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Friday, June 17, 2016

The Blood of Orlando is on John Roberts’ Hands - BY WILLIAM GREIDER

Found here. My comments in bold.
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The Leftist penchant for dissembling is always on display. Here's another one.
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This post originally appeared at The Nation.

Our grieving over the Orlando massacre will have little or no effect unless we mobilize our sorrows into rage that targets all of the political culprits. (Rage? I thought hate, fear, and rage were the reasons conservatives do the things they do. That's why Donald Trump is popular, correct? but now it is apparently desirable to not only have rage, but capitalize on it.)

Americans must mobilize a take-no-prisoners political anger that overrides the usual lamentations and legalistic excuses from politicians in both parties.

Don’t just blame crazed bigots or foreign subversives. ("Crazed bigots." I guess those are people filled with rage. I'm confused.)

This slaughter was enabled by our own elected politicians, with an assist from the US Supreme Court. They should be the true target of our rage. (Make them targets? Remember back when Gabby Giffords was shot and Sarah Palin's target chart was derided by the Left for its supposed incitement of violence?)

This is the dreadful reality that has led our country to its continuing sorrows. The government has failed to protect citizens from the random violence that is fast becoming a blood-soaked ritual. (Yes, the police have indeed failed to protect us from violence. Milo Yiannopoulos, a gay conservative, was threatened with violence by a leftist. Ann Coulter. Condoleeza Rice. The Left loves violence, and will use it at every opportunity. But only when it comes to conservatives. Leftist violence is given a pass.

And now we have this author inciting leftists to act on their rage.)

Politics has failed at every level — federal, state and local — (Is the author still taking about gun violence, or has he wandered into the truth about the general failure of government to solve the problems of society?)

and then politicians plead that they are helpless to prevent the slaughter. (Who has said this? References, please.)

People must not accept that legalistic dodge.

If the United States can bomb other nations without a declaration of war, (Actually, it can't. But Obama has bombed other nations with impunity with nary a peep from the Left.)

the United States can confiscate the high-powered military weapons that are routinely sold to the random madmen who are driven to violence by their own hateful political delusions. (So the "logic" is, since presidents violate the Constitution one way, why not in others. A despot's wet dream...)

We the people are confronted by a profound crisis of national security far more threatening than any of the far-flung wars the United States has engaged in the Middle East. I predict that if Washington will not act forcefully to halt the domestic violence, endangered citizens will feel compelled to take up their own self-defense. (This is already common. Because government continually fails to secure peoples' rights, we have the wonderful Second Amendment. Thus, we are fully capable and willing to protect themselves.)

The violence is a constitutional emergency subverting the civil order — a crisis the Supreme Court did not anticipate (We again request documentation of this claim.)

when it threw out the gun-control laws and rewrote the Second Amendment. (A continually-repeated leftist talking point. We once again point out that the Second Amendment, like every other provision of the Constitution, speaks to what government can and cannot do. It does not speak to or limit The People.)

Chief Justice John Roberts has blood on his hands. So do his right-wing associates who defended the “gun rights” trumpeted by the National Rifle Association. (The author tries to twist this into a partisan issue, which may surprise Democrats like John Tester, Mike Ross, Heath Shuler,  Dan Boren, Ron Kind, Ben Nelson, Mike Thompson, and Bennie Thompson. Do these Democrats also have blood on their hands? 

And of course, the democratic platform: "We recognize that the individual right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans' Second Amendment right to own and use firearms." The democratic party must have blood on it's hands as well, right?) 

If my accusation seems unfair, (Seems to be unfair because it is.)

tell it to the scores of families whose innocents were murdered without a trial. (Manipulative emotional appeal.)

There will be many more of these victims — you can count on it — so long as the Supreme Court puts guns beyond the reach of law. (Which of course is shameless hyperbole. There are hundreds, if not thousands of gun restriction laws already on the books. yet Orlando still happened. Maybe the failure lies elsewhere, hmm?)

