Category Archives: Politics

Quote of the day—Rob Shattuck @RobShattuckAL06

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I think expanded police forces and police technology, subject to civilian control, will be sufficient to do any necessary killing of citizens who are needed to be killed.

Rob Shattuck @RobShattuckAL06
Candidate for U.S. Congress
Alabama 6th District
Tweeted on August 17, 2018
[The background for this is a gun control thread:

There are many laws banning or restricting items for which there is a market. It is true such laws can have limited or no success (e.g., Prohibition, unlawful drugs, child pornography). I don’t think society is ready to give up trying to impose restrictions. #alpolitics

Rob Shattuck‏ @RobShattuckAL06 Aug 16

And none of those three things are protected by the Constitution. This time you are targeting a specific class of items that is protected by the Constitution. There is a big difference.

It’s the end of the World as we know it…again‏ @AntCar0123 Aug 17

And laws banning those items tend to have a reverse effect as those items become more available. Hell, prohibition helped usher in the age of organized crime.

It’s the end of the World as we know it…again‏ @AntCar0123 Aug 17

I have acknowledged problems and difficulties society has in enacting restrictions and prohibitions. I don’t think those problems should be considered an absolute impediment to restricting guns. #alpolitics

Rob Shattuck‏ @RobShattuckAL06 Aug 17

Have you acknowledged that you’d need many people with guns and the willingness to kill their fellow citizens to properly enforce such a thing? Have you acknowledged that as you push for more restrictions the other side will push against you harder?

It’s the end of the World as we know it…again‏ @AntCar0123 Aug 17

While it is a little unusual for leftists to openly admit it, if you dig deep enough it always boils down to this:

CollectivismExecution

It’s very generous of a candidate for U.S. congress to confess this is what he has in mind for U.S. gun owners. One has to wonder if he is bright enough to realize he probably just got himself put on a few lists of people who do not plan on being on the receiving end of the rifles.—Joe]

Religious extremists

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While not all people will agree it appears to me that one critical component of religion is faith. Where faith is defined as:

belief that is not based on proof

And perhaps even further:

a belief in spite of proof to the contrary.

As one datum I offer this from Martin Luther (if you have the time read the entire post because it is exactly on point for the conclusions of this post):

Die verfluchte Hure, Vernunft.
(The damned whore, Reason).

The political left has their belief that socialism/communism is a superior form of government to any other. This is without convincing proof and, in fact, in spite of proof to the contrary. While I don’t know the belief system of members of ISIS as well as I do that of the political left in the U.S. I imagine their faith is similarly immune to factual refutation.

Hence I submit, via email, from Rolf the following memes:

OffensiveImages2

patterns

There is a reason the political left defends ISIS. They are kindred spirtis.

Quote of the day—Mike Thompson

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When we take the majority in November you will see a background-checks bill right away.

Mike Thompson
U.S. Representative from California
August 9, 2018
The Democratic Party’s New Litmus Test: Gun Control
Candidates for the 2018 House midterms are pushing a muscular firearms-regulation agenda, a wholesale repositioning after the party for a generation avoided new limits
[Via email from Paul Koning.

Also, from the same article:

Democrats running for Congress in 2018 are pushing a muscular gun-control agenda that represents a wholesale repositioning on the hot-button issue. In this year’s midterm election, gun control has become a party litmus test from which few dissent, alongside abortion rights and support for same-sex marriage.

It is critically important to make this the biggest political miscalculation disaster possible. Find things you can do to contribute to their loss and do them.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Kellie Collins

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When your friends and family are depending on you to make ethical decisions that affect their lives for many years a member of Congress should hold her or himself to a much higher standard than the bare minimum that many GOP members are currently using as a benchmark.

Kellie Collins
February 27, 2017
Get to Know Kellie Collins, Candidate for House Representative in Georgia’s 10th
Update 8/14/2018: Reasoned discourse has broken out. Here is a cached copy.
[That was 18 months ago. Now we have this:

Former candidate charged shooting death of campaign treasurer, backed gun control during race

A former Georgia Congressional candidate is now charged with the murder of her campaign treasurer.

