Shot down in flames

So, even a modest proposal to introduce background checks on gun sales can’t overcome the fear that the NRA generates in US senators – truly a monster to the democratic process. New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, again skewers the “increasingly extremist wing of the gun lobby” and their legislative lackeys, but it’s small comfort in place of commonsense law-making (I’m increasingly preferring the billionaire mayor to be the next POTUS, ahead of Hillary Clinton – unlike Mitt Romney, he has virtues other than his financial acumen). President Barack Obama may have been inspired to compromise in the image of his hero Lincoln (as expertly captured by Steven Spielberg’s film), but compromise is weakness to be exploited by the lunatic leaders of the NRA, who wanted to make it easier for nutters to possess guns by expanding carry-and-conceal rights. Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t have a team of fixers like Lincoln had – bring back Rahm Emmanuel – all is forgiven!


And right-wing losers like Dr Tim Stanley (you don’t need to be especially clever to be a doctor – in some instances, the title is a façade for a glorified student) have the chutzpah to say Obama is the failure for not passing gun checks when 90% of Americans support them. You can’t please habitual Obama trash-talkers – either he’s too much of a dictator or he’s not enough of one (I remember when ‘Dr’ Niles Gardiner almost had an aneurysm when asked to say something nice about Obama). Catch-22 indeed.

One of the Republican senators whose nerve failed him was the appropriately named Jeff Flake. Apparently, he has a film poster of Mr Smith Goes To Washington – presumably that’s the wretched Adam Sandler remake. Then again, it’s only the matter of a filibuster – the reason that it rarely goes to this is that US senators have to make/take calls and attend functions to please donors: they don’t want to waste that time as some bore drags out the legislative process. Inevitably, one-man filibusters rarely succeed as the speaker has to leave the chamber to answer the call of nature – the trouble is, a large swathe of the Republican party see ‘checks and balances’ as something to abuse. It may be a sign that conservatives are more tenacious in achieving their goals than ‘liberals’ but underhand conservatism set in motion the fall of the Roman Republic viz. the fate of the Gracchi brothers.