The ‘gentry class’ has gotten too full of itself
These artists have a right to remove content in protest. But make no mistake, their intent is to force Spotify to censor Joe Rogan so that you and I can no longer choose for ourselves whether to listen.
They’re on the wrong side of history. Truth persuades. It doesn’t coerce.
— Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) January 29, 2022
One More Time: It’s Not ‘Gun Violence’ It’s Gang Violence.
Every time you hear a politician or a media personality mention “gun violence,” you should mentally translate that phrase to “gang violence.” Not only that, but ask yourself if that politician or media outlet has an agenda by mislabeling gang violence as something entirely different.
Obviously politicians who have enabled the “criminal justice reforms” that have directly resulted in the out-of-control increases in violent crime across America don’t want to talk about criminals and gangs. In fact, California’s Gov. Newsom even went so far as to actuall apologize for using the word “gang” when describing the organized groups of criminals who commit crimes (otherwise known as ‘gangs’).
Rather than correctly identify those who commit the majority of violent crimes in this country, countless failed and inept politicians like the Land of Lincoln’s Governor J.B. Pritzker and Murder City, USA’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot instead blame law-abiding gun owners.
They continue to promote more gun control laws and more government spending to redirect peoples’ attention away from the failures of their feckless policies and misplaced spending priorities.
As for the media, there’s a reason the great majority of Americans don’t trust them any more. Nine percent of Americans now have “a great deal” of trust in what they hear in the media. To put that into perspective, roughly four percent of the population think lizard people “control our societies by gaining political power.”
Too many of today’s media members are nothing more than Democrat party operatives with bylines who dutifully spout leftist talking points. They willfully ignore stories that are bad for their political allies and their agenda. Or they cover them…with a pillow. Until they stop moving.
At the same time, they’re quick to castigate law-abiding gun owners for the actions of actual criminals, terrorists, and lunatics who commit crimes with firearms.
The next time you see some politician or candidate talking about the problem of so-called “gun violence,” call them out on it. Pols usually squirm if you make them address the real issue that drives the majority violent crime in cities: gangs.
In centers of corruption like Chicago, they may aggressively deflect the discussion away from gangs because a lot of gangs in places like Chi-town have some very cozy relationships with local elected officials to provide votes in exchange for the politicians avoiding discussions about gang-related crimes.
As for the media, do the math. If they’re trumpeting talking points like “gun violence,” they’re probably gaslighting you about other topics too. Look deeper to see what else they’re lying to you about.
AK, and I agreed years ago that the newer cars were actually desktop computers that had wheels and seats, and could be driven around under their own power. The latest vehicle added to the stable, a ’19 Traverse, has more circuitry under the hood than I recall seeing in a small business PBX phone system.
Today’s cars are dumb where they should be smart, and smart where they should be dumb. Enough already. Make a car that’s pretty much all dumb and watch it sell — because what automakers are giving people is so bad, they’ll pay more to have less of it.
Cars now are like budget smartphones with wheels: loaded with bloatware, unintuitive and slow to operate. Carmakers have always struggled with user interfaces, but until recently the biggest problem we had was “too many knobs.” How I long for those days!
The proliferation of touchscreens and LCDs has made every car feel like a karaoke booth. Animations show reclaimed energy from braking, the speedometer changes color as you approach the limit, the fan speed and direction is under three menus. And besides being non-functional, these interfaces are even ugly! The type, the layouts, and animations scream “designed by committee and approved by someone who doesn’t have to use it.”
Not to mention the privacy and security concerns. I was dubious the first time I saw a GPS in a car, my mom’s old RX300, about 20 years ago. “Yeah… that’s how they get you,” I thought. And now, Teslas with missed payments drive themselves to be impounded. Welcome to the future — your car is a narc now!
The final indignity is that these features are being sold as upscale, not downmarket, options. Screens are so cheap that you can buy a few million and use them everywhere, for everything, and tell buyers “enjoy the next generation of mobility!” But in reality it’s a cost-saving measure that cuts down on part numbers and lets your dashboard team kick the can down the road as often as they want. You know this for sure because high-end models are going back to knobs and dials for that “premium feel.”