Thomson woman, Kellie Collins, turned herself into the McDuffie County Sheriff’s Office the same day authorities in Aiken County found Curtis Cain’s body in his apartment on Old Powderhouse Road.

Why are progressives so violent? Because it is in their nature.—Joe]

Quote of the day—tjliberty1969

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When this happened I instantly felt something was not right about the botched robbery theory. Within a 72 hour period it hit me that it was a hit. It was during election season and a Democrat (dnc) employee’s murder was in the news and this blew me away. NOT ONE, DAMN THEM TO HELL, DEMOCRAT MENTIONED HOW SETH’S MURDER IS MORE PROOF OF WHY WE NEED GUN CONTROL. Nope all I saw was a couple of them lift the rug and a few others pushing the broom, nothing to see here, move along these aren’t the droids your looking for . These people never miss an opportunity for situation exploitation unless it risks self incrimination. Donna Brazile knows.

tjliberty1969
August 6, 2018
Seth Rich and what got my attention about his murder.
[While I agree there were some odd things about the murder I’m not sure this particular point is all that strong.

It’s interesting to read the comments. The conspiracy theory is in full bloom here.

Something I have recently observed is that high IQ people don’t necessarily follow the data to the truth. But they definitely are more skilled at rationalizing the data to fit their prior conclusions. I suspect this may be a case in point.—Joe]

It’s the Russians!

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Interesting:

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to three people briefed on the matter.

In a series of briefings on Capitol Hill this week and a public post on Tuesday, the company told lawmakers that it had detected and removed 32 pages and accounts connected to the influence campaign on Facebook and Instagram as part of its investigations into election interference. It publicly said it had been unable to tie the accounts to Russia, whose Internet Research Agency was at the center of an indictment earlier this year for interfering in the 2016 election, but company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved, according to two officials briefed on the matter.

…

Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign dealt with divisive social issues.

Facebook discovered coordinated activity around issues like a sequel to last year’s deadly “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Specifically, a page called “Resisters,” which interacted with one Internet Research Agency account in 2017, created an event called “No Unite the Right 2 — DC” to serve as a counterprotest to the white nationalist gathering, scheduled to take place in Washington in August. Mr. Gleicher said “inauthentic” administrators for the “Resisters” page went as far as to coordinate with administrators for five other apparently real pages to co-host the event, publicizing details about transportation and other logistics.

Mr. Gleicher said it disabled the event on Tuesday and notified 2,600 users of the site who had indicated interest in attending the event.

Coordinated activity was also detected around #AbolishICE, a left-wing campaign on social media that seeks to end the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, according to two people briefed on the findings. That echoed efforts in 2016 to fan division around the Black Lives Matter movement.

…

American intelligence and law enforcement officials have been warning for months that Russia’s efforts to undermine American democracy remain active and pose a threat to this year’s elections. If in fact Russian, the activity would provide vivid evidence that the kind of cyber operations used around the 2016 campaign were still in use.

I sometimes have contact with current or former people in the intelligence community. I don’t have any specific information but “it is well known” the Russians like to create internal conflict in their enemies. It is a part of their culture and even have a word for it (sorry, I don’t remember it). I have been told they organized both anti-Hillary and anti-Trump events in 2016. It’s what they do. Hacking into the DNC and Hillary’s email servers and releasing the contents wasn’t necessarily to help elect Trump. It was to create conflict.

I have to wonder… is a lot of the conflict on social media regarding firearms fueled by Russia? When you are debating some twit on Twitter are you actually wasting time talking to a paid Russian troll?

Quote of the day—Stanislav Mishin

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Do not be fooled by a belief that progressives, leftists hate guns. Oh, no, they do not. What they hate is guns in the hands of those who are not marching in lock step of their ideology. They hate guns in the hands of those who think for themselves and do not obey without question. They hate guns in those whom they have slated for a barrel to the back of the ear.

