Category Archives: Politics

Canada Engaged in More Human Rights Violations

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Canada has taken significant strides in tightening its gun control measures, announcing the addition of 324 firearm models to its existing ban list. This move, revealed by Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, aims to restrict access to firearms deemed unsuitable for civilian use, claiming they are more suitable for battlefields than communities.

…

Interestingly, the Canadian government is also exploring possibilities of donating these newly banned firearms. Defense Minister Bill Blair stated discussions are underway with Ukrainian authorities about potentially transferring the guns to assist in Ukraine’s defense against Russia. “Every bit of assistance we can offer to the Ukrainians is one step toward their victory,” he emphasized, highlighting the intertwined nature of domestic gun control and international humanitarian efforts.

Evrim Ağacı
December 7, 2024
Canada Expands Firearms Ban Amid Ukraine Aid Proposal – The Pinnacle Gazette

As other people have point out, it is telling that the Canadian politicians want to confiscate their citizens’ firearms. They intend to give those same firearms to the Ukrainians so they can preserve their freedom. What does that tell you about Canadian politicians’ intentions for the citizens of Canada?

The U.S. should have imposed sanctions on the Canadian government for human rights violations decades ago.

Dead Battery for a Brain

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Quote of the Day

Small D energy right there, boyo!

Showing off your insecurities, is never ever sexy!

HELLSPAWN @IndictmentSniff
Tweeted on December 6, 2023

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier (see also here)!

If I just glance at that quote I think it refers to a D-Cell battery that is nearly dead. Weird, huh?

Perhaps that is a good metaphor for his intellectual capabilities.

Crucial Communism Teaching Act

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The House on Dec. 6 passed the Crucial Communism Teaching Act with a vote of 327–62. The bill, introduced by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and cosponsored by 33 members of the House, seeks to address a gap in the education system related to the history of communism.

“Communism is one of the most destructive political ideologies the world has ever seen,” Rep. Salazar said when reintroducing the bill earlier this year.

“The Crucial Communism Teaching Act is important because our youth must remember the crimes of the communists, including those inflicted upon my constituents and their families in Florida’s 27th district.”

Stacy Robinson
December 6, 2024
House Overwhelmingly Passes ‘Crucial Communism Teaching Act’ | The Epoch Times

I’m shocked it passed 327-62. I expected far more legislators were in support of communism. The 62 would be an interesting list to study.

My understanding of the constitution is that Congress was not granted the power to pass this type of legislation. This power, if it exists at all, is reserved for the states.

That said, this is not the bill I’m going to take a stand on to make that case.

Communists Being Commies

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This is their goal. Via Comrade Sisko 🖖🏾✊🏿 @Pinko69420 (and here):

It is in their nature.

Prepare and respond appropriately.

Russians are Now Shooting at German Aircraft

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This makes me very uncomfortable:

Russian warship ‘fires at German helicopter’ as WW3 tensions continue to rise

A Russian warship has reportedly fired warning shots at a German reconnaissance helicopter mid-flight over the Baltic Sea

I’m not sure what to make of all the headlines talking about WW III:

My first impulse is that sensationalism gets clicks, so this is mostly clickbait. But it does not take much thought to convince myself this is far more serious than ordinary clickbait. But what is the actual risk? Are we talking things going sparkly in the next week/month/year? Or is this going to be a bunch of saber rattling and chest thumping for a while before everyone backs down and claim they won the confrontation?

I want to be in an underground bunker in Idaho until this all gets sorted out.

Paying the Price

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Despite a busy news cycle, CNN had a smaller average audience from 8-11 p.m. than 29 other cable networks, including Bravo, TV Land, Freeform Investigation Discovery, FX, Food Network and History. 

…

CNN had its lowest-rated week among the key demographic of adults aged 25-54 in nearly 30 years, averaging a dismal 41,000 viewers from the group coveted by advertisers. But MSNBC was even worse in the critical category, averaging only 29,000 total day viewers among the demo. 

MSNBC had a smaller audience among the demo than 36 other cable options, including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, E!, The Cartoon Network, Oxygen, MTV, Hallmark Mystery and a pair of Lifetime networks. It was MSNBC’s worst week among the demo since November 1997. 

Brian Flood
December 4, 2024
Fox News Channel dominates cable news as CNN, MSNBC collapse to embarrassing weekly lows

For comparison:

  • Joe Rogan has 12.3 million followers on X and 14.5 million on Spotify.
  • Mark Smith of the The Four Boxes Diner has 20.4K followers on X and 165K subscribers on YouTube. Smith is a law professor and advocate for Second Amendment rights.

CNN and MSNBC have been leading the pack in lies and giving Democrats what amounts to free advertising for a long, long time. I remember when people called CNN “Clinton News Network” for their biased reporting and opinions. And that was Bill Clinton, not Hillary!