So here’s what I would like: a dumb car. This is what I think that looks like.
Jim Taylor often said that throughout history pagans have always sacrificed their children to their gods.
BLUF:
Leftists may claim to be secular but that’s not true. They just worship different gods—themselves, Gaia, criminals, etc. And their gods are hungry gods who demand young blood, which leftists seem awfully glad to provide.
In the 21st century, we’ve entered a brave new era of child sacrifice
In ancient times, pagans sacrificed children to propitiate angry, erratic, and inscrutable gods, hoping that giving up their most precious possessions would save the entire community. Leftists are still doing that, not just with abortion, but with their COVID policies and the madness of their decriminalizing crime.
Child sacrifice was normative across the ancient world. It was only the combination of the Torah’s proscription against human sacrifice (The Binding of Isaac, Genesis 22), combined with Jesus Christ offering himself as the ultimate sacrifice, that pagan societies eventually abandoned the practice.
Their reluctance was understandable. From one pagan culture to the next, their gods were motivated by the basest human emotions and, when triggered, were likely to visit drought, flood, earthquakes, hurricanes, famines, and disease on unwary humans who, somehow or other, offended these prickly deities. Whether as a preemptive bribe or an ex post facto apology, the offering had better be big, and what could be bigger than one’s children?
But we in the modern West are better than that, right? We’ve abandoned child sacrifice. We wouldn’t dream of killing children to appease a god. After all, most on the left don’t even believe in the capital “G” God and they’re probably materialists who don’t believe in small “g” gods either. Or do they?
Image: Aztecs sacrifice a child to appease angry gods (1499). Public domain.
A few stories got me wondering if leftists are quite the rational atheists they think they are.
Bystander shoots man who attacked woman with knife
A man who stabbed a woman at a Waco convenience store Friday night has been hospitalized after a bystander at the store shot him with a handgun, Waco police said.
Police responded at 7:40 p.m. to the QuikTrip at 2350 S. New Road after a report that the man was chasing the woman into the store and continuing to attack her, Officer Garen Bynum said in a press release.
During the response, police learned a “separate third-party individual had intervened in an attempt to defend the female victim by shooting the suspect with a handgun,” Bynum said in the press release.
Both the alleged attacker and victim were transported to a local hospital with severe injuries, Bynum said. The bystander with the gun remained at the scene to speak to officers and is cooperating with the investigation, Bynum said. The bystander has not been charged with a crime.
The stabbing suspect is in the custody of Waco police as he receives medical care, Bynum said.
Your Hypocrisy O’ The Day
Another ‘has been’ who’s last Top 100 hit single was 40 years ago somehow believes her political statement means something. And just like Young, used to be an ‘anti-the -man’ free speech advocate.
Joni Mitchell Leaves Spotify After it Refused to Ban Joe Rogan
Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has announced that she is planning to remove her songs from the Spotify platform in support of Neil Young who left Spotify after it refused to censor its most popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience………
Who Is Behind The “Smart” Gun?
Guns are dangerous only when they’re not in proper working order. Otherwise, they’re inanimate objects that are unable to do anything on their own.
Is the Gun Dangerous, or is it the Criminal?
The world is fascinatingly complex yet important truths are often simple. We shouldn’t take that too far since most simple answers are wrong or incomplete. That tension helps make life so interesting as we try to understand the world around us. For example, here is a simple description of a complex problem. We saw violent crime increase in the last few years. Should we try to keep violent criminals away from guns, or should we try to keep violent criminals away from us? Is the tool dangerous or is the person dangerous? Let’s look at both ideas and see if there are any simple answers to be found.
When we look for simple solutions we see that criminals use guns to commit violence. That sounds like the case is closed but there is more evidence to uncover. If we keep looking then we find that innocent victims also use firearms to stop violence. That means the answers are not black and white but shades of gray.
