Democrats Aim For Modest Gun Control Measures That Wouldn’t Have Stopped Shootings

By William Teach May 27, 2022 – 8:11 am

It’s all about appearing to Do Something and getting the votes

Democrats aim for modest deal on guns

Senate Democrats say they are ready to accept a modest deal on gun-control legislation as they are eager to get something done in response to mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, even if it falls below their ambitions of previous years.

A bipartisan group of nine senators met Thursday afternoon to chart out a path for negotiations.

They say their top priorities are proposals to expand background checks and encourage states to set up red-flag laws to prohibit people deemed dangerous to themselves or others from owning firearms.

Democrats acknowledged from the outset that whatever deal they get is likely to be modest since it needs at least 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster. (big snip)

Nineteen states already have red flag laws on the books, including New York, where a 18-year-old shooter killed 10 people with an AR-15 assault rifle at a Buffalo supermarket. Connecticut enacted the nation’s first red flag law in 1999 but that didn’t stop a 20-year-old shooter from killing 26 people at Sandy Hook with a Bushmaster assault-style rifle.

Even though Texas really doesn’t have one, it wouldn’t have stopped that nutter as well. The kid was apparently violent and abusive and threatening. And “expanded background checks” wouldn’t have caught that, either, nor, potentially, the others. Laws only work if people pay attention to them, if law enforcement enforces them. How many people will you see who blow off stop signs today and face no consequences?

The question here is, “what happens if they get these laws?” Will Democrats attempt to implement a death by a thousand papercuts process to get even more and strong restrictions? The devil is in the details of the background checks proposal: does it require registration of all firearms with the government? Do the Democrats then want even tougher then tougher then tougher gun control which primarily hits the law abiding, rather than the criminals?

How about this proposal: if someone wants to sell their firearm privately, they should be required to fill out a form that shows the ID number of the gun, notes that the buyer must go get a background check within 2 days, and it be notarized and filed at either a county/city clerk office, police station, or Sheriff’s office. That puts the burden on the buyer, not the seller. It means someone has the papers, and can follow through.

How about locking the doors for entry into schools? Having armed security at the main entrance?

The Blumenthal-Graham bill would empower law enforcement officers to file a petition with a federal court requesting that someone deemed to be danger be prohibited from owning a firearm. Their proposal would allow that person a speedy hearing to protest the order.

“It’s a grant program,” said Graham. “We’re not federalizing this. We’re trying to incentivize best business practices at the state level.”

Yeah, they’re federalizing this, and, there’s no way it is speedy.

Read: Democrats Aim For Modest Gun Control Measures That Wouldn’t Have Stopped Shootings »

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Bummer: Renewable Energy Is A Threat To Biodiversity Or Something

By William Teach May 26, 2022 – 3:00 pm

It’s always something with this crowd, isn’t it?

Activists fear a new threat to biodiversity—renewable energy

A small Nevada wildflower named Tiehm’s buckwheat might still be living in obscurity if it had not happened to grow in soil full of lithium. As it is, that could prove its downfall.

Lithium is needed to make the high-powered batteries that are helping the world transition to electric vehicles. Demand is soaring, and mining companies are eager to take it out of the ground at several new sites in Nevada, already home to the only existing lithium mine in the U.S.

But Tiehm’s buckwheat is rarer than lithium. It grows only on approximately 10 acres of land at Rhyolite Ridge in southwestern Nevada—right where one of the new lithium mines is planned.

“One guy on a bulldozer could drive it extinct in one afternoon,” says Patrick Donnelly, the Great Basin Director for the Center for Biological Diversity and one of the flower’s biggest advocates.

He and some other conservationists see the flower and the mine as emblematic of a broad and disturbing trend: There is a growing conflict, they say, between efforts to address two environmental crises—a rapidly warming climate on the one hand, and a staggering rise in extinction on the other.

