Resist?!?: Just imagine what our country would be like if the Democrats, Progressives and wacko left-wingers decided to just work with President Trump and Republicans in Congress instead of “resisting” EVERYTHING.
So much of the tension and turmoil in this country is due to the politics of “resist.” A new strategy for our republic, which I believe history will show was a sad moment in our country’s grand experiment. Really too bad.
Agree: “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America.”
NRA: Many of my friends (and opponents) have asked about positions the NRA takes and why. I tried to respond to most, but a friend shared this link that has a “non-emotional”, rational discussion of the law of the land and some of the proposals being tossed out there. Its important to understand the laws that exist, and what if any of these proposed “solutions” would actually do any good to avoid these kind of tragedies in the future.
A good TWEET I found:
Racists are a problem.
White people are not.
Homophobes are a problem.
Straight people are not.
Sexists are a problem.
Men are not.
White supremacists are a problem.
Trump supporters are not.
Violence is a problem.
Guns are not.
Newsreel Summary:
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Conservatives buck Trump over worries of ‘socialist’ drug pricing
In a rare break with Trump, conservatives are now pushing back against key administration policies and accusing the president of supporting what they call Sanders-style socialism.
‘Medicare for All’ is a dire threat to Medicare for retirees
The Democrats running for president are in fantasyland, proposing to expand Medicare to millions of younger people or even to the entire population through Medicare for All. Never mind Medicare’s insolvency.
How much would ‘Medicare-for-all’ REALLY cost the middle class?
The answer is shocking. Contrary to the claims made by the leading Democratic candidates, millions of middle-class earners would be hit particularly hard under “Medicare-for-All.”
-Saul Anuzis
Sorry, Democrats, but Trump Didn’t Cause the Tragedies in El Paso and Dayton
President Donald Trump must feel himself a lonely man. In the aftermath of the mass killings in Texas and Ohio, his congressional colleagues have largely gone to ground, afraid responsibility for the carnage will somehow attach to them. The Democrats, meanwhile, have gone at him full force, implying he might as well have put the gun in the El Paso killer’s hand.
This is unfair and untrue but strangely echoes former President Bill Clinton’s attempt in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing to place the blame for it on conservative talk radio and others whose anti-Clinton rhetoric helped drive the 1994 GOP takeover of the U.S. Congress.
Instead of cowering in the Rose Garden, as previous presidents contemplating re-election have done in times of crisis, Trump has risen to the occasion. His remarks Monday were a powerful denunciation of the societal changes that have made these kinds of events a regular, if still infrequent, part of life in America.
“The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate,” Trump said. “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart and devours the soul.”
In these few words, he did what political liberals and punditcrats have demanded of him for some time: He denounced racism, white supremacy, bigotry and the climate they produce. Their response, typically, was it was not enough and too little, too late.
We Have Studied Every Mass Shooting Since 1966. Here’s What We’ve Learned About the Shooters.
In the last week, more than 30 people have died in three separate mass shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. We believe that analyzing and understanding data about who commits such massacres can help prevent more lives being lost.
For two years, we’ve been studying the life histories of mass shooters in the United States for a project funded by the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. We’ve built a database dating back to 1966 of every mass shooter who shot and killed four or more people in a public place, and every shooting incident at schools, workplaces, and places of worship since 1999.
We’ve interviewed incarcerated perpetrators and their families, shooting survivors and first responders. We’ve read media and social media, manifestos, suicide notes, trial transcripts and medical records.
Our goal has been to find new, data-driven pathways for preventing such shootings. Although we haven’t found that mass shooters are all alike, our data do reveal four commonalities among the perpetrators of nearly all the mass shootings we studied.
Mass Shootings Aren’t Becoming More Common – and Evidence Contradicts Stereotypes about the Shooters
When 22 people were killed in El Paso, Texas, and nine more were killed in Dayton, Ohio, roughly 12 hours later, responses to the tragedy included many of the same myths and stereotypes Americans have grown used to hearing in the wake of a mass shooting.
As part of my work as a psychology researcher, I study mass homicides, as well as society’s reaction to them. A lot of bad information can follow in the wake of such emotional events; clear, data-based discussions of mass homicides can get lost among political narratives.
I’d like to clear up four common misconceptions about mass homicides and who commits them, based on the current state of research.
The AR-15 – Time To Set The Record Straight
Because of the horrendous acts of a handful of individuals, a call has been for the implementation of an “Assault Weapons Ban”, which despite also turning into a battle of semantics, essentially is a call for the banning of AR-15’s and similar style rifles. This has already been tried.
Under the previous Assault Weapons ban, which was statistically unable to show either an increase or decrease in violent crime, one of these guns would be illegal, one would not. These are not AR-15’s. But they can both be considered MSR’s. Both are evolutions of a military rifle.