When we look at all firearms we see that a vanishingly small fraction of the guns owned by civilians were used in violent crime each year (1 in 1400). Now we look deeper and find out that honest citizens used a firearm for self-defense over 1.6 million times a year. That is more people than live in New Hampshire or Hawaii. Each year, more people use a firearm for self-defense than the population of Wyoming and Vermont combined. Armed defense is common.
Proportions matter when we’re looking at shades of gray. We use a firearm for self-defense six times more often than a firearm is used in violent crime (5.98). Good guys with guns save lives. That is both simple and true.
Despite the facts that guns overwhelmingly stop crime, New York State passed a law to lets the public sue gun manufacturers because criminals used a “dangerous” gun that the manufacturers released into the public. That obviously misses the target of reducing crime. Either those New York lawmakers missed the facts or they didn’t care about honest citizens who defend themselves. Politics is obviously complex.
When we look at how criminals behaved, we see that most violent crimes (85%) didn’t involve a firearm at all. Said another way, if we would magically disarm everyone, that wouldn’t hamper the vast majority of violent criminals. Instead, disarming the innocent victims makes it easier for the criminals and would lead to more violence.
Young men commit most violent crimes. Young men are stronger than old men, and far stronger and faster than most women. Disarming women and the elderly makes them much more vulnerable to violent criminals.
Few of us want that. Disarming the good guys hurts honest citizens who want to protect their family. That isn’t an abstract theory, but common practice as we use a gun for self defense over a million times a year.
Let’s step away from the soundbites. Look at human nature instead and think of the people you know. Some of the people you know are completely trustworthy while others are not. Some resist any temptation while others can’t be trusted with a penny. We are not all the same.
When it comes violence, some of us are a danger to others and most of us are not. It is the person who is a danger to others, not the tools they use. Again, that is both simple and true.
Violent criminals are not like us. Most of us will never commit a violent crime, yet we know that a few people will victimize others. Most murders are committed by a few hit men in drug gangs. 64 percent of felons who served time for a violent crime were re-arrested. 41 percent of violent criminals were later re-convicted of subsequent crimes. 34 percent of them were re-incarcerated. Some people practice a life of violent crime.
Firearms manufacturers built a product that we overwhelmingly use to save lives. If we’re looking for people who increase the risks for all of us, then let’s sue New York politicians, judges, and prosecutors who put dangerous recidivist criminals back on our streets.
San Bruno jewelry store owner fights back, stops would-be robbers
SAN BRUNO, Calif. (KRON) – A jewelry store owner who fought back is talking to KRON4 after he kept would-be robbers from taking his livelihood.
Store owners at the Tanforan Mall have been on high alert. Over the last week, robbers have been targeting the mall’s jewelry stores.
One business owner was able to keep these smash and thieves from stealing his merchandise and he’s hoping this group doesn’t return.
Store security video from last week captures the moment a would-be robber smashes a jewelry case with a crowbar. The store’s owner is seen running over to defend his business before drawing a gun on the masked men.
“It was a bad experience, I mean everybody is giving me a thumbs up. I mean, I don’t really feel good about it,” Usman Bhatti said.
Usman Bhatti says smash and grab robberies have become a menace for business owners across the Bay Area.
Bhatti is legally permitted to carry a gun and should he need to protect his business he’s ready. The security video and pictures from police show one of the suspects wanted in connection with this attempted robbery was armed.
Just days after this happened, a second jewelry store at the Tanforan Mall was hit. The brazen nature of the crimes has mall workers worried.
San Bruno police were seen going store to store giving employees tips on how to protect against robberies. Police have also released these two sets of pictures showing people wanted for committing these crimes.
The attempted robbery is something Bhatti never wants to experience again.
This is not a repost of a previous incident, but another citizen TCOB
Pizza delivery driver shoots attempted carjacker 6 times in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — An attempted carjacking suspect was seriously injured after a pizza delivery driver fought back against his attacker on Thursday night.
It happened around 7:38 p.m. when the 39-year-old delivery driver was dropping off food on the 3300 block of H Street in the city’s Kensington section.
