Eight Republicans Voted to Tighten Background Checks on Guns

Finally after years have gone by since the killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School that occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut we may have a bi-partisan group in the House of Representatives who will pass some meaningful legislation.

The Sandy Hook attack began when 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in the home that the two shared in Newtown. She was shot four times with a .22-calibre rifle. She had purchased the rifle, as well as an AR-15—the civilian semiautomatic version of the military M16 assault rifle—and several other firearms that Adam Lanza would use later that day, in the years prior to the shooting. Before leaving the house, Lanza destroyed his computer’s hard drive, an act that would make evidence gathering difficult for law enforcement personnel.

Protecting the public from people who have a total disregard for life should be the objective. It has been reported that most gun owners are in support of reasonable regulations. I guess the question is what is reasonable?

Eight House GOP lawmakers bucked party lines and joined Democrats in supporting legislation aimed at strengthening background checks on firearm sales.

The bill would put new background check requirements in place for gun transfers between private parties. The bill would also ban the sale, manufacture, transfer, and importation of more than 200 “military-style assault weapons” identified by name, although owners would be allowed to keep existing weapons. The bill would also require background checks on any future purchases, trades or gifting of an assault weapon included in the bill. This won’t stop future mass killing but in this gun crazy nation it’s probably the best we can do now.

Here are the Republican members that voted in favor of the bill:
Rep. Vern Buchanan (Fla.)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.)
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.)
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (Fla.)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)
Rep. Maria Salazar (Fla.)
Rep. Chris Smith (N.J.)
Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.)

Upton, Smith and Fitzpatrick co-sponsored the legislation, which faces an uphill battle in the upper chamber. The NRA is a very powerful voice that donates lots of money to campaigns.

America’s Defense Posture is out of Touch with the 21st Century

The United States is unlikely to be invaded by the military of another nation.

In his final speech from the White House, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that an arms race would take resources from other areas — such as building schools and hospitals.

Despite that conclusion under President Donald Trump there was a build up of America’s military might. It’s true that under President Obama military spending did decline.

Microtrends itemized American military spending during the past four years

U.S. military spending/defense budget for 2019 was $731.75B, a 7.22% increase from 2018.
U.S. military spending/defense budget for 2018 was $682.49B, a 5.53% increase from 2017.
U.S. military spending/defense budget for 2017 was $646.75B, a 1.08% increase from 2016.
U.S. military spending/defense budget for 2016 was $639.86B, a 0.95% increase from 2015.

It’s nice to know we are well protected. But from who?

USA Today asks the question is this really necessary? America outspends every other nation in the world. Almost three times the money spent by the second largest military in 2019. The USA spent $731.8 Billion. China spent $261.1 Billion. The sum of military spending for the next ten largest military spenders is less than the US military budget.

In Germany, about 45,000 Americans go to work each day around the Kaiserslautern Military Community, a network of U.S. Army and Air Force bases that accommodates schools, housing complexes, dental clinics, hospitals, community centers, sports clubs, food courts, military police and retail stores. About 60,000 American military and civilian personnel are stationed in Japan; another 30,000 in South Korea. More than 6,000 U.S. military personnel are spread across Africa, according to the Department of Defense.

About 220,000 U.S. military and civilian personnel serve in more than 150 countries, the Defense Department says. But in today’s world it is not military invasion that is the issue. It’s the cyber invasion that is in process now.

David Sanger of the New York Times reported on December 13, 2020, “The Trump administration acknowledged on Sunday that hackers acting on behalf of a foreign government — almost certainly a Russian intelligence agency, according to federal and private experts — broke into a range of key government networks, including in the Treasury and Commerce Departments, and had free access to their email systems.”

Remember the cyber attack on Sony Pictures in 2014. The FBI blamed a North Korea scheme to retaliate for the comedy ‘The Interview.’

