Category Archives: Politics

Translating the Iran Negotiation Request

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

The swift expansion of US military forces in the Middle East has reached a stage where President Trump could authorize military strikes against Iran as early as this weekend, according to administration and Pentagon officials, The New York Times reported. The development presents the White House with critical decisions about whether to move forward with diplomatic efforts or shift toward armed conflict. There is no “confirmation” from Trump about how to proceed, but efforts to build a military force able to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile arsenal, and related launch sites have continued this week, even as second round of negotiations took place on Tuesday. During those talks, Iran requested two weeks to return with more detailed proposals aimed at reaching a diplomatic solution.

Express Global Desk
February 19, 2026
US-Iran Tensions Live Updates: Geneva Nuclear Talks, USA-Iran Tensions Trump & Khamenei Statements February 18 Latest News

Translation: Iran requested two weeks to prepare for the attack and a counter strike against the U.S. I could also see them using the time attempting to get commitments from Russia for assistance. After all, Iran has been supplying Russia with war materials for several years now. Isn’t it time for Russia to help them?

I’m glad my underground bunker in Idaho is habitable. It is not finished and it needs to be stocked, but it is a far better place to be than in the Puget Sound area in the case of things getting really spicy.

Politicians Politicking

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

At the same time, many anti-gun stalwarts were falling all over themselves to advance arguments that, in any other circumstance, would remain alien. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, submitted waspishly that “the Trump administration does not believe in the 2nd Amendment. Good to know.” Anti-gun rights groups joined the fray. The Giffords campaign argued that Pretti was “a lawful gun owner who was protesting in his community” and “had the right to be there,” and the Brady campaign asserted that he was “a law-abiding gun owner with a concealed carry permit.” At what point, one must ask, did they all turn into Wayne LaPierre?

…

one has to laugh. At present, Gavin Newsom is literally attempting to repeal the Second Amendment, and, in 2023, he signed a bill in California that barred guns from being carried in “sensitive places,” including at protests. (Minnesota has considered a similar law, and, in 2024, the state filed an amicus brief arguing that there is no Second Amendment right to carry guns at “events involving political speech, like political rallies and protests,” because they are “often targets of violence.”) The Giffords campaign wishes to ban the type of firearm that Pretti was carrying on the grounds that it represents “a threat to society” and is “designed to kill large numbers of people quickly,” and it holds the official view that “guns at protests” are not protected by the Constitution because carrying them “chills the exercise of our fundamental freedoms.” The Brady campaign agrees with this, proposing that Americans “do not need a loaded gun to peacefully protest” and should not be allowed to carry one.

The Editors, Nation Review
January 27, 2026
Alex Pretti Shooting: Second Amendment Supporters, Gun Control Advocates Switch Roles | National Review

It appears as if the Republicans started it with saying stupid stuff about Petti committed a crime by protesting ICE activity while carrying a firearm. I have to wonder if it was a coordinated effort to demonstrate the Democrats will take the opposite side of whatever the Republicans says.

After a few seconds of thought, no. I do not think they are smart or coordinated enough to pull that off. I think it is more likely they started it off by vomiting out the first thing that came to mind when it was discovered Petti was carrying a gun when he was killed. “Democrat with a gun? I’m opposed to Democrats. I am on the side of law and order he must have done something illegal…”

I think the Republicans were doing what they usually accusing Democrats of doing. Taking the opposite side of their political opponents no matter how stupid it is to do so.

Politicians have crap for brains.

Hold Legacy Media Responsible for Mass Shootings

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

The link between saturation media coverage of mass murder, spree killing, jihadi attacks and copycat crimes is well established. It must stop.

News-media organizations that persist in literally glorifying these villains beyond any reasonable news value are complicit in encouraging further crime. They know it.

That fact has been established by the medical and law-enforcement communities. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, along with a growing list of national co-sponsors is encouraging the journalism industry to cease and desist from repeatedly flashing the names and faces of mass murderers’ and jihadis’ in their reports.

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
JPFO’s “Don’t Inspire Evil” Initiative
2016 (probably, see also here)

It has been almost 10 years and still the media persists in continuing this dangerous activity. They should bear as much or more responsibility for mass shootings than all the gun owners in the entire country combined. If they think they can justify the Second Amendment being infringed because of mass shootings, then there is more than enough justification to infringe upon their First Amendment rights.

It is not that I think their rights really should be infringed. It is that proposing they be fined and/or jailed for exercising their First Amendment rights would, rightly, generate a great howling of protest. Then, claims of hypocrisy could be thrown at them.