Mining isn’t the only way the renewable energy revolution is affecting landscapes, in the desert and elsewhere. In the past decade, solar- and wind-powered electricity generation has quadrupled in the U.S.— and that’s just the beginning of what experts say we need to do to transition away from fossil fuels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. By 2030, Nevada plans to get half its electricity from renewable energy, in line with the Biden Administration’s goal to decarbonize the economy completely by 2050.

The result is what some activists describe as a renewable energy land rush putting rare species and untouched desert ecosystems at risk.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. How about we keep the good migrants who just want a better life and to be part of the American dream and deport the eco and climate wackos?

Read: Bummer: Renewable Energy Is A Threat To Biodiversity Or Something »

Posted in Energy, Enviroweenies, Global Warming | 14 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 26, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a rising sea running over the land, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The First Street Journal, with a post on the sanctions against Russia and the EU need for natural gas.

Does her head look too small, or is it just a trick of the light and pose? Because it doesn’t look photoshopped.

Read: If All You See… »

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Unhinged Michael Moore: Who Will Ask To Repeal The 2nd Amendment?

By William Teach May 26, 2022 – 10:30 am

Is this the same Michael Moore who has his own armed security?

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore challenges the media: Who will demand we repeal the Second Amendment?

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on MSNBC Wednesday to urge the media to call for an end to the Second Amendment, after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Moore began his argument claiming that America had a violence problem, from the beginning of the country’s founding, starting with guns.

“We won’t acknowledge that we are a violent people to begin with. This country was birthed in violence with the genocide of the native people at the barrel of a gun. This country was built on the back of slaves with a gun to their back,” he told MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

Yeah, a goodly chunk of nations were built on “violence”. Such is life on Earth. The current France was built on a violent revolution. How many criminals were forced to go to Australia and Tasmania? How many African nations were birthed in violence? Canada doesn’t exactly have a stellar record with the “native” population. Funny, though, that people like Moore who seem to hate the U.S. won’t actually leave.

“Who will say on this network or any other network in the next few days, ‘It’s time to repeal the Second Amendment’?” he asked.

So, why isn’t he? Give it a whirl, Credentialed Media. See where that goes. It won’t turn out like you think.

“Look, I support all gun control legislation. Not sensible gun control. We don’t need the sensible stuff, we need the hardcore stuff that’s going to protect ourselves and our children,” he said.

Name it. Name what will stop criminals from being violent.

https://twitter.com/allinwithchris/status/1529281763482259456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529281763482259456%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2022%2F05%2Fmichael-moore-repeal-second-amendment-1235033193%2F

There are quite a few Democrats, including elected officials, who are saying we need to Do Something, yet, do not actually name what will work. Universal background checks? The Texas nutter passed a background check, it wouldn’t have stopped him

(The Federalist) Before we even knew how the killer of 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, had obtained his guns, Chris Murphy was engaging in his customary performative emotionalism on the Senate floor, literally begging Republicans to “compromise.”

Compromise on what exactly? Murphy has never once offered a single proposal that would have deterred any of these mass shooters. Literally minutes after his routine, Murphy was asked about the obvious mental illness prevalent among most of these shooters. “Spare me the bullsh-t about mental illness,” the Connecticut senator responded, “ripping” the GOP. “We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world.” That’s how serious he is about compromise. (snip)

Chuck Schumer planned to introduce H.R. 8, an expanded background check bill, and H.R. 1446, a bill that would close the alleged “Charleston Loophole” (before he realized it wouldn’t be politically expedient.) “Alleged” because Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black churchgoers in Charleston in 2015, got a clean background check, not because of any “loophole,” but because local prosecutors had failed to respond to the FBI’s request for information. It was a case of human error, or negligence. So maybe Democrats should be promoting a “law-enforcement-should-do-its-job” bill. Because all “universal” background checks do is stop friends and families from gifting guns. Straw purchases are already illegal, as Schumer, Pelosi, and Murphy already know. And passing expanded background checks after a school shooting is tantamount to demanding stricter drivers tests after a hit and run. (snip)

Indeed, law-abiding Americans have no obligation to take ownership of a madman’s actions. Nor is there any reason for them to surrender their right to self-defense so that Chris Murphy, who, evidenced in many of his comments, is only interested in incrementally limiting gun ownership. That’s his right, of course. He should try and repeal the Second Amendment. Until then, however, Democrats interested in genuine compromise may want to offer realistic, productive, and germane ideas, rather than using another horrific tragedy to dunk on their political opponents.

