Category: Goobermint

Another episode of ‘Joe went off teleprompter again! Rollout the walkback!

KJP Claims Biden’s Exact Words on Coal Are Being ‘Twisted’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement Saturday afternoon in an effort to walk back President Joe Biden’s remarks Friday.

During a campaign stop in California, Biden said, “We’re gonna be shutting these plants down all across America, and having wind and solar.” Jean-Pierre claims Biden’s words, which have simply been quoted and replayed, are being “twisted.”

“The President’s remarks yesterday have been twisted to suggest a meaning that was not intended; he regrets it if anyone hearing these remarks took offense. The President was commenting on a fact of economics and technology: as it has been from its earliest days as an energy superpower, America is once again in the midst of an energy transition. Our goal as a nation is to combat climate change and increase our energy security by producing clean and efficient American energy,” the statement says. “He is determined to make sure that this transition helps all Americans in all parts of the country, with more jobs and better opportunities; it’s a commitment he has advanced since Day One. No one will be left behind.”

The statement comes just hours after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin blasted Biden’s remarks as “disgusting” and “outrageous.” He also demanded an apology.

“President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs. Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure. It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day. Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people,” Manchin released in a statement.

“Let me be clear, this is something the President has never said to me. Being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting,” he continued. “The President owes these incredible workers an immediate and public apology and it is time he learn a lesson that his words matter and have consequences.”

Observation O’ The Day

So Team Brandon will stop endlessly printing money to reduce inflation? As Milton Friedman has said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”

We technically are in a recession, but Biden and many in the DNC-MSM have been holding off on actually calling it that so that they can wait until there’s a GOP majority to blame. But Biden’s crankery is the mirror image version of what Virginia Postrel dubbed in December of 2008, “Depression Lust, and Depression Porn,” when Obama-worshipping Democratic Party operatives with bylines wanted American to get it good and hard, so that Obama could enter into office as the next FDR conquering the Depression. -Ed Driscoll

Biden slams Republicans ‘rooting for a recession’ after last jobs report before election.

President Joe Biden accused Republicans of “rooting for a recession” in a statement on the final pre-election jobs report.

Friday’s report is the last major economic statistic before Election Day in a race where voters’ financial worries appear to be tilting the balance toward Republicans.

Citing historically low unemployment, a growing economy, and lower gas prices, Biden said the report “shows that our jobs recovery remains strong.”

The White House has downplayed concern of a recession on the horizon despite high inflation, slowing labor force participation, and wage growth year-over-year.

On Friday, Biden said that the “comments by Republican leadership sure seem to indicate they are rooting for a recession.”

“As long as I’m president, I’m not going to accept an argument that the problem is that too many Americans are finding good jobs,” Biden said. The president has attempted to draw a contrast with Republicans as polls indicate that key groups of voters are unhappy with the White House’s handling of the economy.

Yet Biden acknowledged rising prices Friday as the country’s “top economic challenge,” vowing “to do what it takes” to bring these down.

“I know that American families are feeling squeezed,” he said.

In October, the economy added 261,000 jobs, a higher-than-expected number amid the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. Yet the unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Friday.

The figures are expected to be closely scrutinized as voters head to the polls next week and Democrats attempt to defend their congressional majorities after two years in office.

The demoncrap goal is to criminalize all political opposition

U.S. Media Awakens to Nation’s Looming Diesel Fuel Crisis
Wait until the press discovers the root cause of the shortage is rabid fossil-fuel hate based on Franken-science it peddles.

Last May, I noted that diesel fuel, which powers many essential supply vehicles (e.g., trucks, boats, and trains) and farm equipment, was in disturbingly short supply.

Now, the “professional” American media is finally awakening to the fact there is a severe diesel fuel crisis looming, which will have a devastating impact on the nation’s economy.

Diesel stockpiles in the U.S. are reportedly at their lowest point since 2008, with only enough fuel for a 25-day supply, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. Demand is also said to be at its highest point since 2007, creating a dangerous supply/demand combination that’s causing spikes in pricing. The Biden administration called the nationwide diesel supply “unacceptably low” and is looking at all options to build up the national supply to help reduce prices.

