Read All About It!

 This is all over MeWe and Gab already, but on the of chance you haven't sen it, Time Magazine just published what amounts to a SuperVillain Monologue that details how the presidential election of 2020 was rigged. 

Oh, wait. How the Presidential Election of 2020 was fortified to ensure that Democracy was saved! 

The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election

Interestingly, that's the way the title on the web page reads, but the tab calls it "The Secret Bipartisan Campaign..."

There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain–inspired by the summer’s massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests–in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.

The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions as they came under simultaneous attack from a remorseless pandemic and an autocratically inclined President. Though much of this activity took place on the left, it was separate from the Biden campaign and crossed ideological lines, with crucial contributions by nonpartisan and conservative actors. The scenario the shadow campaigners were desperate to stop was not a Trump victory. It was an election so calamitous that no result could be discerned at all, a failure of the central act of democratic self-governance that has been a hallmark of America since its founding.

Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears. They executed national public-awareness campaigns that helped Americans understand how the vote count would unfold over days or weeks, preventing Trump’s conspiracy theories and false claims of victory from getting more traction. After Election Day, they monitored every pressure point to ensure that Trump could not overturn the result. “The untold story of the election is the thousands of people of both parties who accomplished the triumph of American democracy at its very foundation,” says Norm Eisen, a prominent lawyer and former Obama Administration official who recruited Republicans and Democrats to the board of the Voter Protection Program.

But's was okay, because Trump did it first by saying mail-in ballots were insecure. 

News of the Obscure

 Just deleted my Twitter account.

Stopped using Facebook long ago, and the only reason I don't ditch Blogger is that I'm not quite ready to completely give up the blog, but the alternatives I know of all are all for pay. I see no reason to shell out $$$ for a non-monetized blog as, well, obscure as this one. (Or even ¢¢¢.)

Unfortunately, if you want a smart phone these days, you options are to get involved with one of two evil Commifornia Big Tech outfits. 

Somebody -- Kevin Baker at Gun Blogger Rendezvous, maybe -- had a t-shirt that was lamenting to the effect of having been a science fiction fan all his life, and getting the dark dystopian future of his teen aged years.

Heinlein's Crazy Years aren't even fully launched yet, and I'm already tired of them.

"Hygienic Fascism"

Hygienic fascism: Turning the world into a 'safe space' — but at what cost? | TheHill

Author Aldous Huxley once said, “A thoroughly scientific dictatorship will never be overthrown.”

Even as we try to battle the COVID-19 pestilence, we may be contracting a more dangerous virus — hygienic fascism. This involves a process when our political leaders defer to a handful of “experts,” amid what Dr. Joseph Ladopo, an associate professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, describes as an atmosphere of “COVID-19-induced terror.”

Ideologically, hygienic fascism is neither right nor left, nor is it simply a matter of taking necessary precautions. It is about imposing, over a long period of time, highly draconian regulations based on certain assumptions about public health. In large part, it regards science not so much as a search for knowledge but as revealed “truth” with definitive “answers.” Anyone opposed to the conventional stratagem, including recognized professionals, are largely banished as mindless Trumpistas, ignoramuses, or worse.

I must confess, I was surprised, most of the articles I've seen at The Hill.com tend to be more on the Big Government/Social Justice Snowflakery end of the spectrum than in Rugged Individualism's neighborhood, although it is very true that I don't go there enough to be able to say that my impression of their material is conclusive.

But there they are running this article, too: Facial recognition: The other reason we may need a face mask | TheHill

Don’t get out of the hard-learned habit of covering your face, even if you live in a place that will soon no longer require it. Long after the pandemic recedes, we may still need our N-95 respirators, surgical masks and DIY bandana coverings. Marking the triumph over COVID-19, when it finally happens, should not include a bonfire of masks. This symbol of the coronavirus fight may prove just as crucial against a different foe altogether.

Also spreading fast, but largely outside of global health debates and meaningful scrutiny, is facial recognition. We’ve had Apple’s handy Face ID since 2017, of course, with its 30,000 invisible facial dots that coalesce into a phone-unlocking faceprint, but potentially more perturbing applications are already here or around the corner. Face-Six wants to reduce medical errors and fraud by promising to help hospitals “identify patients whenever necessary, conscious or unconscious.” ISM Connect has scanned crowds at Taylor Swift’s concerts to weed out stalkers and generate tour promotion metrics. Clearview AI has been used by over 600 law enforcement agencies to solve cases from shoplifting to murder. So private it listed a fake Manhattan address as its business location, Clearview AI sold a product that allows users to take a picture of someone they are curious about and obtain links to public photos and sites pertaining to this person.

