Month: April 2023

Categories
GOP Gun Crime Gun Nuts WTF?!

Matt Gaetz: There Were No Mass Shootings When Automatic Weapons And ‘Cannons’ Were Legal

As the country reels from yet another mass shooting — this time in Louisville, Kentucky on Monday — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is suggesting that fully automatic weapons and “cannons” should be declared legal because when they were, mass shootings were nonexistent.

On his Firebrand podcast, Gaetz began with the right-wing’s favorite bullshit tactic whenever there’s mass deaths from gun violence: Thoughts and prayers.

“This morning, we were made aware yet again of another shooting, this time at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky. We, of course want to take time to mourn the loss of innocent life, but we should not wait in acting to prevent these frequent aggressive acts from happening in the future.”

From there, the Florida Republican asserted that gun control is actually the problem, not the solution.

“Your grandparents used to be able to order mail-order automatic weapons, and when the Second Amendment was written, the American people, such as they were, could own cannons. No mass shootings back then.”

That’s simply not true, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Gaetz doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

The National Firearms Act, which outlawed automatic weapons, was enacted in 1934. Why? To stop mass shootings by gangs involved in bootlegging and organized crime, as NPR has reported:

In the 1920s and ’30s, the U.S. was dealing with a different kind of gun violence epidemic: a massive increase in organized crime, fueled by Prohibition.

Gangsters, like Al Capone, were making big money trafficking illegal alcohol. And a key weapon in their arsenal was the machine gun.

“Those criminals from the mob took advantage of the rise of the portable machine gun, capable of firing multiple rounds of ammunition with the single pull of a trigger,” says Adam Winkler, a professor at UCLA’s school of law and author of Gunfight: The Battle Over The Right to Bear Arms in America.

Categories
GOP WTF?!

Injured Man Says Lauren Boebert Tried To Cover Up Her Son’s Car Accident That Nearly Killed Him

Noble D’Amato is a 19-year-old resident of Colorado who suffered multiple concussions and badly lacerated hand during a car accident in September of last year. His hand was so badly cut that he can no longer hope to be a welder because of the injury.

“I still have problems with my hand,” D’Amato says. “My thumb almost got cut off. It prevented me from getting a welding job, because I can’t hold a TIG torch anymore. I’m a personal-care provider now.”

Who was driving when D’Amato was injured? Tyler Boebert, the son of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and now the congresswoman is accused of trying to cover-up her son’s faulty driving, according to a disturbing report from Denver news site Westword.com.

What happened to Tyler Boebert? Next to nothing. He was charged with “defective vehicle for headlights” and ordered to attend a court-ordered driving school.

D’Amato, it should be noted, was also charged with drug offenses as a result of the accident when police found police found unprescribed Xanax pills and a marijuana grinder at the scene of the accident.

Was Tyler Boebert charged with those same crimes? No. And yet the vehicle was his.

If you think this entire matter stinks to high heaven, you aren’t the only one.

Yet despite all of what’s happened to Noble D’Amato, he says the Boebert family has yet to say a word to him or take responsibility for the accident.

But according to D’Amato, the Boebert family has yet to take any real responsibility for the accident, with the congresswoman’s office issuing a statement which reads:

“The injury reported was superficial at best and was addressed by medical professionals out of caution. The incident involved two minors.”

D’Amato calls the statement “bullshit” and is accusing the congresswoman of trying to cover up the entire matter.

“She’s never liked me,” D’Amato says. “But that doesn’t give them the right to try and hide the fact that I was injured. They just don’t give a fuck. It’s the entire family.”

D’Amato says he doesn’t plan to take legal action against the Boebert’s, but does recall the terror of the accident, and he blames reckless driving on Tyler Boebert’s part.

Boebert was “stone cold sober” but “was driving so f–king fast.”

“I remember waking up with blood pouring out of my hand,” he recalled. “I had put my hands up in the air to protect myself and got messed up really bad by the window or something. I was just glad to be alive.”

“Harm was definitely done. But like I said, if it were up to [Tyler] fully — and he didn’t have his mom affecting his mind so aggressively — he’d take responsibility and not act like it wasn’t a big deal. But he’s the son of Lauren Boebert. If I did what he did, I’d still be in jail.”

 

Categories
GOP LGBT Issues

MT Greene Owns Herself After Saying She Dumped Bud For Coors Due To Bud’s Pro-LGBTQ Stance

Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene thought she had the perfect way to troll Anheuser-Busch, makers of Bud Light, for their partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.

