Who's Next in the Line Up For Trump?

The continuous torrent of bile emanating from the White House will continue. Outliers for the liar will peel off. Some of the base will have epiphanies. Silent supporters will slither away. 48 GOP members of the House of Representatives are not running for re-election. Only 20 Democrats are on the House Casualty List.

In the manner of Nixon, it will take an inexcusable act for the mass of supporters to abandon the Philanderer-in-Chief. A crime so unforgivable that the perpetrator must go.




The escape routes keep getting whittled down by his daily stream of outright lies, a thousand tiny cuts. From a health standpoint, our Lothario is no doubt a ticking bomb. People in their 70s routinely blow gaskets, under far less stress. This still leaves a sycophant with nukes in his grubby little mitts, Mike Pence, the NRA’s Presidential wannabe. Reporters say Pence struts taller with every lie Trump tells.

Maybe this is the time for a revolt. Revolting sights grace our channels every day. I’ll tell you the Haitians would have had a dechoukage by now. It means ‘to pull up by the roots, like an unwanted plant.’ Peaceful but sometimes violent revolutions, I witnessed two first-hand. Horrible sights at times. So is watching Trump talk like a stupid schoolyard bully while he trash talks all of our closest allies. Who in the world trash talks their largest trading partners? We are lucky to have neighbors like Canada and Mexico. Others must face up to Myanmar or Yemen.

A master at obfuscation, Donnie dances like a marionette before the cameras. Strings pulled by oligarchs, Xi, Putin and lawyers, this fool trusts only the least trustworthy. Bailing out ZTE, a Chinese firm that ignored important sanctions against Iran?



None trust our President, not even his base, to any great extent. He is still accepted as a known liar and a braggart, despite the contradictions this brings to any leadership post. ‘It’s very entertaining.” An avid Trump supporter told me recently. So the trashing of our nation has become the highest-rated reality TV show?

The masses stare at this circus sideshow act but say little except among close associates. He appears to give them license to say the most racist, crass statements but more people know there are still Roseanne-like consequences for everyone else that talks like that. They still repeat unfounded conspiracy theories over and over among themselves. Content to flog a dead horse rather than reckon with the horse’s ass they put all their money on.

If the Donald is impeached and convicted in the 2019 Senate he still will not leave the White House willingly. He will remained at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue like that 30 year-old son that was recently evicted by his own parents. Trump is a landlord, he knows how long eviction orders can take, how they can be challenged. You’ll can bet he’ll take the towels and cutlery with him.



When Trump is forced out of office some die-hards will take to rather empty streets in protest. Some will get violent, asserting their supposed 2nd Amendment rights to shoot somebody. The bulk will crawl home like fans of a defeated sports team. Rest assured collaborators cannot be trusted in the effort to rebuild what the fools tore asunder.

The actual end of this presidency will likely be the 2020 Elections. However the functional end can be these 2018 mid-term elections. A concerted effort to get out the vote would likely turn the House over to Democratic control and possibly the Senate. This is the exact rallying cry being repeated at GOP events right now.

A Democratic-controlled Congress may not vote to impeach but they will shut down a considerable portion of the far-right Conservative agenda.

NRA’s ‘Red Herring’ Argument

 

“An analogy: knowing full well that murders will inevitably occur in a nation of 300 million people, we nonetheless adopt homicide laws and punish violators we manage to apprehend. If, instead, we were to reason — as gun control opponents would have us do with gun restrictions — that homicide laws are inappropriate since they are not perfect deterrents, we'd be stepping over dead bodies as we stroll down the sidewalk.

The best that homicide law or gun restrictions or any prohibition against harmful conduct can do is deter some of the people who would otherwise engage in the prohibited conduct. In fact, though, even a modest measure, like banning the semi-automatic attack rifles used in many of this decade's mass shootings, would, over time, save any number of innocent lives.