The power that such apps must bestow is suggested in another purveyor’s name, iOmniscient. Its site boasts of clients in 60 countries and over 30 industries, including retail, where it measures customers’ footpaths, visit frequency and dwell time. iOmniscient “excels in uncontrolled environments with non-cooperative individuals,” which would explain its suspected use during Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests. In response to the potential surveillance, demonstrators toppled smart lampposts believed to house the technology, destroyed CCTV cameras, hid themselves under umbrellas -- and donned face masks.

These pieces are from the Opinion pages of TheHill.com,  not "news", but still, I'm surprised.

Maybe there's hope after all.

This isn't creepy at all

Apple and Google building coronavirus tracking tech for iOS and Android, coming in May - CNET

What could possibly go wrong?

Two of the tech industry's biggest players are working together to fight the coronavirus, announcing a new set of tools that could come to a majority of smartphones around the world.

The new technology, outlined in white papers published by Apple and Google on Friday and further discussed in a call with reporters Monday, relies on Bluetooth wireless radio technology to help phones communicate with one another, ultimately warning users about people they've come in contact with who are infected with the coronavirus.

 It's like Big Brother and Skynet got together, and...

Contact tracing

Apple and Google's technology is meant to support contact tracing, which historically has been a manual process in which health care workers painstakingly comb through a patient's history to figure out who they were near and may have exposed to infection.

Apps could potentially speed up that process. People who're marked as having coronavirus in an app on their phone could then wirelessly transmit alerts to anyone they come in contact with, potentially leading people to take extra precautions or self-quarantine to slow any further spread.

Apple and Google representatives said they chose to create this joint technology in part because they wanted to ensure interoperability between different phones. The companies also chose to build the system into their iOS and Android software in order to reduce the impact this technology could have on battery life.

To ensure as many people have access to the technology as possible, Google will include the tracking data in an update to its "Google Play services" feature for phones powered by its Android software. As a result, more people will have access to the technology even if their phone isn't being actively updated by manufacturers anymore.

What the companies didn't know is how many people need to sign up to make the system work, in part because the crisis itself is unprecedented. But together, the companies' software runs nearly all the billions of smartphones and tablets in use today.

This project brought to you by the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of State Security...

The good news, FWIW, is that comments are running against the idea, in this article and in others elsewhere. (Even this jackboot licker here: Apple and Google are working together to fight COVID-19 but it's up to us to make it effective | Android Central)

The problem in a nutshell

“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.” 
Glenn Reynolds

GOAL Post 2018-8

I've skipped the last couple of GOAL Posts, they are linked in the right-hand sidebar. 

But I felt that this week's was important to post, if only for Joe's comments on the recent events in Florida.

As usual, minor editing for formatting, a couple of typos or elisions from the original are called out with "{sic}".

***

FROM: wa-ccw@yahoogroups.com (Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed recipients

SENT: Fri 2/23/2018 5:50 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2018-8

Legislative Update from Olympia23 February 2018

• BILLS MOVE
• NO PUBLIC HEARINGS NEXT WEEK
• CONFERENCE COMMITTEES
• TWO WEEKS LEFT IN SESSION
• FLORIDA SHOOTING

HB 2363 (drone delivery of contraband) passed out of Senate Law & Justice to Senate Rules awaiting a floor vote. HB 2519 (return of CPLs) also passed out of Senate Law & Justice to Rules, but not before they amended the bill to it’s original form, removing the language that allowed current and former military members aged 18-20 to apply for and receive a concealed pistol license (several states with age 21 CPL requirements have opened them up to military members over 18). ed {sic} on the House floor to reimburse those owners who surrender them to police. SB 5553 (suicidal, waiver of firearm rights) passed out of the House on a77-20 vote with one excused.SB 5992 (bump stock ban) passed out of the House on a 56-41 vote also. The bill was amended to create a buyback program for banned bump stocks. Seven other amendments to limit the impact of the bill failed.SB 6298 (DV harassment firearms ban) passed out of the House Judiciary committee with an important amendment. Back in 1994, when many DV-related misdemeanors were made firearm disqualifiers, it was retroactive – a listed DV-related conviction at any time in the past prohibited future possession of firearms.SB 6298 was amended to allow only DV harassment convictions after this law takes effect to act as a disqualifier.

