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Senator Sasse’s statement was long, detailed, and systematically within reasoning; addressed to all Republicans, though chiefly to his constituency as he has been approached by many Nebraskans demanding that he joins Republican members of the House and the Senate that are going to object to counting the votes of some states that were won by Biden.

The Republican party had long lost its bearing but now they are running amock under no leadership and assaulted by opportunistic hopefuls who know that—as second parts are never good—a 2024 rerun of a Trump presidency is far fetched and are exploring chances for their political ambitions, offered by the immediate chaotic circumstances (rigged election) that Trump baselessly has created.

In the meantime, 81,283,485 who voted for Biden are on edge and distressed over the assault on our democratic process by those in power—President Trump and a list of co-conspiring enablers engaged in plots and intrigues and schemes to overturn the elections.

A lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, sought to sue Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin, which all went for Biden, and invalidate their election results. The Supreme Court slapped down the case promoted by Trump on December 11, three days before the Electoral College met to cast votes for Biden as the winner of the November election.

Now Trump is eying the certification of the results by Congress as his next opportunity to overturn the result. A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining the president’s effort, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

It will fail. The process will inevitably end with Biden entering the White House on January 20. They know that, but they don’t care.

Trump’s allies—Senators Josh Hawley (Missouri), Ted Cruz (Texas), Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), James Lankford (Oklahoma), Steve Daines (Montana), John Kennedy (Louisiana), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), and Mike Braun (Indiana). Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Bill Hagerty (Tennessee), and Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)—are siding with their political ambitions. 140+ House members will also vote against counting electoral votes. They represent the most sweeping effort to undo a presidential election outcome since the Civil War.

Nonpartisan election officials have concluded it was a free and fair vote. The Electoral College certified 306-232, favoring Biden.

Trump’s allies will lose once again next week. President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20th.

But their attempt will leave a long-lasting dent in our politics, worse than Trump’s baseless and ridiculous efforts. Trump will leave office but he will continue to have a tight hold on his party, most likely deciding with a single tweet the political fate or success of whoever wants to run for office. But these House Representatives and Senators will remain in office, legislating and deciding the fate or success of Americans’ everyday lives and future. They will object and deny the legitimacy of the Biden presidency, will roadblock Democrats’ legislations, and will wreak havoc on any bipartisan process in the next four years.

They are more dangerous to democracy than President Trump. Even worse because at least President Trump had an agenda; they only are driven by a “quick way to tap into the president’s populist base” to remain in power.

Their actions and absurd charade leave Americans more divided. They are making us differ in the basic ways America perceives and frames myriad aspects of practicing democracy, leaving the door open to political payback and unfettered crony governing on every term moving forward.

The pressure to retaliate is immense. Politicians seem to barely live in the same country. The parties today have arrived at a point where they would argue that bad experiences with elections at the hands of their opponents are what’s making politics so fraught.

So, where do the American people stand, including the 74,223,744 (46.9%) eligible voters that voted for Trump?

It was a free and fair vote for Biden, Trump should concede, and those Republicans, seemingly in revolt, should desist to fracture our institutions and defend the principles of federalism and the need for people to be engaged at the state and local level in the way they conduct elections, not as a mandate from Washington.

Hopefully, come January 20th, President-elect Biden (then, President Joe Biden) will bring the country back together as the president for those who voted for him, as well as those who did not vote for him; where Americans don’t look at each other as enemies but rather have real discussions of legitimate different points of views with a civil tone which is not what we currently have.

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Our editorials present our news outlet’s opinion on certain issues. They provide an analysis of the news for a deeper understanding of current events.

Remember, first read, then decide.

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Trump’s challenge dangerous but a defining moment for the Republican Party

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After the two major parties in the country have wrapped up their respective conventions, it is time to set the path forward with eyes set on what this year’s presidential election on Tuesday, November 3, means for our nation.

America will have one opportunity to restore normalcy and democracy.

On one hand, the incumbent president–Donald J Trump– has no platform, no agenda for his reelection, but a vision that excludes the majority of the nation.

Besides Trump’s norm-breaking speech at the Republican National Convention, the week was a testament to the campaign Trump wishes he could run: Be afraid, be very afraid.

His convention made clear that his appeal is to those who supported him before, with scant evidence of reaching beyond that base.

