​The Republican non-reaction to the horror of the Uvalde, Texas murder of 21 innocents, including 19 little children, makes it clear beyond any doubt that they have no intention of doing anything to rein in America’s lethal gun culture. This 29th school shooting of 2022, the worst since Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, made no impression on the Party of Death. At this writing, several of its leading low-lights, including Donald Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, were scheduled to speak at the NRA convention the same week as the Uvalde massacre. 
 
The predictable, no-longer-Grand Old Party’s response to the bloodbath: we need more guns to add to the 500 million already in U.S. circulation. Everyone needs to be armed to the teeth in order to protect us against the next cohort of monsters intent on killing sprees. These Republican NRA puppets cannot possibly believe that an individual armed with an assault rifle and high capacity magazine is going to succumb to an open-carrying Joe or Jane Citizen. To quote Bush 41: “Not gonna happen.”


We cannot wait any longer for politicians to take action. Increasing contributions to gun control advocates won’t accomplish much. Neither will lobbying federal, state and local representatives from gun-obsessed red-states. Lawsuits against gun manufacturers have some promise, but usually get nowhere. The handful that have succeeded have taken years to reach a decision.
 
If anything effective is to be done about the mass killings of innocents of all ages in supermarkets, schools, movie theaters, workplaces and elsewhere, it is going to be up to private citizens and private sector businesses. Moreover, any action taken is going to have to be more creative than anything that has been attempted to date.
 
What follows are a few proposals designed to out-flank legislative polarization:
 
Privately-sponsored gun buy-back programs. The Second Amendment appears to inhibit government from instituting a gun buy-back program, such as the one that worked so well to reduce gun deaths in Australia. However, there is nothing to prevent private sector corporations from doing this as a public service. Companies are always on the lookout for places to make donations that generate goodwill. This is a perfect place to do this. It could begin with assault rifles.
 
Insurance Industry Initiatives. There is a lot of potential for insurers to make a significant impact on the gun problem. They could, for example, refuse to write liability policies for gun manufacturers and dealers, or to insure public entities in states with lax gun laws.
 
Other Private Employer Initiatives. Companies contemplating business expansions or relocations could incorporate considerations of state gun regulations in their decision-making. Also, professional and college sports leagues could refuse to hold championships and all-star games in states that fall short of common-sense gun regulation. Corporate hiring decisions could be made contingent on whether prospective employees’ possess assault weapons.
 
In sum, there is a lot of opportunity for the private sector to have a huge impact on the gun problem. Some of these proposals may at first glance appear extreme, but we are confronted with an extreme situation. Why not try something new and innovative?
 
The so-called public servants affiliated with the Party of Death are perfectly willing to sacrifice America’s children in order to maintain the unwarranted sanctity of the Second Amendment. The time has come to do an end-run around their obstructionism.
 
In addition, recognize that a vote for any Republican is a vote for more school shootings. By not legislating ways to protect them, they choose to let the blood of our children be on their hands.
 
Dick Hermann
May 27, 2022

In 2019 California passed a law prohibiting people under 21 from buying semiautomatic rifles. On May 11, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the law unconstitutional, saying it violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
 
Trump appointee Judge Ryan Nelson wrote: “America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army. Today we reaffirm that our Constitution still protects the right that enabled their sacrifice: the right of young adults to keep and bear arms.”
 
Had Judge Nelson examined demographic data from the Revolutionary War, he would have found that very few men under 21 fought in the Continental Army. In ignoring historical facts, he follows in the footsteps of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, whose leaked draft majority opinion in the Dobbs case that will likely spell the demise of Roe v. Wade, also played fast and loose with history.
 
Three days later, an 18-year old racist, anti-Semitic white supremacist walked into a Buffalo, NY supermarket and used an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to end the lives of 10 innocent Americans and injure three others. A 180-page “manifesto” this monster posted on social media is a screed about “replacement theory”—the ridiculous idea that there is an active plot masterminded by Democrats, Jews and other minorities to replace white Americans with immigrants, a racist fear tactic advocated over 400 times by Fox News’ prime-time host, Tucker Carlson, according to a recent New York Times investigation.
 
The right to bear arms ensconced in the Second Amendment is, like every other Bill of Rights amendment, not an absolute. Like all the others, it is subject to reasonable regulations. But not if you heed the National Rifle Association or the members of Congress that nestle comfortably in the NRA’s deep pockets. For these folks, no mass shooting is any reason to impose modest gun controls such as private gun sales background checks, prohibitions of enhanced capacity magazines that make it easier to kill people, or age-based restrictions on gun ownership.
 
