House Democrats Look To Pass Bill Requiring Background Check On All Private Firearm Transfers

On one hand, would it be such a bad thing to have a background check before all purchases and transfers? I’ve stated that I would have no problem requiring a background check on a new gun purchase even though someone had one the previous month, because things can change. But, you know that Democrats will over-reach

House Democrats Plan Push to Criminalize Private Gun Sales

House Democrats plan to introduce legislation criminalizing private gun sales once the new Congress is in session.

Mother Jones reports that Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) met with gun control groups that included the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown for Gun Safety, the Center for American Progress, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and Gabby Giffords’ group. He asked them what they wanted, and a bill to criminalize private gun sales was on their wish list.

So Thompson will sponsor legislation requiring a background check before someone may buy a gun from his neighbor, a co-worker to get a background check before buying a gun from a co-worker, and so forth. The bill will go so far as to require a son to get a background check before a father can give him a gun as a gift.

Private gun sales are legal and have been an American tradition since 1791, the year the Second Amendment was ratified.

Ironically, a ban on private sales would not have stopped a single mass shooting witnessed to this point in the 21st century because nearly every mass shooter acquires his guns at retail via a background check. The exceptions to the rule are the mass shooters who steal their guns.

Interestingly, The Hill makes the same point

Some argue that universal background check legislation will close security gaps in gun purchases and help prevent mass shootings.

Others say that the background checks do not prevent shootings, pointing to the fact that several recent mass shooters, including the gunman who killed 17 people in Parkland Florida last February, passed background checks to obtain their firearms.

If Democrats were smart, they’d push to upgrade the background checks system and fix the existing issues, but, they’ll simply over-reach as they always do.

Meanwhile

Bruce McLaughlin Jr. and Timothy Dill put the jailbreak into motion sometime after 2 a.m. Tuesday. It was the graveyard shift at the jail in Pickens County, S.C., when their fellow prisoners were asleep and, if luck was on their side, the guards were less alert than usual. (they escaped)

But McLaughlin – a tattooed-neck felon who was jailed on charges of grand larceny and first-degree burglary, according to Newsweek – kicked in the kitchen door of a nearby house.

Inside, a woman lay in her bedroom, alone and asleep, authorities said.

McLaughlin picked up a footlong kitchen tool used to hone knives.

A few moments later, authorities received a 911 call.

It was the no-longer-sleeping woman. She had just shot a man, she told dispatchers, and he was dying on the floor outside her bedroom. She had no idea who he was, but he was wearing what looked like jail clothes.

Democrats want to make it much harder for women like the one above to obtain, keep, and carry a firearm. Many of their policies would have required that the gun be kept in a safe or with some sort of trigger lock, so, pretty much useless in the moment.

Read: House Democrats Look To Pass Bill Requiring Background Check On All Private Firearm Transfers »

French Government Surrenders On Fuel Tax Increase

French President Macron went from saying he’d never give in to attempting to negotiate (but there was no actual leader to talk to) to putting a hold on the fuel tax increase for 6 months to surrender. But, don’t think it is a permanent surrender

Macron scraps fuel tax rise in face of gilets jaunes protests

The French government has bowed to gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters and abandoned the fuel tax rise that has sparked more than three weeks of violence and seen parts of central Paris in flames.

Just a day after announcing a six-month freeze on the eco-tax, the Elysée Palace declared it was dropping the measure from the 2019 budget.

Hours earlier, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, had said his government was prepared to reconsider the tax if other solutions could be found to make the transition to cleaner fuel without hitting people in their pockets, as he spoke to MPs during a debate on next year’s finance bill in the Assemblée Nationale.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, the Elysée said that Philippe and the president, Emmanuel Macron, “both wished the increase in the carbon tax be removed” from the budget for 2019.

“The citizen and parliamentary debate in the coming weeks and months will have to find solutions and funding that will meet the challenges of the ecological transition; solutions that will preserve the purchasing power of our citizens,” it added.

See? They won’t be giving up on Doing Something in regards to ‘climate change’, so, expect the taxes to be hidden somewhere.