The gun lobby's emphasis of the imperfection of gun restrictions is an example of what in formal logic is called a "red herring" argument, in which the speaker's argument deflects attention from the issue at hand. In this case, the issue at hand is whether gun control measures are likely to save some — but not all — of the many lives now lost through gunfire, and the "red herring" is the assertion of the NRA and other opponents of restrictions that many lives will still be lost.” - Prof. Jay Sterling Silver, St. Thomas University School of Law.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/gun-control-opponents-have-a-problem-with-logic-commentary.html

Annapolis, Maryland

This is one way to look at it:

5 Major Gun-Control Positions

Group F believes there is nothing we can do to stop gun violence. All suggestions, even one so slight as banning large capacity magazines, is immediately rejected for various incorrect reasons. All suggestions for reducing gun violence are immediately dismissed as unworkable by the members of Group F. They have a very large gun safe at home, a membership at a gun club and go to the local firing range so often they have measurable hearing loss. That might have happened in the military. They still go bow hunting, though only every few years. They stopped paying NRA dues long ago but keep the sticker in the window of their old pickup. They do not care about stopping the plague of gun violence, in fact they sometimes buy a new gun when a mass killing event occurs. The only horrible event Group F fears is the possibility that military assault rifles may one day become illegal, again.



Group E believes there are some things we can do, like re-open state hospitals and lock away the disabled. They own several guns, each. They can talk a blue streak about guns & ammo, belong to the NRA, know a Ruger from a Sig Sauer. They wish they could own a Heckler & Koch. They are willing to maybe start running background checks at Virginia gun shows, someday, but not right now. They never served in the military but they love to play GTA. They’ve actually seen the statistics the New York City Police compiled regarding guns from Virginia used in NYC crime. Maybe someday we could start those background checks. They vote for the candidates the NRA recommends. Otherwise, Group E feels they should be allowed to carry concealed guns everywhere, in all 50 states, except maybe on airliners. They go hunting almost every year. They do feel really bad whenever these shootings occur, but see no connection at all to guns.



Group D stays quiet about everything, they don’t want to incur the wrath of their neighbor, boss or friends. We have no idea what their opinions are.  Many people remain in Group D because they are very afraid to speak out about anything for fear of losing their jobs. Group D people work in government, military, large corporation and local business jobs. City police officers typically belong to this group, even if they rarely speak up about it. All have seen what happens to people that stick their necks out. The grapevines are too healthy. They have families to  raise, bills to pay, and consider it best to stay home and watch TV rather than get out and change what they don’t like in their world. Group D lives in more heavily populated areas. Their husbands go off hunting, sometimes.

Group C would do anything to see the shootings stop in churches, schools, movie theaters and just about everywhere else. However, Group C keeps voting for the politicians that side with Group E and Group F.  They may lend their support to a particular candidate for other reasons, but ultimately they are voting for a leader that refuses to try a single thing, one single thing that might stop the weekly carnage. They might own a gun or two but never go hunting and rarely practice using their guns anymore.

Group B wants to do whatever it takes to stop gun violence. They have never owned a gun. Their kids do not own guns. They live in peaceful places, for the most part, the suburbs. They volunteer. They vote, in major elections. The cops in their town usually arrive promptly when called. They think about gun violence some mornings as their kids go off to school. These massive shootings really upset the members of Group B, often for several days. They would vote for candidates that support laws designed to reduce gun violence, if such politicians ever actually ran for office.

Group A has had it with the ongoing violence. It happens in their communities, despite tough gun laws. The local bad guys drive to Indiana, Texas or Virginia to buy their weapons. This group includes the survivors and relatives of all the horrific acts that have happened in recent memory. It includes activists, writers, and people that really do turn out to protest. This group includes people that took the time to learn about what Australia did after the Port Arthur Massacre. Group A lives and always votes for candidates in places that support tougher gun laws. The crime from other states spills over into their communities too often. Group A may own a hunting rifle.

NRA Racks Up Wins in Congress. The ATF Wants to Give It More

Important Highlights:

    •    January 20, 2017 - Ronald Turk, the No. 2 official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives circulates an internal white paper suggesting that the agency go easier on the regulation of guns and gun dealers.
    •    February, 2017 - Mr. Turk signs legislation rolling back restrictions imposed by the Obama administration on when certain mentally ill people can purchase firearms. Subsequently he overturns another Obama regulation that had stopped hunters from shooting bears from airplanes on federal land in Alaska.
    •    Turk describes the memo as providing the new administration with options “to reduce or modify regulations.”
    •    Those options include loosening oversight of gun dealers who sell multiple firearms that turn up at crime scenes … the elimination of the ban on importing AK-47 and AR-15 military-style, large-capacity rifles. Another option Turk promotes is making it easier for dealers to operate exclusively at guns shows or via the internet. (Sources: Paul Barrett, Bloomberg Article, U.S. government )

This is not my story, but rather comes from Bloomberg's Paul Barrett and a matter of government records. Public records.
Bloomberg reported earlier this year that it appears a man qualified to be a top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, Ronald Turk, is actually the acting head of ATF.