Unfortunately, the amendment is still lipstick on a pig. No misdemeanor conviction of any law should allow denial of a fundamental, enumerated right listed in the Constitution. Period. Add to that the common he said, she said nature of many of these DV offenses, in many cases with no physical proof offered.(We’ve been over this before: domestic violence is a serious issue and must not be tolerated, but if it’s that serious, make it a felony.)

No public hearings involving firearms are scheduled for next week. It’s all floor action now.

If a bill is amended in the second chamber and passes, it must go back to the original chamber to approve the change. If approval (another floor vote) is not granted, it goes to a conference committee composed of members from both chambers to iron out the difference(s). Then it goes back to both chambers for approval.

At this point, and we’re pretty far along in the session, it appears there will be no immediate, direct impact of the Florida shooting in Olympia. For now.

If you’ve been following the national news all this past week, it appears the only thing in the world that has happened is the Parkland, Florida school shooting. The overwhelming media focus is on gun control, calling for bans on AR-15s and other “assault weapons,” raising the age to purchase ”assault weapons,” or in some cases, all firearms, to 21.Suggestions have also been made by some to arm SOME teachers (the establishment doesn’t like that, nor do teachers’ unions), or to provide for more school resource officers. The outcome remains to be seen.

A couple of things of note, though. The call for more gun control seems to be exceptionally-well organized. And funded. One Parkland survivor invited to attend a CNN episode on the shooting says he was denied the opportunity to ask the questions he wanted to ask, and instead was given a scripted question to ask. More and more information has come out about the shooter and the incident. He was a long term “problem kid,” with many fellow students reporting major issues with him including threats, he was expelled from Parkland, the Broward County Sheriff’s deputies had made more than three dozen calls to his home in the past few years. Clearly red flags were being waved – and ignored. Then the FBI dropped the ball after the “kid” posted a You Tube comment that he wanted to become a “professional school shooter” (a comment alleged made at other times and places, too).

The worst failure here was the fact that they just revealed that the on-scene School Resource Officer stayed outside under cover when the shooting started, and remained outside for at least four minutes. The major lesson learned in 1999 after the Columbine, CO, school shooting is that you don’t wait outside to see how things develop, you immediately enter. It’s called “running to the sound of gunfire” and has been “school shooter” Rule #1 since 1999.The news is reporting that the officer has resigned, but most fail to add that he was actually allowed to retire.

Just before I closed this out, another local police department whose officers responded to the Parkland H.S. shooting are reporting that when they arrived on scene, four additional Broward County deputies were also outside the school, guns drawn, but not going inside.

Former Milwaukee County Sheriff, NRA Director and staunch pro-gun advocate made the comment that George Soros fingerprints are all over this. I tend not to buy into conspiracy theories for a variety of reasons, but the number of coincidences in this one certainly raise questions. (And the media now says these conspiracy theories originated with the Russian{sic}. Maybe the shooter was a Russian immigrant?)

BILL STATUS/GOAL POSITION:

{After the jump. DWD}

GOAL Post 2018-3

That time of the week again. 

There seems to be a glitch in the original text, in the third paragraph, dealing with new proposed legislation. It is present in the original text; if Joe posts a correction or errata I will fix it. There are also a couple of legislators whose districts are missing from the list of bills, ditto.

As usual, I have made minor edits to the text for punctuation or style, but have made no changes to the actual text.

I had a bit of an unintentional discharge while putting this one together,and accidentally launched what was barely even a draft, so if you get this blog through a feed service, you may have had two versions show up. Apologies.

***

FROM: GOAL WA (Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed recipients

SENT: Fri 1/19/2018 2:34 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2018-3

Legislative Update from Olympia19 January 2018

• LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR CORRECTION
• 1/15 SENATE GUN BILL HEARING
• NEW GUN BILLS FILED
• PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED
• ACTION ON GUN BILLS
• KIRO TV POLL
• NOT ALL DEMOCRATS ARE OUR ENEMIES

The correct date of the Fiscal committee cut-off is 6 February, not 5 February as reported last week.

