'Bald-faced lie': Houston Chronicle torches Texas gov's 'bankrupt conscience' and 'cowardice' ...

[babylonsister]

'Bald-faced lie': Houston Chronicle torches Texas gov’s 'bankrupt conscience' and 'cowardice' after Uvalde mass shooting
Meaghan Ellis
May 25, 2022


snip//

Highlighting the governor's use of the word "horrific," the board wrote, "The first word is apt — especially for the moms and dads who dropped off their little ones at school Tuesday morning, maybe lingering a little bit in the car line, just to crane their necks back and watch as that precious little body, that floppy ponytail or that lanky little string bean frame, laden with backpack and lunch box, made it safely through the schoolhouse door, where, it seemed, they would be safe."

The board added, "Horrific was the moment they got the news. Horrific will be their nights of endless tears. Horrific will be the bright, sunny mornings when they remember it wasn’t a dream. The bed is empty, no little lump beneath the blankets, waiting to be awoken."

However, his use of the word "incomprehensibly" was described as a "bald-faced lie." "The second word Abbott used — “incomprehensibly” — is just as much cowardice as it is a bald-faced lie," the editorial board wrote.

According to the board, the state's Republican-run legislature has contributed to the gun problem due to the lenient laws in place when it comes to acquiring firearms.

"Whether it’s a handgun, rifle or semi-automatic invented for war, the governor has supported and the Legislature has passed law after law that have obliterated any semblance of good sense regulation — laws so permissive that they’ve even defied the objections of police chiefs and gun safety instructors, including the 2021 permitless carry bill that the governor bragged on Twitter allows any eligible Texan to carry a gun in public with 'no license or training' needed. As though that were progress," the editorial board wrote.

more...

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/houston-chronicle/?cx_testId=1&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=2&cx_experienceId=EXDEXBKK1F00#cxrecs_s

[edhopper]

1. Texans

will never put 2 and 2 together. They will keep re-electing people like this, and Paxton and Cruz.
The voters care more about CRT and imagined threats from immigrants than the lives of their children.

[rownesheck]

4. Unfortunately,

you are right. I live in this shit pit. There aren't enough of us who care to pull our lazy asses out from in front of our blessed TVs and vote out these assholes.

There is also an epidemic of hardheadedness within Texans that, no matter how much they are proven wrong, they will double down on their beliefs. It is fucking annoying and dangerous.

On top of that, this state is too fucking big. Our empty land has more voting power than our people.

I curse the ancestor of mine who said, "Hey! I think i'ma move to Texas! Yee-haw!" I hate that backward ass racist bastard.

[cab67]

20. By and large,

Texans are a bloodthirsty people. I wouldn't object to ejecting the state from the US.

I'm a former Texas resident and proud UT graduate, by the way. So I do know "by and large" is tarring a lot of sane people whose voices just don't seem to matter where they live.

[3auld6phart]

8. Other

States have clowns ( murderers ) like Texas’s Abbott has to
be the worst top of his pathetic class. Saw on a post late
last night that many gun humping ‘pukes were named that
should be charged with aiding in these mass murders.This
School shooting and other mass killings are a shameful daily
occurance.

[Paladin]

2. I hope these words stay wrapped around Abbott's filthy neck, through the election.

Profound thanks, Houston Chronicle.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

3. Horrific

Will be when the false flag idiots start harassing the grieving families

[Traildogbob]

12. Oh you betcha!

Or they will be cheering the fact that Latinos killing Latinos are great for MurKKKa. I am sick of the half mast flags. It’s time to take the damn flag down until we gain some semblance of democracy, Justice and a fucking GD sign of a soul.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. It's Not Like It Hasn't Happened

Happened before, nobody has been sanctioned (so far, including Jones whose case just drags along), so they'll repeat it.
I'd say there's a 99.99% chance you'll be proven right.

[ck4829]

5. K&R

[lindysalsagal]

6. Toxic masculinity is contagious, and persistent. Like cancer, and lice.

We're a horrible species.

[groundloop]

19. Yep, I lived in TX for a couple of years and what really stood out was all the fake masculinity

[prodigitalson]

38. Gigantic trucks "rolling coal"....

I live hear too. East Texas actually, where the superstition and ignorance is is boiled down to it's essence. I remember my first day teaching when I was asked repeatedly "what is your home church?" I was born and raised here but I have lived in other states and abroad. I would guess my neighbors who have passports could be counted on one hand. I have watched them swallow Russian propaganda like the Jade Helm shit. I have watched them bury their family members who died of COVID then still say it was fake. I have watched them tune in to the Biden inaugural party because they honestly believed the military was about to arrest everyone there. I have watched them get kicked out of nursing school for having fake vaccination cards. I have watched them lose scholarships for posting racist things on social media...and on and on and on and on.

[azureblue]

7. Abbott

Killed those kids - he all but put that gun in that lunatic's hands. Abbott is 100% to blame for the deaths of those children..

