The last 24-48 hours have left me more convinced, barring definite changes on her part, that I won't be voting for Green Party candidate Delilah Barrios for gov, and post-Uvalde, if he's got a puncher's chance, I'm more likely to vote Bob on a Knob O'Rourke than undervote. (There's also an independent in the campaign, but I haven't researched him yet. And, Libertarian Mark Tippetts is going to Libertarian on gunz, I know that without looking.)
I had already had concerns with
Delilah Barrios, per her Texas GP bio linked there and related matters, nearly three months ago. I have little love lost myself for Robert
Francis O'Rourke, but if part of why she doesn't like Beto is "Attacks
on 2nd Amendment rights," then I want nothing to do with her. First,
even though he said he's not repudiating his "we're going to take your
AK-47," he surely doesn't mean that 100 percent literally. And, if he means that in terms of, say, a Texas-level version of Bill Clinton's assault weapons ban, I support him 110 percent and yes that would be literal.
Besides, I still believe in a "corporate" interpretation of the
Second Amendment, with the "well regulated militia" clause governing. So
did the Supreme Court, before Heller. And, an AK-47, at least on full
auto, has zero non-military purpose. And, I don't give a fuck for what
SCOTUS has said from Heller onward.
Sadly,
shockingly and hypocritically, post-Uvalde, Barrios now is going with
the angle that she'd be better than Beto on gun control. Well, you've
pretty much guaranteed you've finished losing me.
Just.Another.Politician.™
To add to the fun, one of Barrios'
Twitter shills blocked me. Barrios had retweeted them, from a thread
talking about the election, when this "Barcode" said, rhetorically,
something about voting for either the blue NRA shill or the red NRA
shill. Their account doesn't allow responses from the public, so I quote
tweeted as saying that I knew Beto was a shill for Big Oil but not the
NRA.
They then tweeted this in response:
Then
blocked me. Fortunately, I got the screengrab off my Tweetdeck. I had
quote-tweeted just before they blocked me, then, since I still had their
tweet in Tweetdeck, tweeted to them directly, including calling them
out for their failed attempt to be coy. Then, of course, I blocked them
back. Actually, I did the Twitter double of both mute and block. And,
like Barrios herself being hypocritical, just attempt at being coy is
Just.Another.Politician.™ territory. With that, while reserving the
right to undervote, I know I won't be voting for her and likely will for
Bob on a Knob. I have no doubt that Libertarian nominee Dan Tippetts is
going to be the typical Libertarian on gunz.
Barrios isn't getting paid (yet?) by the NRA, but one doesn't have to be paid to be a shill, even if she comes at NRA talking points from a different angle (tho the likes of Gordon Liddy had an anti-cops angle on NRA support in the past). So, we really should talk about the red NRA shill and the green NRA shill, Barcode.
And now, Barrios has finally responded to me on Twitter:
And, my reply:
That's the facts.
She did respond back saying that she doesn't
think gun control and "defund," whatever that increasingly vague idea
means to her aren't mutually exclusive, but didn't back off her attack
on Bob on a Knob:
I appreciate that she's going to "work on it," because, per this
original post, and I'll probably put this stuff into a separate piece,
her platform, as detailed, is a hot mess of inconsistencies, and that's
not even counting her playing footsie with antivaxxers and wanting to
let resident aliens vote. And, as for the "NRA donates to both parties"?
Per Open Secrets,
the gold standard on such, if less than 1 percent recently but technically more
than zero is "donates to both parties," uh, WRONG. Again, per your
shill, Bob on a Knob is a Big Oil shill. NOT an NRA shill. Even if we go back a few years, it's been under 5 percent on every post-2014 election cycle. What changed? Obama, the Tea Party and more open racism. That second link is also Open Secrets.
(And, don't @ me on this issue either, saying "but Obama this," etc. I blogged about him letting gunz back into national parks in his first term. Besides, if you're Delilah Barrios, you ought to be fine with that anyway.)
And, that still doesn't address that you apparently won't back something like Bill Clinton's assault weapon ban being revived. Or even a red flag law. And, I'm taking your silence as opposition.
Her own platform, linked again. She's a blank check 2nd Amendment-er. A "no
exceptions" 2nd Amendment-er, like a no-exceptions pro-lifer. Yes, that
analogy is deliberate.
(She's also a hypocrite, retweeting someone who wants to limit the sale of ammunition. SECOND AMENDMENT INFRINGEMENT.)
But, that's far from her only platform problem. As I posted in early February, she's an antivaxxer or fellow traveler based on her own Tweeting about the Green Party's Steering Committee stance on vaccines.