Today in America there are more guns than people. The U.S. gun obsession is unique in the developed world. So is the number of Americans who lose their lives every year to gun violence. The gun lobby has won. That’s dangerous enough. But when you combine the immense abundance of guns and the ease of obtaining them with white supremacist replacement claptrap that has sadly become a mainstream Republican Party trope, the danger of mass violence escalates.
 
The purveyors of these ideas are as much to blame for these tragedies as the ones who pull the trigger. It is inevitable that replacement theory rhetoric will lead to violence. When you vote for reactionary zealots, you are voting for continued gun violence, for Newtown (26 dead), Las Vegas (58 dead), Orlando (49 dead), Parkland (17 dead), El Paso (23 dead), Pittsburgh (11 dead) and Buffalo (10 dead). Expect more of the same.
 
And what do the merchants of death tell us is the solution to this danger? (1) more guns on the streets would make us safer, and (2) a good guy with a gun counters a bad guy with a gun. I’m still waiting to see one of these good guys stop a mass executioner. The good-guy security guard in Buffalo ended up dead.
 
What can be done?

1. Elect politicians who support reasonable gun regulations; throw out those who oppose them.
2. Boycott companies that advertise on Tucker Carlson’s show and other racist programs that traffic in white supremacy; and don’t buy their products or services.
3. Sue the hell out of individuals and outfits like Fox News that inspire domestic terrorism. I would argue that their irresponsible, dangerous and inflammatory assertions put us all at risk, thus we all should have standing to sue. A national class action with millions of plaintiffs would be ideal.
4. Demand that Congress and state legislatures regulate social media. Algorithms that prioritize hate and misinformation for profit have no business polluting these sites.
5. Ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high capacity magazines. We had such a law for a decade. It expired in 2004 and Congress hasn’t revived it.
6. Strictly enforce “red flag” laws that authorize law enforcement to take guns away from people deemed dangerous and lobby for their enactment in the 31 states that don’t currently have them. Broome County, NY law enforcement was asleep at the switch when it had the chance to red-flag the Buffalo butcher.
7. Be careful out there.

 
Dick Hermann
May 20, 2022

​“Poor Mexico, so far from God and so near the United States.”
--Porfirio Diaz
 
Senator Ted Cruz (R-“Cancun”), a politician who slithers his way across the Senate floor, and who oozes insincerity every time his mouth succeeds in breaking through the unkempt shrub that has taken root on his face, continues to attack Mexico for its political shortcomings. Blasting Mexico is apparently his “go-to” tactic every time he feels discomfort when he is criticized for injudicious statements or inappropriate conduct. He loves Mexico as a place to escape his responsibilities, leaving his fellow Texans to suffer during epic cold snaps; but otherwise he has nothing but contempt for our neighbor to the south.
 
Coming under media attack for his tasteless third-degree grilling of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Cruz found it necessary to divert and distract by going after Mexico once again. The presidential wannabe and Trump bootlicker accused Mexico of “undermining the rule of law.” This from a man who led the fight to undermine Joe Biden’s legitimate election victory and encouraged the January 6, 2021 attempted coup d’état that, if successful, would have kept Trump in office.
 
Cheers for the Mexican government, countering Cruz’s criticism by reminding him that its political candidates acknowledge when they lose an election.
 
However, nothing can shut up the Texas twit/tweeter when it comes to taking his deep frustrations out on Mexico. Addressing the recent killings of Mexican journalists and politicians, Cruz announced during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that there is "deepening civil unrest in Mexico and the breakdown there of civil society, the breakdown of the rule of law."
 
Cruz’s blinders, worthy of a Triple Crown horse, apparently make it impossible for him to look around and see what is going on in his own country. Leave it to Mexican Ambassador to the U.S., Esteban Moctezuma, to point it out to him in a letter responding to this recent Cruz missile attack on Mexico:
 
"You spoke about a 'breakdown of the rule of law'. I invite you to study what happened in our federal elections last June. All political parties, with no exception, accepted the results and kept moving forward to strengthen our democracy and freedom of expression.
 
