more likely...

Sooooo.....

Today Cadet Bone Spurs looked right into the camera and with a straight face told us all that he would have run into Stoneman Douglas High School to confront, disarm and possibly kill the shooter, even if he was not armed.  

He said it with a straight face.

Which got me to thinking.

There have to be at least a million and one things that might happen on the planet, and/or are at least are likely for me to do before he storms the p. s. 70 lunch room.  I hereby present a brief list of things that are more likely to happen or that I might do before Cadet Bone Spurs comes to the rescue....

1.  The Jamaican bobsled team wins gold!!!

2.  The American Ballet Theatre asks me to dance the lead in in Swan Lake.

3.  I accept the invitation of the American Ballet Theatre to dance the lead in Swan Lake.

4.  I actually dance the lead in Swan Lake.  

5.  In Times Square.  

By the way, I have a great feather boa/costume just waiting...

6.  Queen Elizabeth hosts the Pope at Buckingham Palace and personally cooks him a seven course dinner featuring the finest in Ethiopean cuisine.

7.  I visit the planet Remulak and consume mass quantities with Dan Ackroyd.  By the way, in case you were wondering, the planet Remulak is actually located about ten minutes north of Philadelphia.

8.  Vincente Fox shows up with a crew of bricklayers along the Rio Grande and starts personally building a wall.

9.  A herd of cows wearing bikinis recites the entire works of Shakespeare for discerning diners in Tavern on the Green.  Among the diners that evening is Steven Spielberg, who immediately begins filming a remake of E.T. on the spot featuring the cows coming home.

10.  I stand in front of one of the exhibits at the Tate Modern, and actually understand it.

11.  I then realize that I understand this mishmosh on display at the Tate Modern, because I am the one who painted it.

12.  Using peanut butter.  

13.  Creamy style.  After all, who can paint with crunchy peanut butter?

14.  The Nobel Prize for literature is awarded to Dr. Suess.

15.  The Nobel Prize for medicine is awarded to Dr. Suess.  Hey.  It could happen.  I mean, he's a doctor.  Right?

16.  On my way driving to San Jose with my wife, I get lost, and actually stop at a bar and ask for directions.

17.  After all, who wouldn't want to stop at a bar that has an old Victrola playing in the background and ask the first person you see "Do you know the way to San Jose"...

18.  It would be as much fun as pulling alongside a limo at a red light and asking the snob inside if he has any grey poupon...

19.  Wayne LaPierre registers as a conscientous objector.  Well, I actually debated between this one and Wayne runs up, pulls the trigger and a flag with the word "Bang!" pops out of the barrel.  I like the visual on that one.

20.  One thousand glock toting public school teachers arrive at school tomorrow morning and are told by Betsy DeVos to put the guns away and accept instead bonuses allowing them to buy all the supplies their classes will need for the rest of the year.

and finally....

21.  I run into a school building unarmed and stop a shooter by singing "Kumbaya" to him.

I invite all suggestions to add to the list, which is not authoritative or exhaustive...

guns and priorities, chapter three

Do you want to know what the chances of something sensible happening in Washington in response to today's shooting in Parkland, Florida might be?  Think of this.

In January, 2013, Senator Diane Feinstein introduced a bill in the senate that would have made it illegal for people on the national terrorist watch list from buying a gun.  Think about that for a second.  There is a reason people end up on the terrorist watch list.  I think it has something to do with the fact that they are considered a real and reasonable threat to actually kill not just somebody, but a lot of somebodies.

And who is it that thought those people were enough of a threat to end up on the terrorist watch list?  How about the people who run law enforcement.  You know, the folks we think may know something about this and who we entrust to know these sorts of things to keep us safe.

The bill did not come up for a vote until December, 2015, nearly three years later and only because two days earlier we were all San Bernadino Strong after another fourteen people were killed by two people who had pledged fealty to ISIS.  And even in the face of that horror, the predictable happened.

The bill went down with fifty-four senators voting no.

Every single republican, with the exception of Mark Kirk of Illinois, voted no.  For the record, Mark Kirk was voted out of office in the election of 2016.  Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota was the only democrat to vote no.  She is still a sitting senator, more than likely due to the fact that she has not been up for reelection since this vote.  North Dakota, I am watching you.