The first big gun bill hearing was conducted by Senate Law & Justice on Monday, 15 January. There was a turnout of several hundred on both sides, with two overflow rooms filled with attendees (unfortunately the pro-gun lobby doesn’t have a billionaire sugar daddy who provides neat highly visible t-shirts – but most of us DO have gun-related ball caps, club badges, pins, etc.) It was an amazing display of ignorance about guns and gun laws by the pro-gun control side. But that doesn’t stop them and their billionaire allies from pushing for every restriction they can get through the system. The bills heard in public testimony included SBs 592 (trigger devices),6049 (magazine ban), 5444 (modern sporting rifle registration), 5463 (safe storage) and 6146 (preemption repeal). The entire hearing can be viewed on TVWashington at https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2018011154.

Several new gun bills were filed this week... and one I missed last week! SB 6173, by Sen. Takko (D-19) is the counterpart of HB 2329 and strengthens privacy protections for CPL holders (our esteemed Attorney General wants to open CPL information to the public, as it was prior to 1993). HB 2422, by Rep. Peterson (D-21) is similar to SB 1049 and bans high capacity magazines… with exceptions. HB 2529 by Rep. Lovick (D-44) imposes the same background check (re-check requirement on CPLs that have been seized as previous law does was seized firearms, HB 2666, by Rep. Macri (D-43) is the companion bill to SB 6146, repealing state preemption of firearms regulation. SB 6298, by Sen. Dhingra (D-45), would add any conviction for domestic violence harassment to the list of violations forfeiting firearm rights. It’s bad enough that for more than ten years now we have been denying a fundamental, enumerated right to people convicted of what are essentially minor crimes. This is even more egregious I on that most domestic harassment cases consist of largely “he said-she said” testimony, and in today’s climate, the court usually errs on the side of the woman.

Two public hearings on gun bills will be conducted next week. At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 23 January, the Senate Law & Justice Committee will take testimony on SBs 6297 and 6298 (banning possession of firearms for those with a history of violence or who have been convicted of domestic harassment). At 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, 25 January, the House Judiciary Committee will take testimony on HBs 2519 (return of seized CPLs), 2293 (daycare firearm ban), 1387 (a/w registration), 2422 (hi-cap mag ban) and 2666 (preemption repeal). Again, a strong turn-out carries a message all its own. Better yet, if you can make it to Oly for the hearing, be sure to wear some clearly pro-gun item of clothing (not camouflage!) such as a ball cap, club membership badge, etc. (If you have prepared testimony, be sure to carry a spare copy with you and leave it with committee staff.)

SB 5992 (trigger devices) passed out of the Senate Law & Justice Committee on Tuesday and is now on the Senate floor calendar awaiting final passage from the Senate. They will likely vote on it next week.

A KIRO TV poll conducted earlier this week showed 66% of respondents do NOT support a ban on bump stocks. I went back a couple of days later to see if it had changed – and it HAD changed… it was pulled!

Not all Republicans are our friends, and not all Democrats are our enemies. The link below goes to a great article about two pro-gun Democrats (and yes, they are solidly pro-gun, as are a few others; I’ve worked closely with both of them for several years). http://tdn.com/news/local/takko-and-blake-could-scuttle-raft-of-gun-control-bills/article_f46063f4-f0e8-576a-928d-d32ba6060cfd.html

BILL NUMBER/SUBJECT/SPONSOR/STATUS/GOAL POSITION:

The Second Amendment Dichotomy

It seems to me that the tragic events over the weekend in Sutherland, Texas, bring the two sides of the gun control "debate" into stark relief.

The gun controllers would have everyone believe that all gun owners everywhere are just like the murderous scumbag.

Pro-gun folks hold up the likes of Stephen Willeford and Johnnie Langendorff as role models and ideals.

(We'd like to believe they're typical of gun owners, but I prefer to go with "role models and ideals".)

The evidence shows we're closer to the truth than the gun banners.

PSA, Cybersecurity Edition

Generating a Bunch Of "Internet Noise" Isn't Going to Hide Your Browsing Habits

I thought that was obvious, but maybe that's because traffic analysis is what I do did.

Note that the guy who wrote the "Internet Noise" app actually says in his write up of the thing that it's "protest-ware", not an actual privacy/security app.

Which seems pointless, but what do I know? If it makes you happy to clog system resources in a gesture the people you're protesting at won't even notice, go for it.

Farewell to Facebook

or: Goodbye to all that.

