Monday, September 30, 2019

The left is consumed with nullifying the Constitution. The Founders knew there would be lazy people like her

Virginia Police Chief Advocates Ban on All Guns at U.S. House “Assault Weapons” Hearing

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019
Virginia Police Chief Advocates Ban on All Guns at U.S. House “Assault Weapons” Hearing






On Sept. 25, the Democrat-led U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a 3 ½ hour “hearing” entitled “Protecting America From Assault Weapons.” That framing of the issue underscored the erroneous notion that Americans need protection from inanimate objects, rather than from violent criminals who have and always will use any means at their disposal to harm innocent, defenseless people. It also revealed the unfortunate agenda of the proceedings, which was to emphasize politics and finger-pointing over any useful exploration of how Congress might take meaningful steps to improve public safety.
The most startling claim of the proceedings came when Dr. RaShall Brackney, Chief of the Charlottesville Police Department in Virginia responded to a question from Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) about whether she would support a ban on hunting rifles. “I believe any weapon that can be used to hunt individuals should be banned,” Brackney replied.
This admission seemed to indicate that Brackney would be open to the banning of any firearm – or even any weapon – whatsoever, since a criminal bent on “hunt[ing] individuals” could use virtually any firearm for that purpose.
Dr. Brackney was given two opportunities by pro-gun committee members to walk back or provide more context for that statement. Instead, she dug in and reiterated the statement.  
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) even asked her directly, “Okay, so you then stand for the proposition to ban any type of firearm, because any firearm can be used and misused to kill people.”
Rather than answering the question directly, Dr. Brackney began talking about police and the social contract. Rep. Steube tried asking again, only to be interrupted by an anti-gun committee member who tried to raise a point of order. She claimed that Rep. Steube was “attacking” the witness – when in fact he was merely trying to get a straight answer – and requested that he “tone down his words.” That exchange took up most of Steube’s remaining time for questioning, which was not reinstated.
Again, however, Rep. Steube tried, to clarify, asking, “Any type of weapon … that can be used to kill people should be banned?” “Sir,” Brackney replied, “you’re adding the word ‘type.’ I said ‘any weapons,’ so that’s my answer. Thank you.”
The entire exchange can be seen at this link.   
Notably, none of the committee members or witnesses in favor of the ban attempted to distance themselves from Brackney’s push for a complete gun ban.
Unfortunately, Dr. Brackney’s statements may have been one of the only honest claims of the entire hearing by those arguing in favor of the ban.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a Harvard Law School graduate, told a breathtaking whopper about the U.S. Supreme Court’s pivotal Second Amendment decision, District of Columbia v. Heller. He claimed the decision says, “the Second Amendment gives you a right to a handgun for purposes of self-defense and a rifle for purposes of hunting or recreation, but nowhere does it give you a right to weapons of war … .”
The essence of the Heller decision is that Americans have a right to possess the sorts of bearable arms “in common use for lawful purposes,” particularly self-defense, and that handguns qualify because they are overwhelmingly chosen by responsible, law-abiding persons for that purpose. Notably, the decision does not purport to overturn the 1939 Supreme Court case of U.S. v. Miller, which held that the Second Amendment protection extends to arms that are “part of the ordinary military equipment” or the use of which “could contribute to the common defense.” It also notes that while Americans of the founding era might have owned firearms primarily for self-defense and hunting, the founders themselves wanted to ensure the Second Amendment provided an effective check against disarming the people, which in turn was necessary to “be able to resist tyranny.”
Nowhere does either decision suggest that rifles are only protected to the extent they are used for hunting or recreation. Indeed, Heller makes clear that self-defense is the “core lawful purpose” with which the Second Amendment is concerned.
Another theme pushed again and again was that “assault weapons” like the AR-15 are “battlefield weapons” that have no place on “America’s streets.”
Fortunately, as witness Amy Swearer testified, the overwhelmingly majority of the 16 million or so AR and AK pattern rifles in America are not “on the streets” but in the homes of law-abiding owners who never have and never will use them for anything other than lawful purposes. Violent criminals have not embraced semi-automatic rifles as their “weapons of choice.”
Rifles of all types, of which the guns that would be categorized as “assault weapons” are only a subset, are used in only 2% of homicides. In 2018, more than five times as many people were killed with knives than were killed with all rifles. The same year, more than twice as many people were killed with personal weapons like hands, fists, or feet.
When all was said and done, gun owners had no reassurance that there was any limiting principle to the anti-gun committee members’ prohibitive intentions or that they were willing to learn anything that would influence their decision-making. Indeed, one could imagine that long after semi-automatic rifles were banned, the exact same hearing could be held on the next class of firearm law-abiding gun owners would be forced to surrender because the guns were used in crimes they did not commit.