They Will Not Ignore You

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

While there’s certainly always a place for civil disobedience, I think “just don’t comply” and boating accident jokes are not a real solution to the expansion of authoritarian gun control laws.

Hard truth: They don’t care if you don’t comply. Either you’ll get caught breaking the law and charged, or, your defiance will be driven underground and unseen, and they will win the culture in the meantime. Your grandkids will find your gun stash after you die and turn it in.

By making more and more stuff illegal or more expensive, they also choke off any new converts (this is also why the antigun groups are obsessed with pressuring YouTube and others to censor).

You can’t just ignore them, because they will not ignore you.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X, February 10, 2026

There is a lot of truth to that.

Also note that they aren’t going to play to your strengths. They are not going to “go door to door”. They will increase costs through licenses, delays, taxes, lawsuits, zoning, debanking, fines, inspections, fingerprinting, background checks, “sensitive places”, “red flag laws”, “child endangerment”, “safe storage” requirements, semi-auto bans, magazine capacity limits, caliber restrictions, self-manufacturing bans, ammo quantity purchasing limits, age limits, etc.

We need to fight with our strengths. Take new people to range. Donate money to gun groups that win in the courts (I donate thousands each year to the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition). Leave comments on anti-gun media articles.

Most importantly, be a good public representative of gun ownership.

At Best, a Modern-Day Version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

When will there be a national reckoning for those who misled us? None of the dire predictions about carbon emissions throwing us into global catastrophe offered by scientists, politicians, or international organizations over the past 50 years have come true. In the end, the endless string of chilling forecasts failed to terrorize people out of modernity.

By the time it was all said and done — and it feels like the public is about done — there wasn’t a malady, tragedy, or human foible that wasn’t attributed to a slight variation in world climate, including mental illness, diabetes, migraines, prostitution, asthma, dementia, and sexual dysfunction. Climate change has turned us into addicts, thieves, human traffickers, refugees, and warmongers, and accentuated our political divisions.

It’s been 20 years since the release of the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth. In it, Malthusian nutjob and former Vice President Al Gore confidently popularized a slew of unhinged pseudoscientific warnings. Yet the snows of Kilimanjaro are still with us. Glacier National Park is not “formerly known as Glacier National Park.” We have not seen a dramatic increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes — we have seen fewer. There has not been a catastrophic sea-level rise flooding major areas. Despite the hopes of some, Manhattan and Miami remain above water. As do low-lying Pacific islands.

No other group of people would be treated with deference after engaging in such a massive and costly deception.

…

the notion that man-made greenhouse gases pose an existential threat to humankind has been little more than a backdoor way to institute unpopular environmentalist policies and temper economic growth. It’s about time we end the scam. 

David Harsanyi
February 10, 2026
A reckoning for global warming alarmists is past due

At this point, even if the global temperature were to rise and be due to human activity, it would be a modern-day version of the story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” There have been too many failed prophecies to get people to believe the most recent ones. Plus, one should be extraordinarily skeptical of people who make false prophecies. They have a vested interest in getting more people to believe their next prophecies.

Lying and Deception are Inherent Parts of their Culture

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

During one of his training videos, Carita claimed his group has a “strong focus on bringing gun owners into policy discussions.”

However, Carita did not respond to phone calls, texts or emails sent via his website, so there’s at least one gun owner he doesn’t want to bring into any policy discussion. Also, his website’s “contact us” and “media inquiries” buttons have both been disconnected.

Lee Williams
February 4, 2026
Anti-gun Group 97Percent is Back, Now Led by Anti-gun Ex-Cop – TheGunMag – The Official Gun Magazine of the Second Amendment FoundationTheGunMag – The Official Gun Magazine of the Second Amendment Foundation

Typical. They cannot help themselves. Lying and deception are inherent parts of their culture.

No Empirical or Historical Foundation

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

Hawaii is not addressing an unprecedented societal concern posed by permitholders. Data show the opposite: carry-license revocations are exceedingly rare—typically between 0.01% and 0.32% annually—and often unrelated to criminal conduct. Texas conviction statistics show that permitholders are nearly seven times less likely to be convicted of a crime than the general population. Colorado’s arrest-based revocation system shows that permitholders are more than eight times less likely to be arrested. Independent research, from RAND to the Chicago Tribune, and even data collected by the Violence Policy Center, confirm that permitholders offend at far lower rates than ordinary citizens. Concealed carry permitholders are exceptionally law-abiding, and Hawaii’s treatment of them as predatory actors has no empirical or historical foundation.

