Category Archives: Current News

This is about stuff in the mass media that generally has a short interest life span. Speculation about an election outcome a few days before the election is an example.

We live in interesting times

Posted on by

UN warns up to 345 million people marching toward starvation:

The U.N. food chief warned Thursday that the world is facing “a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude,” with up to 345 million people marching toward starvation — and 70 million pushed closer to starvation by the war in Ukraine.

Because of the wettest and longest spring we have ever experienced, my brothers on the farm were only able to get about 1/3 of the spring crop in this year. The little bit of lentils they were able to plant did not yield nearly as much as usual. I think the mid-west yields are below average as well.

We live in interesting times.

Make this work both ways

Posted on by

Via Chet, Richard, and other sources.

Interesting development. It’s another attempt at an end run around the 2nd Amendment:

Credit Card Code to Track Gun Sales Approved by Standards Group:

“I’m pleased that the ISO voted to advance a key step to prevent the next tragedy,” Lander said in a news release. “American Express, Mastercard, Visa and other credit card companies now have a responsibility to implement the new merchant category code, so that financial institutions can do their part to flag suspicious activity and save lives.”

Guns bought through credit cards in the US will now be trackable:

Credit card purchases of firearms in the US can now be tracked and purchases deemed suspicious can even be shared with law enforcement, according to a new measure approved by an organization that sets parameters for business transactions.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) voted in favor of creating a merchant code for firearms stores, according to Reuters.

Visa To Categorize Sales At Gun Stores In Win For Gun Control Advocates:

Visa’s decision will allow banks to make decisions with enhanced information on whether they will allow purchases at gun shops on their cards.

Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to start categorizing sales from gun shops:

Visa’s adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and with Mastercard and AmeEx, will likely put pressure on the banks as the card issuers to adopt the standard as well. Visa acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, and it will be up to banks to decide whether they will allow sales at gun stores to happen on their issued cards.

There were some attempts at balanced reporting. ABC and NBC had identical articles which included this:

Gun rights advocates argue that tracking sales at gun stores would unfairly target legal gun purchases, since merchant codes just track the type of merchant where the credit or debit card is used, not the actual items purchased. A sale of a gun safe, worth thousands of dollars and an item considered part of responsible gun ownership, could be seen as a just a large purchase at a gun shop.

“The (industry’s) decision to create a firearm specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time,” said Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.

Credit card firms to code gun, ammunition purchases, making them easier to track:

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, on Wednesday morning, also tweeted in support of an MCC.

“Together we can help stop gun trafficking & keep New Yorkers safe,” she posted.

Opponents of the measure included the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

In a statement to The Center Square, Mark Oliva, the organization’s managing director for public affairs, slammed the move, saying the creation of the code was “flawed on its premise. Those who believe it will help law enforcement do not provide details on what should be considered suspicious purchases.”

“This decision chills the free exercise of Constitutionally-protected rights and does nothing to assist law enforcement with crime prevention or holding criminals accountable,” he said. “The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics consistently shows in their own reporting that 90% of felons convicted of their crimes involving a firearm admit they illegally obtain those guns through theft or trading on the black market. Attaching codes specific to firearm and ammunition purchases casts a dark pall by gun control advocates who are only interested in disarming lawful gun owners.”

I have three takeaways:

  1. Continue using cash whenever I can (online is still going to be a card).
  2. Encourage others to use cash.
  3. Publicize and advocate boycotts for banks that refuse to let their cards be used for the exercise of 2nd Amendment rights.

Make this work both ways. They want to use it to cast a chilling effect on the exercise of constitutionally protected right. We can use it to out the enemies of the constitution and freedom. And by using cash you enable others to avoid paying our oppressors more tax money.

Update: This is a good article on the topic which includes more from the civil rights viewpoint.

Banking rights?

Posted on by

Over the years we have seen banks close the accounts of gun stores simply because they sold a constitutionally protected item. This was wrong and the U.S. Senate telling them to back off probably helped.

I’ll grant that you might have to squint a little to see it but this is an analogous situation with the 1st Amendment:

Over the weekend, Rolling Stone broke the news that half a dozen of the bank’s clients had their banking accounts with Wells Fargo canceled with no previous warning. What do they have in common? Each has previously or is currently working in the adult entertainment industry. Some performers have held accounts with the bank for 25 years or more.