So, Americans listen up, do not fall for the false promises and do not extinguish the light that is left to allow humanity a measure of self respect.

Stanislav Mishin
December 27, 2012
A Russian View on Gun Ownership
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—BFD‏ @BigFatDave

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No more compromise
No more compliance

#GunSense

#GunControl

WhyThreat

BFD‏ @BigFatDave
Tweeted on July 27, 2018
[This reminds me of something I have pointed out before:

Have you ever noticed that crazy people will act only as crazy as you let them be?

It’s time to let the crazy people know we aren’t going to let them continue the act.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Sen. Charles Schumer

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America is going to get a lot less safe.

…

are not only scary, they’re outright dangerous in the way they can mimic the look and the capacity of a hardened, fully semiautomatic weapon.

Sen. Charles Schumer
D-N.Y.
July 22, 2018
Schumer Goes Full Semi-automatic
[NRA-ILA comments:

Gun owners often share a laugh over what appears to be the profound ignorance of much of the anti-gun community. However, gun rights supporters must also be aware that some of these absurd moments might just be attempts to mislead the less informed. Understanding this, gun owners must work to better educate the public and dispel the lies our opponents traffic in.

This sort of thing is to be expected. Attention to detail and the truth would get in the way of his evil agenda. No need to quibble with him. Just do your best to keep him as far from power as you can.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Andrew Whitehead, Landon Schnabel and Samuel Perry

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In our newly published and freely available study, the connection between Christian nationalism and gun control attitudes proves stronger than we expected. It turns out that how intensely someone adheres to Christian nationalism is one of the strongest predictors of whether someone supports gun control. One’s political party, religiosity, gender, education or age doesn’t matter.

You could be a mainline Protestant Democratic woman or a highly educated politically liberal man — the more you line up with Christian nationalism, the less likely you are to support gun control.

Andrew Whitehead, Landon Schnabel and Samuel Perry
July 25, 2018
Why some Christians don’t believe in gun control: They think God handed down the Second Amendment
[Interesting observation. But probably not that surprising when you know their definition of Christian nationalism:

Americans who subscribe to Christian nationalism believe that America has always been ― and should always be ― distinctively Christian in its national identity, sacred symbols and public policies. What’s more, for adherents to this ideology, America’s historic statements about human liberties (e.g., the First and Second Amendments) are imbued with sacred, literal and absolute meaning.

If I understand this correctly they believe a higher power, the Christian God, created our nation and constitution. And, I would imagine, therefore claim that God’s creation must be in His likeness—i.e. perfection. Any utility argument, or even a principled argument, that does not address the creation of the U.S. Constitution by a perfect being is pointless.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Cam Edwards

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That pile of cash is the Venezuelan equivalent of one US dollar. Behold the power of socialism.

ThePowerOfSocialism

Cam Edwards @CamEdwards
Tweeted on July 23, 2018
[The destructive power of socialism is absolutely amazing. No other political system has been so well tested and proven again and again to be such a threat to property and lives. Only an “intellectual”, completely out of touch with reality, could honestly advocate it as an improvement in the living conditions for the majority of the people.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Kurt Schlichter

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Right now, social justice fascism is just too valuable to them to just abandon. It works. It lets those who rightfully would have no power exploit the stupid and weak elite to exercise unearned authority. These goose-stepping aspiring Red Guards got a taste of power and they like it. And they are bad people. They have to be stopped, here and now.

Kurt Schlichter
July 23, 2018
Conservatives Reject Unilateral Disarmament In The Face Of Liberal Social Fascism
[He makes some very good points. There days when I think risking riots and civil war by standing up to the fascists isn’t worth it. Perhaps we should just let them throw their tantrums and don’t make a big deal about it.

No. Compliance with insane demands just encourages more insanity.

At the class this last weekend Greg make what I thought was great point that I have mentioned several times, expressed in different words, by my counselor. Greg expressed it more succinctly:

Have you ever noticed that crazy people will act only as crazy as you let them be?

