California Governor Signs Sanctuary State Bill In Rebuke To Trump Or Something

By William Teach October 6, 2017 – 7:03 am

When this passed the California General Assembly, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown would sign it. Many outlets, particularly in Brokeifornia, are attempting to make the link that this is about being a rebuke towards Trump, a defiance. That would rather mean that it isn’t about supporting illegal aliens, right, just about being oppositional for the sake of being oppositional

California becomes ‘sanctuary state’ in rebuke of Trump immigration policy

Under threat of possible retaliation by the Trump administration, Gov. Jerry Brown signed landmark “sanctuary state” legislation Thursday, vastly limiting who state and local law enforcement agencies can hold, question and transfer at the request of federal immigration authorities.

Senate Bill 54, which takes effect in January, has been blasted as “unconscionable” by U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, becoming the focus of a national debate over how far states and cities can go to prevent their officers from enforcing federal immigration laws. Supporters have hailed it as part of a broader effort by majority Democrats in the California Legislature to shield more than 2.3 million immigrants living illegally in the state.

Brown took the unusual step of writing a signing message in support of SB 54. He called the legislation a balanced measure that would allow police and sheriff’s agencies to continue targeting dangerous criminals, while protecting hardworking families without legal residency in the country.

“In enshrining these new protections, it is important to note what the bill does not do,” Brown wrote. “This bill does not prevent or prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security from doing their own work in any way.”

That last part seams to be an attempt to head off the retaliation sure to come from the Department Of Justice over a state declaring that they will refuse to enforce federal laws in full, just the ones they like, and that the state will, for the most part, refuse to cooperate with federal officials when it comes to people who are unlawfully present in the United States.

Legal experts have said federal officials may try to block the law in court to keep it from being implemented. Some doubt such challenges would be successful, pointing to the 10th Amendment and previous rulings in which courts have found the federal government can’t compel local authorities to enforce federal laws.

Suddenly, Liberals care about the 10th Amendment. If they truly believe this, then this means that states do not need to follow federal guidance and laws on things like transgenders and gay marriage, right? That they do not need to follow the Environmental Protection Act, right? Or laws on ‘climate change’, right? Or a raft of gun laws, right? Choose wisely, Liberals. Who also bleated that the Arizona law on illegal aliens violate federal law. Can’t have it both ways.

It’s not a rebuke of Trump: it’s a rebuke of duly passed federal law which Trump is enforcing, law for which the federal government was given the task of dealing with any and all immigration by the Constitution. Regardless, this being Trump, you can expect him to deploy tons of ICE agents to California to pick illegals up in all the places liberals complain about, like at court. Or, he could simply discuss this in a way that will get as many illegals as possible to stream to California, further destroying the infrastructure and tax base.

In the North State area of California, though, they are in opposition to this legislation

A handful of North State counties and cities passed declarations earlier this year saying they’d help federal immigration officials nab undocumented immigrants who ended up in jail, but now’s the time to see how that really plays out. As of Thursday, those anti-sanctuary jurisdictions are operating inside an official “sanctuary state.” (snip)

The first to introduce the idea of an anti-sanctuary resolution, Tehama County Supervisor Bob Williams, said Thursday that the new law is “little more than another piece of ‘Resist Trump’ legislation that seems to be in fashion in Sacramento these days.”

Pretty much

“Instead of federal immigration sending two officers in one car to the jail to pick up and deport the offender, they may instead send a group of officers, dressed in full gear, to the last known address of the offender, to arrest and deport every undocumented individual in that household,” he said.

AG Sessions would be up for this

“This law will cause the further release of criminals such as repeat drunk drivers, thieves, gang members and more from the jail here and jails throughout California,” Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said in a statement Thursday. “These are criminals who are illegal undocumented persons victimizing our citizens.”

California Dems do not care. They have some resisting to do. And they’ll Blamestorm others when this policy creates more problems for citizens.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Surprise: NY Times Recommends Repealing The 2nd Amendment

By William Teach October 5, 2017 – 5:56 pm

Remember when we were told that the NY Times was hiring a conservative for the opinion pages? Now go back and look at the body of work for Brett Stephens. He makes other so-called Republicans, like the Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker and Jennifer Rubin look like the second coming of Reagan.

