Maher: The Times buried the Kavanaugh assassination story because he’s a conservative

“They just wear their bias on their sleeves,” he says here of the paper, “and if it’s not part of something that feeds our narrative, f— it, we bury it.”

I’m sticking with my bet that Joe Rogan ends up fully red-pilled before Maher does. But I admit, clips like this make me wonder.

Apologies for the odd French-language embedded tweet but it’s the only one I could find with the full exchange between him and his guests.

His point is true beyond a shadow of a doubt and has been for a long time. It’s a neat follow-up to yesterday’s post about media gatekeeping, in fact. Partisan media aggressively filters the news it covers to shield its audience from information that might shake their faith in “the team.” But big media filters too, even when it feels obliged to pay some attention to major developments that disfavor their own side. A gunman showing up outside Sonia Sotomayor’s home would be big news, illustrating a right-wing “climate of hate.” Whereas a gunman showing up outside Brett Kavanaugh’s home is a page-20 curio about a random lunatic.

Katrina Trinko remembers how the Gabby Giffords shooting, perpetrated by a genuine random lunatic, was immediately and egregiously coopted by the media as an indictment of tea-party agitation against Democrats. But the supreme example of the double standard will forever be the attempt by an ardent Bernie-loving progressive to mass-murder Republican congressmen on a baseball field in 2017, news that would have been treated as a national trauma on the order of a major terrorist attack had the partisan roles been reversed. As it is, the story fizzled after a few days and probably would have fizzled sooner if not for the subplot of Steve Scalise fighting for his life in the hospital. Trinko:

[W]hen it comes to political violence in the United States today, here’s a maxim you can always rely on: If the victim or likely victim is on the right, the perpetrator is simply a lone wolf. But if the victim or likely victim is on the left, the perpetrator was fueled by dangerous rhetoric…

Sure, the justices have been given some additional security. But where is the outrage from top liberal lawmakers and activists? Where are the calls for people to remember that at the end of the day, no matter how vehemently we disagree on certain policies, we are all Americans who should be working together to resolve our differences?…

Here’s the reality: Corporate media and liberal lawmakers probably aren’t going to rush to highlight the horrific assassination attempt on Kavanaugh. They know that moderates will be horrified to discover how commonplace it has become for Supreme Court justices to face protests at home. (Notice how little coverage the corporate media has given to these protests, despite the fact that they are publicly announced ahead of time.) And they don’t want to risk alienating the extremists on their own side by focusing on this.

Left-wing agitators understand that they operate free of scrutiny from major media. It’s why the same group that doxxed the Court’s conservative members last month felt no compunction about advertising a new protest at Amy Coney Barrett’s home even after the news broke about a threat to Kavanaugh.

 

Because they’re of the left, by definition they can’t be part of a “climate of hate” that places anyone at risk. If anyone takes a shot at Barrett, the takeaway will be nothing more profound that that there are some crazy people in America. It’s the progressive version of the strategy some righties engage in after mass shootings, complaining about poor treatment for mental health in order to steer the debate away from gun policies favored by Republicans. When your side is on the political hot seat, you can’t go wrong changing the subject to the unfathomable nuances of a murderer’s mental illness.

In lieu of an exit question, read Jonah Goldberg today on a glaring example of politically motivated gatekeeping by major conservative media. Or read this, about Trump’s “free speech” platform allegedly refusing to allow certain topics to be broached. Taken together with the Times’s inexcusable downplaying of the Kavanaugh story, they help explain why the GOP is in the state that it is. Conservatives justifiably distrust major media due to its biases, they place their trust in partisan media instead, and then partisan media grossly abuses that trust by distorting or outright suppressing information that conservatives should have.

People intervene in attempted carjacking, suspect shot in Maryvale

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Police say an attempted carjacking was stopped by people nearby and the suspect got shot in Maryvale on Wednesday morning. It happened around 8 a.m. at a parking lot near 83th Avenue and Encanto Boulevard, which is north of McDowell Road.

Phoenix Police Sgt. Phillip Krynsky said a man was trying to steal a car when a group intervened and the man was shot. He was taken to the hospital with a life-threatening injury. No additional information has been released. Krynsky said the details are preliminary and subject to change as officers investigate the incident. No identities were released.

