Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rep. David Young (R-IA) Lied Re NRA $$

The Daily Iowan published Sen. Joni Ernst's lies about not receiving millions of dollars ($3,124,273) from the NRA. The subtitle of the article is "Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. David Young say statements they've both received thousands, even millions, of dollars from the NRA are false."

The New York Times doesn't characterize the blood money coming her way as false. They list the top 10 U.S. senators getting millions of dollars from the NRA as the top 10 senators getting millions of dollars from the NRA. Joni Ernst is one of them. As a woman, of course, and not a long-standing member of the Senate, she gets less than half of what Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) gets. McCain and other senior male senators, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), for example, have received over $7 million from the NRA.

In a technical sense, if the NRA money was routed through a political action committee (PAC) supportive of Joni Ernst, then she didn't get the money directly, but the New York Times doesn't make that distinction. Stephen Colbert had a hilarious skit years ago about how "separate" politicians and their political action committees (PACs) are supposed to be, legally. It doesn't mean they really are was Colbert's point.

Money changing hands for a politician's benefit certainly doesn't change the fact that in most people's eyes, including the NRA's, money (money is speech, my friend) is a quid pro quo pay-off to serve the NRA's interests. Want to know whether the NRA expects something from Sen. Ernst for their $3 million plus? Watch her votes on firearms and the access to assault weapons.

The NRA gave $30.3 million to Pres. Donald Trump's campaign in 2016. Do you really think the NRA shells out millions and millions of dollars, mostly to Republicans, and expects nothing back in return? Pres. Trump was about to take an anti-NRA stance on a couple of gun issues after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre that killed 17 people (14 students and three adults) and injured 16 others, some of them critically. Then the NRA's top brass had lunch with Trump at the White House. Trump toed the line with the NRA after that. Is anyone, even Trump, able to control Trump? You could say that money talks and the NRA walks if you don't follow their agenda. Trump would miss his $30.3 million from the NRA if he runs for reelection.

Third District David Young (R-IA) also lied about the influence that the NRA has over him as a top 10 House recipient of NRA funds ($707,662). He says supporting the NRA is all about supporting the little woman with a pistol defending her family, not about the giant influence that the NRA has over all of its bought-and-paid-for politicians, most of whom are Republicans. In fact, ninety-five of the top 100 NRA recipients of cash in the House are Republicans.

Another school shooting happened just today. I don't know where. I don't want to know more. I'm a news junkie and I'm afraid to turn the news on any more. Each shooting is a sacrilege, an outrage, after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, after Sandy Hook Elementary, after all the countless shootings that there just can't be any more, there just can't be, and then there are more.

I am so proud of the students who survived at Stoneman Douglas: Emma Gonzales, Cameron Kasky, and David Hogg, the student journalist and former FBI agent's son who Rep. Steve King supporters say has "sold more AR-15s than the NRA." The claim is preposterous, toxic. David Hogg is a survivor, a trained survivor. He knew the popping sounds were bullets. He alerted others. He has friends who are dead, teachers who are dead, at least one of whom rushed in front of a student and pushed her out the door; he took the bullet so she would live. What evil lurks in gun nuts that would lead them to attack children who survived a massacre their friends died in?

We need to vote out the NRA-bought politicians. The survivors and many of their parents are determined to vote them out and I, for one, am behind them all the way. We Boomers stopped the Vietnam War and these anti-NRA kids sound more grown up and more articulate than we were. I think they can do it if they have the numbers and they have the support. As a Boomer who remembers how we hounded LBJ into deciding he wouldn't run for reelection again, I think a big change is coming. Sen. Ernst and Rep. Young must be feeling the heat or they wouldn't be lying about their affiliations with the NRA.