More recently Business Insider reported on February 25, 2021 SolarWinds, a major US information technology firm, was the subject of a cyberattack that spread to its clients and went undetected for months. US agencies — including parts of the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Treasury — were attacked. So were private companies, like Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, and Deloitte, and other organizations like the California Department of State Hospitals, and Kent State University, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The military Industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about is still a reality. Jobs manufacturing military hardware are consequential in almost every state. Is President Joe Biden prepared to face the 21st century world? He must or the United States will be overwhelmed by its enemies.

Water Quality

The issue of dirty water is not new. Texas may be feeling the impact of the Big Freeze but other cities have faced similar issues. Flint Michigan comes to mind as a good example of mismanagement.

I live in Los Angeles. When the city was hit with an earthquake in 1994 we were told to boil our water during the following week. Instead we started buying bottled water. We bought the 2 ½ gallon Arrowhead containers at Costco. We have continued buying bottled water since that time. We consume 5 to 7 gallons a week. I keep six to eight containers in the garage and an additional five gallons in a storage shed.

The city Department of Water and Power (DWP) sends out an annual water quality report. Of course it reports that that the water is safe to drink. I just don’t trust the report. When we re-piped our house in the year 2000 the old pipes were filthy and clogged. Am I to believe that the city’s pipes are cleaner than the 60 year old pipe that lead to my house?

In July 2014 the massive Sunset Boulevard water main break brought geysers of water, a sinkhole, flooding on the UCLA campus — the risks that come with expansive water line systems installed decades ago. The main line trunk that burst and turned UCLA into a swimming pool was 93 years old.

The failure also led to a familiar “Band-Aid approach” that experts say is common when pipes in an aging system fail.

Water main breaks continue in the city every month. That those breaks are a continuing problem says that we have a serious problem that the city DWP has yet to confront. One of the latest was near my home on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. After posting this item another break on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks reported on February 24. These breaks tell me that the pipes are deteriorating everywhere. Anything breaking off inside those pipes that ends up at my house? Oh no they say. Everything is OK.

Contaminated pipes are everywhere. Lead pipes are everywhere. This map shows where it is most prevalent.

Once again money is the issue.

America is Turned Upside Down

The hell of 2020 is now the hell of 2021. It all started with the shutdown of almost everything in March 2020. Five events that happened (or didn’t happen) that cause me to predict that 2021 is just an extension of 2020.

1. A virus but no approved vaccine. Yes you read that correctly. I just had my first Pfizer vaccination after someone handed me some documentation that read the following day. In part the document says (I bolded the last line) “The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine is an unapproved vaccine that may prevent Covid-19. There is no FDA-approved vaccine to prevent Covid-19.”

2. Conspiracy theorists that have been around since people have had the printing press to promote their ideas. It has now become a mainstream reality that have been promoted by QAnon. While the identity of the original author or authors behind “Q” is still unknown, the history of the conspiracy theory’s spread is well-documented — through YouTube videos, social media posts, Reddit archives, and public records reviewed by NBC News. With most of us staying home more than ever and little to do we are more likely to read and perhaps accept conspiracy theories. Many of those people at the riot at the Capital on January 6 were carrying signs and dressed in what they believed to be part of their purpose. One rioter at the Capital is known as the “QAnon Shaman” now regrets his entry and said after his arrest, “I deeply regret and am sorry that I entered the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. I should not have been there.”

3. A majority of Republican senators and house members have no problem with the president of the United States attempting to overturn the results of a national election. After the acquittal the Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “There is no question – none – that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”

4. The economy is in shambles. Restaurant and retail workers may never have jobs again because remote work at home jobs have supplanted those people who drove to work and had lunch out and did their shopping during their lunch breaks.

5. Two years after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida not one piece of legislation to deny the mentally unstable to obtain a weapon has been passed by congress. On Feb. 20, 2020, candidate Joe Biden made this statement. “My first day of office, I’m going to send a bill to the Congress repealing the liability protection for gun manufacturers, closing the background check loopholes and waiting period.” It didn’t happen. There is no legislation at this time said the Biden Press Secretary, Jan Psaki.

