Categories
Gun Crime Gun Nuts U.S. Senate WTF?!

Ted Cruz’s Solution To The Mass Shooting Problem: Imprison The Mentally Ill

Now that the problem of mass shootings and gun violence are back on the front page as a result of what transpired in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, the debate has begun once again on the issue of sensible gun control.

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, there was a great deal of talk about possibly banning assault weapons such as the one used by the Boulder shooter, strengthening background checks for gun buyers, and other reforms that have sadly been discussed thousands of times before whenever innocent people are slain by a weapon of mass murder.

But something Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during the hearing was especially chilling, not only because it suggested just how deeply in debt Cruz is to the gun lobby, but also because it called for putting people with mental illness into prison if they are caught with a gun.

Specifically, Cruz remarked:

“The senator from Connecticut knows that is false, and he knows that’s false, because Sen. [Chuck] Grassley and I together introduced legislation … targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms and put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns.”

So now mental illness will be a crime instead of a disease? On antidepressants? You can buy a gun, but you’ll be sent to prison if you do under Cruz’s deeply flawed logic.

Also, Cruz’s comments completely ignore the real problem that exists in this country: There’s too many damn guns! Does anyone actually believe that more guns is the answer to the problem of gun violence? That’s absurd! It makes no damn sense whatsoever. But it does allow Cruz and his GOP colleagues to continually suck on the teat of big gunmakers who are only too happy to buy U.S. senators if that’s what it takes for them to remain in business. Apparently, money trumps human life when it comes to Cruz and his ilk.

If Republicans cannot rationally discuss the gun problem in this country, maybe it’s time we make them the permanent minority party.

 

Categories
Climate Change U.S. Senate WTF?!

Ron Johnson Proves His Complete Ignorance Of Geography In Disastrous NY Times Interview

Proving yet again that he’s an empty suit with an even emptier skull, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is making national news as the result of a disastrous interview he gave to the New York Times, expounding on climate change (which he doesn’t understand) and even world geography (which he must have flunked in school).

Attempting to make a point about climate change, Johnson told the Times:

“You know, there’s a reason Greenland was called Greenland. It was actually green at one point in time. And it’s been, you know, since, it’s a whole lot whiter now so we’ve experienced climate change throughout geologic time.”

The Times quickly fact-checked the Wisconsin Republican, noting:

“In the interview on Thursday, Mr. Johnson was still misinformed about the etymology of Greenland, which got its name from the explorer Erik the Red’s attempt to lure settlers to the ice-covered island,” adding Johnson continued, ‘I could be wrong there, but that’s always been my assumption that, at some point in time, those early explorers saw green. I have no idea.'”

No idea? That’s an understatement. Even those who have worked with Johnson acknowledge that he’s a fool, with a former campaign worker pointing to what he called the senator’s “muscular ignorance” and a critic laughing about Johnson being a “gullible rube.”

Johnson is even being compared to an infamous Wisconsin senator who preceded him: Joe McCarthy:

“The drumbeat of distortions, false theories and lies reminds some Wisconsin Republicans of a figure from the state’s past who also rarely let facts get in the way of his agenda: Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose witch hunt for communists in and out of government in the 1950s ruined lives and bitterly divided the country.”

Hopefully Johnson will meet a similar fate as McCarthy and wind up a defeated, broken man.