Category Archives: Politics

This will not end well

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The entire reason for government is to protect the rights of the people. Portland politicians apparently think otherwise:

Portland throws out hundreds of criminal cases due to public defender shortage

A shortage of public defenders in Portland, Oregon, has led courts to dismiss hundreds of criminal cases and delayed justice for scores of other victims whose cases have languished in a backlog for months.

Between February and December of this year, Multnomah County dismissed 300 cases because no public defender was available to represent the defendants, according to the Multnomah district attorney.

…

In all, the district attorney’s office said, nearly 2,500 felony cases were affected this year by a lack of public defenders.

“The courts are put in the position of releasing defendants without prosecutors having so much as an opportunity to request bail or release conditions. And it’s not getting any better,” District Attorney Mike Schmidt said in a statement last month.

“This sends a message to crime victims in our community that justice is unavailable and their harm will go unaddressed,” Schmidt said. “It also sends a message to individuals who have committed a crime that there is no accountability while burning through scarce police and prosecutor resources. Every day that this crisis persists presents an urgent and continuing threat to public safety.”

Oregon, primarily due to the influence of Portland, has passed laws that would have halted all gun sales if the courts had not stopped the enforcement of those laws. There are very few hypothesis consistent with the evidence. Nearly all of them lead one to conclude politicians need to be prosecuted or removed from office via other means.

This will not end well.

Quote of the day—Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays

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Wokeness doesn’t exist above a certain IQ level.

Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays
Tweeted on December 12, 2022
[Interesting observation.—Joe]

Moving the Overton Window

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This no surprise to anyone in the gun rights community, but it is still irritating:

Lamont seems intent on executing his plan to reclassify peaceable Connecticut residents lawfully exercising their constitutional rights as felons. His example illustrates very clearly what the reassurances of gun control advocates are worth and how anyone who thinks its safe to rely on such reassurances will be in for a rude awakening.

Indeed, the month after Lamont announced his intentions, an editorial in the Connecticut Mirror argued that constitutional assurances the right to keep and bear arms will be protected should themselves be repealed. “It is time to talk about repealing the Second Amendment,” the author insisted. But he made it clear that his plan wasn’t necessarily an alternative to incrementalism but a potential aid to it. “[T]he very existence of a loud argument about the larger issue of repeal will make those incremental proposals seem more moderate, and therefore ultimately more achievable,” the editorialist wrote.

Never forget, the only reason for gun registration is confiscation.

Good news

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Via FOX News:

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California issued a permanent injunction on Monday against the “fee-shifting” provisions of the state’s gun law – which empowers private citizens to bring lawsuits against manufacturers of illegal guns – declaring it unconstitutional.

“‘It is cynical. ‘It is an abomination.’ ‘It is outrageous and objectionable.’ ‘There is no dispute that it raises serious constitutional questions.’ ‘It is an unprecedented attempt to thwart judicial review,’”

As Tom Gresham (@Guntalk) said:

This was absolutely critical. A “Must Win.”

Quote of the day—Joe Biden

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I am determined to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like those used at Sandy Hook and countless mass shootings in America. Enough is enough. Our obligation is clear. We must eliminate these weapons, which serve no purpose other than to kill people in large numbers,

Joe Biden
U.S. President
December 14, 2022
Biden speaks of «societal guilt» for «taking too long» to address the problem of gun regulation in the U.S.
[Ignoring the blatant lie about their sole purpose is the mass killing of people*, I find it very telling that he (and his handlers) express no concern for the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It is as if those restraints on government do not exist in their minds. This is the mind of a dictator.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.

I hope they enjoy their trials.—Joe]

* I’ve firing over 100,000 rounds with “assault weapons and high-capacity magazines” without killing anyone. Are they going to claim my guns are malfunctioning or admit they lied about only having one purpose?

Quote of the day—Thomas DiLorenzo

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The Left considers the fight over free speech to be a political death struggle, and they are right about that.  If anything deserves to be strangled in its crib it is the Left’s current assault on the First Amendment.

Thomas DiLorenzo
December 9, 2022
Why the Left Must Destroy Free Speech – or Be Destroyed
[That is what I would call, “A good start.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Journal of Surgical Research

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Nationally, all crime rates except the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–designated firearm homicides decreased as firearm sales increased over the study period. Using a naive national model, increases in firearm sales were associated with significant decreases in multiple crime categories. However, a more robust analysis using generalized estimating equation estimates on state-level data demonstrated increases in firearms sales were not associated with changes in any crime variables examined.

