It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
— Justice Robert H. Jackson

May 16

1771 – The Battle of Alamance, a pre-Revolutionary War battle between local Militia and a group of rebels called the “Regulators”, occurs in present day Alamance County, North Carolina.

1842 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail from Elm Grove, Missouri.

1866 – Beginning the replacement of the silver ‘half dime’, Congress establishes the 5¢ coin, called the ‘nickel’, being made of 75% copper and 25% nickel. Today, the only U.S. coin in circulation that is actually worth as much, or more, than the face amount.

1868 – The Senate fails to convict President Andrew Johnson at his impeachment trial by 1 vote.

1888 – Nikola Tesla delivers a lecture at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in New York City, describing the equipment which will allow efficient generation and use of alternating currents to transmit electric power over long distances.

1891 – The International Electrotechnical Exhibition opens in Frankfurt, Germany, featuring the world’s first long distance transmission of high power, three-phase alternating electric current transmitted from a powerplant 75 miles away.

1916 – Great Britain and France sign the secret wartime Sykes-Picot Agreement, partitioning former Ottoman territories in Arabia.

1918 – Congress passes the Sedition Act of 1918, making criticism of the government during wartime an criminal offense.

1919 – A U.S Navy Curtiss NC-4 aircraft commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

1943 – The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is finally defeated, with the survivors taken to the Majdanek and Treblinka death camps.

1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport – now John F Kennedy International Airport – and Heathrow Airport in London

1960 – At Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser.

1988 – A report by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.

1991 – Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

2011 – On its 25th and final flight, Shuttle Endeavour launches on mission STS-134, International Space Station assembly flight ULF6, from the Kennedy Space Center.

Daydreaming the Guns Away

We find ourselves living in a highly consequential time for the legal clarification of the 2nd Amendment. Extremely aggressive, wide-ranging bans of semi-automatic firearms have been enacted in various parts of the country, drawing legal challenges. While the ultimate resolution of these challenges is unknowable, many observers believe the Supreme Court will eventually arrive at a decision prohibiting the wholesale banning of semi-automatic firearms. Those who dream of eliminating all private gun ownership in the United States face the prospect of a devastating legal defeat.

One can imagine their looming disappointment. They have failed to appoint Supreme Court justices who would effectively redefine the 2nd Amendment out of existence, and they are about to bear the consequences of that failure. But from their perspective, there is comfort to be had in the prospect of eventually stripping the 2nd Amendment from the Constitution altogether, no matter how long it may take.

Such is the hope that animates aspiring intergenerational social reformer Allan Goldstein, who, in his “Let’s get serious and repeal the Second Amendment” has stepped forward to boldly launch a 50-plus year plan to eradicate all privately owned firearms in the United States.

Perhaps the piece might have been better entitled “Let’s Get Hysterical.” How galling it must be to be deprived of so obvious a good — a gun-free society — on account of something as frivolous as an obsolete, suicidally-construed constitutional amendment. On Goldstein’s account “[t]he Supreme Court has decided that ‘a well-regulated militia’ includes gang bangers and wild-eyed loners with a grudge.” What a shame Goldstein did not bother to provide a citation to the Supreme Court decision in which this is asserted.

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Rasmussen: Gun Owners Feel Safer, Don’t Trust Govt. Enforcement

A new Rasmussen survey has revealed “Most gun owners say they feel safer with a firearm in the house, and don’t think the government can be trusted to enforce gun control laws fairly.”

According to Rasmussen, only 29 percent of American Adults trust the government to fairly enforce gun control laws, while 57 percent don’t, and another 14 percent are not sure.

Forty-two percent (42%) say they or someone in their household owns a gun – up from 37 percent in February 2022 – while 47 percent don’t live in gun-owning households, and 11 percent are not sure, the new report said. It’s not clear how those people aren’t sure someone in the household has a firearm.

The survey of 1,204 American Adults was conducted on April 30-May 2, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports with a margin of sampling error or +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Not surprisingly, Rasmussen’s new survey says more Republicans (51%) than Democrats (41%) or Independents (35%) live in gun-owning households. Fifty-four percent (54%) of Democrats, 35% of Republicans and 50% of the unaffiliated say no one in their household owns a gun, Rasmussen said.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans, 47 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Independents don’t trust the government to enforce gun control laws fairly.

This is not much different from earlier Rasmussen polling on guns, which suggests Americans aren’t shifting their values much on firearms even as times change.

