Today is Thursday, May 26, 2022. As the nation continues to mourn the tragedy of the Uvalde, Texas, mass shooting two days ago, an unrepentant and despicable NRA is forging ahead with having its unholy convention tomorrow in Houston, Texas. From what I could ascertain, all form of weaponry is banned from this assemblage of Second Amendment zealots, but not one finger from any of the soulless people in the convention will be lifted to ban assault weapons from the wrong people in the United States. How crazy is that? Our country is characterized by paralytic inertia among repugnicans who refuse to support gun control legislation after 2004 when the assault ban passed in 1994 under then-Vice President Joe Biden expired under the first Bush president. Since then, repugnicans have resisted voting for any kind of sensible gun laws. Damn them for having a convention tomorrow in Texas, the same state that just experienced the worst school mass shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, ten years ago.

When confronted by an inquiring reporter from the United Kingdom, my favorite poster boy for total bullshit, Ted “Ooze,” could not answer this intrepid journalist who continued to ask him why is America the most violent country in the world. The beaded jerk had no satisfactory answer except to call this reporter a “propagandist” for asking him these “hard” questions. Is that just priceless from Cancun Ted? Of course, Cancun Ted was visibly unsettled by this reporter’s line of questioning. At one point, this piece of garbage told the Skye reporter that “this country is the safest country in the world,” or something untruthful to that extent. As I’ve reminded you, this piece of shit is going to that convention tomorrow. Here is the list of unprincipled speakers who are expected to attend this summit: their names should be committed to memory after this latest gun tragedy unfolded in the Lone Star State. It should really be redubbed the “Gun State” as of today. Former “president” Dumpf, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, and Senator Ted Cruz, who I’ve already called out for his commitment to attending the soiree of gun enthusiasts are all expected to attend, and if they do, they should all be denounced from the rafters. Of course, as of now, it’s the Mar-a-Largo clown who is fully committed to attending the infernal summit.

This event is covered in an online article for The Hill by Karl Evers-Hillstrom entitled “Five things to know as NRA presses ahead with Texas summit.” Thus the progun group’s three-day convention, which starts tomorrow, is located less than 300 miles from the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.

The NRA has a history of lobbying GOP (now redubbed as “Gun Opportunistic Party”) lawmakers to oppose bills to expand background checks on gun sales, which is the minimal thing that Democrats have sought for so many years only to get thrown against the wall of GOP opposition, ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, and enact “red flag” provisions that permit authorities to take guns away from individuals who pose a threat.

As the NRA shows no shred of decency in deciding to cancel their convention at the Houston Convention Center, the attendees, Cruz and Abbott, are receiving understandable blowback for their commitment to attending the event.

Calling the governor of Texas out for the bastard he really is, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said this on the Senate floor today about the inhumane politician, “What an absolute fraud the governor of Texas is.” Schumer continued his diatribe against Abbott, saying, “And this is the same Gov. Abbott who tomorrow, tomorrow, will go speak at the NRA convention in Houston.” Abbott’s thorn in the side, Beto O’Rourke, urged him over Twitter to “immediately withdraw from this weekend’s NRA convention and urge them [the NRA] to hold it anywhere but Texas.” O’Rourke quickly excoriated the governor for agreeing to attend the event “right after 19 innocent children were murdered by a gun.” The Democratic challenger added that the message Abbott seems to be sending is that “guns are more important than the lives you represent.” That definitely appears to be the case here with Abbott refusing to withdraw his appearance at the summit.

However, there have been some high-profile cancellations at the convention since they certainly know the significance of bad optics if they are shown speaking at the summit or are even shown in the audience. They are Senator John Cornyn of Texas who will not speak at the convention due to “an unexpected change in his schedule.” Doesn’t this sound as if Cornyn was too much of a coward to reveal the real reason why he won’t attend. It just doesn’t look good for him. A spokesperson for the senator stated that “He has to to be in D.C. for personal reasons on Friday.” Sure; whatever. At least he won’t be there, which is a good thing.

Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas, another planned speaker, will not attend because he will be in Ukraine, which was something that he scheduled before the shooting took place, according to a spokesperson.

Two performers were more honest in their reasoning as to why they won’t perform at the event, and I applaud them for that. They are country singers Larry Gatlin and Larry Stewart who announced today that they will pull out of the bloody event because, as Gatlin said in a statement, that he could not “in good conscience” perform at the event and he even called on the progun group to drop its opposition to expanded background checks. Another singer, “American Pie” icon, Don McLean, also withdrew from performing because of Tuesday’s horrific attack. (By the way, I saw Mr. McLean perform at my friend’s performing arts theater in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, many years ago. He even signed a vintage CD of his for me.) Even McLean said the right thing in announcing his withdrawal from performing at the event, “In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week.” This is a mensch speaking here.

One good thing from the horror of Uvalde is that the manufacturer of the AR-15-style weapon used by the suspected shooter in Tuesday’s mass shooting, Daniel Defense (Is that name for real?), is no longer listed as an exhibitor at this weekend’s convention, according to the NRA’s website. However, countless other gun promoters will be there to advocate for their unholy products at the summit.

Many activist organizations are trying to exert pressure on the city of Houston to block the NRA conference from taking place. Some of them include ParentsTogether that has collected more than 200,000 signatures within 24 hours (I signed one petition myself the other day), Black Lives Matter, Indivisible Houston, and the Harris County Democratic Party that are all preparing to protest the assembly.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, told outraged residents this week that the city cannot prevent the event from taking place because of the threat of ensuing legal action. I say, fuck that: the NRA is facing bankruptcy from what I’ve heard, but who really knows their financial health at this time. But the decent thing was to cancel the event anyway, Mayor Turner. During a public meeting yesterday, Turner said, “It’s a contractual arrangement. We simply cannot cancel a conference or convention because we do not agree with the subject matter.” Remember, this is the same disgusting organization that decided to hold its annual meeting after the infamous 1999 Columbine, Colorado, shooting after weakly considering calling it off.

Here the craziest, hypocritical feature of this convention is that guns are banned during Dumpf’s speech. I wonder why? Did the convention organizers actually think that someone in the crowd could have fired into the Orange Menace’s direction from the audience? One of their looniest, freakish gun enthusiasts who might have a beef with the ex-president? Maybe he wasn’t too far right enough for him or her? “The NRA has informed attendees that the Secret Service will use magnetometers to screen attendees for guns, ammunition, holsters, magazines, gun parts, and even toy guns, all of which are prohibited during the event.”

One unsurprising fact about these intended speakers at the convention is that they have all benefited from NRA cash. The organization shells out tens of millions of dollars in each election cycle to support some Gun Opportunistic Party (GOP) candidates, some of whom are scheduled to speak at the summit.

Here’s an interesting fact about the connection between Putin’s puppet and the NRA: the progun group spent nearly $48 million on ads backing Dumpf and attacking his Democratic opponents during the 2016 and 2020 elections, according to research group OpenSecrets.

According to this same research group, our favorite son of a bitch, Ted Cruz, is the top recipient of campaign donations from gun rights interests, which include the infamous NRA and other progun groups. He’s received more than $442,000 over the course of his undistinguished career. Let’s remember this the next time this sack of shit decides to run again.

That’s it for me. I truly hope the protesters outside that convention center tomorrow raise some hell for those indecent enough to walk inside to take part in such a shameful event.

Stay safe and be well.