But the truth is, every person who voted Abbott into office, is to blame, also. And no doubt the Texas GOP is trying to find a way to blame it on Democrats -- Which says it all about the corrupt, filthy GOP. It's just politics and money to them.

[Trueblue Texan]

13. I absolutely agree!

Abbott and all that voted for him are murderers! Abbott might as well have pulled the trigger himself for all the support he gave to killers like the one who committed the atrocity in Uvalde.

[spanone]

9. K&R

Sadly, republicons have zero shame.

[LiberalArkie]

10. Texas needs to secede so that those who love their attitude can move there. Maybe

even build a border fence around it. The rest of the nation would probably do a lot better without the Republic of Texas within its borders.

[Lonestarblue]

14. I would happily move to a blue state if Texas would just secede and become its own country.

Unfortunately, it’s one of the red states that now feed at the federal trough by taking more money than it pays in federal taxes. Keeping people poor and unable to pay much in taxes pays off by bringing in more dollars. That’s the only thing Republicans anywhere care about—money and power. So what if they have to sacrifice a few schoolchildren or shoppers or church goers. Thoughts and prayers. I generally try to keep my anger in check because it does me no good, but I’m having a hard time doing that today.

[Caliman73]

36. When did it shift?

When did Texas become a pauper state? I remember reading not too long ago (though I don't pay strict attention) that Texas gave more than it got.

Do you know when they started taking more than they give?

Seems odd with all their oil and other resources.

[MagickMuffin]

16. Nope, not gonna happen, sorry to be the bearer of bad news for you

I'm not leaving anytime soon and will keep voting for the Democratic candidates every election.

[NCjack]

24. Texas loves sucking those "blue" dollars out of the Federal Treasury. Reverse the cash flow

and Texas will in ernest pursue leaving the Union.

[malaise]

33. Texas voted for Ann Richards

Let’s go Beto

[bucolic_frolic]

11. People are more frightened by imaginary fear than by actual threats

Fear of taking away your guns because the daily carnage is a threat to you.

[Martin Eden]

15. Enablers of these mass shootings (like the Texas Gov) need to be called out forcefully and repeatedy

Don't let these die, or more children will die.

[MagickMuffin]

17. Republicons ARE the Pro Death Party

You can't be prolife and proguns.


If you are proguns then you support school shootings, church shootings, grocery store shootings, concert shootings, and soon to be additional shooting free zone sports arenas.

[nwduke]

18. It's still mind boggling

why charts showing all the countries with gun regulations compared to zero regulations in the US and subsequent death tolls aren’t shown more often in the media and at legislators meetings!

[cab67]

21. honest question

Is it possible to charge Abbott and like-minded legislators in Texas with criminally negligent homicide? These shootings are a predictable outcome of the gun policies they actively promoted and passed into law. Their actions are a direct cause of these murders.

[lastlib]

22. I can't decide whether it's craven cowardice or cowardly cravenness.....

on the part of repuglikans. Flip a coin?

[Snackshack]

23. We are all responsible for this.

The GOP is simply doing what it has been allowed to do time and time again and that is protect corporate profits no matter how many lives it costs.

The Dems silence on this and lack of unity in the party that would torpedo any legislation they might draft.

Us- the fact that the entire country was not out in the streets last night demanding the changes needed. Because this is what it is gonna take and until it happens we are all tacitly giving approval.

Thoughts and prayers will fill the airwaves and internet data packets today but there will be no real change. It’s been almost 10 years since Sandy Hook where 20 children and several adults were executed and here we are again. There are families waking up this morning in a new and tragic world. Some may have been a parent yesterday but are no longer a parent today.

My heart breaks knowing what these people are going through today and knowing that the country I was raised in and love is being torn apart in slow motion.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. "We are all responsible for this."

The GOP is simply doing what it has been allowed to do time and time again and that is protect corporate profits no matter how many lives it costs.

The Dems silence on this and lack of unity in the party that would torpedo any legislation they might draft.

Am guessing you don't live in a big city where people in neighborhoods far and wide have been "out there in the streets protesting" continually because what just happened in a single day in that small town in Texas that is the population of one neighborhood in a big city, happens weekly in the big cities, week after week after week, month after month, after month, and year after year after year. Here in Philly, we had 18 shootings including 6 homicides just this past weekend, and 3 shootings just yesterday.

Link to tweet

The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting
@PCGVR
We partner with @Billy_Penn to deliver the Weekly Brief on Gun Violence Prevention in Philadelphia via their newsletter every Wednesday morning. You can read today's edition online now and sign up to get it in your inbox every morning: https://billypenn.com/2022/05/25/philly-news-wednesday-morning-roundup-10/
Image
8:38 AM · May 25, 2022

The "problem" is not "we". The "problem" is the permitted corporate funding of lawmakers when they run for office and that primarily influences what bills they will sponsor or block (although nowadays, more and more are trying to get into office without that). In other words, when you are funded by corporate donors, THEY are "your constituents", not the voters.

