Category: Scratch a Lib-Find a Tyrant

Incompetent ‘Contagious Disease’ Diagnosis for Guns a Prescription for Tyranny

“New Mexico Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham held a recent press conference to praise herself for implementing dubious gun control measures,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported. “‘I won’t rest until we don’t have to talk about (gun violence) as an epidemic and a public health emergency,’ the governor said.”

If a prominent politician declares an epidemic and imposes edicts and orders to enforce them, it’s fair to ask, “Where’s the science?”

“Lujan Grisham was born in Los Alamos and graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe before earning undergraduate and law degrees from the University of New Mexico,” the governor’s official biography states. Neither her education nor her claimed career highlights show her qualified to make such a proclamation on her own, which makes it fair to ask, “Who’s advising her?”

That would be Patrick M. Allen, her New Mexico Health Department Secretary.

“In simple terms, violence, especially gun violence, behaves like a contagious disease,” Allen pontificates in his op-ed, “Tackling Gun Violence: A Public Health Challenge — DOH secretary says rapidly-spreading violence behaves like a contagious disease.”

“Imagine treating violence as if it were an infectious disease. Just as we study diseases’ origins to combat them effectively, we can apply the same approach to violence,” Allen proclaims. “How do we address gun violence as the contagious disease it is? Gun violence is a public health emergency.”

He sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t he? The thing is, like the governor, the secretary in charge of the Land of Enchantment’s public health doesn’t have a qualified medical background, either.

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Civilizational Jenga
Bit by bit, our ruling class is eliminating our societal safety margins

Politics makes me sad sometimes.

Oh, not just because politicians are doing dumb things.  Not even because politicians are corrupt.  Politicians have always been dumb and corrupt, as any study of history will demonstrate.

And it doesn’t matter if they hold office by election, inheritance, or swords distributed by strange women lying in ponds.  Stupidity and corruption are human characteristics, and politicians are very, very human.  (Though recent history is such that strange women lying in ponds distributing swords look better as the basis for a system of government . . . .)

Sometimes their stupidity and corruption make me angry, and sometimes they make me laugh.  But, given my low expectations, it takes a special kind of stupidity and corruption to actually make me sad.

What makes me sad now is the ongoing game of Civilizational Jenga that our ruling class is playing.  One by one, they’re withdrawing the supports of civil society, in a process that will inevitably lead to a collapse.  They’re taking what was a very robust society, and consuming all the safety margins, bit by bit.

What really makes me sad is that while some of the people involved – let’s call them “the morons” for convenience’s sake – are doing this out of shortsightedness, cupidity, or sheer partisan bloodthirstiness, I’m increasingly convinced that there’s a contingent at the top that knows exactly what it’s doing, and is fine with it.

Roger Kimball gets at it in a recent piece:

“This is the same old trick,” Trump said when he got the news that the Colorado Supreme Court voted 4-3 to keep him off the primary ballot for the 2024 presidential election.

Oops. Sorry. I got my papers mixed up. That was actually Abraham Lincoln in 1860 when he got the news that some Southern states had voted to keep him off the ballot. Eventually 10 states did so.

So here we are again. It’s a bit like that Army Major in the Vietnam war who explained that they had to destroy a village in order to save it. Just so, the virtuous people of Colorado have decided that in order to save democracy they need to destroy it.

In fact, what they have just voted to preserve is not democracy but “Our Democracy™.” Here’s the difference. In a democracy, people get to vote for the candidate they prefer. In “Our Democracy™,” only approved candidates get to compete.

Donald Trump is the opposite of an approved candidate. The untrammeled hermeneutical ingenuity of the American legal profession had be let loose against Trump. As I write, he faces huge legal battle in four states. . . .

Trump is guilty not because of anything he has done but because of who he is. He is an enemy, not of the state, exactly, but of the state of mind that constitutes “Our Democracy™.” When he unexpectedly won the presidency in 2016, the beautiful people, beginning with his opponent Hillary Clinton, couldn’t believe it. They denounced the election as fraudulent. “Our Democracy™,” you see,  means “rule by Democrats.”

