Category: “X” O’ The Day

The next installment of the Twitter Files

Matt Taibbi
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP
Part One: October 2020-January 6th

2. The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th… 

3. We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies. 

Continue reading “”

 

Amy Swearer

Some thoughts on the Colorado Springs Club Q shooting. THREAD:

(1) What do we actually know?

The 22-year-old suspect had an hours-long standoff with a crisis response team in June 2021 after threatening to harm his mother with a bomb and “other weapons.”
No bombs were found. He was arrested and charged with several felonies. The local prosecutor’s office did not pursue those charges, the case wasn’t adjudicated, and the records were sealed. It’s thoroughly unclear why this outcome occurred, or with what potential conditions.
It appears there are records for him buying at least two firearms – one rifle and one handgun – but it’s not clear when those purchases occurred. Notably, reports are that police recovered two guns from the suspect: one rifle and one unspecified.
The suspect showed up at the club as an obvious would-be gunman, wearing a “flak jacket” with what witnesses have described as at least six magazines and openly wielding the rifle. He opened fire immediately.
Two unarmed patrons very heroically ran toward the suspect and subdued him, likely saving many lives at great risk to their own.

We also know that Colorado:

– prohibits the sale, transfer, & possession of 15+ round magazines

– requires universal background checks

– has red flag laws

– allows substantial gun regulation at a local level

and a number of other gun control wishlist items
In fact, Colorado is universally ranked above-average by gun control groups and was #13 the last time I checked for “gun law strength.”

(2) What don’t we know?

We don’t know why the local prosecutor declined to pursue charges or why records were sealed. We don’t know whether he was referred to mental health treatment.

We don’t know a whole lot else about the suspect’s past, period.
It’s pretty safe to assume that someone who spends hours in a standoff with a crisis response team and forces the evacuation of his neighborhood is not, in that moment, a stable human in a healthy mental or emotional place. There’s a good argument that he shouldn’t have guns.
It doesn’t appear that any red flag petitions were sought, though this isn’t particularly surprising given that Colorado has one of the lowest usage rates out of all states with red flag laws and the local sheriff one said his department wouldn’t file any.

Colorado Springs police have filed 2 petitions since 2019. So if a family member didn’t file one, no one else was likely to do so, either.

Regardless, any such petition would have needed to be renewed at least twice since summer 2021 to be active today.
So it’s not at all clear that, without additional concerning actions on the suspect’s part, he wouldn’t have had his guns returned under the law by now, anyway. In other words, we’re still in a waiting game, and need a lot more information.

(3) What still doesn’t matter?

It’s utterly irrelevant whether his rifle had a pistol grip, collapsing stock, or barrel shroud [i.e., whether he used an “assault weapon” rifle or “non-assault weapon” rifle]. Don’t fall for this trap.
Any person shot with an “assault weapon” rifle will sustain the exact same injuries as a person shot with a “featureless, non-assault weapon” rifle. Why? Because it will be the same caliber round, leaving the rifle with the exact same muzzle velocity, impacting with same energy.
AW bans do NOT mean a ban on civilians possessing semi-automatic rifles chambered in .223/5.56. They merely mean that your semi-automatic rifle chambered in .223/5.56 may not also have features like a pistol grip or collapsing stock, none of which affect victim injuries. Period.

The left’s utter cluelessness

Sean D Sorrentino

I see this every day. My job puts me in close contact with the (almost exclusively) men who make the world work. They keep the lights on, the water flowing, and sewage treated. Yet most ordinary people have little respect for these hidden events.

These are men who transform out ugly, cold, dangerous world into the magical place where I drink fresh clean water in a heated, well lit home. Thanks to them I’m so wealthy that I literally poop into water clean enough to drink.

They provide the foundation that our entire society rests upon. They’re the base of the pyramid in which every American starts off richer than 90% of the developing world.

In previous eras our politicians at least pretended to care about the men who labored. They showed respect for the strong backs that lifted the rest of us out of the mud. But now the party who used to claim to work for the common man actively attacks their worth and dignity.

Those of us who come from working class backgrounds look way up at the people who tell us they have the right to rule us and think, “you people couldn’t organize a grocery store shelf, much less an economy.”

Yet you keep trying. You keep telling the common man he’s too dumb to know what’s best for him. You look at the guy who processes your sewage, makes your electricity, or puts hauls your freight and think “why does his vote count as much as mine?”

You think we can’t see it. You think your contempt (or the contempt of your social class) for us is hidden. But it’s not. We know. We feel it. We’re not as dumb as you think we are.

According to your bio you have a PhD in English from Cambridge. Do you know what would happen to the world if every English PhD in the world was suddenly kidnapped by aliens? Not a damned thing. We’d keep on keeping on.

Now kidnap every sewage treatment plant operator. We’d all choke on human waste in 36 hours.

None of us begrudge your ability to make a living talking to people on a podcast. Or whatever you do to pay your bills. But take a moment during your day to remember the (almost exclusively) men who labor down here in the trenches making a world safe and clean for you to do so.

 

The gun control group 97% had a meeting

Fudd anti-gun group @97Percentorg is now talking about how much they’ll miss Nancy Pelosi and lamenting how gun control probably won’t pass a Republican-controlled House 

Congressman Moulton now talking about how great Nancy Pelosi is. Says it will be a “tough road ahead” for gun control in the House 
Congressman Moulton says he still supports “assault weapon” bans despite the fact that 97Percent (which he is a board member of) found that they’re opposed by gun owners and ineffective 
Joe Walsh says the federal government should “protect” the Second Amendment by passing gun permit laws 
Walsh says it will be easier to pass gun control if Democrats don’t even “hit at” gun bans (which the Democratic Reps on this very panel have been doing) 
So far, the people at this event have talked as much about the NRA as they have about 97Percent
Congresswoman Dean says they should work with gun owners to go after “ghost guns” 
Moulton says that red flag laws are a good place for Congress to start 
The panel says the federal government should pass red flag laws because states might take them too far 
Walsh laments that some Republicans took pictures with guns or had them in campaign ads 
Image
Fred Guttenberg now arguing for “assault weapon” bans at a conference for a group that said they’re ineffective 
Guttenberg says that “common use is now a business strategy of this industry” 
Michael Siegel says 97Percent’s platform was developed with the help of multiple organizations, including Giffords’ “Gun Owners for Safety”Image

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Scratch a liberal, find a racist tyrant underneath