Repeal the Second Amendment

I have never understood the conservative fetish for the Second Amendment.

From a law-and-order standpoint, more guns means more murder. “States with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides,” noted one exhaustive 2013 study in the American Journal of Public Health.

From a personal-safety standpoint, more guns means less safety. The F.B.I. counted a total of 268 “justifiable homicides” by private citizens involving firearms in 2015; that is, felons killed in the course of committing a felony. Yet that same year, there were 489 “unintentional firearms deaths” in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Between 77 and 141 of those killed were children.

From a national-security standpoint, the Amendment’s suggestion that a “well-regulated militia” is “necessary to the security of a free State,” is quaint. The Minutemen that will deter Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are based in missile silos in Minot, N.D., not farmhouses in Lexington, Mass.

It’d be a whole lot safer if we banned hammers, baseball bats, and motor vehicles. Oh, and bathtubs. Can’t forget about them.

I wonder what Madison would have to say about that today, when more than twice as many Americans perished last year at the hands of their fellows as died in battle during the entire Revolutionary War. My guess: Take the guns—or at least the presumptive right to them—away. The true foundation of American exceptionalism should be our capacity for moral and constitutional renewal, not our instinct for self-destruction.

He’d say that that enshrining the 2nd as a specific Amendment was designed to make it so gun grabbers (say, does the Times still have armed security in their building?) would have a really, really tough time attempting to take firearms away from citizens. They made it the 2nd amendment for a reason.

Also, some, like National Review, are trying to say this is more of a warning to Democrats. Hogwash. The first 7-8 paragraphs say that Stephens specifically wants to do away with the 2nd.

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 5, 2017 – 1:00 pm

…is an area flooded because Someone Else took a fossil fueled flight, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Daley Gator, with a post on “automatic rounds.”

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Report: Trump Admin Plans To Scrap The Clean Power Plan

By William Teach October 5, 2017 – 10:53 am

Media folks seem shocked by this development, even though Trump promised to do this multiple times

(UK Independent) The Trump administration reportedly plans to repeal the Clean Power Plan, a “game changer” of a piece of Obama era climate change legislation.

Reuters said it had seen a document “distributed to members of the agency’s Regulatory Steering Committee” about “issuing a proposal to repeal the rule” and opening up a comment period for replacement legislation.

The CPP, called a “game changer” by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2015 after it was passed into law, regulates the carbon emissions of power plants.

By game changer, they mean it could cost up to 300,000 jobs annually, reduce GDP by over $2 trillion, and cost citizens $7,000 per. All while make no change on the environment and the climate.

Anyhow, remember that 27 states sued over the plan

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals had suspended the regulation at the request of the Trump administration in April 2017 and set a 6 October deadline to get a report for the EPA about it will proceed, which could explain the timing of the intention to repeal being made public now.

In fact, the plan was temporarily blocked under the Obama administration, pending litigation. The lawsuit was put on hold till Team Trump came up with a response as to what they intend to do. Now we await what they will do.

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Illegal Aliens Want A Clean Immigration Bill Or Something

By William Teach October 5, 2017 – 8:23 am

Exactly what makes people who are unlawfully present in the United States think they have the right to demand legislation? It’s like petty thieves demanding they have a say in laws about petty theft. Of course, Democrats, and the tiny number of squishy Republicans, who have empowered illegal aliens into thinking they have a say

Advocates call for passage of ‘clean’ immigration law

Immigrant advocates and officials in Las Cruces on Wednesday demanded passage of “clean” legislation that would protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation without being tied to funds for a border wall or an influx of immigration agents along the border.

The call by New Mexico Comunidades en Acción y de Fé, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima and Las Cruces resident Yadira Ramirez, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, came the day before a crucial deadline for eligible participants of the DACA program to apply for permit renewals.

“New Mexico CAFé leaders and clergy are fighting for nothing less than a clean Dream Act,” Johana Bencomo, a community organizer for N.M. CAFé, said. “One that will protect millions of Dreamers and give them a pathway to citizenship all the while not criminalizing millions of other undocumented immigrants and not further militarizing our border communities by adding more Border Patrol agents, more ICE agents, funding for a needless wall and further increasing detention bed quota.”