AOC exposes socialism. NYC government sold the medallions. The market decides their value.


'This is manufactured financial indentured servitude'


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for a bailout of New York City cab drivers to alleviate the debt they have accumulated due to artificially inflated medallion costs, according to The Daily Wire.
"These taxi drivers need a bailout because this is not just about predatory collection practices ... this is manufactured financial indentured servitude and it is wrong," Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday during a congressional hearing. "We need to bail out these drivers, and I would like to invite my colleagues here on the federal level and our partners on the city level to make sure they get the job done."

What is she talking about?


New York City taxi drivers must purchase medallions in order to legally operate a cab. The city, in order to make sure there aren't too many cabs on the street, limits the number of medallions it will issue.
As a result, the cost of the medallions has increased dramatically, peaking at $1.3 million in 2013 — then the bubble burst, dropping the price to $250,000 or less. But, many drivers had already taken out huge loans when the price was seven-figures, some with high fees or interest-only payments, and many of those have since filed for bankruptcy.


Life or death?

Ocasio-Cortez called the need for a government bailout a "matter of life or death," pointing to a recent suicide by a driver who said before his death that competition with ride-sharing services forced him to work 100 hours per week.
"Regulatory agencies knew, the city knew, and these suicides are not just an indirect side effect, they are a direct consequence of the neglect of a vulnerable community in New York City," Ocasio-Cortez said.

How much would this cost?

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has opposed a bailout, saying that it could cost NYC taxpayers up to $13 billion.
City Hall officials over the summer announced that it would not collect $1,100 medallion renewal fees from drivers, collectively saving drivers $10 million — helpful to some, but not enough in the eyes of Ocasio-Cortez and others.
"This, I think, is a matter of financial malpractice and predatory behavior that I think in many ways should be a national scandal. It is literally killing people," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Migrants in Greece set fires at camp; at least 1 killed

By DEMETRIS NELLAS and COSTAS KANTOURISyesterday
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Migrants and refugees stand next to burning house containers at the Moria refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019. Migrants protesting at an overcrowded camp on the Greek island of Lesbos set fires and clashed with police Sunday, authorities said. Police and local authorities said there were unconfirmed reports of two fatalities at the Moria camp. (InTime News via AP)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Migrants protesting at an overcrowded camp on the Greek island of Lesbos set fires and clashed with police Sunday, killing at least one person, authorities said.
A burned body was brought to a local hospital and there is information about an unconfirmed second death, police said. The protesters were demanding to be transferred to the Greek mainland.
“The situation is tense,” Lesbos mayor Stratis Kytelis told The Associated Press earlier. “There is information about a dead mother and her child. We haven’t been able to confirm that yet.”
UNHCR Greece later tweeted that “we learned with deep sadness that the lives of a woman and a child were lost in a fire on (Lesbos) today.”
Greek police spokesman Lt. Col. Theodoros Chronopoulos told the AP that the migrants set a blaze at an olive grove outside the camp just before 5 p.m. (1400 GMT; 9 a.m. EDT) and, minutes later, inside the camp. Kytelis said that both fires were later extinguished.
Police said Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Lefteris Oikonomou, a former chief of the Greek police, was going to Lesbos.
About 12,000 migrants, most of them Afghans, are housed in a space designed for 3,000.
Separately, Greek police said a speeding car carrying 12 Afghan migrants ran through a red light and crashed into a vehicle coming from a side street, killing its driver, a 64-year-old Greek man.
Police said one migrant was seriously injured and three others were slightly injured in the crash Sunday morning on a road between Kavala and Thessaloniki in northern Greece. Some of the migrants were found in the sedan’s trunk.
The driver of the car with the migrants has been arrested. Police said he is a 25-year-old Moldovan trafficker who was taking migrants toward Thessaloniki, 22 kilometers (14 miles) to the west.
When asked by the AP whether the trafficker’s car was being pursued, a police spokesman said that wasn’t the case. But other police officials said the car might have been monitored by authorities in an unmarked vehicle. All spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
___
Costas Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki.