Go for it. Try and repeal the 2nd. Or, better yet, offer up solutions that will actually deal with

Whether America is more prone to mental illness or not, these incidents are almost exclusively perpetrated by young men who have exhibited serious anti-social behavior. All of them break a slew of existing laws. All of them have either obtained guns illegally, or legally before having any criminal record. In many, if not most, cases, the shooter is already on the cops’ radar because he has threatened others or written insane, violent manifestos. In a study of mass shootings from 2008 to 2017, the Secret Service found that “100 percent of perpetrators showed concerning behaviors, and in 77 percent of shootings, at least one person – most often a peer – knew about their plan.”

There were plenty of warning signs for the Texas shooter, the Buffalo shooter, and so many others, and they were all ignored.

Read: Unhinged Michael Moore: Who Will Ask To Repeal The 2nd Amendment? »

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Universities Should Create Climate Warriors Or Something

By William Teach May 26, 2022 – 7:15 am

Great idea. More cultists graduating with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt without a proper degree to let them afford to pay it back

Universities should take the lead in creating climate change warriors

Every day, we wake up to news of yet another forest fire, or photographs of glaciers melting. Temperatures this summer is unusually high owing to global warming. It is easy to fall into nihilism and believe that all hope is lost; after all, why bother when the consequences of climate change are so irreversible? However, what some people don’t get is that climate change can be tackled strategically; maybe by influencing adults to take definite steps to keep our climate ecologically balanced, or maybe just imbibing a sense of sustainability in kids.

Just because you read it doesn’t make it true. And it’s about as true as the zombie books and other horror I like to read

As a result, it is critical for Indian institutions to encourage students and assist them in coming up with new solutions to combat the boogeyman of climate change. The educational sector plays an important role in performing research and making genuine efforts to preserve and rebuild ecosystems. Universities are widely acknowledged as playing a crucial role in tackling major sustainability challenges through educating future generations, undertaking sustainability research, and encouraging legislators to also include sustainability concepts into the nation’s development efforts. On a global basis, university campuses are anticipated to act as an experimental paradigm for sustainability. A clean and sustainable campus will provide a healthy and happy learning environment. Set in the midst of nature, NIIT University has taken various greening initiatives and developed sustainable model to nurture the environment and to sensitize students to urgent need of combating the climate change.

Oh, wait, this is from India. Do the kids who attend college there really care? What about all the ones here in the U.S. on student visas? What about all the lower castes, and, yes, there is very much a caste system in place in India? Do they care, or, just want decent food and living conditions?

Here are some constructive ideas for universities on how to engage students to combat climate change:

1. Sustainability curriculum

Universities should develop and integrate the sustainability aspect in their curricula. This lesson would introduce students to the seriousness of the climate crisis while also encouraging them to consider solutions from the start. Students should also be encouraged to participate in various environmental initiatives like planting trees, sustaining water bodies, greening hills etc. Getting initiated into The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, popularly known as TEEB, is another way of powerful orientation for students.

Blimey.

2. Climate Warrior Fellowship

A ‘Climate Change Warrior Fellowship’ can be launched by some of the country’s premier universities to develop an army of young professionals and embed them into the governmental machinery. These young people could use their entrepreneurial thoughts and knowledge to help the government promote climate change initiatives from within the system. This would also equip individuals who are fresh out of high school or college with valuable real-world experience enacting change.

Read: Universities Should Create Climate Warriors Or Something »

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High Gas Prices Could Be Creating Demand Destruction

By William Teach May 26, 2022 – 7:00 am

What is demand destruction?