In his 2016 convention address, Trump declared “I alone can fix it.” Four years later, after voters gave him a chance to prove it, Trump is now dealing — or his opponents would say not dealing — with multiple crises.

The “carnage” that he promised to stop is worse than ever on his watch.

The “swamp” that he promised to get rid of has only expanded to become a lake of lawless cronies breaking all possible federal guidelines and ethical norms.

Today’s GOP is nothing more than Donald Trump’s Party with no platform for the next four years but the President’s America-first agenda, and now includes voices that even support the QAnon conspiracy theory with racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic views, which centers on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q” who shares information about an anti-Trump “deep state” often tied to satanism and child sex trafficking.

On the other hand, former Vice President Joe Biden has run a campaign to “save the soul of America” from the state of disorder in which it is due to Trump’s disregard of the law, norms, and decency.

Biden’s nominating convention last week was filled with evidence validating his approach: that fierce opposition to Trump can unite a wide swath of the American electorate around an imperfect, yet personally respected and empathetic candidate.

His political philosophy can at times feel like an antiquated throwback to an era that no longer exists and the political environment that awaits him in Washington if he wins in November is grisly. But Biden is in direct contrast with Trump, who appears to view not only politicians but most Americans in black and white terms: those who support him unequivocally and those who do not.

The Biden & Harris ticket is what America needs at the crossroad in which it is now.

We should not continue to support a president who lies, a president that deceives and distracts, a president that denies and defies reality.

Unfortunately, a part of the nation stands partisan. Republicans who are comfortable with Biden as an electoral alternative to the incumbent president may nevertheless be less inclined to vote for his economic and domestic policy agenda.

But that partisanship will not bring us back to normalcy nor help us restore democracy and the values for which the world once admired us.

Donald Trump wants us to be very afraid if Biden wins. Don’t be afraid. What we have seen on Trump’s watch is what we have to be very afraid of.

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Our editorials present our news outlet’s opinion on certain issues. They provide analysis of the news for a deeper understanding of current events. Today’s editorial is also an endorsement of the values and agenda of Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.

Remember, first read, then decide.

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Biden & Harris: The ticket to restore normalcy and democracy

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It turns out that fewer than 6 months afterward, the number of Americans that have died due to complications of coronavirus infection surpasses the total number of U.S. dead during World War I. Comparing the fatalities and policies of the U.S. and other countries, a large number of the Americans who died from this pandemic might have been saved by measures demonstrated by others to have been feasible.

As the CDC estimates that as many as 56,000 people die from the flu or flu-like illness each year, we can definitely say the coronavirus is not like the common cold.

While President Trump, his most ardent backers no matter what—GOP elected Congressmen and women, Republican Senators and governors—and White House staff struggled to offer a cohesive message and comprehensive long-term policy to steer the nation out of this crisis based on science and common sense, the side effects of the disease are jetting out of every fabric of our nation with devastating force—recession, distrust, and uncertainty now rein where economic proliferation, civic guidance, and sound judgment in practical matters once set America apart from the rest of the world.

America is fighting the virus spread in the most chaotic jumble and reckless way.

We’re failing to wear masks that are recommended in public settings and when around people who don’t live in the same household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. The rejection of this guidance has streamed perceptibly from the Commander in Chief down.

We’re failing to outline a complete plan that includes all or nearly all elements or aspects of the recovery, instead, the response since the beginning has been politicized and exploited as a political campaign where the Commander in Chief uses the podium of the highest office in the land to make a political pitch for his own reelection rather than leading.

We’re failing to understand the scope and reach of this silent killer (and this falls on every one of us, not just our leaders). Just try to understand this: the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy plunging by a record-shattering 32.9% annual rate last quarter and is still inflicting damage across the country, squeezing already struggling businesses and forcing a wave of layoffs that shows no sign of abating.

It will take years for that damage to be fully recovered because the virus has taken square aim at the engine of the American economy — consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of activity. And the risk of temporary job losses becoming permanent is high.

There’s little hope of a swift recovery. Tentative hopes have been diminished by a resurgence of viral cases. So, what will be of our great nation if a second surge does happen in the fall if now cases are rising in close to 30 states and we are mishandling the outbreak?

