Question O’ The Day

Why Isn’t the Attack on Larry Elder the Biggest Story in America?

⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓

Dick Heller Sues District of Columbia Over Ban on Home Made Firearms and ‘Ghost Guns.’

Dick Heller, of Heller v. DC fame has filed suit today in US District court in the District of Columbia challenging the city’s ban on “ghost guns” and individuals making their own firearms.

Here’s a key excerpt . . .

9. The District has clearly not learned from its numerous defeats of in the courts, and this case arises from that predicament. The District’s antipathy toward firearms, a Constitutional protected item, extends so far as to flatly prohibit the manufacture of a firearm in the District; not a particularly dangerous and unusual firearm, see, e.g., Heller, 554 U.S. at 571 (discussing that laws forbidding the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons were presumptively valid), but any firearm. See D.C. Code § 7-2504.01(a).

10. Imagine were the District to ban the act of publishing one’s own words. Would this court not see such a law as utterly invalid under any standard of review? Can there be any justification for an outright prohibition on the manufacture of a firearm, a Constitutionally protected item? Indeed, how can there be a right to keep and bear arms, if there’s no right to make an arm in the first place? This case presents that issue for this court’s consideration.

11. The District, knowing full well where the battle lines lay, recently supplemented its ban on making a gun, by prohibiting even the import and possession of parts necessary for the Case 1:21-cv-02376 Document 1 Filed 09/08/21 Page 5 of 41 6 manufacture of a firearm by outlawing what it pejoratively calls “Ghost Guns.” Never missing an opportunity for erroneously defining firearms terminology, the District legislation in question is so poorly thought out and written that the City Council has managed to criminalize the possession of a vast array of popular, common handguns that it regularly allows residents to register, including the very handgun it issues to its police officers. Accordingly, this so-called “Ghost Gun” prohibition is hopelessly flawed and must be found invalid under the Second and Fifth Amendments.

Read the full court filing here.

BLUF:
Welcome to Biden’s reality. The heroic period of his presidency was always a mirage, and the effort to muddle through now begins in earnest.

The Real Biden Presidency Emerges.

Not too long ago, supporters imagined Joe Biden might be the next LBJ, and perhaps they were right—just not how they thought.

Biden bears no resemblance to the Lyndon B. Johnson who entered office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 with a 75 percent approval rating and over the next couple of years passed a raft of historic legislation. No, if there’s any comparison it is to the LBJ who by 1967 had seen his approval rating dip underwater in a deeply riven country.

After a lot of happy talk over the past half-year, the real Biden presidency has emerged. It is not a colossus bestriding the political universe, rather a middling administration, at best, that will have trouble imposing its will even on its own party in Congress.

Biden was always fundamentally a default president, elected in opposition to Donald Trump and initially buoyed by the contrast to his outlandish predecessor, who ended his time in office in the worst manner possible.

Now, he’s lost his foil in Trump, who is still issuing harsh and thunderous press releases, but isn’t driving every news cycle or occasioning mass protests against him in the streets.

The best case for Biden was that he could ride in the slipstream of good economic growth and a receding pandemic, beaten back by the vaccines that began to be administered before Biden took office. Instead, the labor market is still rocky and the Delta variant has surged, leading to headlines about overstretched health care systems that most people assumed that we’d left behind in the spring of 2020.

With his honeymoon gone, with Trump less of a factor, with economic conditions and the state of the virus not as favorable as expected, Biden had been stripped down to a more natural level of support and sliding in the polls since around June.

Then, he made the first major, historic decision of his presidency, and completely botched it. Biden has tried to deflect responsibility for his exit from Afghanistan onto Trump and his execrable deal with the Taliban. Yet, the decision to quit when he did and how he did was all on Biden.

Continue reading “”

Indiana Jones’ S&W Bapty Revolver from Raiders of the Lost Ark for Sale

Indiana Jones' S&W Bapty Revolver from Raiders of the Lost Ark for Sale

I’m a huge fan of Harrison Ford and of the Indiana Jones movies. Although Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is probably my favorite of the series, Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably a close second. The legendary Bapty Limited .455 Webley revolver used on-screen and in the movies is up for sale on Gunbroker.com through the well-known seller Mr.Gun Dealer. There is no telling exactly how much the revolver will go for but in the past several other Indiana Jones memorabilia have been sold off at an auction for nearly half a million dollars.

Continue reading “”

That’s $68,000 per refugee. 

