The Chump Effect
Progressive policies penalize those who play by the rules and shower benefits on those who don’t.

Last January, a small but telling exchange took place at an Elizabeth Warren campaign event in Grimes, Iowa. At the time, Warren was attracting support from the Democratic Party’s left flank, with her bulging portfolio of progressive proposals. “Warren Has a Plan for That” read her campaign T-shirts. The biggest buzz surrounded her $1.25 trillion plan to pay off student-loan debt for most Americans.

A man approached Warren with a question. “My daughter is getting out of school. I’ve saved all my money [so that] she doesn’t have any student loans. Am I going to get my money back?”

“Of course not,” Warren replied.

“So you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money, and those of us who did the right thing get screwed?”

A video of the exchange went viral. It summed up the frustration many feel over the way progressive policies so often benefit select groups, while subtly undermining others. Saving money to send your children to college used to be considered a hallmark of middle-class responsibility. By subsidizing people who run up large debts, Warren’s policy would penalize those who took that responsibility seriously. “You’re laughing at me,” the man said, when Warren seemed to wave off his concerns. “That’s exactly what you’re doing. We did the right thing and we get screwed.” Continue reading “”

I wonder if they know the street they’re playing in is a ‘two way’ street.

CNN Gets in on the List Game, Targeting ‘Enablers’ of Trump’s Election ‘Defiance’

In the past few days, Democrats and their allies in the #NeverTrump movement have started the ominous practice of compiling blacklists of Trump supporters or those who refuse to immediately trumpet Joe Biden’s contested and as yet unconfirmed victory in the November election. CNN, perhaps afraid of falling behind, ran a report listing every single Republican senator who has refused to congratulate Biden so far. At the bottom on the screen, the outlet singled out the president’s dastardly “enablers” who dared to stand up for Trump’s right to raise legal challenges in response to serious concerns about potential fraud.

On Tuesday, CNN published a list of 49 Republican senators guilty of the unspeakable crime of waiting for the final confirmed election results. The chyron screamed, “TRUMP’S DEFIANCE FUELED BY ENABLERS LIKE BARR, MCCONNELL, FOX.”

Continue reading “”

Washington, D.C.: How Big was the Million MAGA March, REALLY? And why do BLAMTIFA continue to terrorize business owners and innocent people?

ANOTHER QUICK, UNEDITED DISPATCH: MUCH GOING ON HERE. THIS DISPATCH IS PERFECTLY ACCURATE IF NOT PERFECTLY WRITTEN – thank you for forgiveness runaway commas.

We begin on Saturday, 14 November 2020, Washington, D.C.

image001Million MAGA March, 14 November 2020, Washington, D.C. Photo by Masako Ganaha

How big was the march? I was there. And at hundreds of others around the world. And have faced this question hundreds of times. Therefore, I studied for the answer. Continue reading “”

Gun Control Plummeted in Popularity This Year

Gun sales have surged in 2020, fueled by a pandemic, nationwide riots that Democrat leaders showed little interest in stopping, and, even prior to election day, the mere prospect of a Biden/Harris administration that would implement new gun control measures.

Americans have purchased more guns in the first eight months in 2020 than the entirety of 2019, and are on pace to make this year the biggest year for gun sales ever. Firearms seller Vista Outdoor has a backlog of over $1 billion in ammo purchases alone.

These sales don’t reflect existing gun owners hoarding firearms either, as there are over five million new gun owners this year, likely the largest surge in gun ownership in U.S. history.

Naturally, that surge in gun sales and ownership has coincided with the popularity of gun control plummeting.

According to the latest polling from Gallup: Continue reading “”

Man Tries to Grab Trump Flag From His Car, But Then Instant Karma Strikes

I wrote an earlier feel good story that CNN might be sold, because AT&T was in financial trouble, and posited what a great idea it would be if President Donald Trump were to buy it and completely change the network, if he did not prevail ultimately in the election.

But we have another feel good story that just says so much about what Trump Derangement Syndrome can lead Biden supporters to do and how karma can bite back.

Trump supporters were out in force this weekend, supporting Trump and supporting the concerns being raised about the election.