“I was just remodeling my kitchen and talking to my son, and he was about to come out the door, and as soon as he went to open the door- that’s when we heard the shots,” neighbor Eric Howard told Action News.
Police say the delivery driver was approached by a 23-year-old man who pointed a gun at the male victim and demanded he get out of the car.
“The driver of that car- when he saw that this male was pointing a gun at him, demanding that he get out of the vehicle – brandished his own firearm, which he was legally allowed to carry,” said Philadelphia Police Inspector DF Pace.
The victim, who police say has a license to carry, grabbed his own gun and shot the suspect six times.
“Th guy was licensed to carry a gun and defended himself,” Howard said.
A suspect was seriously injured after he was shot by a delivery driver during an attempting carjacking on Thursday night.
According to Inspector Pace, the suspect was able to return fire, but the victim was not injured.
The suspect was taken to an area hospital by a private vehicle where he was placed in extremely critical condition.
Philadelphia police have ramped up patrols in recent weeks to tackle a spike in carjackings.
There have been more than 90 carjackings so far in the city this year. Last year, there were more than 750 incidents.
BREAKING: We have recovered the Ukraine call report that @JakeTapper and CNN just deleted
Please DO NOT RT this as they do not want anyone to see it! pic.twitter.com/vV67Jc1p7i
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 28, 2022
Ukraine’s President Just Blew Up Joe Biden’s Spot on the Whole Situation With Russia
Katie wrote about this earlier today. President Joe Biden had a chat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and it did not go well at all. The rumor is that Biden had to be told to calm down and that Kyiv was not about to be sacked. There are only bits and pieces of information, but if true—this call was a train wreck. Also, where’s the transcript? For now, it’s a flurry of anonymous sources leaking portions that make Biden look terrible:
BuzzFeed News, quoting source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:
“Americans are safer in Kyiv than they are in Los Angeles … or any other crime-ridden city in the US.”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 24, 2022
During a phone call Thursday afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly told President Joe Biden to tone down the messaging as he continued to claim Russia was going to invade the country. The call is being described as one that “did not go well.”
The White House is pushing back on this interpretation of the call but has not released a transcript.
Earlier this week Ukrainian officials criticized the State Department’s directive for family members of U.S. diplomats to depart Kyiv, saying it was a premature overreaction.
And now, President Zelensky seems to confirm the reports of a bad call by telling the media today that he’s the president, he’s based here in Ukraine, and that he knows the details of the situation better here. At any rate, he blew up Biden and the State Department’s position of an imminent invasion. As for the Russian threat, Zelensky noted that it’s been here for years. It’s always present.
The narrative, the whole narrative, and nothing but the narrative
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki didn’t say whether The White House was going to push for Americans to live healthily to reduce their risk of severe COVID-19.
During the press briefing, Daily Caller White House correspondent Shelby Talcott asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki if President Joe Biden and his medical advisors have considered telling Americans to live healthier during the pandemic. Psaki did not directly answer and instead told Americans to get vaccinated and wear masks.
“We have seen an effort from a few other countries to include a push for living a healthier lifestyle as part of its pandemic response. There’s been studies indicating efforts like weight loss can help prevent some of the more serious effects of COVID-19,” Talcott said. “Why hasn’t the president included a push for healthier lifestyles in his COVID messaging, in addition to pushing Americans to get vaccinated?”
Comment O’ The Day
As taxpayers tire of funding things like this, we’re told it’s because of “anti-intellectualism.”
University assignment has students record themselves accusing someone of racism or homophobia.
An assignment shows an instructor directing students to locate someone that they can accuse of ‘racism,’ ‘ableist racist or homophobic use of language,’ or ‘micro-aggressions.’
The Twitter account Libs of TikTok tweeted a screenshot of a similar assignment Wednesday, likely from another iteration of the course.
An assignment obtained by Campus Reform from a University of New Hampshire course shows an instructor directing students to locate someone that they can accuse of “racism,” “ableist racist or homophobic use of language,” or “micro-aggressions.”