In economics, demand destruction refers to a permanent or sustained decline in the demand for a certain good in response to persistent high prices or limited supply. Because of persistent high prices, consumers may decide it is not worth purchasing as much of that good, or seek out alternatives as substitutes.

Huh

Gas prices have soared so high that the US is now seeing demand destruction ahead of the summer driving season

Pain at the pump has gotten so bad that demand for gasoline is dropping just as the summer driving season is about to begin.

Demand on a four-week rolling basis has hit its lowest level during this time of year since 2013, excluding the pandemic-outbreak period in 2020, according to data from the Energy Information Administration compiled by Bloomberg. Compared with year-ago levels, demand is down roughly 5%.

Prices at gas stations across the US have hit record after record over the past two weeks, dashing some hopes for a driving season that approaches pre-COVID-19 levels, AAA previously predicted.

The average gallon of gas in the US hit $4.59 on Tuesday, about 51% higher than a year ago, according to AAA data. Regular gas prices have never hit this level. And in California, AAA data showed, prices can be over $6.

And prices are expected to go even higher by the end of the summer. One question, though, is where is this demand destruction occurring? And how strong is it? What you’ll probably see is fewer trips places. Perhaps more staycations, fewer weekend trips somewhere. What happens if shippers start having fewer trips? Oh, and demand destruction in the petroleum sector could lead to a massive worldwide recession or even a depression.

Is this intentional, to get people off of fossil fuels? How many people will lose their jobs? Oh, and this could seriously drive up the cost of lithium and other metals needed to create hybrids and EVs, as demand could outstrip supply. Citizens will notice when they have to change their habits, and, they quite often respond by getting rid of the people in political power.

Read: High Gas Prices Could Be Creating Demand Destruction »

Posted in Democrats, Economy, Energy, Joe Biden | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

Aussies Voted For Climate Crisis (scam) Action: Will They Get It?

By William Teach May 25, 2022 – 3:00 pm

And how soon till they regret it?

Australians voted for stronger action on climate change. Will they get it?

On his first full day on the job, Australia’s new prime minister mentioned the words “climate change” four times within two minutes of his maiden international speech.

Fresh from election victory, Anthony Albanese sought to present a new Australia to the world, one that takes climate change as seriously as defense, after decades of inaction.

At the Quad meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday, Albanese told his counterparts from the United States, India and Japan that climate and the security of the region were among the biggest challenges of their time.

“The new Australian government’s priorities align with the Quad agenda, taking action on climate change and building a stronger and more resilient Indo-Pacific,” Albanese said, in words broadcast around the world.

But experts say it won’t be easy to turn around a coal-powered ship that has for years been chugging in the wrong direction, partly fueled by a government earning billions of dollars in export revenue.

The powerful fossil fuel lobby could fan headwinds, as could those aligned with the former Liberal-National government — a center-right-conservative coalition — though after years dominating the Australian parliament, their voices are likely to be drowned out by a cohort of Greens and climate-motivated independents who made big gains in the weekend vote.

See, Warmists like to cast blame elsewhere, but, in reality, we’ll see if Aussie are in favor of Doing Something in practice, vs in theory. Back in 2012, the party of Doing Something about Hotcoldwetdry, which did try and Do Something, putting theory into action, lost so bad at the ballot box for the Queensland elections that they didn’t have enough members to be a recognized official party. I keep saying, it might be popular in theory, but, when the action negatively effect citizens lives they do not like that.

Change appears to be coming in Australia, but the new government needs to convince the nation that the climate crisis presents an opportunity, not a threat to jobs, said Frank Jotzo, director of the Center for Climate and Energy Policy at the Australian National University (ANU).

“What the government should do is to talk deeply about climate change as an opportunity to help create better economic opportunities for the younger generation,” Jotzo said. “A government that wants to change things needs to establish a narrative that is overwhelmingly strong against the inevitable lobbying by powerful vested interests.”

