Category Archives: Politics

Quote of the day—Matthew Larosiere

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You might notice that something seems off about a Democratic state senator sponsoring a bill loosening firearm restrictions, that law speeding through a Democrat-controlled legislature, and then a feverishly anti-gun governor stamping it with approval. The city knew a change in state law to preempt the city gun law, something the anti-gun crowd has consistently fought against, was the only way to strengthen the city’s mootness argument. This is merely a case of the city and state colluding to keep the Court from settling the matter once and for all.

Matthew Larosiere
July 11, 2019
New York City’s Dishonest Attempt to Squelch a Gun-Rights Lawsuit
[Of course they are being dishonest! It’s an essential part of the anti-gun culture.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo

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But now I recognize, you know, they nearly killed me on the 29th. And I can’t be so naïve as to think that the police will actually be protecting citizens, law abiding citizens, anymore.

…

The provocation to them can be just existing with the wrong ideas. You saw how they, I mean, it’s still surreal to me to see the mainstream response to the Covington boys. Like this visceral hatred for somebody because of the look on their face or the hat they were wearing.

Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo
July 8, 2019
Antifa Attack, What Is Happening In Portland? | Andy Ngo | Rubin Report

[H/T to William Taylor.

At an hour and 15 minutes it is a bit long but I found myself drawn more and more into it. The first paragraph of the quote above is at about 59:34 in the video. The second paragraph is from about 1:09:15.

As I listened to the first part of the quote above I immediately thought, “He still has a lot of naivety. The police have never been required to protect people. He needs to read Dial 911 and Die.”

 

The second paragraph above hit me the hardest with the word surreal. I’ve read a lot of books about the Holocaust, the mass murders of the the USSR, and the genocides of Rwanda, Uganda, Ottoman Turkey, and many others. And three books on what Japan did in Nanking in 1937 and 1938.

Surreal is how many of the people who lived through those horrific events described it as things became more and more deadly. Those people didn’t think it could happen there. But in hindsight they discovered the signs were all there. With refuge parents from South Vietnam Ngo is far less naïve than most but still he has difficulty believing the facts.

It is easy to extrapolate from our present day situation into a horrible nightmare. Don’t let a normalcy bias pull you in too far. Look at the facts and judge them rationally.—Joe]

The truth is no defense

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John Lott reports in the New York Daily News:

Twitter has locked my account. I can’t post anything or read messages from other users. The reason? In March, I tweeted that the perpetrator of the New Zealand mosque shooting was “a socialist, environmentalist, who hates capitalists & free trade.” I also wrote that the killer believed his attack would “lead to more gun control” in New Zealand and the United States.

What I tweeted was entirely accurate, and Twitter hasn’t bothered to provide me with an explanation for why they locked my account, but they have made clear that it was this tweet that supposedly violated their terms.

Just as in the USSR and so many other authoritarian countries the truth is no defense. You must also adhere to that which is politically correct or suffer the consequences. In the USSR if you didn’t get a bullet to the back of the head it was five to ten years in the Gulag for expressing an uncomfortable truth which questioned the political narrative. It’s exceedingly clear we have people in this country sharing the belief of their authoritarian brethren that silencing political opponents is appropriate.

Fortunately we don’t have a majority of them in positions of political power such that they can enforce bullets to the back of the head or banishment to Siberian Gulags for expressing the truth in public here.

At least not yet.

Remember the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and keep your guns read for use should the situation change.

Quote of the day—Alex of Ammo.com

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As the Pink Pistols motto says, “Armed gays don’t get bashed.” And whilst LGBT people are still victims of violence at a much higher rate than the general public, the community as a whole and notable members of it are beginning to fight back.

From training in self defense and carrying concealed to supporting LGBT-friendly gun stores and shooting ranges, there is a rise in gun-carrying LGBT people who are learning to protect themselves and those they love.