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of diesel is at $5.34 per gallon. That’s an increase of $1.67 per gallon, compared to this time last year. The area getting hit the hardest is New England, where people burn diesel fuel for heat more than anywhere else in the country.

There, stockpiles of diesel fuel are a third of what they normally are at this time of the year. However, the highest cost of diesel fuel is in California, where the average cost is almost $6.50 per gallon, an increase of almost $2.00 per gallon over this time last year.

It’s also a massive price increase over the average cost of gasoline in the U.S. According to the EIA, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. is $3.87 per gallon, with the most expensive region also being California, at $5.84 per gallon.

I must point out that the “25-day” supply is only if no new diesel is pumped, and that won’t be the case. However, shortages and steep price increases will strain the economy, and Americans will have to choose between essential quality-of-life products in ways they have not seen since the 1970s stagflation.

Four reasons have been identified for the current low levels of supply. The first two involve distillates at low levels, and now the refineries that produce them are doing maintenance.

The following two are longer-term problems:

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Northwest Body Counts Suggest Time for Change on Gun Control Is Here

It is familiar political ground in the Pacific Northwest, with rising homicide numbers providing strong evidence that gun controls in Washington have been an abject failure.

Seattle has recorded its 52nd homicide, and with two full months remaining in the year, there is no doubt the number will eventually exceed the 53 recorded two years ago. The city, as previously reported, is headquarters to the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group Alliance for Gun Responsibility. The organization has bankrolled two restrictive gun control initiatives since 2014, making it difficult for law-abiding citizens to exercise their rights while demonstrably not accomplishing the promise of reduced gun-related violence and murder.

Down the road 175 miles, Portland is the tarnished gem of Oregon, with more than 80 slayings so far this year and an outlook for hitting a new record. It is against this backdrop Beaver State anti-gunners hope to pass next week a restrictive gun control measure—Ballot Measure 114—that will require a permit to purchase a firearm and add more restrictions including a training requirement.

At least one county sheriff—Brad Lohrey of Sherman County—told Fox News, “It is impossible for us to do what they’re asking us to do.”

In decades past, Seattle and Portland were known as laid-back growing metropolises, with far left politics and lots of tourist attractions. Nowadays, both cities are experiencing drug and gang epidemics, and crime is spiking because police manpower is down.

There may be change coming, in both states. Oregon appears on track to elect the first Republican governor in a generation. In Washington, there could be changes in the legislature and some changes in congressional representation as well. With changes in people, there will be changes in policy, but it all depends upon a strong turnout of gun owners and conservative voters across both states.

Gun politics is playing out in other regions. The Des Moines Register is editorializing against a proposed state constitutional amendment affirming the right to keep and bear arms. Iowa is one of a handful of states without such an amendment, and gun owners are seeking to change that.

But the newspaper is dead set against protecting the right at the state level, continuing a trend where the media uses the First Amendment to throttle the Second. It excoriates the June Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen for opening the door to both legal challenges and court corrections of infringements on the right to be armed. This suggests anti-gunners still haven’t accepted the explanation in Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion that the Second Amendment must be treated like all other rights.

For decades, gun control proponents have had it their way, with incremental imposition of restrictions on gun owners. Violent crime is increasing, not decreasing. Election Day could change that pattern, with a new Congress and power shifts at the state level, rejection of Oregon’s ballot measure and adoption of Iowa’s proposed amendment. At least, that is the perspective of Second Amendment activists who are hoping for a strong turnout of “gun voters” Nov. 8.

ATF, Enforcer of Gun Laws, Lost ‘Thousands of Firearms, Firearm Parts’ to Thieves
The agency should be abolished and its employees sent to seek jobs in the private sector.

With inflation, prices are up pretty much across the board, but if you’re looking for a new gun for recreation or self-defense, here’s a hint: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is offering them at an absolute steal. Seriously, the federal agency tasked with enforcing firearms regulations has such poor security that thousands of guns and gun parts once in its possession disappeared in the hands of thieves. And it has yet to fully implement recommended reforms.