This is the exact kind of thing that will cause people who are willing to consider some sort of legal option (I would support Rand Paul’s legislation, though there are still a few issues) to turn away. The illegals want to have their cake and eat it too. If there are no border protections, no measures to reduce illegal immigration, no penalties, all those who are open to a compromise will turn away, including more than enough elected Republicans who will vote any sort of “clean bill” down.

And then where will you be, illegals/Dreamers? Calling for legislation that gives you everything while enabling even more illegal immigration is not the answer. If legalization for Dreamers fails, this will be on you. You really shouldn’t be given any sort of legalization pathway. Do you want to destroy the change to get one? Choose wisely.

More: and here’s at least one Democrat lawmaker advocating the same

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Statistician: Typical Gun Control Recommendations Won’t Make A Difference

By William Teach October 5, 2017 – 7:53 am

Leah Libresco drops a piece at the Washington Post, which is reprinted at a few other outlets, that sets the gun grabbers off

I used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise.

Before I started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate me. I wished the National Rifle Association would stop blocking common-sense gun-control reforms such as banning assault weapons, restricting silencers, shrinking magazine sizes and all the other measures that could make guns less deadly.

Then, my colleagues and I at FiveThirtyEight spent three months analyzing all 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and I wound up frustrated in a whole new way. We looked at what interventions might have saved those people, and the case for the policies I’d lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence. The best ideas left standing were narrowly tailored interventions to protect subtypes of potential victims, not broad attempts to limit the lethality of guns.

I researched the strictly tightened gun laws in Britain and Australia and concluded that they didn’t prove much about what America’s policy should be. Neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun related-crime that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans. Mass shootings were too rare in Australia for their absence after the buyback program to be clear evidence of progress. And in both Australia and Britain, the gun restrictions had an ambiguous effect on other gun-related crimes or deaths.

When I looked at the other oft-praised policies, I found out that no gun owner walks into the store to buy an “assault weapon.” It’s an invented classification that includes any semi-automatic that has two or more features, such as a bayonet mount, a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher mount, a folding stock or a pistol grip. But guns are modular, and any hobbyist can easily add these features at home, just as if they were snapping together Legos.

As for silencers — they deserve that name only in movies, where they reduce gunfire to a soft puick puick. In real life, silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don’t make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer. Magazine limits were a little more promising, but a practiced shooter could still change magazines so fast as to make the limit meaningless.

The piece obviously, keeps going on for a bit, and is worth reading it all. She hasn’t become pro-gun, she doesn’t want one in her home, but, she can’t endorse policies drafted by “people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news.” She does think there should be policies which are very specific, like for potential suicide victims.

Or, how about banning bump-stocks? I’m good with banning them. Anyway, she ends with

We save lives by focusing on a range of tactics to protect the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers, not from sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.

In other words, we should not violate the Constitution Right of the law abiding. Instead, we should go after the criminals, while also seeing if there are specific things we can do for potential suicides.

This has enraged Vox’s German Lopez, who decides to do a bit of mansplaining to Leah. It’s a long, long, long boring article, attempting to say that things Democrats recommend will totally work, but, still misses the mark

But despite the article’s headline and author Leah Libresco’s data journalism credentials, the column is surprisingly thin on studies and data. In fact, it cites no specific studies on gun control whatsoever.

The opinion piece was not about slapping up tons of data from someone who spent three months researching. Interestingly, German forgets that all the policies that Democrat gun grabbers trot out fail to tell us exactly what will occur if implemented. For instance, they all want the so-called “universal background checks.” OK, if implemented, what is the expected reduction in crimes that use guns? How many lives will be saved?

Banning assault rifles: again, what is the reduction in the use of guns in crimes? The previous one did not make a difference. Why would a new one change the results?