As it is frustrating and demoralizing, there are broad opportunities to do the right thing, even at the cost of political aspirations.

We can’t fully recover until the pandemic is defeated.

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Our editorials present our news outlet’s opinion on certain issues. They provide analysis of the news for a deeper understanding of current events and not necessarily a political endorsement.

As always, first read, then decide.

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The post America, understand that coronavirus isn’t like the common cold appeared first on The Florida Daily Post.

It was simply another shameful episode representative of President Trump’s refusal to admit minor misstatements.

In a highly unusual move at the briefing meant to inform Americans about the pandemic, Trump asked for the lights in the briefing room to dim and a taxpayer-funded promotional video ran more than 3 minutes, showing a montage of officials offering laudatory comments about the president and of Trump discussing his steps to contain the virus that has infected more than half a million Americans and killed more than 23,000 people in the country as of Monday, April 13.

Trump complained at length about negative press coverage of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and said of the video, “I think I’ve educated a lot of people as to the press.”

Wrong, Mr. President. 

Also, wrong if anyone else approved of his defensiveness step to persuade the public to look past his comments playing down the threat of the virus and to dismiss comments, including those by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who said on Sunday: “You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated.”

We are where we are, not because President Trump created the virus but because he—and the government under his leadership—failed to test suspected cases, and failed to prepare health workers and medical facilities to handle this public health crisis.

“This is a pandemic,” Trump said at a March 17 press conference. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

But before that, Trump had minimized the threat of the new coronavirus for weeks in statement after statement: “We have it totally under control…,” “We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully….,” “the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April….,” We have it very much under control in this country….,” “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA….,” “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”

And to this date, Trump continues to manage wrongly and ineffectively the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, failing to show almost any moral leadership when he decided to derail the medical press conference to play the video defending his reportedly late response. National television stations—CNN, MSNBC—were quick to cut him, while cable news rival Fox News carried it nonstop.

Unfortunately, the catastrophic coronavirus pandemic has also been politicized now, and the president is using all his power to speak from the podium in campaign mode. To his ‘right’ of the podium, his talking to an audience trafficking in lies, nonfactual statements, showing little sympathy to ailing fellow Americans—e.g., former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly recently sparked backlash online for saying that many of those who have died from the coronavirus “were on their last legs anyway.” 

To his ‘left’, he’s not talking to an audience who wants to vote him out of office because of the way he has carried his political agenda and abuses his power of office.

If empathy is the question, the contrast is stark and the challenge for President Donald Trump may be steep moving forward.

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Our editorials present our news outlet’s opinion on certain issues. They provide analysis of the news for a deeper understanding of current events and not necessarily a political endorsement.

As always, first read, then decide.

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Beyond Mr. Trump’s lack of moral leadership, misogynism, and conflict of business interests is a presidency at odds with black America. He has denied being racist, labeling himself the “least racist person there is” during his 2016 campaign. But as president, he has denigrated practically the entire African diaspora, and left many Americans convinced that the leader of their country is a racist.

Not only has he lately used allegoric racist words and comments towards black and brown people, he has stood by them. His recent racist tweet calling a majority black area a “disgusting rat and rodent infested mess,” besides being stupid, was meant to steer his audience on a different path, not to listen to a black Congressman sitting as the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Of course, it was.

Chairman Elijah E. Cummings’s Baltimore-area district is 53% African American, but also includes predominantly white outlying suburbs where Mr. Trump voters live.

Racism is not only prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race, but also playing on the stereotypes of people. It should be exhausting for black people to hear time and time again racist rants from the president of their country. If Mr. Trump can’t see that, he doesn’t deserve to continue being president of the United States of America.

Enough.

In the wake of a series of racist tweets by Mr. Trump, railing against progressive congresswomen, telling the American citizens to go back to their countries, ESPN’s Dan LeBatard called out his employer and lamented ESPN’s new politics policy: if there isn’t a sports connection, don’t talk politics.

Well done. Silence is a bad remedy when someone is using his office powers to wreck havoc the core of our democratic fiber.

But where are the GOP leaders disgusted by Mr. Trump’s racism? Behind closed doors? They aren’t showing the dignity that befits the office they hold. They need to remember that throughout the history of this country, diversity has made the values that hold us together as Americans.