Iowa homeowner shoots would-be intruder

ADAIR, Iowa — A homeowner near Casey, Iowa shot a would-be home invader multiple times early Thursday, according to the Adair County Sheriff’s office.

Investigators say their received a 911 call from the homeowner around 4:30 a.m. saying he had just shot someone who tried tried to break into his home. The homeowner awoke to unusual noises and then heard glass breaking before he found the person trying to enter the home through a broken window.

An Adair County deputy and officers from the Stuart, Iowa police department were already in the area, investigating the crash of a vehicle on Interstate 80 near the Adair rest area. The deputy found the vehicle abandoned around 3:18 a.m. in the median.

Investigators say the vehicle had been reported as stolen to the Omaha Police Department.

Officers responded to the rural home after the 911 call and administered first aid to the wounded person. That person was taken to a Des Moines hospital for treatment of multiple gun shot wounds.

Thursday afternoon. the Adair County Sheriff’s Office had not released the identity of the suspected intruder.

And when they come back into session, they’ll probably conveniently let it die with some bland boilerplate statements.

Senate leaves town without a deal on gun legislation

Senators have wrapped up their work and left Washington, D.C., without reaching a deal on gun violence legislation, disappointing Democrats who had hoped to issue a joint statement with Republicans on a framework.

Democrats say they are “very close” to an agreement with Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the lead Republican negotiator, but Democratic and Republican staff still need to hammer out differences over language, according to Senate negotiators.

Senate sources say that Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), the lead Democratic negotiator, was “itching” to put out a joint statement with Cornyn before lawmakers left town but that Cornyn declined to sign on to any public statement until there’s an agreement on the language of the core proposals.

“There’s not an agreement until we agree on everything,” Cornyn told reporters Thursday afternoon. “We’ve narrowed the issues considerably.”

Cornyn said the group had hoped to release a joint statement by week’s end but isn’t there yet.

“We were hopeful there might be something we could do today, but we have this remaining issue we need to resolve,” he said.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, doesn’t want to sign off on any framework until the language of the core provisions are finalized.

“How outrageous is that?” Cornyn quipped about his insistence on knowing the details of the agreement before endorsing a framework for the legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he wanted a deal by the end of this week and has come under pressure from progressives to force a Senate vote on gun control legislation if Republicans don’t agree to a compromise bill soon.

Schumer received a briefing from Murphy on Thursday afternoon, telling reporters afterward that the bipartisan group is making good progress and that he hopes to get something from the group soon.

The four core negotiators — Cornyn, Murphy, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) — are scheduled to hold a virtual meeting to continue the talks Friday afternoon.

They are looking for a deal that can bring along 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster in the 50-50 Senate. Every Democrat is expected to vote for the legislation.

The Republicans in the negotiating group also include Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

If those four plus Cornyn and Tillis agree to vote “yes,” Democrats would still need to round up four more Republicans to overcome the 60-vote threshold for ending a filibuster.

Senior Democrats briefed on the negotiations say the two sides are “very close” to a deal and expect to see an agreement by sometime next week.

“I think we are very close,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “We have good vibrations. I think Schumer did the right thing by focusing on a date to complete the negotiations.”

Schumer said soon after a gunman killed 21 people in Uvalde, Texas, that he would give Republicans only a short amount of time to work out compromise legislation before he would begin to force them on gun control proposals.

Republicans want to create tax incentives for the sale of safe storage equipment, while Democrats want to also add mandates for safe storage.

Another tricky issue is how to handle people who make a business of selling firearms online but are not required to conduct background checks because they don’t hold federal firearm licenses. Gun control advocates view this as a loophole in the law requiring firearm dealers to conduct background checks.

Cornyn on Thursday said significant progress has been made since then on classifying people who make a business of selling firearms, noting that he and Murphy have worked on the issue for more than a year.

Another potential landmine in the negotiations is a proposal to encourage states to set up red flag laws to remove firearms from people deemed a danger to the community.

Marshall on Thursday said he doesn’t “see how any red flag [law] passes” and called it a “poison pill.”