Students in the “Introduction to Language and Social Interaction” course were told to “Call in someone on their ableist racist or homophobic use of language, for micro aggressions (or an act of racism) towards a person of color, homophobia against LGBTQI+ or ableism against a disabled person.”
The assignment for the course, specifies that students must also record the interaction “in order to get credit,” while clarifying to get permission before doing so.
“Remember to say you know they mean well and are a good person,” reads the assignment.
Students are instructed to give their target “an alternate way of expressing themselves that doesn’t marginalise [sic] or oppress,” and warned to “Research your proposed alternative to make certain its [sic] not oppressive itself!!” because “You will fail if you tell someone to say something racist or sexist or homophobic.”
BLUF:
As Shijian-21’s recent actions demonstrate, there is a pressing need for the United States to be able to defend its assets in distant orbit. It’s likely we could see similar shows of force in the near term as Space Force responds to other nations’ demonstrations of “killer” satellite capabilities.
A Chinese Satellite Just Grappled Another And Pulled It Out Of Orbit.
The left-wing dark money behind the push to kill the filibuster
Sixty left-wing groups led by Fix Our Senate recently issued a letter demanding the Senate abolish the filibuster so “democracy legislation” will pass and the party now narrowly controlling Congress can rewrite all 50 states’ election laws.
Two big secrets lie behind this push to kill the filibuster and, supposedly, protect “voting rights.” First, this lobbying campaign is driven not by grassroots groups of ordinary people but by left-wing megadonors and the AstroTurf groups they fund. The second secret: This scheme isn’t about “protecting Democracy” because overwhelming majorities of our democracy’s citizens support the state election laws that these deep-pocketed special interests want snuffed out.
This fight is about the 2022 and 2024 elections, which liberal activists fear will go badly for them unless all the dubious changes in election laws and practices they finagled in 2020 are repeated. Nse Ufot, who leads a get-out-the-vote group founded by Stacey Abrams, confessed to Politico, “If there isn’t a way for us to repeat what happened in November 2020, we’re f***ed.”
Ufot’s “we” doesn’t refer to all in this democracy but only to the partisans she’s serving.
The same partisanship afflicts the Fix Our Senate nonprofit group that made a splash with its 60-group letter. The legacy media kept the secret, calling Fix Our Senate just a “pro-reform group.” Actually, though Fix Our Senate claims it “represents millions of Americans,” it’s a pop-up group, one of hundreds of fiscally sponsored projects in the “dark money” empire operated by Arabella Advisors, the in-house nonprofit groups of which took in $1.7 billion last year.
Here’s more of the secret: Another letter-signer, Evergreen Action, is yet another front group Arabella operates via its Sixteen Thirty Fund, which Politico called a “liberal dark-money behemoth.”
At least 17 additional nonprofit groups that signed the letter have received $10 million from Arabella’s coffers, Capital Research Center reports . In other words, the dozens of groups demanding the Senate overturn 50 states’ elections laws don’t represent millions of people in those states. They represent a handful of billionaires who liberally fund AstroTurf activism. As Arabella brags , it serves “clients representing more than $100 billion in assets.”
Those clients spent handsomely in 2020. They helped orchestrate victories for left-of-center candidates, including by backing groups involved in a left-wing network Time called a “cabal” that changed how elections are run. Now, they want to be paid back for their investment. But the Left’s agenda has stalled in Congress. Rather than compromise, the megadonors have set their sights on the filibuster.
That leads to the second big secret in the filibuster fight: It is fundamentally anti-democratic. Most want it to be easy to vote but hard to cheat.
Last year, states such as Texas and Georgia passed reforms that expanded early-voting opportunities, streamlined absentee ballot procedures, and improved protections for mail-in ballots. Georgia now offers more early-voting days than deep-blue New York or New Jersey.
The policies in those bills are popular. In fact, public support for photo ID laws, the Left’s most hated election integrity provision, grew last year. More than 3 in 4 black and Hispanic voters, 67% of Democrats, and 82% of independent voters back them. That’s real grassroots support.