I’m a bit torn on this topic. Should a company (and/or an individual) be forced by law to do business with someone?

There is the wedding cake case for possible insight. There I was inclined to side with cake makers freedom of religion claim over the same sex couple wanting a wedding cake.

In the gun maker/distributor/seller and the adult entertainers banking cases I’m having a tougher time siding with the businesses. Sure, the Feds don’t have constitutional authority (like that has ever stopped them) to tell the banks they must do business with someone. Unless, of course, there is a “banking right” hidden in the constitution someplace. But the individual states could legislate such requirements.

Aside from the legal authority there are other issues. If a business can discriminate on the basis of occupation (assuming the risk is equivalent for the favored and disfavored occupations) then why can’t they discriminate on the basis of skin color, religion, gender, etc.? Perhaps, from a philosophical viewpoint, should they be allowed this freedom. But I’m not comfortable with that conclusion either.

Thoughts?

Mugme Street news

Posted on by

Just another day on Mugme Street:

Suspect in fatal downtown Seattle attack pleads not guilty

A Seattle police officer was driving east on Pike Street around 3 p.m. on the day of the attack and heard a man yelling for help, the charges say. As she approached Third Avenue, she saw a man, later identified as Fulk, raise a metal bar over his head and strike Peterman twice in the back of the head, say the charges.

Fulk delivered a third blow to Peterman’s temple after Peterman had fallen unresponsive to the ground on the southwest corner, charging papers say. The officer noted in her police report that Peterman was unarmed and used a walker to ambulate, the charges say.

Though Fulk attempted to walk away, he was quickly arrested at the scene, according to the charges. It is unknown whether the two men knew each other.

“The defendant admitted to officers that he was trying to kill the victim, and while acknowledging the victim was the first that he attacked in this manner, [he] made it clear this victim would not be his last,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Gretchen Holmgren wrote in the charges.

This happened at 3:00 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. It was not on a Saturday night after the bars were closing and decent people were at home safe in their beds.

I used to work in the Century Square building which has one corner on Third and Pike. Of course you know it was against policy to have a firearm on company property. The policy was the for the safety of everyone.

News you can use

Posted on by

From Neuroscience News:

Research led by Drs. Yuhai Zhao and Walter J Lukiw at the LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center and the Departments of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Neurology and Ophthalmology, reports for the first time a pathway that begins in the gut and ends with a potent pro-inflammatory toxin in brain cells contributing to the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). They also report a simple way to prevent it.

…

The highly potent neurotoxin BF-LPS is a natural by-product of GI-tract-based microbial metabolism. Bacteroides fragilis abundance in the microbiome, which is the source of the neurotoxin BF-LPS, can be regulated by dietary fiber intake.

“Put another way, dietary-based approaches to balance the microorganisms in the microbiome may be an attractive means to modify the abundance, speciation, and complexity of enterotoxigenic forms of AD-relevant microbes and their potential for the pathological discharge of highly neurotoxic microbial-derived secretions that include BF-LPS and other forms of LPS,” Lukiw explains.

The researchers conclude that an improved understanding of the interaction between the GI tract-Central Nervous System axis and the GI-tract microbiome and Alzheimer’s disease has considerable potential to lead to new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the clinical management of Alzheimer’s disease and other lethal, progressive, and age-related neurodegenerative disorders.

It has been estimated that Americans eat 10–15 grams of fiber a day on average. The USDA recommends that women up to age 50 consume 25 grams a day and men 38 grams. Over age 50, women and men should consume 21 and 30 grams daily, respectively.

Eat your lentils, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), and shredded wheat*. One half cup of lentils contains 7.8 grams of fiber. The same amount of Chickpeas contain 6.3 grams of fiber. One cup of shredded wheat contains 6.2 grams of fiber. Other sources of dietary fiber may be substituted.

* We grow lentils, chickpeas, and wheat on the farm.

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

Posted on by

If the Left got the “bodily autonomy” they claim to want, there wouldn’t be much of their State remaining.