But one man driving by in a car didn’t take kindly to one man who was holding a Trump banner. He allegedly tried to grab the banner and then spit on the man holding it. But talk about instant karma when he tried to speed away.

Hour and half long, if you’re interested

 

Van Buren homeowner shoots suspected burglar found hiding inside closet

VAN BUREN, Ark. —
A Van Buren homeowner told 40/29 News, he shot a man he found hiding inside his closet after the man became agitated.

“He opened the door to the closet and he actually saw this person looking at him in the closet,” Van Buren Police Sgt. Jonathan Wear said. “He confronted the man that was in his home. That man became combative and at that point he ended up having to fire shots at him.”

Wear said the suspected burglar was shot in the leg and taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. When released, the man will most likely be facing burglary charges, “He actually had the homeowner’s wallet and pair of his shorts, so we think he was actually in the house trying to steal things from the homeowner.”

According to police, the shooting happened inside a home on Blueberry Hill Street in the city, around 10 a.m. on Thursday.

Coroner identifies man killed during burglary in Harrison Township

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ohio (WDTN) – The Montgomery County Coroner has identified the man who died as 22-year-old Nader Adam, of Harrison Township.

Montgomery County Sheriff Deputies were called to an apartment in the 3300 block of Susannah Ave. after receiving reports of a burglary in progress. When crews arrived, they found the suspect forced their way in through the back door of the apartment after breaking several windows.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office told 2 NEWS the resident shot the suspect who died at the scene. The incident is being investigated by the Special Investigations Unit of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

What’s that line? Scratch a ProggieLib, uncover a wanna-be tyrant?

Joe Biden transition official wrote op-ed advocating free speech restrictions

President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team leader for US-owned media outlets wants to redefine freedom of speech and make “hate speech” a crime.

Richard Stengel is the Biden transition “Team Lead” for the US Agency for Global Media, the US government media empire that includes Voice of America, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Stengel, an Obama administration alumnus, wrote last year in a Washington Post op-ed that US freedom of speech was too unfettered and that changes must be considered.

He wrote: “All speech is not equal. And where truth cannot drive out lies, we must add new guardrails. I’m all for protecting ‘thought that we hate,’ but not speech that incites hate.”

Stengel offered two examples of speech that he has an issue with: Quran burning and circulation of “false narratives” by Russia during the 2016 election.

“Even the most sophisticated Arab diplomats that I dealt with did not understand why the First Amendment allows someone to burn a Koran. Why, they asked me, would you ever want to protect that?” Stengel wrote.

“It’s a fair question. Yes, the First Amendment protects the ‘thought that we hate,’ but it should not protect hateful speech that can cause violence by one group against another. In an age when everyone has a megaphone, that seems like a design flaw.”

Stengel wrote that “our foremost liberty also protects any bad actors who hide behind it to weaken our society,” adding, “Russian agents assumed fake identities, promulgated false narratives and spread lies on Twitter and Facebook, all protected by the First Amendment.” Continue reading “”

Sheriff Wilson nails it again

The Importance of Practicing Unconventional Shooting Positions.

While it is true that being able to draw quickly and hit the target quickly and accurately may solve a lot of problems regarding criminal attacks, it doesn’t solve all of them. Criminals are not entirely stupid and they are going to take every advantage that they can. Chances are good that the experienced crook is not going to give you time to take a solid shooting stance and address the target like they taught at that defensive school.  Here are three unconventional defensive techniques that would be worth knowing and practicing.

Shooting with One Hand

There may be a lot of reasons that a person can’t get two hands on his defensive handgun. The support hand, or arm, might be injured at the very outbreak of hostilities. A person might be carrying something, or he might be holding onto something to keep from falling. The support hand and arm also might be busy warding off an attack from an accomplice. It is not enough to just say that, in these situations, one would run his gun with one hand.  It has to be practiced. Shots that would be simple with a two-hand hold are not nearly so simple when only one hand is used.