Arabella and its dark money backers are using groups such as Fix Our Senate to create the illusion of popular outrage. They want to give narrow partisan majorities in Congress cover to junk the filibuster and impose unpopular, and likely unconstitutional, laws that would make elections harder to run and jeopardize public trust in voting.
H.R. 1 , for instance, directs taxpayer funds to politicians’ campaigns, eliminates voter ID laws, and legalizes vote trafficking, the practice with which political operatives approach voters and collect their mail-in ballots without supervision.
If the media stopped hiding the big secrets in this scam, we’re confident large majorities would recoil in horror at the prospect of either party’s members of Congress, or D.C. bureaucrats, setting election rules nationwide, much less eliminating safeguards the public favors, such as voter ID.
The left-wing push to take over elections poses a grave danger to our democratic institutions, even if it doesn’t succeed. Activist groups and the megadonors backing them have convinced millions that future elections will be rigged through “voter suppression.”
If they truly want healthy democracy, they should face voters honestly, not hide behind dark secrets.
BLUF:
So, the defection of a top Chinese scientist to the US is indeed a game-changer. This is a double whammy for the Communist Party. Not only has the CCP lost one of its senior hypersonic scientists to the US, but this episode will also encourage other Chinese scientists to defect from China.
Top Chinese scientist working in Hypersonic program flees China with critical secrets.
The US officials were left stunned when a Financial Times report revealed that Beijing had tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August last year. The test demonstrated that China has now garnered the ability to strike any point of earth in no time and that too without letting the target know about any such imminent attack. This bold portrayal of the hypersonic program had dumbstruck the US, whose own hypersonic program runs far behind that of China.
However, what has now come as a blessing in disguise for America is the defection of a top Chinese scientist to the West. A report published by Daily Express revealed that a senior rocket technician, connected to the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China, recently defected to the US with the help of the UK’s top intelligence agency.
He was closely working on China’s advanced hypersonic missile program, where he helped develop a mid-range hypersonic boost-glide vehicle capable of carrying DF-17 missiles to a range of up to 2,000 miles.
Making things worse for China, the defecting scientist was attached to the developmental program of hypersonic missile delivery system that China demonstrated last August for the very first time.
Inspecting the FN 502™ Tactical Manual Safety
FN America, LLC, has become aware that a very limited number of FN 502 Tactical pistols in the field may have an improperly installed manual safety. In these cases, the external safety lever will not function as designed and may result in unintended firing. To ensure the pistol’s safe operation, FN is asking owners of the FN 502 Tactical to suspend use of their pistol and perform a function check to verify the manual safety is operating correctly, following the inspection procedure below.
This safety bulletin applies to FN 502 Tactical pistols with a serial number range lower than LR007999. If your serial number is above this range, it is not subject to this bulletin.
This safety bulletin provides instructions on how you may check to see if your FN 502 Tactical is affected.
However, if you would like FN to inspect your pistol, please contact FN Customer Service at 1-800-635-1321, ext. 145. You may also take your pistol to your local firearms dealer or gunsmith for inspection.
Before inspecting your FN 502 Tactical, ensure your pistol and magazine are unloaded and that there is no live ammunition in your work area. For more details on safe handling and unloading, please reference your owner’s manual.
Note: Please do not ship any affected product to FN until FN has generated and sent to you a return label. If the firearm is not affected by this safety bulletin, no action is necessary.FN is deeply committed to providing customers with the safest, most reliable firearms possible. Patience and cooperation are appreciated as we receive, inspect and service these firearms. We will make every effort to return the product to customers within 14 days.
For questions about the safety bulletin or assistance in returning a firearm, contact the FN customer service team at 1-800-635-1321, ext. 145, or by email at customerservice@fnamerica.com.
Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
Gov. Noem announces legislation to cut fees on business incorporations, concealed carry permits
PIERRE, S.D. – On Thursday Governor Kristi Noem announced a single legislation intended to eliminate taxes and fees associated with business incorporations and concealed carry permits in South Dakota.
The bill would eliminate all fees associated with starting or renewing a domestic business with the Secretary of State in South Dakota. It would also eliminates all fees for concealed carry permits in the state…….
