by illegal immigrants.  However, he refused to talk about the Parkland shootings because they weren’t committed by an illegal immigrant.

“If you want your murdered son or daughter to be mentioned at SOTU, make sure the killer of your kid is an illegal immigrant,” Oliver wrote on Twitter.

In an interview with Local 10 News, Trump said he wasn’t aware members of the Parkland community were at the State of the Union.

“I didn’t know they were there, so I wish they would’ve told me they were there, though,” Trump told Local 10 News. “It’s a great group of people. I could’ve put it in. I would’ve put it in. I’ve been very involved in it. It’s an incredible tragedy, and these are things that can be stopped.”

As you can see, if you are the parent of a murdered student attending the SOTU, you must send our dear leader a note to say you are there so he can mention you.  Then again, people whose family members were murdered by illegal immigrants were invited to the speech by the White House.  No one from Parkland was invited by the White House.

It proves once again that your plight will only be endorsed by this president if he knows you are around.  Otherwise, who gives a shit about you and your murdered child.  It doesn’t have the political bite for his base as illegal immigrants killing people.

Lawmakers also heard emotional testimony from Aalayah Eastmond, a 17-year-old senior at Stoneman Douglas who used a dead classmate to shield herself from the Parkland shooter’s bullets.

“Assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines belong on the battlefield – not in our communities.  My classmates and I have seen firsthand how uniquely lethal these weapons are.”

After she was finished speaking, Eastmond was given a standing ovation by the audience, which included members of the March for Our Lives student movement calling for stronger gun laws.

I would also like to point out to Mr. Gaetz, if his brain is smart enough to absorb the information, that yes, universal background checks will not, by itself, stop any murders in our country.  But, having them may make it harder for those people from getting a gun in the first place, whether or not they are a citizen or illegal immigrant.

I am not a fool.  Universal Background Checks are not the panacea that will end murder by guns in America.  But, there are far too many instances when a person who has no right to own a gun because of criminal background or mental health issues are allowed to purchase a gun legally.

There are way too many loopholes, like the gun show loophole, that allows anyone regardless of their background to purchase a gun without any checks at all.  And, for those trump lovers, that includes actual terrorists.  The terrorists know this as well.  There is a pamphlet telling them where and how to purchase a gun without any checks at gun shows written by other terrorists.

The comment made by Gaetz at the hearing yesterday were stupid.  But, Gaetz has made all kinds of stupid remarks, especially when backing up his hero, trump.  But, the comment was more than just stupid.  It shows just how unimportant public safety is when it comes to gun control that the Politburo thinks it is.  Instead of trying to help our gun violence problem, all they want to talk about is illegal immigrants.  Who by ratio commit far fewer violent crimes than American citizens.

Gaetz never bothered to explain how the Berlin Wall on the southern border would have prevented the mass school shooting at Parkland.  Nor did he explain how the stupid Berlin Wall would have stopped the mass killings in Las Vegas.  Both were committed by U.S. citizens who legally purchased their guns.

According to stupid people like Gaetz, the real panacea to all of America’s woes is a stupid Berlin Wall on the southern border.  Gun control and gun safety and trying to reduce our gun violence are not important.  According to them, who cares if a bunch of kids are killed in school by some madman with a gun.  Selling more guns is what is important to them.  That way, they keep getting contributions from the NRA.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

It Is Time To Ask The Question – Is Fox News Trying To Incite A Terrorist Attack Against American Muslims?

Day 849.  

The government shutdown drags on and on.  Millions of people are being hurt by this ridiculous shutdown over a Berlin Wall.  The media is focused on the shutdown and attempts to end it and the Mueller investigation.  However, something even worse is going on in our country, and I blame Fox News for it.

There is a small town about 120 miles outside of New York City.  The name of the town is Islamberg.  This community is made up mostly of African-American Muslims.  They are a quiet community just trying to get by like everyone else.

But, the name of the town, Islamberg, seems to be a thorn in Fox News’ side.  They seem to hate the name and they seem to hate the people who live there.  As a result, they keep running false, bogus and outright lying stories about the community.

Ever since around 2007, Fox News has run story after story spreading lies about this community as some type of terrorist training camp.  One segment featured a representative from the Clarion Project, an organization dubbed an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and which boasts as an adviser Walid Phxares, one of Donald Trump’s advisers on the Middle East during the 2016 campaign, to spread these lies, which have been debunked time and time again.

As New York State Police Major James Barnes explained in 2017 to the Associated Press, his state troopers have a good relationship  with the Islamberg community, even being invited to speak to the youths about law enforcement careers. Barnes explained, “These folks that live here are American citizens.  They’ve lived here for over 30 years.  They have ties within, outside of this community.  And there’s not a problem here.”

But that hasn’t stopped Fox News from continuing to spread lies about the community and set it up as a target for some form of terrorist activity by anti-Muslim wackos.  And we know that hate speech usually results in hate crimes.

We saw that earlier when Robert Doggard, a 65-year-old extreme right-wing Christian minister and former congressional candidate, planned to kill the men, women and children of Islamberg, using explosives, firearms and even a machete he said would cut the Muslims “to shreds.” Doggart was convicted of crimes in connection with this plot and sentenced in 2017 to 20 years in prison.

There is also another group called “American Bikers Against Jihad” who regularly ride up to the community to harass and threaten the people who live there.  Although it is uncertain if they hate the residents just because they are Muslim or because the are African-American.

Now, in an almost uncovered incident, another group of “terrorists” were arrested after another planned attack against the community came to light.  In this case, the police department in Greece, New York did an outstanding job, moving quickly from the first tip to search warrants to arresting Brian Colaneri, 20, Vincent Vetromile, 19, and Andrew Crysel, 18 along with a 16-year-old whose name was withheld.

Wednesday, the Daily Beast reported that at least one of the four, Vetromile, was a trump-loving anti-Muslim bigot and confederate statue lover who talked openly about murdering Muslims, including children on social media:

“Kids have been shown to be terrorists too and have killed our people. The Koran tells them to kill us so they’re all GUILTY.”

For over a month, these four had been planning their attack on Islamberg.  Police found that the suspects had constructed three improvised explosive devices comprised of Mason jars packed with nails and BBs. They also had access to 23 firearms, all legally purchased.

Police Chief Patrick Phelan made no bones about the men’s intent: “If they had carried out this plot, which every indication is that they were going to, people would have died,”  he said. “I don’t know how many and who, but people would have died.”

There have been a lot of anti-Muslim attacks since trump took office.  And, he has said nothing about them being “appalling” or even “un-American”.  With his silence, he has quietly nodded his head in approval to these plots.