Top Iran general says destroying Israel 'achievable goal'

Top Iran general says destroying Israel 'achievable goal'


Tehran (AFP)
The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that destroying arch-rival Israel was an "achievable goal".
"This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer ... a dream (but) it is an achievable goal," Major General Hossein Salami said, quoted by the Guards' Sepah news site.
Four decades on from Iran's Islamic revolution, "we have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the imposter Zionist regime", he said.
Salami's comments, while not unusual for Iranian officials, come amid particularly heightened international tensions over Iran's nuclear programme and a series of incidents that have raised fears of a confrontation between Tehran and its other main regional rival, Riyadh.
The United States, which withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018, has imposed a campaign of "maximum pressure" -- with vocal support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Salami's comments were given prominent coverage by the Tasnim and Fars news agencies, close to ultra-conservative political factions.
The official IRNA agency also carried his remarks, but placed more emphasis on his assertion that Iran was growing stronger and would finally beat its foes despite "hostility" towards it.
Iran has been consistently hostile towards Israel since its 1979 revolution, and Tehran openly supports anti-Israeli armed groups including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
In June 2018, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed Tehran's long-held position that Israel is "a malignant cancerous tumor that must be removed and eradicated".
Iranian generals routinely express the desire to destroy Israel or claim to be able to wipe out Tel Aviv.
However, official discourse in recent years has generally taken care to clarify that the Jewish state will cease to exist because of its own "arrogance", not because of an attack by Iran.

"You have to go back to the 1930s before you find another storm like this, So not unprecedented

Record snow, cold, slams northern U.S. Rockies with winter-like weather

by Reuters
Monday, 30 September 2019 08:55 GMT

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Midwinter-like weather clobbered the northern Rockies Sunday and into Monday, making early Autumn feel like deep winter, while as much as 4 feet (121 cm) of snow fell in places and hard-hit Montana declared a state of emergency to clear blocked roads.
"You have to go back to the 1930s before you find another storm like this, this early in the season," said Josh Weiss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's (NWS) Weather Prediction Center.
"A pretty good swath of the northwest got 2-3 feet (60-91 cm) of snow," Weiss said. "It's a pretty good storm."
About 19 inches of snow fell in northwestern Washington state, and light snow also fell in areas of California, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho, forecasters said.
Another 1-2 inches (2.5 - 5 cm) of snow was expected by mid-Monday in spots, with winter storm warnings in effect for western Montana and the mountains of northern Washington and northern Idaho.
Montana Governor Steve Bullock called an emergency on Sunday after 40 inches (101 cm) of snow fell in towns like Browning, forcing highway closures and a string of road accidents.
Temperatures dropped to record lows in the 20s F (-6.6 C) or below on Sunday night across western Montana and north-central Idaho, according to the NWS.
"With an unprecedented winter storm throwing our state a surprise in September, state and local governments are working closely together to protect the health and safety of Montanans," Bullock said.
Strong winds blowing snow were expected to disrupt travel early Monday.
"The good news is that the storm is winding down," Weiss said. "But it's going to linger this morning." (Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by William Maclean)
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Sunday, September 29, 2019

The insanity of politically oriented education...it always devotes into fascism.

Is California’s ethnic studies plan too politically correct even for California?

“SOMETIMES PEOPLE WANT TO APPROACH ETHNIC STUDIES AS JUST A SUPERFICIAL DIVERSITY CLASS AND THAT’S IT. ETHNIC STUDIES IS AN ACADEMIC FIELD OF OVER 50 YEARS THAT HAS ITS OWN FRAMEWORKS.”

Where did the government get the money to pay for these toys if the country is destitute...illegal use of welfare

Luxury cars seized from vice president Teodorin Obiang Nguema are expected to fetch $18m at Geneva auction

A Lamborghini Veneno Roadster at an auction preview in Cheserex near Geneva.
 A Lamborghini Veneno Roadster at an auction preview in Cheserex near Geneva. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
A collection of luxury cars seized from Equatorial Guinea’s vice president, Teodorin Obiang Nguema, will be auctioned off in Switzerland and are estimated to bring in 18.5m Swiss francs ($18.7m).
“This is an exceptional sale,” Philip Kantor, of British auctioneers Bonhams, told AFP. “It’s a private collection of supercars, with very low mileage.”
Among the cars to go under the hammer at a Geneva golf club on Sunday are seven Ferraris, three Lamborghinis, five Bentleys, a Maserati and a McLaren.
The most expensive lots are a Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, valued at between 4.8m and 5.7m euros ($5.2-6.2m) and a yellow Ferrari hybrid at 2.4-2.6m euros.

The mysterious agent Mifsud...

Attorney General Bill Barr Visits Italy on “Official Business”? – Remember That Audio-Tape Deposition by Joseph Mifsud?…




According to an interview on August 18th, John Solomon reported the lawyer for Joseph Mifsud admitted his client was a western intelligence asset who was part of a CIA intelligence “operation” against candidate Donald Trump in March 2016.