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NRA: Guns Should be Subsidized By Government, Like Healthcare (Video)

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One NRA representative is calling for guns to be mandatory, treated “as a need” and subsidized by the government — just like healthcare.

The NRA, contrary to how they portray themselves, is actually the world’s largest gun manufacturers’ lobbying group. The fact that they can and do boast they have 4.3 million members is a smokescreen for their larger agenda: ginning up fear to increase sales of firearms. And the NRA has been exceptionally successful at achieving this goal, by creating the false narrative that President Barack Obama is going to take away everyone’s guns, by claiming that he’s a socialist, and more recently, by perpetuating the lie that the “only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

Looking at that sentence, it doesn’t make sense — not even grammatically.

But nothing the NRA does really makes sense.

This is what a Glock looks like:

glock.jpg

 

This is what an AR-15 looks like:

 ar15.jpg

In the 21st century, aside from the few among us who still hunt for food, or work in law enforcement, do most Americans need guns?

If a resident of New York City or Los Angeles or Minneapolis or Hartford or Seattle were to walk around with a Glock strapped to their waist or an AR-15 strapped to their back, people would not only think they were crazy, and up to no good, they would likely call the police. 

When members of a right-wing open-carry group decided to thank Starbucks for not banning guns, by hanging out in Starbucks with their guns and rifles, Starbucks issued a statement asking customers to not bring guns into their restaurants. The exact same thing happened at Target and Chipotle. Whole Foods, Peet’s Coffee, AMC Theaters, California Pizza Kitchen, Toys R Us, and Disney World and Disney Land have all requested customers leave their guns at home.

This week, the NRA issued a video as part of its NRA News Commenters project — people the NRA supports but who technically are not official spokespersons for the NRA, allowing them to project wild and ridiculous ideas the NRA likes but doesn’t want to take heat for.

“Everyone Gets a Gun” is the name of the video. In it, NRA News commenter Billy Johnson espouses the gun-lovers’ ideal that, yes, everyone should have to have a gun, that having a gun is a “need,” not a want, and that guns, like healthcare and education, should be subsidized.

Think about that for a moment. Aside from things that cause disease, like cigarettes or stress, what could be more diametrically opposed to healthcare than guns? 

Now, who would think this is a great idea? Maybe, people who have a financial interest in selling more guns? Maybe people who make guns? Maybe the world’s biggest lobbyist for gun manufacturers?

Yes, the NRA likes this idea very much.

Johnson asks, “what would happen if we designed gun policy from the assumption that people need guns — that guns make people’s lives better?” 

He says that instead of gun free zones there should be “gun-required zones,” and wants schools to require gun proficiency as a prerequisite to advancing to the next grade — or graduating. Of course, the NRA would be happy to teach every student in America how to use a gun — probably at the taxpayers’ expense, but they probably would be happy to work out a deal.

“As a country we have an education policy,” Johnson says in this NRA video. “Imagine if that policy was about limiting who has access to public education. I mean, let’s be honest, the danger in educating people to think is that they might actually start to think for themselves. Perhaps we should think seriously about who we give access to knowledge. They could use it to do a lot of damage.”

“We don’t have a U.S. gun policy. We have a U.S. anti-gun policy,” Johnson laments. “Gun policy driven by people’s need for guns would seek to encourage people to keep and bear arms at all times. Maybe it would even reward those who do so. What if instead of gun free-zones we had gun-required zones?”

Pity Oprah isn’t doing her show anymore. If the NRA had their way, “And you get a gun, and you get a gun, and you get a gun…” at least, in an alternate universe, might be what people remember her for.

“Just like we teach them reading and writing, necessary skills. We would teach shooting and firearm competency,” the NRA commenter continues. “It wouldn’t matter if a child’s parents weren’t good at it. We’d find them a mentor. It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t want to learn. We would make it necessary to advance to the next grade.”

A gun “mentor.” Doesn’t that sound all warm and fuzzy?

“I mean, perhaps we would have government ranges where you could shoot for free or a yearly allotment of free ammunition,” Johnson proposes. “Gun policy, driven by our need for guns would protect equal access to guns, just like we protect equal access to voting, and due process, and free speech.”