What German does spend time on is saying that the more guns there are, the more shootings. Which studies show is wrong. Essentially, German is going for the gun grabbing/banning method. He fails to produce any evidence that all the policies that Democrats propose, such as universal background checks, would reduce crimes using guns. All he wants is gun grabbing.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Good News: We Can Now Produce Electricity From Liberal Tears

By William Teach October 4, 2017 – 1:25 pm

And there are tons of liberal tears over everything. Someone says something mean? Tears. Writes something that is Wrongthink? Tears. Has an American flag? Massive abortion of Black babies? Well, more cheers from Liberals. But, now we can make energy with them. In theory (vie Watts Up With That?)

Irish scientists can now produce electricity from tears

A team of Irish scientists has discovered that applying pressure to a protein found in egg whites and tears can generate electricity. The researchers from the Bernal Institute, University of Limerick (UL), Ireland, observed that crystals of lysozyme, a model protein that is abundant in egg whites of birds as well as in the tears, saliva and milk of mammals can generate electricity when pressed. Their report is published today (October 2) in the journal, Applied Physics Letters.

The ability to generate electricity by applying pressure, known as direct piezoelectricity, is a property of materials such as quartz that can convert mechanicalenergy into electrical energy and vice versa. Such materials are used in a variety of applications ranging from resonators and vibrators in mobile phones to deep ocean sonars to ultrasound imaging. Bone, tendon and wood are long known to possess piezoelectricity.

We now need to do everything we can to hook up all the Warmists, and Leftists in general, to machines which will make them sad and weepy.

BTW, since I swiped that graphic, you can purchase them here.

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 4, 2017 – 1:00 pm

…is snow disappearing from a mountain because Other People didn’t march for climate change, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post on transgender social contagion being like 1692 Salem.

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Los Angeles Learns That “Going Green” Is Pretty Expensive, And Government Needs To Fix The Problem It Caused

By William Teach October 4, 2017 – 8:40 am

Especially when the Helpful Hand Of Government is involved, as the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board notes

In its effort to go green, L.A. created a trash monopoly that’s gouging customers. They need to fix it

The city’s new environment-friendly, years-in-the-planning garbage pickup program has left the Los Angeles businesses and condo associations that rely on it with a severe case of sticker shock.

Back in 2014, when the City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti approved the program, there was a lot of talk about the environmental benefits of the program — which are real — but little mention by city leaders that the service would cost more.

The initiative, called recycLA, switched multi-family residential buildings, restaurants, factories and other businesses from the open market, in which they could negotiate with the garbage company of their choice, to an exclusive franchise system, in which the city selects one trash hauler for that area, sets the rates and regulates the service. The city, for example, requires all the participating companies to provide recycling bins and to drive cleaner trucks.

This does not affect single family homes nor small apartment complexes (yet). Anyhow, how much more is this program for consumers who have had their choice removed?

Now recycLA customers are getting bills for the new city-controlled service, and many are finding the price of trash pickup has increased significantly. Some customers report their bills have doubled or even tripled compared to what they paid before. There have been complaints of missed pickups and scheduling problems.

The waste haulers are also allowed to impose lots of new city-sanctioned fees, including charges if the truck driver has to unlock a gate, if the hauler has to move the trash bins more than 100 feet during pickup and if the container is so full that the lid doesn’t completely close.

Under the old system, customers who felt they were getting nickel-and-dimed by their trash company could take their business elsewhere. Now? Their only recourse is to complain to the company or the city and hope for some response.

The LATEB goes on to tell us that it doesn’t have to be this way, completely missing the point that this is an issue created by government in the first place, because they rushed to “be green”, and were very aggressive about their goals control. There are massive recycling goals, which can reduce the forced costs on the users, except “the infrastructure or services to turn food scraps into compost or energy aren’t yet in Los Angeles.” The recycling monopoly companies hired by the city have to pay their people a “living wage” of at least $12.73 and purchase more “environmentally friendly” garbage trucks. And pay franchise fees which enrich the city to the tune of $35 million a year. The editorial ends with

It’s time for city leaders to be straight with Angelenos about the costs of being more environmentally responsible with our waste. There’s also the reality that the lack of competition in the exclusive franchise areas leaves customers vulnerable to being gouged. The city created these monopolies, and now it has a responsibility to police them.

