• Via Go Local Prov: Senate Approves Large Magazine Ban on Floor – Bypassing Own Committee

    The bill was part of a larger package of gun infringement laws, most in direct contradiction to the constitution:

    Article I, § 22 of the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

    The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

    Last time I quoted from Google Search referencing Giffards. I love that the RI RKBA is so short and clear.

    The Democrats had a large slate of bills infringing on the RKBA. It got side tracked into committee where it stalled in a 50/50 split.

    Because they weren’t winning via normal means, the Dem’s pulled this one bill out of committee to the floor where they voted on it and passed it.

    I don’t directly follow RI politics but I believe this means the bill is on the way to the governors office for signature now. This is a ban on standard capacity magazines.

  • Via Fox News Jean-Pierre claims Americans can ‘take on inflation’ because of Biden American Rescue Plan

    In an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon:

    Jean-Pierre said on CNN that Americans must understand the position President Biden was in when he took office and asserted that the U.S. economy is “bouncing back.” She added that the administration believes they are in a “good position” to take on inflation.

    “We’ve got to remember when thinking about gas prices and food this is coming from Putin’s war against Ukraine,” Jean-Pierre caveated. “The moment that Putin amassed forces on the border of Ukraine, we saw from then until now, we have seen a $2 increase per gallon on gas.”

    Nothing is Joe’s fault. It is all the fault of the mean tweets.

    She said that because of the American Rescue Plan we are all in a place where we can “take on” inflation.

    I’m sorry, I’ve not seen my income increase to match inflation. I’ve not seen my wife’s salary increase.

    What I’ve seen is that the gap between income and expenses is getting very very thin and soon will be near zero. We are already making decisions on which of two items we purchase. Do we feed the vehicles or do we feed the family. Fortunately for us we have food. It is the costs of everything else that scares me.

  • From Bloomberg via yahoo news: Biden Ally Floats 21% Surtax on Oil Profits to Blunt Inflation

    “The proposal I’m developing would help reverse perverse incentives to price gouge, by doubling the corporate tax rate on companies’ excess profits, eliminating egregious buybacks and reducing accounting tricks,” [Senator Ron] Wyden said about the proposal he plans to introduce in the coming weeks. “By contrast, companies that provide relief to consumers by either reducing prices or investing in new supply would not be affected.”

    Inflation isn’t caused by any policy of Joe or the Democrats, nope, it is those evil nasty capitalist oil companies being greedy.

    If greed was the driving force, wouldn’t they oil companies have raised their prices long ago to maximize their profits? It would be much easier to sell $2.99/gal gas to public than $5.25/gal.

    To quote somebody wiser than me: The beatings will continue until moral improves

  • A California pet shop and shelter is working to address wrong think.

    “We do not support those who believe that the 2nd amendment gives them the right to buy assault weapons,” Kim Sill, owner of the Shelter Hope Pet Shop in Thousand Oaks, wrote on the organization’s website. “If your beliefs are not in line with ours, we will not adopt a pet to you.”

    While the Constitution states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, Kim Sill is of the opinion that doesn’t apply to assault weapons.

    She has determined that in order for you to adopt (buy) an animal from them you must prove you are scared of firearms and hate them. You will be grilled in a long and detailed interview.

    “If you forster for us and believe in guns, please bring our dogs and/or cats back” Kim said. Expressing her firmly held belief that guns are imaginary. And that you are unfit to be a pet owner if you believe in guns.

    Being a member of the NRA will also disqualify you. Never mind that the no mass murder has been a member of the NRA nor has the NRA ever advocated for murder. And the NRA being the oldest civil rights organization, fighting to get blacks equal protection doesn’t count.

    Animal shelter bans pro-gun supporters from adopting dogs

  • The NSBA is the group that worked with the Biden DOJ to come up with a letter painting parents as domestic terrorists.

    The old game of “If you aren’t calm we are going to remove you from the room.” Parents that were angry and speaking in anger were told they were the worse possible people. All the while petty bureaucrats did all they could to block transparency into what was happening in the schools.

    A number of state school board associations left shortly after the NSBA sent their letter to the DOJ demanding that the DOJ investigate parents. What most didn’t see is that many states are just no renewing their memberships.

    Nebraska Association of School Boards being the latest to cut ties with the NSBA. They just waited till their membership expired then voted not to pay to remain.

    Keep it in mind that some types of resistance take a bit of time to actually take affect.

  • Opinion: Protect the right to keep and bear arms, reject fear, and pass Iowa’s Freedom Amendment

    The proposed Freedom Amendment reads:

    “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”

    There are only six states that do not have some sort of state constitutional guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms. Iowa is one of those states and they are working to fix the issue.

    The article has a link to the opposite opinion so they are trying to be balanced.

  • From Discord at Supreme Court mirrors diminishment of democratic norms

    The warnings from dissenting liberal justices battling the conservative supermajority have become overt. Justice Sonia Sotomayor referred last Wednesday to “a restless and newly constituted Court” that “sees fit … to foreclose remedies in yet more cases” in a decision limiting civil lawsuits against federal agents who violate constitutional rights.