Now they are warning that, should Trump be reelected, he would be a “dictator,” a new Hitler, etc. He would weaponise the Department of Justice against his enemies, they claim, and use the FBI to harass his opponents. Stay tuned for the seminar on what the Freudians call “projection”: it meets this afternoon in a democratic redoubt near you.

In a more civilized version of America – one that existed just a few decades ago – the notion of waging this sort of unrestricted lawfare against a leading presidential candidate, much less a former president – would have been considered ridiculous, and had it been taken seriously, would have been seen as enormously risky.

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Federal Judge Declines to Temporarily Block Key Portion of Illinois High-Power Semiautomatic Weapons Ban

A federal judge in Illinois has declined to temporarily delay a portion of the state law banning some high-power semiautomatic weapons from going into effect.

U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn on Friday declined a request from several gun rights groups that would have delayed the Jan. 1 deadline for residents of Illinois to register their guns that are under the ban, according to the Chicago Tribune.

According to the report, those who have guns or accessories that are included in the ban are required to file “endorsement affidavits” with the Illinois State Police on their website.

Individuals who fail to register could be charged with a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for any offenses after.

McGlynn wrote in his opinion that a temporary injunction would “create further delays in this litigation when the constitutional rights of the citizens demand an expeditious resolution on the merits.”

President of Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois, Dan Eldridge, told the outlet that the issue could end up in the Supreme Court.

“There’s a lot of stuff in motion in here,” Eldridge said.

The ban, signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January, includes penalties for individuals who, “carries or possesses… manufactures, sells, delivers, imports, or purchases any assault weapon or .50 caliber rifle.”

The law also includes statutory penalties for anyone who, “sells, manufactures, delivers, imports, possesses, or purchases any assault weapon attachment or .50 caliber cartridge.”

Any kit or tools used to increase the fire rate of a semiautomatic weapon are also included in the ban, and the law includes a limit for purchases of certain magazines.

On Dec. 14, the Supreme Court allowed the law to remain in place after the National Association for Gun rights asked for a preliminary injunction.

In November, a 7th District U.S. Court of Appeals panel also refused a request to block the law. In August, the law was upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court in a 4-3 decision.

Biden Administration Urges Supreme Court To Overturn Injunction on Federal Agencies Influencing Tech Censorship
Biden wants the Supreme Court to support its censorship efforts.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently affirmed an injunction against federal agencies to stop the current White House from colluding with Big Tech’s social media.

And now, the Biden Administration is going to the US Supreme Court in a last-ditch attempt to reverse this decision.

The big picture effect – or at least, the intended meaning – of the Fifth Circuit ruling was to stop the government from working with Big Tech in censoring online content.

There’s little surprise that this doesn’t sit well with that government, which now hopes that the federal appellate court’s decision can be overturned.

The White House says the ruling is banning its “good” work done alongside social media to combat “misinformation”; instead of admitting its actions to amount to collusion with Big Tech – which has been amply documented now, not least by the Twitter Files – the government insists its actions are serving the public, and its “ability” to discuss relevant issues.

We obtained a copy of the petition for you here.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is back again here – to say that what those now in power in the US (a message amplified by legacy media) did ahead of the 2020 presidential election, as well as subsequently regarding the pandemic “misinformation” – which is now fairly widely accepted to be censorship (“moderation”) – is what Murthy still calls, justified.

By what, though? Because the appellate court’s ruling looked into the government’s “persuasive actions” (and no, you’re not reading a line from a gangster movie script, where “coercion” is spelled as, “urging”, etc.).

In any case, the appellate court found these actions were in fact coercive and unconstitutional.

