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.

Today in Tokyo, Trump said that the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs Texas yesterday was “a mental health problem” and “not a guns situation”.  As we’ve pointed out before, every country has mental health issues, but the ONLY country that has a mass shooting problem is the United States.  The difference between us and other developed countries?  Guns.  Hundreds of millions of guns.

The Sutherland Springs shooter was 26 and had received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force in 2014 after serving a year in a military jail for assaulting his wife and his child.  He bought his assault rifle at an Academy in San Antonio.  How in the hell can an individual with this kind of criminal record?  Answer – The background check system in this country SUCKS.  Many records are still paper.  Not all criminal records make it into the system.  NO mental health data gets into the system unless a court adjudicates a person incompetent.

In short, any idiot, criminal, and weirdo can easily put his hands on a weapon(s) with a high capacity magazine and all the ammo he can afford.  This is not a mental health problem, Donald, it’s a GUN problem.  Hundreds of millions of guns.

First, let me state one critical fact – EVERY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY ON THE PLANET HAS FIGURED THIS ONE OUT. The United States is the only country with the chronic problem of mass shootings.

A few points:

1. Do we have mental health problems?  Of course, but so does every other country.
2. Do we sell violent video games?  Yes, but so does every other country.
3. Do we have violent television shows and movies?  Yes, but so does every other country.
4. Do we have a breakdown in the family unit?  Yes, but so does every other country.
5. How about churches?  Are our churches shrinking?  Yes, but they are doing the same in other countries.

So what’s the difference? Why do we have such a wrenching problem with mass shootings?  The difference is the omnipresence of guns.

The US is awash in a tsunami of guns that is drowning our country and the lame gun laws we manage to enact are designed to fail to protect our society from people who have no business owning a gun.  As a country, the US is 4.4% of the world’s population, yet we own 42% of the world’s guns.  Let that sink in.  Our homicide rate in the US is over 300% that of the average of the rest of the OECD.

The problem here is obvious.  The solution is simple.  The population of the US is not crazier, or more evil than other countries’ populations.  The only factor that makes our country an outlier  is the overwhelming presence of guns.  Guns can be easily acquired in private sales with no background check.  Guns are trafficked by the millions.  The NRA has successfully stifled research into gun violence, has kept the ATF hamstrung in enforcing existing laws, and has even prevented the electronic tracking of guns from being done.

The real crime here, besides the massive murders of innocents, is that committed by our elected representatives who have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the NRA and other pro gun industry lobbyists to keep us awash in guns.

That’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.