“Since September 2015, the ATF has utilized the National Disposal Branch (NDB), formerly the National Firearms and Ammunition Destruction (NFAD) Branch, to centralize and streamline the disposal process of forfeited and ATF-owned firearms. Each year, the ATF destroys thousands of firearms at the NDB,” the U.S. Justice Department’s Inspector General noted in announcing a recent report. “The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) undertook this audit following the discovery that thousands of firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition had been stolen from NFAD from 2016 to 2019.”

So, for three years, the agency that enforces every petty and intrusive federal regulation regarding firearms (as well as alcohol, tobacco, and explosives) let its own security personnel (“a DHS contract security guard was convicted in connection with these thefts”) pilfer its inventory.

Strictly speaking, the report isn’t about the thefts themselves, which were discovered by accident during a traffic stop. The recent report delved into the ATF’s progress in implementing anything resembling the security procedures it requires of the private gun dealers it oversees—or maybe just something more challenging than leaving “intact weapons … in unsecured boxes and unlocked containers.” So, how is the ATF doing at storing firearms at least as securely as you might expect of private businesses?

“The ATF has implemented several new control procedures to reduce the risk of firearm thefts,” the report found. “However, the ATF has not implemented all improvements to NDB operations recommended over three years ago.”

Among other challenges, even well after the disposal facility was identified as a grab-bag for the firearms black market (the convicted security guard, Christopher Lee Yates, sold what he stole), the Inspector General “identified several ATF policies regarding firearm storage and evidence tracking with which the NDB is not in compliance.” Of course, implementing new security measures doesn’t matter much when “staff does not consistently adhere to established operating procedures in place to mitigate the risk of firearms being lost or stolen. Specifically, we observed, in the NDB facility surveillance footage, staff occasionally circumventing controls pertaining to facility and vault access solely for the sake of convenience.”

Staff stored guns on top of vaults instead of inside them, left keys lying around, propped exterior doors open, didn’t sign people in and out, and otherwise engaged in more sloppiness than you might expect of people who had already been caught with their pants down and were told to tighten things up. Then again, government workers aren’t generally held to the same standards as the private sector.

The ATF has long had an adversarial relationship with gun owners and sellers, but last year, the Biden administration deliberately stepped up the hostilities.

“The Justice Department is announcing a new policy to underscore zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk,” the White House announced in 2021. “Absent extraordinary circumstances that would need to be justified to the Director, ATF will seek to revoke the licenses of dealers the first time that they violate federal law.”

The ATF was obviously listening and eager to please the administration.

“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revoked gun store licenses at a higher rate in 2022 than in any year since 2006,” The Trace, “the only newsroom dedicated to covering gun violence,” trumpeted earlier this month. “The total more than triples the number of licenses revoked in 2021, when a similar number of dealers were inspected.”

But, while some of the violations that could get a license to sell firearms revoked are potentially serious, many are of the sort best described as bureaucratic missteps.

“At the direction of the Biden administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) appears to be revoking the licenses of firearm dealers for even minor paperwork violations,” AmmoLand, which covers shooting sports, observed in May. After reviewing the list of criteria for targeting gun dealers, AmmoLand pointed out that “‘falsifying records’ is a very broad category that can include making simple errors on Form 4473, and ‘failing to respond to a trace request’ could result from simply missing an attempted contact by ATF.”

In particular, it should be noted, the ATF requires that “Any Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) who has knowledge of the theft or loss of any firearms from their inventory must report such theft or loss within 48 hours of discovery to ATF and to the local law enforcement agency.” These reports must “be made by telephone and in writing to ATF.”

The ATF also publishes a flyer on “Loss Prevention for Firearms Retailers” that includes handy tips about records-keeping, locking stuff up, and not employing sketchy people. You have to wonder what the ATF would say about a private facility that was ripped off for years on end by its own staffers and still failed to implement serious security measures after the fact. I expect that the consequences would be a bit more serious than a single arrest and then business as usual despite a tut-tutting reprimand.

The nicest thing you can say about the ATF is that it’s an unserious and unaccountable bureaucracy. Often it’s explicitly contemptible, such as during the Fast-and-Furious gun-walking scandal, and its setting up mentally disabled youths to take the fall during gun-and-drug stings. After those abuses of individual rights and public trust, the failings of the National Disposal Branch almost pale by comparison.