Well, Murthy believes the court got it all wrong. The Fifth Circuit is accused of “improperly applying new and unprecedented” remedies. (No – he was not talking about the Covid vaccine(s). The reference was to the court’s allegedly flawed “legal theories”).

Murthy and other administration representatives are telling the Supreme Court that what the Fifth Circuit found to be unconstitutional, was actually “lawful persuasive governmental actions.”

The “grand” argument here is that, historically, US governments have been using free speech as a vehicle to promote their policies. And so – why would this case of “urging” Big Tech be any different?

“The Biden administration’s urging of social media platforms to enforce their content moderation policies to combat misinformation and disinformation is no different,” the government said.

Fact Check — Hakeem Jeffries: Gun Violence the No. 1 Killer of Children

CLAIM: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) used a Thursday post on X to claim that gun violence is the number one killer of children in America.

VERDICT: False.

Jeffries is not the first Democrat to make this false claim, one based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers focused on causes of death for people 0-19 years of age.

For example, during a June 2, 2022, prime-time speech, President Joe Biden reacted to the CDC figures by claiming: “Guns are the number one killer of children.” The “children” referenced by Biden include people of voting age, i.e., 18 and 19-year-olds. CDC figures show firearm-related deaths of people ages 0-19 totaled 4,368 in 2020, while motor vehicle deaths for the same age range totaled 4,036.

However, Breitbart News pointed out that if you do a custom search on the CDC website, adjusting the numbers so that you are limiting the category of “children” to the ages 0-17, i.e., individuals that are actually minors, then the data flips. The number of firearm-related deaths for children aged 0-17 was 2,281 in 2020, while the number of motor vehicle deaths for the same ages was 2,503.

Despite the demonstrable falsehood of Biden’s claim, Vice President Kamala Harris repeated it, as did actresses Allysa Milano and Jennifer Lawrence.

Jeffries is repeating it now, and it is still false.

Christian Nationalism

We’re being told that we should be afraid of this:

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him. And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

Blesses are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

     [Matthew 5:1-12]

And this:

And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?

Who said to him: Why asketh thou me concerning good? One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
He said to him: Which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

     [Matthew 19:16-19]

And this:

But the Pharisees hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together: And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him: Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.

     [Matthew 22:34-40]

But we’re not supposed to be afraid of this:

“Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors! These are hundreds of other psalms and Hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.” — Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

“The minarets are our bayonets; the domes are our helmets. Mosques are our barracks, the believers are soldiers. This holy army guards my religion. Almighty Our journey is our destiny, the end is martyrdom.” — Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey

Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan. Fight therefore against the friends of the Shaitan; surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak. [Koran, Sura 4:76]

“I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them.” [Koran, Sura 8:12]

“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem…” [Koran, Sura 9:5]

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, of the people of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” [Koran, Sura 9:29]

“O Prophet! Struggle against the unbelievers and hypocrites and be harsh with them.” [Koran, Sura 9:73]

Puzzling, eh?

***

It’s becoming rare that my boiler gets lit over anything, these days. I’ve said too much…written too much. But among my remaining hot buttons, this one may be the hottest: people who promote contempt toward Christianity and malice toward Christians. From the way they whine and rave, you’d think we had our hands in their pockets, if not down their pants.

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No. These domestic enemies need prosecution

THEY SKIPPED CIVICS
SENATOR CORY BOOKER NEEDS A REFRESHER COURSE ON RIGHTS

It’s as if the gun control crowd doesn’t want me to retire, because the Capitol Hill clown show seems to be taking every federal court rejection of extremist gun control as a challenge rather than a lesson in civics and the Constitution.

Last month, U.S. Senator Cory “I am Spartacus” Booker of New Jersey and a handful of his Beltway buddies — the “usual suspects,” of course — introduced a stinker known as the “Federal Firearms Licensing Act.” Otherwise dubbed S. 3212, it reads like the handiwork of someone who either slept through American Government in high school or skipped it altogether. The bill was read twice and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Here are the highlights:

“Except as provided in subsection (d), it shall be unlawful for any individual to purchase or receive a firearm unless the individual has a valid Federal firearm license.