We have seen Mosques burned to the ground.  We saw a plot in Kansas to blow up an apartment building because Muslims lived there.  But, as usual, you didn’t hear very much about these incidents.  If a Muslim commits a terrorist act, or even plots it, there is about 10 times the coverage as there is in cases like this one.

Whether you are speaking about these terrorist plots to kill American Muslims or talking about immigration, the one thing they both have in common is hate speech from Fox News.  The network has made itself the anti-Muslim and anti-immigration network.  They continuously run false stories about how “evil” these people are.

Islamberg is a small town with about 200 families living there.  They have contact within the community and without.  They have done nothing to hurt anyone.  They are Americans.  They are simply practicing their religion just like the Constitution says they can.

But, Fox News won’t leave it at that.  They continue to tout the town as some form of hell where everyone is plotting to kill every American in sight.  Yet, the only plots regarding this town are from white hate filled lunatics who feed off of Fox News and their hate speech.

We hear it all of the time at Fox News.  They complain that places like Islamberg are “terrorist training camps”.  We hear that “hordes of those immigrants are invading us to cut our throats in our sleep”.  The hate goes on and on and on.

In my opinion, Fox News is a lot more than the usual cry of trump TV.  Fox News has taken on the mantra of being the outlet for white supremacists.  They feed on the fears and hate of these people, and don’t care if that means other people are going to be killed in a terrorist attack by these white supremacists.

Every night, people like Hannity, Tucker and Ingraham go on the air to spew forth more hate and fear about people of color.  They continuously allow their diarrhea of hate and filth to spill into the airways in support of their false stories and support for trump.

The very sad and scary part is the MAGA crowd lap it up like babies lapping up sugar.  They listen to this muck and then some of them actually figure it is time to attack non-whites just because Fox News says they are “evil”

So, we must ask the question.  Besides being trump’s propaganda arm, is Fox News actually trying to incite terrorist attacks against Muslims and immigrants?

I say they are they are even more despicable for it.  Maybe it is time for Fox News to be investigated for incitement for terrorist activities.  But, that won’t happen.  The first amendment protects their hate speech as it should.  But, that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t speak out against them for their filth.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

Don’t Get Too Caught Up With Smoke And Mirrors – Other Policies Are Affecting You Negatively Too

Day 840.  

There is a lot more going on in the world than the investigations into trump.  But, very little is being reported about them.  The problem is, we are having a lot of our freedoms and rights being attacked behind closed doors.

Yes, there have been what is being called bombshell reports about trump working with Russia.  But, anyone with a brain knows this to be true.  His actions towards Russia are all in favor of Putin and what he wants.

We are also dealing with trump’s government shutdown over his Berlin Wall.  A shutdown that quite frankly is making America even less secure.  We are even seeing security stations at airports being shut down because of the shutdown.  That is not a good thing.

But, behind the scenes, there are other things going on that the media won’t report as much.  For example, 13 states sued the trump administration over an executive order that allows corporations to not provide birth control under the ACA.  The judge issued a restraining order the other day, but not nationally.  He said that it would only include the states involved in the case.

So, millions of women across the nation will either lose their birth control under the ACA or be forced to pay much higher premiums if they choose to continue using it.  That is just another attack on the ACA and trump’s willingness to toss millions of people off of their health coverage.

Then, we have another law that is being challenged by Evangelical Christians.  You know, the group that says they are all saved because they claim “Jesus is our lord and savior”.  Unfortunately, they don’t behave the way Jesus taught them to.  Instead of preaching kindness, humanity, love and peace they teach discrimination and political power.

For over 100 years there have been numerous bills voted on in the Senate and the House that would make lynching a federal crime.  That is right, for over 100 years making lynching a federal crime has been defeated.

However, this year, the Senate finally passed an anti-lynching law.  The bill now sits at the House for their consideration.  Remember, lynching is the illegal act of hanging people for no reason other than their beliefs, their color, or other differences between them and the hate mongers.

The Liberty Counsel, an Evangelical legal group who tries to reject all kinds of laws based on “religious beliefs” has stepped in to stop this bill from passing the House.  They want the part that includes specific protections for people based on the basis of sexual and gender identity removed from the bill.

Matt Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel doesn’t believe that hanging people because they are LGBTQ is a crime.  As a matter of fact, he went on to claim that these people do not deserve any rights at all.  In an interview with the Christian news site OneNewsNow he said that this anti-lynching law is “nothing but a baby step towards legislation concerning housing, employment and health care coverage for the LGBTQ community”.

There is only one conclusion about this stance.  It would appear that Staver and his organization and followers would rather see LGBT people dead without justice than being alive and acknowledged as fully human.

As I have written before, the major problem with religion in general is the desire of the so-called “true believers” to their policies of division in our society.  They are far more interested in people’s sex lives than they are the violence committed against people who think otherwise.

These are the people that the Republican Politburo has gotten in bed with in order to get and maintain power in politics.  These are the same people who want the ban on birth control to be nationwide.  They are the same people that want to outlaw abortion.

They believe that they have the RIGHT to tell everyone how to live.  Who they can love.  What they can be.  And what the definition of true happiness is.  They pervert phrases from their bible in order to justify their bigoted beliefs.

By their actions in this law, they have shown that they believe themselves to be god’s arbiter in who is worthy of living and who is not.  They pretend to be holy, righteous, pure and sanctified but then conduct themselves in the complete opposite manner that Jesus taught.  They turn their back on the main basic truth of Jesus’ teachings that we should love our neighbor as our selves.

Instead, they turn to their bigoted beliefs as a rock to live under instead of teaching the truth.  They are so afraid of their own shadows that they believe they must make you afraid of everything not in their talking points.

They believe that the LGBTQ community needs their approval to exist.  They are wrong.  The LGBTQ community does exist and they are not going away.

Everyone should be outraged that they are forcing us to have a political debate as to whether or not people deserve to be protected from lynching.  Lynching is extrajudicial and often identity-based murder.  How can there be any political debate over this illegal act?

Liberty Counsel is just a symptom of the real problem.  The real problem is a Christianity, or any religion, using the pulpit to teach discriminatory practices and the superiority of their religion, in this case Christianity.  This group is a case study in what happens when politics and religion marry.  When Christians become so embedded in their corrupt beliefs that they refuse to even see those “others” that policies and laws are meant to protect.

It is what happens when corrupt interpretations of their scripture is used to dehumanize others.  This is another example of what happens when Christians use that corrupt interpretation in order to dehumanize an entire group of people for the sake of political power.  That should make us all stand up and speak out.

