Category: Crap For Brains

She couldn’t admit to the reality of the meme that SloJoe was allowed to go out and get whatever flavor ice cream he wanted.

Psaki Appears To Struggle To Answer What Biden Was Doing Today, Then A Reporter Tweeted Photos Of Biden

Then he’s whisked back to the Whitehouse and shut down for the day.

When you’re a demoncrap and still losing the WaPost…..

Joe Bye-Done: WaPo’s Article About Biden’s Struggles Sure Does Drive a Dagger Into His Presidency

Joe Biden’s presidency is one year old—and it’s a total nightmare. The nation is still divided. Omicron is sweeping the nation. Inflation is through the roof. The grocery store has bare shelves. The supply chain crisis is ongoing. The border crisis is out of control. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a nightmare. We might see another embassy evacuation in Ukraine. The jobs reports are trash. It’s not going well. The only person who thinks all is well is…Joe Biden. That doesn’t account for much since he’s dementia-ridden. He’s old. He’s slow. He’s stupid. Three things the president of the United States cannot be in this world. The scent of weakness is present for all to see, which is why Russia and China are flexing big league right now. As Russia prepares for a possible invasion of Ukraine, China is probably smiling looking at the Taiwan Strait.

What’s become clear is that one year into his presidency, Biden can’t do the job. That’s what jumps out in this Washington Post piece about Biden’s “slide” in the polls. The other thing that comes to mind is this question: how did this get published? It’s quite a searing piece, with even members of his own party slamming his performance. Even swing voters polled by Democratic pollsters see a bad word association brewing when it comes to Joe Biden, ones that are election killers. It’s why many Democrats probably cringed when Joe declared he was going to be active on the 2022 campaign trail for the midterms. Biden’s approvals are circling the drain, with numbers ranging from the 30s and 40s. He’s a cancer to his party, with its more centrist members probably hoping he just forgets where they are on the district map. Congressional Democratic leaders told their members to gamble on Build Back Better, with moderates voting for the lefty action items only to have Joe Manchin torpedo the bill. Now, their names are attached to this Bolshevik package. For progressives, Biden promised he could sway Manchin. That failed miserably. It was a disastrous push toward the end of the holiday season that pretty much captured the Biden administration as one of being incompetent and being outright blind to the political realities at hand. You can’t go hard left with a 50-50 Senate and a four-seat majority in the House.

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It’d like what was said about education. If a foreign nation was forcing us to doing this, it would be seen as an act of war.

BLUF:
And Biden? His woke national-security and foreign-policy B-team seem more eager to subsidize electric cars for the rich than to provide cheap oil and gas to the American middle class or to deter America’s adversaries.

Team Biden seeks to stop yet another pipeline even as gas prices rise.

If you needed any more proof that the anti-American, pro-Russia, pro-Iran, pro-China, anti-Israel wing of the Democrat Party has captured the White House flag, last week we learned Team Biden plans to put the kibosh on a natural-gas pipeline with US involvement that would reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.

The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Pipeline, which would carry Israeli and Cypriot natural gas, is yet another energy resource serving America’s strategic interests that the Biden White House wants gone. EastMed joins a long list that started on Day One with the Keystone XL pipeline, a ban on oil and gas leases on public lands and the October federal court ruling that ended drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

All these actions, demanded by “climate change” alarmists, have reversed America’s long-sought energy independence won at great political cost by President Donald Trump.

They have not only made us dependent once again on foreign oil; they have sent oil prices skyrocketing, enriching America’s adversaries in Russia and Iran.

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Biden acts much more like Putin’s puppet than Trump ever did.

Thanks Biden! Guess Who We’re Buying More Oil From Now?

One of the first things Joe Biden did upon taking office was kill the Keystone XL pipeline. For good measure, he also aggressively sought to limit new drilling permits, and despite some legal setbacks, Biden managed to reverse Trump’s progress in making the United States energy independent.

Under Trump, the United States became a net exporter of energy for the first time in decades. Now under Biden, we’re importing more oil again, and one of the key beneficiaries of our increasing dependence on foreign oil is Russia.