Government created these problems, but, don’t expect them to fix them. They mean more money in the pockets of government and more control for government.

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In Wake Of Las Vegas, Gun Grabbers Are Back To Pushing The Australia Solution

By William Teach October 4, 2017 – 8:23 am

What is the Australia solution? A simple explanation is offered at the UK Guardian, which is brought up in the wake of Las Vegas to say that the gun grabbyness is being eroded in Australia

In 1996 politicians managed to come to a bipartisan agreement to change our gun laws. The main changes included: a ban on semi-automatic rifles and pump action shotguns, a gun buyback, the introduction of a uniform registration and licensing system and an acknowledgment that gun ownership is a privilege and not a right. These laws were implemented into each state and territory legislation which implemented a national approach to gun regulation.

So, not everything. This article from 2016 explains in depth who can own which guns of those that are still legal.

It’s actually not that hard to own a gun. But you do have to have a genuine reason. You have to be a member of a target shooting club or a hunter and you have to prove it. For hunting, you can get written permission from a landowner who says you are hunting on his land. Or you can join a hunting club. Pistols [handguns], on the other hand, are heavily restricted. All applicants undergo a background check by the police and there is a mandatory 30 day cooling off period for all license applications, both long arms and pistols. Firearms safety training courses are mandatory as well.

There are 6 classes of license, which also includes if you want an air rifle. Yeah, that would be a BB gun. You want a handgun? There’s a license for that. H license. You must compete in at least 8 competitions to keep it. It’s a competition license. “This firearm may be a single-shot air pistol, a single-shot .22-calibre pistol or a .22-calibre revolver or self-loading pistol.” As far as I can determine through multiple articles, those are the only ones allowed. There is no category for “protect myself from criminals” licenses.

It’s not a full ban, but, it’s pretty close. So, we now see many pushing it. Like at the Washington Post

How Australia beat the gun lobby and passed gun control

“Lynched in effigy, but no real harm done.” The words belong to Tim Fischer, Australia’s deputy prime minister in the mid-1990s — the moment when Australia radically changed its gun laws. He used the phrase yesterday when, in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre, I asked him about the political pain involved in taking on the gun lobby.

Australians are confounded by the unwillingness of American politicians to institute reasonable gun control. We performed the necessary operation, so why can’t our friends over the water?

It may be useful to recount what happened in Australia in 1996.

And that’s what Richard Glover does, and Australian attempting to tell the United States what to do. Mind your own business, Richard. We have a 2nd Amendment. Australia didn’t. Anyhow

It wasn’t only the gun owners who had something to complain about. The banned guns were not confiscated. They were “bought back.” An extra 0.2 percent levy on national health insurance was used to finance the National Firearms Buyback Program to compensate the gun owners for the banned weapons that were surrendered.

Trigger warning for any National Rifle Association (NRA) members: 660,959 firearms were duly handed in. They were then destroyed.

They were turned in because it would have been illegal to keep them. Anyone in possession would have been charged criminally. Might as well get some money for them.

This is the problem with the gun grabbers: they are all about punishing the law abiding for the actions of the criminals. Because they want to ban guns for Other People. Let’s say the U.S. tries this: anyone think there won’t be exclusions for Certain People? And that those Certain People, such as Hollywood celebs, won’t also be out there saying we need to ban guns?

Liberals know that a full gun grab isn’t going to work, so they will push the Australia solution, just like Obama and Hillary Clinton mentioned. So we get

And plenty, plenty more. At the NY Times, opinion writer Roxane Gay tells us that background checks do not work (and attempts to Blame the gun stores where the weapons were bought). Weren’t Democrats pushing universal background checks? Will this change? She dinks and dunks around simply banning guns in total.

But, hey, go for it, Democrats. Give it a shot. You’ll be soundly defeated. But, first, why not deal with your own lawlessness in your own violent cities. This is what happens when you’re weak on crime. And, instead of dealing with the crime, you want to penalize law abiding citizens who just want to protect themselves from the criminals Democrats enable.

I often run this graphic when the gun grabbers yammer about going after “assault rifles”

Under the Australia solution, both would be banned.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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