According to Newsweek:

Calls to boycott Bud Light started after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney revealed the beer brand had sent her a unique can of beer with her face on it. The company gifted her the personalized can to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the TikToker’s gender transition.

The can “was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public,” according to Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Bud Light.

Anheuser-Busch later explained that it “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics. From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney.”

No big deal, right? Well, it is if you’re a right-wing nutjob like Greene or others on the extreme right who felt the need to publicly announce they would no longer have anything to do with the beer giant.

Here’s what Greene posted Saturday on Twitter:

“I would have bought the king of beers, but it changed it’s gender to the queen of beers. So it’s made to chill from here on out.”

However, if Greene had bothered to do a simple Google search, she would have found this:

Thanks to support from companies such as Molson Coors, Denver PrideFest has become the largest celebration of LGBTQ pride in the Rocky Mountain region. Though its format will be different because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Coors Light Denver Virtual Pride Parade will be a compilation of fun-filled virtual parade “units” submitted by community businesses and organizations that will be livestreamed as a “parade” with live commentary.

“Coors Light has been a sponsor of The Center and Denver PrideFest for decades,” says Rex Fuller, CEO of The Center on Colfax. “The work we have been able to do at The Center over the last four decades would not be possible without this support and we are grateful for it.”

In other words, Greene managed to humiliate herself for the entire internet to enjoy, which it certainly did.

https://twitter.com/Ahava_M_Duffey/status/1644772191953715205?s=20
https://twitter.com/MDSJR4/status/1644745886474412032?s=20

Categories
Supreme Court

Fellow Judges Say They’re ‘Livid’ With Clarence Thomas For Accepting Free Yacht Trips

On Thursday, ProPublica released an explosive report on the free trips Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted over the past 20 years from a billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.

According to ProPublica:

IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

Asked about the numerous free trips, Thomas issued a public statement which reads, “Early in my tenure at the court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends who do not have business before the court was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”

However, other judges on the federal bench say it’s no wonder respect for the Supreme Court is at an all-time low, with CNN’s Ariane de Vogue reporting Friday on “The Lead” that many of the judges she spoke with were angry at Thomas.

“Really, they were livid about this, they said. One of the judges said, ‘This is precisely why the public respect for the Supreme Court has plummeted. This is far greater than mere ethics violations. It’s about the perceived legitimacy of the Supreme Court.'”

“I did talk to other judges who actually sided with them,” de Vogue added. “They’re like, these rules then were vague and he was following the rules. And I pressed and I said, yeah, but here we’re talking about luxury trips, right, private jets, yachts, not like the fancy car on Uber or something, really important ones. And he said, look they were the rules, he followed the rules. But it’s opened up a firestorm, and maybe now a lot of judges are wondering, with this fresh look at at their ethics disclosures, if that’s going to start a whole new story. The Court still does not have an official code of conduct, though, right and that is really that’s the next big story.”

Thomas is 74 years old and has long been a cancer on the high court. It’s time he resigned and made room for a justice who wouldn’t have the same stench of compromised integrity clinging to them.

Categories
GOP Racism

Expelled Tennessee Legislators Will Likely Be Reappointed To Their Seats In Coming Days: Report

Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, who were removed by Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives, are likely headed back to their old seats in the coming weeks thanks to local party boards that decide who will hold the positions until a special election can be held.

According to The Tennessee Lookout:

Jones and Pearson’s removal is likely temporary, as local government bodies choose who fills the now open seats. Nothing stops the Metro Nashville Council or Shelby County Commission from reappointing either man to fill the vacancies until special elections later this year.

The Metro Council is nonpartisan, but a majority of members have already said they will reappoint Jones at a special called meeting announced late Thursday to take place next week. The Shelby County Commission has a Democratic majority and is expected to do something similar.

Jones and Pearson would have to run in the special election if they are appointed temporarily, and both have indicted they intend to do exactly that.

The two men were expelled by Republicans for daring to hold a protest on the House floor highlighting the need for sensible gun control legislation in the Volunteer State. Interestingly, Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville was not removed. Jones and Pearson are both black, while Johnson is white.

During Thursday’s speeches on expulsion, Jones accused Republicans of targeting him and Pearson due to the color of their skin.

“The state in which the Klu Klux Klan was founded is now trying to silence two black men, and one of the only white woman in this body that is a Democrat,” Jones said.