Both of these rifles are Springfield M1A’s. These firearms are the same gun model. They have the exact same mechanisms, the exact same caliber, use the same magazines that hold the same number of rounds, and have the exact same rates of fire.
What would make the one on the right illegal is the adjustable stock and flash suppressor, nothing more. Equipment designed to be more ergonomic and comfortable for the shooter so they can adjust their length of pull (how far of a reach to the trigger) and its ability to help diminish the effect of firing on the shooter’s eyes, is what would disqualify this rifle, not a feature that in any way “increases its ability to kill”.
According to FBI statistics, from 2010-2014 (the most recent multi-year statistics available) of 63,061 murders, 1530 were committed with a rifle. These numbers include ALL rifles, not singularly the MSR. This is 2% of all murders.
‘Red Flag Laws’ Leave Gun Owners Defenseless
Responding to the mass shootings that took 22 lives in El Paso and nine in Dayton over the weekend, President Donald Trump said it should be easier to confiscate people’s guns when they are deemed a threat to others. That prescription may or may not prevent any murders, but it will certainly hurt many innocent Americans by depriving them of their Second Amendment rights.
“We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms, and that, if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process,” the president said on Monday. “That is why I have called for red flag laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders.”
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have adopted such laws, most of them since the February 2018 massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Although preventing mass shootings is the goal emphasized by advocates of red flag laws, data from Indiana and Connecticut, the first two states to enact them, show they are mainly used to protect people from their own suicidal impulses.
The evidence on whether they succeed in doing that is mixed, and so far there’s no firm evidence that red flag laws prevent homicide. One thing is clear: Taking away people’s guns based on predictions of what they might do with them raises thorny due process issues.
The Left is on a Mission to Annihilate Conservatism
While President Donald Trump is an ideal scapegoat for leftist hatred and demagoguery, the left’s ultimate goal is to permanently reduce conservatism and the Republican Party to minority status by indelibly associating them with racism.
Listen to what the Democratic presidential candidates and other Democrats are saying. If you support border enforcement, you are a racist. If you support Trump, who pushes border enforcement, you are a racist. If you don’t condemn Trump for being a white supremacist, which he is not, you are a white supremacist.
Democratic Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, chairman of the presidential campaign for his twin brother, Julian, published the names of San Antonian contributors to Trump’s reelection campaign, publicly denouncing them for “fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.'”
Castro’s message is clear: Anyone who donates to Trump’s campaign is a racist. As there is little difference between supporting Trump and donating to his campaign, Castro is saying that all Trump supporters are racists. Worse, Castro, and others, are trying to tie the mass shooting in El Paso to Trump and his supporters. There is nothing subtle about this. Their aim is to shame people into leaving the GOP.
Switzerland Has a Stunningly High Rate of Gun Ownership — Here’s Why it Doesn’t Have Mass Shootings
Switzerland hasn’t had a mass shooting in 18 years.
In the US, there is almost one every day.
The Swiss have strict rules for who can get a gun, and take firearm training very seriously.
Switzerland hasn’t had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.
The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country’s overall murder rate is near zero.
The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren’t necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don’t even require a permit.
But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use.
John ‘Red, White & Blue’ James Is the Future of the GOP
Congressman Will Hurd is the latest Republican to announce his retirement from Congress. This one stung our party more than others because he is the only African American Republican in the House of Representatives — leaving Sen. Tim Scott as the only African American Republican in Congress.
It is no secret that there is a lack of diverse leadership in the current Republican Party. The good news is, there is not a lack of diverse GOP candidates running in the next election. To be clear, I mean diversity in an all-encompassing way – yes, race and gender, but also diversity of life experience, age, and socio-economic background. Now, we must unite behind and raise up these future leaders.
This new generation of conservative Republicans lining up to work for a brighter future includes first-time candidate Wesley Hunt, an Army veteran who is African American, running in TX-07; and Rob Jones, a double amputee Marine veteran running in VA-10.
There were also four Republican women who launched campaigns for Congress last week: Sara Hart Weir, KS-03; Genevieve Collins, TX-32; Randi Reed; NV-04; and Beth Parlato, NY-27. Those announcements come following a concerted effort to recruit and support women candidates by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who stood strong when the launch of her E-PAC originally caused some to question the support of women in contested primaries.
Al Sharpton Is Not a Civil-Rights Hero
He’s made a career of inciting violence and vomiting lies. And Democrats have cheered him on.
Imagine David Duke being a regular, esteemed guest and former honored host on Fox News Channel. Imagine every Republican presidential candidate scrambling to praise him whenever he’s in the news. Imagine David Duke being given a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention or President Trump welcoming him to the White House and openly soliciting his support. Imagine Duke appearing on White House visitor logs more than 70 times during Trump’s administration.
