Thanks for your patience last week. Another client deadline. Same work I was doing before the holidays. But work is a nice distraction from places like Facebook, which show the country is becoming even more divided. I’m starting to think about avoiding Facebook altogether. People who supported Hillary just won’t get over it and go back to their lives. I like politics, but I don’t want a steady diet of it in social media, which to me is for keeping up with friends and family. In the past I’ve blocked people who only share anti-Obama memes and other ridiculous stuff. Now I’m having to block ridiculous anti-Trump memes, but it’s not just a small handful of people. I see very few people worried about the division this is creating. Our issue is kind of fading into the background, which is probably good because then we can make progress:
I’m afraid we’re going to see a lot more of this, as the political situation gets more out of hand. So far I have not been able to find that the shooter is facing any charges.
Reminder: Nearly all politicians, save the precious few who are shooters, arrive at their position on our issue solely out of what they feel will help them get elected. It’s that simple. So the key is making it in their interests not to do crap like this.
Iowa is looking to add a RKBA provision to their constitution.
Charles C.W. Cooke: Constitutional Carry Marches On.
Fake Activists in Florida? We’ve seen this before from Bloomberg.
John Richardson notes that NSSF is getting involved in suicide prevention efforts. At the end of the day, it’s probably better to have suicide prevention advocates working with us than working against us.
Gun owners may now be searched incident to a traffic stop in the 4th Circuit, even if they have a license. Trade one right for another!
Obama’s social security gun grab has been reversed by Congress.
Reason profiles Diane Sykes. If we can get her on the Court in place of one of the liberals, I think we’ll have a solid pro-Second Amendment majority.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, we’re starting to reap the rewards of not turning out in judicial elections and throwing them all to the Dems. Kathy Kane had a lot to do with screwing up our pro-gun majority on the Court as well. She may be rotting in prison, but Bloomberg got what he wanted.
I stopped purchasing guns and ammunition after the election too, but this was the 2008 election. I’ve done precious little shooting in the Obama era… something I’d like to remedy in this Era of Trump.
Beware of 80% lower receivers that have detents, especially if they are for an auto sear. I think ATF has had a no detent policy for a while now. You can use a jig, but the drill holes have to be unmarked.
Another edition of “Your gun sucks and you’re holding it wrongâ€
Off Topic:
Megan McArdle: “The Democrats’ Rise Is Far From Inevitable.”
First Metallic Hydrogen in the lab? Is that like transparent aluminum?
Main thing that comes to mind for metallic hydrogen is that David Drake used it for a grenade filler in one of his stories.
Also, isn’t transparent aluminum basically sapphire?
“I think ATF has had a no detent policy for a while now. You can use a jig, but the drill holes have to be unmarked.”
For a feature to count as absent on an 80 percent lower, it must be completely missing. It may not be marked, detented, or partially drilled/milled.
In regards to the shooting at UW:
My sources say the shooter was hit by a brick thrown by the “victim”. The gun owner shot in defense of himself and others. He turned himself in later while with his attorney. The Seattle police released him on his on recognizance. No charges are expected to be filed by Seattle or King County.
Also, the UW police may have some explaining to do. They were “drinking coffee” while the two groups were heating up and didn’t clear a path for the people wanting to attend the Milo speech.
The UW administration, and their police, want charges filed because “they have a policy against guns”. They are of the opinion that state preemption of firearms law does not apply to them. There is speculation the WA State Attorney General will get involved.
Things are extremely tense on campus right now. Anti-gun people and socialists (the guy who was shot) are getting into brawls with the pro-gun people.
thanks for the info
please keep us updated
This makes me think that any individual who wants to attend something like this, and is concerned that they may need to use a weapon in self defense, should seriously consider having a body camera as well…
Occasionally I’ve been wondering if I should search out and/or design a body camera that would store the last half hour of any sound resembling shouting or gunshots, along with a button that would store the last half hour before the button was pushed, for purposes like this…
“People who supported Hillary just won’t get over it and go back to their lives.”
