Tag Archives: universal background checks

The etymology of “beazel”

By Mark | August 22, 2019

I’d wanted to write last night about Donald Trump’s ever-changing position on mandatory background checks for gun sales, and the pathetic way in which he publicly grovels at the feet of the NRA, but, when I saw that one of my favorite films, Preston Sturges’s delightfully thoughtful 1941 screwball comedy Sullivan’s Travels, was going to […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged 1922, 1939, 1941, 19th Amendment, background checks, barlow, beazel, beezle, biscuit, bitch", censorship, Charlie Chaplin, cross-dressing, crumb-gobbler, crumb-gobblers, Donald Trump, equality, etymology, film history, films, flapper, flapperese, floozie, frail, George Cukor, great films, gun control, gun laws, ho, hobos, Joel McCrea, John L. Sullivan, Little Tramp, Logansport Pharos-Tribune, Mae West, mass shootings, NRA, pettable, pettable crumb-gobblers, petting, Preston Sturges, right to vote, roaring twenties, Robert Greig, Rosalind Russell, screwball comedy, slang, suffrage, Sullivan's Travels, The Wicked Waltz and Other Scandalous Dances: Outrage at Couple Dancing in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries, The Women, Veronica Lake, women's rights | 19 Comments

As some Republicans begin to stand up against Trump and McConnell on white nationalism and gun control, the fight shifts to Walmart and the corporations underwriting Trumpism

By Mark | August 6, 2019

It’s now been a few days since a white nationalist gunman took the lives of 22 people in El Paso and there are any number of things that we could discuss. I’m inclined to focus on Mitch McConnell’s continued refusal to bring House Resolution 8 to a vote in the Senate, but I really don’t […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Amy McGrath, Andrew Ross Sorkin, assault rifles, assault weapons, Ben Sasse, domestic terrorism, Doug McMillon, fascism, Georgetown, gun control, gun laws, H.R. 8, Joaquin Castro, John McCollister, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, mass shootings, Michael R. Turner, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, money in politics, Nebraska, Nebraska Republican Party, NRA, Ohio, open carry, Parkland, Poway, racism, San Antonio, Tucker Carlson, Walmart, white nationalism, white supremacy | 69 Comments

Yet another young white male with a gun goes on a killing rampage citing the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory

By Mark | August 4, 2019

Yesterday morning, at approximately 11:00 AM, Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white male wth a history of racist views, walked into the Walmart next to El Paso’s Cielo Vista Mall with an AK-47-style assault rifle, and proceeded to take the lives of 20 human beings. While some on the right, like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, are […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged 8chan, anti-immigrant, anti-immigration, assault rifles, assault weapons, assault weapons ban, background checks, Beto O'Rourke, border wall, call to action, call to violence, Charlottesville, Christchurch, conspiracy theories, domestic terrorism, Donald Trump, Drudge Report, El Paso, gamification, go back to where you came from, go back to your countries, Great Replacement, Greg Abbott, gun control, gun laws, gun violence, impeachment, incitement to violence, infested, invasion, levitate the Pentagon, levitation, manifestos, mass murder, mass shootings, mental health, mental illness, Mexico, New Zealand, NRA, Nuremberg, Patrick Crusius, racism, Renaud Camus, Texas, The Inconvenient Truth, violence on the extreme right, Walmart, white nationalism, white supremacist, Will Hurd | 93 Comments

David Simon: “Whatever resentments were in the shooter’s head, the US President stood ready to bolster and validate it.”

By Mark | June 28, 2018

This afternoon, a white male gunman outfitted with a shotgun and several smoke grenades, walked into the newsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, and began firing. By the time he was taken into custody by the police, five people were dead, and many more were seriously injured. The man arrested by police has […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged David Simon, Donald Trump, free press, gun control, Jarrod W. Ramos, Lügenpresse, lying press, Maxine Waters, Milo Yiannopoulos, NRA, Sean Hannity | 55 Comments

Gary Peters on health care: “I put it all an the line to make (the ACA) happen, so don’t question my motivations here.”

By Mark | June 16, 2018

Michigan Senator Gary Peters held a town hall meeting today at Eastern Michigan University. As it was just announced yesterday evening, attendance was relatively sparse. I’d say there were maybe about 125 people in the audience, most of whom, judging by how people introduced themselves when posing questions to the Senator, were from Ann Arbor. […]