News of the Week for Feb. 24^th, 2019

• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Gun Rights

 

Nevada Governor Signs Universal Background Check Bill
For years now, anti-gunners have been pushing for universal background checks. In recent years, more and more states have adopted the measure so as to…oh, who the hell knows what they think it will accomplish.

California’s gun seizure program hits hurdles
Authorities in California are struggling to enforce a state law that permits officials to seize firearms from people with previous criminal convictions or mental health issues – running into staffing and budgetary issues that have contributed to a massive backlog of guns marked for confiscation.

The Facts About Mass Shootings Support Gun Ownership, Not Gun Control
Democrats shouldn’t add more gun control laws to the books when the shootings in both Parkland and Aurora could’ve been prevented by existing policies.

Records: 75 percent of revoked Illinois gun licenses ignored
More than 75 percent of the people who received gun license revocations last year in Illinois ignored the notices, Illinois State Police said.

Law of Self Defense: Black Murder Defendant Saved by “Stand-Your-Ground”
Trial illustrates difference between “hard” and “soft” Stand-Your-Ground states

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Nothing Seems to Be Stopping America’s Oil Growth Engine
Despite lower oil prices and pipeline constraints, America’s oil output continues to surge.

Cuomo’s to blame for Westchester’s gas crisis
State officials held hearings last week into Con Ed’s ban on new natural-gas customers in much of Westchester, but it’s the state itself that blocked new gas pipelines. What’d anyone expect?

The Urgency of the Green New Deal Will Only Give the State Mob-Like Power
What’s interesting to me is how thin the line between this form of politics [gangsterism] and socialism (or fascism) is. The most important thing about the rule of law – including property rights – is that it insulates society from this form of politics.

How Higher Education Incubated The Eco-Socialism Of The Green New Deal
Sustainability is an ideology in which protecting the environment also concerns protecting society from dangers of any kind. But at what cost?

The Greatest Scandal In the History of Science
I have written many times about the unwarranted “adjustments” to measured past temperatures by government agencies, which serve to inflate the modest warming that has occurred in recent decades. Organizations around the world (NOAA and NASA-GISS here in the U.S.) have done this over and over, usually surreptitiously. The Manhattan Contrarian shares my opinion that this misrepresentation of the historical record is the worst scandal in the history of science.

The Real Reason They Hate Nuclear Is Because It Means We Don’t Need Renewables
Why is it that, from the U.S. and Canada to Spain and France, it is progressives and socialists who say they care deeply about the climate, not conservative climate skeptics, who are seeking to shut down nuclear plants?

LA Goes All-In On ‘Green New Deal’
The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to support the federal “Green New Deal” largely panned by Trump and conservatives.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Bioethicists Push Insurance-Paid Eugenic Engineering
The other day I noted that the Journal of the American Medical Association editorialized in favor of health-care rationing because medical costs are growing out of control. How could they not be? Medicine isn’t limited anymore to treating illness, palliating symptoms, or educating us to live more healthily. We increasingly expect the sector to empower us to live happier and more fulfilling lives.

The Health 202: States scramble to head off future Medicaid shortfalls
States that expanded their Medicaid health insurance programs are hunting for ways to fund the new enrollees in 2020 as they face a final drop in federal contributions.

9 Years After Obamacare Passed, Agency Finds Numbers Were Wildly Off
Democrats defeated Republicans in the Obamacare repeal fight by warning that 22 million Americans would be thrown off their health insurance. They pointed to data leaked from the Congressional Budget Office.

 

War & Terror

 

Masked Protesters ‘Occupy’ Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, Deface Fallen Agent Memorial
Dozens of protesters reportedly “occupied and reclaimed” the privately owned U.S. Border Patrol Museum near El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, harassing employees and visitors and defacing the museum’s fallen agent memorial.

Coast Guard Lieutenant Allegedly Planned To Slaughter Politicians And Journalists
Federal authorities arrested a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant after finding a trove of guns and ammunition stockpiled at his home in Maryland along with alleged plans to commit a large-scale terrorist attack targeting politicians and journalists.