Alex of Ammo.com
Self Defense for LGBT: Self-Protection and Concealed Carry (CCW) for the LGBT Community
[It’s a good post. There was a lot of detailed history of LGBT rights, some of which I didn’t know about. And I thought I was pretty up to speed on that sort of thing. And the self-defense advice was good too, regardless of your sexual orientation.

A lesbian couple I know has been talking about going to the range with me to get some training. I keep saying that they just need to pick a day and time. I suspect it will happen before the summer is over. I wish there were more LGBT people getting on the pro self-defense side of the political aisle. Being a perpetual victim is not healthy for them or society.—Joe]

Quote of the day—NRA-ILA

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Even for those who fail to acknowledge that the existence of rights is not subject to public sentiment, making the issue a cornerstone of their campaigns it doesn’t seem to be working. Does that mean that Second Amendment supporters can call an early win? Certainly not. But perhaps we can take some comfort in knowing that gun control may not the slam-dunk that Democratic candidates – and much of the media – believe it to be.

NRA-ILA
July 8, 2019
Recent Poll Shows Gun Control Not as Popular as Some Would Like to Believe
[Gun control isn’t a slam dunk. Claims of “90% of people what background checks” and other outlandish claims are garbage. But it’s popular enough we have to put up some stiff resistance to hold our ground.

Do what you can. Donate money and/or time to pro Second Amendment groups. Come out of the closet as a gun owner. Take a new shooter to the range. Get people interested in the shooting sports. Contact your representatives and politely tell them what you think of restrictions on our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]

Interesting times

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Via a comment from Chet:

You have wonder if this is what it was like in the middle 1930’s for minorities in Nazi Germany. There was a double standard enforced by both society and government when laws and social norms were violated. And people just kept accepting the increasing levels of injustice. They must have thought, “This is crazy! It has to get better soon, right?”

No. It doesn’t have to get better from here. Mass hysteria can go to lengths that are unimaginable to people that haven’t lived through it.

Currently pointing out reality can get you censored, fired from your job, and banished from social media and by your friends. This bad, but not as bad as it can get. At many times and places insistence on reality has resulted in a death sentence.

Quote of the day—Gabriel Suarez

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What were we fleeing that was so horrible? Communism. We weren’t fleeing global warming, or capitalism-created poverty, or any of today’s tear-jerking, media-popular reasons. We were fleeing communism. The same communism that is being played out daily in Venezuela. The same communism that some historically illiterate politicians are embracing. The same communism that the American academic scene has become orgasmic about. The same communism that the black hooded thugs of ANTIFA want to shed blood over. Communism, socialism, or what ever the next deceptive name its given is all the same, a poison to the human spirit that we will refuse to ingest.

What exactly is communism? Before anyone even suggests they know the answer to that, they must set down their experience in the matter. Having an advanced degree from some left-leaning university doesn’t count. Nor does it count if all you did was read a book by some alcoholic writer extolling its virtues. And if the only reason a political group is adopting communist ideals is that communism directly contradicts the American President and what he represents, then that person is not only a traitor to America, but the worst kind of deceiver known to mankind.

Just like only a Holocaust survivor’s words can accurately describe the evil of Hitler’s Nazi machine, the only person that can talk with credibility and authority on the nature and reality of communism is one who has lived it in person firsthand.

Communism stifles the human spirit by denying everyone the opportunity to excel and better themselves. It confiscates what it considers “excess” from those who build things, and keeps it for its own purposes. Communism forces everyone to become servants of the government by nationalizing industry (that means they come and take your business), confiscating wealth (they go to the bank and physically take your money by force), indoctrinate the young through the educational system (they make little communists out of your kids), and require children to inform on their parents. They ration food, water, medicine, and fuel. They regulate religion until they can eliminate it.

And for those who suggest that what is happening is wrong, they have squads of armed communists that will find such people and kill them. Sometimes the murders will be through horrific tortures, or public street executions to send a message. Other times, by simply snatching them up and throwing them in a cell for years without any hope of reprieve.
Those who have lived under communism, and seen its result, feel about it in the same way that Jews feel about Hitler and his Nazi machine. And yet, while nobody is suggesting we give Nazism another shot, some are suggesting that very thing about communism.