That people have finally wised up and moved on is great news. It is time these talking heads paid a price for the harm they have done. I will be even happier when the companies collapse into bankruptcy. Most of all, I want to see the talking heads unemployable, and their old office space turned into gun shops and indoor shooting ranges.

They Always Want State Violence

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It would be useful if state violence extended to killing gun freaks

rumtytum @rumtytum
Tweeted on June 4, 2022

This is what they think of you. They want you dead.

And, of course, they want someone else to do their dirty work for them. They want the state to kill the people they don’t like. Also, note that it is an entire class of people they want dead. Considering people as individuals on a case-by-case basis would take too long.

Communism is a crime against humanity.

Finland, the Baltic States and Alaska?

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We need to reclaim a lot more historic land, restore historical fairness… Finland, the Baltic States, everything is ours. Let’s take Alaska too

Vladimir Soloviev
May 5, 2024
“We have to take back Finland, Poland, the Baltic States, Alaska…”

Funny stuff!

I suspect that is some vodka talking. The last time Russia took a bite out of Finland… well, Ukraine is turning out to be more cooperative than Finland was. Even if Finland ended up being a pushover… all the Baltic States and Alaska? I suspect there would be a vote on that initiative whether Russia wants one or not. Expect the vote results to be delivered to the Kremlin via drone and missile.

People Have their Own Falsehoods

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Democrats didn’t like what voters told them on election night, and they don’t seem to like hearing what they have to say to each other in the fallout. 

If they want to avoid defeat and become a reasonable party again, they will have to learn how to listen to each other, and their voters, again. 

Max Thornberry
November 24, 2024
Democrats turn on each other in battle for soul of the party

I get it that reality is tough. But reality eventually wins.

This gets back to something I have been saying for years. There is a process by which one can determine truth from falsity. Many people not only don’t use a process, but they also can’t comprehend that such a process exists.

For some people truth is what they believe. Many people have beliefs which not only lack evidence but are in despite of evidence. They may not say this explicitly, but they use phrases that mean that. My “favorites” are variations of “people have their own truths.”

It would be more accurate to say, “people have their own falsehoods.” There is some ultimate truth “out there.” But frequently it is tough, really tough, to get at it. Some people have beliefs much closer to truth/reality, but ultimately it boils down to people believe different falsehoods.

Just because everyone is “wrong” it does not mean everyone is equally wrong. I think this truth escapes the majority of the Democrat Party leaders. They can correctly find flaws in the in their political opponents’ beliefs. This does not mean the Democrat Party belief system is correct or even better.

No Reason to Believe They Are Not That Stupid

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If New York’s powers that be really are stupid enough to go after Peanut’s family on this — and there’s no reason to believe they aren’t — they not only will get their anti-gun butts handed to them in court, but they’ll deserve to be ravaged by all of the furies of PR hell they’ll raise along the way.

Either way, it seems that Peanut may get the last laugh.

Jennifer Sensiba
November 24, 2024
How Peanut the Squirrel Might Get Revenge on New York’s Gun Control Laws – Shooting News Weekly

Via Richard.

I think the problem is the powers that be cannot comprehend there are or should be limits to their powers. And, of course, they also believe they are the smartest people “in the room.” This leads to a whole cascading wall of failure.

They Are Not Distracted by the Truth

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Our reverence for the truth… might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.

Katherine Roberts Maher
CEO and president of National Public Radio
2022 TED Talk

See also here.

Those following the gun owner’s rights movement should not be surprised by this attitude. Our opposition certainly gets things done without being distracted by the truth.

I am, of course, reminded that some people can’t handle the truth.

Excellent Point

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Governments do not censor articles that they could expose as lies.

markm
November 16, 2024
Comment to A Low Bar

Concise, obviously correct, and very powerful.

I’m Going to Need a Deeper Bunker

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The head of America’s largest bank told an audience at the Institute of International Finance that his team is running scenarios in preparation for a global conflict involving nuclear powers.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told the crowd that war was imminent and nuclear proliferation was a greater existential threat than climate change.

“World War III has already begun. You already have battles on the ground being coordinated in multiple countries,” Dimon said at the annual event in Washington, DC.

William Koblensky Varela
November 18, 2024
Jamie Dimon Says He and His Team Are Preparing for Serious Conflict with Russia, China.| Moneywise

I need a deeper bunker, and more supplies stored away. Nuclear winter is tough in an already cold climate.

Trump was Made a Martyr

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The yearslong effort to vanquish Donald Trump in court was a dismal failure. For liberals like me, it may be tempting to attribute the collapse of the various cases against him to convenient explanations of process or personnel. The more uncomfortable truth is that our search for political salvation primarily through the law has backfired. To oppose Mr. Trump in his second term, liberals must learn the lesson of this defeat, which is that there is no alternative to persuading our fellow citizens of our beliefs.

