President Donald Trump met with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to discuss gun control policy Thursday, though the President is still hesitating to fully commit to any of the measures.
I want the headline that pairs ācommitmentā with āinvoluntaryā.
Puh-leeeze, report this sorta thing accurately.
All by himself, Trump defines what is and is not politically possible for Republicans.
He has more power over Republicans in Congress than any President in history has ever had over their party. More than LBJ or FDR ever had over Democrats by several orders of magnitude.
So legislative questions about gun legislation are a direct, unequivocal test of Trumpās political courage and even (yeah, Iām going there) convictions.
Those are facts. They should be in every piece of reporting on the subject.
The framing should be a test of Trumpās political manhood. If heās unwilling to stand up to the NRA (much less his ābaseā), thatās not because he agrees with them.
Itās because heās chickenshit.
Say so.
Delay, delay, delay until the next gun massacre, rinse and repeat.
Nothing in US politics has ever been so predictable.
There are very few songs in which every word is always true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4ruVXRe68o
Manchin and Trump negotiating.
Oh, yeah. Thatās going to solve the problem.
I am sure they will end up putting forward a comprehensive plan to make it illegal to sell ammunition from vending machines in public bathrooms. Thatāll stop all those mass shootings!
Thank goodness I can finally breathe a sigh of relief!
I still donāt know how the āmental healthā thing is going to help in the shootings problem, without strict background checks, how is a seller going to know if the guy is a nutter or not? Or are they planning to to do a mental health check on everybody lock up not only all the crazies but everybody that could possibly turn violent, so that gun sellers donāt have to worry?
Trump never has intended, Nor will ever do a thing about gun control.
Donald Trump and Joe Manchin are Dyn-O-Mite in
"The Clueless And The Dickless"
In Super Panavision 70MM (to capture all of Trumpās fat ass) and Dolby Atmos Sound (so you can hear all of the useless pronouncements overhead AND from the surround speakers).
Youāre right, up to a point.
Itās certainly true that the key isnāt to make it illegal to sell deranged people lethal weapons but to make certain the seller has an affirmative obligation to know the buyer is not deranged (and dangerous). Itās kinda the wrong way to go to focus on mental illness as if thatās the problem. It isnāt. Mentally ill folks are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators.
But baby steps matter. Placing even the slightest liability on the seller is going in the right direction. Likewise with going after the manufacturers and their marketing strategies, which is where the NRA lives.
Not quite.
Trump has a cowardās cunning. Take that for granted, and recognize that heās also stoooopid, and surrounded by sycophants. Report accurately that he has more power over Republicans than any President in history (cuz itās true, and he will like being reminded of it), and then frame all political decisions about gun legislation as a test of Trumpās political manhood.
Judo, folks. It works.
But how a seller is going to know if the buyer is deranged without background checks? The whole NRA point is not to āinconvenienceā buyers. Are loons going to be required to wear an armband?
Thank you
Youāre missing the point: folks who sell human-killing machinery should worry.
Thereās a reason why the NRA is simply a marketing tool for firearms manufacturers. The Constitutional con and āgood guy with a gunā fantasy they pitch sells guns.
But thereās another side to that, which is crucial for the business model: the makers and sellers of human killing machinery must be immune to the inevitable effects of their products and the way they are marketed. Erode that and things start to get better.
Note this doesnāt happen with any other product. Nobody designed or manufactured lawn darts to pierce the skulls of small children ā but as soon as people realized that was an inevitable result, insurance alone slammed the door on the business model.
It wasnāt Henry Ford or General Motors who insisted on putting ignition locks in cars. That was insurance companies, who realized they would be liable for big bucks when cars without locks were stolen, and in particular when the kids who stole 'em for joyrides ran over pedestrians on sidewalks. Nobody markets TNT as material essential to your God-given right to violently overthrow the government: why not?
Cuz the first pipe bomb would bankrupt the manufacturer.
The key to strategy is the objective: if you donāt know where youāre going, itās hard to get there.
excellent
This is all one big song and dance routine for Manchin and the rest of the GOP. Thatās right. I included Manchin in this effort. He needs to show his red state that heās trying, but not trying too hard to change the status quo. He knows he aināt changing a fucking thing, with or without GOP helpā¦thatās why heās a poser.
āPresident Donald Trump met with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to discuss gun control policy Thursday,ā¦ā
Conferring with a fellow Republican.
I totally agree, my point is where does the āmental healthā part fits, if the President has ruled out expanding background checks.
As fr as I am concerned, anyone wanting to buy an AR15 look-alike has a mental health problem, and itās prone to violence.
These guys donāt get it. The second amendment guarantees our right to bear arms, so what we need is someone with the courage to say, hey, if thatās true, then why canāt I buy hand grenades and flame throwers? Then, in the same breath, answer the question in a way that gets us back to agreeing that we have to have controls, including common sense banning of, oh, I donāt know, assault weapons, for example? This reductio ad adsurdum argument has never really been attempted.
Yes, it has.
The good guys lost.
Thatās why LaPierre wears such nice suits.
The NRA and Republicans are in talks with SCOTUS to greenlight all that should a suit reach them.
