Category Archives: Politics

Get Government out of Research

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Promote the alarming papers! Don’t even send the other ones out for review. If you wanted to advance in your career, like be at a prestigious university and get a big salary, have big laboratory space, get lots of grant funding, be director of an institute, there was clearly one path to go.

Judith Curry
August 10, 2023
Scientist admits the ‘overwhelming consensus’ on the climate change crisis is ‘manufactured’

This sort of thing happens in research about crime and guns too.

Getting government out of the funding of most research* is probably part of the solution. Biases will always exist. But at least none of the biased parties will be spending essentially unlimited public money to produce garbage.

* I can see research directed at military objectives as being constitutional and appropriate.

People are Not Rational

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It would appear that New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order banning the carrying of firearms in Albuquerque has had an unintended consequence: Sales in the city’s gun stores are booming.

Melissa Fine
September 16, 2023
‘Busiest day I’ve had in months’: Guns flying off shelves in Albuquerque after gov’s anti-2A move

People buy banned books because they are, or are about to be, banned. The same applies to guns.

In this case the buying more guns in the face of a ban to carry them in public doesn’t make quite as much sense. But maybe they were buying them so they could carry them in public in defiance of their criminal governor.

You would think that a politician capable of getting elected governor would have a better sense of human nature. For someone that opposed to gun ownership one would think she would not engage in behavior that would, obviously, increase gun ownership and public carry. But, yet, she did.

People are strange. Rationality is just a thin veneer over a whirl of emotions. And many people don’t even have that veneer.

USC 241 Could be Applied to Governor

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The progressive activists who run the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division in Democratic administrations see civil-rights statutes as their license to overhaul the nation’s police departments and other institutions under the guise of “systemic racism.” There is no reason, however, why a Republican administration could not invoke them for their proper purpose — protecting the federal rights of all Americans.

Obviously, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D., N.M.) and her subordinates have conspired to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate Americans in New Mexico in the free exercise and enjoyment of their Second Amendment rights. Indeed, her acknowledgment that she expects to be challenged in court underscores both her criminal intent and the fact that the rights she has decided to “suspend” are well established in constitutional law.

Andrew C. McCarthy
Former Chief Asst. U.S. Attorney
September 11, 2023
Why Not Arrest Governor Lujan Grisham . . . Pursuant to the Civil Rights Law the Biden Justice Department Is Using to Prosecute Donald Trump?

The Overton Window is moving.

I hope she and her co-conspirators enjoy their trials.

Biden Banned High School Shooting Teams

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The BATF has been having a rough time recently in the courts with its attempts to redefine terms already well-defined in the law. But the BSCA gets around that obstacle and opens the door to new regulations that will cost lives.

Banning high school shooting teams and creating a comprehensive national gun registry makes the long game for gun control advocates clear—they are working to eliminate legal gun ownership in America.

John R. Lott, Jr. and Thomas Massie
September 13, 2023
Biden’s Gun Control Law Will Radically Change U.S. Gun Ownership

This isn’t about what Biden wants. This is what Biden achieved with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). There is more. It is worth the read.

The courts will almost certainly strike down most of it but it will do a lot of damage before that happens.

Political Reality

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Lujan Grisham’s diagnosis of the problem is surely correct; her proposed solution, however, is astoundingly misguided. The governor has leveraged an emergency health law to suspend a right protected by state statute, the state constitution, and Supreme Court precedent. Whether that right should exist is beside the point; it does exist in New Mexico today, pursuant not only to court decisions but also democratically enacted laws. By suspending it unilaterally, Lujan Grisham has claimed an alarming new power to revoke well-established individual rights by executive order. And she has done so in the most blundering way possible, ensuring a backlash that will only empower citizens, activists, and politicians who view all firearm restrictions as an existential threat to personal liberty.

Mark Joseph Stern
September 13, 2023
A Democratic Governor’s Public Gun Ban Is Already Backfiring

Stern is no friend of gun owners but he does have a reasonably good grasp of political reality.

In related news:

A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order in a Second Amendment Foundation challenge of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Sept. 8 edict suspending the constitutionally-protected right to bear arms, in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County.

