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Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Just Totally Screwed America on Gun Control

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Hey, America: This Is How Republicans Play With Our Lives

What do you do after the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, a 15-hour filibuster to force a vote on gun control, and a 26-hour sit-in to force a vote on gun control, finally make it clear Americans are so united in wanting gun control legislation – and you’re the Republican in charge of the Senate but you and your fellow Republicans are bought-and-paid-for by the NRA and afraid the NRA will support another candidate challenging you?

Make it look like you’re giving the people what they want – but in reality, give cover to your caucus because it’s an election year.

Welcome to “As Mitch McConnell’s World Turns.”

Literally a hour after House Democrats announced the end to their 26-hour sit-in/protest demanding House Speaker Paul Ryan allow a vote on gun control, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell on Friday let it be known the Senate would vote on two gun control bills – totally making it look like he was the Statesman in the face of Speaker Ryan labeling the House Democrats’ actions a “publicity stunt.”

Spoiler alert: both bills failed. Super spoiler alert: By design.

Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) would get a vote on her bipartisan version of the “no fly, no buy” terrorism watch lists bill, which the NRA opposes, and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) would get a vote on his bill, which the NRA did not officially oppose.

Collins’ bill would also mandate FBI notification should anyone who has been on the terror watchlist within the past five years attempt to purchase a firearm. The NRA labeled Collins’ bill unconstitutional.

“Under Collins’ amendment,” USA Today reports, “federal authorities would have had to have been notified of the purchases” made by the Orlando terrorist who killed 49 people and injured 53 more, “giving them an opportunity to surveil him and possibly prevent his tragic scheme.”

Johnson’s version mandated that the Dept. of Justice had a mere three days to find a reason to deny a gun purchase to someone who is or had been on the no fly or terror watch lists. After that, purchase approved.

Here’s where the Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell worked his evil.

“Senate GOP leadership explicitly designed the vote to go nowhere by using a procedural tactic,” Talking Points Memo reported.

After the Collins bill survived an initial “test” vote, which it was not expected to do, McConnell put the two bills up together, giving Senate Republicans cover to vote for a form of gun control, splitting the number of votes that the Collins bill could have gotten.

And then, just to make it worse, the vote on the Collins bill was not to pass it, but to fail it.

“In doing so, McConnell, a master of the Senate’s arcane rules, provided cover for vulnerable Republicans who wanted to be seen as supporting the effort, but did not want to cross the National Rifle Association,” The Hill explains.

“The scenario that Sen. McConnell set up was textbook McConnell,” former Senate Republican aide Brian Darling told The Hill. 

The Collins bill got 52 votes, but not the 60 needed to pass, so the Senate can now say it tried, but the votes just aren’t there.

“It didn’t have sixty votes. That’s what a motion to table does. It demonstrates where the votes are,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said.

Calling it a “last-minute measure,” The Hill reports it “had no chance of passing the Senate, but gave political cover for Johnson and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are all in challenging reelection races this fall.”

“All six voted against the Collins bill but in favor of the Johnson measure.”

Collins says she will “never know” why McConnell set up the votes the way he did. 

But America does, and we suspect the Republican Senator from Maine does as well.

Here’s Senator Mitch McConnell, two days after the Orlando anti-LGBT hate crime mass shooting terror attack, that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others, explaining how Republicans are keeping America safe:

“Between the Senate filibuster, the House sit-in, and this vote, we have helped create a massive uprising of support in favor of laws to make our nation safer from gun violence,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who stood on the Senate floor for nearly 15 hours, holding a filibuster for gun control, said. “And while I know we are far from the finish line, this has been a momentous last eight days for this crusade.”

Murphy called today’s Senate vote a huge loss for the NRA.

It’s a start.

 

EARLIER:

Breaking: Senate to Vote on Two Gun Control Bills Today

Breaking: House Democrats End Sit-In for Gun Control

Watch Live Now: House Democrats Approach 24 Hour Mark of #NoBillNoBreak Sit-In For Gun Control

House GOP Starts 4th of July Recess Early as Democrats Continue Round the Clock Gun Control Sit In

There’s About to Be a Major Power Struggle on the House Floor – Republicans Will Try to Take It Back

The Speaker of the House Just Called Democrats’ Efforts to Pass Gun Control ‘A Publicity Stunt’

Breaking: After Democrats Take Over the House for Gun Control, GOP to Hold Emergency Meeting

#NoBillNoBreak: Democrats Have Literally Taken Over Congress to Demand a Gun Control Vote

Republicans Trying to Regain Control of House Floor as Democrats Stage Sit-In for Gun Control

Breaking: Dozens of Democratic Congressmen Stage Sit-In on House Floor to Demand Vote on Gun Control

 

 

Image by Sen McConnell Press/Twitter

 

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News

Pete Buttigieg Nails Trump for His Ugly Comments About Wounded Vets

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During his Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Donald Trump over reports he told military leaders he didn’t want wounded vets to be seen by the public while he was president.

In a recent Atlantic profile of General Mark Milley, the retiring military office recounted the former president telling him “no one wants to see” wounded soldiers, with Milley adding he found Trump’s attitude to those serving their country “superficial, callous, and, at the deepest human level, repugnant.”

Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan during his 8 years while in the Naval Reserve, was asked by CNN host Dana Bash about the former president’s apparent distaste for service members.