“The Attorney General shall establish a Federal system for issuing a Federal firearm license to eligible individuals for firearms transferred to such individual.

“(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The system established under paragraph (1) shall require that—
“(A) an individual shall be eligible to receive such a license if the individual—
“(i) has completed training in firearms safety, including—
“(I) a written test, to demonstrate knowledge of applicable firearms laws; and
“(II) hands-on testing, including firing testing, to demonstrate safe use and sufficient accuracy of a firearm; and
“(ii) as part of the process for applying for such a license—
“(I) has submitted to a background investigation and criminal history check of the individual;
“(II) has submitted proof of identity;
“(III) has submitted the fingerprints of the individual; and

“(IV) has submitted identifying information on the firearm that the person intends to obtain, including the make, model, and serial number, and the identity of the firearm seller or transferor.”

If you liked the above, you’ll love what follows:

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Blue State Democrats Demand Jail Time for People Caught Using Gas-Powered Gardening Tools

Democrats in the state of Washington are pushing for members of the public to be jailed for up to one year if they are caught using gas-powered gardening tools.

According to State Reps. Amy Walen and Liz Berry, jailing law-abiding citizens over their lawn mower’s power source will help to fight “climate change.”

Last week, the Democrat lawmakers introduced House Bill 1868.

The legislation seeks to “reduc[e] emissions from outdoor power equipment.”

According to the bill, gas- and diesel-powered landscaping tools “emit a host of air pollutants.”

These “pollutants” are allegedly “contributing to climate change and negatively impacting public health.”

The bill cites findings from Democrat President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA claims gas-powered lawnmowers contribute 5% of the country’s air pollution.

According to the EPA, over 17 million gallons of fuel are spilled yearly while refueling outdoor power equipment.

“Nationally, the Department of Transportation data shows that one hour of running a gas lawnmower can contribute as much smog-forming pollution as driving a passenger car 300 miles,” the bill claims.

“One hour of running a gas leaf blower can contribute as much smog-forming pollution as driving a passenger car 1,100 miles.”

Gas-powered lawn tools also cause asthma, hearing loss, and “other health issues,” the legislation claims.

Additionally, the Democrats argue that the noise from outdoor power equipment can be a nuisance.

UN climate summit serving gourmet burgers, BBQ as it calls for Americans to stop eating meat

The ongoing United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai is offering a wide variety of gourmet food options from vendors who serve beef, even as it prepares a report that is expected to call for the West to reduce consumption of beef.

According to the summit’s online portal, its food offerings include “juicy beef,” “slabs of succulent meat,” smoked wagyu burgers, Philly cheesesteaks and “melt-in-your-mouth BBQ” in addition to African street BBQ, fast casual Mexican fare and an Asian option that has a “touch of French flair.” The revelation comes as the U.N. faces criticism for preparing a first-of-its-kind report that is expected to be published at the summit and call for lower meat consumption.

The U.N.’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) will publish its first-ever global food systems’ road map during an upcoming COP28 session, which is expected to recommend nations that “over-consume meat” to limit their consumption as part of a broader effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The U.N. has, for years, called for individuals to ditch animal-based diets, which it says “have a high impact on our planet.”

“FAO emphasizes the critical need for an innovative plan and a concrete package of solutions to overhaul agrifood systems,” the organization said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The Global Roadmap is positioned as a strategic tool to demonstrate that accelerated climate actions can transform agrifood systems, simultaneously addressing food security and nutrition challenges today and in the future without breaching the 1.5 degrees threshold. In this roadmap, FAO is urging for good food for today and tomorrow.”

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LET THE CREDIT GROW

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israel’s war cabinet this week. I wrote briefly about the meeting yesterday in “Annals of strategery.”