We have to set boundaries and enforce them. Schlichter drew a line in the sand. I’m willing to enforce it. Are you?—Joe]

Quote of the day—Larry Correia

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If you guys come up with a plan to dissolve this marriage through an amicable divorce rather than a murder-suicide, I’m all in.

Larry Correia
July 11, 2018
Facebook post regarding the political left advocating for a civil war.
[I’d give serious consideration to a “divorce” but as of now I’m not seeing the amicable path.—Joe]

Washington State I-1639

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I-1639 is almost for certain going to be on the Washington State ballot this fall. This draconian initiative defines any semi-auto rifle as an “semi-auto assault rifle”. This includes those with tubular magazines firing .22 LR ammunition.

Furthermore:

  • Requiring a training, to be renewed every five years, for purchasing any semiautomatic rifle
  • Requiring all semiautomatic rifle purchases to be approved by local law enforcement authority
  • Applying the same process for purchases of all semiautomatic rifles as it currently exists for handguns – but without the exception for people with concealed pistol license and with a mandatory 10 day waiting period
  • Amending that paperwork to state that owning guns is a danger to the purchaser
  • Establishing a fee, up to $25 to fund all of the above
  • Banning sales of semiautomatic rifles to out-of state residents
  • Establishing the minimum age of 21 for purchasing semiautomatic rifles
  • Banning possession of semiautomatic firearms for people under 21 outside their property boundaries

Oleg has a blog post and image for us:

No_to_I1639_0929web

Just say no to I-1639 and those who sponsor it.

Quote of the day—Windy Wilson

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The ability of people to rationalize their way to slavery is one of the mysteries of psychiatry.

Windy Wilson
July 3, 2018
Comment to Quote of the day—Jim Mastro
[My hypothesis is that it has to do with the failure of socialism/communism to scale up from the tribe level to larger populations. These dysfunctional political systems “feel right” in a lot of ways. This probably was extremely useful in evolution and increased the probability of successful tribes. But when those feelings are acted upon at a level where evil tyrants can retain power bad things happen and many people don’t, or can’t, understand why.—Joe]

Gun cartoon of the day

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Via Reddit:

LeftistsShouldDisarm

While this is a certain amount of logic to this line of reasoning I suspect leftists believed they would take over the government in this country without a violent revolution. And, of course, guns in the hands of their political enemies would be a very bad thing when they started the purges.

Now, I suspect they are a bit conflicted.

Quote of the day—Hamilton Nolan

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Read a f****** history book. Read a recent history book. The U.S. had thousands of domestic bombings per year in the early 1970s. This is what happens when citizens decide en masse that their political system is corrupt, racist, and unresponsive.

‘The people out of power have only just begun to flex their dissatisfaction. The day will come, sooner that you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant.

Hamilton Nolan
June 25, 2018
This Is Just the Beginning
[There may be interesting times ahead. I was asked last Monday if I thought there would be a civil war in our country soon. I told them, “No. At least not one like the previous one with two or more militaries and visible government support on each side.”

However, Jim Goad does point out:

Third of Americans see a new US Civil War likely soon. As it stands currently: North 1, South 0. https://t.co/v8EtMgxgTz

In the following thread Jordenius‏ @Jordenius offered a correction of:

Republicans 1, Democrats 0.

Which, for some reason, in my mind, made it more real and likely to occur.

But when I think about it I still don’t think it will be military v. military. It will be left wing terrorists against the existing governments and hapless individuals caught in the middle. Which means the left wing terrorists will not have broad public support and will for the most part lose. It might play out similar to how it did in the 1970s.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Brian Keith

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The true diversity test

Liberals love to talk about diversity.

Churches in Seattle are festooned with “love your Muslim neighbor” signs.

But the real test of diversity isn’t whether you can break bread with someone who worships differently than you.

The real test is if you can be civil, be courteous, be inviting… to gun owners.

Consider this: all gun owners, in the minds of liberals, are responsible for all mass shootings.