There’s really nothing that can excuse any of the stuff the president says or does. But it is becoming a pattern of despicable racism propped by supporters giving him authority and means to do it with their inaction, compliance, and silence.

Mr. Trump’s attack on Elijia Cummings did not hit a new level. It is simply a rage escalation of a person who doesn’t deserve to continue being the leader of America and needs check and balance. The recent democratic ‘check and balance’ method used by Puerto Ricans to oust a corrupt, inept, and inmoral leader should be a wake-up call for Mr. Trump’s unhinged racism and hate.

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History seems to repeat.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored rebel group Brigade 2506. The original invasion plan called for two air strikes against Cuban air bases. The main force would advance across the island to Matanzas and set up a defensive position. The United Revolutionary Front would send leaders from South Florida and establish a provisional government. The success of the plan depended on the Cuban population joining the invaders.

58 years later, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó took to the streets with a small contingent of heavily armed troops in a bold and risky attempt to lead a military uprising and oust socialist leader Nicolas Maduro. Guaidó has been coordinating with the Trump administration since before assuming the interim presidency.

Though no troops —despite the ‘5,000 troops’ speculation— or paramilitaries were sent to Venezuela, the same erroneous thinking to oust a dictator has been assumed in both Cuba and Venezuela, 58 years apart.

President Trump has chosen a side in the Venezuelan conflict and is promoting the regime change without a plan capable of leading a transition to democracy in the crisis-stricken country.

Venezuela was once the wealthiest nation in South America, but in recent years millions have fled the country amid mass starvation and violence after socialist policies were enacted and government seized private industries. Many of them have come to relocate in South Florida.

But Venezuela became a wealthy country –and the world’s largest oil exporter– under a dictator, Juan Vicente Gomez. From 1908 until 1958, the country was ruled by corrupt military who rouse to power through coups.

In both cases –Cuba and Venezuela– people in those countries have sided with whoever represents a solution to their woes. Cubans did not join the ‘Playa Giron’ invaders; Venezuelans did not join Juan Guaidó’s uprising as expected in comparison to the large street protests Venezuela had been immersed in before.

So, moving forward, the Trump administration needs to rethink its Venezuela strategy.

As the country continues locked in a standoff between Maduro and Guaidó, both claiming to be Venezuela’s rightful president, sanctions, oil embargo, tough talks, and threats without a viable solution to democracy, will only make things worse and will leave more people in Venezuela siding with the Maduro’s regime ultimately.

Venezuelans are literally dying from starvation, and they have a socialism to thank for their economic impoverishment. Children are dying from lack of nutrition and going without medical care. They have a president (Maduro) who refuses to scrap a state-run economic model that is responsible for all the disaster.

But Venezuelans don’t have the capability to overpower him, nor will Guaido ever be able to do it by staging uprises.

As Venezuela’s crisis deepens, more and more government opponents are now on the run, facing arrest for their role in the failed military uprising to topple the regime. But instead of going into exile, or to jail as another silenced martyr of the movement to oust Maduro, many dissidents are pounding on the doors of foreign embassies in a throwback to the dark days of the 1970s, when far bloodier military dictatorships in South America hunted down their opponents.

Venezuela resembles a prototype: Cuba, a socialist revolution, and an exile in Miami paying their way up in American politics with a goal—oust Nicolas Maduro.

Putting pressure on segments of the government to desert Maduro is as flawed as years of blockade to the Cuban government. Thinking that threats of a U.S. military invasion and sanctions on Venezuelan oil would lead Venezuela’s armed forces to turn against Maduro and then usher in a democratic transition is a simplistic strategy. In Venezuela’s deep economic crisis, citizens are hurting badly, but the Maduro government still has enough funds to offer military leaders governmental appointments and economic kickbacks. That make a serious plot against him less likely.

To make progress for Venezuelans –not the Venezuelan American diaspora in Florida– Washington will have to work with its international partners to find a more moderate path forward.

Outside of south Florida, where some 200,000 Venezuelan exiles are clamoring for Maduro’s ouster, few Americans would have an appetite for such a prolonged operation.

Economic sanctions targeting Venezuelan oil appear to be hurting the Venezuelan people more than Maduro’s government. That will only make a democratic transition more elusive. Depriving the Venezuelan government of cash and credit will impede it from fixing the electrical grid by preventing the purchase of new equipment. And without electricity and water, Venezuelans, who in their vast majority oppose Maduro, will be concentrating on survival rather than protest.