And you thought things would be getting better in 2021.

The Exodus – Can the GOP Survive?

Angry and vindictive, Donald Trump has destroyed the Republican Party. As an independent I want to see at least two functioning political parties. That arrangement ensures that extremists do not pull the nation in a direction that does not reflect the wishes and values of most people. His positions do not reflect the historic conservative views that many Americans appreciate. He used Republican positions when they suited him. He has made the Republican Party a reflection of his opinions. Trump delights in having the support of fringe groups like QAnon and right wing militia groups and anti-Semitic hate groups that support conspiracy theories.

The GOP has been the party of big business and free trade. During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-faire capitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies. The modern Republican Party supports states’ rights against the power of the federal government in most cases, and it opposes the federal regulation of traditionally state and local matters, such as policing and education. The Republicans advocate reduced taxes as a means of stimulating the economy and advancing individual economic freedom. They tend to oppose extensive government regulation of the economy, government-funded social programs, affirmative action, and policies aimed at strengthening the rights of workers.

“There’s Nothing Left’: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party,” NYT: “An analysis of January voting records by The New York Times found that nearly 140,000 Republicans had quit the party in 25 states that had readily available data (19 states do not have registration by party). Voting experts said the data indicated a stronger-than-usual flight from a political party after a presidential election, as well as the potential start of a damaging period for G.O.P. registrations as voters recoil from the Capitol violence and its fallout.

“The biggest spikes in Republicans leaving the party came in the days after Jan. 6, especially in California, where there were 1,020 Republican changes on Jan. 5 — and then 3,243 on Jan. 7. In Arizona, there were 233 Republican changes in the first five days of January, and 3,317 in the next week. Most of the Republicans in these states and others switched to unaffiliated status” says Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations.

@RichardHaass: “I changed my registration to ‘no party affiliation’ after 40 years. I worked for Reagan & Bush 41 & 43. But today’s Rep Party no longer embraces the policies & principles that led me to join it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Party left me.”

Our Economically Divided Society

This is obvious. The new Biden administration is inheriting a seriously damaged economy. The decline in payroll employment reflects the recent increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and efforts to contain the pandemic.

The BLS December report said this:
“In December, 15.8 million persons reported that they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic-that is, they did not work at all or worked fewer hours at some point in the last 4 weeks due to the pandemic.”

“This measure is 1.0 million higher than in November. Among those who reported in December that they were unable to work because of pandemic-related closures or lost business, 12.8 percent received at least some pay from their employer for the hours not worked, little changed from November.”

After trending down to 787,000 new jobless claims from a high of over 6 million at the end of March 2020, the new claims jumped to 965,000 last week.

This situation was obviously driven by the continuing and growing impact of COVID-19.

However as the virus continues to spread car sales have been surging. Home sales have been surging. The stock market set an all time high this month.

These realities reflect on the fact that we have an enormously divided society between the haves and the have-nots.

For the better educated, who hold white collar jobs, their accumulation of wealth has created a whole class of people — at least the top 20% or so of earners — who’ve had to worry little about such things as having a job. And as lockdowns gripped the nation, millions of people, especially those at the upper end of America’s socio-economic ladder, were able to redirect money they would have otherwise spent on things like entertainment, dining and travel toward savings or, better yet, investments. With the rising stock market their wealth has grown significantly.

The continuing pandemic isn’t ending any time soon. According to Biden administration Surgeon General nominee Dr. Vivek Murthy, it may take until late spring to finish vaccinating high-risk populations, if all goes according to plan. If that happens, the general public may be looking at a rough time-frame of the middle summer before widespread vaccine distribution begins. To me that translates to millions not going back to work until the fall of 2021.