“U.S. oil imports from Saudi Arabia and Russia have increased, and gasoline prices are higher than they have been in the last five years,” reports Energy Now.

And much of that is because Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline.

“[Keystone XL] was a missed opportunity to increase North American energy security, lower costs for American consumers and reduce dependence on foreign energy sources that are hostile to U.S. interests,” Frank Macchiarola, senior vice-president with the American Petroleum Institute, told Energy Now. “The Keystone XL pipeline would have provided good-paying union jobs to American workers while delivering affordable, reliable energy to American consumers from a close U.S. ally.”

According to government statistics, energy imports from Saudi Arabia more than doubled from Dec. 2020 to Oct. 2021. And our imports from Russia more than tripled from Feb. 2019 through Sept. 2021.

While I’m sure the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia and Vladimir Putin are thrilled to be making money selling oil and petroleum to the United States, it’s hard to imagine why any American president would have intentionally enriched them at the expense of our own prosperity and our national security.

I have yet to see an inanimate object do anything of its own accord. I’d think that the person who aimed the gun and pulled the trigger is where blame should be placed.
Of course, there’s people today, like this Goobernor, who apparently still believe in the medieval superstition that things have some kind of moral agency that could exert influence over the minds of men.
That’s where the old ‘Deodand’ laws came from.

New York Governor Blames ‘Illegal Gun’ In Fatal Shooting of NYPD Officer

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) blamed an “illegal gun” in the fatal shooting of NYPD officer Jason Rivera on Friday night.

Rivera, 22, was shot and killed and a second officer, Wilbert More, 27, was shot and wounded, Breitbart News reported.

The shooting suspect, Lashawn McNeil, 47, opened fire on Rivera and More as they approached him in a long hallway, CBS New York noted. McNeill was then shot twice by a third officer.

On Saturday, Hochul tweeted, “Last night, a shot from an illegal gun took the life of a NYPD officer.”

Last night, a shot from an illegal gun took the life of a @NYPDnews officer.

When I say we’re going to do everything we can to stop the scourge of illegal guns in our state, it’s not just talk. We are tripling funding for efforts to get these guns off the streets. pic.twitter.com/zXv0xbL4Em

— Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) January 22, 2022

“When I say we’re going to do everything we can to stop the scourge of illegal guns in our state, it’s not just talk. We are tripling funding for efforts to get these guns off the streets,” Hochul added.

New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) responded to the shooting death of Rivera by calling for more gun control, Breitbart News reported.

New York has some of the most stringent gun controls in the country. Mike Bloomberg-affiliated Everytown for Gun Safety ranks New York No. 3 in the nation “for gun law strength.”

Those laws include everything the Democrats are pushing at the federal level under the guise of safety, including universal background checks, a “high capacity” magazine ban, an “assault weapons” ban, a permit requirement to buy a handgun, a red flag law, gun storage requirements, “ghost gun” regulations, and a prohibition against gun possession by felons, among other controls.

McNeil, the man who allegedly shot the NYPD officers Friday night, is a convicted felon.

“Safe streets worker” (replacing police) gunned down in Baltimore.

During the course of the madness that promoted “defunding” or abolishing the police, there was an emphasis placed on replacing police in some circumstances with “community safety” workers who would supposedly act as unarmed “violence interrupters” and reduce the number of lethal use of force incidents by police officers. In Baltimore, Maryland’s violent gang territories, an existing organization known as the “Safe Streets Program” gained a lot of attention and municipal support in this effort. The goal of the program is to deploy former gang members (or “former”) into areas controlled by the gangs to negotiate nonviolent resolutions to conflicts. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen with other proposed “violence interruption” programs in major cities, sending someone with a clipboard out to resolve a beef between gang members isn’t always effective. That was sadly this case this week when one of Baltimore’s Safe Streets workers was shot to death along with several other people on the East side of Charm City. (Baltimore Sun)

A quadruple shooting in East Baltimore on Wednesday night left three people dead, including a Safe Streets worker, and one person injured, police said. Three others were injured in separate shootings in West and South Baltimore.

