Friday, May 27, 2022

I Didn't Say It

President Biden, on those dead children, victims of yet another mass shooting in America:

"I had hoped when I became president I would not have to do this—again. Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third and fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened—see their friends die, as if they're in a battlefield, for God's sake. They'll live with it the rest of their lives. What struck me on that 17-hour flight [Biden was returning from Asia] what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. Why? They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost, but these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency they happen in America. Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? As a nation, we have to ask, when in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God's name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”

When all of you in Washington finally stand up; when those of you who want comprehensive, rational gun control call out the other side for offering no solutions.

When you decide to do something.

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Jimmy Kimmel, forgoing his usual monologue to speak about another mass shooting in The United States of Guns:

"Here we are again, on another day of mourning in this country. Once again, we grieve for the little boys and girls whose lives have been ended and whose families have been destroyed. While our leaders on the right—the Americans in Congress and at Fox News and these other outlets—warn us not to politicize this, they immediately criticize our President for even speaking about doing something to stop it, because they don't want to speak about it. Because they know what they've done and they know what they haven't done, and they know that it's indefensible. So they'd rather sweep this under the rug. [They] aren't listening to us. They're listening to the NRA. They're listening to the people who write them checks, who keep them in power because that's the way politics work. That's the idea we settle on, that's what we tell ourselves, but it doesn't have to be that way. Not for this. This is a time to be loud—and to stay loud—and not stop until we fix this. Some people say this is a mental health problem. Others say it's a gun problem. It is both, and it can be both. So let's work on both of those. So if you care about this—and we all do, doesn't matter what party we vote for, we all care about this—we need to make sure that we do everything we can ... to make sure that unless they do something drastic that let's make sure that not one of any of these politicians ever holds office again."

Anyone in public offers who expresses their grief and offers their prayers and then does not one thing about guns, needs to be voted out of office permanently.

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Greg Abbott, Republican governor of Texas, saying the Uvalde school murderer had a "mental health challenge":

"We as a state, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health."

Just last month Greg Abbott slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs. Texas now ranks dead last—pun intended—out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care.

Greg Abbott was scheduled to speak at an upcoming NRA event but pulled out at the last minute in an effort to make it seem like he gives a flying fuck about dead kids; let’s be clear, he does not.

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Chris Murphy, Democrat Senator from Connecticut, speaking on the Senate floor begging the Republicans to act against gun violence:

"I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. This only happens in this country and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day. Nowhere else do parents have to talk to their kids as I have had to do about why they got locked into a bathroom and told to be quiet for five minutes just in case a bad man entered that building. Nowhere else does that happen except here in the United States of America. And it is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue."

The GOP talks about being pro-family, pro-children, but when it comes to children being murdered in schools, their offer the solutions of arming teachers, having more active shooter drills, or locking the kids inside the building.

Nothing about the guns.

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Ted Cruz, Republican Senator from Texas and NRA bitchboy, on the shootings, which have left his hands and soul covered in the blood of children:

“Heidi and I are fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde. We are in close contact with local officials, but the precise details are still unfolding. Thank you to the heroic law enforcement and first responders for acting so swiftly.”

Cruz said, the next day:

"When there's a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. We are seeing way too many of these horrific mass murders. And we need to devote far more law enforcement resources to stopping violent criminals preventing these kinds of absolute acts of evil."

First off, Rafael, your prayers are hollow when you take money from the very people who flood our streets with guns.

Your prayers mean nothing when you block even the discussion of gun control.

You don’t care about dead children; you care about political office.

Fuck completely off.

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Steve Kerr, coach for the Warriors basketball team, refused to talk about basketball before the team’s playoff game against the Mavericks, but instead spoke of murdered children in the United Sates of Guns:

“Since we left shoot-around, 14 children were killed 400 miles from here and a teacher [now 19 children and 2 teachers dead]. And in the last 10 days, we’ve had elderly Black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in southern California, and now we have children murdered at school. When are we going to do something? I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I’m tired of the moments of silence.”

Moments of silence, thoughts and prayers, lifting people up in prayer, will not save the life of one American.

Gun control, and better access to mental health care, together, can start to solve the problem.

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Barack Obama, former President, speaking out about the shooting:

“Michelle and I grieve with the families in Uvalde, who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear. We’re also angry for them. Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook—and ten days after Buffalo—our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies. It’s long past time for action, any kind of action. And it’s another tragedy—a quieter but no less tragic one—for families to wait another day. Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed, reading stories, singing lullabies—and in the back of their minds, they’re worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space. May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.”

My president; remember he was the one that the GOP and the NRA said was coming for your guns, and yet he confiscated not one weapon. The Democrats don’t want your guns, we want gun safety, gun responsibility, guns not in the hands of the mentally ill or the morally outraged.

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12 comments:

  1. Ted Cruz is an obscenity upon the face of the earth. The sooner we never have to hear a word he says the better

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    1. Amen and that goes for the Orange menace, as well! The sooner we see NONE of their ugly mugs, the better!

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  2. And right now Republicans in Congress are talking about compromise. That's bullshit. They've done this before. They play the same broken record every time there is a mass shooting hoping to keep any unwoken sheep from straying. Nothing will change until we voted these losers out of office.

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  3. I do want their guns, every last one of those assault rifles which have no place in the hands of anyone other than military or police. It's gone on too long. I must make gun control and violence a litmus for my voting in 2022.
    I urge everyone to join me.
    Thank you for your post, Bob.

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  4. I don't want to hear any politician right now talk about what happened....it want to see action!!!!

    And Jimmy Kimmel got me in the feels that night.

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  5. Unfortunately, Republicans have decided thoughts and prayerswill suffice

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  6. I hope you don't mind but I have to borrow this post to share. Thank you for all you do.

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  7. Such a powerful collection of quotations Bob. Thanks for putting them together. Over here in Great Britain we had a heartbreaking killing spree in a school in Scotland in 1996 but since then there have been NO school shootings. That's ZERO in twenty six years. I do not know one person who owns a gun in this country and I am very happy about that. Fuck the NRA. They might know a lot about guns but they know nothing about life, basic morality or the preciousness of children.

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  8. Oh, I miss Barack Obama.

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  9. Thanks for this post about the sad state of our nation. The Republican party has successfully turned this country into a Third World nation. The Democrats are totally clueless and have no idea about how to neutralise the Republicans. They appear to have forgotten about divide and conquer, instead put all their eggs in one basket for their self defeat. It's time for the voters to get reengaged but I don't see this happening in2022, unfortunately. Democrats will need to find a strong candidate able to hogtie any Republican candidate, especially Orange45. Biden doesn't have a prayer because people will abstain. I also think the Pro Athletes should go on strike until gun legislation is passed that will work. The time for bandaids is long past and politicians won't do anything unless you hold them hostage.

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