Drang's Statement of Principles

Those of you who have been following these scribblings may recall seeing last June that I posted a post called Attention, Facebook Friends!, in which I explained that Facebook was telling me that, in order to access my account there, I would have to provide them with scans of government issued photo ID, or certain acceptable alternatives.

I used that post to tell Facebook what it could do with that idea.

Facebook is a private firm, it can set the requirements for use of it's services at whatever they want to.  The thing to remember is that, as Chris Byrne says,

If you're not paying for the product you ARE the product.

It's free, they make a shit-ton of money off of advertising and selling the members information.

I get it.

I also know that my business is my business.

Among other things I see people at work get all worked up about so-and-so said this or did that. I don't want those loons looking me up and sending me friends requests.

I've also heard too many accounts of those oh-so-tolerant, freedom loving clowns on the left "doxing" someone for something that was said on the Internet; while I have no illusions that this account could not be traced back to me, I want to make it as hard as possible.

(Note that the first purpose listed in that Wiki article for "doxing" is to "aid law enforcement", which is a crock; it's usually some commie posting the address of someone who has the temerity to disagree with them...)

And, I dunno, maybe my background as a Secret Squirrel/MI Geek had something to do with it.

Now when I set that account up I honestly don't remember seeing something that said "Account must be in your legal name", although I was vaguely aware that that was the policy. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. Maybe I ass-you-me'd that a well-established Internet presence, including a moderately successful blog, would count. I dunno.

I don't care.

It's hard enough maintaining Personal Security in the modern age as it is, I am just not comfortable with the idea of handing over copies of ID to some faceless strangers. Barn-door late, of course, considering that my own government hired a bunch of ChiComs to set up the Personnel Database, and now Beijing has access to my and my wife's data, but just because the horse is gone is no reason to open the pig pen up, too, to coin a phrase.

(So, Zuckerburg goes jogging in Beijing to prove it's not all that unhealthy in an effort to get the Chinese to open up to Facebook...
(Seeking Access to Facebook in China, Zuckerberg Courts Risks - The New York Times)

So last week I clicked on a link to an article that someone posted to their Facebook page, and while there just for shits and giggles I clicked on the "Log In" button, and it worked. Cool.

It was cool because, in the 9 months or so since I lost access, a bunch of people have migrated away from other venues where I could interact with them regularly, and were hanging out on Facebook. I didn't even notice it, because I could just go to Facebook and talk to Tam about her latest blog post, for example, or hang out with The Cool Kids in a Facebook Group. Since I'd never even been invited to be one of the Cool Kids before, it was... Cool.

But.

My business is my business.

My information is my information, my identity is my business, and if I tell you my name is "D.W. Drang", you can damned well like it or leave it.

Yes, I'm aware of the irony, considering that Facebook is telling me "All your data are belong to us, like it or leave it."

When I was able to get back in I thought perhaps they had relaxed the policy a bit. Maybe I could have the account in my legal name and have that private, all anyone would see would be my "nickname."

Nope.  You can have a nickname, but it will be displayed right next to your legal name.

And, yes, I can make a Facebook page for the blog, but it must be associated with a legal name, which will be visible to anyone looking at the blog's page. they said I have until March 22^nd to send them the goods.

UPDATE: And I forgot to mention that, when I got back in last week, Facebook said I have until March 22^nd to upload the goods.

So, no.

Repeat after me:

My business is my business.

My information is my business.

My identity is my business.

Maybe it's just me...

...but all these shows in which an alien race has arrived and has to a greater or lesser extent taken over, is now controlling everything...

..I cannot for the life of me conceive how in the hell anyone can write these stories and have collaborators with the alien overloads as protagonists.

GOAL Post 2016-2 (New anti-gun bills submitted!!!)

Latest and greatest from Joe Waldron. Note that the list of firearms related bills has gotten longer, and is even more weighted on the anti-freedom side than before. Even longer list after the break.

I'd claim that this is going out two days late because I work late on Fridays and Saturdays, except that I still got them posted late when I had those days off, so, if you want them as soon as they're posted,  follow the directions at the end to subscribe yourself. I might go on vacation and have minimal internet access again, and then where would you be? (That reminds me, I should probably say more about that vacation...)

Share that idea with others; I find it annoying that some folks I know personally have been asking me for information on what is going on in Olympia for years, and cannot be bothered to subscribe to Joe's newsletter, or to the WA-CCW Yahoo! newsgroup. I'm sure many who read this and other gun blogs are in the same or a similar boat when it comes to political activity in their home state. 