ISIS bride Hoda Muthana might be a U.S. citizen after all
Maybe not the best idea for the president to boast on Twitter about how he kept Hoda Muthana out if, in fact, he’s not going to succeed at keeping her out.

Lesbian Army Vet: Transgender Legal Victory Dehumanizes Women
Last October, a jury sided with a male felon who identifies as female and who sued the prison for not giving him the drugs to alter his body. He won $355,000 in damages. On Sunday, The New York Times print edition ran a very flattering profile on the transgender military veteran, Jessica Sunderland (originally named Jeremy). Feminists denounced this ruling as an unjust vindication of “trans misogyny.”

The U.S. Air Force Is Buying New F-15s After All
The F-15X will complement the F-22 and F-35 in tomorrow’s aerial battlefields.

Lockheed Martin Offers India Enhanced F-16 Block 70 Multirole Combat Aircraft Dubbed “F-21”
The “new” F-21 takes the spotlight at Aero India 2019.

We Should Have Seen This India-Pakistan Crisis Coming
The crisis was predictable. How both sides get out of it isn’t.

Women May Have to Register for the Draft as Men’s Group Wins Selective Service Lawsuit
On Friday, a Texas judge ruled that the Selective Service System (SSS) violates the Constitution by requiring only men to register for the draft. The court ruled with the National Coalition for Men (NCFM) in a lawsuit claiming the male-only draft constitutes discrimination against men. NCFM’s lawyer told PJ Media that even if the SSS appeals, they are likely to lose again. He also suggested the Pentagon will not end the draft, so women may have to register.

 

National

 

Bill Weld seems confused over why some Republicans don’t want him to primary Trump
A few days ago we learned that Bill Weld, former Massachusetts Governor and sometimes Libertarian, was forming an exploratory committee to consider a primary run at Donald Trump next year. As Ed pointed out at the time, Weld was most recently seen as a national candidate on the Libertarian ticket in 2016, but apparently now has returned to the GOP fold. To the surprise of no one except possibly Weld himself, his announcement managed to raise the hackles of members of the Republican base. His response to their objections, however, sounded a bit off key for someone trying to win over their support.

Survey: Exactly one state has a majority that can pass the U.S. citizenship test
That one state? Vermont. The same state that sent an avowed socialist to the U.S. Senate.

Only women, transgenders are allowed in GW debate tournament
The George Washington University Parliamentary Debate Society will host an April tournament open only to women and transgender individuals.

Girls avoid unisex bathrooms at school due to “period shaming,” harassment from boys
Who could have seen this coming?

John McAfee Has A Plan To Run For President
John McAfee is a businessman, cybersecurity innovator, exile, and potentially the Libertarian Party nominee for 2020. McAfee joins the Federalist Radio Hour from Central American to discuss cybersecurity, big government, socialism, and his conflict with the authorities in Belize.

California lawmaker tries again to lower voting age
A state lawmaker from the Silicon Valley has reintroduced a constitutional amendment that would lower the California voting age to 17, betting that a larger Democratic majority in the Legislature this year will help his proposal reach the ballot.

Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Gail Heriot in the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Report on Public Education Inequity in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation
In January of 2018, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report entitled Public Education Inequity in an Era of Increasing concentration of Poverty and Resegregation. This Statement was part of that report. It critiques the report on the ground that, contrary to the what the report attempts to establish, the evidence shows that, while pockets of underfunding exist, on average, school districts that serve large numbers of minority or low-income students get somewhat more money than average. That shouldn’t end the matter though. As Commissioner Heriot’s dissent states, the biggest problem is that schools serving low-income students arguable need more money. She asks, “Is there some reason the Commission can’t be more clear and upfront about that?”

Bernie Sanders: Well Actually, Breadlines Aren’t Quite So Bad
This morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced that he intends to run for president in 2020

Texas couple arrested after body of daughter, 3, found in acid-filled container, police say
A Texas couple was arrested and charged after their 3-year-old daughter’s body was found in a container of acid stashed inside a bedroom closet, police said.