    Note the standard CNN methodology of cropping quotes. It really isn’t all that hard to give full context and references.

    Seems that Sotomayer decided to call out those that disagree with her at a personal level. Not all that surprising.

    But you have to see that it is everybody on the court complaining. Clarence Thomas spoke of distrust among the justices. Not mentioned was that he was talking about the leaked draft opinion. So yeah, it might be a good thing to show a bit of distrust. And Alito talked about an indefensible opinion.

    And it is absolutely horrible how law clerks for the court are being forced to sign affidavits and turn over phone records. Because somebody broke the law. And it is horrible how these law clerks have to behave while under a “cloud of suspicion”.

    According to a Harvard professor of American legal history, Michael Klarman. It hasn’t been this tense in the court since the 1930s when Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) coerced the court into ruling in his favor by threatening to pack the court. Good thing the Justices saw the light, as it were.

    And the conservatives are breaking our democracy by curtailing the deep state of regulatory authority. It is just so dangerous to follow the Constitution and have congress make laws, not to have an agency create law (regulations which are enforced with guns, threats of imprisonment and/or financial ruin) that are adjudicated by agency employees.

    And of course, words have meaning, it is the courts up coming opinion on “New York state’s longstanding permit system for carrying handguns outside of the thome” that is the issue, not the corrupt “may issue” after you show that you have an unusual need.

    And the one that gets me “Conservative justices have been pressing for the expansion of Second Amendment rights,…” How is it an expansion when the right is “Shall not be infringed”?

    Just spin and more spin. Go read if you’ve taken your BP meds.

  • According to CNN, there are lots of different theories on why Joe is doing so badly in the polls. But the real reason isn’t that he is an awful, no good, rotten leader that proposes horrible policies that are destroying everything. Nope, that’s not it at all.

    It is:

    …Biden’s support among Democrats declined from 95% at the start of his presidency to 85% by early 2022. Trump, on the other hand, had lost only 1% of Republicans over a similar time period during his presidency, going from 87% to 86% in approval. What could likely account for Biden’s comparatively worse losses among members of his own party is the insidious influence of what I call the “fan fiction left.”

    See, it is these democrats writing fan fiction that is causing the low approval ratings.

    See the claim that the DNC rigged the primaries for Hillary and forced Bernie out is just made up. Oh, you don’t want to talk about the superdelegates? I remember telling a Bernie fan girl he wasn’t going to win the primary. She didn’t believe me when I explained the superdelegates. She told me I was right after the election.

    I just can’t parse this one:

    Even though powerful Republicans believe in the neo-Nazi “great replacement theory,” voter suppression and racist gerrymandering are prevalent, and many states are passing legislative assaults on women’s rights and LGBTQ rights, concerns about racism, sexism, and homophobia are only bourgeois “identity politics.”

    The fan fiction dems don’t believe that Trump supporters are hateful, irrational and violent. They are must misled in the minds of fan fiction dems.

    Oh, and the fan fiction dems actually believe that Russiagate was a hoax.

    The entire article is about how Joe’s approval is tanking because some dems are writing that maybe the media was lying to them for the last 6 years.

    Not the price at the pump nor the prices in the grocery store. Nope, it is believing those horrible lies that Republicans tell.

  • Saying the quiet part outloud NPR has an article, There are 2 ways the media covers mass shootings. Here’s why the difference matters talking about to different ways of reporting on events.

    The gist boils down to: Do you show individual stories that are easy to connect to at an emotional level, stories that tear at the heart strings.
    Or: Do you show the larger context that puts prospective on the event?

    And the answer they come up with…. Drum roll please…

    Emotional manipulation…

    There is no way to move forward on banning guns, oops “common sense gun regulations”, unless we get people to react to heart rending individual stores. So focus on that.

    Do what is necessary to get yet more gun regulations.

  • A few months ago I asked permission from Miguel to post my series on the rule of threes (I’m still going on it.) He said “Yes, do it!”

    Then he told J.Kb. and me that he was tired and was closing the blog and it was our job to carry on. I took the offer of being a part of what followed very seriously.

    I want to contribute to the blog in ways other than just technical. Yes, I’m good at fixing hacks and such, but if I was to be a part of what followed I had to step up.

    This is freaking hard!

    It use to be that I’d send an article every couple of weeks to Miguel and he’d either write about it or not or just give me a brief email acknowledgement.

    Now I look at every news story that flows by as a potential posting. I look at how do I add value to this article. How do I add value to the blog when reporting about something that other people report. How do I make sure I don’t just end up reading articles from one side. I have to venture into the deep dark parts of the web, like NPR, CNN and Lord help me, Vox.

    It is a pain.

    I know that Miguel pulls from twitter. I don’t have a twitter account and I don’t want to be following dozens of morons, just to be able to report on the latest stupid thing Moms Demand says or does.

    So thank you from the bottom of my heart for the years and years of posts from both Miguel and J.Kb. You guys are freaking amazing.