District Judge David H. Urias issued the TRO, which extends to Oct. 3, when a hearing on the preliminary injunction request will be held. The TRO was effective immediately.

The executive order was dropped last Friday, SAF filed a lawsuit and had it blocked in three business days.

Take THAT Governor Grisham!

I still want her prosecuted. But that isn’t a political reality. Yet.

Crazy Talk! Or is it?

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Why do Republicans still fight for their beliefs knowing they will be wiped out, like any other minority group in history? Their beliefs are archaic and improper, so why fight against the advancement of the human species?

Anonymous question from Quora
2023

You have to wonder… Yes, it is crazy talk. But, it could be Russian or other bad guy trying to stir things up. Or it could be just some troll getting their jollies. But it also has a small chance of being someone sincerely believing what they are saying and not afraid to say, “the quiet part out loud”. Hitler’s Mein Kampf wasn’t taken serious by the majority of people when it was first written either but within a few years the mindset took over a nation.

Ideas are more dangerous than tools…

Biden Told to Stop Infringing

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The panel of judges, which is made up of two Bush nominees and one Trump nominee, asserted that it is inappropriate for President Biden, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FBI, and the surgeon general to exert pressure on social media platforms to remove content they deemed troublesome.

Froilan Bersamina
September 10, 2023
Appeals Court Upholds Louisiana Judge’s Ruling, Affirms Biden Admin Likely Violated First Amendment

I haven’t read the ruling yet but I’m disappointed it doesn’t apply to every representative of all government entities. But, it is a decent start down a long path. Does anyone know, assuming the ruling stands, whether the administration will have to pay reparations for this infringement?

Somewhere on that path I want the courts to issue a similar ruling stating it is inappropriate for a government representatives to exert pressure on gun stores to remove guns and other arms they deem troublesome.

And, of course, gun owners need reparations too.

Sending a Message

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But here’s what I do think. It’s a pretty resounding message.

Michelle Lujan Grisham
New Mexico Governor
September 9, 2023

The above quote was obtained from the video embedded in this tweet:

See also New Mexico governor issues order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque.

It’s interesting to me that she openly admits the order will not be obeyed by the criminals, but it is about “doing something” and sending a message.

Hence, you can believe she knows it is ineffective in the stated goal of making ordinary people safer and she is doing it anyway to “send a message” that she could not have sent by sending a statement to the media. Or her real goal is to infringe upon the rights of hundreds of thousands of people and use the old tired excuse of, “for the children”.

Via Kyle Seraphin @KyleSeraphin:

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Via the NRA:

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And perhaps one of the most surprising takes on the topic is from David Hogg:

I support gun safety but there is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution.

Even the anti-gun people realize one of their own has gone too far, too fast.

I assess, that with high probability, Governor Grisham’s order will not last the 30 days she proclaimed it would, Furthermore, with all the people pointing out 18 USC 242 and other legal remedies, she may even be removed from office over this.

She sent a message. The people are sending their own message. Who has the most effecting messaging?

We live in interesting times.

So Many Lies in so Few Words

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Gun violence is the leading cause of death for kids in the United States. Ending that should be bipartisan. … We should stand on the right side of history.

Anthony Portantino
California state Senator. (D-Burbank)
September 7, 2023
California Democrats approve new taxes on gun and ammunition dealers and manufacturers

I sometimes admire the ability of anti-gun people to pack so many lies into so few words. It takes me far more words to expose his lies than for him to express them:

  • The only way the claimed statistic is true is if they deceptively redefine 17 year-old’s as “kids”.
  • The 11% tax on all guns and ammunition cannot possibly reduce the gang violence which results in the death of the young thugs.
  • Bipartisan support cannot be expected when the legislation is clearly unconstitutional and cannot achieve the stated goals.
  • The trend now, and into the foreseeable future, is for laws like this to be struck down. The “right side of history” is more likely to be senator Portantino enjoying his trial than for laws like this to persist.

