All gun owners are criminals. Only then will we be free.
Superkick Paulty @paulbensonsucks
Tweeted on January 31, 2019
[I know. I doesn’t quite make sense. But almost none of the rants from anti-gun people make sense anyway.
But if you put just a little bit of a twist on it then it makes sense in a different way. What if you were to interpret it as once gun owners are considered criminals they will be free to do what they want with us and the rest of the country? —Joe]
In the past, winning meant having the largest army. That isn’t true anymore. Now, with new forms of warfare, any small group can successfully wage war. With simpler and more appealing goals almost any cause can raise an army. And they will.
John Robb
2007
Brave New War—The next stage of terrorism and the end of globalization, page 63
[What he says is possible hasn’t always become reality (see for example this description of how we might have fallen into civil war after the November 2016 election). But I have spent enough time in the security field and that I listen closely when he has something to say and I don’t think I have ever considered his ideas crazy or implausible.
In this book he tells how a society dependent upon vulnerable infrastructure can be brought to it knees with relatively few people and resources. The leverage exerted can be enormous. How much does the Molotov Cocktail cost versus the government vehicle it destroys? What is the cost to deliver it versus the cost to defend against it? What is the cost of a power outage versus the cost of a cutting torch to bring down a few transmission line towers? What does it cost to topple the towers versus the cost to defend them?
Go through the list of critical items in our world. Food, water, power, sanitation, communication, roads, bridges, etc. The list of leverage points is almost endless in a high tech society.—Joe]
You know why these people fear the myth of a Trump Death Camp™? Because they know they belong in one. They also know that’s their ultimate goal to do to others.
Michael Z. Williamson
January 24, 2019
We’re Ever Closer To The Gloves Coming Off
[I’m pretty sure most liberals (the definition used in his context for the above quote) don’t “know they belong in one”. And unless they were actively involved in the illegal deaths of one or more people they almost for certain don’t belong in one.
So, it’s a little overstated but a plausible explanation that I’m willing to accept for conversational purposes. Sprinkle similar caveats here and there as you read the rest of his post for some potentially useful gems.—Joe]
I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of teenagers wearing MAGA hats until we can figure out what is going on. They seem to be poisoning young minds.
John Yarmuth @RepJohnYarmuth
Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee
Tweeted on January 20, 2019
[Democrats consider the First, as well as the Second Amendment, toxic.
Vote them out of office before they get a chance to deny us our right to vote as well.—Joe]
Via a comment from bob r is this translation into modern day English of Rudyard Kipling’s poem I quoted from yesterday:
The simple substitution of a couple phrases made a huge difference in my understanding of this poem. Listen and marvel at so much substance packed into so few words and rhyme.
Twitter suspends account that helped ignite controversy over viral encounter
Twitter suspended an account on Monday afternoon that helped spread a controversial encounter between a Native American elder and a group of high school students wearing Make America Great Again hats.
The account claimed to belong to a California schoolteacher. Its profile photo was not of a schoolteacher, but of a blogger based in Brazil, CNN Business found. Twitter suspended the account soon after CNN Business asked about it.
The account, with the username @2020fight, was set up in December 2016 and appeared to be the tweets of a woman named Talia living in California. “Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020,” its Twitter bio read. Since the beginning of this year, the account had tweeted on average 130 times a day and had more than 40,000 followers.
Late on Friday, the account posted a minute-long video showing the now-iconic confrontation between a Native American elder and the high school students, with the caption, “This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March.”
…
Molly McKew, an information warfare researcher who saw the tweet and shared it herself on Saturday, later realized that a network of anonymous accounts were working to amplify the video.
Speaking about the nature of fake accounts on social media, McKew told CNN Business, “This is the new landscape: where bad actors monitor us and appropriate content that fits their needs. They know how to get it where they need to go so it amplifies naturally. And at this point, we are all conditioned to react and engage or deny in specific ways. And we all did.”
Basically someone, who probably is not a U.S. citizen, deliberated created a narrative and publicized a fake story to inflame millions of people against each other in this country.
We live in interesting times.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.“
Rudyard Kipling
1919
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
[This truth was well known 100 years ago yet people still believe the lie it refutes.
Closely related.—Joe]
What if the government doesn’t have to pay back what it borrows, now or ever? This is the provocative thesis of an unorthodox economic theory that is rapidly gaining credence on the political left called modern monetary theory, or MMT.
Noah Smith
January 10, 2019
Don’t Be So Sure Hyperinflation Can’t Hit the U.S.
[Delusions are often functional. This particular delusion will give the political left a good shot at gaining absolute power over and destroying the United States.
