We all saw it.  In the midst of tragedy, even as law enforcement was gathering evidence from the Santa Fe High School shooting, some idiot shows up wearing a Trump MAGA cap, carrying an American flag and openly carrying a semi-auto handgun.  When asked by the press what he was doing, his answer was, “Making America Great Again,” and that, “‘God bless y’all’ goes a long way.”  Somehow, in the face of crisis and indescribable grief, this tone-deaf goofball actually believed that bringing a gun and American flag to the scene of massive violence was somehow “comforting” to the families of murder victims.  Normal people reacted to his actions as you’d expect, with “WTF are you thinking?”

It’s easy to dismiss this guy as just another ignorant and supremely insensitive Trumpist jerk who has no common sense upon which to draw.  While those descriptors are certainly understandable, it’s actually worse than that; by openly carrying a firearm and an American flag at the scene of a tragedy, he actually believed he was helping.  He lives in that upside-down world where common sense has been displaced with idiotic dogma bred from long exposure to brainwashing.  The echo chamber in which people like this fellow live pumps out so much bullshit in a continuous stream that it actually bends reality for them.  Down is up, up is down, the sky is green, and the sun rises in the west.  Pouring mining waste into streams and spewing carbon dioxide into the air is “freedom”.  Cutting taxes increases revenue and strengthens the nation.  Money equals speech; corporations are people.  Climate scientists are conspiring against American business to help China.  Googling nonsense about vaccines invalidates decades of immunology research.  The tsunami of guns in America increases safety even though EVERY objective peer-reviewed study concludes the opposite. Consensus conclusions by the ENTIRE international intelligence community are dismissed as anti-Trump conspiracy; eliminating voting rights protects democracy; frolicking with prostitutes and porn stars is forgivable if you’re a member of the correct tribe.  Israel must be protected from the Palestinians so it can rebuild the Temple Mount and Jesus can come back.

This clown’s behavior in public is a textbook example of the shocking result of brainwashing.  Relying purely on the bullshit poured into his head, he engaged in behavior that jarred normal people.  I’m reminded of another example of this behavior, the goofy “Ride for the Constitution” in 2013, whipped up by talk radio screamers using birtherism as its basis during the Cruz-induced government shutdown where over the road truckers were encouraged to drive their rigs all the way to Washington to drive around the beltway.  The premise was that said truckers would somehow bring DC to a standstill and inspire Americans to stand up and “remove” Barack Obama, John McCain, and other prominent politicians from office.  In the end, all the truckers accomplished was raising the profile of the talk radio screamers and burning a lot of expensive diesel fuel for nothing. After a weekend of driving in the rain, they all declared victory and went back to working for subsistence wages to pay the fuel bill and try to feed their families.

It’s really easy to mock people like the MAGA guy and the truckers burning expensive fuel for nothing, but their beliefs and actions are alarming.  We have an entire segment of our society who believe that bullshit is filet mignon.  They act, AND VOTE, against their own interests.  They vote for carnival barkers like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.  They are the classic “useful idiots” who are so ignorant of actual facts that they threaten our democracy by supporting anti-democratic oligarchies, voting away their own rights to those who spent billions to seize and maintain an iron grip on our democracy.  Democracy dies in darkness?  Certainly, but that darkness is created by institutionalized ignorance.

Recently, the public has become aware of a reclusive billionaire named Robert Mercer.  His name is connected to pretty much all things corrupt and deplorable – Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Cambridge Anaylytica, and many others.  He’s bankrolled child molesters like Roy Moore, and poured millions into think tanks propaganda mills contributing daily to the dumbing down of conservatives and the proliferation of fake news.  Along with the Kochs and Sheldon Adelson, Mercer is apparently doing all he can to destroy America as we know it and turn it into an Russia-like oligarchy where money is “speech” and poverty is “freedom”.  These guys believe if they can’t win, they’ll just buy the power they want.

As disgusting as that is, he participates in what on the surface appears to be a really odd activity: he is a volunteer police officer in a tiny New Mexico town.  The town of 433 people, with only ONE full time employee, the police chief, has a volunteer force of reserve officers of 84 people who come from all over the United States.  That’s right, a town of 433 people out in the middle of nowhere has a police force of one, backed up by 84 (at its peak 150) reserve officers.  They are each required to serve 6 days a year, train and qualify.  The do sniper training and tactics.  Weird, right?

Well, not so much.  It turns out that Congress passed a bill in 2004 called the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, which allows police officers to carry a concealed handgun, even if local laws prohibit it.  Reserve officers qualify to carry handguns anywhere they care to in the US.  After the law passed, badge factories sprung up all over the country making gun nuts a reserve officer just so they can carry guns even in jurisdictions, like New York City, that prohibit it.  Besides just simply being a piggy bank for every weirdo and radical on the political right, it turns out that Mercer is a gun nut.  He bought Centre Fire Arms, which manufactures and sells assault rifles.  His son in law runs it.  He also started, with others, Law Enforcement Education Organization which was set up to encourage the carrying of firearms by law enforcement officers across state lines under the Law Enforcement Safety Act.