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President Trump has shifted target –not a wall apparently. His recent Twitter attacks have chiefly landed on George Conway, the husband of his advisor Kellyanne Conway and the late Senator John McCain.

Some republicans have thrown scanted messages against Trump’s unnecessary assaults on McCain with a lone GOP Senator denouncing Trump, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA):

“I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better,” Isakson said. “The McCain family deserves better, I don’t care if he’s president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world.”

Sen. Mitt Romney waded in President Trump’s attacks to John McCain, who he called an “honorable” and “courageous” man, writing on Twitter:

“I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God.”

Of course, Sen. Mitt Romney, as many in the Republican Party, can’t seem to understand —now— because they —now— are also part of an enabling GOP that continues to choose to stand with a president who doesn’t reflect the values John McCain helped build in this country. As a Republican, John McCain also wanted to repeal Obamacare, but he only voted against his party because of the way it [the skinny repeal] was handled, just with the sole purpose to give the president a victory. If alive, most likely McCain would have voted along with the other 12 GOP Senators (of which Sen. Mitt Romney was not one) who supported an effort by Congress to block the emergency declaration Trump had used to circumvent lawmakers as he tried to shake loose funds for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

But a simple statement can help Mitt Romney understand the tabloid character Trump is:

As president, Trump is disconnected from reality and says things he wants to say, in the moment he wants to say it, and at times what he says doesn’t particularly have meaning, but it is a continuation of a need to talk about himself.

And that has consequences because Donald Trump is currently the President of the United States and whatever he says —or tweets— the press must take him seriously, not as they’d take a tabloid character.

So must do all senators.

And as to the president, manufacturing jobs are not coming back in record numbers. Manufacturing jobs have increased lightly but not necessarily due to this administration’s policies and voters in Ohio might be feeling that because a poll from POLITICO/Morning Consult shows that Donald Trump’s net approval job in Ohio has fallen by 19 points since he took office in January 2017. Might that be due to the fact that manufacturing jobs are still leaving Ohio, like in the case of Lordstown where a General Motors plant is shutting down this month, leaving 1,600 without jobs.

The Federal Reserve Chairman has given a much less optimistic forecast than what the president and the White House keep saying. Data collected since September 2018 shows that growth is slowing more than expected and while conditions have been eased, they remain less supportive of growth than what they used to be during 2018.

But what would a tabloid character say?

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A steady rise in suicides involving firearms has pushed the rate of gun deaths in the US to its highest rate in more than 20 years, with almost 40,000 people killed in shootings in 2017, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the continuing epidemic of gun deaths in every city of the country is hardly news.

Despite data raising concerns, the carnage continues to worsen, while at the same time at all levels, inaction and silence rule over gun violence.

Much of the public attention is on the intense tragedies of gun massacres, but everyday killings and injuries by firearms across all states account for the largest statistics of gun violence deaths at each year’s end.

The slaughter of 11 club-goers in Thousand Oaks, California, proved that there aren’t effective policies to separate disturbed individuals from high-powered weapons and that police officers are rushing headlong into horrific violence in order to save lives.

No effective policies.

That’s where it all begins.

Proponents of stricter gun regulations fear for their safety in a country where there is an average of 120.5 guns for every 100 residents. Opponents of regulatory arguments also fear their safety but they argue that restricting the right to bear arms (Second Amendment of the United States Constitution) would leave citizens unable to protect themselves, and in a worst-case scenario, from the government.

According to Christine Watkins of the National Council for the Social Studies, the cycle of policy-making in the case of gun control is characterized by outrage, action, and reaction that may lead to active engagement in political debate, but not necessarily to good policies.

The issue of gun control is as much about “controquotes” as it is about “guns.” It is not simply a question of liking or disliking guns. Nor is it simply about liking or not liking control. It is—or should be—about judging the effectiveness of control, and particularly of government control as exercised through regulation.

That’s where all the problem arises.

The answer for ‘No effective policies.’

The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and its political action committee, the NRA Political Victory Fund, placed $25 million worth of television ads through the same ad-buying executives who also arranged spots for Trump’s campaign in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election.

