The Republican Party, the NRA, and gun people (including many Democrats), won't give up their guns "... until you pry it out of my cold, dead hands." Given the number of children and adults who have died in schools, houses of worship, and so many other venues, you'd think there'd be an outcry that the guns have to go. But it ain't happened. And it's very unlikely that it will.

New York City should be a model for the entire country. If you want to buy or carry a gun in NYC, you need a damn good reason. Most often, permits are issued to people who carry a lot of cash as part of their jobs, jewelers, and various types of business and store owners (often on the condition that the gun must be kept in the business/store and not carried.)

You can buy a hunting rifle in New York. (I don't know if you can buy military style rifles, but I'm pretty sure you can't buy extended ammo magazines.)

If you got in a car accident in NYC, the last thing you'd think of is that the other person has a gun.

If you got into a car accident in Florida, where I live, the first thing you'd think of is that the other person has a gun.

Right now, our message to the world is: "If you want a good chance of getting shot in a public place, visit America, the land of the free and the home of tens of thousands of people who won't leave their house without a gun."

And I'm tired of "The shooter had mental health issues." Fuck that excuse. Anyone, at any time can "lose it." But if there's no gun at hand, there's a good chance that no one else will lose their life.

Our cowboy mentality has to go. Or sure as hell, thousands more people will die from America's love affair with guns.

I mean, really. What the fuck is wrong with us?

(And please don't hand me the 2nd Amendment crap that was written when people owned single-shot muskets.)

I've posted this question as an OP many times over the years. And then I'd go into some long-winded reasons.

Last night, James Carville was interviewed by Ari Melber and was asked the same question (in a more polite way).

James' answer was: "Because there's more white trash in the Republican Party than ever before."

Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the soul of wit." Perhaps Carville nailed it with his politically incorrect observation.

I've stayed away from the countless DU threads that have condemned Garland, as well as threads that say we need more patience. Not once have I posted to any of them. But my patience has run out.

I expect to see Trump indicted by Georgia and perhaps even New York. But while I actually believed that Garland would have acted long ago, I now doubt if he will move against Trump. Ever.

Think for a moment of the crimes Trump committed in front of the camera, the most obvious being his call for a mob to march against the Capitol and help him commit his planned coup d' etat.

Kidnapping children at the border was one of his most heinous acts. And make no mistake about it. They were intentionally kidnapped under his policies. Many kidnappers are spending life in prison.

There was/is his unlawful possession of top classified documents that he refuses to return, claims they're his, and that he'd mentally declassified them. (Give me a fucking break on that piece of insanity.) His actions are a stark difference between the handful of documents held by Biden and Pence (both of whom might not even have known they had them. Ex-VPs don't do their own packing when they leave the job.)

He used police to clear peaceful protesters out of Lafayette Square using nightsticks and tear gas. This was done to allow him to take a photo op in front of a church while holding a bible upside down. (Umm, free speech and the right to peacefully assemble is in the Constitution.)

I don't know if anyone has an accurate count of the crimes he publicly committed while in office. It seems that Merrick Garland would have a list of these crimes, along with countless others we don't know about.

I believe Garland's lack of indictments has fucked America beyond repair. There are already mini-Trumps such as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas who have their eyes on the presidency. Both have turned their states into fascist nightmares, and don't for a second believe they wouldn't try to do it to the entire country if one of them got into the White House. Trump has sown unending lawlessness that will be reaped by virtually any Republican successor to "The Throne."

And one more thing. Even if you indict him for something tomorrow, it's too late. Your delay has let Trumpism spread like a cancer, and has helped the Orange Prick advance his desire to destroy American democracy.

COVID has killed over one million Americans. It seems to me that Republicans represent a far more dangerous disease than COVID. They represent an "ideology" that can kill American democracy.

Every sane American must understand that the Republican Party is what our founders referred to as "domestic enemies."

Ordinarily, I would make a case for that previous sentence. But do I really have to? Anyone who doesn't see the danger of today's Republican Party, (and the danger of a large part of their base), doesn't "get it" and never will.