At about 7:25 p.m., Eastern District patrol officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert in the 2400 block of E. Monument St. Once there, officers located four men suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.

A 28-year-old man was pronounced dead on the scene. Medics transported three other victims to area hospitals, where a 24-year-old man and another man were also pronounced dead.

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Biden acts much more like Putin’s puppet than Trump ever did.

Back in 2017, Walter Russell Mead wrote: If Donald Trump “were the Manchurian candidate that people keep wanting to believe that he is, here are some of the things he’d be doing:

  • Limiting fracking as much as he possibly could
  • Blocking oil and gas pipelines
  • Opening negotiations for major nuclear arms reductions
  • Cutting U.S. military spending
  • Trying to tamp down tensions with Russia’s ally Iran.”

Trump, of course, did none of those things, and indeed the entire “Russian collusion” narrative that the press pushed for his entire presidency has been thoroughly exploded.

But someone is doing these things, right now. I’m talking, of course, about Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., who at his shambolic Wednesday press conference gave Russia the go-ahead to invade Ukraine, though it was quickly walked back by backwalker-in-chief Jen Psaki, his press secretary.

The last time something like that happened was in 1950, when Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave North Korea what appeared to be a green light to invade South Korea. The result was the Korean War. One hopes Biden’s blunder will not bear similar consequences.

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When you are so mentally gone, you are incapable of realizing that you’re actually making your opposition their campaign commercials for them…….

BLUF:
Is there any Islamic terrorist too monstrous and evil for even Biden to free? It’s still a long way to 2024 and there’s plenty of time for us to find out and for him to free them all.

Biden Frees Alternate 9/11 Hijacker and Military Base Truck Bomb Plotter

After Obama’s obsession with freeing as many Islamic terrorists from Gitmo as possible, the ones who remained were the absolute worst of the worst. Now Biden is setting them loose too.

5 Islamic terrorists, Al Qaeda and allies, have been scheduled for release from custody.

They include Osama bin Laden bodyguards and murderous terrorists with blood on their hands.

Zuhail al-Sharabi had been allegedly trained in “how to function in Western cities” and “reading airline timetables” alongside 9/11 hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi. He also met Khalid al-Mihdhar who, along with Al-Hazmi, was part of the crew that hijacked American Airlines 77 for the attack on the Pentagon.

Al-Sharabi had been part of an expanded version of the September 11 attacks that would have targeted American planes in Southeast Asia; either blowing them up in mid-air or hijacking them to crash into American military bases. That part of the operation was cancelled by Al Qaeda.

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He never had any ‘credibility’. The stories are that everyone in Congress knew him as a blowhard, lying bigot from day one. The left knew it but they and their lackies in the media wanted to fool enough people to get Trump out.

The moment Joe Biden finally lost his credibility

If President Joe Biden’s disorderly and lethal Afghanistan withdrawal was the moment that fractured voters’ regard for him, then his vicious Atlanta speech last week may be the moment that defines his presidency.

Speaking Tuesday at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, Biden uttered venomous, brutal accusations lacking factual basis. His shouting-in-the-wind delivery was inexplicable, and his decision to lash out at members of his own party — Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — appears to have only strengthened their resolve not to give in to his demands.

Biden called those who disagree with his political views on legislation “domestic enemies.” He compared them to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and former Alabama Democratic Party Committeeman and ardent, violent segregationist Bull Connor. In American politics, that is about as divisive as one can get — at least he didn’t mention Hitler.

Biden bears no resemblance today to the man who ran for president, pledging over and over again to unify the country and restore a sense of calm and normalcy to politics. From the day he was sworn in to office and signed executive orders putting thousands out of work in the energy industry, he ceased to be that guy from Scranton that people thought he was.

He has not been that guy since he invited, through ill-considered policy changes, untold numbers of illegal immigrants across our borders. He has not been that guy since he miserably failed the troops and the nation’s image during his catastrophic tail-between-his-legs retreat from Afghanistan.