As I posted in another thread, it took James Brady (remember him? Raygun's Press Secretary) 12 years to get what was dubbed the "Brady Bill" (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act) passed and signed into law .

Like Gabby Giffords 30 years later, Brady was shot in the head during a Raygun assassination attempt. At least he didn't go loon like Steve Scalise and double-down on pushing for no regulation of more and more instruments of mass death after being near-mortally wounded.

After that was passed, the following year in 1994, the "Crime Bill" (Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) that included a sunsetting assault weapons ban (which was an amendment incorporated in that bill that was drafted by Diane Feinstein) was passed and signed.

However a couple months later, for the first time in 40 years after the 1994 mid-term election, Republicans took control of the House, and eventually installed the loon Newt Gingrich as Speaker. It obviously wasn't just these gun control bills that did it but Gingrich's almost 20 years of careful planning to "blow up the process" of Congress, and he's STILL helping the GOP blow it up.

So no, "we" are NOT "all responsible for this". This gun madness has nothing to do with "the Dems". It's any politician, no matter what party, who is funded by the NRA and the gun lobby, and who refuses to move legislation to get a handle on the continual massacres.

[Snackshack]

28. One city does not make a country.

Most of what you said is correct the problem with the Dems is that there has been no united front by the Dems to press this issue and demand change. After Giffords I certainly expected that to change but then the Dems were scattered about all over the place in their direction.

“What happened in just a single day in a small town in Texas”. This is also part of the problem. This is not a single isolated event as “just a single day in a small town in Texas” implied. All of these shooting since the event in San Ysirdo are connected by the same common denominator.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. "One city does not make a country."

It's not just "one city". If you follow any national news, it's ALL the big cities. THAT was my point

For example, before this horrible incident happened, remember the 10 people who were shot on a NYC subway? just last month?

And there was another in their subway this past Sunday.

There were 10 shot with 2 who died in Chicago last week. There were 2 killed in Los Angeles a few days ago. In Phoenix, there was a suspect shot by police after shooting at them while barricaded. There was someone living in a homeless encampment in D.C. who was shot dead this past Monday. There were 5 people shot with 2 of them who died in a Houston market shooting less than 2 weeks ago.

I can go on and on and on.

the problem with the Dems is that there has been no united front by the Dems to press this issue and demand change.

"Dems" have been pressing the issue for at least 30 years. That's why they went along with the "Crime Bill" signed by who? Bill Clinton. But once Democrats lost the House in 1994 after that was passed, Democrats did NOT regain control of the House until 12 years later in 2006.

“What happened in just a single day in a small town in Texas”. This is also part of the problem. This is not a single isolated event as “just a single day in a small town in Texas” implied. All of these shooting since the event in San Ysirdo are connected by the same common denominator.

We agree with this which is why I gave examples of ALL THE SHOOTINGS that are going on daily "in America".

But I disagree that this is somehow the fault of "Dems".

The "fault" lies in the politicians who take NRA money and block bills and the vast majority of them are REPUBLICANS.

[tenderfoot]

34. "the entire country was not out in the streets last night"

Is that what you were doing last night? If not, get off your high horse.

[calimary]

25. "As though that were progress."

“Progress”, ‘eh?

Not exactly. I’d rather call it “damnation.”

[Jarqui]

26. So what has materially changed ...

This was the first really shocking mass shooting at a school that I recall.
I've never forgotten it and the feelings it triggered.

University of Texas tower shooting 1966
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting

On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death the previous night, Charles Whitman, a Marine veteran, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, and then opened fire indiscriminately on people on the surrounding campus and streets. Over the next 96 minutes he shot and killed 14 people, including an unborn child. One final victim died from injuries in 2001, 35 years later. Whitman also injured 31 others. The incident ended when two policemen and a civilian reached Whitman and shot him dead. At the time, the attack was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history, being surpassed 18 years later by the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre.

I guess the right to indiscriminately slaughter little kids is constitutionally protected in the minds of Republicans and the gun lobby that bought them.
"There is no erring on the side of caution when the mentally ill can get their mitts on an AR15!"[/sarcasm]
"Thoughts & prayers"? What person who takes this position has really thought this through?

Different slaughter. Same old points.

[gldstwmn]

29. Bravo!

[Martin68]

32. We need to take this issue and run with it.

[Cha]

35. TY Houston Chronicle!!🤷‍♂️💕🤷‍♂️

💙💛

[Demovictory9]

37. k&r

[BobTheSubgenius]

39. Do they extend the same hyper-laissez-faire attitude towards licensing drivers or pilots?

I say "Let 'em buy a car or a plane and they can figure it out on their own." Preferably fast cars and planes - power can be a good substitute for knowledge and capability.