The theft of “thousands of firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition” from the federal body tasked with enforcing firearms regulations on the private sector is just further evidence that the ATF has no good excuse for existing. Like so many other government agencies, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives should be abolished, and its employees sent into the world to seek honest jobs in the private sector, if anybody will have them.

Editorial calling for magazine ban misses tons of points

The day I see a pro-gun editorial from the Chicago Sun-Times will likely be the day that sites like this aren’t needed anymore. It’ll mean that we’ve so completely and totally won the gun war that gun control will be relegated to the dustbin of history; a museum-piece idea dead and gone, sitting on a shelf like eugenics and phrenology.

But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Today, they’re pushing for state-wide gun control. In particular, they want a magazine ban restricting people to just 10 rounds.

A new gun threat is painting a larger target on everyone’s backs. Lawmakers should figure out how to curb it.

As Frank Main, Tom Schuba and Stephanie Zimmermann of the Sun-Times and Chip Mitchell of WBEZ reported in Sunday’s Sun-Times, extended-capacity magazines — which hold 10 or more bullets and can be used with handguns as well as rifles — have become more common despite bans in some places.

Moreover, a surging number of guns with illegal attachments called “switches” on the street, which convert guns from semi-automatic to automatic weapons, are being seized by the police department, according to the investigation.

A shooter with a semi-automatic gun needs to squeeze the trigger every time a shot is fired. A shooter with an automatic gun needs only to squeeze and hold the trigger, and the gun will continue to fire, causing far more damage.

When weapons with high-capacity magazines are converted to automatic and are easily obtainable, young people who carry guns will want them. But we can’t afford to have these murderous weapons even further embedded into the gun culture.

When combined with illegal devices that convert guns into fully automatic firearms, the large magazines can spread almost unimaginable devastation and death in a matter of moments.

Twelve states ban high-capacity magazines. Illinois should join them.

That’s right. Illinois needs a magazine ban because an illegal device that cannot be possessed lawfully anywhere in the nation is a thing.

Yet what tickles me the most is how little they’ve thought this through.

Sure, such magazines are restricted in many areas of Illinois, but the argument is that criminals just go to where they’re legal and buy them, so by restricting them statewide, that can’t happen.

Really?

This is the same city notorious for blaming Indiana for the guns in criminal hands, and they think somehow these folks who get guns from another state won’t be able to get magazines?

Hell, they’ll get them easier.

In Indiana, there are still federal requirements for the sale of firearms from a licensed dealer. Yet criminals commit a crime in order to obtain these guns so they can sell them to Chicago criminals.

Magazines have no such checks or requirements. Anyone can stroll into a gun store and buy a higher-capacity magazine in any state without even having to show an ID.

If federal regulations and Illinois state law can’t keep guns out of the hands of criminals, how does the Chicago Sun-Times think a magazine ban in the state will? Especially when all the rules on the planet aren’t keeping these people from getting full-auto switches.

And yes, magazines can be 3D printed, which makes a ban even more pointless.

But do you want to know who will get hosed over by a magazine ban? The law-abiding citizens who might well need more ammo capacity to combat the heavily armed criminals who will still get these magazines, switches, guns, and literally anything else they want.

Newspaper editorials are often used to advocate for various laws. However, this is a prime example of how those who sit on those editorial boards often don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

You can’t make this up, New Jersey edition

The last thing I want to say to people, and some of my own Democrats have committed to me, a commented that to me, this does nothing [to] stop the illegal gun trade, or the illegal criminal, illegal possessions, or criminal content and…you’re right. This doesn’t. It was never supposed to address that.

This is addressing the legal, law abiding, responsible citizens. That’s what it’s designed to do.

You can’t make this up, Delaware edition

Delaware sets dates for compensated confiscation of magazines

Earlier this year Delaware Gov. Jay Carney signed several new gun control bills into law, including a ban on so-called “large capacity” magazines. Not only are the sale of new magazines prohibited to most citizens, but most existing owners are required under the new law to either permanently modify them, remove them from the state, destroy them, or hand them over to police.

