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| People gather at a makeshift memorial in Vegas |
A kind of nonsensical ideological haven in the middle of a bubble located light years from where most average Americans try to eek out an existence wherever they live, work, retire, or go to school.
In that universe a simple truth is denied.
64-year-old Stephen Paddock used a weapon of war to kill 59 people and injure 500 others on Sunday night.
But he wasn't on a field of battle, for three days he was ensconced in the corner suite on the 32nd floor of a hotel with 23 different firearms (including semi-auto and fully automatic rifles with scopes set up on tripods) and hundreds of rounds of ammunition - some of which he used to fire at innocent people attending a country music festival.
The current Republican-majority Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government empowered and tasked by the Constitution to draft laws on behalf of the American people, made it easier for that to happen.
As the editorial board of the New York Times wrote in a blistering, mostly visual op-ed yesterday:
"477 Days. 521 Mass Shootings. Zero Action From Congress."
If you haven't already seen it, click the link above and take a quick look at the calendars covering 2016 and 2017 with the days where at least one mass shooting took place in America marked off.
It borders on madness when you consider that the Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as "four or more people injured or killed in a single event at the same time and location."
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| Paul Ryan, Speaker of Platitudes? |
In response Republican Congressional leaders are doing what they usually do after innocent Americans lose their lives to senseless mass shootings.
Absolutely nothing.
As Rebecca Shabad reported for CBS News earlier today, after Republicans holed up in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, "Mr. Zero Action" himself, House Speaker Paul Ryan, emerged to take questions from the media.
When asked what Congress has done to help protect American people from the wave of mass shootings that have taken place across the U.S. during the time that Republicans have controlled the House, like a kid caught lying to the teacher about reading the homework assignment when he clearly hadn't, Ryan began pontificating about mental health reform.
"One of the things we've learned from these shootings is often underneath this is a diagnosis of mental illness."
It's remarkable that less than 48 hours after Stephen Paddock killed 59 and injured 500, these Republican right-wing nutjobs were able to offer a "diagnosis of mental illness" of a fairly wealthy guy with no criminal record without an investigation having been nearly completed.
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| Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock |
Right down to strategically placing video cameras at various places outside the hotel suite so he could observe anyone approaching the room picking a corner suite with a perfect sightline to the concert taking place in a field nearby.
Doesn't exactly sound like a raving maniac who bursts into work at lunch and starts shooting.
But I wouldn't exactly put a whole lot of faith in the piercing psychiatric insight of the Republican Congressional leadership.
After all these are the same clowns who still haven't been able to offer a "diagnosis of mental illness" of Donald Trump's crazy ass after 8 months of relentless chaos, rampant idiocy and stunning lack of major accomplishments in the White House.
Speaking of President Useless, his pointless comments in the wake of the shooting have been about as comforting as a crazed raccoon with rabies inside your sleeping bag.
His ordering flags flown at half-mast and trite "warm condolences" to the families of the 59 people killed is little more than pointless lip-service to the millions of people fed up with Republicans solemnly shaking their heads and offering their "thoughts and prayers" after innocent people get mowed down with guns and they do nothing about it.
Remember, Congressional Republicans cut government funding for research into gun violence - think about that - before the shooting on Sunday they were preparing to vote on the NRA-backed SHARE Act which would make it easier to transport silencers across state lines and not classify some armor-piercing rounds as armor piercing rounds.
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| El Presidente Loco in Puerto Rico |
Trump and his obstinate one-note White House press secretary Sarah Sanders both dutifully touted the GOP Party Line on Monday by politely hinting that they won't be doing dick about passing meaningful gun control.
Sanders had the gall to get teary-eyed.
Then Trump flew down to Puerto Rico where he made an even bigger ass of himself.
Seriously, what kind of incompetent brain-dead asshole flies down to a U.S. territory where 95% of the people still have no electricity, access to safe water or steady food supplies and says "You've thrown our budget a little out of whack. We've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico."??
Then starts tossing rolls of paper towels to people like some inebriated dimwit fan with court-side seats lumbering onto the floor to shoot foul shots at the halftime of Knicks game.
The silence from the National Rifle Association after Sunday's mass shooting has been deafening -
there's been almost total radio silence on their normally active social media pages.
Remarkably, the same Website that touts the NRA as "Freedom's Safest Place" is apparently too chickenshit to open their mouths about the fact that a guy busted open a hotel window and started killing and injuring people with a machine gun.
But they've got the gall to have an article titled "Capital of Denial: How Much Longer Can D.C. Continue to Ignore the 2nd Amendment?"
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| James & Nelba Greene with a photo of their daughter Ana at a press conference in Sandy Hook, 2013 |
Devoid of compassion, bereft of common sense, enraptured by the 2nd Amendment like it's a false god.
After James Eagan Holmes threw teargas canisters into a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and shot twelve people and injured 70 back on July 20, 2012, the Republican-majority Congress did nothing.
Five months later, after 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed his own mother then drove to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary and shot and killed 20 innocent six and seven year-old children and six adults on December 14, 2012 - the Republican-majority Congress did nothing.
Last year on June 12, 2016 after 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 58 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida - once again, the Republican-majority Congress did nothing.
In fact, if you recall, three days after the Pulse shooting, outraged Democrat Senators including Connecticut's Chris Murphy took to the floor of the Senate to filibuster for 15 straight hours to express their outrage that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wouldn't even allow gun control legislation to come to the floor for a vote.
Like thousands of Americans I stayed up watching the filibuster speeches on C-Span, I called Murphy's Senate office late that night to express my support - and I could hear the phones ringing off the hook.
It was a brief, shining moment of hope that was dimmed by a Republican Senate leadership that is content to ignore the will of the American people because of the millions of dollars of direct political contributions they get from the NRA, as well as the unchecked millions in dark PAC money the NRA is able to funnel to the GOP in exchange for their turning a blind eye to the epic of gun violence taking place across the U.S.
Today is my birthday, and I hate to start off the month of October on such a somber note, but I'm pissed - and like a lot of Americans I'm tired of Republicans hiding from their responsibility to pass reasonable gun control measures to keep us safe.
In a week when the American people needed real leadership from the party that controls Congress and the White House, we got a big fat nothing from a bunch of do-nothing obstructionists content to dwell in a parallel universe.
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