According to the survey, “more men (49%) than women (36%) live in gun-owning households.”

“However, Rasmussen said, “women who do live in gun-own households are about equally likely as men to say they feel more safe because someone in their household owns a gun.”

More whites (48%) than blacks (35%) or other minorities (32%) live in gun-owning households, the survey revealed. Majorities of every racial category – 55 percent of whites, 61 percent of blacks and 58 percent of other minorities – don’t trust the government to fairly enforce gun control laws.

Lysander Boomer

Given the threat to our economic and consequently political stability posed by the consequences of the curtailment of natural gas production, I would welcome a statement from the governors of producing states about what their intentions are in the future.

Assuming a second Biden term, it is probable that additional restrictions will be passed aimed at destroying domestic energy production. State governments must nullify such restrictions and ensure sufficient energy supplies.

I would encourage the formation of regional organizations between states to ensure that at a minimum, politically aligned states are not economically devastated by the policies of this administration. Joint litigation, joint resistance, joint production etc.
The lights must be kept on, the production of food must not be interfered with, the grid must be secured against sabotage, both physical and legislative in origin.

If we must have a constitutional crisis, let it be over keeping folks fed and living with proper amounts of air conditioning and electrical services. The feds will either yield or be displaced in such a circumstance.

Force the agenda out into the open. Use state power to the absolute maximum to ensure the prosperity of your state and confederate with other likeminded states to resist the inevitable federal repercussions. It may get ugly but it is a worthy fight.

Potentially consider passing legislation to allow for the recall of senators if they are judged to act against the interest of the state government. This will work to restore the intention of the senate as a battleground of the states.
State legislatures must wield their power strongly to defend against federal overreach. I can’t say it enough, the states must arm themselves (legally) against the federal government and prepare to fight with everything they’ve got.

To these types, the court become ‘illegitimate’ when it rules opposite to what they want. That’s childish ‘stampy footing’ as most proggies do when they don’t get their way. The court, by definition, isn’t illegitimate, but if you don’t like how they rule, you either follow the methods provided in the Constitution, or get yourself classed as domestic enemy of the same.

Democrat Senator Says People Will ‘Revolt’ If Supreme Court Blocks Gun Control.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) claimed over the weekend that the American people would “revolt” if the United States Supreme Court continued to block new gun control laws.

Murphy made the comments to NBC’s Chuck Todd during Sunday morning’s broadcast of “Meet the Press” — after which he dug in even further, going on to attack the credibility and legitimacy of the current court.

Murphy referenced a 2022 Supreme Court decision — authored by Clarence Thomas in the 6-3 majority — that struck down New York’s restrictions on concealed carry, along with the more recent decision from Virginia District Court Judge Robert Payne. Payne ruled that a ban on gun sales for 18-20-year-olds would effectively impose restrictions on certain citizens that “do not exist with other constitutional guarantees.”

Complaining that the courts had often halted any progress toward stricter gun control measures by interfering in anything legislators were able to get done, Murphy said, “If the Supreme Court eventually says that states or the Congress can’t pass universal background checks or can’t take these assault weapons off the streets, I think there’s going to be a popular revolt over that policy.”

The Connecticut Senator then turned his attack on the Supreme Court directly, adding, “A court that’s already pretty illegitimate, is going to be in full crisis mode.” He went on to promise that legislators would continue to “regulate who owns weapons and what kind of weapons are owned” — with or without pushback from the courts.

May 15

1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Inquisition.

1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest and is condemned to death by a specially selected jury.

1602 – Aboard Concord, English Captain Bartholomew Gosnold sites land that he names Cape Cod for the abundant fish seen there.

1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (the period for a planet to orbit the Sun increases as the radius of its orbit increases), first discovered on March 8.

1817 – The first private mental health hospital in the U.S., the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, now Friends Hospital, opens in Philadelphia.

1864 – At New Market, Virginia, students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel and his troops out of the Shenandoah Valley.

1896 – A massive tornado strikes Sherman, Texas, destroying 50 homes and killing 73 people.

1905 – The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada.

1911 – In the case of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an “unreasonable” monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up

1929 – A fire in the nitrocellulose based X-ray film stock stored in the basement at the Crile Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 125 people.

1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald’s restaurant.

1941 – New York Yankees Center Fielder Joe DiMaggio begins a never yet broken, Major League record, of a streak of making at least one base hit in 56 games straight.

1942 – The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) act is signed into law.