A few months ago the state announced that a series of “buybacks” would be held in conjunction with the new law taking effect, and this week we learned when and where Delaware gun owners can report to the compensated confiscation events.

Those handing over magazines with a capacity between 18 and 30 rounds can receive $15 per magazine, while those with a magazine capacity of more than 31-rounds are eligible for $25 compensation. The state police will also hand out $80 for every drum magazine that’s turned in, but in order to receive any money all participants must show the police a valid Delaware state ID card or driver’s license.

The Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, with assistance from the NRA, is suing over the magazine ban in federal court, and DSSA president Jeff Hague says the ban is problematic on multiple levels.

“It’s not going to reduce the number of criminals using firearms in the commission of felonies,” Hague said. “It’s only going to affect law-abiding citizens because criminals aren’t going to turn in something that’s their livelihood to get money. Or if they do, they’re going to turn them in and get some money and then go buy another one.”

… Mitch Denham of the 23,000-member Facebook group Delaware Gun Rights is urging owners of 17-plus-round magazines to store them safely pending the outcome of the looming court challenge.

“When the lawsuits are over then maybe you can talk about what you think is right for you,’’ said Denham, who is exempted from the ban because he has a concealed carry permit.

The fact that concealed carry holders are exempted from the magazine ban doesn’t make any sense from a gun control perspective. After all, even those individuals can have their guns and magazines stolen, and if the goal is to remove these “accessories to war” from society, allowing concealed carry holders to maintain possession of their magazines and purchase additional magazines in the future is, if anything, only going to encourage more people to obtain their concealed carry license.

I think this law was written to pass political, not constitutional muster. In order to assure passage, sponsors attempted to water down the bill to make it palatable to more lawmakers; exempting concealed carry holders, setting the magazine limit at 17-rounds, and making a first violation a fine punishable by $100, for example. Those modifications haven’t mollified gun owners, and I’m curious to see what sort of historical precedents the state will cite to the courts in their attempt to uphold the law, because I’m certainly not aware of any longstanding laws like this at the time the Second or Fourteenth Amendments were ratified.

I’m even more curious to see what kind of turnout the police receive during their first compensated confiscation events, which are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, November 16th. Given that there’s a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ban and a first offense only amounts to a fine, my guess is that the vast majority of Delaware gun owners are going to hang on to what they have and the state troopers running the “buyback” are going to get more rest and relaxation than “large capacity” magazines.

But SloJoe told us he had solved this!

Threat of Nationwide Railroad Strike Grows after 2nd Union Rejects Proposed Deal.

Good news: The strike won’t happen until Nov. 8th. Bad news: I hope you didn’t need any Christmas presents or holiday foods. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Buttigieg is doing the campaigning nobody wants Biden to do.

We have been following developments related to a potential rail strike as unions try to negotiate a new contract with employees unhappy with proposals that have already been offered.

Now there is news that a second union has rejected a deal that was hammered out last month between rail companies, unions, and the Biden administration.

The vote by the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the second union to reject the White House-brokered deal, elevates the likelihood of a nationwide strike when a negotiation deadline arrives in November.

The potential work stoppage could paralyze the nation’s supply chain and transportation rail service as the U.S. enters peak holiday season.

…The vote against the contract centered on frustration with a lack of paid sick days, according to a statement from Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen President Michael Baldwin. “For the first time that I can remember, the BRS members voted not to ratify a National Agreement,” he said.

The rejection of the deal came despite a 24% compounded wage increase and preservation of the members’ health care benefits, Baldwin added.

The “good news” is that the unions apparently agreed to help Biden out by not striking until after the Nov. 8th election.

The bad news: The strike may occur in time to impact supplies for the Christmas season.

It stipulated that there would be no work stoppage until December at the earliest. The same is likely true for the other holdout unions as well.

The hope of the railroads had been that the first failed vote was essentially a fluke. The vote by members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division on Oct. 10 had been followed by two more union memberships voting to accept the deal, bringing six of the 12 railroad unions on board.

But half the unions are not the “all aboard” the railroads were hoping for.

“Railroaders do not feel valued,” Tony Cardwell, BMWED union president, told the trade publication Progressive Railroading at the time of the first “no” vote. “They resent the fact that management holds no regard for their quality of life, illustrated by their stubborn reluctance to provide a higher quantity of paid time off, especially for sickness.”