“I don’t think the red flags address the real issue,” he said. “I think it could sure be abused. I think it’s an infringement on the Second Amendment.”

Daines said he would oppose using taxpayer money to give states incentives to establish red flag laws.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already have such laws on the books.

“What hasn’t been talked about a lot is the school resource officer at Uvalde was not at his post. Why are we not talking more about that? Imagine for a moment if you had a couple of Capitol police officers who weren’t at their post and someone came in the Capitol. There would be a lot of discussion about what do we do to keep the security hardened around the Capitol,” he said.

Blumenthal, who has negotiated a red flag law with Graham, however, said members of the bipartisan group should be able to reach agreement on that issue.

“We’re going to keep working on language. I’m enormously encouraged having worked on this for quite a few years,” he said of red flag legislation.

Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator, declined to say whether he could support a package that doesn’t include incentives for states to set up red flag laws.

“I’m not drawing any lines in the sand at this point,” he said, though he added a red flag law “could have made a difference in Uvalde.”

New gun laws won’t fix the problem

Another senseless act of violence against children and anti-gun groups are blaming gun advocates for this violence, but the answer could be closer to home.

Gun control has been with us since 1968 and since then a myriad of gun laws has emerged. Clearly, they haven’t worked. Totally ignored are the shooters who have been from broken homes, isolated, prone to other types of violence, had interactions with police and been active on social media. Their behavior was excused or ignored.

The politicians say it’s easy to get a gun, but if the system was effective and criminals prosecuted, it could be more of a deterrent to block sales to potential shooters. While enhanced background checks may sound good, if the local authority doesn’t inform the investigating agency, and in most cases they don’t, then a shooter will be able to get guns. Reporting agencies aren’t obligated to inform them.

If all factors are considered, then it is not a gun problem, and a new gun law will not fix it. The legal gun owner is not the problem, and within the context of self-defense they prevent potential victims in defense of self or others, often without shots fired. The gun-owning public has grown and includes women, minorities and prior gun control advocates due to violent criminals having gun charges disappear in plea bargaining, as well as being released before the ink is dry on the booking form.

The danger of being a victim has increased because of an agenda that puts criminals ahead of the public’s safety. Unfortunately, many mass shootings are ignored by the media such as in Chicago or New York, but gang violence has become commonplace and non-newsworthy except to those affected in the inner cities. Poor minorities tend to bear the brunt of ineffective political policies.

President Joe Biden has suggested that the Second Amendment is “not absolute” and if so, then freedom of speech, religion, assembly and the press are also “not absolute.”

William Aherin, Southampton

Biden Admin Dropping COVID-Testing Requirements for International Travel

The Biden administration has finally dropped a Covid-19 testing requirement for travelers entering the country, the White House announced on Friday.

The rule, established during the Trump administration and later enhanced by Biden, required all inbound travelers — including US citizens — to show proof of negative Covid test before boarding flights headed for the US…….

This is not ‘journalism’. This is theater. And it’s deceitful theater at that.
Can you count how many lies were told?

Well, when there isn’t one……….

White House Economist Can’t Explain Biden’s ‘Plan’ on Inflation

Friday morning brought catastrophic results showing inflation yet again at a forty year high. It was even bad enough to blow past expectations. Predictably, President Joe Biden’s response involved blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin. White House Economist Cecilia Rouse tried to repeat that bogus excuse that same day, but not even CNN’s Jim Sciutto would let her get away with it.

Shortly after the numbers were release, Rouse appeared on “CNN Newsroom” where Sciutto directly asked her “does the White House see any relief in these numbers for Americans in the near future, and if so, when?”Through her fumbled response, Rouse failed to give a proper response. “So, look, the president very much understands and we very much understand that that we’ve got uncomfortably high inflation. What we saw in the data this month was that month on month prices increased overall, the headline CPI increased about 1 percent, and about half of that was due to food and energy, which can be almost directly tied to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Rouse looked to continue by saying “and so” before Sciutto cut in. “It’s not just that, you know,” he said, as sounding less than patient with this administration’s tactic to blame everyone else. “It’s not–prices are rising, I get it. I get the world oil markets are up, but you know pricing are rising for everything: used cars, rent.”