Of course, the irony is that if you really want to read the bible, you will discover that Jesus was a victim of lynching by a mob of religious zealots.  Yet, these people don’t want the LGBTQ community to be afforded the same protections they would advocate for their savior.

Nothing good ever comes out of a marriage between religion and politics.  We have seen the overall power of such a satanic marriage throughout history.  We even have a separation of church and state written into our Constitution just to attempt to keep that from happening.

Monarch’s of the past used religion to claim their authority over the people of a country.  By birth, they were the chosen leader by god.  Hitler created a new religion to justify his hate and bigotry and gain power in Germany.  We see it today in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

While we wait for the Mueller investigation to end and we, hopefully, see the final report on the behavior of trump and his campaign team, we can see other more insidious activity going on behind our backs.

Many people have questioned why the Conservative Christian Cult won’t denounce trump for his anti-Christian policies and behavior.  The answer is loud and clear in this fight over the anti-lynching law.  Trump is allowing them to attempt to  gobble up more political power.

As we take one step forwards in our attempt to become a “more perfect union” Christians like the Liberty Counsel come along and try to force us to take two steps backwards.

In my opinion, it is pure evil when a religion tries to usurp political power in order to force everyone to live under their warped views of their religion.  And, when other members of that religion who disagree with them sit back and let them conduct their business with impunity, then the evil grows exponentially.

And that is what the Republican Politburo and this administration is actively doing.  They are allowing these groups to usurp civility in an attempt to keep power.  They are pathetic and so is the Liberty Counsel and anyone else who believes in such bigotry.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

For Our Dear Leader – Depravity Has No Limits

Day 789.  

Yesterday was one to remember.  During the last 24 hours or so, we have seen just how much our dear leader loves autocratic governments and hates our democracy.  He let it be known exactly what he wishes our country to look like.

In one example, it was discovered that Ivanka Trump used private email for government business.  You know, the same type of thing that trump claims Hillary Clinton should be “locked up” over.  Now in honesty, I am not overly concerned about private emails as long as there is no classified material knowingly included in it.

But, just like the Clinton case, if anyone from the Intelligence agencies looks at the emails after the fact and determines that there was actually classified material included in Ivanka’s emails, then what will daddy say?

Ivanka claims she “didn’t know the rules” about private email use.  Wasn’t she listening to her daddy all through the campaign?  Didn’t she think that the big fuss over Clinton’s emails just might mean something?  Or, is she trying to use the tired excuse of being a bubble headed blonde to excuse her poor behavior.  I don’t believe in the bubble headed blonde theory, so I believe she simply ignored the rules because like her daddy she doesn’t think they apply to her.

Furthermore, once trump took office, it was reported that several members of his staff used private emails for government business.  Those included people like Ivanka, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon and even Reince Priebus.  Rules and laws apparently just don’t have anything to do with their behavior.

The odd thing is later in the day the New York Times reported that dear daddy tried to get the DOJ to “prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey”.  His then White House Attorney told him he couldn’t order such a prosecution.  If he now goes ahead with that decision, is he going to include his own daughter for doing the same thing?  Yeah, and they are throwing snowballs in hell right now.

We were also told that he is about to order the troops on the southern border to use “force” to protect the border patrol agents there.  Just exactly what that means isn’t clear.  If someone throws a rock are the troops supposed to shoot the rock thrower?  As usual, there are no boundaries being set, just more bluster from a very stupid man.

How will trump explain a blood bath if our troops open fire on migrants?  Is that what he wants?  If you look at recent pictures from the border, that “beautiful barbed wire” as he called it makes our southern border look more of a prison than a national border.  I am really beginning to believe that it isn’t there to keep anyone out, but rather to keep us in.

Then we have the most outrageous thing yet.  Our dear leader has sold America’s ideals and morality to the highest bidder.  The CIA handed in a report that categorically states that they believe with “high certainty” that the Crown Price of Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of Khashoggi in their embassy in Turkey.

But, in typical trump fashion, he rejected those findings and did virtually nothing to punish Saudi Arabia for this horrendous crime.  Our dear leader just told the world that if you are willing to do any business with America, you can kill with impunity.  People do not matter, only money.

But, he couldn’t let it stay there.  No, he had to use Saudi Arabia’s propaganda to “justify” the killing.  He said that the Crown Prince considered Khashoggi an “enemy”.  Therefore, it was perfectly fine for him to be killed and butchered.

The man was a legal resident of this country.  He has children who are U.S. Citizens.  He worked for the Washington Post.  His crime that made him such an “enemy” of the Crown Prince was his articles condemning Saudi Arabia’s horrific human rights abuses.

It goes even further than that.  By his actions yesterday, our dear leader declared open season against any journalist in the world who says anything nasty about an autocratic dictator.  And when you also consider the simple fact that our dear leader calls our free press “the enemy of the people” one has to wonder if any of our journalists are in danger from our own government.  If I were Jim Acosta, I would stay out of any U.S. Embassy anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately, this is what our country has become.  We have become abettors for dictators around the world to kill off anyone they consider an “enemy”.  In Russia, Putin has journalists killed very often.  He even orders the murder of his political opponent just a block from the Kremlin.  And, he orders the murder of a defector in England using chemical weapons that also affected some English citizens.  And, our dear leader does nothing.

The dictator in North Korea kills off his own family members who he considers a threat to his power.  He butchered his uncle by having him blasted into oblivion using anti-aircraft guns.  He ordered the killing of his half-brother in another country.  And our dear leader not only did nothing, he met with the clown and gave him a world stage to pretend he is something big.  And, our dear leader says he “loves” the murderer.

Just to make sure that we all know exactly where our dear leader stands, he got up this morning and “thanked” the Saudis for lower gas prices.  You can kill a legal resident of America who works for an American company.  Then you can butcher his body to easily remove it from your embassy, and our dear leader only cares about thanking them for lower gas prices.

Republicans love to keep repeating Reagan’s old saying about America being that “shining city on the hill the world wants to emulate”.  Under their rule along with this president, we have seen that shining city fall into a sink hole and then buried with sewage sludge.

Several White House officials have been forced to resign under scrutiny of scandal.  Including two Cabinet Members.  Another Cabinet member has been referred to the Justice Department for investigation into fraud while in office.  His first National Security Advisor has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.  His campaign manager has been found guilty of several fraud charges.  The assistant to that campaign manager has pleaded guilty to several fraud charges.  His own personal lawyer has pleaded guilty to several fraud charges including two campaign finance law violations that he says were ordered by trump himself.

He refused to acknowledge that Russia did in fact meddle in our elections in 2016 and has done nothing to make sure that can’t happen again.  He keeps calling on his political opponent to be “locked up” when members of his own family did the exact same thing as his opponent.  He wants to “prosecute” the former FBI Director who is also a witness to any possible obstruction of justice charges against trump.