Prepare for a civil war and/or buy gold and secure it in some other country.—Joe]
Via email from Chet.
Suicide prediction technology is revolutionary. It badly needs oversight:
Facebook is the largest and most visible company engaged in suicide prediction. After it introduced a live-streaming service in early 2016, dozens of users broadcast suicide attempts in real time on the platform. In response, on Feb. 16, 2017, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was experimenting with AI-based suicide prediction. Its software analyzes user-generated posts for signs of suicidal intent — the word “Goodbye” paired with responses like “Are you OK?,” for example, or “Please don’t do this” in response to a live stream — and assigns them risk scores. Cases with high scores are forwarded to Facebook’s community operations team, which reviews them and notifies police of severe cases. Facebook also helps pinpoint users’ locations so first responders can find them. In the past 12 months, the company initiated 3,500 of these “wellness checks,” contacting police about 10 times per day, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety, said in a recent interview with NPR.
Chet comments:
Are there no limit? They have other avenues to explore to save lives. They could also use it to report crime. Anything that would potentially save lives. And why stop with saving live? Society has plenty of bad actors.
I suspect that if you have the Facebook application running on your cellphone it tracks your location. Furthermore, since you have given your permission for it to do so that data is now theirs to do with what they want. For the police, and others, to obtain that data is probably easier than getting it from your cellphone provider.
Now imagine you live in a relatively free state like, say, Idaho. And your social media posts have been tagged as you are almost certainly an owner of an evil “assault weapon” and you travel on vacation to a tyrannical state like California, New Jersey, or New York. Wouldn’t it be “the right thing to do” for Facebook, et. al. to notify the police? And might not the police and some judges view that as probable cause to search you and your vehicle?
And it need not be just gun ownership and the police involved. Recreational drug users, homosexuals, transsexuals, Jews, Christians, or the targeted group du jour. And they could be reported to employers, family, and spouses. Do you want your visits to a gay bar, strip club, abortion clinic, pot shop, gun store, women’s shelter, divorce lawyer, or Christian/Jewish/Islamic book store be for sale to companies or private investigators who pay for the service?
I’m not sure I want the government writing laws to prohibit such “services”. If you claim the government has the power to prohibit such activity you are also saying the government has the power to mandate that activity.
But I’m not comfortable with my activities being recorded. It violates my Jews In The Attic Test no matter who has the data.
Proud to represent @AtlasBrewWorks in its First Amendment shutdown challenge. Can the government silence you because the speech-licensing office is closed? Complaint https://t.co/FLDzYyYhyG TRO https://gurapllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/3-motion_TRO_PI.pdf
— Alan Gura (@alangura) January 15, 2019
The ATF must give approval of the label on any alcoholic beverage sold in U.S. interstate commence. Since the ATF licensing center is currently shut down with no known reopening date some companies have their new products on hold for fear of prosecution if they were to proceed without approval.
2nd Amendment champion Alan Gura is asking the court to ignore the requirement on 1st Amendment grounds until the government shutdown is over and the process for label approval is available.
I think the whole requirement for permission for labeling your product is bogus and should be completely thrown out. False labeling should be addressed but not in the form of requiring prior permission. But one step at a time.
Nobody, except for a few libertarians and conservatives, are countering the ideas AOC represents. And they have a very limited audience. The spirit of the new century is overwhelming the values of the past.
When the economy collapses – likely in 2019 – everybody will blame capitalism, because Trump is somehow, incorrectly, associated with capitalism. The country – especially the young, the poor, and the non-white – will look to the government to do something. They see the government as a cornucopia, and socialism as a kind and gentle answer. Everyone will be able to drink lattes all day at Starbucks while they play with their iPhones.
…
That’s not even the best part. She’ll be idealized, lionized, and apotheosized by an adoring public. The media will hang on her every word. That’s pretty rich for a stupid, evil dingbat. Other young socialist idealists will try – and succeed – in replicating her success. Congress will increasingly be filled with her clones.
Frankly, at this point, resistance is futile.
Doug Casey
January 11, 2019
Doug Casey on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
[Certainly there are lots of paths to a very bleak future. However, I’m not sure resistance is futile. The courts are being filled with people much more inclined to declare her ideas unconstitutional than courts of the last 20 years. And one can make a reasonable case the courts will continue in this pattern for another five or more years. And SCOTUS could easily be originalist leaning within a year.
And even if the courts don’t “save the country” there are a lot of states that could “just say no” and ignore a significant part of the nonsense thrown at them as the Feds and other states nosedive into the dark pit of socialism. Resisting can take the form of moving to those states which can most effectively avoid the socialist influence. If the union fails being geographically and politically isolated is going to be to your advantage.
