We Shall Overcome

I'm very impressed by Democrats trying to take action on gun control lately. First there was the Senate filibuster last week which forced a vote, even though the bills were defeated. And yesterday the House Democrats, led by John Lewis, started a sit-in to try to force a vote on gun control as well. I wasn't able to watch the livestream, being at work and not having the social media account necessary, but I was very impressed to read about it.

Apparently a Texas Representative named Beto O'Rourke did the livefeed; he represents El Paso, not my area, but it's nice to be proud of a Texas Congressman for once. (Of course, Gohmert yelled about "radical Islam" instead, so there's plenty to be ashamed of.) Apparently Ryan adjourned the House one day early for their recess. (So they normally get more than a week off for July 4th? When the rest of us only get one day holiday? What lazy asses.) Ryan is apparently trying to play it like he's all noble, because the Republicans finally voted on the Zika virus bill (which Obama had been asking for a long time). But the first bill Ryan tried to use to break the sit-in was a shitty bill to allow financial advisors NOT to give clients info in their best interest. And it was defeated. So no, Ryan had no noble motive to break the sit-in. I'm still not sure what the Democrats will decide to do now, but I hope they won't be silent. Yes, the gun control bills will probably be defeated, just like in the Senate, but it's important to have a vote. So much of the Republican obstruction is about not even holding hearings, and not even having votes, like to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. They need to do their jobs and not hold things hostage. No more empty "thoughts and prayers" gestures.

I've seen some ACLU arguments that the "terror watch list" is unfair, and we shouldn't hang gun control on it. But I thought the bills in question allowed a person to appeal to a court so they could protest being on the terror watch list. That would finally bring some judicial review to the problem, so isn't that an improvement? Well, we'll see what happens. Now we got to worry how the Brexit vote goes today.