He constantly turns a blind eye to the murder of Russian journalists and political opponents of Putin.  He turns a blind eye to the murder of political opponents of the dictator Kim Jung-Un in North Korea.  And, he now turns a blind eye to the murder of a legal U.S. resident by the Saudi Arabia Crown Prince.

The depravity of this administration is unbelievable.  We have never seen such depravity in our government in our over 200 years of existence.  People keep asking where is the bottom of this pit we have been drug into.  Apparently, there is no bottom.

The worst part in all of this is the very people who claim to be “god fearing good Christians” are all staying quiet about these issues.  They are allowing this creep to keep letting money be the only thing that matters, even over human life.

His own party that has tried to maintain the crown of “patriots” and “national security” and “morality” heroes are also staying quiet and allowing this depravity to continue.  Unfortunately, the Republican Party has signed on with the devil in the name of power.  They no longer care about American ideals or American morality.  They only care about power and money.

We have gone from a country that values freedom, human rights, morality and equality for all to a nation that says those things do not count as much as money.  We have gone from being the leader of the free world to another tin-horn dictatorship loving country where the leaders don’t believe the law pertains to them.

And imagine, all of this in just two short years.  Heaven help us in the coming two years.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

 

The Killing Of Our People

Day 777.  

You are in a meeting at work.  Suddenly, your cell phone goes off and you take a peak.  Everyone around you sees the blood drain from your face and you start to shake.  Or, you are sitting on your sofa watching television when there is a “breaking news” flash.  Again, the blood drains from your face and you are overwhelmed by terror.

These incidents have one thing in common.  Another mass shooting has taken place.  In the first, there is a shooting at the school your kids attend.  The second is somewhere where people gather like a nightclub or concert.  In both cases, your family is affected because someone in your family is a potential victim.

It really doesn’t matter who the shooter is.  It really doesn’t matter if this is a “lone wolf” who may be mentally disturbed.  It really doesn’t matter if it is another terrorist act.  It really doesn’t matter if it is another domestic terrorist act.  What matters is that it happened, again.

What really matters is that someone with some kind of gun decided that they were going to kill as many people as they can in as short of time as possible.  What really matters is that guns are so prevalent in our society, that just about anyone, regardless of mental health, felony charges, felony convictions or anything else can easily purchase a gun.

Just in the last three weeks, 27 people have been targeted by someone with a grudge or simply someone who wants to kill people.  We had two African-Americans shot to death while grocery shopping.  We had two women shot at a yoga place.  We had 11 people killed during services at a synagogue.  We had 12 people killed during a “university night” at a nightclub.

Oh, you can make any excuse you want about the shooter or what happened.  The simple fact is that people who should not have been allowed to carry a gun, did carry a gun and killed people.  In most cases, the shooter actually bought their guns “legally”.  That doesn’t make the pain of the victim’s family any easier.  Especially since there are so many loopholes in the laws that current background checks are almost useless.

We have had this problem for a very long time.  We have seen our schools shot up.  We have seen our theaters shot up.  We have seen nightclubs shot up.  We have seen concerts shot up.  We have innocent people shot doing routine things who weren’t bothering anyone.

Our schools have become targets.  When we were children, we practiced fire drills and even those ridiculous nuclear attack drills.  But, we never held “active shooter” drills.  Today, that is part of everyday school life in every corner of our country.  If you don’t believe me ask your kids.

When are we as a nation going to say enough is enough?  When are we as a nation going to stop the madness with reasonable gun control laws?  When are we going to place the safety of our parents, grandparents, children and the general public above this stupid, outrageous, religious belief that guns are great and everyone should own one?  When are we going to regain our sanity?

Every time something like this happens, we hear the same old tired refrains from the gun lobbyists.  The same old tiresome refrain of “guns don’t kill people”.  The same old refrain of “our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families”.

Well, I have a simple question to ask those of you who “send out your thoughts and prayers”.  What the hell are you praying about?  It certainly isn’t a prayer for the madness to stop.  If it were, you would be joining the rest of sane people trying to stop it instead of offering excuses.

If you think this isn’t anything to worry about, think about this.  At least one of the dead in the shooting the other night was also a survivor of the mass killings at the concert in Las Vegas.  There were several others who said they were at both places.

But, the gun wackos have money behind them.  They use that money to threaten politicians to vote against reasonable gun control laws.  They blackmail politicians with campaign financing if they dare go against the NRA.  It is these cowardly politicians that have helped make the NRA the largest domestic terrorist group in America today.

Every time we see something like this, we hear the same stupid saying from the NRA and their bought and paid for politicians.  “This means we must protect our Second Amendment rights”.  Your life, your parent’s life, your children’s life or your grandchildren’s life don’t mean anything to these morons.  The only thing that counts is that gun makers make as much profit as possible by flooding our streets with guns.

Leading the charge in all of this is the Republican Party.  Yes, there are Democrats who have also fallen in line for votes, but the leaders are Republicans.  They have held up just about every promising law that could help alleviate this problem.  They refuse to allow research into the problem by the CDC.  They refuse to ban assault weapons from the streets.  They refuse to consider the death of one first grader as anything important, much less a whole bunch of them like at Newton.

When we see things like this happen, we hear Republicans say that “we are only doing what the people want”.  Or, “if we ban assault rifles, that doesn’t mean the killings will stop”.  Both of these arguments are stupid and self-serving.

For example, the latest poll of the “people” show that over 90 percent favor universal background checks when purchasing a firearm.   Over 70 percent of the people favor banning assault weapons and extended magazines.  You cannot tell me that number can be reached if all Republicans are against such laws.

Laws like these will not “take away your guns” or your gun rights.  They will simply do something to help stop this madness.  We also need to take another look at mental health issues.

Too many of our veterans suffer from PTSD or Delayed stress issues.  They need to be evaluated to see if those conditions could result in violence.  If so, they should not be allowed to own firearms.  It is for their safety as well as the general public’s.

But Republicans aren’t interested in that.  They even passed a law in 2017 that allows elderly people who have been deemed by courts as not able to take care of themselves the ability to purchase a gun.

We average over 33,000 gun deaths in our country every year.  That equates to the entire population of places like Dodge City, KS.  Yet, we stand by an allow the carnage to continue.  For what?

The average American is not in favor of taking guns away from law abiding citizens.  They are not in favor of taking guns away used for hunting.  They are in favor of stemming the violence by using reasonable gun control measures.