The Feds have a 22 trillion dollar debt with no plan to even slow the descent into catastrophe. When hard core socialists go toe-to-toe with reality, reality ultimately wins. This time will be no different. The biggest questions are, “How long will it take?” and “What is the best way to avoid the implosion?”—Joe]
I believe that there should be security cameras and full body scanners everywhere in public places to prevent mass shootings. The Second Amendment is not beneficial to anyone, it remains a threat to others due to people taking it into consideration of their rights to commit crimes.
Wykeina Davis
May 2018
Say Yes To Gun Control
[It’s not just guns they want removed from society. It’s the elimination of individual rights.—Joe]
In identity politics, loyalty to race, ethnic group and gender often trump the claims of party. The diversity Democrats celebrate is one day going to pull their party apart, as the social, cultural and racial revolutions of the 1960s pulled apart the party of FDR and LBJ.
Patrick J. Buchanan
December 28, 2019
2020: Year of the Democrats? Maybe Not
[Via email from a reader.
It’s something to think about and act upon when the opportunities become available. The reader also suggested some possibilities to help with the conflict:
The best defense is a good offense.—Joe]
Since joining the Court in 1993, Ginsburg has, in case after case, proven herself to be a reliable champion for the liberal side. When the Court declared the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program for undergraduate admissions unconstitutional in Gratz v. Bollinger (2003), Ginsburg accused the majority of turning a blind eye toward “the stain of generations of racial oppression [that] is still visible in our society.” When the Court came within one vote of declaring the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), Ginsburg denounced the “stunningly retrogressive” idea that Congress might lack the lawful power to force individuals to buy health insurance.
Damon Root
January 5, 2019
The Case of the Notorious RBG
Examining the life and legend of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
[Barb and I recently watched both of the recent movies about Ginsburg (RGB and On the Basis of Sex). Assuming the movies are mostly true, she did some really good work knocking down numerous sexual discrimination laws. We really enjoyed them. And gun rights advocates can learn from her strategies—pick your battles, clients, and venues carefully.
What the movies didn’t even hint at was some of the Constitutional warping, and mutilating, decisions she participated in. See the source for the quote above for more on that.
In somewhat related news:
Ginsburg misses third consecutive day at Supreme Court
Her absence Monday marked the first time in more than 25 years on the court that she missed an oral argument due to her health.
Perhaps she will consider retiring. She has earned the rest.—Joe]
There is no infringement in keeping track of your guns, registering them, transferring title, spot raids by ATF to make sure you don’t mistakenly sell them without reporting, or lose them. No infringement on responsible owners.
BigWallSection @peter_and_louie
Tweeted on January 7th, 2019, deleted by January 8th, 2019.
[This is what they think of, and occasionally share in an unguarded moment, the right to keep and bear arms.
I wonder if cell phones were treated as such (for all intents and purposes a modern day “printing press” and all around “free speech” tool) he would still adhere to this opinion.—Joe]
If you need some damn leader to follow or loathe, please look for a new hobby and/or a better religion: this is the United States and our “leaders” are supposed to be doing the legislative and executive grunt work or making sure the streets run on time and the criminals are kept on the run, not to mention avoiding foreign entanglements and providing for the common defense. They’re not supposed to be shining examples on a hill in the sunlight whom you should aspire to emulate. Most of them are lawyers who weren’t all that good at practicing law and thought writing laws might be easier; the evidence suggests they don’t have much knack for that, either.
Roberta X
January 7, 2019
Populism And The Cult Of Victimhood
[Articulating it perhaps a bit more succinctly, I think of them as “public servants.”
Whether you thing of them as “leaders” or public servants completely changes how you think about their role in society.—Joe]
An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.
William Strauss and Neil Howe
1997
The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy
[See also: 2019 FROM A FOURTH TURNING PERSPECTIVE.
Via email from Chet.
Extremely “interesting times” ahead—if the prophecy is correct.—Joe]
Ladies and gentlemen, this nation is in crisis. The social fabric is fraying and it is nearing its breaking point. We must stand up to this tyranny once again. Not with muskets the way our founders did. But with our voices and our votes and with the power and example of our action here in New York.
Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York
December 17, 2018
Cuomo declares NY independent from federal government
[From the same article:
His agenda, which includes marijuana legalization, gun control measures, and environmental protections, is New York’s Declaration of Independence, Cuomo said.
I like this response:
The new state motto could be Freedom through Over-Regulation. Or, how about, True Liberty Flows from Tyranny?