Worried businesses are now seeking help from Congress and the White House.

A coalition involving 322 business groups from a variety of industries signed off on a letter to President Biden Thursday urging him to make sure the deals he helped broker, get approved because a railroad strike would have dire consequences for the economy.

All 12 rail unions must approve their agreements to prevent a strike next month.

“It is paramount that these contracts now be ratified, as a rail shutdown would have a significant impact on the U.S. economy and lead to further inflationary pressure,” wrote the group.

I wish those businesses a ton of good luck obtaining any meaningful assistance from Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, or Congress as it is currently constituted.

In fact, where is Buttigieg now? Doing the campaigning nobody wants Biden to do.

The youngest member of President Biden’s cabinet on Friday sought to boost turnout among youth voters, an important group for Democrats and one that historically has not shown up in big numbers for non-presidential elections.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, appearing near the campus of Wisconsin’s largest university, noted the youthfulness of the state’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

“It would be nice to have a few more youngsters in D.C.,” Mr. Buttigieg, 40 years old, told those gathered in a hotel ballroom just east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus.

“Watch me,” President Joe Biden told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart this week during one of the most awkward interviews in the history of American politics.

So we did. It was similar to watching John Fetterman, the stroke victim and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, bumble his way through a debate after his campaign allies in the media insisted he was fine.

“Am I don’t have the same pace?” the president asked Capehart during a discussion about his fitness for office. “Everything physically about me is still functioning well, so you know, and mentally too.” The evidence suggests otherwise.

Biden wandered around like a sluggish toddler chasing a butterfly, told a group of transgender activists about the Democratic Party’s plan to “overrule Dob,” meaning the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, which struck down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that Biden couldn’t remember. He expressed concern that the American “pleople” are “vuedejegguli,” and pledged to encourage economic “innervation.”

The commander in chief, who turns 80 next month, insisted (without evidence) that Vice President Kamala Harris was doing a “great” job. (Just 38 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Harris.) A Washington Free Beacon analysis determined that Biden, Harris, and Fetterman would combine to form a single human being of average competence and speaking ability.

Have a great weekend!

I seem to remember this thing called the 1st amendment…..

Lawmakers Call on Biden to Make it More Difficult for People to Download Gun Blueprints

Lawmakers in , led by Congressman Mike Thompson, penned a letter asking the  administration to hold manufacturers responsible for homemade ghost guns.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

Currently, it is relatively easy to buy gun parts, or make them at home with a 3D printer, and create an untraceable firearm. Ghost guns allow people to circumvent the background check requirement to own a gun.

“It is far too easy for anyone to download from the internet the computer code to 3D-print unserialized, untraceable, plastic ‘ghost guns,’” the letter said. “These 3D-printed weapons circumvent our system of gun safety rules and regulations, and pose a serious threat to public safety and national security.”

The question of banning the distribution of blueprints for 3D printed guns has been debated over the years, with much speculation that banning the sharing of blueprints is a  violation.

“President Biden can undo the Trump-era rule that has made the instructions for the 3D-printing of untraceable and deadly ‘ghost’ guns widely available online,” said Senator Markey. “The online distribution of these ghost gun blueprints only increases the risk of these weapons proliferating and poses a serious threat to public safety and national security. President Biden should fulfil his campaign promise and reverse the Trump administration’s weakening of these gun safety regulations.”

“They’re making firearms and they’re shooting and they’re killing people,” Thompson said.

“If you are a danger to yourself or to others, if you’re dangerously mentally ill, if you’re a criminal, you should not be able to get your mitts on a gun,” he added.

CBS13 asked Thompson about gun advocacy groups pushing back against manufacturers being held liable yet they did not commit the actual crimes.

“I have one word for these groups and that’s, ‘tough.’ We need these rules,” he responded.

Thompson is urging the Biden administration to tighten federal enforcement on these guns because he does not believe that such legislation would pass through Congress.

“Well, I’d like to see congress have the intestinal fortitude to pass legislation that would prohibit this nonsense from taking place. But as you know, as long as they have this 60-vote rule in the Senate, we’re never going to get a bill like that passed,” said Thompson.