Faced with Scuitto’s pushback, Rouse had no choice but to concede to his point. “Absolutely. And so, and the president understands that and so he has, like, he has emphasized he’s focused on this as part of his plan, I know this doesn’t sound like a plan, but first and foremost he respects the independence of the federal reserve.”

In other words, it’s the federal reserve’s problem.

This is a tactic the Biden administration has used multiple times before, with President Biden himself also blaming Putin multiple times before for rising costs, especially with gas prices. The White House even tried to get #PutinsPriceHike to trend.

CNN is also not the only normally friendly outlet to go after Biden for his response when it comes to inflation.

Continue reading “”

If any of the January 6 Commission’s hearings are again scheduled to take place in prime time, it’s entirely possible that the networks will take a “hard pass” next time:

Well, when all they have is deceit

The Left’s Artificial Inflation of Mass Shooting Numbers

Left-leaning media outlets like CNN and The Washington Post claim there have been hundreds of mass shootings this year alone. The real numbers are much lower.

The figures they use are based on data from the Gun Violence Archive which currently clocks the number of mass shootings in 2022 at 251, on par with the number of shootings on their record this time last year.

The FBI does not have numbers yet for 2022, but in 2021 they reported 61 active shooter incidents. Only 12 of those were considered mass killings according to the federal definition which says three or more deaths constitute a mass killing. The GVA, on the other hand, reported 692 mass shootings in 2021. That’s more than 11 times greater than the FBI’s official recorded number.

The culprit of the difference between the two agencies’ numbers is that the FBI gathers data on active shooter incidents and the GVA counts mass shootings. The two terms have slightly different definitions. However, the FBI’s active shooter data contains comparable information to the GVA’s mass shooting data.

In fact, the difference between how the FBI defines an active shooter and how the GVA defines a mass shooting reveals how the larger numbers provided by the GVA’s data collection criteria can be twisted by the left to spread fear and further their gun-grabbing agenda.

The GVA says a mass shooting occurs when there are “Four or more shot and/or killed in a single event [incident], at the same general time and location not including the shooter.” They also note the way they collect their mass shooting information (via GVA):

GVA uses a purely statistical threshold to define mass shooting based ONLY on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter. GVA does not parse the definition to remove any subcategory of shooting. To that end we don’t exclude, set apart, caveat, or differentiate victims based upon the circumstances in which they were shot.

GVA believes that equal importance is given to the counting of those injured as well as killed in a mass shooting incident.

The FBI does not define Mass Shooting in any form. They do define Mass Killing but that includes all forms of weapon, not just guns.

In that, the criteria are simple…if four or more people are shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter, that incident is categorized as a mass shooting based purely on that numerical threshold.

Note that the GVA definition of a mass shooting does not have a threshold number of deaths required to define an incident of gun violence as a mass shooting.

The FBI defines an active shooter as follows (via FBI):

One or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.

The FBI also looks at the inclusion of the following features to determine whether or not an incident is an active shooter event (via FBI):

Shootings in public places, shootings occurring at more than one location, shootings where the shooter’s actions were not the result of another criminal act, shootings resulting in a mass killing, shootings indicating apparent spontaneity by the shooter, shootings where the shooter appeared to methodically search for potential victims, shootings that appeared focused on injury to people, not buildings or objects.

In their reported numbers of active shooter incidents, the FBI does not include incidents of gun violence that result from the following (via FBI):

Self defense, gang violence, drug violence, contained residential or domestic disputes, controlled barricade/hostage situations, crossfire as a byproduct of another ongoing criminal act, an action that appeared not to have put other people in peril.

These criteria make the FBI’s definition of an active shooter much more exclusive. Because of the GVA’s broad definition of a mass shooting, they would count incidents fitting the above descriptions as mass shootings so long as four or more people were injured or killed.

In other words, if someone was attacked by multiple criminals and shot the attackers out of self defense, the GVA would consider it a mass shooting. If four or more people were shot in an incident of gang violence, the GVA would consider it a mass shooting, and so on.