…

…to the communists among us, a warning. No matter what you do, think, or accomplish. At some point the answer will be clear from those of us who know what communism is and leads to. Never again. I think you know what that means.

Gabriel Suarez
July 5, 2019
AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA
[H/T to Adam McIntosh.

I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Candace Owens @RealCandaceO

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The Democrats don’t want black Americans to improve in the same way that drug dealers do not want their addicts to get clean.

Victimhood has been administered into the veins of black Americans by Left-wing politicians, hellbent on creating government junkies.

Candace Owens @RealCandaceO
Tweeted on June 29, 2019
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—L. Neil Smith

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We are at war now, a slow-motion, sneaky Civil War. If you deal with socialists. no matter what they call themselves, as anything but your mortal enemies, who want to kill you, and cook you, and eat you (to quote Bruce Willis)—if you fall for the blandishments of their foul, demented, idiot accomplices in the Republican Party—you are inviting extermination of everything you value and hold dear.

L. Neil Smith
December 2018
Why They Hate Donald Trump
[H/T to Tam.

It’s called a 4th generation war:

One of the key components is winning the culture component. Come out of the closet as a gun owner. Take a new shooter to the range. It’s a gateway “drug” to freedom.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Harvey

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If Trump were to have a socialized medicine plan, it would cover treatment for whatever disease it is that causes liberals to consider socialism a good idea.

Harvey
June 26, 2019
Trump Truths: TrumpCare
[I find it humorous but the last I checked there wasn’t a cure for stupid.

Well, I suppose that isn’t entirely fair. A fair number of smart people believe socialism is a good idea because they believe they would be one of the special ones in power.—Joe]

Valid points

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Liberals Unable To Pass Background Checks Necessary To Buy The Guns They’ll Need To Take Guns Away From Law-Abiding Gun Owners is satire, but most of the points are completely valid. For example:

“And I know it’s gonna work,” Harris said, “because we’ll be taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. Obeying the law is what they do. It’s not like we’re trying to take guns out of the hands of criminals.”

Quote of the day—Frederica Wilson

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Those people who are online making fun of members of Congress are a disgrace, and there is no need for anyone think that is unacceptable [sic]. We’re gonna shut them down and work with whoever it is to shut them down, and they should be prosecuted. You cannot intimidate members of Congress, threaten members of Congress. It is against the law and it’s a shame in this United States of America.

Frederica Wilson
U.S. Representative to Congress (D)
July 2, 2019
[Via a tweet from Ali Alexander.

She goes on to blame President Trump for the general disrespect of Congress and the media.

I would like to suggest that if Rep Wilson didn’t have such crap for brains as to not realize people have the right, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to make fun of members of congress then she might enjoy a little more respect. But since you can’t fix stupid it looks like she is going to have to suffer being mocked and disrespected as long as she continues to open her mouth in public.—Joe]

Update: Others have expressed similar opinions but Michael Z. Williamson wins the Internet so far. This is just part of one of the first paragraphs of Challenge Accepted, Congresswhore

Per the First Amendment, Common Law, and in fact, Common Sense, I have the right to mock you however I wish. If I think you have the manners of a Denebian Slime Devil, then that’s what I’ll say. If I think you’re a textbook Demorrhoid–ignorant, retarded, bigoted, stupid and humorless–I’ll say so.

That’s the warm up.

Quote of the day—Paul Sperry

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Fast and Furious was a Justice Department program that allowed assault weapons — including .50-caliber rifles powerful enough to take down a helicopter — to be sold to Mexican drug cartels allegedly as a way to track them. But internal documents later revealed the real goal was to gin up a crisis requiring a crackdown on guns in America. Fast and Furious was merely a pretext for imposing stricter gun laws.

…

Team Obama conspired to derail investigations into who was responsible by first withholding documents under subpoena — for which Holder earned a contempt-of-Congress citation — and later claiming executive privilege to keep evidence sealed.