And if I were being catty (which I don’t want to be) I would suggest that only people who supported Trump would cast things as only “people who supported Hillary” not wanting to “get back to their lives.”
A lot of us opposed Trump because we are anti-fascists and couldn’t swallow apologies for his clearly stated positions that transcended being “dog-whistles,” to being full-fledged “steam whistles.”
Some of us manifested our opposition to Trump by just not voting for anyone; some chose to oppose him by voting for a minor party candidate, or writing-in a candidate; some took him seriously enough to hold their nose with a C-clamp and vote for Hillary. But in every case we opposed Trump more so than we “supported Hillary.”
Nothing has changed other than, that we no longer have to worry about Hillary or Obama anymore. They are no longer in active play. Trump is, and in spades.
So please don’t act like everything is business as usual, the day after our team lost the SuperBowl or something. Nothing is the same; nothing will be the same. Some of us would like to play a part in what is to be.
“I’ve done precious little shooting in the Obama era… something I’d like to remedy in this Era of Trump.”
Me too. If necessary. :-)
I just don’t see Trump as a fascist. A Jacksonian populist, sure, but not a fascist. That’s not to say I particularly love Jacksonian populism, or don’t think things are shifting… but I don’t think we’re going to see brown shirts or an overt police state (though, things are going to go backwards there because American populism loves the law and ordnung).
No Brown Shirts?
Respectfully, you haven’t had your car burned, or stepped around busted shops. Don’t worry, though. I bet it’s coming your way soon enough.
Conservatives need to stop defending themselves from the fascist label long enough to realize that the Brown Shirts are here, and they are beating, punching, burning, censoring and harming us.
No… I live in a quiet suburb.
Ruled by a disquiet capitol…
I’m not picking a fight with you, but we need to start pointing fingers at those who seek to abuse us. They use our willingness to rationally debate when it suits them, but then quickly threaten violence or block traffic to prevent us from speaking out loud when we leave our homes and quiet suburbs.
Soros pays people to get into forums and slowly play conservatives against each other. We’ve all seen it – “take on a persona that shares a single value, then use it to corrupt every other value they have.”
We have shared values. They are good values. They are superior to Progressive values. It is neigh time we stop pretending they are equal.
And I’ll say it out loud and proud: Trump may be a son-of-a-bitch, but for now he’s our son-of-a-bitch. I’ve had enough of one-way rulebooks. The only way to get people to respect the rules is to make them live by their own.
“A Jacksonian populist, sure, but not a fascist.”
Respectfully, a Jacksonian populist who only coincidentally, I’m sure, used virtually every power-seeking tactic out of the European fascists’ playbook from 80 – 100 years ago, and who almost every actual, professing fascist heard so loudly and clearly they came flocking to him.
No. There are many fascist play book entries Trump hasn’t used and it’s very silly to claim he is a fascist. And I say that as one who chose not to vote for him.
Weatherman: Whatever false-flag you are playing here is not working. Hell, even your handle is obvious.
You are the “anti-fascist” who just a few days back suggested that Republican Trump voters were closet racists sitting around the local Cracker Barrel, being all racist “wink, wink, nudge, nudge.” There are as many Progressive tropes in your posts as I see on CNN. Transparent as day.
You said Trump was racist. Today its “fascist”. Let’s play again:
– Trump said his administration will adhere to a policy that requires immigrants and refugees to accept our American culture and other religions. That means they cannot scream “Death to…” anyone, support tossing gay people off buildings, stoning the heads of teenage girls buried in sand up to their shoulders, slicing the genitalia off of young girls, or denying the rights of girls and women everywhere to work and succeed as well as men. Oh, and killing of Jews, Christians or Hindus just because “infidel”.
Question to the resident “anti-fascist”: is Trump fascist when he prevents those values from entering the USA?
– Trump’s Executive Orders this week on deportations of criminal aliens made no new law. They ordered DHS to resume enforcement of Immigration law that Obama ordered ignored, because “pen and a phone”.