The country might have been on the way to a solution for this dilemma except for the unconstitutional (The author wouldn't give a rip about the Constitution if it were any other issue. In fact, we remind the reader of the author's previous statement: "If the United States can bomb other nations without a declaration of war, the United States can confiscate the high-powered military weapons..." Thus he's in favor of violating the Constitution when it's his issue. Otherwise, the Constitution is used a bludgeon to beat the opposition into shame and silence.)

intervention of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican Senate majority leader. With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, President Obama had the power to appoint (Not appoint, nominate, which he did.)

a more liberal replacement, except McConnell preemptively announced that his GOP majority would refuse to consider anyone Obama nominated. (In other words, Obama would nominate a justice that would rule against the Constitution.)

Let’s be blunt about this. McConnell has made a minstrel show out of the Constitution. (In vain we undertake to lay our finger on any provision of the Constitution that requires the Senate to review judicial appointments.)

Any lame-duck president in the final year of his term has the power to appoint (Nominate.)

a new Supreme Court justice — unless, it seems, that lame-duck president has a black face. (Race card, played because the author lacks a sufficient intellectual argument.)

Can anyone doubt that race was an important factor in the GOP’s refusal to even consider Obama’s nominee? (Yes, I can. The accusation, presented without evidence, can be summarily dismissed.)

Can we imagine a GOP Senate refusing to consider a nomination from a white Democratic president? (Yup. Nominees have been refused many times. And we note that Democrat Joe Biden in 1992 said, "It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is under way, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.")

Indeed, after Obama nominated a greatly respected (white) judge, Dems poured on criticism after the GOP refused to act. But it was telling that Democrats were too polite to accuse McConnell of racist intent; ("Too polite?" Whaaa? A quick google led to thousands of results of "mcconnell racist." Here's one hit

Yes, yes. Play the race card because Democrats have been too polite. They never accuse people of being racists.The Left is NEVER too polite to call someone racist. The author's proposition is ludicrous.)

instead, he became constitutional scholar for a day. Democrats should have shut down the Senate until he respected regular order. That would have doubtless produced the gun-law reforms the nation so desperately needs.

My complaint against Senate Democrats is that they have been too polite to accuse the GOP leader of racist intentions. They should do so now. Let him deny it. Let other Republican senators run for cover. Because Orlando has made clear that this is indeed a great crisis in homeland security that cannot tolerate political game-playing.

In fact, the bloodbath in Orlando should profoundly alter the popular impatience with political game-playing. If Democrats wish to overcome the popular skepticism toward them, (Wait, "popular skepticism?" People are skeptical of Democrats? I wonder why that might be?)

they will go to the barricades and stymie whatever legislative action the McConnell crowd attempts in the next few months unless the GOP abandons the gun nuts and accepts rigorous new gun laws.
Americans at large have “gun rights” too — the right not to be slaughtered by deranged marauders with 100 rounds of deadly force.

Don’t hold your breath. The NRA is powerful because a generation ago it targeted and defeated a handful of congressional members who did not vote its way. Once blindsided, the pols fell in line. If the Democratic Party is unwilling to make this fight, then popular anger must make it for them. Pick a handful of Dems and Republicans who vote wrong on guns and take them out. That message will destroy the NRA’s political monopoly. Americans at large have “gun rights” too — the right not to be slaughtered by deranged marauders with 100 rounds of deadly force. (Is there a right to not be slaughtered by 10 rounds of deadly force? What about 1 round? A machete? A sharp stick?)

Whatever the politicians decide, this crisis also demands direct action that confronts disgusting contradictions the elected politicians have usually tolerated. Who sold the guns to the Orlando murderer? People should find the store and shut it down. (That is, who was it, as they operated legally, sold a gun that must have just popped up into the murder's hand so he could shoot people, let's find him and punish him ourselves. Make him pay.) The local prosecutor could name the owner as an unindicted co-conspirator; such a move would make gun-store owners vulnerable to civil-damage lawsuits by families of victims. (The store owner, selling a legal product after following all the rules, is apparently expected to know that weeks or months after he sold a gun that the purchaser is going to turn crazy. That makes it the gun shop owner's fault. Because the shooter can't be at fault. He's a victim. He probably was driven to it by haters and bigots.)

And who made the guns that killed the innocents? Surround the factory too. Find out where the executives live. (Of course. Makes total sense. Except to those of use who possess a functioning logical capacity.)

And who elected the guys who enacted the laws that armed the sick deviants who killed so many people Saturday night in Orlando?

Do not wait for political leaders to find their strategy. Put them face to face with their failure.

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