Chicago Arrest Rate is 5%

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The decision to commit a crime in Chicago has never been easier. Criminals are almost guaranteed to profit because the chances of getting caught and punished have collapsed to near-zero.

…

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Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
September 5, 2023
Chicago criminals have green light to rob, loot, burgle as odds of punishment collapse to near zero.

It seems all the major “blue” cities are getting overrun by criminals. And those criminals are not just the politicians. The criminal politicians appear to be deliberately catering to their constituents, the thugs, to the detriment of the peaceable citizens.

I just want retreat to my underground bunker in Idaho for a decade or two and wait for things to get better.

Existential Threat to the ATF

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The ATF has brought it on.

Time to challenge many of the 1968 Gun Control Act provisions.

There are no historical analogs for requiring a gov’t license to buy/sell used guns.

No analogs for stopping private sales of used guns across state lines.

2A Rights aren’t wheat.

2A History @2aHistory
Tweeted on August 31, 2023

While I’m in strong agreement with the goal and the correctness of the assessment, I am not certain the timing is optimal. The ATF has a lot of support with the current administration and will view this as an existential threat.

This existential threat to the ATF could likely be made an election issue and pull votes from the side of freedom.

Bonus points if your comments indicate you know what the reference to wheat is about.

We are at War

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We are at war. It has never been about Donald Trump—it’s about forcing Americans into submission. The sooner we realize it, the sooner you will begin to fight, and win.

Allen Mashburn
September 1, 2023
The Left’s Relentless War on Donald Trump and Everyone Who Disagrees with Them

Some people, particularly those who have little control over their own lives, have a burning desire to control others. This is symptomatic of most cases of personality disorders. This is an indicator that the claim, “Liberalism is a mental disorder” has more than a little truth to it.

It Should Not Even Exist

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Recently, the Secretary of Health and Human Services advocated for gun violence to be declared a public health emergency to grant HHS power to restrict Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.  The Department of Health and Human Services was never intended to implement gun control of any kind.

Mike Braun
US Senator from Indiana
July 21, 2023
Senator Braun’s offers amendment to protect Second Amendment from “national emergency declaration” gun control

It goes deeper than that. The Department of Health and Human Services was never intended to exist. There is no mention of it or the “services” it provides in the U.S Constitution.

But, I suppose, limiting its scope should be considered a good thing.

Bumper-Sticker ‘Solutions’

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In Jacksonville, lives were saved by an armed campus security officer who approached and deterred the gunman before he could fire a single shot on university grounds. Meanwhile, Gun Control, Inc., rakes in money for mocking the idea of a “good guy with a gun” while failing to acknowledge the obvious: the faster a violent threat is confronted by armed resistance, the faster that threat ends and the fewer people die.

We deserve better than the current list of bumper-sticker solutions to the most surface-level and fringe aspects of violence.

Until we force ourselves to change the way we collectively approach mass public shootings, we will keep spinning in circles while people die.

Amy Swearer
Senior Legal Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
September 1, 2023

I don’t think “bumper-sticker solutions” is accurate. It is closer to a deliberate deception to more effectively infringe up our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. The mass shootings and death of innocent people are just a means to an end for those advocating for disarming the public.

Those Who Insist on Being Equal

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Nobody is more inferior than those who insist on being equal.

Friedrich Nietzsche

This is as true today as it was 130+ years ago.

Reducing Guns

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We need to focus on responsible behavior. We need to focus on safety. I’ll say again, we can’t have an officer in every situation to prevent gun violence. What we can do is work to reduce the guns that we have on the street.

Tammy Morales
Representative for District 2 in Seattle
August 21, 2023
Another mass shooting in Seattle sparks debate on police staffing, public safety

What she needs to realize is:

  1. “Work to reduce the guns we have on the street” is a criminal offense.
  2. If you do reduce the number of guns in the general population those guns will be from the hands of those who are generally law abiding. That makes guns in the hands of violent criminals all the more valuable because they can more easily use their illegally owned guns to intimidate and/or harm the law abiding who turned in their guns.
  3. Hence, reducing the number of “the guns we have on the street” will lead to an increase in violent crime.