Kopel, Greenlee, Mocsary, and Goldstein
 NRA amicus brief–Wolford v. Lopez

This is nothing new. Essentially everyone, even anti-gun people, knows the basics of this. The only reasons they continue to harass gun owners with laws against possessing gun for defensive use must be something other than fear of gun owners committing criminal acts.

In my mind the best explanations for this unconstitutional and immoral behavior are:

  • They intend to commit acts against gun owners that they know would get them shot.
  • High violent crime rates against defenseless people increase dependency on the government.
  • Tribal loyalty compels them to be opposed to anything their political enemies advocate.
  • Robbers are the natural ally of the anti-capitalist and the anti-gun people are protecting their allies.
  • They have mental health issues and are unable to think rationally (Peterson Syndrome).

Of course, various anti-gun people can have more than one reason to pursue their evil goals. There is no need to pick just one reason. embrace the power of and. Then, prepare and respond appropriately.

Celebrate Even the Small Victories

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

The ATF shouldn’t exist. But since it does, grab the popcorn and watch the confirmation hearing for its next would-be director.

Gun Owners of America
February 4, 2026
The ATF shouldn’t exist. But since it… – Gun Owners of America | Facebook

During the confirmation hearing on February 7, the “would-be director” said this:

We’re not here trying to burden unnecessarily the American citizen, who has the complete right to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, and we will not be doing that in the future if I am so confirmed.

He is mouthing words which are better than the actions of the director during the Biden administration, but unless he is dismantling the firearms portion of the ATF the agency is always going to be an illegal “burden” (infringement) of the Second Amendment. 4473s and background checks were not part of the history and tradition of firearms regulation at the time of our country’s founding.

Still, we should take one step at a time and celebrate our victories. Having a better director than the last one is a step in the right direction and worthy of mild celebration. Always remember, Laugh, and the World Laughs with You. If nothing else keep in mind that if Robert Cekada is confirmed as director, the anti-gunners will be saddened and demoralized.

Bitcoin, Bullets, Beans, and Bonfires

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

Bitcoin goes off with the electricity. I still have bullets and beans.

MTHead
February 5, 2026
Comment to Loss of Faith

And if the greenback value goes to zero you will still have tinder for starting a bonfire.

Don’t be Anti-Communist, be Pro Freedom

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

A distinctive mark of fascism is its conception of politics, best captured by Carl Schmitt, an early-20th-century German political theorist whose doctrines legitimized Nazism. Schmitt rejected the Madisonian view of politics as a social negotiation in which different factions, interests, and ideology come to agreement, the core idea of our Constitution. Rather, he saw politics as a state of war between enemies, neither of which can understand the other and both of which feel existentially threatened—and only one of which can win. The aim of Schmittian politics is not to share the country but to dominate or destroy the other side.

Jonathan Rauch*
January 25, 2026
Yes, It’s Fascism – The Atlantic

Via email from a reader.

Most of the body of the article is behind a paywall so I only have the part quoted in the email.

As many of you will point out, there is no compromise or coming to agreement with those who want you dead. There is no compromise with those who want a cradle to grave welfare state for everyone. But there is a better way to go about opposing them without risking a death spiral into your own purity test driven genocide of killing all the communists.

There is a fair amount of truth to what I could read in the quote above about the definition of fascism. And I prefer to use the oldest definition I can find. It is from an unabridged dictionary copyrighted in various years from 1927 through1946. In part, the Fascisti were:

… organized in connection with a repressive movement directed against the socialists and communists and the disturbances excited by them during 1919 and the years following, which regarded the government as criminally negligent in failing to deal with these disturbances, and took measure on its own account, often violent ones, to combat them…

Hence, one could say people opposed to socialists and communists meet part of the definition of Fascist. Aside from the increased ease of which the dirty label sticks there are other reasons to not defining yourself as opposed, especially violently opposed, to communists and socialists.

Remember the poem from a couple days ago: Laugh, and the World Laughs with You? If you are an unhappy, angry person you will have fewer people who wish to be around you and join your political bandwagon. Be for something good. Be for freedom. Be for liberty. Be for a booming economy. Be for a wealthy society.

Let the communists and socialist be against that.

* Rauch is not a new name to this blog:

If only that were a Promise

Posted on by

Via Planet Of Memes @PlanetOfMemes

I know it would not be consistent with other memes with the same format, but if someone were to tell me this, my response would be, “Don’t make any promises you can’t keep.” Or perhaps, “Make it 90% and we have a deal.”

