“Ladies and gentlemen, this nation is in crisis. The social fabric is fraying and it is nearing its breaking point,” he said. “We must stand up to this tyranny once again. Not with muskets the way our founders did. But with our voices and our votes and with the power and example of our action here in New York.”

His agenda, which includes marijuana legalization, gun control measures, and environmental protections, is New York’s Declaration of Independence, Cuomo said.

“We disconnect from the nationalism, and the racism, and the chaos, and the xenophobia, and the misogyny, and the discrimination, and the dissembling of this Washington administration.

Cuomo declares NY independent from federal government

And I welcome their wish for secession. They should immediately order the removal of all federal offices and officers from the State and take over their security, mail service, Coast Guard, Homeland Security and other federal things. They also should begin negotiation with the United States so their banks and other institutions are allowed to do business with us and not be treated as if they were foreign enterprises. The same applies to every business whose HQ is NY…at least for the next six months anyway.

I know, it is just bluster form Cuomo. But just for fun and if I were Trump and there is a government shutdown because of the budget, I would issue an order to close down every Federal office in the state for the duration.

I saw this great comment in Facebook and I need to repeat it here:

There they go, Democrats getting all confederate again.

My first blog post was January 8th if I remember correctly.  Then came an upgrade, lost all the posts and I almost called it quits out of spite. By purely by technical miracle (sheer luck), I managed to recover the text of the posts and got in the groove.

11 years? Damn!

Well done Fox, well done.

And in case you do not know, IFC (formerly known as the Independent Film Channel) will be playing Die Hard all day during Christmas Day. If you, like me, have been suffering the Hallmark Channel’s sappy Christmas Romances since Thanksgivings, this will be the time to revolt and have the TV on IFC all day long. Don’t forget to hide the remote.

I did not catch these headlines earlier.

The reaction of many who did not know about is unsurprising to old hands.

After all the sorrow this shooting has brought to the community, it is a good thing that the court decided the way it did because it has taught to some that they have been lied by certain political groups that keep promising full protection from evil if they are willing to submit.

But as it is human nature, this too will soon be forgotten and people will return to the happy-happy thoughts of 911 as a Harry-Potter-Like magic incantation that will keep or save them from danger instantly. It is easier to think of unicorns dancing in fields of multicolored daffodils than realize they are their own First Responder.

On October 1, 2017 between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m, Stephen Paddock  opened fire on a crowd at  music festival in Las Vegas firing more  than 1,100 rounds from his suite in Mandalay Bay hotel, killing 58 people and leaving 851 injured (including over 400 by gunfire).  The drums of Gun Control chants went into high gear.

Four month later, on February 14, 2018,former student Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing seventeen students and staff members and injuring seventeen others.

What followed a full-fledged attack on Gun Rights in this country. The Media would not stop blaming gun owners and the NRA. possibly hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in organizing PR events, marches, protest, etc. Media darlings were created as spokespersons for “Gun Safety” who had access to any TV station, to any newspaper and say whatever the wanted to say, truth be damned. The closest our side could get to a fair CNN interview was to pay our cable bill and watch the station at home.

The onslaught of 24/7 lies, misconceptions and personal attacks against Americans gun owners was brutal.  Lesser people would have caved (probably some did). We saw many taking the flag of gun control to get a political career and even one instance where an idiot actually committed a federal felony while virtual signaling.

Some states did get one in the chin, Florida possibly being the nastiest with the raising of age to 21 buy any firearm and the ban of bump stocks. I almost forgot the half a billion dollars allocated for “School Security.”

And at a Federal level? Nothing but the stupid bump stocks and people are losing their minds. I posted way back that I thought bump stocks is a stupid hill to die on and my opinion still stands. We could have had a sweeping Assault Ban legislation brought to the floor of Congress and in any other era of the past, we would have seen a vote or at a minimum a full discussion. Instead we can buy online AR 15 for under $400, 30 round magazines under $7 and ammo by the barrel.

But there is a loud group of Gun Owners who think everything was lost, the Second Amendment was derailed because of the ban. They think we should burn the world or at least the White House lawn for a piece of plastic that looks all tactical and makes you go pew-pew-pew-pew very fast without having to pay a federal tax stamp. And what that piece of plastic does, can be replicated by a frigging rubber band costing possibly a couple of pennies. I think it is time we get a grip on reality: It sucks to lose it, but it is a very small price to pay.

But if the bump stock ban is not enough, they throw in that President Trump  (The head of the Executive Branch) did not deliver National Reciprocity or The Safe Hearing Act: a couple of bills that are in Congress, what we know as the Legislative Branch. I know I learned US civics late in life, but unless the bills are passed by both the House and the Senate, they do not get signed by the President. At least that is how I was told this stuff worked.

I was told that Trump could have used the bully pulpit and that is where he failed. I will ask you if you called every day to your congresscritter or Senator demanding to have the bills brought to discussion on the floor.  Were you a pest? Do the aides know your voice and caller ID by heart? Did you flood their mailboxes with emails and letters?

No.

None of us did. We sat in our asses and like good little entitled morons, we waited for this to happen without our intervention. We wanted stopped working for it and felt we did not have to work for it anymore. And come end of the month, we will collect nothing for our efforts.

Trump did not fail us, we did. Let’s stop whining, let’s man up and begin the fight again in January… yes, even with a Democrat-Controlled Congress. because it seems we do not roll and get serious  unless they are trying to shove some bad law up our collective butts.

So I am gonna make them simple starting tomorrow:

DON’T BE A DICK. 

You can argue, present you differences of opinion and even wave your fist to the sky and be angry at the clouds. I will not accept people being keyboard dickheads.

Earlier tonight, the wife and I were watching some Trivia channels in YouTube and one in particular, they played an intro song and you had 15 seconds to identify the show. We were doing the 50s and failing miserably when one song came on and I immediately recognized it. Now mind you, I was not alive in the 1950s nor started to watch TV in English till I initially moved in the 80s, but my brain identified the song in a roundabout way.

Who’s the leader of the club
That’s made for you and me
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there
You’re as welcome as can be

Before the song got to the spelling part, I was shouting The Mickey Mouse Club!!!!!! And the image that came to my mind at the same time?

I told my wife how I came about with the answer. She shook her head and gave me that look that usually means “My mother was right when she warned me about you.”

OK, so I am not right in the head. sue me.