Waiting For Republicans - The Slaughter Continues

Accused killer Nikolas Cruz at his arraignment

Trump's live comments on Thursday in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida seemed like more of the same old useless bunk that most Republican politicians repeat in the wake of the numerous mass shootings that now take place with alarming regularity in America.

Republican lawmakers have controlled the House of Representatives for seven years, and they haven't passed a single piece of legislation that would help to curb the epidemic of gun violence in America.

Not one single law. Not so much as a single bill. Nothing.

Instead of the action outraged Americans from all all over the country are demanding, all we're getting from apathetic Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill is that contrived, mournful shaking of their heads and collective shrugging of their shoulders - like they have no power to do anything.

It's as if they're channeling the characters Vladimir and Estragon, from the influential post-WWII play written by Samuel Beckett back in 1948, Waiting For Godot, wringing their hands in hopeless despair repeating the phrase "Nothing to be done!"

Instead of waiting for Godot, Republican lawmakers, already nervous about the upcoming midterm elections in November, are awkwardly doing the bidding of the National Rifle Association and waiting for the outrage over 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz gunning down 17 innocent people in a Florida High School (with an AR-15 assault rifle he purchased legally) to simply go away.

What's interesting is that both Trump and his sycophant Attorney General-lackey Jeff Sessions both tossed around tough-talking dog-whistle phrases about "having the back of law enforcement" during the 2016 presidential campaign and the subsequent shaky first year in office.

Frequently vilifying President Obama while presenting themselves as saviors of law enforcement.

Trump endorsing police brutality in front of members
of the Long Island PD back in July, 2017

One of Sessions' very first policy statements after his nomination to head the Justice Department was passed by the Senate was to reverse the many consent agreements between the DOJ and local police departments.

Police departments across the country in places like Chicago, Baltimore and Ferguson with proven histories of racially-biased policing practices.

Many cops favored those DOJ consent decrees to enact long-needed reforms.

Even though the DOJ itself had spent time and money compiling data showing that such decrees were needed to reestablish trust between local police departments and the communities they serve, Sessions' bizarre rationale for revoking them was that reversing these agreements, drafted under the Obama administration when Eric Holder was attorney general, would actually make it easier for members of local law enforcement to do their jobs.

As if police departments being held to the standards spelled out in the Constitution was some kind of annoying burden imposed on cops by President Obama out of spite.

Last July, Fake President travelled out to Long Island, New York to trumpet his supposed adoration of cops to try and bolster public support for his irrational xenophobic hatred of immigrants by trying to link them to the El Salvadoran gang MS-13.

Remember Trump standing in front of members of the Long Island Police Department and basically endorsing the use of excessive physical force against suspects in custody?

Trump and Sessions were both big on painting themselves as big supporters of cops and "law and order" as a convenient dog-whistle policy stance to rally their base of hyper-conservative supporters.

But as far as gun control is concerned, are they really supporting members of law enforcement, or the National Rifle Association's pro-gun industry agenda?

Take a look at the detailed list of IACP Policy Priorities For the 115th Congress as clearly spelled out by the International Association of Chiefs of Police founded back in 1893.

Under the section titled "Reduce Firearms Violence and Target Illegal Guns", the IACP states that "A comprehensive approach is needed in order to prevent further gun violence in our communities."

Among the actions steps listed:

"Support legislation that expands background checks, and require background checks for all firearms purchases."   

And "Oppose any legislation that would limit or reduce the ability of U.S. law enforcement agencies to combat the sale of illegal guns."


It's hard to sift through the scores of scandals, firings and tweets, but try and flash back to Trump's first days in office.

One of the very first bills that he signed into law within the first thirty days of his inauguration last February was an NRA-backed law that rolled back an executive order signed by President Obama that would have made it harder for Americans with mental illnesses or those deemed unfit to handle their own finances who receive Social Security checks to obtain firearms.

As Ali Vitali reported for NBC News last February, "President Barack Obama recommended the now-nullified regulation in a 2013 memo following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School which left 20 first graders and six others dead. The measure sought to block some people with severe mental health problems from buying guns."

Yet yesterday, a subdued, almost monotone Trump, obviously reading off a teleprompter, somberly invoked "mental illness" as the culprit in the shooting deaths of 17 innocent people by Nikolas Cruz in Florida.

He didn't even mention the words "gun laws" - like the AR-15 (pictured above) with it's rapid-fire technology and high capacity magazines had nothing to do with it.

In that same NRA-approved statement, Trump made a bunch of totally half-ass empty promises to work with members of federal, state and local officials to tackle the problem of mental illness, blah-blah, blah.

Terrified students comfort one another after being
released from Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS 

What a bunch of contrived, hypocritical horse shit.

Trump is the same spineless clown who's spent three years working with heartless right-wing Republican zealots in congress to vilify and repeal the Affordable Care Act - which mandated that insurance companies provide access to treatment for mental health conditions

Frankly I find it an insult that Trump had the nerve to try and use a press conference to reassure terrified students and teachers in schools across the U.S. that he's working to keep them safe.

Since his inauguration, when he ranted incoherently about "carnage" in America, he's shown himself to be nothing but an ignorant lackey of the NRA lobbyists who pumped millions into his presidential campaign.

Apparently the same K-Street gun lobby bozos who draft the text of his comments whenever another mass shooting takes place - so a contrite Trump can place the blame not on the almost unrestricted access to firearms, but on mental illness. "Nothing to be done!"

As if the guns used in these mass shootings are somehow like an innocent bystander that had nothing to do with anything.

To paraphrase some of the thousands of comments I've read on social media in the past 48 hours, there's no sense even waiting for Republican legislators in Congress to draft laws that would prevent a white supremacist like Nikolas Cruz from walking into a store and buying an AR-15 and a bunch of ammo.

MSD High School assistant football coach Aaron
Feis who died shielding students from gunfire

Thanks to Republican state legislators and the NRA, any 18-year-old in Florida can buy an AR-15 - it's perfectly legal - they can't buy a bottle of vodka but they can purchase the undisputed weapon of choice for mass shooters.

27 people (including shooter Adam Lanza) died at Sandy Hook Elementary and in Newton, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, Republicans who controlled the House did nothing.

49 people were killed on June 12, 2016 when Omar Siddiqui Mateen went on a shooting spree at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Republicans who controlled the House offered "prayers" but did nothing to pass a law restricting firearms access.

58 were killed and almost 500 injured back on October 1, 2017 when Stephen Paddock began firing on concertgoers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

In response the Republicans who control the House, the federal legislative body tasked by the U.S. Constitution with writing laws to protect the American people, did nothing.

The only way to mobilize and follow the recommendations of organizations like the International Association of Chiefs of Police to enact reasonable restrictions on dangerous firearms like the AR-15 and components like bump stocks and high-capacity magazines is to be registered to vote in November.

When those who are feeling powerless right now will be empowered to tell lawmakers who've done nothing in the face of the unprecedented gun violence happening in American schools, churches, malls, businesses, streets, concerts and homes, exactly what you think about their apathy, silence and prayers.

In the meantime, just remember there's so sense in waiting for Republican legislators who control which bills get to the floor to be debated or voted on to act.

That's like Waiting For Godot - they'll never show up.