Morning Fog

Gun Nuts? A Contrarian View

I heard that President Biden was doing a major statement tonight, so I listened before posting my own view.  The President gave a heartfelt, calm, rational statement expressing the hope that we have reached the point where elected politicians may be prepared to take at least minimal steps to prevent the carnage in our schools.  Bravo!

Realistically, though, and as the President himself noted, really serious measures to address our gun violence problem just are not on the table; if the august panel of Republicans and Democrats produces anything, it would likely be measures that have been tried before, or tried in some states, and which have proved only minimally effective even before the gun lobby was able to grind them into meaningless pap. I wish them luck.

But in looking at the problem, I had pretty much come to a different conclusion: The anti-gun folks have been right all along: Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Absolutely true. But we have failed to take their true meaning... the people who kill people by means of guns are the very ones who say "people don't kill people." They are our elected officials, our Representatives in Congress and the Senate.  Of course, they don't pull the trigger. They just ensure there are plenty of triggers around to be pulled.

But to their credit, they have realized they need help! Their cries for more mental health spending are desperate pleas for assistance. "We lack moral fiber," they are saying. "Where can we find it?" Or, "We are zombies of the gun manufacturers." Maybe even, "We have been deceived, and in turn, have deceived and hornswoggled the American public, how can we get back on track?" "HEEEELLLP!" they're saying.

Let's start providing our elected representatives with the psychological and mental therapy they need!  To qualify for help, they could take a little test. Remember those personality tests in the 80s that everybody had to take, intended to weed out "wackos" from (perhaps) an employment pool?  They had those questions like "I believe that I am an anointed agent of god." Sane people knew the answer was "no." 

Our Congressmen and women could take such a test to get the help they need, using questions like "I see no harm if an ordinary citizen wants to buy a weapon that was produced for use on the battlefield." Or "I believe that the Bill of Rights stands on its own and may never be subject to limitation." Possibly even, "There is no question in my mind that my getting reelected is far more important than my oath to the Constitution or my constituents." (BTW, that one is a lot like the "I believe I am an agent of God" question.) Then we could offer them remedial  therapy. They have told us what they need; let's take them at their word and extend a helping hand.

Or, a simpler way - just vote them out. The President can't do that.  We the people can.

The Reinking Republican In The U.S. Senate

The Reinking who is the catalyst for this post is of course Travis Reinking, the fellow who was recently arrested for "allegedly" killing four innocent victims in yet another needless shooting in a Tennessee Waffle House. But this is more about Travis Reinking's father Jeffrey [I assume his last name to be Reinking also].

The reports on this incident were, sadly, ho-hum news of the day until we also heard later that Reinking's father intervened in August 2017 to avoid having law enforcement officers confiscate Travis's weapons. Dad agreed to hold the weapons himself on the understanding he would not return them to his son. Illinois police should have had better sense than to agree to that, but since they did not, guess what?  Jeff gave Trav his guns back!  It's been reported officials are now "uncertain" whether either Travis or Jeffrey broke any firearms laws (hah! only in America, as they say).  Firearms laws or not, though, a case can and should be made to prosecute the father; the charge should in my view be accessory to murder. We can't be sure if Jeffrey is good at his work (whatever it is) but we can see he is one hell of a fine enabler.

Regular readers know Morning Fog is a fan of "interesting" juxtapositions of news events and developments and in this case, it struck me that Reinking (the elder) is just a small potatoes example of a much worse enabler, namely, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader.  

How so? McConnell is the prime enabler of Donald Trump. That's true on many fronts, but the one that immediately suggests to me a philosophical kinship between Mitch and Jeff is the Mueller investigation into the Gordian knot of Trump's team and the Russians. We know Trump's style. First the posture that something will "never" happen, he wouldn't even think of it; then the edging away; then an apparent decision that "maybe" he can get away with some egregious action; and finally, the action itself.  

Trump has been testing the envelope on firings at Justice:  Sessions, Rosenstein, and Mueller.  Both McConnell and his erstwhile partner in enablement Ryan (good riddance!) have refused to stand up to Trump on the issue of firing Justice officials who just happen to piss him off. Just as Jeffrey Reinking seemingly assumed his son would not do anything with those firearms, McConnell doesn't see a need for specific legislation to protect Mueller - one might even say he has "waffled" on that -- because reportedly he just doesn't think Trump intends to, or really would, fire Mueller.

That's a dangerous thing. McConnell eventually will get his political comeuppance (or not) but by the time he does, it may be too late for the country to avoid having the Department of Justice turned into a Waffle House.