1948 – President Harry Truman becomes the first world leader to recognize the State of  Israel.

1957 – Evangelist Billy Graham launches his “crusade” in front of 18,000 people at Madison Square Garden in NYC

1963 – Project Mercury ends with the launch of Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board the capsule Faith 7. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone.

1968 – A tornado strikes Jonesboro Arkansas, killing 33 people.

1970 – President Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington as the first female United States Army Brigadier General Officers.

1972 – Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since 1945, revert to Japanese control.

1974 – Terrorists of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at the Netiv Meir Elementary School in Ma’alot Israel, killing 31 people including 22 schoolchildren and wounding 68 more.

1988 – The Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan after occupying the country for 9 years.

1997 – Shuttle Atlantis launches on mission STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

2001 – CSX Transportation EMD SD40-2 locomotive #8888 rolls out of Stanley train yard in Walbridge, Ohio, with 47 freight cars attached, after its engineer fails to reboard it after setting a yard switch. It travels south, driverless for 66 miles until it was brought to a halt near Kenton, Ohio. The incident becoming the inspiration for the 2010 film Unstoppable.

2010 – Australian Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

2019 – The U.S. birthrate statistics for 2018 are released, showing the lowest rate in 32 years.

States Attack Private Shooting Ranges as ‘Antigovernment Paramilitary Training Camps’

The small town of Pawlet, Vermont – population 1,386 – has been feuding with Daniel Banyai for years over two shooting ranges he built on the 30-acre property he’s owned since 2013.

Neighbors complained about the noise and said Banyai and his friends are super scary. Town officials said Banyai built structures on his land without applying for any zoning permits.

In 2021 Banyai told the Associated Press his property, which he calls Slate Ridge, is a “safe and environmentally friendly place for people to discharge their firearms.”

None of that mattered to Pawlet town officials. After their initial zoning efforts failed, they sued Banyai in Vermont’s Environmental Court, which ordered him to remove the unpermitted structures and earthen berms within 135 days. Banyai ignored the ruling, and in February the Environmental Court held Banyai in contempt of court. He has been racking up civil fines at the rate of $200 per day ever since.

“Respondent has demonstrated a willfulness, perhaps even an enthusiasm, for disregarding the Town’s Bylaws, this Court’s Orders, and the authority of the Judiciary,” Vermont Environmental Court Judge Thomas Durkin said in his order.

Attempts to contact Banyai for this story were unsuccessful.

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It’s not about popularity or even the usefulness of a thing. It’s about bureaucraps exercising arbitrary power at the whim of whoever happens to be in charge. We are either a nation of laws, or we’re nothing more than another dictatorship under the rule of man, instead of the rule of law.

Analysis: Despite Trump Claim, Bump Stock Ban is Important

Former President Donald Trump (R.) hand waved his decision to unilaterally ban bump stocks in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting as “very unimportant.” But the ban was enormously consequential both legally and politically.

On Wednesday, Trump was asked about his ban by a Republican primary voter at CNN’s town hall.

“As you know, the bump stocks are actually a very unimportant thing,” Trump replied. “NRA I went with them, and they said, ‘it doesn’t mean anything, or actually all they do is teach you how to shoot very inaccurately.’ So, we did that.”

It is true that the National Rifle Association (NRA) supported instituting the ban via executive order after balking at a legislative ban they argued went too far. Trump listened to NRA and issued an order to have the ATF craft a rule banning the devices as unregistered machineguns–possession of which could lead to upwards of ten years in prison under the National Firearms Act (NFA). However, he turned a deaf ear when the NRA complained the rule went too far by refusing to exempt those who’d legally bought the stocks before Trump ordered the rule.

The result was a total confiscation order for bump stocks from the Trump Administration. Despite previously ruling bump stocks were legal to buy without special regulations under the Obama Administration, the ATF declared under Trump the stocks are actually machineguns and aren’t legal to buy and never were. Only destroying the stock you owned or turning it over to the ATF without compensation were offered as remedies to avoiding potential federal felony charges.

The ATF had made its fair share of contradictory or incoherent rules and determinations before the bump stock ban–it had once claimed pressing a pistol-brace-equipped gun to your shoulder constitutes redesigning it on the fly.

However, the bump stock ban was one step further than many of the agency’s previous proclamations. It was based on a lie. One that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has since called out.

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What Are All These Illegals Going to Do?

