The Line's Been Crossed

Say what you want about Donald Trump, but nobody can argue with the fact that he has touched a nerve among more Republican voters far more than any other candidate.   Facts themselves are few in most GOP right wing talking points, and Mr. Trump's claims and proposals are more devoid of truth than any other.   When Trump called for a total ban on Muslim immigration, he drew parallels to the darkest aspects of U.S. history.   Does anybody doubt this latest over the top pronouncement is exactly what the ISIS terrorists want?   While GOP rivals and party leadership fail to disassociate themselves from him after this crazy, impractical, uncontitutional and fearmongering idea, Hillary Clinton correctly states that Trump is "no longer funny."   He's now brought us into the danger zone, and unfortunately many Americans are going there willingly.

Whether or not you think a Mexican border wall and Muslim immigration ban would have a snowball's chance in hell of addressing legitimate problems, nobody can truly claim this is what America is all about.   Yet Trump supporters and many other Republicans continue to believe the Trump-inspired myth that President Obama was born in Kenya.   They also hate Obama so intensely that they believe he's a Muslim who hasn't done anything about ISIS  or curbing illegal immigration while trying to confiscate everyone's guns.     When I hear crowds cheering on Trump's self centered, vague and increasingly divisive reactionary rhetoric, my reaction is sadness.   Trump has no clue as to what makes America great.

The Endless Cycle

Mass Shooting Scene (Huffington Post)

Here we go again.   Two well armed nutcases walked into a holiday party in San Bernardino, California and mowed down over a dozen people connected with a group committed to fighting the effects of autism.   It was one of a string of mass shootings making this country unique.   Nowhere in the allegedly civilized world do we see these incidents with such frequency.   Yet the NRA leadership and their cowardly servants in Congress continue to stand in the way of even the most basic common sense background checks while tightening gun show sales loopholes.   The gun manufacturer lobby has blood on their hands when they refuse to acknowledge any role in what is a distinctly American phenomenon as they push the nonsense that the Obama or Malloy administrations are looking to mrid the USA of all private gun ownership.  With a gun for every US citizen - over 300,000,000 - that's not going to happen.   

Longtime host Stu Bryer, who follows me on WICH AM 1310, can generally be called conservative, yet even his moderate views on tightening background checks are met with a "people will get guns anyway" attitude from vocal opponents of including gun control in a national discussion.    You can't cherry pick talking points like the fact that the San Bernardino shooters bought their assault weapons legally while pointing the finger of blame at mental health issues, violent video games... anything but gun access.    EVERYTHING has to be on the table if we ever can hope to address this insane cycle of mass shootings.