The GOP is an Organized Criminal Enterprise

Approaching the news stand this morning to pick up the papers, from about twenty feet away my eye caught this at the top of the New York Daily news:

"Finally, a sane GOP senator!"

NY Daily News, 1/21/16
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I didn't have to think twice about it. Surely, I thought, they must be referring to Susan Collins of Maine. They were. I wasn't surprised at all. She's the only one of that bunch with a heart (and a brain, apparently).

I really miss the good old days when the GOP merely represented a threat to the economic security of the American people. Those days are gone forever. They're now a danger to our lives. It is in the interest of the health and safety of the American people that the Republican party be destroyed forever. Fortunately for us, this will take little or no effort on our part. They are today in the process of destroying themselves. They won't need any help from us - but we should still help them in any way we can.  Life is good.

By the way, Isn't it ironic that a political party that was founded over 160 years ago on the noble principle that black human beings should not live in bondage would destroy itself over the fact that the United States elected it's first African American president? I just wanted to throw that one out there.

When presented this week with a handful of barely useful, watered-down amendments that would have hardly made a dent on the national emergency of mass-murder-via-guns, the Republicans in the senate - more beholden to the National Rifle Association in whose pockets they dwell - said, in effect, "Fuck you, America. Fuck you and fuck your children. Let the little bastards and bitches shed their splattered blood and brains on the walls of American classrooms and on the streets of American cities. Fuck 'em all. Have a nice day!"
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Folks, it's time to sit down, take stock, and have a nice, long overdue, national heart-to-heart. The "party of Abraham Lincoln" is now an organized criminal enterprise. If the events of this past weekend didn't convince you otherwise, you're beyond hope. Only a kook or a fool can ignore it any longer. When faced with the worst public health crisis in American history (worse, in fact, than the polio epidemic of the twenties and thirties) Republican politicians opted to make the crisis even  more deplorable. For nothing more than reasons of self-interest, they chose - yet again - to appease a domestic terrorist organization. That's all the NRA really is. They and the Republican Party are two networks spawning national dysfunction that need to be done away with - fast. This cannot continue. We cannot become accustomed to this appalling situation. Make them pay for what they have done to this country.

And I'm not talking about you regular folks who are registered to vote as Republicans. I know that most of you are good and decent (if slightly misguided) people. I'm talking about your party, and the politicians you send to Washington as a matter of depressing habit. Your party has a right to exist, but only on the fringes of our national political dialogue - like the American Nazi Party and the Klan. 

From the Second Amendment:

"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security to a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

I know what you're thinking. I was thinking the same thing: What happened to that "well-regulated militia" thingy? 
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Single shot. HELLO???
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When the Founders wrote that amendment in the Constitution over two centuries ago, they were talking about barely functional, single-shot muskets that took almost a minute to load. They could not possibly have foreseen weapons that could theoretically murder thirty people a second. As I never tire of pointing out, they could not even foresee the Edison Wax Cylinder! That is why they made that document amendable. There is a jolly good reason why a private citizen was forbidden - by law - from owning a cannon back in the day. A cannon, aimed just right, could kill a whole lot of innocent people. None of the Founding Fathers ever expressed the opinion that this prohibition was unconstitutional.  Think about it.    

The solution is still up to the American voter....at least I think it still is. Every Republican in the house and senate who is up for re-election in November should be put out to pasture - and that includes Susan Collins (Sorry, Susie. I still love you, but the time has come to show some courage and leave that disgusting party). This is not a commercial for the Democrats. They're almost as corrupt and dysfunctional as their GOP counterparts - but at least they're not a danger to our lives. Cheer up; we can all hold our noses as we cast our ballots. Once the Republicans are dead and gone, we can start on the Democrats. 

This is not an unreasonable goal. The deep south is a lot cause. In that region of the country, blind ignorance is an ingrained part of their cultural heritage. I'm not being a nasty Yankee by saying that; I'm being honest. Still, it's not impossible to turn the rest of the country blue this autumn. Just giving you something to ponder.

Every one of them needs to be blown off the map (electorally speaking, of course). This can't be emphasized enough: What we're dealing with here is a national emergency. The time has come for us to hit the roof. It's time for the shit to hit the fan. 

And how was your week?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
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1940-1980

SUGGESTED LISTENING

Stand By Me 
by John Lennon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vSWHkxZgOI

A fantastic cover of a song originally recorded in the early sixties by Ben E. King. The singer of this classic recording is one of the more noted victims of gun violence of the streets of America.

BREAKING NEWS:

At this hour, John Lewis and up-to forty other Democrats are staging a Sit-In on the floor of the House of Representatives, resolving to force the Republicans to into action on the plague of gun violence in this doomed country. Read all about it:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/democrats-stage-sit-in-on-house-floor-to-force-gun-vote-224656

I love that guy! Maybe there's hope for that party after all.