The government is also looking to find ways to reduce the power bills of citizens after decades of the government being a big cause of rising energy prices

The government also said it would prevent state-controlled EDF from raising its regulated power prices this winter, but rivals said they would challenge that decision in court.

Earlier government attempts at freezing prices have been overruled.

Household power prices are set by independent energy regulator CRE using a formula that includes the price of power generation, transport and distribution. A third part of the retail price is made up of taxes.

“What is being discussed is that the share of taxes in the power price could be reduced in order to compensate for an increase in the generation cost, which on balance would keep prices stable,” said one of the two sources.

The government could lower the valued-added tax (VAT) or so-called CSPE tax, which stands at 22.5 euros per megawatt-hour and raised 3 billion euros ($3.40 billion) this year. Money from that tax also funds power subsidies for low-income families.

An energy ministry official told Reuters that the government was looking at ways to stabilize power bills but said that no final decision had been taken yet.

Government is good at messing things up and increasing your costs but not so good at being able to fix their mess.

Read: French Government Surrenders On Fuel Tax Increase »

This Will Totally Convince You To Pay A Carbon Tax

Ready to pay that tax and give up your liberty?

Read: This Will Totally Convince You To Pay A Carbon Tax »

If All You See…

…is dangerous carbon pollution caused heat snow, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Political Clown Parade, with a post on Macron getting his ass handed to him.

Read: If All You See… »

Sigh: Ivy League School Cuts Little Mermaid Song Over Consent

People were Offended!

Ivy League a cappella group cuts ‘Little Mermaid’ from repertoire amid concerns over consent

A Princeton University a cappella choir started to hum.

A soloist then emerged from the all-male ensemble wearing white tuxedo jackets and black bow ties and burst into song: “There you see her, sitting there across the way. She don’t got a lot to say, but there’s something about her. And you don’t know why, but you’re dying to try — you want to kiss the girl.”

The memorable melody of “Kiss the Girl” from “The Little Mermaid” — and the Princeton Tigertones’s rendition of it — has created a backlash and prompted the a cappella group to remove the Disney tune from its musical repertoire. At issue, it seems, is not only a concern that the lyrics disregard the notion of informed consent but also that the performance plays into it — pulling a man and a woman from the audience, having them dance onstage and, at the end, telling the two to kiss.

Following a scathing op-ed in the Daily Princetonian, the Tigertones saidlast week they will stop performing the song, which the group has been singing for years, at least “until we can arrive at a way to perform it that is comfortable and enjoyable for every member of our audience.” Wesley Brown, president of the Tigertones, wrote in a letter to the editor: “Our group is always striving to impart joy and positivity through our music, and we take very seriously any indication that we fall short of this goal.”

These people just like to suck the joy out of everything. But, hey, get this one

Women are being asked to record ‘consent videos’ before sex by men who are afraid they’ll be accused of rape or assault

A WORRYING new trend is seeing women being asked to record “consent videos” before having sex with men who fear they will be accused of assault afterwards.

This post #MeToo dating trend involves one partner filming the other giving them verbal consent before they engage in a sexual act.

Romantic!

Read: Sigh: Ivy League School Cuts Little Mermaid Song Over Consent »

NY Times: Grassroot Uprisings Are Dangerous For Democracy Or Something

The NY Times editorial board, featuring racist Sarah Jeong, has finally chimed in on the riots in France, and it’s as wacky as you’d expect

Paris Burning

….

A relatively mild hike in fuel taxes, intended to lower France’s carbon emissions, proved to be the last straw for a broad swath of people in the provinces and suburbs who believe that government ministers, bureaucrats, trade unions and especially the political class in a wealthy, complacent Paris are deaf to their economic struggles. Cars are indispensable in their lives, and a fuel tax increase intended to reduce vehicle use was an insufferable insult. Mr. Macron, without much political experience or an established party behind him, failed to see the anger rising, and when it erupted, seemed to have few responses other than retreat.

They’re missing that people in Paris and other bigger French cities were also incensed, and that this mild hike was on the back of other hikes and diesel rising naturally via market forces.