It’s like Lyle says sometimes. Cuomo wants independence from the Federal Government so he will have, “freedom to do wrong.”—Joe]
Operation Choke Point was an attempt to cut off gun (and other politically disfavored) related business from financial services. Operation Choke Point has “effectively” ended but that doesn’t mean the fascists have given up. Andrew Ross Sorkin is advocating another angle:
How Banks Unwittingly Finance Mass Shootings
The New York Times reviewed hundreds of documents including police reports, bank records and investigator notes from a decade of mass shootings. Many of the killers built their stockpiles of high-powered weapons with the convenience of credit. No one was watching.
…
Mass shootings routinely set off a national debate on guns, usually focused on regulating firearms and on troubled youths. Little attention is paid to the financial industry that has become an instrumental, if unwitting, enabler of carnage.
A New York Times examination of mass shootings since the Virginia Tech attack in 2007 reveals how credit cards have become a crucial part of the planning of these massacres. There have been 13 shootings that killed 10 or more people in the last decade, and in at least eight of them, the killers financed their attacks using credit cards. Some used credit to acquire firearms they could not otherwise have afforded.
The credit card companies aren’t jumping on the fascist bandwagon yet:
Banks and credit-card networks say it is not their responsibility to create systems to track gun purchases that would allow them to report suspicious patterns.
“We do not believe Visa should be in the position of setting restrictions on the sale of lawful goods or services,” said Amanda Pires, a Visa spokeswoman. “Our role in commerce is to efficiently process, protect and settle all legal payments. Asking Visa or other payment networks to arbitrate what legal goods can be purchased sets a dangerous precedent.”
A spokesman for Mastercard echoed that sentiment, emphasizing its protection of “cardholders’ independence” and the “privacy of their own purchasing decisions.”
…
John Shrewsberry, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo — which counts the National Rifle Association as a client — has dismissed the notion that banks should regulate the use of its credit cards for gun purchases.
While no friend of gun owners, the ACLU appears to be on our side on this one:
And a policy expert at the American Civil Liberties Union recently expressed concern about how efforts to prevent mass shootings could infringe on individual rights.
“The implication of expecting the government to detect and prevent every mass shooting is believing the government should play an enormously intrusive role in American life,” Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the A.C.L.U. Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, wrote in July.
But, of course, the fascist dismisses these concerns:
Not all the concerns involve privacy or politics. Some are practical.
Would they dismiss freedom of (some) religions or association on a “practical” basis? For example, people in prison who identify as Democrats outnumber all other political affiliations combined by a factor of two. Wouldn’t it be “practical” to preemptively put scarce law enforcement and surveillance resources on Democrats?
In October Gab was targeted for supporting free speech. Among other things that happened Pay Pal would no longer do business with them. Boomershoot processes credit cards through Pay Pal. This has long been something that bothered me because Pay Pal won’t allow you to us them for gun sales but other options went away (Google) or were very difficult to implement (Amazon).
After Pay Pal shutdown Gab I started looking for another credit card processor. I ended up with Wells Fargo. It’s more expensive than Pay Pal but they didn’t have a problem with Boomershoot. I didn’t know the NRA was their customer too. Good to know.
I’m on “vacation” until after the first of the year to, mostly, work on converting the Boomershoot entry processing to use Wells Fargo so I can dump Pay Pal. I just hope it is easier to implement on my web site than Amazon.
New Jersey’s standard capacity magazine ban is now in effect making New Jersey’s one million gun owners criminals in the eyes of the state. But in an act of mass defiance, New Jersey residents refuse to comply.
Any magazine holding more than ten rounds is now illegal in the Garden State. The standard magazine for an AR-15 holds 30 rounds. Glock 19s, which is the most popular pistol in the United States, holds 15 rounds. Anyone who is possession of larger magazine is committing a fourth-degree felony.
John Crump
December 14, 2018
Million Plus NJ Gun Owners Defy State Law, Refuse to Turn Over Banned Gun Mags
[Via email from Chet M.
The article says as near as they can determine there have been zero magazines turned in. But that was almost two week ago. So there probably have been a few people who have complied by now. I expect the numbers will be small. Perhaps higher than in some other places like California, Colorado, and Connecticut where the numbers run in the five to 10 percent compliance rate.
So… what will the authorities do about the mass defiance? My guess they will not do anything overt. But if you get pulled over for a minor traffic violation and they find a 15 round magazine (or plant one) in your car you will find yourself facing 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for each magazine they found. They law was never about public safety. It was virtue signaling. Now it can be used selectively punish people who have not hurt anyone.
It’s about control.—Joe]