Politics – Page 6 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Was It Wrong When Your Guy Did It?

I agree that DJT’s EO ending birthright citizenship is unconstitutional. But I’m seeing a lot of this:

Mr. President, amending any part of the Constitution by Executive Order puts every part of the Constitution at risk of being amended by Executive Order. Today itâ€™s the 14th Amendment. Tomorrow it could be the 1st. Itâ€™s OUR Constitution not YOUR Constitution. #ImpeachmentIsNotDead

— Congressman Al Green (@RepAlGreen) October 30, 2018

Unconstitutional Executive Orders? Where could he gave gotten that crazy idea from? I have an Uncle that loves to throw our the charge of “Whataboutism,” also known as pointing out hypocrisy. True Whataboutism is using someone else’s flaws to distract attention away from your own. There are certainly people out there who cheer their team, right or wrong. But a lot of people who do that wrap their cheerleading up in high-minded rhetoric and ideals. Pointing out “No, it’s just cheerleading,” is calling it for what it is. It’s no surprise the people who are having that pointed out to them don’t particularly like it. No one wants to think they are a sucker.

If it is high-minded ideals, can we all agree now that rule by EO, and specifically unconstitutional EO, is a bad thing? If yes, do we have a consensus on dismantling executive power and making the executive branch much weaker than it currently is? Or is it only bad when the other guy has the pen?

On Our Discourse

This is very much worth your time to read. From my social media feeds, I’m seeing a lot more virtue signaling about hate than I am debate over gun control. Â That’s should be a good thing. Who likes hate? But it’s all coming from people who do some pretty impressive hate mongering for anyone who disagrees with them on an hourly basis. There are nazis on every street corner, you see. Trump is responsible for each and every one of them! If you voted for Trump, so are you!

In other words, more than half of my Shabbat morning congregants, and in some more traditional synagogues, almost all of them, should have the doors barred against their entry. Jews who make minyans, pay shiva calls, underwrite nursing homes and kindergartensâ€”people who make Judaism possible, with their flawed but real human presence, for other peopleâ€”should be cast out of our midst because of the levers they pull in the privacy of a voting booth. And what, after all, would a Jew who fled from Iran know about anti-Semitismâ€”or protecting the Jewish community?

Donald Trump is neither a devil or an angel. He is not Hitler, and fascism is not descending on America. I am becoming more convinced this madness is being driven by Baby Boomers who, as a whole, were never properly socialized for social media. I’ve been participating in online communities almost since there were online communities. You have to learn the pitfalls. People are not instinctively wired to interact in this medium.

I do know people my age who are being driven mad by the algorithms, and I know plenty of Boomers who have enough self-awareness necessary to put it in context or just stay away from it. But generationally, Boomers seem to have fewer tools to cope.

Social media is total poison. Even the dealers know it. I have to embrace Social Media to cultivate an audience these days. My motivation to keep doing that, in case you can’t tell, diminishes with the day. I must pay homage to the gatekeepers. They are the first to tell me, daily. Pay us money, and you can access your audience. Once upon a time I earned my audience without transfer payments to Silicon Valley. Not anymore. I won’t pay them, but I pay for it with reduced traffic.

This Could Be a Disaster for Gun Control Too

Bloomberg’s The Trace is touting a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll that shows a lot of voters rank Gun Policy very high on their list of concerns. From Bloomberg’s propaganda wing:

The survey indicates that Republicans’ traditional turnout advantage on the gun issue may have eroded:Â 16 percent of both GOP and Democratic voters ranked gun policy as their most important issue, along with 15 percent of independent voters.

Actually, if you read the poll, GOP voters rank 17%, with Independents ranking 13%. It’s an awful stretch to assume that this means gun control is ascendent. What they are hoping is that people just assume those are gun control votes. We know there are still some Dems who care about gun rights, and I’d be very surprised if most of those independent numbers are votes for gun control.

Gun Policy is very important to me too, and I’d tell a pollster that if asked.

Red Flag is Back in PA

NRA is alerting members on PA bill HB2227. This is the “Red Flag” bill that the GOP has started loving so much.

Under House Bill 2227, a law-abiding gun owner could lose their right to own or possess a firearm and then have the burden placed on them to prove the false nature of the petition in order to have their firearms returned.Â Â This legislationÂ does nothing to improve public safety, and allows for an extremely broad definition of who can petition to remove someone’s Second Amendment rights.

I know other groups are also opposing HB 2060. This basically mirrors federal law on PFAs, which is probably why NRA isn’t opposing it. If you want to throw opposition to HB 2060 into your letters, it couldn’t hurt. It’s not like I think gun control works worth a damn.