So, you really want bodily autonomy do you, including autonomy in time, resources, property, wealth, speech and health, do you?

Naw, thought not.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on June 26, 2022
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Chet

Posted on by

The problem is not Mental illness! In the best-case gun control is a stupid attempt to address a symptom of the breakdown of society. The ills of society that we are seeing is due to that very society and addressing the symptoms cannot fix the ills. It is society that has gone amuck. It is society that needs fixing.

Look back 50+ years. Guns could be purchase if you had the money. You could live in a shack if that is what you could afford. There were definite expected roles for men and different expected roles for women. Boys were given a gun on becoming of age usually in their early teens. There were jobs even for people on the lower half of the IQ curve. A single wage earner was sufficient to raise a family though it was preferable not to be a hired hand.

So today, it is women and POC that get the jobs and the promotions. What is a young man to think when society is saying that he has no role? That he is not wanted? Yet, he can look at what is being achieved and be alarmed.

Does recognizing reality make him mental ill?

Chet
June 12, 2022
Comment to Insightful observation
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

World class trolling

Posted on by

I suspect Justice Thomas has had this teed up for many years and got a great deal of pleasure whacking the opposition in the face with it today:

Even before the Civil War commenced in 1861, this Court indirectly affirmed the importance of the right to keep and bear arms in public. Writing for the Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393 (1857), Chief Justice Taney offered what he thought was a parade of horribles that would result from recognizing that free blacks were citizens of the United States. If blacks were citizens, Taney fretted, they would be entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, including the right “to keep and carry arms wherever they went.” Id., at 417 (emphasis added). Thus, even Chief Justice Taney recognized (albeit unenthusiastically in the case of blacks) that public carry was a component of the right to keep and bear arms—a right free blacks were often denied in antebellum America. After the Civil War, of course, the exercise of this fundamental right by freed slaves was systematically thwarted. This Court has already recounted some of the Southern abuses violating blacks’ right to keep and bear arms. See McDonald, 561 U. S., at 771 (noting the “systematic efforts”

Thomas goes on at length with sections such as:

The reports described how blacks used publicly carried weapons to defend themselves and their communities. For example, the Bureau reported that a teacher from a Freedmen’s school in Maryland had written to say that, because of attacks on the school, “[b]oth the mayor and sheriff have warned the colored people to go armed to school, (which they do,)” and that the “[t]he superintendent of schools came down and brought [the teacher] a revolver” for his protection. Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 658 (1866); see also H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 68, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., 91 (1867) (noting how, during the New Orleans riots, blacks under attack “defended themselves . . . with such pistols as they had”).:

Via LongWay001.

In other news, Mike B. and I exchanged some text messages this afternoon:

Mike: We need to start renaming streets, “Clarence Thomas Blvd.”.
QOTD candidate by Mike’s wife.

Joe: Smile
Hmmmmm… How about renaming NYC “Clarence Thomas City”?

Mike: Honoring the black man

Leftists opposed to freedom… again

Posted on by

Constitutional law is something to be disposed of and/or ignored ::

It has become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States. The first step is for a state the “court” has now forced guns upon, to ignore this ruling. Great. You’re a court? Why and how do think you can enforce your rulings?

Olbermann probably doesn’t know this, leftists seem to be ignorant or in denial of history, but other people once had a similar attitude about SCOTUS. The National Guard convinced them to change their behavior. There is another parallel which should also be pointed out to Olbermann. And that is, in that previous encounter it was also Democrats obstructing freedom.

Slippery slope

Posted on by

From What the Supreme Court’s Gun Ruling Means For Gun Control

So the future will depend, at least in part, on what state lawmakers try to do. Lawmakers in a state like New York or California could test the limits of the Supreme Court’s ruling by designating the subway, Broadway theaters or grocery stores as “sensitive places” where heightened restrictions can be applied. The risk for them, of course, is that the next Supreme Court ruling could expand gun rights even further.

It could be that the slippery slope is leaning in the correct direction.

I won’t be satisfied until the opposition knows the slightest misstep will be like a greased tin floor at a steep angle with a Federal prison cell at the bottom.

Quote of the day—Sebastian

Posted on by

This just takes. The concessions are only things law and order GOP swamp creatures care about.