Until the current era, I didn't know that racism, bigotry, and outright hatred of "THE OTHER" outweighed self-interest. But the ignorance of Republican voters might just end up with the death of our freedoms, and the death of countless human beings. But then, the Republicans in charge would call those deaths "collateral damage." And, yes, that "collateral damage" thing means us.

I have never posted to a thread regarding Merrick Garland, or the DOJ, or Special Counsel, Jack Smith.

HOWEVER.

Do I really need to repeat anything that hasn't been said a million times here on DU, Mr. Attorney General?

WHEN?

In trying to distance herself from QANON, she has publicly stated that she was "taken in by the internet."

Okay. If she was "taken in," then she bought into beliefs that the vast majority of Americans, (80 percent? 90 percent?), consider to be totally insane. So, put into plain English, she's not insane. She's just stupid beyond belief.

She was for the assassination of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She believed the Parkland school shooting in FL was a "false flag" operation. She believed in Jewish space lasers. She believed in, ... oh, what the hell. If the internet had made any Democrat believe in this kind of stuff, do you think she/he could ever have gotten elected to office?

Evidently, MJT is trying to do a makeover of herself. And her excuse is the equivalent of "I can't believe I was so incredibly dumb." To me, "incredibly dumb" is anyone who buys the shit she's trying to sell us now.

(There's a link below, and other links with more info, but you've got to sign up. If anyone has more links, please post.)

https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-got-sucked-into-qanon-conspiracy-theories-internet-2023-1

About 100 years ago, a then-famous vaudeville performer named Will Rogers, said, "I never met a man I didn't like." Many here on DU know the response to that. -- He never met Donald Trump.

It's not Trump's political philosophy that I hate, because he doesn't have one. What I find totally abhorrent is the man himself. There's no need to go though the list of his faults from his greed, to his intentional cruelty, to his need to be loved. Yet, he loves no one but himself and doesn't give a damn who lives or dies. I can't think of one positive characteristic he possesses.

Yet, millions of MAGAs still love him. Why? I guess the same question could be applied to Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, and many other monsters of the past.

I just don't get it.

Yeah, I know that many are thinking that this is just another post berating the DOJ and Merrick Garland.

Actually, this is a post about the virtually total injustice embedded in the American "justice system."

A black man found with a small amount of "forbidden drugs" may go to prison for decades. A successful white man caught with an ounce of coke is more than likely to get a slap on the wrist.

A homeless person shoplifting some food may face serious prison time. A scam artist stealing people's life savings often has a lawyer that will get him off easy.

A person visiting the National Archives and trying to break the glass housing historic documents, will be facing jail time. And ex president who stole unknown amounts of highly classified government documents, is living in a castle and playing golf anytime and anywhere he wants to.

No one can tell me that our justice system is not unbalanced, unfair and totally broken. It seems that justice is blind to inequities.

Anytime I hear someone say, "America is the greatest country in the world," I turn away in disgust.

Most intelligent people know that real "Justice" doesn't exist in America. And nothing is being done to bring it into being.

I've posted this question many times over the years. And I've finally found an answer. Because!

If you've got a better answer than that one, please post it.

In writing "A Christmas Carol," Dickens made Scrooge a person who was greedy, grumpy, and uncaring of the fate of all the other human beings with whom he shared this planet.

After visits from the three ghosts, Scrooge is redeemed and tries to make right all the evils he visited upon others. He found his conscience and learned the meaning of human decency.

But, it seems that Dickens didn't foresee a Donald Trump. I suppose this can be interpreted as Trump being a man who is beyond redemption; a person who has ignored, or is unaware of, acceptable human decency; a being who has no concept of the damage he has done to the civilized world; a strange alien-like creature who has no conscience, and no wish to set right all that he damaged and destroyed.

Dickens, in his writings, believed that even the worst among us has some redeeming quality. It seems he didn't foresee a Donald Trump or those of his ilk. Then again, perhaps he saw them, but couldn't grasp the nature of their existence, or describe the pure evil they embodied.