Labor Day Reading

I hope you find these as interesting as I did:

Fascism and the Future, Part One: Up From Newspeak

Fascism and the Future, Part Two: The Totalitarian Center

Fascism and the Future, Part Three: Weimar America

Also from the same author:

The Kek Wars, Part One: Aristocracy and its Discontents

The Kek Wars, Part Two: In the Shadow of the Cathedral

The Kek Wars, Part Three: Triumph of the Frog God

The Kek Wars, Part Four: What Moves In The Darkness

I’ve never hung out on the “chans,” so I can’t speak for how true this is, but it’s an interesting analysis. I’m not sure what I think about it yet, but it’s a damned interesting take.

One reason I haven’t been blogging as much is because everything is up in the air right now. The old order is being smashed before our eyes, and I have no idea what the new order will look like.

Pennsylvania Attorney General and Governor Set Themselves Up to be Sued

Today, if I go to Defense Distributed’s CAD files, I get this:

Our AG and Governor are the reason why. Can you articulate where in Pennsylvania law it says I can’t build my own firearm? You can’t, because it doesn’t exist. So what is the legal basis for shutting off access to a website? This is thuggish behavior, and the Governor and AG ought to be rightly sued over it under Section 1983 the the Civil Rights Act. And the best part is I get to pay for it! This has no basis in law. The issue here is that the AG and Governor don’t like something, and have chosen to unlawfully censor it.

Looks like @JoshMBlackman and @alangura are going to have to add @PAAttorneyGen to their suit. https://t.co/v2UCNQGpBR

— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) July 30, 2018

It only took me 2 minutes to get around it with Tor. Can’t stop the signal.

What More Do They Want?

New Jersey is already, arguably, number one or two for states with the strictest gun control, and most unfriendly to gun ownership. But that’s not stopping people from asking for more. Note the typical argument: reducing our interests in preserving the 2nd Amendment down to an economic one, pushed by corporations seeking profit, rather than millions of other citizens who value the right and wish to preserve it. It’s also replete with over the top stuff like this: “How could it be that those who represent us in Congress can stand by while our children and grandchildren are sacrificed to the gun lobby?” Give me a break. You know who did something? New Jersey’s legislature. It went farther than Congress in this guy’s wildest dreams. Yet the author admits:

New Jersey averages 280 gun-related homicides, 184 gun-related suicides, 764 nonfatal interpersonal shootings and 599 unintended shootings per year.

Good thing they have all that gun control, or someone might get hurt.

Bloomberg to Run in 2020?

It would be a good thing for us if he did. He didn’t have much luck reviving the gun control movement when he was the face of it. This will bring him out from the shadows.

This would be good for us. Everytown has done much better with Bloomberg in the background signing checks rather than being the face for gun control. This would put him back front and center. He’s probably counting on the Dems picking the loon, thereby making himself the default non-loon choice. But by 2020, Trump will be a known quantity, and Bloomberg will struggle to do well outside of the big coastal cities. It will be hard for the gun control movement to keep him in the background.

Kennedy Retiring

Justice Kennedy is stepping down. Will this change anything?

Can we put some teeth in Heller and McDonald now? I’ve said before that I’m not really sure Kennedy is the weak link, and have suspected it could be Roberts. It could also be the pro-Heller contingent of the Supreme Court didn’t want to roll the dice again between both Roberts’ and Kennedy’s tendency to go wonky when it’s a controversial issue.

We’ll know when we get a replacement. If we see some grants of cert on 2nd Amendment cases, it will be telling.

Of Course He Does: “Phil Murphy wants to make it a lot more expensive to buy a gun in N.J.”

Murphy wants to balance New Jersey’s budget on the backs of gun owners. Actually, no. Because this won’t even come close to fixing the state’s budget woes. He just wants to screw you.

Gun taxes look to be going up across the board in New Jersey. For gun owners in New Jersey, it doesn’t look like Murphy is done with you by far. Purchase permits go from $2 to $50. FID cards go from $5 to $100. Carry permits go from $50 to $400, but who the hell cares because no one can get one anyway.

You will be made to pay. Murphy will balance the state’s out of control spending on the backs of gun owners. Actually, no. Because this won’t even come close to fixing the state’s budget woes. He just wants to screw you.

I would note that Pennsylvania will be welcoming to New Jersey gun owners, but if you come here, you need to fight. Because your other fleeing compadres are coming here and voting for the same shit that ruined New Jersey.