This bill is garbage and should be opposed, and any Republican who votes for this needs to be tossed out on their asses in a primary if they aren’t retiring.

Sebastian
June 22, 2022
Breaking Silence Over Gun Control
[The best thing I can say about it is that it isn’t as bad as I expected it would be.

All is not lost yet. It appears Senator Dianne Feinstein is improving the odds it will fail:

I just filed an amendment to the Senate’s bipartisan gun bill that would raise the age to purchase an assault weapon to 21.

I still think everyone that votes for it or contributes to the enforcement of it should be prosecuted.—Joe]

Another economy has collapsed

Posted on by

Nightmare becomes reality in Sri Lanka as govt has no choice but to declare economy has ‘collapsed’:

After months of shortages of food, fuel and electricity. Sri Lanka’s prime minister said this morning the country’s debt-laden economy has “collapsed.”

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Sri Lanka’s parliament today that the South Asian country is “facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity and food. Our economy has completely collapsed.”

I didn’t see the exact words but I strongly suspect the high price of oil on the world market contributed.

There are other economic stressors out there. The most obvious are wheat and fertilizer from the Ukraine/Russia region. There are countless others. Some are ripple effects from the war. Others are from other areas of the world and less direct such as the chip shortage and inflation.

There will be more collapsed economies in the coming months and perhaps years. The ripples and, perhaps even, tidal waves are just over the horizon.

We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.

Justified

Posted on by

I don’t see it as a cause for celebration. I view it as the best of the bad alternatives:

As more people get guns and carry permits, Philly sees a sharp rise in homicides ruled justified

Some see increased gun ownership and use in self-defense as bad:

“Guns are becoming too prevalent, whether they’re in the hands of licensed or unlicensed people,” Johnson said. “We’re becoming the Wild, Wild West, and soon everyone is going to have a gun, killing people ― justified or not.”

I think the majority of people realize gun people have been right all these years and are going to give our way a chance.

Dark times ahead

Posted on by

Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras:

Changes at a QFC store — apparently for security reasons — have some customers say the store is going too far. Some are worried about safety and exiting in an emergency.

Two Seattle QFC stores now have extensive plexiglass inside, directing traffic for shoppers and limiting how people can exit. The grocery chain told KIRO 7 the changes are “to maintain a safe shopping environment,” but customers believe the goal is to thwart shoplifting.

“It’s like shopping in a dystopian novel or something, it’s really bizarre,” said Chris Mobley, a shopper at the store. “Seems to be a way to annoy customers — it’s really hard to navigate the store,” he said.

A few days ago Barb was at a store (not QFC) not far from our home in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle, and the clerk commented, “There goes one of our regulars. He comes in every day.” It was a shoplifter.

Also, The police aren’t coming, but now in Seattle, they have a name for that:

It’s well known that Seattle police are struggling to respond to 911 calls in a speedy manner. But the notion that “the cops aren’t coming” has become such a routine of city life that they’ve created a new way of tracking their nonresponsiveness.

It’s called the “Z protocol.”

I have to wonder how much of inflation is the result of “defund the police” and related nonsense.

My greatest concern is that at some point many people will to conclude they are stupid for not stealing whatever they want. That will bring some very dark times.

NOW is time to buy

Posted on by

If you live in or plan to visit Washington state effective July 1, 2022 standard capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds will be illegal to:

manufacture, import, distribute, 22 sell, or offer for sale

Existing magazines in the state can be taken out of the state and then brought back in.

The law has been challenged in court but it is likely to take years to wind it way through the courts and a successful reversal of this unconstitutional law is not guaranteed.

You should seriously consider purchasing all the magazines you expect to need NOW. Here are a few options:

Quote of the day—Floyd Neeland

Posted on by

The only reason ten blacks murdered in Buffalo are getting so much news coverage is because that supports the false government narrative that white people pose the top threat to America, and guns are evil.

In 2019, nearly 8,000 black people were murdered.* News media failed to cover it or bring the point home. Few arrests, few trials, murderers roamed free amidst newslessness. The following year black murders increased, and again little or no coverage. But now, the so-called “news” media harps on one teenage psychopath who made advanced threats, posted his intentions, never got treatment, and media uses the tragedy to falsely claim whites are part of a scheme. Whites are more racist than blacks or other clinging ethnic groups, they say, guns are evil, while ignoring the real dead stacked in a corner like firewood.

