News of the Week for Jan. 5^ht, 2020

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

Gun Rights

Chinese State-Run Media Thinks U.S. Gun Ownership “Out Of Control”
While it would be easy to believe that this past weekend’s events in Texas completely decimated the anti-gun side, that’s simply not the case. Anti-gunners are still trying to make the case that the White Settlement shooting somehow proves that we need more gun control, despite the fact that these are the same people who decried the very law that allowed armed citizens to react so quickly.

Virginia governor’s call for 18-person gun ban force comes under fire
Virginia’s pop-up gun sanctuary movement has turned its attention to fighting the governor’s call for a $4.8 million, 18-officer team to enforce his proposed “assault weapons” ban.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

Are You Ready For Environmental Reparations To Fund The Green New Deal?
The leftists participating in the weekly Fire Drill Fridays want to eliminate the fossil fuel industry and take all the money from the energy industry companies. They tout wealth redistribution from fossil fuel companies as the piggy bank to fund the Green New Deal. In other words, take the profits of capitalism and give the money to a socialist takeover of the energy sector. Sound good?

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

Elizabeth Warren Doesn’t Want To Talk About Medicare For All Anymore
Elizabeth Warren’s campaign appears to be struggling. Her polling numbers are down, her fundraising is expected to be lower than last quarter, and she seems to be doing her best to veer back toward the center after months spent pushing a hard-left agenda. In particular, the NY Times notes that Warren has quietly backed away from a focus on her big-ticket policy: Medicare for All.

War & Terror

Wars Update: Empires Versus The Rest Of Us
This is our annual (formerly twice-a-year) summary of current war zones and an overview of where it is all heading. Doing this once a year rather than twice is a reflection of the decline in the number and severity of wars since the 1990s. After the overview, there is the alphabetical list of the war zones and a quick summary of how the local mayhem has been proceeding. Since we have been covering this sort of thing for twenty years now there are some war zones that have gone quiet. We left most of those in summary, with a note that those wars had gone dormant, and maybe extinct. History shows that dormant is more common than extinct. Forever (at least multi-century) wars are an ancient tradition.

Countering EMP threat now in law
The latest defense authorization bill signed into law by President Trump on Dec. 20 contains new measures requiring the federal government to protect the nation from the danger of nuclear-blast-produced electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks and similar solar-produced electronic disruptions.

Iraqi Parliament Votes To End U.S. Troop Presence After Soleimani Killing. Sort Of. Not Really.
Imagine trying to punish Donald Trump by making it easier for him to withdraw American troops from a Middle Eastern country.

Note To Iran: Want to Start World War III? Sink a U.S. Navy Carrier
Tehran: Don’t do it.

National

Oxford Historian On The 1619 Project: “A Preposterous And One-Dimensional Reading: Of American History
The World Socialist Website published another interview with a historian who takes issue with the NY Times’ 1619 Project. Oxford historian Richard Carwardine is the author of a book on Lincoln and an expert on the Civil War. Like the other historians the WSWS has interviewed, Carwardine found the 1619 Project troubling and ultimately “wrong” in some ways

Prof threatens to dock students grade for not using ‘gender inclusive’ language
The student says the professor threatened to deduct points from his grade if he continued to use terms like “mankind.”

California Legalizes Domestic Partnerships for Straight Couples
We were told during the same-sex marriage debate that allowing gay couples to marry would strengthen the institution. But that isn’t happening. Things are going the other way.

Gamechanger: Quds Force Supreme Commander Qassem Soleimani Reported Dead In U.S. Airstrike In Iraq
The president often exaggerates his threats. But not always. From New Year’s Eve.

Hustler Magazine sends graphic Christmas card to lawmakers depicting Trump’s assassination
Hustler Magazine is under fire of a graphic Christmas card that was sent to several lawmakers featuring a depiction of President Trump’s assassination.

Iranian Analytics
For all the current furor over the death of Qasem Soleimani, it is Iran, not the U.S. and the Trump administration, that is in a dilemma. Given the death and destruction wrought by Soleimani, and his agendas to come, he will not be missed.

Iran Is Not Iraq
We have no clue how Iran will react to the elimination of its terror chief Qasem Soleimani. Religious fanatics tend to be unpredictable. One thing we can be certain of, however, is that every time the United States acts in its self-interest in the Middle East, a bunch of pundits and policy experts will start spouting lazy tropes about the Iraq War.