That ensured that “spending by both the NRA and the Trump campaign would be complementary and advance a unified, coordinated election strategy,” according to a complaint by the Campaign Legal Center, which favors greater regulation of money in politics, and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun safety group.

In May 2018, President Donald Trump delivered a strong message of support for the National Rifle Association at its annual meeting, as gun-rights advocates regrouped in the wake of the mass shooting at Parkland’s high school. Trump’s address in Dallas was his fourth in a row to the group’s annual convention.

“You give your time, your energy, your vote and your voice to stand strong for those sacred rights given to us by God, including the right to self-defense,” Trump told the group’s members. “And now thanks to your activism and dedication you have an administration fighting to protect your Second Amendment.”

For as long as the top organization of the gun lobby continues to take part in decades-long, massive political campaigns, they will keep altering politicians’, the courts’, and Americans’ views of gun rights and the Second Amendment. No particular, comprehensive gun control law will pass significant restrictions on firearms and access to guns.

When the National Rifle Association talks, large number of politicians listen. Those politicians can’t do much when the NRA aims to block any new gun legislation in the wake of mass shootings.

There’s a large number in Capitol Hill both Republicans (684 in 2018) and Democrats (24 in 2018), getting direct/indirect financial support from the NRA. According to federal election data compiled by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, eight lawmakers have been on the receiving end of at least $1 million in campaign contributions from the NRA over the courses of their careers. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is among them.

We are days away from the first anniversary of the Feb. 14’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting.

But before Parkland was the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, in 1989; Columbine, Colorado, in 1999; 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; 49 at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, 2016, and 58 at a country concert in Las Vegas, 2017.

Every day, hundreds of Americans are killed with guns and hundreds more are shot and injured.

Just a few days ago, Zephen Xaver, 21, fatally shot five women at a small-town bank in Sebring, Florida. The slayings did not appear to be part of a robbery, and Zephen Xaver had no apparent connection to the SunTrust branch or the four employees and one customer who were killed.

A couple of days after that shooting, authorities released the person of interest and named the woman and two men who were killed at a home near Orlando two days earlier.

Deputies found the three victims with apparent gunshot wounds in the garage, kitchen and a home office in a house in Chuluota. There were no signs of a break-in, leading investigators to believe the victims knew the killer. Several weapons were found in the home, but some appeared to be missing.

In the same week, 21-year-old Dakota Theriot shot and killed three people in Louisiana’s Livingston Parish before driving to neighboring Ascension Parish and shooting his parents, Keith and Elizabeth.

And the news of killing and injuries continue across different towns and cities in the country. No amount of carnage, no research showing how gun control saves lives seems to change an American reality.

So, can we change the inactivity of politicians and the political activities of the NRA? Can we stop lobbying methods, campaign spending, maintenance plans, and bills lobbied at legislative, executive, and judicial levels?

The answer has always been: “most likely not,” but Parkland surviving students became activists and took on the NRA and rallied young adults across the country to register and vote against candidates opposed to gun control. Though “it’s going to be a long road” as one of the most vocal students, David Hogg has said, there has been victory over the National Rifle Association right here in Florida, a state that has long done the gun-rights group’s bidding, e.g. the Florida legislature’s vote for new firearms regulations and other recent gun-violence prevention measures.

And the media certainly can too.

The media has a powerful effect on the perception people have of the world. If there’s a constant coverage of daily shootings and what lawmakers representing districts affected by such events are doing, it will definitely help people’s full understanding of their experiences of violent acts, it will definitely help unite the disproportionate number of viewpoints on gun control towards a solution.

American political dramas are nothing new, but this presidency has taken them to another level. With President Trump facing multiple scandals since he took office, with the Mueller probe of chief concern, hardly any gun control legislation will be procured out of good will. Besides, he is too ‘friendly’ with the NRA and has neglected the effect of more regulations and their impact on the gun control debate.

After the mass shooting in Parkland in February, Congress did not act. But state legislatures did, passing 69 gun control measures this year — more than any other year since the Newtown, Conn., massacre in 2012, and more than three times the number passed in 2017.

That was mostly in part because parkland surviving students became activists and spoke, and took the national debate on gun control to the mainstream media.

So, let’s not forget that inaction and silence rule over daily gun violence in this country.