But when the government tried to open talks, there was no one to talk to. Some unofficial interlocutors appeared but were pulled back by threats from other yellow vests. So Mr. Macron and Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe were left with no choice but to retreat, suspending the fuel tax hike and tougher vehicle inspections and freezing gas and electricity prices, while warning that violence would not be tolerated. “I hear this anger, and I have understood its basis, its force and its seriousness,” Mr. Philippe declared. “It is the anger of the French who work and work hard but still have difficulty making ends meet, who find their backs against the wall.”

The retreat is a dangerous gamble. In the view of the demonstrators, Mr. Philippe and his boss heard their anger only when they started torching cars on Avenue Kléber, not when it smoldered in distant villages. Social media is already buzzing with calls for more. Demands now include Mr. Macron’s resignation and dissolution of the Parliament.

Can you feel the sneering towards those darned little people who are tired of the political elites mucking up their lives? But, they are correct in one thing: it does set a dangerous precedent when a duly elected government retreats in the face of riots. Funny how we never heard the same thing in regards to all the Leftist and Black Lives Matter and such riots here in the States.

Such steps would be big mistakes. Certainly Mr. Macron and his government have to pay much closer heed to the France outside Paris and other big cities, and they need to make far greater efforts to explain their measures and to lower their burden on the many people struggling at the borderline of poverty.

You can either explain the measures or lower the burden which had been caused by the same government: you cannot do both. That poverty is being caused by government. It is funny when the NY Times says the French government should listen to those outside Paris (being the capital and a big city), when the Times itself sneers at people outside in the suburbs and rural areas here.

But the power of social media to quickly mobilize mass anger without any mechanism for dialogue or restraint is a danger to which a liberal democracy cannot succumb. Mr. Macron and the Parliament were democratically elected only 18 months ago, and the reforms they have been pursuing, both within France and in the European Union, and on the environmental front, were what they openly promised in those elections and what France needs.

Maybe it’s time for the politicians to shut up and listen, rather than having “dialogue”, which often ends with government doing whatever the hell it wants, like mom putting her foot down.

One thing they are correct on is that Macron and co. are doing what they said they would do. And Warmists became very upset when they realized that all the climate policies would impact their own lives. That should be a lesson for Warmists, all the Progressives/Marxists/Socialists, let’s just call them Statists, who want the same. All these Big Government policies, including ‘climate change’ ones, aren’t just going to impact Other People, buttercups.

Read: NY Times: Grassroot Uprisings Are Dangerous For Democracy Or Something »

Rep. Mazie Hirono: Democrats Are Just Too Smart To Connect With Voters

This clip should be run ad nauseum by the GOP and every Republican candidate from June 2020 through election day

Not elitist in the least

(Fox News) Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, on Tuesday told a conference that she heard one of the reasons that her party has a difficult time connecting with voters is because Democrats know so much, and have a tendency of appealing to voters’ minds instead of their hearts.

Hirono made the comment at a conference in Washington, D.C. She was asked by the moderator about ways Democrats could drive voter turnout.

“I wish I had the answer to that because one of the things that we, Democrats, have a really hard time is connecting to people’s hearts instead of [their heads],” Hirono said. “We’re really good at shoving out all the information that touch people here [pointing to her head] but not here [pointing to her heart].”

Hirono, 71, said Democrats need to stop speaking in a way that comes off as manipulative or strokes fear and resentment.

“But we have a really hard time doing that and one of the reasons– it was told to me at one of our retreats– was that we Democrats know so much, that is true. And we have kind of have to tell everyone how smart we are and so we have a tendency to be very left brain,” she continued.

Well, she is correct on one thing, in that Democrats are uber-manipulative and stoke fear and resentment. But, if she thinks that this type of elitist claptrap will help in an age where the average voter are demanding to be heard over the elites, she has another thing coming.

Read: Rep. Mazie Hirono: Democrats Are Just Too Smart To Connect With Voters »

Guy Who Uses Tons Of Fossil Fuels Wishes He Could Time Travel To Get Rid Of Fossil Fuels

No, not that guy. Not the other one. Or those over there. This one

From the article

Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wishes he could travel back in time like the cyborg he played in “The Terminator” so he could stop fossil fuels from being used.

“If we would’ve never started in that direction and used other technology, we’d be much better off,” the actor and former California governor said Monday at the start of a U.N. climate conference in Poland.