Shooting from the Seated Position

When a person takes stock of how his waking hours are spent, he is often amazed at how much of that time is spent sitting. The fact is that a lot of our time is spent at a desk, in the car, or in that favorite easy chair at home. And, yet, very few take the time to practice from a sitting position. We may find that our body is holding our handgun against the chair. We may also find, in the car, that clearing the seat belt and our covering garment takes way too much time. Practicing from a sitting position helps the shooter identify problems and gives him time to come up with a better way to respond.

Drawing with Your Support Hand

Finally, we may practice shooting with our support hand, but how many of us practice drawing with the support hand? Just as in the first example, the strong hand may be engaged or taken out of play for a variety of reasons.  Can you reach across the front of your body, or behind your body, to get a grip on the pistol? Do the retention devices on your holster allow you to access the handgun with the support hand? Hint: A gun carried in front of your body, somewhere between the two hip bones, might be much more accessible with either hand.

These exercises, and others, are not often taught in defensive schools simply because it is hard to do on a line with other students and avoiding someone covering another with a gun muzzle. It would certainly be a good idea to practice them at home during dry practice with an unloaded gun. And there may be no one single solution to these problems due to the fact that body shapes and agility can be quite different. It is important for the defensive shooter to find a technique that works for him and then to practice it until it becomes a habit.

Working to solve these and other problems can give the defensive shooter a whole new outlook on the type of gun that he carries, the type of holster that he uses, and where he wears that combination.

Social Elites Call for Dangerous Gun Data Changes

It seems antigun billionaires think there’s nothing a few dollars and manipulation of government data can’t fix. Arnold Ventures, ran by former Enron trader John and Laura Arnold, is a billionaire philanthropy organization that wants to save us from ourselves through their deep pockets. More specifically, they seek to restrict the freedom to keep and bear arms

Arnold Ventures wishes to paint a grim picture that firearms are an epidemic much like political activist and gun control billionaire Michael Bloomberg. John and Laura Arnold have commissioned the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago to construct and convene a panel of medical professionals to organize a wishlist of dangerous and overreaching proposals. These demands are detailed in the Blueprint for a U.S. Firearms Data Infrastructure. With major changes possible in Washington, D.C., it is crucial to not only examine the large, sweeping gun control proposals but also to look at the less attention-grabbing proposals, like changing how the government collects, shares, and presents data. Gun control advocates in Congress are already turning to items on this wish list in their latest proposals, including the misleadingly titled, “ATF Improvement and Modernization Act.” Continue reading “”

Well, if you haven’t figured it out already, there’s a simple solution for her and her komrades. I’m not saying it’s an easy solution, just a simple one.

Don’t blow off AOC

One of the things I try not to do is make the same mistake the other side made. The Establishment blew off Donald John Trump only to watch with jaw agape as he was sworn into office on January 20, 2017.

Let’s not blow off Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. You may not see her appeal, but millions of Democrats do. She is the soul of the soulless Democrat Party.

AOC’s danger is that unlike Obama, Manchin, and the rest of the 50 and older crowd in the Democrat Party, she does not seek power. She seeks a revolution.

Oh, that does not mean she won’t pocket campaign contributions. She sees them as overdue tributes owed by the White Patriarchy that has kept her down for 31 years. Under 50 (year old) Democrats view theft as reparations.

As comical as some of her beliefs may be to us, they are very valid to the majority of Democrats. Regulating cow farts is a joke made by conservative skeptics of the global warming concoction. The AOC crowd has no sense of humor. If CO2 must be regulated then so must methane, which means cow farts.

When it comes to taking her racist and anti-capitalist dogma seriously, AOC is not kidding around.

Her call for a “Trump Accountability Project” is mainstream Democrat thinking because theirs is a religion, and we are all infidels unworthy of any rights. Robert “Third” Reich — Clinton’s labor secretary — forwarded last month the idea of blacklisting and punishing President Trump’s supporters. Continue reading “”

More from the Justice’s speech

BLUF:
If you’ve got an hour or so and you’re a legal geek like me, go watch Alito’s entire speech and read the brief that I linked above. Obviously Alito wasn’t going to say anything unbecoming of a Supreme Court justice, but I was struck by his quiet indignation over the NYC gun case, the second-class status of the Second Amendment, and the threats of “restructuring” the Court by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and four other Democratic senators. I get the feeling that Justice Alito is itching to take another Second Amendment case soon, and Lord knows there are plenty in the pipeline for him and his colleagues to accept in the months ahead.