Colleges are now dominated by women, creating an “education gap” afflicting men
“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction,” said famed women’s suffragist Alice Paul five years before her death in 1977. “Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.”

Syracuse U: U.S. Constitution is ‘exclusionary’ to some students
Syracuse University has refused to grant a Young Americans for Freedom group status as a Registered Student Organization (RSO).

NYT: Republican 2020 message is “if you’re a Democrat, you’re either a socialist, a baby killer or an anti-Semite”
Maybe Democrats should stop embracing policies and people who promote socialism, late-term abortion and anti-Semitism.

The Middle Class Is Shrinking Everywhere – In Chicago It’s Almost Gone
Chicago’s middle class, once the backbone of the city, is declining so swiftly that it’s almost gone, and a set of maps from a local university lays that reality bare.

Kamala Harris’ Dad Blasts Her for Jamaican Pot Joke
Senator Kamala Harris tried to pander to pro-crime voters by papering over her record on drug legalization with a Jamaican pot joke. Harris was raised in Canada by her Brahmin Indian mother. Her Jamaican father and her mother divorced when Kamala was young.

Supreme Court strikes blow against states that raise revenue by hefty fines, forfeitures
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that state governments cannot impose excessive court fees, fines and forfeitures as a means of raising money.

Judges’ Ruling Finds City’s Ban on Topless Women Discriminatory
It’s the sort of court case that belongs on The Onion.

Calif. college calls the POLICE…over a cartoon frog
Folsom Lake College reported a poster of a cartoon frog to the local police department.

More Black Virginians Want Officials to Stay Rather Than Resign, Poll Finds
Large numbers give no opinion on fate of Northam and Fairfax over scandals

Footage shows Tucker Carlson telling ‘tiny brain’ historian ‘to go f— yourself’
The news organization, NowThis, on Wednesday released unaired footage of Fox News host Tucker Carlson telling Dutch historian Rutger Bregman to go “f— yourself.”

CA Democrats Author Bill to Protect Sex Offenders Who Lure Minors
No crime if the person is within 10 years of age of the minor

Virginia Democrat Who Came Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Comments Wins Special Election
A Virginia Democrat with a history of anti-Israel activism and anti-Semitic comments was sworn in as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates Wednesday.

Can Michigan State’s student government remove a conservative member because of his email signature?
“This was a new one” for FIRE

10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2019
Every January, FIRE staffers convene to compile our list of the previous year’s worst colleges for free speech. Reviewing the lowlights of the year reminds each of us that campus censors can be pretty creative. Just when you think you’ve seen everything – and over FIRE’s 20-year history, we’ve seen a lot – some enterprising college trots out a new way to clamp down on unwanted, unpopular, or simply dissenting speech.

Democrats: Russians Are Meddling Again!
It worked so well in 2016, apparently, that Democrats are already lining up their excuses for next year’s presidential race. Politico reports breathlessly that a “‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates.”

Data Shows Democrats’ Increasingly Rabid Leftism Is Driven By White People
Progressives of pallor get quite a bit out of not only promoting radicals of color, but also attacking their critics as racist.

Vermont House Passes Bill Legalizing All Abortion
The Vermont House voted this evening to pass H57, which would legalize abortion at any stage of pregnancy and for any reason. “Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or to have an abortion,” the bill states.

How Amy Klobuchar Treats Her Staff
Senator Amy Klobuchar was hungry, forkless and losing patience.

Republican delegate plans committee hearing where Fairfax accusers can testify
A Republican lawmaker said Friday that he plans to hold a committee hearing to allow two women who have made sexual assault allegations against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax to appear before a General Assembly panel and tell their stories.

Two Major Airlines Admit to Undisclosed Cameras in Aircraft Entertainment Systems
There’s nothing like having your privacy compromised at 35,000 feet.

Navy files for patent on room-temperature superconductor
A scientist working for the U.S. Navy has filed for a patent on a room-temperature superconductor, representing a potential paradigm shift in energy transmission and computer systems.