The Bloomberg article linked above is a fascinating read, and a story of which I was not aware.  Mercer has emerged as one of the scariest guys in modern politics.

An odd piece of clothing for men developed in England and France during the late Middle Ages and on into the Renaissance period called the codpiece.  The codpiece was designed to cover and protect a man’s…uh…equipment, and is thought to have been developed originally to provide freedom of movement when tight hosiery was the in-thing fashion which covered the legs.  During this period of time, men’s jackets, or doublets, were made shorter and shorter making the codpiece an essential equipment-covering garment. During this period of time, virility was considered mandatory to be a successful warrior, so metal codpieces were made that exaggerated the size of…the equipment.  Then came Edward IV of England, who set the pace for exaggeration.  He made very short doublets de rigueur in merry Old England, enlarging the codpieces to greatly emphasize a man’s…equipment, as well as sparing no expense for the sometimes jewel-encrusted pieces.  Even though a man’s…equipment could not be mentioned by name, it seems it was very popular during the times to put the Renaissance version of a neon sign on it.  Here are a couple of examples:

Henry VIII was well known for the size and elaborate designs of his codpieces, but the odd garment disappeared by 1600 after the blousy pantaloons made popular by French nobility swept the English fashion world as well.

Since the codpiece became unfashionable 500 years ago, why in the world am I talking about it now?  Well, I’m talking about it because in very recent times it has re-emerged, this time in 21st century America, and here it is:

The AR-15, and its variants, have become the codpiece of the 21st century, normally carried by men/boys attempting to exaggerate their masculinity by carrying their firearm in front of their…equipment, or in place of it.  Putting aside the danger it poses to everyone near them, the black steel codpieces of today usually elicit giggles or gasps from normal people, probably not unlike the reactions of people to the more traditional codpieces made popular by hosiery-wearing nobility way back in the day, trying to bolster their own manhood.

Today’s codpieces look even more silly than those in the 16th century, but they are a hell of a lot more dangerous.  One can only hope that this codpiece ends up in the dustbin of history, much like its predecessor.

The high school kids from Parkland Florida are having a profound effect on America; tomorrow, there will be over 800 March for Our Lives events worldwide, over 700 in the US alone.  El Jefe is going to the one in Houston.  To find a march near you, click here.

But that’s not all that’s happening.  The boycotts against business partners of the NRA are being effective. At least 18 companies have severed ties with the NRA.  Additionally, several large chains have established a minimum age of 21 to purchase guns.  But now even more steps are being taken by large business.  Yesterday, Citigroup announced that it will require all of its clients who deal in guns to raise its age limit to 21, do background checks on ALL gun sales, cease selling bump stocks and high capacity magazines. This policy not only applies to borrowers from Citi, but also all retailers who accept Citibank credit cards.  If clients refuse to comply, Citi will drop them.  This move have been considered more of a social statement than real, but I disagree.  If Citi has been moved enough to declare this policy, so have other banks, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.  In 2012, the NRA started “anti-gun” shaming, telling its members to boycott companies it viewed as hostile to guns.  Well, now the worm has turned, and there are a lot more of us than the NRA membership.  Companies are focused on profitability.  Normal people are now threatening that profitability of companies which are irresponsibly supporting unlimited gun ownership.

The kids from Parkland are shaming Washington, shaming state governments, shaming the gun lobby, and shaming all of us adults for miserably failing at protecting our own.  It’s our fault, and it’s long past time for us to fix it.

Yesterday, under extreme pressure from the public led by students from Marjory Stoneman High School, Florida governor Rick Scott signed a hastily drafted gun safety law that nibbled around the edges of our gigantic problem of gun violence.  Not completely lame, the new law does raise the minimum age for any gun purchase to 21, imposes a 3 day waiting period for gun purchases by unlicensed individuals, increases the budget for police in schools, raises the budget for mental health treatment for students, and bans bump stocks which should have never been legal to begin with.

What does the bill get wrong?  The bill stupidly legalizes arming school employees which actually INCREASES the risk of gun violence in the schools.  It doesn’t ban assault weapons.  It doesn’t even pause the sales of assault weapons while the state studies gun violence.  It doesn’t limit magazine size or limit ammunition sales.  It doesn’t strengthen the background check system.  In fact, a provision that closed the “lie and try” loophole was left out.  The “lie and try” provision would provide a mechanism to the state to charge people who lie on their background check form with a crime.  Right now, there is a federal criminal penalty for lying on the form, but in 37 states, including Florida, there is no mechanism for the FBI to notify the state that an applicant lied on the form.  Stupid, right? Easy to fix, right?  Well, they didn’t.

Sixty seven “A” rated Republicans voted for this bill, and, of course, the NRA immediately responded by suing the state in an effort to stop it, and its lobbyists have certainly already started threatening those politicians for daring to not do its bidding.

Nibbling around the edges of gun violence will do little to curb it, and will just add fuel to the gun nut argument that “laws don’t work”.  They’ll be correct, of course, since the poorly crafted gun safety bill will do little to actually increase gun safety.