So, the gate to illegal entrance into America is now open wider than it was before.  Well, since Biden became President, there hasn’t been a gate.  By the time he leaves office, there will be…how many people illegally in the United States, having crossed our non-existent southern border, by far the greatest breakdown of the federal government whose first job is to protect Americans from invasion by those who are not legally allowed into the land. This will be Biden’s most horrendous legacy historically—the worst of all his failures.

What will the total figure end up being?  25 million?  30 million?  There is no way we will know, until they are all given amnesty, which will happen eventually.  That’s what the Democrats want and, well, what else can we do with them?  Ship them back across the Mexican border and let them die in the desert?  They are here to stay, folks, you know it, I know it, they know it, and Biden knows it.  And that’s been the plan all along.

But what will they do?  Well, a variety of things, none good because they are here illegally—at least for a while.  But here are some possibilities to keep them occupied.

1.  Pick crops.  Many of them are already doing that, and have been for years.  They shouldn’t be doing it, of course, not just because they shouldn’t be here in the first place, but because they are taking work from American citizens.  How about starting with the hundreds of thousands of homeless that are on the streets?  They need jobs.  Round ‘em up and send them to the fields.  But can’t do that because Democrats need them on the streets for—something.  Political gain surely.  Young people could start their careers by doing farm labor, but they are too lazy to work, period, so it would be hard to coax them to do it.  So, bottom line, lots of the newcomers will be in the fields as well.  At least they will be working.  They will have jobs that Americans don’t want to do, and that says something about the country.  And also about leadership, in all areas, which is not encouraging especially young people towards the virtues of hard work and diligence.  But people on welfare means votes for politicians.

2.  Some illegals will sell drugs.  That’s what many of them came to do—work for the cartels.  They can make pretty good money killing Americans.  Frankly, I place most of the blame here on the people who take drugs.  It is an utterly useless, dangerous, stupid thing to do.  Nobody forces anybody to take drugs, although I’ve heard a few fentanyl deaths were innocent.  But I really struggle to feel sorry for people who ruin their lives, or die, by voluntarily putting something into their body that doesn’t belong there and can only harm them.  The drug problem in America is completely the fault of the fools who take them.  I have never smoked one weed in my life or taken a single illegal drug, and that by choice.  I’m not very smart, but I’m not THAT stupid.  We could stop the drug problem tomorrow if every American would just have the sense to quit using them.  But that isn’t going to happen, and thus there is a tremendously lucrative market for drugs.  So many of the illegals will be in America getting rich off the recklessness of the millions who take drugs.

3.  Menial jobs, welfare, homelessness, crime.  Very few of the illegals are skilled laborers (except for picking Nancy’s crops), so they won’t be able to get high paying jobs.  They will live together in hovels, 8, 10, 12 to a house, or on the streets, and be in poverty.  Many will, of course, get on welfare and you and I will take care of them through our tax dollars.  There are a lot of other criminals crossing the border as well, and thus the Democrat-caused crime wave will escalate.  All this chaos is exactly what the Left wants because…

These people are a revolution waiting to happen.  The illegals are going to discover that Joe Biden’s America is not what it was advertised to be.  Most of them will exist in squalor and deep poverty, with no easy avenue of escape.  Many children will end up in some kind of child labor or maybe even sex slavery to help their families subsist.  It is a horrible situation Biden is creating.  Many of these people left their countries to get away from this, but they will find a concomitant situation in the United States.

If we think a revolution cannot happen in America, then we are only deluding ourselves.  Adolf Hitler actually came to power legally, but Mao Zedong required a civil war.  Lenin took advantage of mass discontent to take over Russia, and that appears to be the most likely scenario in America.  The Democrats are creating hatred of America in many groups, especially blacks and millennials.  Thus, they will have no qualms about rebelling against a country they despise, which they believe is unfair, unequal, and full of injustice.  This is a classic recipe for revolution.  And just what the Democrats crave.

And if the situation proves intolerable for the illegals, they, too, will become a discontented mass, angry, and ripe for Leftist propaganda.  In history, when this kind of brew is stirred into a national pot, it usually takes a strongman (dictator) to step forth and subdue it, taking away everyone’s liberties in order to create stability.  Once he gets power, he never gives it up.  It happened in many countries in the 20th century, and it can happen in the 21st, too.

Welcome to Joe Biden’s America, deliberately manufactured.  An increasingly seething, boiling cauldron of discontent.  I have no answers to this one.  I’ve seen it too many times in history.  Once the avalanche starts, there is no way to stop it.