Court blasts university that expelled student after his ex doctored evidence
Determining a student’s future based on “wildly incomplete factual records”

Laredo Mayor Names Pelosi ‘Honorary President of the Republic of the Rio Grande’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a visit to Laredo, Texas, today that the lower chamber will quickly move a resolution of disapproval against President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to secure additional border wall funds.

Earth’s Atmosphere ‘Far Larger’ than Scientists Had Believed
Whoops!

Bionic Hands Let Amputees Feel and Grip
Prosthetic hands give users sensory feedback so they can feel and grip objects accurately

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Can the government force companies to rehire employees after minimum wage hike layoffs?
This is a topic we’ve covered at length here previously, but in New York State the story is taking an odd twist. The subject is the Fight for 15 and the successful efforts of Democrats to jack up the minimum wage faster than market forces would normally have allowed. It seems to have come as a great shock to almost nobody that this resulted in layoffs, particularly among lower-skill, entry-level workers in the fast food industry.

Nevada: Democrats want new taxes without a two-thirds vote
Some Nevada Democrats aren’t satisfied with having a Democratic governor and large legislative majorities. They also want to ignore the state constitution to make it easier to raise taxes.

 

International

 

Germany warns it will stop extradition of its citizens to UK after Brexit: FT
Berlin will stop extraditing Germans to Britain immediately after Brexit even if it leaves the European Union with a deal, the Financial Times reported on.ft.com/2DPMBED on Sunday, citing a formal notification submitted by Germany to the European Commission last week.

Maduro regime rejects aid, claims it’s sending food to Colombia
Venezuela will send food to feed hungry Colombian children, communications minister Jorge Rodriguez claimed Monday — citing statistics about poverty in neighboring Colombia — even as citizens in his country struggle with food shortages at home.

As Venezuelans starve, Maduro to host massive concert
Events in Venezuela are taking a turn this week from the ugly and brutal to the downright bizarre. We recently learned that billionaire Richard Branson was planning a concert on the Venezuelan border in Colombia, hoping to raise both money and awareness in an effort to help the starving people of Venezuela. How much good that will do until Nicolas Maduro agrees to let foreign aid come over the border is unknown, but let’s give him credit for trying.

Seven MPs quit Labour Party over anti-Semitism
Yesterday, seven members of Parliament left Britian’s Labour Party. They will remain in Parliament as an independent bloc. The Washington Post has the details.

Back in Africa: Portugease Edition
It is time to return again to our discussion of Africa.

Meghan Markle Backs Campaign to “Decolonize” UK Curriculum from “Male, Pale, and Stale” Professors
Campaign to target “legacies” of empire and racism on UK Campuses.

Aid is piling up on Venezuela’s border. Here’s why it’s not getting in
“On February 23, humanitarian aid will enter Venezuela one way or another,” the country’s self-declared president Juan Guaido declared earlier this month. But not so fast — President Nicolas Maduro, who won reelection in a widely-criticized vote last year, has promised to block the supplies, and organizations including the Red Cross and United Nations have refused to help.

Crews to abandon two Venezuelan tankers stuck in Portugal
The crew of Venezuelan oil tanker, the Rio Arauca, that has been stuck in the middle of the river Tagus in Lisbon for nearly two years due to unpaid debt, is set to be dismissed, managers Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) said on Thursday.

10 Scary Facts Indicating South Africa Is Becoming The Next Venezuela
South Africa has squandered its opportunities and is on the path to becoming a failed state. Government profiteering, race tensions, and shortages are ruining the country.

Too white to be a copper? Graduate, 25, who wanted to follow in his detective father’s footsteps was turned down by the police because he isn’t disabled, gay or black
Acting chief constable Janette McCormick wanted ‘positive action and diversity’

 

Opinion

 

Carlson’s complaint revisited
Steve Hayward’s post about an upcoming event with Tucker Carlson, which Steve will moderate, refocused my attention on Carlson’s controversial monologue in early January. I wrote about it here .

Trump Courts Streisand Effect in Legal Action Against ‘Team of Vipers’ Author Cliff Sims
Pop quiz: who said this about U.S. President Donald J. Trump?