As has been obvious for a while now, the Biden administration is undermining Israel’s war on Hamas and defaming the IDF in the process. In the context of Biden’s expression of unqualified support for Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 massacres, it is something of a spectacle — a spectacle of the “boneless wonder” variety.

It is reported in the Israeli media that Blinken cautioned the war cabinet: “I don’t think you have the credit” to fight Hamas to the finish. Here is the close encounter of the blinkin’ kind reported by the Times of Israel, which notes that Blinken’s remarks are quoted only in Hebrew translation by Israel’s Channel 12 news and have been translated back into English here:

Blinken: You can’t operate in southern Gaza in the way you did in the north. There are two million Palestinians there. You need to evacuate fewer people from their homes, be more accurate in the attacks, not hit UN facilities, and ensure that there are enough protected areas [for civilians]. And if not? Then not to attack where there is a civilian population. What is your system of operation?

IDF Chief Herzi Halevi: We follow a number of principles — proportionality, distinction, and the laws of war. There were instances where we attacked on the basis of those principles, and instances where we decided not to attack, because we waited for a better opportunity.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant: The entire Israeli society is united behind the goal of dismantling Hamas, even if it takes months.

Blinken: I don’t think you have the credit for that.

I wrote that some translation (of “credit”) was required to understand what Blinken was saying. The Wall Street Journal provides the requisite translation in its editorial “The Biden-Blinken Rules of War for Israel.” The Journal’s editors translate: “He means credit with President Biden, as the White House bends to the growing pressure against Israel from the Democratic left.”

But Trump is a Fascist

Mayor Eric Adams finally had the guts to call out Biden for the border crisis. Almost immediately after, the FBI opened a bribery investigation against him.Then they seized his phones and iPads. Now a liberal activist came forward and is accusing him of sexual assault from 3 decades ago.

And if you’re wondering why no democrat or leftist ever openly defies the party….this is why.

The Biden Administration is Now Applying its Failed Thinking on Gun Control To Cars

We don’t write about cars much here, but there are some striking parallels to gun control in some recent moves by the Biden administration. Tell me if this rings any bells. Rather than punishing people who do idiotic things with their cars that endanger the public, the National Transportation Safety Board instead wants to punish all drivers with speed-limiting devices.

When we take a closer look at a particular tragedy they’re using to justify the move, we can see that the regulatory authoritarians in the administration apply the same flawed collectivist thinking to virtually every aspect of modern life.

It all started at the beginning of last year in Las Vegas, when a driver ran a red light. That happens all the time, of course, but the feds want us to focus on the speed of the car that ran the light: 103 MPH. The offending Dodge Challenger slammed into a minivan and several other vehicles, killing everyone in the Challenger and the minivan.

One thing the regulators don’t want us to focus on, of course, is the fact that the driver of the vehicle was severely impaired. He had a potent mix of cocaine and PCP in his system, and therefore couldn’t have been anywhere near his right mind when he failed to stop. He also had a long history of previous speeding tickets that Nevada authorities hadn’t taken seriously enough to bother revoking his license.

The NTSB makes a number of recommendations here, but only one of them makes any sense: taking this kind of reckless speeding seriously.

You’d think that someone with a history of driving at those kinds of speeds in a city would be punished with the loss of their license or time behind bars.  You’d be wrong. The jails are apparently already overcrowded with tax cheats, people who carried without permits, druggies, and other non-violent offenders that the state feels are greater threats to society.

Most sane people would agree that people who actually endanger the public should be the state’s first priority, but state bureaucracies don’t seem to be staffed by many sane people.

All of the other NTSB recommendations center around adding an Big Brother-type unwanted gadget to our cars: speed limiting devices. The NTSB says that everyone’s cars should, at minimum, make annoying noises when if we’re speeding, even just a few miles per hour over the posted limit.

But that’s the least intrusive of their proposals. What they’d really rather see is the installation of devices that prevents cars from speeding at all. For people who’ve been cited for low-level speeding offenses — think 10 mph over the limit — they recommend states force interlocks (like DWI interlocks) that actually shut a car down if the driver speeds too much.