These sorts of shootings are no less significant, but by labeling every incident of gun violence affecting four or more people a “mass shooting,” the Left makes it sound like acts of violence on the same scale as Uvalde or Buffalo happen every day.

The term mass shooting has strong connotations that are not applicable to most of the shootings in the GVA’s numbers. As Katie wrote, referring to something as a mass shooting implies a lot more than the number of people shot.

All violent crime should be cause for concern and the GVA’s numbers reveal violence is no small issue in the United States. But untruthfully referring to so many of these incidents of violent crime as mass shootings is just a fear-mongering tactic used by the Left to push their agenda of greater government control over law abiding citizens.

Aero Precision’s Support of SAF Mag Ban Challenge Catches Fire

A Tacoma firearms company has launched a fund-raising effort, selling specially-marked Magpul 30-round standard capacity magazines to support a Second Amendment Foundation lawsuit challenging a ban on such magazines.,

When a Tacoma, Washington firearm and accessories company announced a special ammunition magazine sales effort to support the Second Amendment Foundation’s legal challenge of an Evergreen State magazine ban, the reaction was more than anyone expected.

And sales are continuing, according to SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. An initial consignment of specially-marked 30-round (standard capacity) Magpul rifle magazines sold out quickly, he said. However, sales of these specially-marked magazines will continue through the duration of the SAF lawsuit, although they will stop in Washington state when the new law takes effect at the end of this month.

Aero Precision 2A Foundation Marked Magpul PMAG 30-round Magazine

The special offer was announced by Aero Precision a few days ago, and public response has been overwhelming. In an advertisement, the company stated, “With the passing of SB 5078, we have partnered with the Second Amendment Foundation to help in (the) legal battle against this unconstitutional law. The net proceeds from each of these magazines sold will go directly to the Second Amendment Foundation to help fund legal action to defeat this unconstitutional bill.”

Gottlieb told AmmoLand Friday morning he believes purchases by gun owners across the map shows strong national support for the lawsuit.

Senate Bill 5078 was quickly signed by anti-gun Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee after being pushed through the Democrat-controlled Legislature earlier this year. It is scheduled to take effect on July 1.

However, magazines purchased prior to that date by Washington residents may be retained.

As noted previously in AmmoLand, the law is being challenged in U.S. District Court by SAF and the Firearms Policy Coalition.

According to the Aero Precision advertisement, the company is selling 30-round Gen. 2 Magpul™ PMAG® magazines that are laser-marked “Standard Capacity” with a combined SAF and Aero Precision logo. The artwork may make these magazines something of a collector’s item.

The magazines are made from crush-resistant polymer and feature a self-lubricating follower “for increased reliability.” They have USGI-spec stainless steel springs to resist corrosion.

While residents of most states can purchases these magazines from Aero Precision to support SAF legal efforts, they are not being offered for sale to residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Washington D.C. But they appear to be selling everywhere else.

The federal lawsuit challenging Washington’s law is the second such case involving a magazine capacity limit. A California case known as Duncan v. Bonta is already well along in the federal court system. At one point, an appeals court panel in the Ninth Circuit declared the magazine ban unconstitutional, but that was reversed by an en banc panel—as is predictable in that circuit—so now the National Rifle Association has asked the Supreme Court for a review. There has been no word, yet, from the high court on whether it will take the case, and in the meantime, the Washington case may linger.

The U.S. House has passed a sweeping package of legislation that “would…bar the sale of large-capacity magazines,” according to CNBC. This gives the California case and the new Washington lawsuit more urgency, and SAF will need every penny it can raise from the Aero Precision effort to fight the court battle.

The Washington case is known as Sullivan v. Ferguson. Joining SAF are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., a California-based group; Rainier Arms, LLC and a private citizen, Gabriella Sullivan. They are represented by attorneys David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom with Cooper & Kirk PLLC in Washington, D.C., Cody J. Wisniewski at the Mountain States Legal Foundation, and locally by Joel Ard at Ard Law Group.

Defendants are Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, Kitsap County Sheriff John Gese, Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, Kitsap County Prosecutor Chad M. Enright and Grays Harbor County Prosecutor Katie Svoboda.