May 25, 2022

Political scientist says the Senate's failure to act on guns is an example of political decay

Here’s yet another reason to do this: because this sense of paralysis might stem from something that runs deep in our system.

Political scientist Francis Fukuyama has argued that such inaction is rooted in a form of “political decay.” This decay flows from complex processes that include interest-group capture and the entrenchment of patterns in our institutions that constrain them from keeping pace with evolving problems.

Fukuyama says this concept of political decay applies to the current moment. The Senate’s malapportioned representation constrains action supported by popular majorities (but opposed by powerful interests) to deal with increasingly pressing problems such as gun violence.

The adherence to the antiquated filibuster makes it even worse. As Fukuyama told me, it “adds to the stasis of the system.” We’re suffering from “the entrenching of a kind of anti-majoritarian rule that can’t be fixed,” he said, and the system isn’t responding to its “need to evolve.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/25/democrats-chris-murphy-action-shooting/

May 25, 2022

So, gun sales can only be kept on paper. Can't be in a computer database because of the NRA

https://twitter.com/hondanhon/status/1529277022102429696?s=20&t=zhLY3Ud9eS2Lqb_rWk_gFw




“People don't think,” Charlie tells me. He's a trim guy, 51, full lips and a thin goatee, and he likes to wear three-piece suits. They fit loose, so the overall effect is awkward innocence, like an eighth grader headed to his first formal. “ I get e-mails even from police saying, ‘Can you type in the serial number and tell me who the gun is registered to?’ Every week. They think it's like a VIN number on a car. Even police. Police from everywhere. ‘Hey, can you guys hurry up and type that number in?’ ”It's a shoestring budget. It's a bunch of friggin' boxes. All half-ass records.”

So here's a news flash, from Charlie: “We ain't got a registration system. Ain't nobody registering no damn guns.” There is no national database of guns. We have no centralized record of who owns all the firearms we so vigorously debate, no hard data regarding how many people own them, how many of them are bought or sold, or how many even exist.

Anytime a cop in any jurisdiction in America wants to connect a gun to its owner, the request for help ends up here, at the National Tracing Center, in a low, flat, boring building that belies its past as an IRS facility, just off state highway 9 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in the eastern panhandle of the state, a town of some 17,000 people, a Walmart, a JCPenney, and various dollar stores sucking the life out of a quaint redbrick downtown. On any given day, agents here are running about 1,500 traces; they do about 370,000 a year.

That's been a federal law, thanks to the NRA, since 1986: No searchable database of America's gun owners. So people here have to use paper, sort through enormous stacks of forms and record books that gun stores are required to keep and to eventually turn over to the feds when requested. It's kind of like a library in the old days—but without the card catalog. They can use pictures of paper, like microfilm (they recently got the go-ahead to convert the microfilm to PDFs), as long as the pictures of paper are not searchable. You have to flip through and read. No searching by gun owner. No searching by name.

https://www.gq.com/story/inside-federal-bureau-of-way-too-many-guns




This is insane!

May 25, 2022

This press conference by Warrior's Head Coach Steve Kerr calling out the gun-loving politicians...

https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1529253008072183822?s=20&t=J6kfimaM-ycFG9eXVuL5FQ





Steve Kerr's father was Malcolm H. Kerr a professor at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon.


From Wikipedia: On 18 January 1984, Kerr was shot and killed by two gunmen. He was shot twice in the back of his head, by gunmen using suppressed handguns, in the hallway outside his office. His death was claimed by the Islamic Jihad Organization.[15] Years later, information regarding Kerr's assassins and their motives still remain uncertain.

News of his sudden death appeared in the media worldwide.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_H._Kerr

May 24, 2022

Meet Tony Gonzales , who represents the district that contains the Uvalde elementary school

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1529177112288145413?s=20&t=J6kfimaM-ycFG9eXVuL5FQ



Trump is the headliner at the NRA convention taking place in a couple days on May 27th. They all make me sick.




https://twitter.com/dianabutlerbass/status/1529214792547844096?s=20&t=J6kfimaM-ycFG9eXVuL5FQ

May 18, 2022

Jfc- Elon Musk just tweeted this

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526997132858822658?s=20&t=M-LaFjBXJdDPZ5ZUKUxQWQ


In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party.

But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.

Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold … 🍿






Musk is a troll who loves drama.

https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1527005281527508993?s=20&t=M-LaFjBXJdDPZ5ZUKUxQWQ