Killing over a food service argument at a McDonald’s restaurant is not Second Amendment. Killing loved ones, relatives or parents over disagreements is not Second Amendment. Killing for getting fired from work is not Second Amendment. Assaulting police officers for doing their job is not Second Amendment. Racism is not Second Amendment. Killing innocent kids at school is not Second Amendment. Road rage is not Second Amendment. Mental issues are not Second Amendment. Jealous spouses are not Second Amendment. Robberies are not Second Amendment.

Let’s start talking stricter gun control laws and procuring change.

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inaction and silence rule over gun violence in this country

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In January 1955, tens of thousands of French men and women gathered at the Porte de Versailles in Paris to express their disgust for the elites who had burdened their lives with crushing taxes. They had come to hear the populist icon Pierre Poujade, a bookstore owner from the rural Lot valley and the leader of a movement that tried to topple the government of Pierre Mendès-France.

Today, the French government is again facing an existential threat over an unpopular tax, but this time by the “gilets jaunes,” or yellow vests. And even though President Emmanuel Macron has since nixed his government’s plan, the demonstrations show no sign of abating.

On the other hand, President Trump is using the Paris protests to push his anti-Paris Agreement agenda.

The president even claimed protesters were chanting ‘We Want Trump’ and blamed the Paris Climate Agreement for the escalating riots which have blighted the French capital for the past three weeks. Trump, who in the past has called climate change a “hoax”, believes the discontent is down to people being unhappy with the Paris Agreement, which is aimed at speeding up actions to lower carbon emission.

But neither Associated Press journalists covering protests in the city nor any French television networks have shown evidence that supporters were chanting any slogans in support of Trump. The protests that began as a revolt against a gas tax increase have turned increasingly violent and France imposed exceptional security measures Saturday to prevent a repeat of rioting a week ago.

The Paris Agreement is not “fatally flawed” like President Trump claims. He is only taking advantage of the situation to voice his long distrust of the consensus by nearly all the world’s respected climate scientists on the link between human activity and rising temperatures, as well as other damaging climate change phenomena.

This week’s Poland summit is billed as the most important UN conference since the Paris deal three years ago. The talks are taking place in Katowice, the capital of the Silesian mining district. The aim of the COP24 summit is to make an end-of-year deadline for agreeing a rule book on how to enforce global action to limit further warming of the planet.

But besides those efforts, President Trump attacks Paris climate agreement and uses France’s anti-government protests as a steppingstone—another misstep in a failing foreign policy agenda.

The “gilets jaunes” movement started in November as a response to a fuel tax hike meant as an environmental measure.

Cars, trucks, and tractors play a critical role in the lives of rural and suburban French people, and the insensitivity of the government to this reality sparked the anger of these “non-metropolitan” citizens. They have long felt marginalized by city-dwelling French elites, who would barely be affected by the rising fuel prices.

The yellow vest itself perfectly embodies the resulting sense of grievance. But the protests have evolved from a pure tax revolt into something broader, combining a wide range of political views.

A recent poll shows that about 42 percent of the protesters supported the far right candidate Marine Le Pen in the last elections. The survey also shows that 20 percent of them backed the far leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while many others voted a blank ballot or even supported the conservative François Fillon.

Because the movement lacks a leader, its demands have included everything from reinstating a wealth tax to increasing welfare protections. Students are demanding that the government backtrack on proposed education reforms, while more radical elements want a fundamental transformation in government.

To top it all off, extremists known as “les casseurs” – literally “people who break things” – and anarchists have added violence to what were primarily peaceful protests. As a result, there have been hundreds of arrests and injuries.

Today the French economy is doing reasonably well, with its annual growth rate improving since 2012 and currently close to 2 percent. For a president who has called himself a ‘Nationalist’, the logic that applies here will be to let France resolve their issues on how to resolve the rising cost of living that makes it difficult for members of the lower middle class to make ends meet.

The “gilets jaunes” of today are responding to economic challenges that are very different from the ones of the past; most are the uneven gains of globalization and not the Paris Accord towards climate change.

Or maybe history will turn around to teach the US a lesson too. After all, President Donald Trump has told members he would lead on promoting a 25-cent gas tax hike that could help pay for his $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan.

Escalating Riots with Hidden Populist Agenda

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