ESSE SINE METU IN FACIE INIMICI TUI. TUENDAM INOPS ET FACERE NON MALI.
BLUF:
Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it’s a lethal cocktail.
From the moment Joe Biden stepped into the Oval Office as president, it became clear that he had stolen the job in order to destroy America from within. He stopped the construction of the Keystone Pipeline on day one, costing thousands of good-paying jobs. He stopped the construction of the southern border wall, costing more jobs and leaving millions of dollars worth of equipment rotting in the desert.
Biden would not even let Texas use the construction materials themselves; any wall would impede the Biden plan to import over two million migrants from around the world, to be given funds and to spread them throughout the nation into unsuspecting cities.
The Democrats voted unanimously that these illegal invaders would not be required to be vaccinated or even tested for COVID. That should tell us everything we need to know about how seriously the left really takes this phony pandemic. The leftists know that it is phony because it’s worked for their advantage from the outset. They had to do something to derail President Trump.
So, with a stroke of Biden’s pen, the energy independence Trump had achieved was gone. Biden removed Trump’s sanctions on the Nord Stream pipeline, making Germany now dependent on Russia for gas and making Russia infinitely wealthier! What a colossally stupid thing to have done. Natural gas prices for Americans have doubled. Fuel gas prices have gone up by at least forty percent. Biden and his DOJ are canceling other pipelines and oil leases on federal land and offshore. This is allegedly in the name of the environment, but that is a lie. It is to bring the middle and working classes to their knees. This administration wants runaway inflation, the better to punish the deplorables, to make them more compliant.
Chelsea Clinton wants to talk about grifting. That’s just great.
The fruit, apparently, doesn’t fall that far from the global elitist narrative tree.
Perhaps looking to ride the coattails of those ganging up on “controversial anti-vaxx misinformation” (read: any uttered thought not handed down by Dr. Anthony Fauci from the heavens above) or perhaps looking to drum up support by her Twitter sycophants, Chelsea Clinton took to her Twitter account last week to lash out at Substack for providing a platform for free speech and for people to voluntarily subscribe to newsletters they’re interested in and willing to pay for.
Wow, sounds nefarious, Chelsea! Glad you stepped in.
The government of far-left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau withdrew nonessential personnel from Canada’s embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, this weekend and sent the nation’s defense minister to the capital to discuss an alleged potential Russian invasion of the country.
The extensive focus on Ukraine for Canada follows nearly two weeks of elevated coverage of the eight-year invasion of Ukraine by Moscow that became a global priority after President Joe Biden hinted that America would not aid its allies in Kyiv if Russia engages in a “minor incursion” of the country. Tensions between the Biden administration and its counterpart under Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have escalated since the “minor incursion” remark, culminating with an exasperated Zelensky telling reporters during a press conference Friday that his country has lost nearly $500 million in foreign investment since Biden predicted a further invasion of the country.
It also follows a tumultuous week of domestic politics in Canada. After nearly two years of onerous pandemic lockdown policies under the Trudeau government, a protest convoy organized by truckers across Canada arrived in Ottawa this weekend, flooding the capital with thousands of peaceful protesters demanding the restoration of basic civil rights stripped from Canadians in the name of public health. Police following the event documented no incidents of violence, injuries, or any major disturbances following the peaceful protests.
Just because they’re ridiculous doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous…..
BLUF:
There is no backing down. We can’t. Not if we want to survive.
It’s going to get very rough from here on out, and I want you to know that. Prepare, prepare, prepare, and gird your loins.
Just remember in the end we win, they lose.
Be not afraid, but don’t be rash.
Keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.
This weekend, I found that the truckers who have had enough of Little Castro’s Justin Trudeau’s insanity, enough to drive to the capital in convoy and who appear to be supported by a majority of Canadians are “really” Russian agents dressed like truckers.
My first reaction to this was to laugh so hard my son, who had just come into my office, thought I was having a stroke or heart attack or something. BTW this morning he tells me that now the NYT is running with the idea that everyone who is against mandates is “really” a Russian agent.
Frankly, I almost titled this post “All the Truckers are Russian Agents, or How I became a White Mormon Male.” which would be a very accurate title, and also way too long, and would give whiplash to anyone who hasn’t been around for a few years.
Also, not completely accurate, because as well as a white Mormon male, I was also racist, sexist and homophobic (which is probably making some of you laugh till you hiccup) and and one time — briefly — a robot and a Russian robot. (I don’t know is Sad Robot Puppies is still active on Twitter (I never go there) but it was started by one of you adorable maniacs when that accusation came out.)
For those not around at the time, a lot of crap happened around and between, and if you guys feel you need clarification, ask someone in comments. Other people can explain. I woke up very late, and we were dealing with business taxes which makes me too cranky for words.
RAINIER, Ore. — A homeowner shot an armed suspect who broke into their home in Rainier, Ore., early Sunday morning, police said.
The Rainier Police Department said officers responded to a call about a burglary at a home in the 600 block of West C Street in the early hours of the day.
When they arrived, they learned a burglar had attempted to rob the homeowner and they exchanged gunfire. The suspect was shot but is expected to survive. The homeowner was not hurt.
Police took they detained the suspect and transported him to a local hospital for treatment. His name was not immediately released.
The Columbia County Major Crimes Team is investigating.
An off-duty correction officer shot a pair of armed robbers in the Bronx after he was lured into meeting up by a woman promising him a date, police sources said.
The correction officer thought he was meeting 21-year-old Diamond Sanchez for a date about 6 p.m. Saturday — but she had other plans for him, the sources said.
Police did not release the name of the correction officer, who’s in his 20s. A law enforcement said the victim works for the New York State Corrections Department.
ALBANY — When threatened by an aggressor outside their homes, people in New York, under current law, have a duty to retreat — if possible — before resorting to force.
Now, an upstate lawmaker, state Sen. George Borrello, R-Chautauqua County, has introduced a measure that would scrap the duty to retreat requirement, framing his proposal as a public safety measure that will extend the right of self-defense and provide potential legal immunity in civil lawsuits against people who shoot those threatening to do harm.
New York law, as written now, imposes no duty to retreat on people when they are in their dwellings. Borrello said there should be no inconsistency in the law. His bill would remove the self-defense restrictions in instances when people face a violent aggressor outside the home setting, as long as the person facing the threat is at a location where she or he can legally be.
Voters overwhelmingly believe “fake news” is a problem, and a majority agree with former President Donald Trump that the media have become “the enemy of the people.”
A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 58% of Likely U.S. Voters at least somewhat agree that the media are “truly the enemy of the people,” including 34% who Strongly Agree. Thirty-six percent (36%) don’t agree, including 23% who Strongly Disagree. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on July 7-8, 2021 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Howard Hesseman, a prolific character actor who became a beloved TV mainstay through his roles on sitcoms “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Head of the Class,” died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles of complications from colon surgery he had undergone last summer. He was 81 years old.
Hesseman’s death was confirmed to Variety by his longtime rep Robbie Kass.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Is safety that simple?
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, 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
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.
Police say two people who were with the suspect are also being questioned at this time.
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.
