The Gun money means more. Even if it puts them down a vote for a while.

--This screed is off topic; but then again, senseless gun violence can certainly be considered a major healthcare issue, which burdens the system with over 100,000 patients a year and untold hundreds of millions in needless costs:

My heartfelt condolences and sympathy goes out for the latest victims and families of the (CDC five-year average) 93 dead and 186 injured, who ended up on the wrong end of a gun on this typical day in America, including Rep. Steve Scalise and the four Republican staffers injured in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as the three dead and two injured in the UPS building in San Francisco.

Except on local news, we probably won't hear much about the other estimated 269 victims of gun violence across America in the last 24 hours who didn't make the front pages -- the highest average of any other nation on Earth, except the ones embroiled in all-out warfare (and that are no doubt employing the U.S. defense industry's "beautiful" weapons, which are exported for profit to just about every country under our military/economic influence and ruthless, empirical global dominance).

https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/

Even before emergency-room surgeons dug the bullets out of the victims in Alexandria this morning, Newt Gingrich, GOP Reps. Chris Collins, Steve King, Rodney Davis, Mark Walker, Joe Walsh, and Chris Collins, along with Kellyanne Conway, Rachel Campos-Duffy of Fux News, Drudge Report, Breitbart, and Prison Planet were first up to bat, blaming the baseball shootings on the "rhetoric" coming from the left. Predictably, the glaring omission common in all of their shameless statements was the long, long history of the violent rhetoric that is a virtual staple of the far right, which Trump gladly adopted.

These posturing, reprehensible bottom feeders certainly won't be the last. The team lineup of sweaty, psyched-up wingers in the dugout are popping bubble gum and scratching their nuts, anxiously awaiting their turn to score political hits against liberals, progressives, and Democrats: "OMG, some radical, leftist, socialist who once volunteered for Bernie shot Republicans! Proof that all Democrats everywhere are violent revolutionaries -- who better sit down, shut up, quit resisting Trump and the Republican agenda, and enjoy the game, gawdammit!"

Okaaay ... then let's divide up all the politicians from the two parties, super-glue them to the most hypocritical loudmouths from their loony-toon bases, put them on opposite ends of a scale, and then see which party has been inspiring the most crazies with violent rhetoric, through the presidencies of Bush, Obama, and Trump. On the right: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O"Reilly, Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Glen Beck, Dick Morris, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Erick Erickson, Michelle Malkin, Mark Levin, Michael Savage, etc., etc., etc. On the left: ...oh screw it; it's not even close, and everyone with a fiber of honesty knows it!

https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2010/10/11/conservative-media-figures-have-history-of-viol/171771

So where's the outrage over the millions of victims of the violent rhetoric from Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, who blew up the Middle East? Who should bear the blame for the tens of millions of potential victims of the Republican so-called "healthcare" proposal -- violent rhetoric in sheep's clothing? What about the right-wing Trump crazy who stabbed the heroes in Seattle? What about Trump's violent rhetoric on the campaign trail against the press, the violence against the poor, women, blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, Native Americans, Jews, Asians, et al -- all those who don't fit the profile of well-off, privileged, white Christian males, like Montana's favorite choirboy, Greg Gianforte?

Notwithstanding the oddball loners with mental issues who have easy access to guns, at least three of the common threads that seem to link most of the violence in America are the unassailable walls of radical religious and political ideologies, extreme wealth inequality, and the wild-west proliferation of weaponry in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of lethalness. Those entrenched aspects of American culture are all direct consequences of Republican policies and right-wing rhetoric.

Last year, Scalise and his other Republican recipients of NRA largesse cravenly refused even to allow a vote on gun-control legislation right after the Orlando, Florida nightclub gun homicides. In 2002, Scalise addressed an infamous group of white supremacists and neo-Nazis founded by David Duke ...because, you know, they are such a peaceful bunch ... enlightened patriots so to speak (who now wholeheartedly support Trump's undeniable racist agenda and bigoted campaign promises).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/18/the-shocking-difference-in-how-blacks-and-whites-get-killed-by-guns/?utm_term=.2723af11ee14

Perhaps now, after being on the receiving end of real-life hate and violence, Representative Steve Scalise will stand up to Trump and his hard-right congressional colleagues -- who only bend to the will of billionaires -- to advocate for: rational gun control; a fair and more equitable economic structure that will ensure a strong middle class, as the Founders intended; compassionate policies to elevate the miserable lives of his desperately poor constituents; affordable and comprehensive healthcare as a right for all; minority inclusiveness and religious tolerance; political compromise and statesmanship in the best interests of the People, rather than the Billionaires; a full investigation into Republican election fraud and voter disenfranchisement; an honest recognition of the dire importance of addressing human-caused climate change and the unspeakable violence that lack of action will inflict on succeeding generations.