“The biggest evil is fossil fuels: it’s coal, it’s gasoline, it’s the natural gas,” he told conference delegates. (snip)

Schwarzenegger later told The Associated Press he has converted his signature Humvee trucks to run on hydrogen, electricity and biofuel and only allows himself to eat meat three days a week.

“I mean, maybe it tastes delicious, but I think we should think then and there before we eat about the world and about the pollution,” he said. “So I discontinued eating meat four days a week. And eventually, maybe we’ll go to seven days”.

Note that he is giving this speech in……..Poland! Did he fly in a hydrogen lifted blimp? A direct flight (roundtrip) from LA to Katowice, Poland on a commercial jet produces 11.2 metric tons, which is much higher than the average carbon footprint that most people in the world have for a year. An old survey has the average US yearly carbon footprint at around 19mt, which has gone down a bit.

Read: Guy Who Uses Tons Of Fossil Fuels Wishes He Could Time Travel To Get Rid Of Fossil Fuels »

If All You See…

…is carbon pollution causing a polar vortex leading to snow, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Legal Insurrection, with a post on how #MeToo is harming women on Wall Street.

Read: If All You See… »

Surprise: 63% Of Non-Citizens Use Welfare, Higher Than U.S. Citizens

Guess how they figured this out? With a census

Census confirms: 63 percent of ‘non-citizens’ on welfare, 4.6 million households

A majority of “non-citizens,” including those with legal green card rights, are tapping into welfare programs set up to help poor and ailing Americans, a Census Bureau finding that bolsters President Trump’s concern about immigrants costing the nation.

In a new analysis of the latest numbers, from 2014, 63 percent of non-citizens are using a welfare program, and it grows to 70 percent for those here 10 years or more, confirming another concern that once immigrants tap into welfare, they don’t get off it.

The Center for Immigration Studies said in its report that the numbers give support for Trump’s plan to cut non-citizens off welfare from the “public charge” if they want a green card that allows them to legally work in the United States.

“The Trump administration has proposed new ‘public charge’ rules making it harder for prospective immigrants to qualify for lawful permanent residence — green cards — if they use or are likely to use U.S. welfare programs,” said CIS.

“Concern over immigrant welfare use is justified, as households headed by non-citizens use means-tested welfare at high rates. Non-citizens in the data include illegal immigrants, long-term temporary visitors like guest workers, and permanent residents who have not naturalized. While barriers to welfare use exist for these groups, it has not prevented them from making extensive use of the welfare system, often receiving benefits on behalf of U.S.-born children,” added the Washington-based immigration think tank.

The numbers are huge. The report said that there are 4,684,784 million non-citizen households receiving welfare.

If someone is applying for citizenship, part of the requirment is that they must be able to pay for their own lives. They cannot be on welfare or other public assistance. These are people who are here legally, such as green card holders, permanent legal residents, refugees, and such, as well as illegally, as even if they are barred by federal law, some states will give them public assistance.

Unfortuantely, those who are naturalized are ending up on some sort of public assistance after being naturalized. Most countries require that those who are coming/being let in/looking for citizenship be able to take care of themselves, rather than be a drain on society. The U.S. seems to be allowing in people who immediately go on the public dole.

The Center for Immigration Studies notes a few things, including

  • The primary reason welfare use is so high among non-citizens is that a much larger share of non-citizens have modest levels of education and, as a result, they often earn low wages and qualify for welfare at higher rates than natives.
  • Of all non-citizen households, 58 percent are headed by immigrants who have no more than a high school education, compared to 36 percent of native households.
  • Using education levels and likely future income to determine the probability of welfare use among new green card applicants — and denying permanent residency to those likely to utilize such programs — would almost certainly reduce welfare use among future permanent residents.
  • Of households headed by naturalized immigrants (U.S. citizens), 50 percent used one or more welfare programs. Naturalized-citizen households tend to have lower welfare use than non-citizen households for most types of programs, but higher use rates than native households for virtually every major program.

Why are we allowing them in?

Read: Surprise: 63% Of Non-Citizens Use Welfare, Higher Than U.S. Citizens »

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