One of my favorite stupid sayings is someone telling me that “I need my AR 15 for deer hunting”.  If you are using an assault rifle to hunt deer, you probably shouldn’t own a gun in the first place.  The only thing you “hunt” with an assault rifle is people.  Unless you don’t plan to eat the deer you shoot.

There is an awful lot of crap going on in our country right now.  We have a president who thinks he is king.  We have a corrupt administration lining their pockets with tax payer dollars.  We have domestic terrorism on the rise.  And, we have mass shootings still taking place.

The one thing that is always swept under the carpet is the mass shootings.  Politicians don’t want to talk about them.  Gun activists don’t want to talk about them.  The NRA certainly doesn’t want to talk about them.  They hit the headlines for a week or two and then quietly fade away until the next one.

Back in the 60s I was an active participant in the protests against the Vietnam War.  I was an active participant in protests for civil rights.  Those actions changed things, at least for a while.  It was the people taking to the streets to force politicians to change the laws so those things ended.

We are at another crossroads over gun violence.  Politicians don’t listen to the people.  They listen to money from the NRA.  They don’t hear the cries and weeping of a six-year-old who was shot or the families of other victims.  They only hear the clink of money from gun advocates.

They don’t read the polls showing they are on the wrong side of sanity.  They only read the propaganda from gun makers.  They are deaf and blind to the suffering of the people they are supposed to help protect.

It is time for Americans to take to the streets in peaceful protests to tell the politicians we are fed up with the gun violence.  It is time to let the NRA know that their monopoly over our representatives is over.  It is time to force these politicians to come back to sanity and help us end this madness.

Don’t you think that watching terrorist organizations, both domestic and foreign, put up on their web sites just how to get around the laws to buy a gun?  Don’t you think maybe it is time for reasonable discussions and reasonable gun control laws be at the forefront of our domestic policy?

As long as the American People remain silent about the slaughter going on outside your front door, the NRA and their gun makers will continue to ply our streets with their deadly toys all in the name of profits.  Today, there is at least one gun for every person in the country.  And, remember, not everyone owns a gun.  Plus, all of those guns haven’t stopped a single mass shooting, only contributed to them.

As long as the American People continue to remain silent, you will continue to get those text messages telling you there is a shooter in your kid’s school  Or, you will watch those “breaking news” stories about a shooting somewhere your family members are at.

You can argue that “people kill people”.  But, you cannot argue against the idea that guns in the wrong hands kill far more people than anything else.

It is time for the American people to mobilize and force an end to the madness.  We are the only ones who can.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Rome Is Burning And Nero Is Playing The Fiddle

Day 762.

Two more bombs have been intercepted today.  One was addressed to Senator Corey Booker and the other to former National Intelligence Director James Clapper.  And, while all of this is going on, Nero is simply playing his fiddle.

Our dear leader continues his attacks on the media and blames them for everything going on.  The fascists movement in the Conservative area are blaming the media and even suggesting that Democrats are sending the bombs to themselves to gain votes.  And while all of this is going on, Nero continue to play his fiddle.

There is not doubt that these attacks are domestic terrorism.  yet, our dear leader and the Republican side refuse to use the term.  Instead, they call for “unity” when their president is the one stoking divide more than anyone else.  He has been hell-bent on an us v. them mentality.  The “us” being his supporters and the “them” everyone else in America.

This is proving itself out every minute of every day.  And, Nero isn’t doing anything to help solve this problem or even cares.  Furthermore, these attacks are not just endangering the people who are on the address label, they are endangering YOU!

All of these packages have been sent, at least part of the way, through the U.S. Postal Service.  That means thousands of Postal Workers have been placed in dire danger of losing their lives.  Yet, Nero has said nothing about them.

Look at the facts.  A pipe bomb is sent through the mail.  The Postal Worker who picks it up is in danger.  The Postal Workers at the local post office are in danger.  The truck driver who delivers the package to a mail sorting center is in danger.  All of the Postal Workers who work at the mail sorting center are in danger.

Once the package has been sorted, the people transporting that package to the nearest sorting center for the address is in danger.  Their, the local sorting center workers are in danger.  Then the driver who takes it to the local Post Office is in danger.  Then the workers at the local Post Office is in danger.  Then the mail courier who delivers the package is in danger.

All of these people are in danger because there is no reason to believe that these bombs cannot explode early.  They could explode at any point in the handling process.  That means everyone close to the package if it explodes prematurely is in danger.

Then, you also have to consider the general public.  Whenever a package is sent between sorting centers or post offices, the general public is also in danger of being injured or killed by a premature detonation of one of these bombs.

Some mail is sent from one major market to another via air.  They are often sent on commercial passenger airlines.  If one should explode in transit, how many hundreds of people would be killed?

Let’s say you live in a big city.  It is rush hour.  You are sitting in rush hour traffic.  Next to you is a semi that is transporting mail.  Suddenly, a bomb inside the mail explodes.  You can be injured or killed.  What if you live somewhere else and a mail truck is sitting waiting for a school bus to drop off or pick up children and a bomb it is carrying explodes?

Now, just to be clear.  The possibility of something like a mail truck exploding is very slim.  There are screening protections to keep our mail as safe as possible.  It doesn’t matter if you are talking about mail trucks, mail cars, or even sending mail on a plane.  The Post Office does everything in their power to keep you safe.  So, please don’t get overly anxious.

What about all of the people who work in mail rooms for corporations and networks.  You work in a mail room at CNN, for example, and the package you are handling suddenly explodes.

These bomb packages are not just dangerous for the people that are on the address label.  They are a danger for anyone who handles mail and everyone who happens to be around if one should suddenly explode prematurely.

But the administration is not interested in getting information out to the public about these bombs.  They are not interested in telling us what to look out for if we receive any packages ourselves.  They are only interested in deflecting blame from their hateful rhetoric.

Conservatives are not interested in your safety either.  They are too busy trying to sell you a bill of goods that these packages are just a “false flag” to gin up support in the midterms.

There is a domestic terrorist or domestic terrorist organization sending bombs through our mail.  And, the administration doesn’t seem to care about that, only whom to blame.  That is disgusting.

Whether you thought about this or not, the fact is that thousands, maybe even millions, of Americans have been placed in dire danger because someone is sending bombs through the Postal Service.

It doesn’t matter where you live.  It doesn’t matter who you support.  It doesn’t matter what you believe.  What matters is you are being placed in jeopardy by a domestic terrorist attack and that is all that should matter.

That is something that should wake up the administration and get them moving to find the attacker(s) quickly.  It is also why we need a president who can calm the situation down and not ratchet up his attacks on the media.

America, not just the addressee, is under attack by someone who doesn’t care about you either.  We need better response and better action from the government.  Instead, we hear the same divisive rhetoric and the same smear campaigns by the administration, the president and conservative fascists.