Not Analogous

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

The people who scream the loudest about government tyranny have nothing to say. The same people who fantasize about standing up to federal overreach have vanished at the precise moment federal power killed a citizen exercising a constitutional right.

This is the tell.

We have seen this movement erupt before. When Kyle Rittenhouse crossed state lines with an AR-15 and killed two people, he was transformed into a cause. He was fundraised for, defended relentlessly, and held up as proof that armed citizens are the last line of order in a chaotic world. The weapon was the point, and the violence was excused. The narrative was protected at all costs.

But when a man lawfully carrying a firearm is tackled, disarmed, and shot anyway, there is no mobilization from the same crowd. The difference is not the gun. It is who the gun is allowed to protect.

Because the gun-rights movement has never actually been about freedom. It is about hierarchy and about who gets to feel powerful and in charge. It is about whose fear counts, and whose death does not.

Dead children are acceptable collateral. Dead immigrants are invisible. Dead Black and brown men are routine. And now, apparently, dead armed citizens are still not enough to stir outrage unless they fit the right political story.

Cassie McClure
January 31, 2026
Thoughts and prayers for the Second Amendment

The tell is that McClure left out the part where Alex Petti, who is never named in the article, committed a crime and was in the process of being arrested when he was disarmed and erroneously shot during the scuffle. A criminal getting shot by law enforcement during an arrest is much different than Rittenhouse who successfully defended himself against multiple criminals’ intent on killing or seriously injuring him.

The two situations are not analogous. It has nothing to do with the political affiliation, skin color, or immigration status. It has to do with whether the people involved were law-abiding or not.

The only thing clear in the article is McClure does not have a good grasp of reality and/or is being deliberately deceptive.

Still a Sanctuary County

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

It is my intention to assure the residents of Livingston that we are still a Second Amendment sanctuary county, and we will be paying close attention to the bills that will be coming out of Richmond. I will do my absolute best to help protect those citizens and our constitutional values here in Spotsylvania.

Jacob Lane
Livingston District Supervisor (Virginia)
January 30, 2026
Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors message to the state: ‘We are still a Second Amendment sanctuary county’ – Fredericksburg Free Press

With the flurry of gun control laws being enacted in Virginia this is at least a little bit of good news. I don’t think the whole “Second Amendment sanctuary” thing has ever been tested in the legal arena. But at least it is “a spit in their face”.

A Little Risk, a Lot of Gain

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

Several niche, left-leaning gun advocacy groups said that since the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, they can hardly keep up with the surging demand for firearms training.

Harmeet Kaur
February 1, 2026
Leftist and liberal gun groups are seeing a rush of new members

Surely, everyone can see this will result in making it easier to eliminate the infringements on our 2nd Amendment rights. Some people will be concerned of increased odds for violent civil war. What they probably don’t realize is that once someone becomes a gun owner there is increased rate of those people leaving the political left.

I see this as a minor increase in risk with tremendous potential for good.

The Forecast is for Increased Violence

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

So, why escalate to violence? Because the most dedicated communist agitators have no choice. Walz desperately wants a standdown because Trump has not folded. The deportations continue, and the campaign is not getting the response the left hoped for. Sure, the usual eunuchs (Tillis cannot depart the Senate soon enough) are whining, but Trump is holding firm and forcing the state actors to refuse his reasonable requests, like turning over criminals. The Walz types won’t escalate, but the radicals very well could.

Remember, you earn cred as a leftist by going left. You lose it by moderating or compromising. The leftists have talked themselves into a box canyon: Trump is literally Hitler, so how can they stop resisting? No, there will be leftists who want to move on to direct violent action and plenty of social media supporters to cheer it on. Think of it as an opportunity; the one who goes violent first becomes their hero. They will try to do it for max marquee effect and the lowest possible risk – both in terms of the authorities fighting back and judicial accountability…

Kurt Schlichter @KurtSchlichter
Posted on X, January 28, 2026

It is in their nature. See also here.

I want my underground bunker in Idaho completed and stocked.

In related news, today a co-worker and his wife are meeting me in Idaho to look for property to aid in their escape from Washington state. Prices are outlandishly high compared to what I think they should be.

Lawful but Tragic

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

The Renee Good case was clear-cut self-defense. Objectively, she hit the accelerator when her tires were pointed directly at the officer. If the officer had complete omnipotence he would still have been justified in using deadly force.