One Month Before Iowa Caucus, State University Bans Students From Emailing About Politics
With just one month left before the Iowa Caucus, Iowa State University is stifling students’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting them from using email to communicate about campaigns and ballot issues. Students are also limited from “chalking,” a tradition of drawing both political and apolitical messages on the sidewalk with chalk.

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Jail food, a rough ride, and shopping while black.

Economy & Taxes

Mountain View’s employee head tax goes into effect, Google to pay $3.3 million a year
The city is set to rake in about $6 million a year from the tax.

International

LGBTQ activist transforming schools admits: “We’re training school teachers to completely smash heteronormativity”
Elly Barnes, founder of Educate and Celebrate, describes her organisation as a “charity” that “transforms schools” into LGBTQ-friendly places.

Chinese zookeeper killed by sexually aroused elephant
A male elephant, previously known for his “gentle temperament”, has stomped a zookeeper to death during a terrifying incident witnessed by shocked tourists.

California’s New “Gig Economy” Law Is Dumb. But Is It Unconstitutional?
It’s 2020, and that means California’s new “gig economy” law is in effect.

Hong Kong: Police abuses nullified by Beijing’s “alternative” declaration of human rights
HONG KONG’S Beijing backed government has rejected allegations by British religious leaders that human rights abuses have occurred throughout the ongoing pro-democracy demonstrations, and this denial comes as China releases its own “alternative” declaration of human rights.

In socialist Cuba, violence against women still largely unacknowledged
Women in Cuba continue to wait for the “justice” and “equality” the communist Castro dictatorship lectures the rest of the world about.

Ethical Veganism Is Now a Protected Belief in the U.K.
Yesterday, I noted a potential test case in British employment law. Jordi Casamitjana brought his former employers, the League Against Cruel Sports, to court because — he argued — he was fired for his vegan beliefs. His employer claims it was gross misconduct: Casamitjana allegedly violated company policy by revealing to other workers that they had invested in companies involved in animal testing.

Opinion

I’ve had professors who educate, and ones who indoctrinate. Here’s what I learned from both types.
OPINION: I’m prepared for the real world

What the Founders Actually Thought About Slavery
One of the ironies of the current American “elite” is that, rather than actually being elite, they have the smug self-assurance of knowing much that isn’t so.

Transgender Clinics Are Ruining Young Lives
Gender clinics blithely guide 18-year-olds through the radical steps of gender transition, but abandon them later when they regret it.

The ‘Transgender’ Endgame
While listening to the Rush Limbaugh show this past Monday, I heard guest host Todd Herman interview an Australian pediatrician and professor on the issue of gender dysphoria and children. Near the end of the enlightening interview, in which the good doctor detailed the “serious and irreversible damage” done to gender-dysphoric children given radical surgeries and hormones demanded by the perverse LGBT agenda, Mr. Herman asked the important question: “Why?”

When the Author of the Constitution Denounced the Curse of Slavery
We need to rediscover America. America isn’t the largest country in the world. We don’t have the most people or the most homogeneous culture. So why have there been more American Nobel Prize winners than from any other country? Why do Americans consistently lead in medical innovation? Why is our entertainment culture so dominant worldwide? Why did we get to the Moon first, and why did we build the Hubble and the other Great Observatories?

Wokesplaining’ Exposes the ‘Social Justice’ Tendency to Totalitarianism
Facts that are inconvenient to the “woke” social justice narrative have to be explained away. The narrative is that we live in a class society in which whites, males, heterosexuals, Christians and Jews, and the rich all oppress people of color, females, LGBTQ++, Muslims, and the poor. The facts are, well, more diverse.

Illinois Lost More Residents in the 2010s Than Any Other State
Will Illinois change its ways? Don’t answer. It’s a rhetorical question.

California may lose congressional district in wake of 2020 census count
Nine other states are posed to lose districts, and seven others will likely gain congressional seats.

State should not play favorites with tax breaks
Nevada’s Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) has doled out billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to select companies over the past decade in order to entice them to make capital investments and create jobs, yet the state is one of 17 that has failed to create a systematic program for evaluating the effectiveness of those handouts, according to a recent article in Las Vegas Weekly, citing data compiled by Pew Charitable Trusts.