Of course there isn’t much the government can do about domestic terrorism.  There is no federal crime intended to stop domestic terrorism.  There have been plenty of attempts, but the Republicans usually refuse to enact any legislation making domestic terrorism a federal crime.

America is under a terrorist attack.  Hundreds to thousands of people have been placed in jeopardy.  And, the best we get from our dear leader is nothing.  As I said, Rome Is Burning, And Nero Is Playing The Fiddle!

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Once Again We See Terrorism Threat Is More Domestic Than Foreign

Day 761.  

Yesterday a series of suspected pipe bombs were sent to several prominent Democrats.  The victims were former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Democratic supporter George Soros, Actor Robert De Niro and former Vice President Joe Biden.  Maxine Waters also was sent two different pipe bombs.

All of the pipe bombs were discovered and intercepted.  None of the potential victims received the bombs and no one was injured in these attacks.  But, they were very targeted and are nothing short of an act of terrorism.

However, the word “terrorism” has not been uttered by anyone.  What else can this be but an act of terrorism?  Someone doesn’t like people because of their political views and target them for death or injury.  That is the definition of terrorism.

An additional pipe bomb was sent to former CIA Director John Brennan addressed to CNN where Brennan is a regular on their talk shows.  The CNN center in New York had to be evacuated because of the possible explosive device.

The one thing all of these people have in common, besides being Democrats, is that they have all been critical of our dear leader.  All of these people have been blasted by our dear leader for their criticism.  He has called the free press the “enemy of the people” and called for Clinton to be “locked up”.

He blames George Soros for everything from paying for protesters to paying for the migrant caravan heading to the U.S.  He had words with Di Niro and with Brennan.  He took Brennan’s security clearance away because he didn’t like what Brennan was saying about him.

He has accosted CNN at every single rally he has had since he began running for president.  CNN is his favorite target, and he has had difficulties and even shouting matches with Acosta a leading CNN journalist.

After the pipe bombs were discovered, our dear leader said that there is “no place in our country for political violence”.  Nice words.  Too bad he doesn’t mean them.  This is a man who said during his rallies “get ’em out of here and don’t be polite” and “go ahead and rough them up, I will pay your legal fees” and “take him out of here on a stretcher” and most recently referring to a convicted Congressman for body slamming a reporter he said “he is my kind of guy”.

But, his nice words didn’t last very long.  In a rally to try to save the Governor of Wisconsin, he went on to blame the media for the pipe bombs and the divide in the country.  He claims the media uses “endless hostility and negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories”.  See, if you don’t praise the dear leader every time he gets up, he is being attacked with false stories.

The stories that he refers to are the ones that point out his lies, his hostility to different groups of people, and the lousy job he is doing.  But, that wasn’t enough for our dear leader.  No, he had to tweet this morning about it all.  He tweeted:

A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!

There is obviously something missing.  There is no mention of the fact that these attacks are an act of terrorism.  There is no real condemnation of the attacks.  In one sentence he tries to condemn the attacks, then in the next sentence he tries to “excuse” the attacks as something the victims “brought upon themselves”.

No one knows who sent these pipe bombs.  But, the simple fact that so many were sent and all to Democrats, there is a real danger out there.  There is someone or more than one person who thinks it would be just fine to “blow up the opposition” in order to protect their dear leader.  At least that is the predominant thought behind these attacks.

It could be something entirely different, but it is still terrorism.  And, since the return address on all of the packages was that of Debby Wasserman Schultz, it was assumed the packages would be sent through.

But, trump is not alone in his attacks.  The far right is calling these attacks a “false flag” being perpetrated in order to gin up support in the midterms.  Rush Limbaugh said exactly that on his show shortly after the report of these attacks.  He is also telling those responsible, “it’s okay, we understand, it isn’t your fault”.

Fox News went full-blown conspiracy theory on all of their nightly shows.  They have gone all in with their theories and their excuses for the attacks.  Not one of them came out and called the acts despicable and an act of terrorism.

Yet, Fox News did not report on an incident in North Carolina when a white man armed with a BB gun confronted a black man at a polling place.  The odd thing was the black man was a Republican.  But, the man didn’t even ask or care, he was only interested that a black man was at a polling place.  Where was Fox News coverage of that?

We have a president who does nothing but go to rallies and “fire up his base” with hateful rhetoric.  He calls for the jailing of his political opponents and the demise of our freedom of the press by calling them the “enemy of the people”.

This same president calls for violently “throwing out protesters” at his rallies.  When people show up to protest his nominees or his policies, he calls them a “mob trying to destroy our country”.

When a far right rally gets out of hand and a woman is killed, he excuses the murder and says “there was blame on both sides”.  Then he says that “there were very good people marching the night before”.  Referring to racists marching in a torch rally crying “country and blood” and “white power”.

After all of this, he claims to be someone who wants to “unite the country”.  He tries to claim he only wants to be a “uniter” all the while he works diligently to be the country’s biggest divider.

Finally, as usual, the Republican side all have “condemned” the attacks.  Yet, not one of them called these attacks an act of terrorism.  The current phrase used by Republicans is this was an act of “political violence”.  Well, guess what, an act of political violence is the same thing as an act of terrorism.  So, let’s call it what it is.

As long as we have a president who only calls for violence at his rallies and blames everyone else for his lies and bad policies, we will continue to see this type of activity.  We will continue to see the fascist wannabes continue to attempt to terrify the population in order to get their dictatorship.

The far right has been energized by this president.  Even Fox News can’t get things straight, or at least shows a tendency to support the far right.  In their trailer yesterday about the attacks, they wrote that there “was suspected white power” in the envelopes as well as explosives.  Ooops.  Was that a mistake or a Freudian slip?

As long as one side of the equation refuses to call terrorism what it is, regardless of who does it, we will never have a reasonable plan to stop it.  The Sandy Hook killer was not a Muslim.  The Las Vegas shooter was not a Muslim.  The bomber of Planned Parenthood clinics was not a Muslim.  The Unibomber was not a Muslim.  The killer at Parkland was not a Muslim.

Time will tell who committed this latest act of terrorism.  But, if we don’t call it what it is, we will continue to see more attacks.  If we allow politicians to “excuse” the attacks by saying it “isn’t really their fault” we will see more of these attacks.

The shirts are definitely marching along.

Fascist Republicans Try To Define Jihadist Sympathizer – They May Want To Rethink Their Definition

Day 755.  

Since there has been such a huge pushback on our dear leader’s non-response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey, the fascist wing of the Republican party is trying to smear Khashoggi.  See, it isn’t the Saudi’s fault they murdered him, it is his fault because he is a Jihadist sympathizer.