Watch:

 

Previously at The New Civil Rights Movement:

Racists More Likely To Have Guns At Home — More Racist, More Likely, Study Shows

Anti-Gun Is The Same As Anti-Gay, Says NRA News Commentator

On Gun Appreciation Day: 79 People Shot, Including 32 Killed, All With Guns

Look: 40 Pictures Of How Gun Freaks Celebrated ‘Gun Appreciation Day’

5 People Accidentally Shot At Gun Appreciation Day Events Probably Less Appreciative

 

 

Transcript via The Raw Story.
Hat tip: Eric Dolan and Gawker

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News

Trump Trial Could Go Well Into the 2024 Election – Or Possibly Even Past It: Former Prosecutor

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2 hours ago

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March 31, 2023

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Donald Trump, and all of America, could spend the next 18 months – or longer – engrossed in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial of the ex-president, and that could bring the trial close to Election Day.

That’s according to a former prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Charles Coleman, who is now a civil rights attorney and MSNBC legal analyst.

Asked by MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, “How long typically might a case like this take?” Coleman offered a two-tiered answer.

“A case like this is usually going to take a year or a year and a half,” Coleman said.

That could be through September of 2024.

READ MORE: ‘Lighting the Match’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasted for Off the Rails Rant Defending Trump

“Wow,” a surprised Jansing replied. “So it’s going right up into the campaign.”

“Absolutely,” agreed Coleman. “But it’s important to understand I said a case ‘like this.’ This particular case, I expect may take longer because I am anticipating a number of different legal maneuvers by Donald Trump’s defense team.”

That theoretically means into October of 2024, or longer.

“I do see motions to dismiss at a number of different terms, more likely than not to the point that the judge probably will ultimately end up admonishing them and telling them stop filing motions to dismiss. I think that that’s going to happen,” Coleman explained.

“I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, I do believe that we are going to see an attempt to try to change the venue, in this case outside of somewhere in the five boroughs. All of that is going to extend the time deeper and deeper into election season.”

READ MORE: Manhattan DA Unleashes on Jim Jordan With Stern Warning: You May Not ‘Interfere’ With Trump Prosecution

Reuters agrees, reporting Friday morning, “any potential trial is still at minimum more than a year away, legal experts said, raising the possibility that the former U.S. president could face a jury in a Manhattan courtroom during or even after the 2024 presidential campaign, as he seeks a return to the White House.”

And because “Trump’s case is far from typical,” Reuters notes, his trial could extend “past Election Day in November 2024.”

 

 

 

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Lighting the Match’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasted for Off the Rails Rant Defending Trump

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4 hours ago

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March 31, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is being mocked and criticized after issuing an off-the-rails rant defending Donald Trump after the ex-president was indicted late Thursday afternoon.

Trump reportedly will face over 30 charges when he is arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday, two weeks after he claimed would be the day he would be arrested. In that infamous social media post Trump also urged his supporters to “protest!”

Congresswoman Greene, an ultra-MAGA acolyte and far-right extremist, on Friday announced she will travel to New York City to show her support for the indicted ex-president.

“I’m going to New York on Tuesday. We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!” she tweeted.

Her remarks came barely hours after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent a six-page letter to House Republican Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan warning that Congress must not “interfere” with the prosecution of Donald Trump. It accused him and two other top Republicans of “an improper and dangerous usurpation,” “attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation,” and warned them against “unlawful political interference.”

READ MORE: ‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

That letter specifically called out Congresswoman Greene for her rhetoric, noting “some committee members have explicitly stated an intent to interfere with the state proceeding.”

“For example, responding to Trump’s statement that he would be arrested, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene stated that ‘Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this! We have the power to do it and we also have the power to DEFUND their salaries and departments!’ … and that Republicans who ‘do nothing to stop’ the prosecution ‘will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, scorned, and punished by the base.’”

Clearly his warning had little impact on the far-right Georgia Member of Congress.