If you think about this even a little bit, the logic simply doesn’t pan out. The vast, vast majority of drivers will never drive as fast in a city as the deceased Las Vegas scofflaw did. Even fewer people mess around with cocaine and PCP. Fewer still would ever do all of those things at the same time.

Just as it is with gun control, the government’s default solution isn’t to go after the crackheads and other lawbreakers who drive 100 MPH on city streets. Instead, they want to force everyone to spend thousands of dollars extra when buying a car that will prevent them speeding at all.

Authoritarians and collectivists are incapable of thinking in terms of individual freedoms, or how those who endanger the public — usually with long records of doing exactly that — should be the ones who are punished for it. They’re knee-jerk reaction is always to punish everyone for the stupidity of a few.

For those of us who dare to disagree with the Bidenbots’ approach, the NTSB recommends that we get more “education.” Instead of realizing that they work for the voting public and that we don’t want or need to buy expensive robo-nanny technology for our cars, they think we’re simply too stupid to realize what’s best for us and take our medicine. We’re just too ignorant and are in need of re-education on the benefits of imposing a top-down control system that wouldn’t have stopped the Las Vegas moron from taking coke and PCP before getting behind the wheel.

Tell us if this also rings any bells — the government also wants advertisers to stop telling us that fast cars are cool. A significant segment of the public may like fast cars, but in the eyes of regulators we’re just a bunch of brain-dead idiots who are at the mercy of evil advertisers. If they’d only tell more often that the Chevy Volt is totally cool, we’d be lining up at our local dealers clamoring for them and eagerly reducing our carbon footprint. Right?

As usual, government bureaucrats think there’s no freedom that’s too important to get rid of for the greater good, and that anybody who disagrees with them is too dumb or unsophisticated to know what’s good for them. Just as with guns, it’s not about reducing crimes or public safety, it’s all about control.

Puppet SloJoe is merely doing what his puppetmasters (the real people running the goobermint) have told him to do to make living more difficult.
Now, to be honest. If I built a new house, it would be 100% electric. I can power a house with a large enough generator and, properly equipped, all I need is a source of gasoline, ethanol, or even wood gas. Natural gas piped in by a utility company can be cut off at their discretion.

Biden Invokes Wartime Powers to Fund Electric Heaters as He Cracks Down on Gas Appliances

President Biden invoked a Cold War-era law in a surprising move Friday to pour taxpayer funds into domestic manufacturing of electric heat pumps, an alternative to gas-powered residential furnaces.

In a joint announcement with the White House, the Department of Energy (DOE) said the federal government would award a “historic” $169 million for nine projects across 15 sites nationwide in an effort to accelerate electric heat pump manufacturing. The significant level of funding was made possible after Biden utilized the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) to increase domestic production of green energy technologies.

“Getting more American-made electric heat pumps on the market will help families and businesses save money with efficient heating and cooling technology,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “These investments will create thousands of high-quality, good-paying manufacturing jobs and strengthen America’s energy supply chain, while creating healthier indoor spaces through home-grown clean energy technologies.”

“Today’s Defense Production Act funds for heat pump manufacturing show that President Biden is treating climate change as the crisis it is,” added John Podesta, the White House clean energy czar. “These awards will grow domestic manufacturing, create good-paying jobs, and boost American competitiveness in industries of the future.”

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Of course they do, they’re bureaucraps

National Transportation Safety Board Calls For Speed-Limiting Tech in Cars.

The National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) is an independent review agency in the federal government. They’re the group which get called when a plane crashes, or a train goes off the rails, or, in this particular case, when a speeding car crashes into a minivan in North Las Vegas and nine people die from this one wreck alone, as happened in 2022. After reviewing that wreck, the NTSB recommends that our cars warn us, inhibit us, or prevent us from speeding.