Floyd Neeland
May 20, 2022
9,941 Black People Murdered in 2020*
Saturation coverage of 10 dead in Buffalo is misdirection
Here is hard proof that Black Lives Don’t Matter
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Will those at the top be brought to justice?

Posted on by

FBI Deemed Trump–Russia Claims False in Less Than a Day, Agent Says

FBI agents tasked with analyzing claims about Donald Trump and Russia took less than a day to figure out that the data didn’t support the allegations, one of the agents testified in federal court on May 17.

Agent Scott Hellman was part of the team that examined white papers and data on thumb drives handed in 2016 to FBI lawyer James Baker by Michael Sussmann, an attorney who was representing the campaign of Hillary Clinton—Trump’s rival for the presidency.

On the first day of Sussmann’s trial for allegedly lying to the FBI when he said he wasn’t bringing the information on behalf of a client, Hellman told the court that he and another agent took less than a day to ascertain that the information didn’t support the allegations that Trump’s business and Russia’s Alfa Bank had a secret connection.

“I think the person who drafted [the main white paper] was suffering from a mental disability,” Hellman said.

So, they were nearly certain it was all a lie on day one. Yet the President of The United States and the entire country were subject to years of legal abuse and the almost certain change of an election result.

The criminals at the top of this should be fined into oblivion and spend the rest of their lives in prison.

I won’t be holding my breath.

We live in interesting times

Posted on by

Enough Fraudulent Votes Identified to Change 2020 Election Outcome: Dinesh D’Souza

An analysis of cellphone records performed by an election intelligence group shows that thousands of fraudulent ballots were deposited in mail-in drop boxes during the 2020 election, an amount sufficient to change the outcome of the election, according to Dinesh D’Souza, director and writer of the documentary “2000 Mules.”

Will the fraudulent election be set aside? I think the odds are 1000:1 against that.

Will anyone of significance be prosecuted? I give it odds of 100:1 that they will not.

Will voter fraud rule the next election Federal election? I find it difficult to believe we should expect anything different next time.

We live in interesting times. Prepare appropriately.

Quote of the day—Chris Daniels

Posted on by

New data, to be released officially on Tuesday, shows that 43 sworn-in police staff have left in 2022, while 13 have been hired, leaving the department with a net loss of 30 officers.

The trend is projected to continue. Data shows the SPD expects to hire 98 more officers in 2022 and lose 113.

The corner of Third Avenue and Pike Street has been a flashpoint for conversations about police presence and public safety this year.

Chris Daniels
April 25, 2022
Seattle Police Department losing more officers than it’s hiring
[The phrase go woke, go broke, applies to more than just the financial health of an organization. It applies to the physical and mental wellbeing of society as well.

It’s more than “this year” that location has been known as a bad place. Third and Pike is ground zero of “Mugme Street”.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ammal Hassan

Posted on by

Because it was fun? Because it was for sale? Because he just had to have it? The truth is, no one really knows.

Ammal Hassan
April 26, 2022
What The Hell Does Elon Want With Twitter Anyway?
[Really? Musk has repeatedly said it’s because Twitter has been hostile to free speech. He has literally said:

Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate

April 26, 2022

By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.

I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.

If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.

Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.

April 26, 2022

image
April 25, 2022

If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!

April 21, 2022

And authenticate all real humans

April 21, 2022

Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.

What should be done?

March 26, 2022

Despite all that, this bozo Hassan can’t imagine free speech being the real reason.

From reading some the comments to various threads about the buyout it is very clear that many people are vehemently opposed to free speech. They come close to predicting the end of the world if people are allowed to spread “disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech.”

This is incredibly willful ignorance or, more likely in many cases, deliberate evil.

The “end of the world” is much more likely to occur if we don’t have free speech. The suppression of free speech is the mark of authoritarianism. It enables corruption, gulags, and genocide. This is why we have the 2nd Amendment. It protects the 1st Amendment.—Joe]