Except, the definition of what they consider a Jihadist sympathizer should bite them in the ass.  As a matter of fact, the entire definition is so stupid and the possible consequences so outrageous, they might want to rethink their reasoning.  Because I have thought about it, and I have a different take on it.

Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levine and several Republican members of Congress who support trump all have a theory about why Khashoggi was so bad his murder isn’t anything to be worried about.  See, he was a Jihadist sympathizer.  He was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and he “palled around with Osama Bin Laden” during the war against the Russians in Afghanistan.

Well, it is true that when Khashoggi was a young man he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.  At that time, the Brotherhood was a dissident group inside Saudi Arabia trying to get reform and a full democracy in the country.

As he matured further, he realized that terrorism is not the way to go.  He began working on other methods.  He was a firm believer in the freedom of the press, and he used his pen to do his talking.  As a result, he was classified as a “dissident” in Saudi Arabia.  Even though he lived in the U.S. and was a “legal resident” complete with a green card, he considered himself a Saudi and continued his work to get democratic reform in the country.

As for his “palling around” with Osama Bin Laden, he was a journalist embedded in the group of “freedom fighters” that included Osama Bin Laden.  He reported on the groups activities and how the war was progressing.  That is not exactly “palling around” with bin Laden.

But, that is enough for these fascists to claim that Khashoggi was a Jihadist sympathizer.  If you “hang around” with a terrorist for your job of reporting on a war, even though he wasn’t considered a terrorist at the time, you are therefore by their definition a terrorist or at least a terrorist sympathizer.

Which means that anyone who provided aid in the form of weapons and training for this terrorist, who wasn’t a terrorist at the time, is also guilty of being a terrorist sympathizer or an actual terrorist.   As a matter of fact, I would think that supplying arms and training is far more insidious than just “hanging around” with said terrorist.

So, according to these wonderful, full thinking fascists, guilt by association is all that is required to be considered a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer.  Except, there is a huge problem, at least for these brainless conservatives.

For one thing, bin Laden was a Saudi.  His family still lives in Saudi Arabia and they have a whole lot of money.  So, that means his family members are also terrorists or terrorist sympathizers because they were “associated” with bin Laden.  Secondly, 15 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi’s.  Therefore, the government of Saudi Arabia is also guilty by association because of these terrorists.  Obviously, according to these little thinkers, the government of Saudi Arabia is guilty by association with these terrorists.

In the 1980s, the Taliban started a war against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.  That war lasted ten years and in the end, Russia finally pulled their forces out of the country.  While the war was raging, one country led all others in helping the Taliban and their “freedom fighters”.  That country was none other than the U.S.

President Ronald Reagan sent the CIA to train the fighters, and he made sure that Congress approved weapons sales and give-a-ways to the Taliban in their fight against the Russians.  One of the recipients of these weapons and training was none other than the terrorist, who wasn’t a terrorist at the time, Osama Bin Laden.

Not only did Ronald Reagan supply these “terrorists” but his successor President George H. W. Bush also supplied these “terrorists”.  This aid even went past the war during President’s George H. W. Bush’s   term.

So, now, we have the fascist wing of the Republican party saying that Khashoggi is a “terrorist sympathizer” because he “palled around with Bin Laden”.  Well, if you want to use that definition to label anyone a terrorist sympathizer, you must also conclude that anyone who provided arms and training to the same person must be a terrorist sympathizer.

Well, under the definition of these fascists conservatives in the Republican Party, then Ronald Reagan, a self-proclaimed conservative and George H. W. Bush must also be classified as terrorist sympathizers.  Khashoggi is accused of “palling around” with Bin Laden.  These two presidents actually aided him.  What is worse?

Now, let me be clear, I am not nor will I ever accuse either of those two presidents of being “terrorist sympathizers”.  That is totally ridiculous and I won’t even go there.  I am merely pointing out that if these wacko conservatives want to redefine who is a terrorist sympathizer, then they better think again.  They have, by their own definition, called two of their presidents “terrorist sympathizers”.

This is the problem when trying to figure out a way to give cover to your fascist president by coming up with all kinds of weird “excuses” for why this murder isn’t important.  More importantly, as I recall, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levine were all in favor of these arms and training being given to Osama Bin Laden.  Therefore, by their own definition of guilt by association, they are also guilty of being terrorist sympathizers.

The only fact in this case is this.  Jamal Khashoggi was considered a “dissident” by the government of Saudi Arabia.  He penned several articles calling for reforms including the establishment of a full democracy in the Kingdom.  He went into the embassy in Turkey because he wanted to say correct with current Saudi law.  He wanted the document that allowed him to marry his Turkish fiancé.

While in the embassy, he was taken into custody, interrogated, tortured and murdered by embassy officials.  He was a journalist who wrote about reforms and freedom of the press, and he was murdered for his beliefs by a government.

And, our own president who calls the press “the enemy of the people” remains mute about the incident.  He says that Turkey and Saudi Arabia will get to the “bottom” of this.  When asked if he considered sending in the FBI to assist and take part in this investigation, he said “no, he wasn’t a U.S. citizen”.

Well, he was a legal U.S. resident and he has children that ARE U.S. citizens.  I guess that doesn’t mean anything to this president.  But, then, just yesterday, he praised a member of Congress who pleaded guilty to “assaulting a reporter” during a special election.  The then candidate “body slammed” the journalist to the floor simply because he didn’t like his questions.

We are forced to live under a president who hates anyone who disagrees with him.  He calls his opponents “enemies” and wants to “lock ’em up”.  He calls the press “the enemy of the people” because they print and report the truth which is rarely very flattering of him.  He thinks that assaulting a correspondent because you don’t like the question is a “good thing”.

According to his speeches and his policies, this president believes that human rights, civil rights and freedoms are only for the privileged.  So, why would anyone think that he cares one iota about a government killing a journalist inside their embassy?  He doesn’t care.  Mainly because that government is enriching him and his family.  That is all that matters to this president.

And, the shirts keep marching along.

Under Trump America Compromises National Ideals For Money

Day 753.  

About two weeks ago Jamal Kashoggi walked into the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Turkey.  He went in to obtain a document necessary for him to marry his fiancé.  He has never been seen again.

Kashoggi is a green card holder and permanent resident of the U.S.  He worked for the Washington Post.  He was also a person who hated the monarchy and its poor civil rights record.  He wrote about problems in the kingdom and was considered a “dissident” by the Saudi government.  As a matter of fact, Kashoggi was preparing to launch a pro-democracy nongovernmental organization.  That idea didn’t sit well with the government.