Poetic Injustice and Performative Outrage
On February 13, after almost a two month delay due to the U.S. government shutdown, the National Endowment for the Arts finally announced its recipients for the 2019 Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry. For most of the winners, this was an occasion to celebrate on social media. But for Rachel Custer, the elation of finally being able to announce the prestigious grant (one of 35 out of nearly 1700 applicants) came with the dreadful anticipation of the outrage that would (and did) predictably follow. This was nothing new for her.

Merciless Sympathy
Join the mob and support the “victim.” Or the mob will come for you.

Preparing Their Excuses in Advance
It’s only February 2019, and feminists are already playing the gender card in the Democrat primary race

Basques, Babies, and More
In Part II of my “Elko Journal,” I talk a bit about the Basques. So, on my first morning in town, I’m walking down the main drag of Elko and see a Basque restaurant. My first thought is, :What the …?” My second is, “Oh, right: Nevada. Paul Laxalt.”

Supreme Court Rules that Excessive Fines Clause Applies to States and Constrains Civil Asset Forfeiture
The decision in Timbs v. Indiana is a significant step forward for property rights and civil liberties, though a key issue remains to be resolved by lower courts.

Bill would make secret the names of former Nevada public employees receiving taxpayer-funded pensions
Julia Ratti, a Democrat, represents District 13 in the Nevada Senate. She formerly served on the Sparks City Council. Ms. Ratti is in her first term, having won a special election to fill the seat after the death last year of incumbent Debbie Smith. District 13 is heavily Democratic.

To Leftists Dragging John Wayne’s Dead Body Through the Streets: Now Do Che Guevara
Apparently, the SJW perpetual-outrage mob has run out of living people to clench their fists and stomp their feet over because their latest target is John Wayne. In case you missed it, someone resurrected a 1971 Playboy interview with The Duke. In it, he said racist and homophobic things. I’m assuming that someone somewhere is attempting to unlock the secret of resurrecting people from the dead so that John Wayne can be brought back to life and then executed by the SJW mob. Fine. Whatever. That being said, when they finish kicking around Wayne’s rotting corpse (assuming they can’t figure out how to bring him back to life), I want them to do Che Guevara next.

Dutch historian exposes Tucker Carlson’s fraud
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” is a binary production. Here’s how it breaks down: The host, Tucker Carlson, either welcomes a guest with whom he agrees, in which case the segment is a facile lovefest, or he welcomes a guest with whom he disagrees, in which case the segment is a gutter-scraping slugfest.

The Pedophile Project: Your 7-Year-Old Is Next On The Sexual Revolution’s Hit Parade
We cannot dismiss the campaign to legalize pedophilia as fringy stuff that will get nowhere. It’s real and it’s here and it’s gaining strength.

How The Left Tricks People Into Thinking Socialism Is Plausible
If you want to effect radical change that politicians will vote for, don’t try to convince the politicians directly, but shift what is considered socially acceptable by legitimizing insane ideas.

Remembering the indispensable man
Today we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Of all the great men of the revolutionary era to whom we owe our freedom, Washington’s greatness was the rarest and the most needed. At this remove in time, it is also the hardest to comprehend.

A Failure of Pedagogy Irwin Stelzer
From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Donald J. Trump, our political class is profoundly ignorant of basic economics.

Life Among The Wokescolds
A reader who is a college professor (and whose name I know) writes

Reparations Time? Kamala Harris’ Father Says Family Descended from a Jamaican Slave Owner
Sen Kamala Harris (D-Calif) is on the record as backing “some form of reparations” for slavery. In a recent interview, Harris agreed with the host’s suggestion that government reparations for black Americans were necessary to address past discrimination. The 2020 presidential hopeful later “affirmed that support” in a statement to The New York Times.

Help or hurt her? Amy Klobuchar ate salad with her hair comb and made staff clean it
Is it a “Stick a comb in her, she’s done” moment, or a Trumpian “You’re fired” appealing tough-gal narrative?