Thompson wants the President to direct the ATF and DOJ to pass stricter rules that would hold manufacturers liable for ghost guns.

BLUF
COVID has been the tool that the Elites™ have used to bully Americans into complying with the most absurd rules, beating us into submission. It would be ironic indeed if we could turn the tables and use the likelihood that the United States helped fund the development of the virus that has literally plagued us as a tool to dismantle the bipartisan transnational clique who have been driving the West into the ground.

The COVID coverup begins to unravel.

UPDATE: Vanity Fair has a detailed story on the investigation into the COVID virus’ origin:

COVID likely started circulating in China is late 2019–now 3 years ago–and its effects have dominated our lives for 2 1/2 years.

Yet for much of that time the Establishment™ has been gaslighting us about its likely origins. You know that. The Establishment™ knows that you know. And now the Senate Republicans on the health committee are laying the facts out on the table. COVID almost certainly was released accidentally from a Chinese research lab.

It was remarkable how quickly the Narrative™ settled on the zoonotic origin of the virus, since warning signs that the virus didn’t originate naturally were everywhere. Even scientists who confidently declared in private their belief that the virus was engineered publicly stated the opposite–after having been directed to by Anthony Fauci, the keeper of the keys to the kingdom’s treasury when it comes to research dollars. Fauci in recent months has been backtracking on whether or not the virus could have been engineered, but he sure expended enormous effort maintaining the fiction that an animal origin was certain.

There is a simple reason for Fauci’s reluctance to consider a lab leak hypothesis–if it came from the Wuhan Institute for Virology, the US government likely funded the research. Obviously nobody wants that on their record, and Fauci has quite the pension to protect, as well as an unearned reputation as The Science™.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—The Covid-19 pandemic that has killed millions worldwide “was most likely the result of a research-related incident” in China, and not natural transmission of a virus from animal to human, a new report by Republicans on the Senate health committee concludes.

The study cites details about the early spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid; the fact that no animal host has been identified nearly three years into the pandemic; and troubled biosafety procedures at labs in the Chinese city of Wuhan to buttress its conclusion.

The 35-page report by Republican committee staff acknowledges that definitive conclusions about the pandemic’s origins are impossible without more evidence. But, it says: “The hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.”

The report is largely based on information already publicly available but is likely to bolster calls in Washington for further investigations into the origins of the virus. Republicans have vowed to launch more aggressive Covid-19 probes if they regain control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

Previous zoonotic disease outbreaks—in which a pathogen jumps from animals to man—have occurred in multiple locations as a virus circulates in animal populations, while the Covid virus is known to have emerged only in Wuhan, home to laboratories conducting research on coronaviruses, the report notes. In addition, it says, no animal has been identified as infected with the virus before the December 2019 pandemic outbreak.

I have always suspected, based upon the balance of the evidence I have access to, that the virus was accidentally leaked from a lab. But I freely admit that biological research is not in my wheelhouse.

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Missouri 7th Congressional District Representative, Billy Long:

2 + 2 = 3 In New COVID Math

On Monday, the National Assessment of Educational Progress was released, and it’s not good. Known as the nation’s report card, this is considered the authoritative exam on how America’s schools are performing in specific subjects. Based on the results of this exam, math and reading scores are down significantly since the pre-COVID days. This is a concerning development for our students and shows that the lessons of COVID policy are still being learned.

Let’s start with math. All but one state saw declines in math scores since 2019. And this isn’t a small decrease either. For eighth graders, only 26% are considered proficient at math, down from 34% in 2019. Fourth graders did slightly better, with 36% being proficient in math compared to 41% in 2019. These numbers are concerning because of America’s current standing in the world. How are we supposed to compete against China and remain a world superpower if only 26% of eighth graders and 36% of fourth graders are proficient at math? We can all agree that competing against China will be a major issue in the years to come, and to do so our students must be proficient in math, it’s that simple. When it comes to reading scores, the results aren’t much better. More than half of the states saw declines in reading, with only 33% of fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders reading at grade level.