The NTSB said on Tuesday that the 2022 North Las Vegas crash “highlights [the] need for intelligent speed assistance technology and countermeasures including interlock program for repeat speeding offenders.” What is intelligent speed assistance technology? Here is the clarification, direct from the NTSB press release:

Intelligent speed assistance technology, or ISA, uses a car’s GPS location compared with a database of posted speed limits and its onboard cameras to help ensure safe and legal speeds. Passive ISA systems warn a driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit through visual, sound, or haptic alerts, and the driver is responsible for slowing the car. Active systems include mechanisms that make it more difficult, but not impossible, to increase the speed of a vehicle above the posted speed limit and those that electronically limit the speed of the vehicle to fully prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit.

It is not the NTSB’s role to carry out this recommendation. it is not a policy-making body. It is just an agency that reviews transportation disasters, figures out how they happened, and makes recommendations on how to keep them from happening.

The wreck itself that spurred this recommendation was particularly egregious but little about it sounds surprising. As the NTSB report notes, a driver and passenger in a 2018 Dodge Challenger ran a red light at 103 mph, hitting a Toyota Sienna with seven people inside. The light had been red for 29 seconds. All nine people died.

As the NTSB notes, some 12,330 people died in speeding-related crashes in 2021 alone, roughly a third of all traffic deaths in the U.S. What is abundantly clear is that something needs to change, and we all know that relying on cops to pull people over isn’t working for anybody.

And With That Remark, Nikki Haley Just Went Full Totalitarian

The explosion of antisemitism has been something of a shock. Not that it never went away or didn’t exist, but the viciousness of it all has been jarring. It’s one thing to peddle the age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of the media and finance. It’s another thing to outright call for all Jews to die. The Left used to hide their true intent regarding Israel with political-based language. The ‘we’re not antisemitic; we’re anti-Zionist’ was a big talking point from this group.

It’s a nasty pot of brew brewing for quite some time, and it’s not just an American thing. The British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn was rife with antisemites; Corbyn couldn’t denounce Hamas as a terror group recently. Yet, if there’s one thing we know that won’t work in snuffing out vicious antisemitism and calls for Jewish genocide on social media, it’s to censor it like Oceania’s Thought Police.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a hopeless 2024 candidate, suggested a new protocol that is downright Orwellian. It also might not be legal. For starters, she wants everyone on social media to be verified; no anonymous accounts can be permitted to use these platforms. She bypasses the legal debate by saying this is a national security issue.

Look, I can’t stand these pro-Hamas clowns either. But this would be a massive propaganda win for the terrorists. It’s what they want us to do, Nikki. We also don’t need to drive these people underground, some of whom will be top recruits in carrying out terrorist attacks.

Using social media has been essential in exposing antisemites recently, so I say fight fire with fire. They’re the ones losing their jobs right now.

 

FBI accused of targeting Trump types; agents who served in military deemed ‘disloyal’

More whistleblowers have stepped forward to tell Congress that high-ranking FBI officials are targeting agents, specifically former military members, for their political beliefs and trying to force them out of the bureau.

A Marine and other military veterans at the FBI have been accused of disloyalty to the U.S. because they fit the profile of a supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to two disclosures sent to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee.

The Washington Times obtained copies of the disclosures.

The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section chief, specifically pursued employees who served in the Marine Corps or other military branches.

They stripped the agents of security clearances, which sidelined them on the job and pushed them toward the exit, according to the disclosures.

The whistleblower disclosures say Mr. Veltri and Ms. Perkins either declared or attempted to declare the Marine and other veterans as “disloyal to the United States of America.”

“In these cases there was no indication that any of the individuals had any affiliation to a foreign power or held any belief against the United States,” it said.

Other signs that an employee was a “right-wing radical and disloyal to the United States,” according to Ms. Perkins and Mr. Veltri, were failure to wear a face mask, refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccination and participating in religious activities.

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