Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Words? What Do They Mean? An Ongoing Series




They Say "Congress" (from the WaPo) --
There is no reason mass killers can still legally buy their weapon of choice in America

...
A ban on assault weapons was in effect from 1994 to 2004. There were some imperfections in the law, but rather than fix those Congress bent to pressure from the national gun lobby and let the law lapse. Even more grotesque was Congress’s failure to implement a ban on assault weapons and other common sense gun reforms proposed by President Obama in the wake of 6-year-olds being slaughtered in their classrooms in Connecticut. We have no illusions that the horror of Orlando will cause Congress to jump up and take action.

-- when they obviously mean "Republicans" (from MSNBC):
GOP blocks bill to stop terrorists from buying guns

12/04/15 12:23 PM—UPDATED 12/04/15 05:26 PM

Senate Republicans rejected a bill that aims to stop suspected terrorists from legally buying guns, on Thursday. The vote came a day after at least 14 people were killed during the San Bernardino massacre in California by two suspects, including a woman said to have pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Forty-five senators voted for the bill and 54 voted against it. One Democrat, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and one Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, crossed party lines.

The measure would have denied people on the terrorist watch list the ability to buy guns.
...
I wonder why?

Perhaps the highly paid professionals on the Washington Post's Editorial Board --
The board includes: Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt; Deputy Editorial Page Editor Jackson Diehl; Associate Editorial Page Editor Jo-Ann Armao, who specializes in education and District affairs; Jonathan Capehart, who focuses on national politics; Lee Hockstader, who writes about political and other issues affecting Virginia and Maryland; Charles Lane, who concentrates on economic policy, trade and globalization; Stephen Stromberg, who specializes in energy, the environment, public health and other federal policy; and editorial cartoonist Tom Toles. Op-ed editor Michael Larabee also takes part in board discussions.
-- are too stupid to know the difference?

4 comments:

trgahan said...

Anyone who tells you elections don't matter needs to be reminded that all sitting elected Republicans live in daily fear that ONE slip in NRA dictated party line will mean facing a primary candidate with a boatload a cash.

Hell, Republicans can't even vote for their own "Mental Health Reform" solution because their voters are already convinced the Government is declaring so much PTSD in veterans in anticipation of using such mental health reforms to block gun ownership and strip the "Patriot Movement" of its veteran army.

I wish I was making that up.

Lit3Bolt said...

B-b-but then Republicans will never read us again! We have to pander to racism, gun-humping, warmongering, bribery, corporate corruption, and feckless market capitalism! Otherwise they'll accuse us of being liberal or worse...hippies!!

I'm not a hippie! I'm not! I believe in market fairies! I believe in white supremacy and persecuting minorities! I'll be good, don't hit me again!! BOTH SIDES DO IT!! BOTH SIDES!!

---Village Journalist

RUKidding said...

The "let's all sing kumbayah and focus on mental illness" is one of the GOP's more cynical dodges because, clearly, they have abso-effen-lutely NO intention of doing bupkiss about that, much less anything to do with gun control. Just a bunch of cynical assholes with their grubby mitts out to collect their filthy lucre from the gunz 'n ammo industry.

Jeff Bezos works for the CIA now, as did the Graham's before him (well, the Grahams were more directly embedded with the CIA, but who knows what kind of dealio Bezos has with the Spooks).

The Grahams & former Naval Intel Bob Woodward were in on busting Nixon. Unsure if, back then, even the Spooks thought what Nixon did was, uh, overly "ambitious"? Of course, even back then the Spooks were running drugs 'n guns all over the place, in between carpet bombing Laos and Cambodia to the tune of millions upon millions of tax dollars without Congress or the President allegedly knowing it was happening. JFK didn't like that, but we saw what happened to him.

So, too long story short... does the CIA not want any assault weapons controls? It would be irresponsible not to speculate. And if so, why or why not? Clearly, the guns 'n ammo industry don't want any controls on their precious products because CHA CHING. But the CIA? hmmm... keep the proles afraid? let the riff raff do the dirty work for the PTB? Cheaper that way?

Easy then to blame both sides, both sides, both sides!!11! It's a smoke screen at any rate. Satisfies someone(s) powerful.

Cinesias said...

Language and conjuring phrases are very, very important to Republicans, just like it was very important to Big Brother and the Party. Orwell was nothing if not a political genius.

For example, look at how phrases like liberal get continually demonized. Or how Gingrich issued his memo, "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" to use specific phrases to preface and postface discussions regarding Democrats and policies/issues.

"Radical Islam" is important, because if they can convince everyone to preface Islam with "Radical", we won't occasionally refer to just how CONSERVATIVE the worldview of Islamic Extremists is. You know, the hating women, hating gays, and hating secularism viewpoints that they share with their CONSERVATIVE US American cousins.

And you always have to remember that US Conservatism is built upon the twin pillars of projection and cognitive dissonance. Their "Political Correctness" martyrdom isn't an attempt to "open up channels of discourse", but a reverse way to shut down discourse, i.e. you're not allowed to say something is or isn't racist, sexist, bigoted, because to do so makes conservatives feel self-conscious about their bigotry, and they just want to turn tail and run home. To hide from the hippies hiding in their bushes, ready to get 'em.