But thanks to the court order, Justice has to cough up the “sensitive” documents. So far it’s produced 20,500 lightly redacted pages, though congressional investigators say they hardly cover all the internal department communications under subpoena. They maintain the administration continues to “withhold thousands of documents.”

Paul Sperry
May 21, 2016
The scandal in Washington no one is talking about
[Via Say Uncle, Miguel.GFZ, and Andrew Branca.

Will the criminals finally be brought to justice?

Check out the date on the quote. That was over three years ago. So the answer is, almost for certain, no.—Joe]

Another court victory

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It’s very slow going but the courts are giving us wins:

Today, New Jersey Second Amendment Society received Judge Hurd’s order denying NJ’s motion for summary judgement, granting NJ2AS’ motion for summary judgement, and subsequently ordering the State of NJ to provide New Jersey Second Amendment Society with unredacted copies of Attachments A, B and C to the 2005 New Jersey State Police Firearms Applicant Investigation Guide within 30 days.

It has been 8 years since we first filed our lawsuit to gain access to the guide.

I remember listening to Alan Gura talk a year or so after the Heller decision. He said something to the effect of, “Don’t expect this to change anything overnight. This is just the start of something that people will still be working on 20 years from now.” That it took the New Jersey Second Amendment Society 8 years to get access to a few pieces of paper is very telling. The anti-gun forces really, really don’t want the public to know what they really think about, and how they treat, the Second Amendment.

It’s been 11 years since Heller and with the current rate of progress it looks to me like it could still be another 20 years before we might accomplish something that I might consider approaching an acceptable victory over the forces of evil.

Democrats are why

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Via Lakerat24 ‏ @Lakerat24:

DemocratsAreWhyjpg

See also Why are liberals so violent? And Criminal prisoners who identify as Democrats outnumber all other political affiliations combined by a factor of more than two to one.

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

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The only reward for putting up with craziness is more craziness.

Thomas Sowell
March 6, 1999
THOMAS SOWELL: Back again – random thoughts
[Barb and I have decades of experience with this on a personal level. And we all are seeing the clear and irrefutable truth of this in the political arena. We see it in economics, immigration policy, and especially with our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.

The only way to deal with crazy is to not tolerate it. In many cases it is quite surprising how quickly they can put on a semi-rational face when you just say “No!” and have the means and will to enforce it..—Joe]

Voting out of big government

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Just a few days after being sworn into office President Trump signed an executive order which required federal agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new regulation they implement. A year later he made a big deal out of repealing 22 regulations for each new rule issued.

Since I don’t spend that much time in Idaho and I live in Washington state, which it is a bigger threat to me, I don’t pay much attention to Idaho politics. But Joel M. was paying attention and sent me an email with nothing but a link to how the Idaho state legislature opted to—in essence—repeal the entire state regulatory code. Wow!

Following a link I learned that even though the Governor is an advocate of reducing regulations he wasn’t a significant force being this regulation reset:

All of those rules expire on July 1 — except the ones Little chooses to keep on a temporary basis until the Legislature can consider them early next year.

“This is an unusual situation,” said Jaclyn Kettler, a Boise State University political scientist. “It does open up a pretty big opportunity for Gov. Little.”

The situation in Idaho contrasts with other states, like Wisconsin, where the GOP-controlled Legislature sought to limit the powers of the Democratic governor.

Little said residents can trust him to be fair.

“I’m not looking at this as an opportunity to do mischief,” Little said during a public appearance Tuesday. “I do not want to exacerbate this thing. This was not our deal. We did not do this.”

Little has made clear his desire to cut regulations in Idaho, issuing an executive order in January requiring state agencies cut two rules for every new one.

A lot of people have said things that amounted to “we can’t vote our way out of big government.” But there is now some evidence that assertion may be in error.

We live in interesting times.

.