It’s not hard to find the cause of these drops. Schools were closed for months, or in some cases more than a year, due to COVID, and we’re clearly seeing the impacts of this decision. The pandemic has drastically hurt our students’ performance and that poses a serious problem for the future. President Biden and the Democrats want you to forget who did this to our students. They want you to forget that it was their idea to close schools for so long, and it was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Biden Administration that took direction from teacher’s unions on when to reopen schools. They put the interests of unions above the interests of our students, and now they want you to forget that it ever happened.

Closing schools was obviously a terrible decision, one that will have long lasting impacts far beyond our education system. We need our students to be leading the world in math and science if we are going to compete in the 21st century. Failing to compete here would give a serious advantage to China, and that should concern all of us. If we are going to compete against China, we have got to make sure our schools never close again. There is simply too much on the line.

BLUF
Those who spoke against lockdowns and mandates in early 2020 showed that they were willing to stand up for the freedoms and Enlightenment principles for which our forebears fought so tirelessly, even when doing so was lonely, thankless, and hard. For that reason, anyone who did so has reason to feel extremely proud, and the future would be brighter if they were in positions of leadership. That fact is now becoming increasingly clear—unfortunately, even to those who did the opposite. One more reason to keep all the receipts.

Lockdowns: The Great Gaslighting
The lockdowns of 2020 were very real. And few opposed them

More than two years since the lockdowns of 2020, the political mainstream, particularly on the left, is just beginning to realize that the response to Covid was an unprecedented catastrophe.

But that realization hasn’t taken the form of a mea culpa. Far from it. On the contrary, in order to see that reality is starting to dawn on the mainstream left, one must read between the lines of how their narrative on the response to Covid has evolved over the past two years.

The narrative now goes something like this: Lockdowns never really happened, because governments never actually locked people in their homes; but if there were lockdowns, then they saved millions of lives and would have saved even more if only they’d been stricter; but if there were any collateral damage, then that damage was an inevitable consequence of the fear from the virus independent of the lockdowns; and even when things were shut down, the rules weren’t very strict; but even when the rules were strict, we didn’t really support them.

Put simply, the prevailing narrative of the mainstream left is that any upside from the response to Covid is attributable to the state-ordered closures and mandates that they supported, while any downside was an inevitable consequence of the virus independent of any state-ordered closures and mandates which never happened and which anyway they never supported. Got it? Good.

This perplexing narrative was perfectly encapsulated in a recent viral tweet by a history professor who griped about the difficulty of convincing his students that government mandates had nothing to do with the fact that they couldn’t leave their homes in 2020.

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Massachusetts Gun Control Scheme an Abject Failure

Gun Related Homicides Increased 111% Since 1998 Gun Control Act

2020 Massachusetts Department of Public Health Report on Deaths Still Reflects the Commonwealth’s Gun Laws are an Unmitigated Disaster!

On Thursday, October 27, 2022, Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) released a report reflecting a nearly two-fold increase in gun related homicides in Massachusetts. The report included data taken directly from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Injury Surveillance Program (ISP). The report breaks down gun deaths in the Commonwealth into three categories: Homicides, Suicides, and Accidental deaths.

“What just jumps off the page is the more than doubling of gun related homicides since the passage of the 1998 Gun Control Act,” said Jim Wallace, Executive Director of GOAL. “For more than two decades we have constantly heard that Massachusetts is leading the nation in ‘common sense’ gun control laws. Using the State’s own data, we are proving that is simply a false and dangerous narrative.”

Using the State’s own data, the report reflects an 111% increase in gun related homicides since 1998. Gun related suicides are down a few points, but that marginal success is outweighed by a huge increase in suicide by hanging/suffocation. Virtually no gains have been made in accidental gun deaths as those numbers were so minuscule already.

It is GOAL’s hope that the legislature will finally see what this so-called, gun control effort for what it really is. An affront to our Second Amendment civil rights. There is absolutely no way to justify what has been done to the Second Amendment Community in the name of “safety”. One of the first things the legislature needs to address in the next legislative session is a complete revamp of the State’s gun laws in a manner that respects our community’s civil rights. Further, the political leadership needs to start addressing the human criminal element head on and the growing mental health crisis.