"Our Meaningless and Insipid Godly Platitudes are With You ...That Is All."

The Daily News is about as far from Left Wing or atheistic in their politics or philosophy as I've seen in a daily tabloid. And yet even a broken clock is right twice a day.  They nailed it with today's cover and headline.

In the wake of yet another mass murder, this time at the hands of home grown Muslim citizens of the USA, the GOP does what it always does best: Pray.  Period.

Oh...they'll go on to try and connect this to foreign born Muslims, probably invoking Syrian refugees in some bizarre and twisted logic, the only logic the the Right possesses. Trump can now reaffirm his plan to register all Muslims and make them carry papers ("Your papers, please, mein Herr.").  It's what the GOP does.

They'll go on to accuse Obama of politicizing the tragedy ... using this incident as a political ploy...an excuse to once again open the dialog on reasonable gun controls, or in their terms: "Justification for over-reach to confiscate guns and erase the 2nd Amendment."  It's what the GOP does.

Some of the most rabid Right Wing religionst GOP devotees will call this a "false flag" incident, devised and conducted by the government as a first step toward martial law. It's what the GOP does.

But the opportunity to invoke God and Prayer can never be missed. It's not only good politics it's virtually de rigueur if one wants to appeal to the Evangelical Christian base of the party.  For if you fail to wear your religion on your sleeve you are suspect. Are you really a "true Christian"?  Are you pious enough to be President? Obviously, the four scumbags depicted on the cover of the News qualify in their eyes.

So, what's next?  What can we expect?  I'll tell you what: Nothing.  Well, nothing meaningful anyway.  We will continue to see mass murder on a regular basis. We'll see the prayers of the faithful, the holding of hands, the floral and flame lit make shift monuments to the victims.  And the GOP will spout its usual platitudes invoking Faith and God and Prayer and Jesus and say: "This is the price we pay for being the freest and greatest God given nation on the planet."

Here's a hot flash: we long ago stopped being the greatest nation on the planet.  It stopped when we became the only industrialized nation besides Turkey that has a majority population believing in Creationism over evolutionary theory.  It stopped, when we became the only western nation that doesn't offer paid maternity leave, or universal healthcare.  It stopped when our infant mortality rate became the highest among the 27 wealthiest nations on the planet.  It stopped when we cut food coupon benefits to the poorest, and gave tax breaks to the wealthiest. It stopped when we casually committed our youth to wars costing $ Trillions and all its death and maiming...then claimed there is no money to help our homeless and disabled veterans to the degree they deserve.  It's what the GOP does.

As for our being the freest nation...that ended when gerrymandering became the way to manipulate election results and dilute the will of the people; and when we handed over the process for candidate selection for the office of President to the wealthiest individuals / companies in the nation and lobbyists ;and when the GOP first attempted, and continues to pursue, truncating voting rights of those demographics who tend to vote against them; or when we stopped opening our arms to those most in need of our national embrace.  It's what the GOP does. 


Look, I'm all about the 2nd Amendment.  I own more guns than probably a third of my readers combined.  But this insanity cannot continue to be accepted as the norm in this nation, as it rapidly is by the dulling of our outrage resulting from its frequency.  It cannot be made better by prayer to some imaginary  boogieman in the sky or public demonstrations of piety by the frauds, phonies and religiously afflicted.  Until that is realized we'll continue our spiral toward 3rd World status, and we'll deserve it. 

"Every nation gets the government it deserves" - Joseph de Maistre (1811)