Biden, despite having no mandate and only the barest legislative majority for his party, has turned divide-and-conquer politics into the solution for everything, including the pandemic.

You don’t warn a nation that a winter of “severe illness and death” is coming for the unvaccinated because your aim is to bring people together; those words are intended as a threat and a slight, just like his resurrection of George Wallace in last week’s speech to score cheap political points.

The scope of Biden’s fall from grace — from glib middle-class Pennsylvanian to venomous, lying politico who will say anything to please left-wing activists — has been staggering.

This has not gone unnoticed by voters. Last week’s Quinnipiac poll showed that a plurality of voters (49%) now believe Biden is doing more to divide the country than to unite it.

Biden’s approval rating among adults was at an abysmal 33% points; independents gave him 24%; Hispanics a bit more at 28%. His approval rating within his own party has fallen 12 points since November.

The media tried to write off his fall as temporary last August, when a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed the public disapproving of his incompetent performance in Afghanistan by a 2-1 ratio. At the time, this event marked the first time in his presidency his approval rating was net negative.

But in the time since, Biden has only kept losing support.

This moment and the associated loss of credibility that Biden is suffering will have lingering effects in the American psyche. They might not remember all of the words, but they will remember Biden’s vicious, nasty, bad-faith accusations, his flagrant falsehoods, and his petulant tone.

As with Afghanistan, the media and the people who surround Biden will dismiss the public reaction, and Biden will be worse off for it.

Why Were Authorities So Evasive About the Synagogue Gunman’s Motive?

Actual statements from our president, midday Sunday:

Q    Mr. President, do you know more about the motivations of the person?

THE PRESIDENT:  No, I don’t.  I — there’s speculation, but I’m not going to get into that.  I will — I’m going to have a press conference on Wednesday, and I’ll be happy to go into detail of what I know in detail at that time.

Q    Do you know why he targeted that specific synagogue, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, no, I don’t.  We don’t have — I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue or why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged — why he was using antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments.  I — we just don’t have enough facts.

Biden says the gunman’s motivation was a mystery, and then mentions that he was “using anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments.” Call me crazy, but I think the antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments might give a hint as to his motivation!

The hostage-taker called for the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who was found guilty in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. military officers while in custody in Afghanistan in 2008, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison and is currently imprisoned at Carswell Air Force Base, near Fort Worth.

Why on earth did Matthew DeSarno, the special agent in charge of the FBI Dallas Field Office, initially say, “we do believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community. But we are continuing to work to find motive”? (Thankfully the FBI backtracked and issued an updated statement declaring, “this is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”)

Who, or what, is served by contending that it is impossible to know the true motive of a gunman who attacks a synagogue and takes hostages and demands the release of a convicted al-Qaeda operative? Why is it so vertoben to say “jihadism” or “support for al-Qaeda and Islamist terror groups”? Why were authorities so reluctant to say antisemitism was a motive, as if the gunman had chosen to target a synagogue at random?

Is it that authorities are now so afraid of being accused of inciting anti-Muslim hate crimes that they are reluctant to acknowledge the obvious?

The quickest and easiest way to convince people that the threat of jihadism is much, much worse than they thought is for law-enforcement authorities to appear as though they’re hiding something or afraid to speak the truth.

I’ve got a phone number for him – 1-800-CRY-BABY Waaaahhhhh.

Joe Biden Complains About ‘Ridiculous’ Number of Gun Sales After Synagogue Terrorist Incident

President Joe Biden complained about the number of guns sold in the United States after an armed terrorist suspect took four hostages at a Texas synagogue on Sunday.

“There’s so many guns that have been sold of late; it’s just ridiculous,” Biden said when asked by reporters on Sunday about gun control after the incident.

Biden noted that suspect, Faisal Akram, 44, a British national, had allegedly purchased his gun on the street, before the incident.

“The guns are — we should be — the idea of background checks are critical,” he said, but admitted that “you can’t stop something like this if someone is on the street buying something from somebody else on the street.”

Biden said that country had failed to “focus as hard as we should and as consistent as we should” on issues like gun purchases, gun sales, and “ghost” guns.

