Congressman, IL-06. Engineer. Former CEO. Dad. Husband. Occasional piano player. "The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins—and he her worst enemy who, under the specious… garb of patriotism seeks to excuse, palliate or defend them." - Frederick Douglass
Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
The Onion got it painfully right after Uvalde, and don't tolerate anyone today framing this as a mental health issue, or a missed signal by local law enforcement, or a hard question about what our society has become. https://theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1848971668/
theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1848971668/Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
And yes, the rebuttal to every point I made above is "well, US law is the reason" or "the Supreme Court directly contradicts what Sean just said". WHICH IS THE PROBLEM. Those are political choices. We don't have to accept those choices in a representative democracy.
Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
There is no reason why schools, theaters, places of worship and all our other common places should be obligated to invest in security and miiiltary-level hardening just so that some emotionally fragile dude can cosplay as GI Joe.
Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
There is no reason to believe that your right to enough liberty to kill supersedes my right to enough life and pursuit of happiness to stay alive.
Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
There is no reason to believe that easy access to deadly weapons makes you safer. There is no reason why gun manufacturers shouldn't be subject to the same product liability laws that knife, rope and rat poison manufacturers live by.
Replying to a post on mastodon.social
There is no reason to respect the Supreme Court's decision in Heller when they claimed (under the guise of originalism, no less) that the first 13 words of 2A - the part constraining to a "well regulated militia" were "merely prefatory"
Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
In other words, 100% of inflation is due to two bad decisions by Trump and his enablers. It's exceptionally rare to have that kind of a direct cause and effect. OTOH, the impacts of both on inflation were entirely predicted and they did them anyway.
Replying to @SeanCasten@mastodon.social
This article should be read in tandem with this report from the NY Fed that looked at causes of inflation *prior to* the Iran invasion, and concluded it was "entirely" due to Trump tariffs. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/08/inflation-tariffs-trump-fed-consumer-goods.html
"The bulk of the increase stemmed directly from energy prices, which have shot higher this year because of the war with Iran". https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/10/14/business/inflation-cpi-report-september?smid=nytcore-android-share
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/10/14/business/inflation-cpi-report-september?smid=nytcore-android-share