In response to Greene’s Friday morning tweet, former U.S. Congressman David Jolly, also a former Republican, appeared to suggest she was encouraging an untoward response.

“Lighting the match,” he tweeted.

NBC News senior Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake appearing to suggest it was a bad idea, responded by saying, “The situation downtown Tuesday is going to be tense. Narrow streets. Tons of press. Lots of police from different jurisdictions already highly visible.”

READ MORE: Favoring Right Wing Christians, Texas Judge Voids ACA’s Mandate That Insurance Cover Full Cost of HIV Drugs Including PrEP

Top CBS News reporter Robert Costa responded to Greene’s remarks, noting: “By order, NYPD officers here in lower Manhattan, outside the court, are already in full uniform, bracing for protests next week…”

Condé Nast legal affairs editor Luke Zaleski, also responding to Greene, wrote: “They want to incite violence in NYC.”

“Marge is a confederate soldier not an American public servant,” Zaleski added. “She has taken over Congress and wants to destroy the nation from inside. She admits it. Her public agenda is reinstalling a criminal traitor she’s obstructing justice for and breaking up the United States of America.”

Meanwhile, journalist Helen Kennedy appeared to not take Greene’s remarks – or Greene – seriously.

“Clown hurries to circus,” she tweeted.

 

Image: L E Mormile/Shutterstock

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News

Manhattan DA Unleashes on Jim Jordan With Stern Warning: You May Not ‘Interfere’ With Trump Prosecution

Published

6 hours ago

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March 31, 2023

By

After a Manhattan grand jury indicted Donald Trump late Thursday afternoon on reportedly 34 felony charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took one more step to preserve the rule of law: Friday morning, via his General Counsel, he sent the top three Republican House Chairmen attempting to interfere in his office’s investigation and prosecution of Donald Trump a stern warning.

The letter, addressed to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Chairman James Comer, and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil spans six-pages. Its letterhead does not say District Attorney’s Office, but “District Attorney,” and has Bragg’s name in the upper corner, although it is signed by Bragg’s General Counsel, Leslie B. Dubeck. Politico has published the full letter.

It clearly states Bragg is drawing a red line: “What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State.”

The letter also accuses the trio of “an improper and dangerous usurpation” and “attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation.” And it warns them against “unlawful political interference.”

READ MORE: ‘You Can’t Stand on Fifth Avenue and Just Shoot Somebody’: Donald Trump Indicted – Legal Experts Respond

“The Committees’ attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation and now prosecution–is an unprecedented and illegitimate incursion on New York’s sovereign interests,” the letter reads. “Moreover, your examination of the facts of a single criminal investigation, for the supposed purpose of determining whether any charges against Mr. Trump are warranted, is an improper and dangerous usurpation of the executive and judicial functions.”

In a section titled, “The Committees Lack Jurisdiction to Oversee a State Criminal Prosecution,” the letter points to reports that the Trump team has been working in coordination with House Republicans.

“Even worse, based on your reportedly close collaboration with Mr. Trump in attacking this Office and the grand jury process, it appears you are acting more like criminal defense counsel trying to gather evidence for a client than a legislative body seeking to achieve a legitimate legislative objective.”

Bragg’s general counsel also uses the letter as a warning to all House Republicans that their actions, behaviors, and words are on the record.

READ MORE: Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Says It Is Coordinating With Trump to ‘Surrender’

He holds up U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as an example, suggesting to others they should moderate their rhetoric.

After dismissing Jordan’s threat in a previous letter to withhold federal funds from Bragg’s office – noting the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has “has helped the Federal Government secure more than one billion dollars in asset forfeiture funds in the past 15 years” – Bragg serves up another warning.

He notes that “some committee members have explicitly stated an intent to interfere with the state proceeding. For example, responding to Trump’s statement that he would be arrested, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene stated that ‘Republicans in Congress MUST subpoena these communists and END this! We have the power to do it and we also have the power to DEFUND their salaries and departments!’ … and that Republicans who ‘do nothing to stop’ the prosecution ‘will be exposed to the people and will be remembered, scorned, and punished by the base.'”

 

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