Question: Who was more “fascist” – the man who ignored established federal law, or the man who resumed enforcement of that law?
– Today’s Brouhaha was over an order instructing DHS to deny entry to people from seven nations that the Obama Administration (Nat Sec Council, CIA, State, DNI and others) plus the US Congress declared to have inadequate controls or safeguards in place to positively identify persons who wish to visit the USA. That means you could show up at the airport in Yemen, declare yourself “John Smith” and there was no way that Yemen could (or would) positively identify that person to the USA, or provide any background on that person.
Question: Was it “fascist” for Trump to deny entrance to unknown persons from known terrorist-harboring nations?
But here is the real question I’d love to see you answer: Marxism and its offshoots (socialism, communism): are they evil or merely misunderstood? Were Mao, Stalin and Marx pushing an evil ideology, or just the wrong guys to “forward” a great idea?
Come on Weatherman…let’s keep playing.
“Were Mao, Stalin and Marx pushing an evil ideology, or just the wrong guys to “forward†a great idea?”
Since you said this is your “real question,” it is the only one I will bother answering: Mao, Stalin and Marx were using bullshit “ideology” to gain political power. In the process they employed many useful idiots who made that ideology a religion. But, they on the left were nothing but authoritarians, identical to their fascist counterparts on the right — who existed long before it occurred to the Italians to coin the term “fascist.” Both sides turned their bullshit, authoritarian ideologies into de facto religions their useful idiots would die for, to achieve power for them, and to keep them in power. It is in part what George Orwell (a leftist who had seen at least some of the light) alluded to in his “Nineteen Eighty-Four.”
Your spirited defense of a demonstrated authoritarian demagogue shows you have been well-positioned for your team. Nicely played, and very useful to your team captains.
There’s hope for you yet, brother. ;)
Thanks for hanging in there. Hope we get a chance to meet and have a few drinks some day. I’ll buy the first round.
” I’ll buy the first round.”
And I’ll buy the next ten. ;-)
The trick is figuring out how to stand in the path of any ideology’s power.
Question, What political hack was it that said, “The first duty of every politician is to get re-elected.” Or something close to that.
I tried to comment at “No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money” about the partnership of AFSP with NSSF to prevent suicides, but my comment seems to have been eaten by WordPress. But the comment was along these lines:
I think this is a great idea! I have often thought about doing something similar for gun violence, and was pleasantly surprised that CeaseFire (as much as I despise their anti-gun efforts) has a program where they try to work with police departments to identify individuals who would likely participate in violence, and reach out to them. To the degree that they’ve been successful in getting and maintaining funding, their program has largely been a success.
While I can’t suggest partnering directly with CeaseFire (due to their anti-gun efforts), I think it would be a good idea for gun rights organizations to support police departments that partner with CeaseFire, to help reduce gun violence as well.
The goal, after all, is to reduce murder and suicide, as opposed to reducing “gun violence”. The best way to do this is to address the issues at the source, rather than try to ban peaceable citizens from owning inanimate objects!
The metallic hydrogen news is fun stuff.
On a scientific level, it’s a landmark achievement. It is practically a whole new form of matter that has never existed on Earth. It is something we have only theorized about, and now we get to see how the theory holds up.
On an engineering level, it has interesting properties, one of which makes it mostly useless outside of a narrow range of applications. It is basically hydrogen compressed past its liquid and solid phase into a metallic or crystalline structure, so it is an incredibly light metal. It might be a room-temperature superconductor, the holy grail of materials science. Hell, the diamond anvil they built to make the sample is amazing.
It is also an impressive explosive. Impressive as in ‘Fifty times the explosive yield of TNT, pound per pound.’
So, if it is metastable and we find a way to make this stuff on an industrial scale, the biggest use for it will be bomb payloads and rocket fuel. Really good rocket fuel. Some MH-rocket designs on the drawing board might be as efficient as projected nuclear rockets. This could be a revolution in the space industry.