Samuel Moyn
Yale professor of law
November 22, 2024
Opinion | The Legal Battle Against Trump Was a Miserable Failure – The New York Times

Basically, they made President a Trump a martyr. The overreaching on all the legal claims made Trump a sympathetic figure. People related to him on this because they have been suffering abuse inflicted by the “liberals” for decades. The more they attacked him with such thin legal cases, the stronger the sympathy became. People became more and more convinced the attackers were on the side of evil.

Moyn doesn’t understand a key point. Alternatively, he is deliberately dodging it. His political bedfellows know what he avoids saying here. They are pushing a faulty belief system that cannot be sold to the majority of the people. In today’s world, lawfare is of one of the only tools they have to achieve their goals. The Internet exists, so restricting information through “approved gatekeepers” does not work as well as it used to. The remaining other primary option they have is criminal violence. And they don’t have the numbers or the monopoly on firearms to win on that front either.

Hence, they are losing their battles for mind share.

As a side note, here is a useful hack. You can use it to read some pay walled websites, such as the New York Times. This works on Windows Edge. I’m not sure about other browsers or operating systems.

  1. Go to the web page you want to read.
  2. Type “Ctrl-A” (select all).
  3. Type “Ctrl-C” (copy).
  4. Open up something that will accept HTML from the clipboard, such as Word.
  5. Paste the clipboard into the document.
  6. Read the entire web page.

National Concealed Carry Reciprocity and Suppressors Deregulation

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Trump defeated Harris handily and pro-gun senatorial candidates secured a GOP Senate majority and the House is poised to remain in GOP control. This trifecta provides an opportunity to secure pro-Second Amendment legislation that has heretofore eluded both the White House and Congress.

Such legislation includes national reciprocity for concealed carry, which Trump supports, and a hearing protection act, which would remove suppressors from NFA (1934) oversight and regulation.

The previous Trump administration was on the cusp of securing a hearing protection act in 2017, but it was torpedoed by then-Speaker Paul Ryan (R) following the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas attack. Although Yahoo News reported that Ryan tabled the act “indefinitely,” Trump and the GOP-led Congress can pursue suppressor deregulation anew.

AWR Hawkins
November 7, 2024
With Trump, Gun Rights Groups Seek to ‘Make America Pro-Gun Again’ (breitbart.com)

We should try for this. Even if we only move the Overton Window a bit, it will make future actions easier. Future action options include court rulings and reintroducing the bills in the next legislative session.

Already WWIII?

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Joe Biden‘s administration has allowed Volodymyr Zelensky to launch American-made missiles into Russia, with allies of both Donald Trump and Putin decrying the move as escalation towards World War Three. In his statement, Medvedev took the warnings a dramatic step further, declaring it is “already WWIII”.

In response to the move by the US, Putin has signed a new decree, titled the “Fundamentals of State Police in the Sphere of Nuclear Deterrence”, which, state-run news agency TASS reports relaxes the parameters by which Russia will respond to attacks with nuclear weapons. The document reportedly states: “Nuclear weapons (NW) are an extreme measure to protect the sovereignty of the country.

Liam Doyle
November 19, 2024
Vladimir Putin’s top crony Medvedev warns West and NATO ‘World War 3 is here’ – World News – Mirror Online

Is this just saber rattling? A bluff? Or is this a serious threat that requires I now need to head for the hills of Idaho?

Political Philosophy Questions

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Are individuals a means to social ends or an end in themselves?

Is society supposed to serve individuals or do individuals serve society?

Do conscience and reason function at the individual or the collective level?

These are the questions of our time.

Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith)
Posted on X, August 13, 2022

I think the answers are obvious, but these are political philosophical questions I will let you answer on your own.

We Live in Interesting Times

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This is not what I want to be reading in the news:

Putin lowers the threshold for using his nuclear arsenal after Biden’s arms decision for Ukraine | AP News

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with American-supplied longer-range missiles.

The new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power.

I really wish I could live in an underground bunker in Idaho for the next few months.

If You Want Our Vote, Be What We Want

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It’s kind of hard to market yourself as cool when there’s video of them being cringe.

It’s kind of hard to market yourself as “not communist” when there’s video of them being wearing soviet symbols, have a Che flag in their office, and articles written by them saying “we’re communists”.

It’s kind of hard to market yourself as “not sexualizing children” when they’re inviting drag queens to the White House for story time.

It’s believable that they “care” about the economy. What’s not believable is that they’ll do anything to make it better. See “we’re totally communists” above.

As for being the “adults in the room”? We have video of their supporters screaming at the sky, and Democrat-heavy organizations in and out of government are having coloring books and puppy therapy days. Hard to be mistaken for an adult when the public perception is “toddler temper tantrum”.

Stop trying to market yourself as something the public wants, that you absolutely aren’t. If you want their vote, it is way easier to BE what the public wants.

Tirno
Comment to Your Lying Eyes.
November 15, 2024

I have nothing to add.

Bill Maher on Democrats Election Loss

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Maher does a decent job of articulating the errors of the Democrats in the 2024 election.