Alito: Senators’ Threats In 2A Case “Affront To The Constitution”

Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito’s address to the Federalist Society on Thursday night is making headlines today largely for his comments about COVID-19 and the threat that the pandemic poses to individual liberties, but I’m surprised that more people aren’t talking about Alito’s reserved smackdown of five Democratic senator who threatened the Court with “restructuring” if it didn’t drop a challenge to a New York City gun law. The case, known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, ultimately was mooted by the Court earlier this year after New York City changed the law being challenged after SCOTUS agreed to hear the case.

Reason has a full transcript and video of Justice Alito’s remarks, but I want to focus on what he had to say about our right to keep and bear arms.

Of course, the ultimate second tier constitutional right in the minds of some is the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. From 2010, when we decided McDonald v. Chicago, until last term; the supreme court denied every single petition asking us to review a lower court decision that rejected the Second Amendment claim. Last year, we finally took another second amendment case. And what happened after that is interesting.

This isn’t the first time that Alito has complained about the Second Amendment being treated as second-class right. Alito penned the majority opinion in the McDonald case, and a decade ago he warned that the right to keep and bear arms rests on the same footing as the rest of our individual rights. Continue reading “”

Biden Wants to Prevent Armed Teachers From Protecting Themselves and Their Students

Preventing teachers from carrying firearms is just one of Joe Biden’s gun control goals. See his other priorities for rolling back Second Amendment rights here.

The idea of arming teachers to prevent school shootings burst into the national conversation after Parkland, when President Trump raised the possibility in listening sessions with grieving parents. Shortly after the 2018 shooting at the Florida high school, he told attendees at the 2018 CPAC that as many as one out of every five teachers should be carrying a gun.

It provoked an uproar. But often lost in the bluster of that moment was the reality that teachers had already been carrying guns in U.S. schools for over 10 years. Trump had just become the policy’s highest-profile advocate yet. The first serious proposals to arm teachers cropped up after the Columbine shooting in 1999, and the first school district to announce such a policy was in Harrod, Texas, in 2008, after Virginia Tech.

The decision to let schools arm teachers is left to state governments. Since the 1990s, 19 states have passed laws and created programs to arm some teachers and other school staff, like principals or superintendents. In 24 states, school boards have the discretion to authorize anyone of their choosing to carry a gun on campus. A 2019 investigation by VICE News found that in the year after Parkland, the number of school districts arming their teachers more than doubled, from around 215 school districts to nearly 500, encompassing hundreds of thousands of students.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he strongly opposes arming teachers, but because it’s up to state legislatures—which stayed resoundingly Republican this election, including in armed-teacher states like Florida, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, and Utah—it’s a policy that may be here to stay.

– Jen Kinney in Biden Hates the Idea of Arming Teachers, But It’s Way Too Late to Stop It

Armed Man Shot By Off-Duty NYPD Officer During Alleged Carjacking Attempt

An off-duty NYPD officer shot an armed and reportedly drunk man in the chest during an attempted carjacking in Brooklyn on Wednesday, police said.

The 28-year-old assailant approached the off-duty cop at around 2 a.m. in Canarsie, knocking on his window before firing a shot that “barely missed” the officer, according to Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison.

“Our member of the service then pulled out his firearm, shooting several times at our perpetrator, striking him in the chest,” Harrison told reporters……

The unidentified suspect was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The officer was not shot, but taken to a different hospital to be evaluated for tinnitus.

Justice Alito: Pandemic Has ‘Resulted in Previously Unimaginable Restrictions on Individual Liberty’

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday said the coronavirus pandemic has “resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty” and warned that religious liberty is “in danger of becoming a second class right.”

Alito’s comments came during his virtual keynote speech to a conference of the conservative Federalist Society, in which the 70-year-old justice warned that the U.S. can’t allow the restrictions on personal liberty to continue after the pandemic has ended, noting that houses of worship have been treated particularly unfairly.