No, he won't; nothing will change! This latest media storm will soon pass to make room for the next fake outrage. We are a violent and ignorant people destined to destroy ourselves one way or the other. Both teams of fascists will retreat to their respective dugouts, and the game will go on ...and on ...and on ...until the end.

"This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes, again
...
Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane, all the children are insane
...
Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill
This is the end, beautiful friend
...
This is the end, my only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end"

--The Doors

Well said.

Self serving abominations of democracy like McConnell, Ryan, and Trump occupy office as a direct result of Foxaganda and the gullible citizens who drink that brand of Kool-aid.

I've repeatedly lectured my Indivisible counterparts that until we expose this misinformation for the fake news that it really is, local citizens will continue to vote party line no matter who we prop up as our candidate. I'm absolutely certain of this based on first hand knowlege of family, friends, and local citizens communicating their justifications for voting the way they do...it's all based on brainwashing. Truth and facts should never be treated as only political opinion. The billionaires have confused the populous with fake news......it's working.

It will take diplomatic intervention with truth to prevent citizens from indirectly voting away benefits like affordable health coverage. The fascists have control over the national political message....we need to overcome this at the grassroots level with discussion on how to identify propaganda. Put Foxaganda right to hell out of business.

Instead of arguing over healthcare just make voluntary euthanasia legal. I will be the first in line to get away from all this dirtball nonsense. It will leave no one but the wealthy alive. Let them fight among themselves who is going to cut the grass and detail the car.

The Democratic Party feeds from the same corporate trough as the Republicans. The Democratic Party Establishment is presently thinking only about the hay they can make in 2018 if they let the wheels come off (of healthcare, for example). They are ALL a bunch of professional politicians beholden to the billionaire class. None of these Jackasses gives a damn about the 99%. To draw distinctions between the two parties is playing right into the hands of the oligarchy. Divide and conquer.

I am madder than hell about how the Republican Senate is handling the health care bill. They have forgotten that they work for us, not the other way around. I think the whole damn bunch of them should be impeached, especially Mitch McConnell.

You know that democracy is dead in this country when the majority party in Congress consistently ignores the voice of the people and places party ideology ahead of the will of the people. Only 17% of the population supports the so-called Republican health care bill. Why aren't these white males listening to We the People? We all know that it is because they are bought and owned by the 1%. It is time for Bernie's nonviolent revolution. It is time to take to the streets and demand change and it is time for a general strike.

Trump has got to go. Congress needs to be swept clean. The billionaire class needs to pay their fair share in taxes.

We need to unite the underprivileged in this country -- black, white, poor, laborers, etc. -- to fight for their rights and to check and reign in the power of the overprivileged.

Why arn't the Dems doing more? Could they be using the Repub tactic of letting the healt care fail and then reap big in 2018?

Today's shooting is probably just the first of many to follow. 'We The People' are fed up with Repugnican kowtowing to the rich and spiting on the poor. There are many who are willing, and able, to resort to violence. But then, isn't that how this country was created?

Sadly, Repugnicans are never going to recognize the cause of the fury of 'We The People'; they'll just double-down on violating our Constitutional rights and destroying Democracy.

R.I.P. U.S.A.

With 52 votes and reconciliation they can do what they want. After the Congress vote it is obvious that they have no care about how many die, go bankrupt or lose health insurance. It is all about making the 1% wealthier. Note that I say wealthier and not wealthy. They are all ready insanely rich.

Todays shooting was terrible. The worse part was when I heard it was a Bernie supporter. A person with a criminal background of violence. How did he get these weapons that are only meant for killing people. Loose gun laws. The worse report on it that I saw was when a news announcer said "we do not even know if he has mental issues". Anyone that is firing a semi automatic weapon in a park at people has "mental issues". The next worse thing I saw was Newt Ginrich and other Republicans blaming it on the left. Did Democrats blame the right when Gabby Giffords was shot? No it was a mental nut case.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/politics/newt-gingrich-baseball-shooting/i...

bolivar -- The commission you describe is what we have. That commission is the Congress. The constitution gives them the ultimate power. What we need is the congress to use their power for us, and not the billionaires.