But, as we all know, the real motive of gun control is not the reduction of crime. It is the increase of control.

It is About Control

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I had to read several paragraphs in this article before I was fully convinced this wasn’t some sort of satire:

President Biden’s alcohol czar says Americans may be told by officials to have no more than two beers a week.

Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) George Koob told the Daily Mail on Thursday that the U.S. may follow Canada’s footsteps on alcohol guidelines.

Currently, American guidelines recommend men limit themselves to two drinks per day while women should only have one drink. The American recommendations are up for review in 2025.

Canada’s guidelines recommend only having two drinks per week.

Koob, who said he partakes of a couple of glasses of “buttery Californian Chardonnay” a week, said he was watching the Canadian “big experiment” with interest.

The feds have an “alcohol czar”? This is crazy stuff. They want to control everything! When will I wake up from this dystopian nightmare?

Defunding the Police

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I lived in West Oakland for three years 15-18. My fondest memory is the CHP helicopter flying overhead weekly blaring this message on repeat: Police Dogs Have Been Released, Stay In Your Home or You Will Get Bitten.

The third week in our house there was a gang drive-by on an apartment one block over, three dudes with AK’s did full mag dumps as fast as they could pull the trigger. The third shooter was a little slower than the other two so when they hopped in the car they drove off with out him while he finished his mag. Looked around and jogged off so nonchalantly I was startled. I soon understood why when the police showed up SIX minutes later.

East Oakland was pure hell, I would not travel there to get my pregnant wife Pollo Loco (which not getting was not an option!) without wearing lvl III body armour under my hoodie and carrying my illegal, not on the list, non-registered pistol.

And the best part, according to this article, that was THE GOOD period…

Benelli @disqus_9VxERuctzE
August 23, 2023
Comment to Sick and Tired in Oakland

I have nothing to add to this that everyone else is not already thinking. That’s right, they need to defund the police. That will fix their problems.

No, the ATF Cannot Legally Regulate “Ghost Guns”

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Political observers expect the Washington Post and the New York Times to carry water for Joe Biden’s Department of Justice gun control agenda. It’s surprising when the conservative National Review seemingly bends over backwards to defend the weaponized agency in a poorly researched and written piece.

On August 9, National Review published an item with the confident title “Yes, the ATF Can Legally Regulate Ghost Guns.” The ill-informed piece was written by a summer intern. If it was an unpaid internship, the publication got every penny’s worth.

NRA-ILA
August 21, 2023
National Review Wrong on ATF Frame or Receiver Rule

Words matter. And when those words are legislative law they matter even more. The ATF, and this summer intern, are ignoring and/or deliberately misreading the word of law.

Ignoring the word of law and/or deliberately misreading by politicians and judges should be a punishable offense. And in some cases it is. But of course, that law is there just to make us think we have some protection against those who use the power of government to deny us our rights. That’s not reality. The reality is, that ultimately, you have to defend your own rights. That is why we have the 2nd Amendment.

The left has thrived on destruction and decay

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The left isn’t wrong when they paint conservatives as natural enemies of “our democracy.” There is nothing conservative about the radically egalitarian system that governs the country, which turns politics into a race to the bottom, a game at which the left naturally excels. The left, in all times and places, has thrived on destruction and decay. The muddled, obese, foreign mass that is today called “the American people” has only a faint connection to the sturdy, adventurous Anglo-Saxons who founded the nation. Their values – freedom of speech, property rights, religious toleration, free enterprise – it is not surprising to find, are being trampled by the government we now have, which imposes tyranny from above with the support and legitimacy of “we the people,” or what has become of the people, below.

Matthew Boose
August 18, 2023
The Right Can’t Beat The Left At Its Own Game

You don’t have to read much history to discover this basic truth, “The left, in all times and places, has thrived on destruction and decay.” Their seeds are planted in troubled times, they grow roots with unhappy people, they carefully ferment anger and envy to build their mass, then when they show themselves as terrible weeds they repress and kill those who bear the fruit, grain, and flowers of society to retain their terrible monopoly on the nutrients of life and a healthy society.