Employing the morally disastrous logic that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, the Democrats have allowed President Trump to troll them into extolling Sharpton. Trump is incorrect about many things, but he fairly described Sharpton as a racist. Sharpton is a “con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score,” Trump tweeted. “Hates Whites & Cops!” That’s a lot closer to the truth than the framing of Democrats, who bent the knee to Sharpton as though he were some sort of civil-rights hero rather than a huckster.
Trump Supporters Push Back: ‘We Are All Tired Of Being Called Racists’
Following President Trump’s packed-out rally of nearly 18,000 people in Ohio Thursday night, The Atlantic published a piece by Elaina Plott Friday addressing what the report suggests is an increasingly prominent sentiment among Trump supporters: “They are tired of being called racists.”
After detailing Trump’s recent criticisms of “The Squad” and Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings — which Democrats and their allies in the left-leaning media quickly branded “racist” — Plott presents a notable quote from Donald Trump Jr., who revved up the crowd Thursday in part by addressing the concerted effort to vilify his father, and implicitly his father’s supporters. Racism is still an issue, Trump Jr. stressed, but the Left’s habit of resorting to cries of “racism” makes a “mockery” of the term and ultimately “hurt[s] those that are actually afflicted by it.”
“It’s sad that using ‘racism’ has become the easy button of left-wing politics,” the president’s eldest son told the crowd overspilling the nearly 18,000-capacity U.S. Bank Arena Thursday. “…Because guess what? It still is an issue … But by making a mockery of it by saying every time you can’t win a fight — ‘Oh! We’re just gonna push the button! It’s racist’ —you hurt those that are actually afflicted by it. People hear it, they roll their eyes, and they walk on. And that’s a disgrace, and that’s what you’ve been given in the identity politics of the Left.”
“…Because guess what? It still is an issue … But by making a mockery of it by saying every time you can’t win a fight — ‘Oh! We’re just gonna push the button! It’s racist’ —you hurt those that are actually afflicted by it. People hear it, they roll their eyes, and they walk on. And that’s a disgrace, and that’s what you’ve been given in the identity politics of the Left.”
I Was Denied Service Based on Beliefs — And I’m Okay With That
A company I wanted to pay denied me service because my values did not line up with theirs. And that’s their right.
This week I was denied a service because the company’s values are at odds with the values that Alliance Defending Freedom stands for — values I personally hold. And guess what? I’m okay with that.
Allow me to explain…
Here’s What the Big Tech Companies Know About You
The novelty of the internet platform boom has mostly worn off.
Now that companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet are among the world’s most valued companies, people are starting to hold them more accountable for the impact of their actions on the real world.
From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the transparency of Apple’s supply chain, it’s clear that big tech companies are under higher scrutiny. Unsurprisingly, much of this concern stems around one key currency that tech companies leverage for their own profitability: personal data.
What Big Tech Knows: Today’s infographic comes to us from Security Baron, and it compares and contrasts the data that big tech companies admit to collecting in their privacy policies.
Disinformation warfare in Lithuania and the USA
Having recently returned to Lithuania for work, I thought I would be able to get away from the disinformation warfare being waged on the US government by its foes and their allies, the “useful idiots”. Turns out I was wrong. Disinformation warfare is just as active in Lithuania as in the USA.
It is sometimes difficult to separate domestic politics and discourse from “disinformation“, good disinformation requires it to be indistinguishable from “politics as usual”. To be believable, good disinformation is usually wrapped in a cocoon of truths.
That is, if want to get out my lie, I should begin with a number of items that are true, and then I can slip in my disinformation. “Russians meddled in US elections. (True) Russians always meddle in elections. (True) According to the polls Hillary Clinton was supposed to win. (True) Hillary got more popular votes (True), ergo the Russians helped Trump win (False) Trump and his campaign must have colluded with the Russians. (False)”
Did Russian Interference Affect the 2016 Election Results?
I find no evidence that Russian attempts to target voters in key swing states had any effect on the election results in those states. Instead, the results were almost totally predictable based on the political and demographic characteristics of those states, especially their past voting tendencies, ideological leanings, and demographics. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Russians weren’t trying to influence the results or that they might not succeed in the future. Nor does it speak to Russian efforts to hack into U.S. voting systems and potentially alter voter registration data or even election results themselves.
There are plenty of grounds for real concern here. Indeed, the Electoral College system used to choose the president almost invites efforts to interfere in the election. Whereas trying to affect the national popular vote results would probably be prohibitively expensive, efforts to target a few key swing states could be much more cost-effective and harder to detect. As a result, there is little doubt that these efforts will continue in 2020 and beyond, especially if we have a president who seems to be inviting them.