Biden’s Handlers Want You to Cough Up $6.4 Billion to Resettle 94,000 Afghans in the U.S.

Old Joe Biden’s handlers have asked Congress for $30 billion, which means that you better brace yourselves for significant tax increases in the near future. According to NBC News,  $23.6 billion of this is slated to go to deal with the devastation from Hurricane Ida and other natural disasters; the other $6.4 billion, meanwhile, is to cover the expenses of resettling 94,000 Afghans in the United States. And really, now, what could possibly go wrong?

NBC explained that “the U.S. anticipates bringing 64,000 Afghans to the U.S. by the end of this month and 30,000 over the next 12 months, the official said. Of the funding for the refugees, $2.4 billion will go to pay for the Defense Department’s operations overseas where the Afghans are being held and processed. An additional $1.7 billion will go to the Department of Health and Human Services to provide funding and resources to the Afghans to help them set up a new home in the U.S.”

This U.S. taxpayer money would also “go to support transportation costs between overseas processing sites and the United States, security screenings, humanitarian assistance, public health screenings and vaccinations.

Continue reading “”

Man who shot teen on RTD bus says it was in self defense

AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — William Farnsworth has had to pull out his gun many times as a bounty hunter, but the 23-year-old said he never thought the first time he would shoot someone would be on a moving RTD bus in Aurora.

“I tried my best to defend myself before I used a weapon, and, in the end, I had to shoot him,” Farnsworth said in an exclusive interview with the Problem Solvers.

“I was losing consciousness, the man was on top of me beating me senseless and he said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ And I told myself, ‘If you lose consciousness, he’s going to follow through with that threat,’” Farnsworth said.

Farnsworth was riding the bus July 9 with his wife and 18-month-old daughter when he said he and his wife asked a young couple on the bus to stop vaping because it’s not allowed.

“He ignored us until the third time we asked him. He stood up and he said, “F— you, f— your wife and f— your baby.’ And he started swinging at my wife and baby first, and I had to throw myself in-between them,” Farnsworth said.

Farnsworth then took out his gun and shot the unidentified teenager once in the chest.

“He said, ‘You shot me’ and walked off the bus and lied in the grass. Made no attempt to put pressure on the wound,” Farnsworth said.

“I acted in self-defense, and most of the officers on the scene told me they would’ve done the same thing,” said Farnsworth.

The Problem Solvers made a public records request for the bus surveillance video, but an RTD spokesperson told FOX31 the footage would not be released because it’s part of a pending criminal case.

However, law enforcement sources told the Problem Solvers the surveillance video backs up Farnsworth, who insisted he had no choice but to use deadly force when he was attacked.

Even though Farnsworth faces no charges, he’s been told he can’t have his Glock handgun back until the case against the teenager is adjudicated because prosecutors need the gun as evidence.

Makes me wonder what the payoff was.

Taliban Agrees to Let Hundreds of Americans, Other Foreigners Leave Afghanistan

The Taliban will reportedly allow 200 Americans and other foreigners to leave on a flight to Qatar from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

A U.S. official spoke to Reuters about the departure, which is expected on Thursday and came after pressure from U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad.

The Qatari official said it wasn’t an evacuation flight as all of the passengers hold foreign passports and, if required, visas for their destinations, and have been ticketed by the airline. Qatar facilitated the transportation of the passengers to the airport in a convoy of minibuses parked Thursday morning in a Kabul hotel, one of them with a bullet hole through the windshield. The buses entered the airport shortly after 2 p.m. local time.

At the international terminal, passengers were divided by nationality, with Americans—all of them appearing to be of Afghan origin—mostly too traumatized by the ordeal of recent weeks to speak to a reporter. Qatari soldiers were providing security. (WSJ)

There are still thousands of Afghans who hold Special Immigrant Visas due to having helped the U.S. military and civilian effort that are still stranded.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally acknowledged that the Taliban is not allowing chartered flights to leave.

“We’ve made clear to all parties—we’ve made it clear to the Taliban—that these charters need to be able to depart,” he said.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Taliban officials told those arranging charter flights that they could only allow those with valid documentation to leave from Kabul, not Mazar-i-Sharif, prompting U.S. officials to tell Americans in at the Northern Afghanistan airport to come back to Kabul.

Democrats Sink Into Delusion After Joe Manchin Crushes Their Hopes and Dreams

As RedState reported yesterday, Sen. Joe Manchin finally put a number on his proposed “pause” regarding the Democrat reconciliation bill. Far from being on board with $3.5 trillion in inflation-inducing spending, the West Virginia senator only wants to support as little as $1 trillion.