The Pretti case is different. It still looks like lawful self-defense, but in this case, if the officers were omnipotent, they would NOT have fired. But from the perception of the individual officer in the moment, all they know is that they are dealing with an agitator who has 1) aggressively confronted a federal law enforcement officer 2) unlawfully interfered in an arrest of a third party and 3) violently resisted arrest. And then the officer hears “gun gun gun.” We don’t know exactly what that officer was seeing at the time; maybe the body cam video will be probative, maybe not. But the officer is allowed to rely on the perceptions of his colleagues combined with his own, so if he heard “gun gun gun” and saw Pretti reach for his waist that’s a lawful shoot even if the officer was mistaken.

Will Chamberlain @willchamberlain
Posted on X, January 26, 2026

He meant “omniscient”, not “omnipotent”.

There is at least one video I have seen that appears to show the officer who took Petti’s gun had an AD with it as he was walking away. This, as you might expect, appears to have initiated the shooting of Petti.

If true, it will almost certainly result in it being a lawful, tragic shooting.

Pithy Response

Posted on by

I don’t know that I have ever seen a comeback as short and powerful as the following. It started out with this lengthy observation and commentary. Which got this response:

Dave @snakeeatsapples

You’re a conservative cosplaying as a libertarian.

Wow. That was a short and effective. But the response was devastating:

Aella @Aella_Girl

my bodycount is 500+

I’m proud she is from Idaho.

Judicial Lawfare

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

Let’s talk Judicial Lawfare.

Over 4 years of the Biden administration, 9 district court rulings against the administration were later overturned on appeal. About 2.25 per year.

In 2025 alone, the first year of President Trump’s second term, 32 District Judges have issued 133 rulings against the Trump administration that were stayed or overturned on appeal.

Simplified, District Judges are now issuing rulings that ultimately fail on appeal at more than 50x the rate compared to the previous presidency.

And for the record, when these cases reach the Supreme Court, President Trump’s win rate is roughly 90%.

Chad Mizelle @chad_mizelle
Posted on X, January 26, 2026

Interesting statistics. What is left out that makes me wonder if they are hiding something. Why are the total number of cases are not mentioned for either administration?

Still, I do know the SCOTUS win rate is quite high.

Politicians have no Principles

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

A few Trump Admin officials said some very dumb anti-2A things over the weekend. They got criticism and walked back those statements today. On the actual substantive policy and law, the Admin has generally been very good on the issue, although we do strongly disagree with them on some things.

Democrats, for their part, said some very pro-2A things over the weekend in support of Alex Pretti. But by Monday, they were already back to banning the gun and magazines he carried.

I’d love nothing more for Democrats to truly support the 2A and make the issue less partisan. But that just isn’t the reality. Trump may say things like “take the guns first.” Democrats actually do it.

Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X, January 26, 2026

Barb and I briefly discussed this last night…

As I told Barb, “I don’t believe politicians have actual principles. They will say and do whatever they think is good for them politically.”

So, you have to either make your desires politically rewarding enough for them to obey the law or abandon all hope of them behaving in a constitutional manner. The judges at the SCOTUS level are better and where I place most of my hope of getting the gun issue straightened out. Hence, I donate money to the Second Amendment groups which appear to be most effective in the courts.

My remaining hope is in creating new gun owners and increasing the enthusiasm of existing owners. Hence, my taking new shooters to the range and Boomershoot.

Governments are Not Necessary

Posted on by

Quote of the Day

Is the Hobbesian fear truly rooted in reality? If not, what happens to politics when we allow fear, not cooperation, to become foundational to our framework? Robert Nozick asked these same questions in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. These lucidly written pages extend these arguments even further—with some surprising conclusions.

Aeon J. Skoble—professor of philosophy, bestselling author, and acclaimed political theorist—makes a powerful case that the state as we understand it today is not only morally unjustifiable, but also, thankfully, unnecessary. It has only the power we mistakenly grant it. What if we didn’t?

Packed with urgent lessons, original insights, and unparalleled philosophical rigor, this book is essential reading for anyone who dares imagine a freer world.

Independent Institute
January 26, 2026
Deleting the State: Requiem for an Illusion – eBook, Paperback

I am extremely skeptical. I am of the strong opinion that governments are a necessary evil to protect the rights of the individual. Yes, when they go rogue they can be the greatest infringer of rights. But on the whole, with a well armed populus, they can be a net benefit to humanity.

That said, if the book were available in audible form, I would purchase it just to see what the author has to say.