Continue reading “”

Gun trade groups say more women are becoming licensed firearms owners

Some call it firearm feminism. According to gun trade groups, more women are buying guns than ever before.

One recent survey indicates self-protection is the main reason, but first-time female gun buyers are also citing fear of civil unrest, election uncertainty and the coronavirus as influencing their decision to buy firearms.

Business owner Angela Geotz says she wants to be legally armed if trouble comes her way.

“I just want to be able to protect myself if I have to, my family,” Geotz said.

Geotz is not alone. Jessica Howard is a first-time gun owner.

“There is a lot of crazy stuff going on and I’m a single mother,” Howard said.

Firearm sales to women are up 40% from 2019, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The trade group surveyed gun retailers. The survey finds personal protection is the primary reason and semi-automatic pistols are the most popular.

First-time gun owner Vickie Hayes bought a semi-automatic pistol after someone broke into her home.

“It kind of scared me a little bit, so I thought a good way to protect myself would be to get a handgun license. So, I did and I purchased a gun,” Hayes said.

The firearms industry noticed the surge beginning in March with the coronavirus outbreak.

Since then, concern over civil unrest is the biggest reason for the surge, that’s according to a poll conducted by national firearms group A Girl & A Gun:

  • 14% Riots/Fear of Mobs and civil unrest.
  • 12% Concerns over 2020 Elections.
  • 8% Lack of Law enforcement resources.
  • 7% Pandemic uncertainty.
  • 7% Fear of targeted violence/discrimination.

Continue reading “”

6 Americans and 2 foreign troops are dead after their helicopter crashed off the coast of Egypt

Six Americans were killed Thursday when a helicopter assigned to an international peacekeeping force crashed off the coast of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

In total, eight of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) helicopter’s passengers died when the aircraft crashed near Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Among those that died were also one French citizen and one Czech, MFO said in a statement.

One US service member involved in the MFO mission survived the crash and was medically evacuated.

The names of the service members killed in the incident are currently being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

“The Defense Department is deeply saddened by the loss of six U.S. and two partner nation service members in a helicopter crash in the Sinai Peninsula operating with the United Nations Multinational Force and Observers (MFO),” acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said in a statement Thursday.

“Yesterday we recognized the sacrifice of millions of American veterans who have defended our nation for generations, and today we are tragically reminded of the last full measure our uniformed warriors may pay for their service,” he continued. “I extend the Department’s condolences to the families, friends and teammates of these service members.”

The MFO said that the incident will be investigated but added that “at this point, there is no information to indicate the crash was anything except an accident.”

An Egyptian official said that the UH-60 Black Hawk was conducting a reconnaissance mission at the time of the incident, which was likely caused by a technical failure, the Associated Press reported. Officials told Fox News the same, suggesting that a mechanical failure is likely to blame.

The MFO is tasked with overseeing the implementation of security provisions outlined in the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Thirteen countries, including the United States, contribute military personnel in support of the MFO mission, according to the organization.

Against ‘Unity’

Political unity is an ugly, authoritarian idea. No free place has domestic political unity, nor should it aspire to it.

What “unity” really means, of course, is capitulation. America is once again being subjected to the inane brand of pseudo-patriotic sloganeering we saw during the Obama years. Now, as then, the media will pretend that the moral fabric of the nation must be mended after Republican rule. It’s pretty transparent. When Democrats win the presidency, we are treated to solemn calls for national restoration and political harmony, and to the expectation that, for the good of the nation, the opposition will embrace decorum and pass legislation they oppose. When Republicans win elections, grown women put on knitted hats depicting their reproductive organs and stomp around Washington protesting, all to a hero’s welcome.

Time magazine, the same publication that helped erode trust in our electoral system with conspiratorial covers of the White House morphing into the Kremlin, now offers a commemorative cover featuring Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with the words, “A time to heal.” Unlike some of our progressive friends, I don’t believe in enemies lists or censorship, so my healing process is simple: It involves playing whatever small part I can in extinguishing the political fortunes of those who want to weaken the Constitution. I’m not at all interested in finding accord with those who want to overturn the Hyde amendment, thereby making late-term abortion a state-funded practice, or with anyone who wants to “reengage” without any genuine preconditions with Holocaust-denying terror regimes such as Iran, or with anyone who wants to further socialize our health-care system by adding a “public option.” Like many others, I find disunity quite therapeutic.