Aussies should remember what happened during all the COVID lockdowns, where Government dictated how people could live their lives, and sent in the cops to enforce it. That’s basically a test drive for what climate action would look like.

Anyhow, we need experimental groups for every experiment. Let’s see how well Aussies react.

Read: Aussies Voted For Climate Crisis (scam) Action: Will They Get It? »

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If All You See…

By William Teach May 25, 2022 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible fossil fueled boat needed when the world floods from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on Indiana Republicans over-riding Governor veto on bill banning biological males from competing with women.

Read: If All You See… »

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NC General Assembly Looks To Pass Bill Similar To Florida’s Parental Rights Bill

By William Teach May 25, 2022 – 10:30 am

This should make the moonbats bark

NC bill would ban LGBTQ issues from K-3 curriculum

North Carolina Republican leaders proposed state legislation Tuesday that would prohibit teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, and would require parental notice when students in any grade question their sexual identity in school.

The requirements are part of a broader bill, similar to legislation on the move in other states, that state lawmakers call the Parents’ Bill of Rights. Under the proposal, North Carolina schools would have to notify parents if students seek to use a different pronoun to describe themselves, and parents would have to sign off before students could get counseling or other non-emergency health care.

House Bill 755 is expected to begin its path through legislative committees Wednesday in the Republican-controlled General Assembly. The text was released at 5:30 p.m. Monday, and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s office would only say that Cooper would review the bill.

The restriction on sexuality and gender identity teaching forbids including those topics in school curricula for kindergarten through third grade. It’s not intended to ban discussions that come up organically in class, Berger, R-Rockingham, said during the news conference.

Well, I hope it bans these discussions when they originate “organically” from teachers. Because most young kids are not going to bring up any of this stuff unless they are enticed, like wondering what that multicolored flag is, or why their male teacher is wearing a dress and dyed his beard pink.

The new bill’s parental notice section generated concerns among opponents Tuesday that LGBTQ students, afraid of how their parents would react if they find out about their sexual identity, could no longer turn to trusted teachers for guidance.

When did teachers become guidance counselors and therapists for kids? Sure, there have always been a few who the kids glommed on to, but, mostly, the kids go to school, learn the subjects, then go home. If the kids are having issues, parents were always notified, unless the problem was a real one and very bad, and then the cops or social services or something was called.

Much of the rest of the bill lays out parents’ rights to various notices, including to receive regular report cards and to participate in parent-teacher organizations. It also says school systems must establish procedures for parents “to object to textbooks and supplementary instructional materials.”

That will make the teachers mad. God forbid they have to be accountable to the parents.

Really, though, there is little chance Governor Cooper, a Democrat, will sign the bill.

Read: NC General Assembly Looks To Pass Bill Similar To Florida’s Parental Rights Bill »

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Who’s Up For A Green Social Credit System?

By William Teach May 25, 2022 – 7:00 am

How many 1st World leaders are looking at China thinking this is a super fantastic idea, including Brandon and his admin Comrades?

Green Social Credit: ‘Individual Carbon Footprint Tracker’ Pushed by China’s Alibaba At World Economic Forum

Chiense tech giant Alibaba is developing a digital “individual carbon footprint tracker” to monitor the actions of the public, the firm’s president announced at the globalist World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.

Speaking at a “Strategic Outlook: Responsible Consumption” WEF pannel in Davos, Alibaba Group President J. Michael Evans said that his company will be introducing more surveillance systems within China in order to usher in a so-called greener future.

“We are developing through technology the ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint… where are they travelling, how are they travelling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform,” Evans said.

Because this is China, the data will be shared with the government. And, being China, the government will take action against its citizens. Of course, China is going hog wild in developing coal plants, blowing off every single thing they say they will do for ‘climate change’. The tracker is a step towards controlling everything the citizens do, and politicians, bureaucrats, and agencies will love this.

2,000 might be a bit too high, but, it’s definitely way more than 1,000.

Read More »

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