Akram was killed by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, nearly eleven hours after he entered the synagogue. None of the hostages were harmed.

Biden called the incident “an act of terror” but said he did not know why Akram was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, known as “Lady al-Qaeda” imprisoned at Fort Worth for trying to kill American soldiers.

“I don’t– we don’t have I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue, why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged, why he was using an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments,” Biden said.

Quote O’ The Day
Remember that these are people who have no idea how reality works.

Biden Expected To Sign Police Reform Executive Order

NBC News is reporting that Joe Biden is expected to sign an Executive Order on Police Reform since recent efforts in Congress have stalled. The Biden Junta hopes that this Executive Order (EO) will shore up faltering support among Black voters. Likely the policing EO will also give Biden an opportunity to rant against Donald Trump, always popular with the Left, insult half of America, shout for no reason and pound the little mini-desk in his fake Oval Office set.

The good news is that at least most of the Lefty Moonbats have stopped shouting “Defund the Police”. The bad news is that there has been absolutely no effort at bipartisan negotiations on real police reforms. A year and a half ago, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott wrote a not perfect bill with some police reforms. When the Democrats wouldn’t take up Scott’s bill, he said it was because the Dems cynically wanted the issue, a divisive racial issue. Read Deanna’s post here.

In 2020 and 2021, the Democrats have failed to move on the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act”. Creepy Joe Bidenf has failed at absolutely everything he has touched (energy, supply chain, Afghanistan, to name a few) and he got a new dog last month. So what’s a failed President to do? Sign an Executive Order, that’s the ticket.

Not that I think Joe Biden remembers what his positions used to be, but he once was considered strong on law enforcement. From NPR July, 2021:

For years, Biden was a loyal ally to law enforcement, dating back to his days in the Senate when he crafted the 1994 crime bill with their direct help.

“When he was vice president, he would routinely have law enforcement at the residence,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based police think tank. “He told President Obama when he was vice president he wanted the police portfolio. So, he knows this issue.”

But while Biden may know the issue, the issue itself has changed with mounting calls for more accountability among police officers in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing.

Now, Joe’s poll numbers are cratering and he desperately needs a win. Hence, the expected EO on Police Reform. As NBC reports:

President Joe Biden is planning to sign executive actions on police reform as early as this month, three people familiar with the plans said, as his administration seeks to unilaterally jumpstart an issue that’s a top priority for a key constituency.

The executive actions would follow Biden’s uphill battle to advance voting rights legislation, and could coincide with a similar effort by some Democratic lawmakers to revive the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which stalled on Capitol Hill after failed attempts to craft a bipartisan measure.

The focus on police reforms is part of what appears to be a last-ditch effort by the Biden administration to take action on some of the president’s signature initiatives in the run-up to his State of the Union Address on March 1. In addition to voting rights and policing, the White House and congressional Democrats are considering ways to resurrect Biden’s Build Back Better package, either by paring back the legislation or separating it into two bills, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.

The Squad already threatened Biden about breaking up Build Back Better and they don’t play. If Biden doesn’t sign the police EO, he will have nothing but failures to talk about in his March 1 State of the Union Address. Sweet Baby Jesus, that’s going to be awful anyway.

But, wait, there is more:

Two people familiar with the discussions said the White House could roll out the executive actions to mark the beginning of Black History Month in February.

Biden also is expected to use the moment to criticize former President Donald Trump, the people familiar with the discussions said. The president was sharply critical of Trump during a Jan. 6 anniversary speech and again on Tuesday while giving remarks on voting rights.

Yes, the old racist Biden will get a twofer. Black History Month and swatting Trump.

The EO signing will be a combination of the fake office with the teeny desk and the odd yelling like in this video about fewer democracies:

The Police Reform EO will be like everything else Creepy Joe has done: a failure and likely extra Constitutional.

A not so modest proposal for mandatory training

In the past week or so, we’ve seen a push by anti-Second Amendment folks to call for mandatory training prior to people being able to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. And not just to carry a gun, but to simply own one.