Quote of the day—Ilya Shapiro and Matthew Larosiere

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In 1986, Congress enacted the Firearm Owners Protection Act (“FOPA”), which includes a ban on the transfer or possession of a machinegun not lawfully possessed and registered by May 19, 1986. 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). But before § 992(o) came 26 U.S.C § 5861(d), which makes it unlawful “to receive or possess a firearm which is not registered” (emphasis added). After FOPA, the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco and Firearms (“ATF”) no longer accepted the registration of and payment of taxes on new machineguns. In stripping § 5861(d) of all revenue-raising potential, § 922(o) mooted § 5861(d)’s constitutional warrant under Congress’s Taxing Power.

In addition, § 922(o) renders § 5861(d)’s application a violation of appellant’s right to due process. Because ATF will not accept the registration of new machineguns, compliance with § 5861(d) is impossible. Section 5861(d) is thus in irreconcilable conflict with § 922(o), and since Congress enacted the latter after the former, it controls.

Amici also caution against what we perceive to be a concerning departure from fundamental rights jurisprudence. By refusing to present an analysis of why the regulation of machineguns is beyond the scope of the Second Amendment, the courts are glazing over an important constitutional question. If a class of arms can be regulated nearly to the point of a categorical ban—which machineguns may well be—the American people deserve to at least know the constitutional justification.

Ilya Shapiro and Matthew Larosiere
June 20, 2019
BRIEF OF THE CATO INSTITUTE AND FIREARMS POLICY COALITION AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT-APPELLANT’S PETITION FOR REHEARING AND REHEARING EN BANC
[My translation is as follows:

The original constitutional justification for the regulation of machine guns was that it was a transfer tax ($200) each time the gun changed ownership. Since congress had the constitutional power to tax they could require the registration of machine guns to enable them to collect the taxes.

In 1986 congress declared the ATF shall no longer accept registration and taxation of new machine guns. This removed the possibility of collecting taxes on new machine guns. This means that the original constitutional justification for the regulation of machine guns no longer exists.

Hence, we, the people, are entitled to either the ability to purchase new machine guns or a constitutional justification as to why not.

I did not expect a challenge to machine gun law for at least several more years. I hope it’s not too soon. I would have preferred it wait until Trump has appointed another SCOTUS justice or two and we had a ruling that said semiautomatic rifles were protected.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jeff Williams

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Los Angeles and San Francisco usually control most of what we get in the state of California. We don’t appreciate them dictating to us like they’ve been doing.

Jeff Williams
Mayor of Needles California
June 24, 2019
Needles declared itself a “2nd Amendment Sanctuary” city; wants exemption to some state gun laws
[You have to wonder what all the geniuses who thought of up the “sanctuary city/county/state” stuff for criminals think of sanctuary for people exercising their specific enumerated rights. I suspect we are soon going to find out.—Joe]

Eating their own

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It’s long been observed that the political left frequently eats its own when it gets enough power. Just look at what happened in the USSR. Tens of millions murdered by their own government or put in the gulags. Read The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One) for a taste of what went on there. Large numbers of those people believed they were loyal supporters of the communist government.

The problem that once you have purity tests and people to maintain political purity the requirements get more and more strict. Just think of the “micro aggression”, “dog whistle”, and “code word” criteria being enforced in many instances in this country. It becomes a positive feedback loop with escalating standards of purity.

I review this as background for what is happening at Google (via an email from Chet who describes it as “Google’s civil war”):

San Francisco Pride organizers say they won’t ban Google from the annual Pride Parade on Sunday, despite receiving a letter signed by almost 100 Google employees concerned about how their company handles hate speech.

The employees asked for Google to be banned from the pride parade on June 30th. The company came under fire this month for refusing to remove homophobic videos targeting a journalist. Instead, YouTube banned hate speech and demonetized the channel. However, the company still offered a platform for the pundit, Steven Crowder, to direct his viewers to a site to purchase merchandise.

Google management will have some “interesting” choices to make if the DOJ and/or congress tells them they need to cut the crap on attempting to swing elections at the same time 10s of thousands of employees are demanding they adhere to more higher and higher levels of leftist politically purity.