Unlike the U.S., Mexico is not consumed with Big Lies about stolen elections and non-existent voter fraud, or lawmakers (breakers?) like Cruz, who spoke out against certifying President Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, falsely claiming that election fraud had been rampant in swing states Biden won. This notwithstanding that 62 court challenges to those votes and certifications were thrown out of court, in many cases laughably.
 
Would that the only real damage Cruz could inflict would be on his home state of Texas and the constituents that inexplicably elected him. Unfortunately, his attempts to destroy democracy at home while indiscriminately attacking our close allies have both adverse national and international consequences.
 
Isn’t it more than enough to have to endure the looming presence of Donald Trump, like a sword of Damocles on a very thin string, hovering over us? Were Trump to fade away or be taken away via perp walk, Ted Cruz is there waiting in the wings to take up the mantle of character assassination and lies that are the prerequisites for today’s emerging Republican leaders.
 
Dick Hermann
May 13, 2022

​“Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they?...They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no {H}ead {S}tart, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're pre-school, you're f*****d.”
--George Carlin
 
The stunning leak to Politico of a Supreme Court draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health announcing the probable demise of Roe v. Wade means that a half-century of constitutional support for reproductive freedom is likely over in America.
 
Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett signed onto Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion. Alito’s language is clear-cut: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” and “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” Unchanged, that would mean that a majority of the Supreme Court will vote to overturn Roe before its term ends in two months. This would mark the first time in U.S. history that a constitutional right is taken away.
 
So much for “respect for precedent, settled law and stare decisis” these justices proclaimed during their confirmation hearings. These pronouncements strongly implied that they would not vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
 
It should also be noted that Alito is ignorant of the history of abortion in the U.S. in his draft opinion, which overlooks the fact that abortion was legal going back to colonial times.  States did not begin making it illegal until around the Civil War.
 
Once Roe is overturned, around half of the states are poised to ban abortions. In most of them, laws currently in effect and “trigger” laws that would automatically kick in once Roe is overruled don’t even make exceptions for rape or incest.
 
The ruling will have no effect on women with the means to travel to pro-choice states to have an abortion. The adverse impact will be on millions of poor women who for whatever reason cannot or do not want to carry a pregnancy to term. They will be forced into back alleys for risky illegal abortions, or to have babies they can't support.
 
Moreover, once these babies are born, Republicans’ pro-life advocacy will end. Their track record portends that they will continue to vote against affordable daycare, universal pre-school, child tax credits and any other legislation that would support hard-pressed women and families. Therein lies the shameful hypocrisy of the Republicans’ pro-life mantra.
 
It makes no difference to the Court majority that Americans in poll after poll overwhelmingly support a woman’s right to choose by a two to one margin.
 
The emergence of a Supreme Court that is a rubber stamp for far right aspirations is not only due to Republican schemes that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pulled off to deny both Barack Obama and Joe Biden their rightful Supreme Court picks. When Obama nominated Merrick Garland with eight months to go before the 2016 presidential election, McConnell said that an open seat on the Court should not be filled during the last year of a presidential term, which resulted in holding the seat open for Donald Trump to fill. Then, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died seven weeks before the 2020 election, McConnell reversed himself and rushed through the confirmation of Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett. A Mitch in Time Steals Nine.
 
The Democrats are also to blame. For more than a generation, they failed to recognize the significance of Supreme Court selections. While Republicans focused their attention and resources on transforming the federal courts into ideological endorsers of ultra-conservativism, Democrats obsessed over much less consequential matters. They allowed Republicans to have their way with judicial nominations with nary a peep in protest. The upshot is a federal court system likely to be dominated by young right-wingers for decades.
 
The Court’s conservative majority may not stop with overturning Roe. Watch out for assaults on other constitutional right-to-privacy-based decisions such as gay marriage and contraception.
 
Fantasizing about Imposing term limits on Supreme Court justices, or “packing” the Court with additional justices are pipe dreams not worth the time or effort. These “reforms” will get nowhere.
 
The only solution is for Democrats to win elections so that they can control judicial appointments. Trying to arouse their base with outrage over the demise of Roe will not be enough. Neither will it be enough to point out that two of the Justices (Gorsuch and Barrett) voting to sink Roe are on the Court only because of political chicanery. Dems also need a steady drumbeat of warnings of this partisan Supreme Court’s likely systematic destruction of other rights and policies they value.
 
If this continues, America will be unrecognizable and much the worse for it.
 
Dick Hermann
May 7, 2022