The next question would be how Democrats respond, and as per our usual agreement, the answer is not well.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he and his party are moving “full speed ahead.” And over in the House, the Bernie Sanders wing, partly led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, let it be known that $3.5 trillion is the “floor” for spending. That’s an insane contention, but that’s where we are.

What’s not discussed in either of those responses is how exactly Democrats can move forward without 50 votes? No amount of internet tough-guying will change the actual dynamics in the Senate. Further, while less discussed, there’s a margin-busting group of Democrats in the House as well who need to show themselves as moderates prior to 2022 to have any shot at re-election. These are representatives who won House seats in districts Trump won.

Continue reading “”

While a certain victory, his replacement will still likely be just another anti-gun bureaucrap.

SloJoe pulls Chipman’s nomination to head the BatBoyz

The White House is withdrawing the nomination of David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco (ATF) and Firearms, Fox News has confirmed.

Chipman, who had a history of caustic comments about gun owners and worked for gun control groups for years after his career as an ATF agent, was staunchly opposed by Republicans. But he struggled to gain the support of several Democrats, who never explicitly opposed Chipman’s nomination but also never publicly supported him either.

National Archives Slaps ‘Harmful Content’ Warning On Constitution, All Other Founding Documents

The National Archives Records Administration placed a “harmful content” warning on the Constitution, labeling the governing document of the United States as “harmful or difficult to view.” The warning applies to all documents across the Archives’ cataloged website, including the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

“NARA’s records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records,” the administration said in a statement. “As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.”

The NARA, which is responsible for preserving and protecting documentation of American heritage, noted that so-called harmful historical documents could “reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes; be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more,” and “include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more.”

Along with committing to diversity and equity, the NARA said it would “[work] in conjunction with diverse communities, [and] seek to balance the preservation of this history with sensitivity to how these materials are presented to and perceived by users.”

This isn’t the first time the National Archives has catered to a leftist view of history. In June, the National Archives’ racism task force claimed that the Archives’ rotunda, which houses founding documents, is an example of “structural racism.” The task force also pushed to include trigger warnings around displays of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, which are all in the rotunda.

The warning is a blanket statement atop all documents in the archived catalogs that links to a “Statement on Potentially Harmful Content.”

Archives

As news of the website’s warning circulated on Twitter, the NARA issued a standard response to those concerned by the “harmful” label on the Constitution.

“This alert is not connected to any specific records, but appears at the top of the page while you are using the online Catalog. To learn more about why the alert about harmful language appears in our Catalog, please go to ‘NARA’s Statement on Potentially Harmful Content,’” the tweet said.

You Can’t Make This Up – force infinity

Blinken Worried New Taliban Government Full Of Terrorists Doesn’t Have Enough Women

Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern Wednesday that the newly-formed Taliban cabinet in Afghanistan is not diverse enough.

“Yesterday, the Taliban named a new interim government. We are assessing the announcement, but despite professing that a new government would be inclusive, the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates, and no women,” Blinken said.

“We are also concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of those individuals. We understand the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. We will judge it, and them, by its actions,” he added.

Continue reading “”

Blinken: The Taliban still aren’t letting the chartered flights carrying Americans depart.

In case you’re not keeping track, this is now Day 8 of our definitely-not-a-hostage-crisis crisis in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Blinken still won’t use the H-word in the clip below, presumably for the contrived reason that passengers reportedly aren’t being forced to remain at the airport. They’re free to move about!

As long as they don’t leave Afghanistan, it seems.

Blinken has a curiously flat affect in his public statements (not the worst thing for a diplomat, I suppose) but the fact that he’s noting that State hasn’t made headway on getting the chartered planes out suggests U.S. patience is starting to run thin. To which the Taliban might say: So what? What are you going to do about it?

As long as there are Americans in harm’s way, we have to play nice. Which is a strong incentive for the Taliban to keep Americans in harm’s way. Watch, then read on.

Recent estimates of how many Americans are waiting to depart from Mazar-i-Sharif have pegged the number at around 19 but RCP claims that it’s much more than that. Susan Crabtree’s sources say there are 143 Americans in all, although that number may include legal permanent residents, not just citizens. Supposedly the Taliban are willing to let anyone with U.S. documents leave, which is a problem if (a) you have an American passport but your spouse and/or children don’t, as it would mean leaving them behind, or (b) you have SIV documentation proving that you aided the U.S. in its war against the Taliban over the past 20 years. Show that paperwork and you might not make it out of the airport alive.