Now, we oppose this when it comes to gun rights for obvious reasons. However, it’s very clear that many don’t. As such, I figured I’d offer something of a compromise.

In particular, if gun control folks are going to be insistent on mandatory training, then I’m going to push back with calls for mandatory training before exercising other rights.

To start with, we should require mandatory training before allowing people to vote.

After all, an uninformed electorate could lead to all kinds of problems. I mean…<gestures toward the White House>.

We should require all citizens wishing to vote to undergo a mandatory training course prior to being able to cast a ballot. The course should require some degree of basic civics as to which elected officials can do what they cannot.

It should also include the constitutional limits to the government so that these voters don’t get led astray by promises that won’t pass legal muster. You know, things like free money, forgiveness of college loans, things like that.

Additionally, we should also require mandatory training before anyone can attend a house of worship of any faith.

After all, you wouldn’t want someone to walk into a mosque and do everything wrong, deeply offending our Muslim neighbors, now would you? The mandatory course would include a basic primer on all faiths worshipped in the United States so people can make an informed decision as to where to worship and what to do when they arrive.

The fact that such a course would amount to the coursework for a theology degree is completely irrelevant.

We should also require mandatory training before exercising one’s freedom of speech. After all, some people talk a lot of nonsense. I mean, I saw someone advocating for communism just yesterday. That shouldn’t be allowed!

So clearly, before people speak, they should be required to undergo a mandatory training class. I mean, they might offend someone by advocating for socialism, communism, or some other faulty line of thinking.

And while we’re at it, we need to mandate training for journalists. No, I’m not talking about journalism school–something that’s not actually required for one to become a journalist–but a government-mandated training course one must go through, lest they report inappropriately. I mean, we can’t have journalists giving government officials a hard time like they did President Trump, right?

What? What’s that? You think this is all out of line and unconstitutional?

Well, that may be, but if you’re someone who thinks I should be forced to undergo training before exercising a right protected by the Constitution, then why shouldn’t you be forced to undergo training before exercising some right precious to you?

It’s been said that the Second Amendment is treated as a second-class right. The idea of mandatory training in order to exercise it illustrates this idea perfectly. Especially since we know that many of these other proposals I just made would be shot down in a heartbeat.

After all, how is something a right if you must pass a course first in order to use it? At that point, it becomes a privilege.

If you have an issue with any of those proposals above, then you should at least show some consistency and stand against mandatory training for gun ownership.

Well – they’ve got  crap-for-brains to begin with, so ignoring truth is not ‘second nature’ but first nature for them.

BLUF:
They can look at contrary evidence clear in the face and just pretend it doesn’t exist, reject it out of hand simply because it goes against their preconceived notions that gun control is good.

You’re never going to talk sense into these people. You generally can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.

How anti-gunners ignore inconvenient facts

When it comes to a discussion of guns in America, there will always be something of a divide. Those who want to regulate almost anything will always want to regulate guns and those who do not wish to be ruled will argue against such regulations.

It’s really not a difficult dichotomy to comprehend, all things considered.

Currently, with violent crime raging, anti-gun folks are pushing hard and using the violence to justify any and all demands.

Take this bit regarding Iowa.

In 2018, the Center for American Progress and Progress Iowa wrote an issue brief warning that, while gun violence in Iowa remained relatively low compared with other states, efforts in the Legislature to weaken the state’s gun laws threatened the safety of Iowa communities. Unfortunately, Iowa lawmakers did not heed this warning and in 2021 continued to undermine gun safety in the state by repealing two crucial measures that have helped keep gun violence in Iowa at comparatively low levels: 1) the law requiring a permit, and therefore a background check, prior to every handgun sale and 2) the law requiring a permit to carry loaded, concealed handguns in the community.

At the same time, similar to trends in other states, the coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by an increase in gun deaths in Iowa: According to early data from the Iowa Department of Public Health, gun-related deaths reached an all-time high in 2020, with an estimated 353 people killed. Once again, it is crucial that policymakers in Iowa take the issue of gun violence seriously and resist efforts to further weaken the state’s gun laws.