Unless Americans are willing to have a nation of massive homelessness the federal government will have to provide funding for rents, food, and education for our youth. Joe Biden will have to convince a majority of both houses of congress that this must be job one.

Joe Biden’s First Days in Office as President

This will be the most dramatic change in federal policies since the early days of the FDR administration starting March 4, 1933. Biden’s new team will face the gravest national challenges of any new administration since those dark days of the Great Recession.

This is what is being reported.

The day he takes office, Biden is planning to return the United States to the Paris climate accords and repeal the ban on U.S. entry for citizens of some majority-Muslim countries. He will sign an order extending nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures and implement a mask mandate on federal property.

Plans, spelled out in a memo Saturday by Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain to incoming White House advisers, will address what Klain called “four overlapping and compounding crises.”

They are the Covid-19 pandemic that has claimed close to 400,000 U.S. lives, the resulting economic downturn, climate change, and a national reckoning over racial equity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“In his first 10 days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America’s irreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world,” Klain wrote. “President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward.”

On the Brink of a Civil War We Will have a New President

A piece of history seems appropriate.
Near dawn February 23, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly by train in Washington, D.C. at 6 a.m. because of a rumored plot to assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore. Lincoln was criticized for and later regretted the furtive manner of his arrival, but his advisors believed the danger was genuine. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established.

Reported on Politico Nightly
Top lawmakers say they are increasingly alarmed by a rash of new threats that could once again endanger their lives. Senators received a briefing today from representatives of the Secret Service, and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and a key group of House Democratic chairs separately met with the FBI.

“Based on today’s briefing, we have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy,” that group of Democratic chairs said in a cryptic statement after the meeting today. The briefing included the chairs and other top members of the House Oversight, Judiciary, Homeland Security, Armed Services and Intelligence panels. “It is clear that more must be done to preempt, penetrate, and prevent deadly and seditious assaults by domestic violent extremists in the days ahead,” the statement said.

The lawmakers voiced their concerns moments after a public FBI and Justice Department briefing revealed their belief that the Jan. 6 violence could be part of a much graver, well-organized “seditious conspiracy.” A Justice Department “strike force” is seeking to assemble a sedition case against some of those involved in last week’s riot at the Capitol.

As I posted on January 10 “Trump is not done.” I heard one rioter say he would die if need be to to ensure Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. January 17 and January 20 are the two days that are anticipated to be the next assaults on the Capitol.

An inauguration inside a secured building viewed by the public on television seems like a likely scenario on January 20 to ensure the safety of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

A Second Civil War?

Trump is not done. It seems obvious that he will do whatever it takes to retain the presidency. I mean there are no limits. There are rumors of another attack on the Capitol on January 17.

Keep your head in the sand and it will all work out

Is the United States of America on the verge of a second Civil War? Was the invasion of the Capitol the first act of that war?

A day before Capitol attack, pro-Trump crowd stormed meeting, threatened officials in rural California as reported in the Los Angeles Times. Dozens of people, unmasked, to vent their fury entered a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting.

“When Joe Biden’s long winter sets and the dark night comes in this country, do you think you’re going to get to see the dawn?” Timothy Fairfield, 44, of Shingletown asked the supervisors. “No, you will not. Flee now while you can. Because the days of your tyranny are drawing to a close, and the legitimacy of this government is waning. “When the ballot box is gone,” he added, “there is only the cartridge box. You have made bullets expensive. But luckily for you, ropes are reusable.”

The Washington Post reports “Police departments across the U.S. open probes into whether their own members took part in the Capitol riot.”

Concerns about more violent incidents appear to be well-founded. Calls for widespread protests on the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden have been rampant online for weeks. These demonstrations are scheduled to culminate with what organizers have dubbed a “Million Militia March” on Jan. 20 as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris are to be sworn in on the same Capitol grounds that rioters overran on Wednesday.

Is this the end of the American democracy? It appears millions of Americans are willing to follow the leadership of an autocrat.