It has been reported that the Saudis were looking for ways to get him back to Saudi Arabia to prosecute him for his “dissident” ways.  But, he was a legal resident of Saudi Arabia’s biggest ally and that made things difficult.

Turkey has claimed all along that Kashoggi was tortured and murdered by the Saudis.  They claim to have a tape, and released it, proving that Kashoggi was tortured and murdered inside the Embassy.  According to Turkey, Kashoggi used a computer watch to record his own death by having it automatically uploaded to a cloud account.

That is supposedly the tape recording of Kashoggi being tortured and murdered inside the embassy.  Saudi Arabia has denied it knows anything about a torture and murder of Kashoggi.  They claim that he left the embassy shortly after he entered.

That statement is not backed up by video evidence.  Kashoggi is seen on video entering the embassy, but there is no video showing that he left.  Additionally, his fiancé was waiting for him outside the embassy and she has not seen him since he entered the embassy.

There is evidence, according to the Turks, that Kashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered to get rid of the body.  That is the widely accepted version of what occurred in the embassy.  Except for one huge ally who won’t do anything, as usual, our dear leader, trump.

Saudi Arabia is holding an economic, investment conference in their country very shortly.  It is called the Future Investment Initiative.  It is intended to spur investment in Saudi Arabia in order to diversify their economy and not be so dependent upon oil.

Many U.S.  corporations have pulled out of the conference since the disappearance of Kashoggi.  Every major western news organization has pulled out as well, except one, Fox Business Network.  And, our country still plans on sending our Secretary of the Treasury to the conference.

When something like this happened in the past, the country involved would usually come to the U.S. to plead its case and claim no responsibility.  But, our dear leader is so much in love with autocracy, he decided that our Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, should crawl over to Saudi Arabia and beg for their version.  And, that is exactly what Pompeo did.

There he sat with the Crown Prince and the King of Saudi Arabia all smiles and laughing along with them.  Then he said that the Saudis promised a full investigation and that neither the Crown Prince nor the King knew anything about the disappearance of Kashoggi.

There has been outrage from both sides of the aisle on the issue.  There are even calls for America to cancel, or at least hold up, the $110 Billion arms deal trump made with Saudi Arabia.  But, according to trump, the disappearance inside the Saudi embassy of a U.S. resident and journalist is not worth that option.

Our dear leader doesn’t want to hold up the arms deal until the truth is revealed about Kashoggi.  Why?  Because it involves money.  And, money is far more important than the life of anyone, especially a journalist.

But, the plot thickens even more.  Before Pompeo even met with the Saudis, our dear leader started his own conspiracy theory about what happened.  He claimed that a “rogue killer” probably did the dirty deed.  Leaving the Crown Prince and the King off the hook.

Now, just a couple of days later, The Daily Beast reports that the Saudis are actually planning to roll out that version of their story.  After two weeks of lying and saying Kashoggi left the embassy shortly after he arrived, they are planning to make a “rogue” general the fall guy.

According to the report, they plan on telling the world that the Crown Prince authorized this general to interrogate Kashoggi but that he got out of control and lied to them about what happened.  How convenient.

However, shortly after Kashoggi went into the embassy, the Royal Guard showed up.  No one tells the Royal Guard to show up somewhere except the Crown Prince or the King.  So trying to say they didn’t know what was going on is a clear lie.

But, none of that matters to our dear leader.  From past reports we know that his son-in-law Jared Kushner has been trying to get money out of the Saudis for his personal business.  We also know from reports that trump himself has garnered a whole lot of money from the Saudis at his hotel in Washington, D.C.  The Saudis won’t use any other hotel except the trump hotel.

Throughout my lifetime, our country has tried to take to task every country that violated civil rights of their citizens.  Yes, we have cozied up to some really bad people because they hated communism, but we never stood by or offered excuses for something like this before.

Yet, our dear leader is once again taking the side of an autocratic government, even in what appears to be a murder inside their own embassy of a U.S. Resident.  The only driving factor in trump’s world and what is fast becoming our foreign policy is money.  If trump, his family or friends get money, he will support the devil to that end.

According to trump, America’s ideals of free elections, democracy and civil rights of the people do not mean a damn thing.  Only money counts.  He will go to any length to ensure money flows to someone instead of demanding that Saudi Arabia fess up to the truth.

He even went so far as to tweet “here we go again, guilty until proven innocent.  Just like Kavanaugh.”  Well, let me see.  A man walks into an Embassy in order to pick one piece of paper he needs to get married.  No one sees the man again.  The country that owns the embassy declares he left without any evidence and his own fiancé has never seen him again.

The host country releases a tape that shows the man being tortured and murdered in real-time.  Their own police gain entrance to the embassy to conduct an investigation and comes away saying there was evidence of a murder.  And trump says “guilty until proven innocent” and compares this murder to the Kavanaugh hearings.  How sick can a man be?

The other thing to take into consideration is one fact.  Saudi Arabia is a Kingdom.  All power rests with the Crown Prince and the King.  When the current Crown Prince took power, he immediately arrested several members of his own family in order to take control of their wealth.  I am sure that trump looked on that action with envy wishing he could do the same.

Nothing is done by the Saudi government without the expressed permission of the Crown Prince or the King.  That is a simple fact.  If you disobey the Crown Prince or King, you forfeit your life.  This make-believe story of a “rogue general” is laughable and sick at the same time.

In an interview with Fox yesterday, trump went on to praise the Saudi Crown Prince and King.  He even went so far as to say “they have been great allies to me.”  He did not say to the U.S.  He said to ME.  That says all we need to know about our dear leader.

Under our dear leader our country has become a laughingstock to the entire world.  They no longer think they can believe anything we say.  They have seen that we have tossed aside our ideals and morality in the name of money and power.

That was exemplified when the entire world laughed at trump during his speech at the UN.  The world sees trump for what he is.  A corrupt, money grabbing, ugly, stupid and obnoxious person who has no right to be leader of a great, free nation.

This is what the current Republican Party has unleashed on the rest of the country.  If the current Republican members of Congress would have used their “oversight” powers to keep this moron in check, we wouldn’t see foreign governments killing U.S. Residents inside their embassy and getting cover from our president for that murder.

But, no, power and tax cuts are far more important to our Congressional leaders on the Republican side than a man’s life.  This current Republican Party believes in the song from a movie.  The one that says “money makes the world go round”.

Except, their idea of money making the world go round is money for the super rich and not the average person.  If they don’t do something soon about this tragedy, except talk, then they are just as complicit in the murder of Kashoggi as trump and the Saudis are.  Think about that when you go to the polls in three weeks.

And, the shirts keep marching along.