Now, on the surface, if you knew nothing else about guns or gun control, it would be easy to look at this plea and think that maybe it’s a good idea.

The problem is, it isn’t.

Now, 2020 was a nasty year for violent crime all across the nation. That includes states that have long favored gun control policies such as California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, and so on.

2021 was a slightly different animal, but not by much.

Chicago saw the highest homicide rate it had seen in 25 years. Los Angeles had the highest it had seen in 15 years.

So clearly, it was rough for a lot of places.

However, we also saw violent crime go down in a couple of large cities. Dallas saw a decline. So did Miami.

So what’s the difference between these four cities? The two where homicides went up were in anti-gun states while the two where it went down were in pro-gun states.

Now, I’ll be the first to concede that this is just a data point and far from conclusive evidence. However, if fewer restrictions on guns result in greater violent crime as the anti-Second Amendment types claim, then shouldn’t Dallas and Miami have seen the worst violent crime compared to Chicago and Los Angeles?

What happens is that anti-Second Amendment folks don’t want to look at that. They prefer to ignore inconvenient truths whenever possible.

Gun-controlled states are having issues while non-gun-controlled states are having fewer problems. This isn’t opinion. This is a fact, one based on the actual numbers.

But you’ll never get an anti-Second Amendment type to acknowledge it. Instead, they’ll just pretend those facts don’t exist, all while pushing the next bit of gun control to strike their fancy. They’ll ignore it, all while pretending that those who oppose gun control want to do nothing to address violent crime.

The term is cognitive dissonance. They can look at contrary evidence clear in the face and just pretend it doesn’t exist, reject it out of hand simply because it goes against their preconceived notions that gun control is good.

You’re never going to talk sense into these people. You generally can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.

BLUF:
I’ll leave you with a GOP strategist marveling at Biden choosing to expend evaporating political capital on this base-placation exercise.  Which seems destined to fail.  Which, in turn, will only inflame the base’s dissatisfaction.  Galaxy brain stuff.  Americans do not generally view the right and ability to vote as under genuine threat.  They’re more worried about rising prices, various shortages, and other hardships.

Desperate Demagogue: Those Who Oppose My Elections Power Grab Are ‘Domestic Enemies’

One more post on that nasty, mendacious speech delivered by a desperate, shrinking president.  Mitt Romney made some strong points in rebuttal on Tuesday, and we followed up with a few additional arguments yesterday.  But we haven’t tackled this soundbyte yet, which was among the ugliest and laziest lines in the president’s extended expression of performative, impotent rage.  President Unity is really on a roll:

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‘Just call the police’: The Insufferable White Privilege of Gun Control Advocates

The concept of privilege gets a bad rap in many circles, and understandably so. Many have taken it way too far, using it as a means of bullying their political opponents into submission. But while the excesses of this rhetoric are certainly problematic, I don’t think we should do away with the concept entirely. Behind all the moral grandstanding lies a kernel of truth, one that can provide some valuable insights if applied correctly.

The principle, essentially, is that certain people have unearned advantages, and those advantages can shape how they see the world. Affluence, for instance, can make someone blind to the needs of the poor. Likewise, those with an above average aptitude, intelligence, or physical appearance might find it difficult to relate to those who were not equally endowed with those gifts.

The problem with this blindness is that it can easily lead to hubris, that is, unwarranted self-confidence. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of privilege is thinking we know the best course of action for a given situation when we really don’t.

The classic example of this is the story of a famous French queen who, upon hearing that the peasants had no bread, simply replied, “then let them eat cake.” She was so unfamiliar with their circumstances that the solution she dismissively prescribed was positively laughable. Another example of privilege was when the lockdown elite told us to “just stay home,” seemingly oblivious to the fact that staying home is simply unfeasible for many working class people.

Now, progressives think they’re pretty good at pointing out places where privilege is leading to blindness and hubris (indeed, they often see privilege even where it doesn’t exist). But there’s one occurrence of privilege that always seems to get a pass, and that is the privilege associated with gun control.

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