Remember, a bombing or knife attack is the responsibility of the person, but attacks with guns are the responsibility of the inanimate object and all people who have those inanimate objects are at risk of engaging in the same criminal behavior.

This is the liberal mentality of, “I wouldn’t trust myself with a gun because I might go shoot someone the first time I got angry!”

To most readers here who concealed carry on a regular basis that sounds absurd, but I promise you it is a devout belief among Seattle liberals.

They believe that having a gun makes you into a crazy person who murders people.
Which book your worship out of, or if you pray with your hands in front of you or on the ground- that is small potatoes compared to having a device that instantly makes you a murderous psychopath.

And so the true diversity test is not whether you would shake a Muslim’s hand, or eat dinner with someone of a different skin color, or even a different sexuality. These kinds of diversity are officially encouraged, condoned, and safe.

The true diversity test is- would you have coffee with a gun owner?

With someone who lives on the responsibility plane of “I keep myself, my family, and my community safe from violence” and relies on police as the second line of defense?

My experience among liberals tells me, mostly not.

And I think it’s not just the gun- it’s the self-reliance that’s to blame.

Apart from my neighbors, I don’t accept that violence just happens randomly and I can do nothing to stop it.

I don’t wait meekly while evil people do evil things.

And in Seattle, that separates me from my community.

That stigmatizes me.

If I ever let it be known.

Check out the Pink Pistols experience in the Pride Parade. Flagrantly gay? Two thumbs up. Want to talk about defending yourself? We’ll follow you around and shout you down so everyone knows you aren’t welcome here.

I imagine inviting my more liberal friends to coffee and letting them know I’ll be armed. Or revealing during coffee that I’m carrying.

I don’t have the courage.

I don’t want the scene.

I can’t bear to lose yet more friends because I believe life is worth defending and I actually prepare to live that belief.

But you, dear reader of Joe’s blog- perhaps your liberal friends are different?

Perhaps you could invite them to a social situation where they explicitly know you’ll be armed?

I’ll love to hear the results of your True Diversity Test in the comments below.

Brian Keith
June 25, 2018
Via email. Slightly edited with permission.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Tiffany Johnson

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One: I really wish my pro-gun friends would stop calling people “libtards.” Two: I really wish my gun-averse friends would stop calling people “Nazis.” #NotHelping. That is all.

Tiffany Johnson
June 24, 2018
Please Just Stop
[I have a strong inclination to agree with this. I used to call certain groups derogatory names and probably still do at times. But I try to avoid the name calling and talk about factual stuff and tendency instead. I still use insulting terms, such as having “crap for brains” for individuals if I think they deserve it on a particular issue or point.

The reason I think it doesn’t help is because it alienates people who might be aligned with you on one or more topics. For example, someone might identify as a liberal because of their strong support for equal rights and access to legal abortion. They might also think gun ownership is important but is not what they mostly identify with. Getting them to help teach an introductory gun class is going to be a lot easier if you haven’t, even indirectly, called them a “libtard”.—Joe]

Quote of the day—ACLU

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The ACLU generally will not represent protesters who seek to march while armed.  It is important that this content-neutral rule be applied without regard to a speaker’s political views.  It should also apply whether or not state law permits or prohibits the carrying of weapons in a protest.  To this end, and consistent with time and resource constraints (including assistance from the national office to affiliates and vice versa), we should exercise due diligence in assessing whether the potential client seeks to march while armed.  If there is reason to believe that the clients do so intend, and we are unable to satisfy ourselves that they will not do so, we should be reluctant to accept representation.

ACLU Case Selection Guidelines: Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities
2018
[H/T to Chet in the comments.

See also: Memo: ACLU Will Weigh ‘Effect on Marginalized Communities’ in Free-Speech Cases

Apparently some speakers are more protected than others. Neo Nazis marching down the streets of Jewish residents should be protected. Gun owners advocating for the right of Jewish residents to have the ability to defend themselves should not be protected.

Okay, that makes things perfectly clear for me. Whatever “principles” the ACLU claims to have do not have a significant overlap with mine.—Joe]