Think about this for another moment.

If Osama bin Ladin were to walk into a gun show today, he could walk out of that show with a bushel full of AR-15s, once again, the weapon of choice used to mow down our precious and innocent children, a weapon which has absolutely no use other than to kill people, and kill them in mass quantities in a brief burst of hell.

According to Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Senator Feinstein's bill to keep Osama bin Ladin from walking into a gun show and buying up every AR-15 for sale there had to be voted down because we cannot allow the federal government to infringe upon our rights given to us under the second amendment.  So we have no problem with Osama bin Ladin arming himself with enough automatic weaponry to wipe out half of Florida, but we do have a problem with allowing a respected chemistry professor at the University of Kansas from staying here because his original student visa expired, in spite of the fact that he is loved in his community, has never committed a crime, is married and has three children, each American citizens, who he will be ripped apart from when he is deported.  So there are your priorities in congress.

It is okay for Osama bin Ladin to walk into a gun show and arm himself, because he gets the right to do so under the second amendment.

It is not okay for Syed Ahmed Jamal, that Kansas chemistry professor, to simply stay in this country and continue teaching chemistry, being a husband, a father and a loved and respected member of his community because, well... you know... America First!!

I ended a post here on October 4, 2017 saying that I could care less about thoughts and prayers.  They will do nothing to end the gun epidemic.  In the absence of action, the only thing we knew was something like Las Vegas, where fifty-nine people enjoying a country music festival were mowed down, was going to happen again.  The only question was when and where.  On November 5, 2017, after we knew when and where, I ended a post about Sutherland, Texas where another twenty-seven, this time while praying in their local church, were killed while congress dithered by saying that somewhere soon we were going to be Any Town USA Strong in response to the next atrocity if congress did not act.

They did not act.

So today, we are Parkland, Florida Strong, and we send our thoughts and prayers to the families of this time, seventeen victims.  I am sure their families are comforted right now by our thoughts, our prayers and our useless slogans.

And on television, I see senators and congressmen offering those thoughts and prayers, and telling us now is not the time to politicize this event by calling for gun control, even the meager nonsense that legislation about background checks with a million and one loopholes would amount to.  I see talk about mental health legislation, which the good folks on the right recently voted to cut savagely, and in any event, will not eliminate guns from our society.

You know what I do not see?

Legislation outlawing guns that have no business in civilian hands.

Legislation outlawing gun ownership by those who have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted with guns, like violent felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill and Osama bin Ladin.

Legislation that would repeal the Dickey Amendment and allow us to study and discuss the health effects of the avalanche of guns flowing down upon us.

Legislation that would impose liability upon manufacturers and distributors of guns who put dangerous and even defective weapons in the hands of those they have every reason to know should not have them.

And until we vote these complicit with the NRA sons of bitches out of office and put somebody in there who will introduce and implement this common sense legislation, we can all continue to furrow our brows, to weep, wail and moan, to rehearse our thoughts and prayers, and to come up with the next catchy feel good, Somewhere Sometime Soon Strong slogan, because it's going to happen again.

And we are all complicit.

our only solution

By now, it should be obvious to anyone who even just pretends to have a brain that there is no intention whatsoever on the right, not just to reign in what is going on at the White House, but also to actively take part in the cover up.  In the name of "transparency", they have released the Nunes Memo, which is, at best, an essay that would fail the average high school social studies quiz.  There is nothing new in the memo.  As I have said elsewhere, it may just as well have been written by the idiot in chief, as it simply works off his worn out talking points just short of "biggest crowd ever".

Clearly transparency has nothing to do with this.  If it did, the Schiff Memo in response would have been released at the same time.

If transparency had anything to do with it, Devin Nunes would have actually read the FISA warrant he trashed in the Memo.  I suppose many did not see that gem.  He brought forth this nonsense over a warrant he himself has not read.  Instead, he outsourced this to Trey Gowdy.

Yes, that Trey Gowdy.  

As in Benghazi!!!  E-mails!!!  Lock her up!!!