Journal of Surgical Research
Mark E.Hamill MD
Matthew C.Hernandez MD
Kent R.Bailey PhD
Caleb L.Cutherell MD
Martin D.Zielinski MD
Donald H.Jenkins MD
Douglas F.Naylor MD
Miguel A.Matos DO
Bryan R.Collier DO
Henry J.Schiller MD
Legal Firearm Sales at State Level and Rates of Violent Crime, Property Crime, and Homicides
Journal of Surgical Research
Volume 281, January 2023, Pages 143-154
[This may be useful for exposing the lies of the anti-gun people who claim more guns cause more crime. It may also demonstrate benefits in reducing stress in the general population caused by the courts declaring existing gun laws unconstitutional.—Joe]

Total sense

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Via Randy VanSickle:

image

While other hypothesizes may also have merit this one will be difficult to disprove.

Quote of the day—Alan M. Dershowitz

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In the bad old days, race was often used to discriminate against black applicants. Today race is often used to discriminate in favor of black applicants. I guess that is some sort of progress. But real progress will be achieved only if and when race is no longer a factor that trumps meritocracy.

Only then will Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of how his children and ours should be judged become a reality.

Alan M. Dershowitz
December 1, 2022
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: San Francisco Is The Canary In The Coal Mine For Where Wokeism Is Headed
[Just interact with people as individuals rather than some racial/religious/ethic/sexual-preference group. Does this person do good work and get along with people? If so, then except for a very few jobs, the other stuff does not matter.

By not hiring people based on merit society is made to pay more for goods and services. It is an waste of economic resources. Or, if you want to tweak the lefties, non-meritocracy hiring damages the planet.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Douglass Dowty

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The judge struck down much of New York’s new gun law as unconstitutional. Suddaby painstakingly put to work Thomas’ historical test to decide the fitness of New York’s gun bans in dozens of locations.

For example, a state can ban guns from a school and a playground, but not a park. What about a zoo?

Guns may be banned on a local bus, but what about a Greyhound bus? Suddaby found the answer in the age before the invention of the car.

What about conference centers or movie theaters? The judge looked to 18th century meat markets and ballrooms.

Can New York require an applicant for a gun permit to provide his social media accounts? Suddaby invoked Alexander Hamilton’s death in a famed duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 to reason that you don’t have to provide your Facebook account.

…

What about airports? Or movie theaters? Again, he ruled, no historical tradition from the horse-and-buggy days provided constitutional grounds to ban guns there.

Douglass Dowty
December 1, 2022
Can you bring a gun to the zoo? On a bus? Syracuse judge eagerly rewrites NY firearms law
[I hope the issue of airports doesn’t drift into carrying on airplane too quickly. I think it runs the risk of backlash. Wait, maybe, five years then finish the job with right to carry on airplanes and in K-12 schools.

I think the anti-gun people are in some sort of shock and cannot believe what is happening. In support of this hypothesis, from the same article:

“The test that Bruen set up is unworkable in practice,” Charles said. “It doesn’t give clear guidelines to state officials or state legislatures. What do you need to do to pass constitutional laws? How do judges do this?”

He just doesn’t seem to get it. It is exceedingly clear. It is exactly as we have been saying for decades, “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!” Why is this so hard? Or is he just pretending to not understand?—Joe]

Quote of the day—MN Gordon

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We know from the executive order released by the Biden administration on March 9, which required several federal agencies to study digital currencies and to identify ways to regulate them, that CBDCs and other policies governing digital assets must mitigate “climate change and pollution” and promote “financial inclusion and equity.”

What does this mean, exactly?

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) earlier this year, one zealous central planner clearly stated that the intent of traceable and programmable CBDCs is to monitor, “where you are traveling, how you are traveling, what you are eating, what you are consuming – individual carbon footprint tracker.”

MN Gordon
December 2, 2022
Will Your State Reject the Fed’s Digital Dollar?
[They make it so appealing. Why would anyone reject it?

See also here and here for additional benefits.—Joe]

Gibbs Calhoun @GibbsCalhoun

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Via Gibbs Calhoun @GibbsCalhoun:

Image

Quote of the day—Tracey Wilson (@TWilsonOttawa)

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[It is a very dark time for Canadian gun owners.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Richard Poe @RealRichardPoe

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Gun control is “collective punishment,” punishing everyone for the acts of a few. It’s considered a war crime under Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions. No civilian can be “punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.” https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/380-600038

Richard Poe @RealRichardPoe
Tweeted on May 25, 2022
[Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras.

Interesting…

But it appears this applies to the occupying force in regards to the treatment of the civilians. The Geneva Convention probably doesn’t apply to a country acting against their own citizens.