I suspect that, in a few weeks, “political polarization” will once again become an existential crisis of American governance. My favorite post-election headline came from the social scientists at Pew Research Center, who informed us that the “2020 election reveals two broad voting coalitions fundamentally at odds.” Two broad coalitions, you say? Fundamentally at odds? What are the chances?

Michelle Obama says we can overcome our divisions, but that Democrats must first remember “that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division.” She suggests that there is “a lot of work to do to reach out to these folks in the years ahead and connect with them on what unites us.” It’s somewhat difficult to process this level of obnoxious sanctimony. Here is a list of demands you divisive Republicans must embrace for the country to “unite.” Get on with it.

Anyhow, I reject this false choice in the name of patriotic disunity.

Not one of those 71 million agents of chaos lied to millions of Americans to strip us of our health-care insurance plans. Not one of those voters has attempted to force nuns to buy contraception — or sued them when they refused. One day I hope Michelle will stop defending the lies, hate, and division that her husband inflicted on this great nation. Until then, though, we’ll have to agree to disagree. Continue reading “”

Militias challenge gun laws in Virginia: “It’s about shooting tyrants in the face”

On a cold winter morning last February, a woman named Samantha assembled her AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the parking area next to Timbrook Public Library in Campbell County, Virginia. Her husband, Chad, had his AR-15 in hand and commented, “I would trust going into a gun fight right next to my wife. I’ve seen her shoot.”

Samantha was one of a handful of women attending the call for volunteers to join a group calling itself the Campbell County Militia. Along with Chad and Samantha (who asked to have their last name withheld), over 200 people were at the event, most of them carrying arms.

Kurt Feigel, a gun rights activist and militia organizer, told the group, “We are here today to send a clear and collective message to any would-be-tyrants that would attempt to disarm us: We will not comply.”

The formation of the Campbell County Militia is part of a larger movement organized by gun rights activists pushing back against gun laws Virginia enacted in 2020. They claim the new regulations, which include a “red flag” law and universal background checks for gun purchases, infringe on their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Virginia lawmakers shelved more controversial proposals that would have banned semi-automatic guns and high capacity magazines. Still, gun rights activists are bracing for a possible future ban.

“We won’t comply. We won’t give up our guns,” said Feigel.

Virginia became a battleground for the gun policy debate after Democrats swept both houses of the state legislature in 2019 on a gun safety platform, consolidating Democratic control of the state government.

Gun policy has long been a divisive issue in the United States. Even as support grows for stricter gun laws, the country remains deeply divided along partisan lines. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found 60% of Americans think gun laws should be more strict, up from 52% two years earlier. But the same survey also found 80% of Republicans think it’s more important to protect gun rights than to control gun ownership, while just 21% of Democrats agree.

In Virginia, gun rights supporters pushed back against the Democratic legislative majority. Over 90 counties and municipalities in the state passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions opposing the enforcement of certain gun laws. And there were calls to form local militias to give their movement some “teeth.”

“If we have the numbers, we can back up the statement — we will not be disarmed,” said Feigel. “[The Second Amendment] is not about hunting. It’s not about self-defense. It’s about shooting tyrants in the face.” Continue reading “”

(Florida governor) DeSantis Pushes To Expand Stand Your Ground Law To Allow Citizens To Defend Against Rioters, Looters

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has reportedly drafted “anti-mob” legislation that would expand the state’s Stand Your Ground law to allow armed citizens defend themselves against violent rioters and looters.

Written after violent rioters caused billions of dollars of damage to America’s cities over the summer, the proposal would expand the list of under Florida’s self-defense law to justify the use of force against rioters who engage in looting or arson that “results in the interruption or impairment of a business operation.”

“The draft legislation put specifics behind DeSantis’ pledge in September to crack down on ‘violent and disorderly assemblies,’” the Tampa Bay Times reported. “Other key elements of DeSantis’ proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in ‘violent or disorderly assemblies,’ make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets.” Continue reading “”