Don't believe me???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Js4TMKutCo&t=88s

Apparently, Mr. Gowdy went and read the FISA application in private with his unnamed "team", took notes, and then brought them back to Nunes, who wrote this "memo" without ever actually having seen the FISA application upon which it is based.  Apparently, the notes were not taken all that well, as there is nothing in the memo about a FISA warrant only being good for ninety days, and upon renewal each time, new independent facts are required to be shown to the Court, which would mean there was something other than the Steele Dossier upon which the judge found to be good cause to renew the warrant. 

Please note we have yet to hear from Mr. Gowdy, other than his announcement that he is now not running for reelection.

This is what we have come to in government, one that Paul Ryan, Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes all say requires transparency.

He is running around, possibly having committed treason in his dealings with the Russians.

He has not yet released his tax returns.

He has refused to release the White House visitor's log.

He has blocked any and all requests to see what foreign dignitaries, foreign businessman, foreign criminals or foreign objects are staying at his properties around the world, but especially in Washington, where he is profiting, and what they are saying to him, and what they are giving him in return for his actions as our president.

He has used Mar-A-Lago for his personal profit center, billing the government for hosting public events there, where he pockets the proceeds.

And to the right, all of this is ok.

There is no need for transparency here.  This does not rise to the level of anything Clinton.

We can investigate the Clinton Foundation for all its foreign dealings, but the Trump Foundation?  Nothing to see here.

We can e-mail!!! and Benghazi!!! our way to who knows where -- it certainly did not lead to anything in the end -- but we cannot dare look at anything he did.

We can wail and scream over leaks of his self-dealings and possible treason, but cannot look to see about the veracity of the acts themselves.

And we can wail and scream over the leaks of classified information, only to declassify that information in the name of political expediency.

So with all of the hullabaloo over the release of the Nunes Memo, what can we expect from here?  I would offer the following:

1.  He will fire Rod Rosenstein and cite the Memo as proof that Rosenstein has abused his office.  Rosenstein is the only person who has he authority at this point to fire Robert Mueller.  Guess what happens next.

2.  The Democrats will go ballistic.

3.  The Republicans will shrug.

Impeachment?  Article 25?

Do not hold your breath.  It's not going to happen.  If they ever did have a soul, the right has sacrificed it for the sake of having a president, no matter how ignorant, who will sign legislation they have always wanted, even if they have to alter the rules for getting it passed in the first place just so they can bring it to his desk.  As long as that is happening, what the rest of us want is not going to happen.

He will be our president, at least in name, at least until January 20, 2021 at noon.  For those of you counting, that is two years, eleven months and seventeen days from now.  For those of you who are watching me as I write this, that is two years, eleven months, seventeen days, four hours and twelve minutes from now -- Sorry, my digital watch does not have a second hand.

There is, however, something we can do.  It may be too late, but it is the only thing we can do, and unfortunately, we have to wait another nine months and three days before we do it.  On November 6, 2018 -- VOTE.

VOTE LIKE YOUR LIVES DEPEND UPON IT.  IT JUST MIGHT.  If you think it does not, keep in mind that the New York Times is reporting this morning that the most recent polling shows an uptick for republicans, giving them hope that they will not lose their majority.

And for those who need a little guidance on how to vote, here is a list of those on the House Intelligence Committee who voted to release the Nunes Memo.  Note, they are all republican.  Every single one of them.  Note further, some have already said they are not running for reelection:

Devin Nunes -- 22nd District, California

Mike Conaway -- 11th District, Texas

Peter King -- 2nd District, New York

Frank LoBiondo -- 2nd Distrct, New Jersey

Tom Rooney -- 17th District, Florida

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- 27th District Florida

Michael Turner -- 10th District, Ohio

Brad Weinstrup -- 2nd District, Ohio

Chris Stewart -- 2nd District, Utah

Rick Crawford -- 1st District, Arkansas

Trey Gowdy -- 4th District, South Carolina

Elise Stefanik -- 21st District, New York

Will Hurd -- 23rd District, Texas

In the present environment, the only weapon we the citizens of the United States are left with is at the ballot box, assuming they don't pass legislation that prevents anyone except their own supporters from voting, or that the Supreme Court does not issue a ruling allowing them to put all democrats in one single district in each state, leaving all other districts to the whims of the right.  So, as I said above, on November 6, 2018...

VOTE AS IF YOU LIFE DEPENDED ON IT.