“I want to ask you about a new Atlantic profile that says that then President Trump complained to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley after an Army veteran who lost a leg in combat sang at an event at the Pentagon,” Bash prompted her guest. “Trump reportedly told Milley, ‘Why do you bring people like that here, no one wants to see that, the wounded.'”

“After that article came out, Trump attacked Milley on social media, kind of a rambling post, but suggested that milley deserved the death penalty. You’re a veteran– what’s your response?” she asked.

“It’s just the latest in a pattern of outrageous attacks on the people who keep the country safe,” the Biden administration official replied.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

After pointing to fellow vets who suffered horrific injuries, he added, “These are the kind of people that deserve respect and a hell of a lot more than that from every American, and definitely from every American president.”

“And the idea that an American president, the person to whom service members look at as a commander in chief, and the person who sets the tone for this entire country could think that way or act that way or talk that way about anyone in uniform, and certainly about those who put their bodies on the line and sacrificed in ways that most Americans will never understand, and I guess wounded veterans make president Trump feel uncomfortable.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

 

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‘Scared to Death’: Trump’s Prison Panic Admission Means He Knows He’s Doomed Says Legal Expert

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Reacting to a report that Donald Trump has been quizzing his attorneys about what type of prison he likely will be sent to, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner stated that is not only an indication that he knows he’s going to be convicted but also an admission of guilt.

Speaking with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, the attorney was asked about a recent Rolling Stone report about Trump’s prison panic.

As Rolling Stone reported, Trump asked if he’s “be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison — a place that’s relatively comfortable, as far these things go — or a ‘bad’ prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement? Would government officials try to strip him of his lifetime Secret Service protections? What would they make him wear, if his enemies actually did ever get him in a cell — an unprecedented set of consequences for a former leader of the free world.”

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

According to the attorney, Trump is revealing himself by asking for so many details.

“What does this tell you about Trump’s mindset?” host Capehart asked.

“It tells me he is scared to death” Kirschner quickly answered. “It tells me he has overwhelming consciousness of guilt because he knows what he did wrong and he knows he is about to be held accountable for his crimes. So it is not surprising that he is obsessing.”

“If he was confident that he would be completely exonerated, would he have to obsess about what his future time in prison might look like?” he suggested. “I think the last refuge for Donald Trump can be seen in a recent post where he urged the Republicans to defund essentially the prosecutions against him. which, to this prosecutor, Jonathan, smells a lot like an attempt to obstruct justice.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

Image via Shutterstock

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News

‘Vulgar and Lewd’: Trump Judge Cites Extremist Group to Allow Drag Show Ban

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A federal judge in Texas known for a ruling that attempted to ban a widely-used abortion drug is citing an extremist anti-LGBTQ group in his ruling allowing a ban on drag shows to stay in place.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former attorney for an anti-LGBTQ conservative Christian legal organization, and a member of the Federalist Society, in his 26-page ruling dated Thursday cited the “About” page of Gays Against Groomers to claim, “it’s unclear how drag shows unmistakably communicate advocacy for LGBT rights.”

Judge Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump twice before finally assuming office in 2019, suggests the First Amendment does not provide for freedom of expression for drag shows, calls drag “sexualized conduct,” and says it is “more regulable” because “children are in the audience.”

READ MORE: ‘The Public Deserves to Know’: Abortion Pill Banning Judge Redacted Details About Millions of Dollars in His Stock Portfolio

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern adds, “Kacsmaryk’s conclusion that drag is probably NOT protected by the First Amendment conflicts with decisions from Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Montana which held that drag is constitutionally protected expression. It also bristles with undisguised hostility toward LGBTQ people.”

Calling the judge “a proud Christian nationalist who flatly refuses to apply binding Supreme Court precedent when it conflicts with his extremist far-right beliefs,” Stern at Slate writes that Kacsmaryk ruled drag “may be outlawed to protect ‘the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.’ In short, he concluded that drag fails to convey a message, while explaining all the reasons why he’s offended by the message it conveys.”

Stern does not let Kacsmaryk off the hook there.

“From almost any other judge, the ruling in Spectrum WT v. Wendler would be a shocking rejection of basic free speech principles; from Kacsmaryk, it’s par for the course. This is, after all, the judge who sought to ban medication abortion nationwide, restricted minors’ access to birth control, seize control over border policy to exclude asylum-seekers, and flouted recent precedent protecting LGBTQ+ equality,” Stern says.

READ MORE: Far-Right Judge Under Fire for Failing to Disclose Interviews on Civil Rights – but LGBTQ Community Had Warned Senators

“He is also poised to bankrupt Planned Parenthood by compelling them to pay a $1.8 billion penalty on truly ludicrous grounds. And he is not the only Trump-appointed judge substituting his reactionary beliefs for legal analysis. We have reached a point where these lawless decisions are not only predictable but inevitable, and they show no sign of stopping: Their authors are still just settling into a decadeslong service in the federal judiciary.”

West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler penned the letter that sparked the lawsuit.

Titled, “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing,” Wendler wrote: “I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity. Being created in God’s image is the basis of Natural Law. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture of their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it. Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not.”

Journalist Chris Geidner concludes, “It’s an extremely biased ruling by a judge who has established that he does not care about being overturned — even by the most conservative appeals court in the nation.”

READ MORE: ‘Corruption of the Highest Order’: Experts ‘Sickened’ at ‘Definitely Bought’ Clarence Thomas and His ‘Pay to Play’ Lifestyle

 

 

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