Instead of spending time disputing whether the grounded flights amount to a hostage crisis, the private groups would like more effort out of the State Department identifying Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, status and don’t have the documents proving their roles in helping the U.S. Many Afghans desperately wanting to leave aren’t carrying their documents either out of fear they will be searched by the Taliban and killed for having helped Americans — or because they never received proof from the U.S. government that they had applied.

“[The Taliban] want people only with passports to leave, but unfortunately many of the folks are with their families, and you have one passport holder and a bunch of family members – and others that have applied for SIV visa status that have not been cleared by the State Department and have been waiting 14, 16 months with no answer whatsoever,” said a source with direct knowledge of the situation playing out…

Those familiar with the impasse say the State Department has rebuffed their offers to provide the documents to evacuees who lack them, as well as provide the names and ID cards of Afghans claiming SIV status so they can run the information through State Department databases of those who have applied for the special status.

Those databases, er, might not exist anymore, Crabtree reports. They may have been destroyed when the U.S. abandoned the embassy in Kabul.

As for why State might not be willing to provide papers to Afghans, they’re trying to manage a security risk created by a massive on-the-fly airlift out of Afghanistan. If the evacuation had taken place months ago in an orderly way, as it should have, there would have been time to vet passengers before letting them depart. But because the administration badly overestimated the Afghan army’s ability to hold off the Taliban, the White House had to take a “fly first, vet later” approach, ushering people onto aircraft by the thousands in their haste to beat the August 31 deadline and holding them at bases abroad while their backgrounds are checked. “[I]nitial findings suggest that while some who escaped were locally employed staff, many got out because they were part of the initial crush of people who made it to Kabul’s airport as the city fell to the Taliban,” Bloomberg reported over the weekend. Some Afghan men who arrived in the U.S. reportedly did so with “child brides.”

Which means the Kabul evacuation resembles U.S. immigration policy writ large. The people who did everything by the book, applying through legal means and then waiting patiently for approval, may end up stranded for years in their home country. Whereas the people who simply pushed their way into American jurisdiction, legally or not, will probably be allowed to stay in the U.S. for reasons of “compassion.”

State is sufficiently worried about bad actors ending up on a chartered flight that they allegedly told the groups behind the charters last week that they weren’t cleared to land in Qatar or at any other U.S. military base. “U.S. officials have pointed to possible security threats from landing charter planes at military bases, saying that they lack the resources on the ground to fully verify flight manifests,” Fox News reported this morning. I assume that ban has now been lifted in the interest of getting Americans out of Mazar-i-Sharif. At a certain point, the political risk in letting a plane land that may be carrying a jihadi is overtaken by the political risk of a protracted hostage crisis in which Americans are stranded (yes, that’s the proper term, Jen Psaki) in Afghanistan for weeks or months.

Here’s a little more of Blinken babbling about the Taliban’s lack of “inclusivity” and the “challenging” history of some members of the new government, which is bloodless diplo-speak for saying they’re terrorists.

 

As American Hostages Languish in Afghanistan, Joe Biden Will Jet Off to California to Campaign for Newsom.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Kamala Harris would be going to California on Wednesday to campaign for Governor Gavin Newsom as he faces a recall election there. Her trip had been postponed after the terror attack on Kabul airport left 13 U.S. service members dead. The scheduling of the trip was a clear sign that the White House considers Afghanistan old news, even though there is an unknown number of American citizens being held hostage there.

 

The visits of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are meant to help drive up voter turnout of Democrats in the state. With the exception of one outlier, all recent polls suggest that Newsom is safe from being recalled—though polls range from single- to double-digit leads for “No, Do Not Remove.” Still, there’s something odd about bringing in Kamala and Joe Biden—especially now, when the optics of them going to California after leaving Americans behind in Afghanistan are terrible.

It’s quite clear that Afghanistan, and the Americans left behind there, are no longer factors in the decision-making of White House advisors—if not Joe Biden and Kamala Harris themselves. It’s hard to believe that Joe Biden, who has been so worried about the optics of his actions that he actually didn’t want to conduct rescue operations out of fear of a Black Hawk Down-style tragedy and grounded private planes from evacuating Americans in Afghanistan because it made him look bad, somehow thinks campaigning in California is appropriate at this juncture.

I guess, in the end, everything Joe Biden has done recently has been about politics, not doing the right thing.

Giffords claims SBRs are as concealable as a pistol