But still, just being able to say, “Under the Geneva Convention, this is considered a war crime” can be powerful in a sound bite environment. Or, if Civil War II were declared…—Joe]

Quote of the day—David Brooks

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I think it would be something. I think would be good not only to head off shootings, but good to live in a society where we cared more intimately about each other. And I would be willing to give up certain privacies for that to happen. But for many Americans that would just be a massive cultural shift to regard our community and regard our common good in more frankly a European style. I think it would benefit our society in a whole range of areas.

David Brooks
New York Times Columnist
November 27, 2022
It would be good for ‘a massive cultural shift’ toward European gun control: New York Times columnist
[And I think it would be good if people who prefer socialism and communism over individualism and individual liberty were to move to some other country and leave us alone.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Bob Barr

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The gun-control shibboleth urged by the Left as the solution to every mass shooting incident, coupled with the government’s “run, hide, and fight” strategy for dealing with an active shooter, make as much sense as advocating duct tape and plastic sheeting as a way to thwart acts of terrorism.

Bob Barr
November 29, 2022
BARR: ‘Run, Hide, and Fight’ Makes As Much Sense As Duct Tape To Stop Terrorism
[Nothing says, “Please don’t shoot me” like multiple jacketed hollow points.—Joe]

We live in interesting times

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In addition to being the nation’s fastest growing state, counties in Oregon and California have voted to secede and join Idaho:

Two more conservative-leaning counties in eastern Oregon, and one politically split county in California, have voted to begin the process that could lead to secession from their respective blue states.

On Nov. 8, Oregon’s Morrow County passed the Greater Idaho proposal with 60 percent of the vote and Wheeler County with 59 percent.

A similar measure in San Bernardino County, California, passed by a narrow margin, 51.3 percent to 48.7.

I would have to investigate further to be sure, but my first impression is that it would be a good thing. It would reduce some of the political tension and give the political left more rope to hang themselves with.

Expect Eastern Washington wanting to get in on the fun too.

We live in interesting times.

Why can’t they understand?

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I get frustrated with people when they don’t understand simple principles. Here is my latest example:

After their vote, Biden said, “Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” adding their vote made “the United States one step closer to protecting that right in law.”

Schumer also said he had “zero doubt” the bill “will soon be law of the land.”

But multiple groups disagree, arguing it’s unconstitutional for the same reasons the Supreme Court struck down DOMA. Because the court already ruled Congress doesn’t have the constitutional authority to define marriage under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, and because ROMA is nearly identical to DOMA, they argue it will also likely be struck down.

The principle is the Federal government has not been granted the power to do anything in this domain. This is a power held by the states. Read the founding documents! It is really simple.

And while I have my blood boiling…

If you think any government has the power to outlaw guns, then you must also believe that same government has the power to mandate gun ownership for anyone.

If you think any government has the power to change the terms of a student loan and not require repayment, then you must also believe that same government has the power to change the terms of the loan and require immediate payment of ten times to remaining principle.

If you think any government has the power to give “free” healthcare to everyone, then you must also believe that same government has the power to deny healthcare (or at least make it extremely expensive) for anyone.

If you think any government has the power to take from the rich and give to the poor, then you must also believe that same government has the power to take from the poor and give to the rich.

If you believe any government has the power to deny marriage to people because they are homosexuals and biologically incapable of conceiving a child then you must also believe that same government has the power to deny marriage to people where one party is infertile.

If you think any government has the power to outlaw marriage between certain classes of people, then you must also believe that same government has the power to mandate marriage between certain classes of people. As in, “John Q. Public, you will marry Jack O. Public next Sunday regardless of what you think of homosexuality and your lack of affection for each other.”

If you think any government has the power to outlaw abortion, then you must also believe that same government has the power to mandate abortions.

I could go on for quite some time, but you get the idea.

Quote of the day—ReneeFiredUp (@livingjoyful)

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Remove all semi automatic weapons.  If we start getting them off the street, in time the criminals will find the illegal ones too expensive and too much liability.  It’s not criminals who are the mass shooters!  #GunReformNow

ReneeFiredUp (@livingjoyful)
Tweeted on November 25, 2022
[If you don’t take anything else away from this, just remember, “no one wants to take your guns.”

There is a grain of truth in this quote. Most did not have a criminal record prior to going on their shooting rampage.

But something almost all have in common is they identified as Democrats or were the children of Democrats. See the updates to this post for the evidence. This should come as no surprise as criminal prisoners who identify as Democrats outnumber all other political affiliations combined by a factor of more than two to one. The mass shooters are just fulfilling their destiny early in their criminal career.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Joe Biden

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The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick.  It’s just sick.  It has no, no social redeeming value.  Zero.  None.  Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.

Joe Biden
President of the United States
November 24, 2022
Remarks by President Biden After Visiting With Local Firefighters
[Enjoy your trial.—Joe]