***

FROM: GOAL WA goalwa@cox.net (Joe Waldron)

TO: undisclosed-recipients:

SENT: Fri 1/15/2016 5:34 PM

SUBJECT: GOAL Post 2016-2

Legislative Update from Olympia 15 January 2016

• LEGISLATIVE CALENDAR
• INDEPENDENTS LEAD DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS
• BEAUCOUP NEW BILLS FILED
• GUN BILL DAY IN HOUSE JUDICIARY

The legislature adopted its calendar for the 2016 regular session. The legislative calendar sets dates by which bills must clear various hurdles. A bill that fails to clear the policy committee or chamber floor by the designated date is generally considered dead for the year, although they may be “resurrected” by parliamentary procedure. The calendar is available at http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/cutoff.aspx. Critical 2016 cut-off dates are:

• 11 Jan: First day of regular session
• 5 Feb: Original chamber policy committee cut-off
•  9 Feb: Original chamber fiscal committee cut-off (if bill has fiscal impact)
• 17 Feb: Chamber cut-off (House bills must pass House, Senate bill from Senate)
• 26 Feb: Second chamber policy committee cut-off
• 29 Feb: Second chamber fiscal committee cut-off
• 4 Mar: Last day to pass bill from opposite chamber (with exceptions)
• 10 Mar: Last day of regular session

A recent Gallup poll indicates more voters identify as politically “independent” over either the Democrat or Republican parties. 42% of those polled self-identified as independents, while 29% called themselves Democrats and 26% Republicans. Both major parties have been losing fans for several years. Dissatisfaction with partisan-politics-as-usual is at an all-time high. How that will play out in the elections remains to be seen.

Nine new gun-related bills were filed this week, most anti-gun. HB 2372, by Rep. Senn (D-41) mandates destruction of firearms forfeited to police; HB 2374, also by Rep. Senn, imposes a tax on ammunition sales; HB 2460, by Rep. Walkinshaw (D-43), guts state preemption, HB 2461, by Rep. Jinkins (D-27) revisits extreme protection orders; HB 2481, by Rep. Blake (D-19) allows short-barreled rifles; HB 2553, by Rep. Wilson (R-17) guarantees possession and use of arms in a declared state of emergency; HB 2603, by Rep. Kuderer (D-48) mental health and guns; SB 6267, by Sen. Schoesler (R-9) requires CPL renewal notice; and SB 6310, by Sen. Jayapal, mandatory gun storage. It would appear the Democrats are looking at 2016 as a gun control year, at least in the House.

House Judiciary chair Rep. Laurie Jinkins has designated Thursday, January 21^st as House gun bill day, the first of this session. At 1:30 p.m. she will take testimony on five gun bills in a public hearing: four of them anti-gun, one pro. HBs 1747 (lock up your gun), 1857 (extreme protective orders), 2372 (destruction of forfeited firearms), 2460 (more gun free zones) and 2481 (allows short-barreled rifles) are all on the agenda.

HB 1747 does nothing but demonize guns. It’s already considered reckless endangerment to leave ANYTHING out that might harm a child: not just guns, but toxic fluids, cleaning agents, bleach, etc.

HB 1857 broadens the opportunity for a family member, household member or law enforcement to petition a judge to take away your guns – no mental health professional involvement necessary. Have an argument with your significant other? They might come after your guns.

HB 2372 requires law enforcement agencies to destroy forfeited firearms. Current law allows them to be auctioned off to FFLs where they may returned to service, with required background checks. This is more demonization of guns because they think guns are veil.

One of the most important gun laws in Washington is RCW 9.41.290 – State Preemption. This means that, with certain limited exceptions, only the state legislature may pass gun laws in the state. Counties and cities are prohibited from writing their own laws. This has been law since the early 1980s and has served as a model for other states. But obviously the other side doesn’t like this. The latest attack on preemption comes in HB 2460, Walkinshaw (D-43), that would allow political subdivisions to ban guns in parks and recreational facilities, libraries, and on public transportation. Coming on the heels of a judge’s decision that Seattle’s gun and ammunition tax didn’t violate preemption (currently under appeal), this is the most serious attempt yet to overturn this critically important law.

And the one good gun bill, HB 2481, which would allow Washington citizens to possess short-barreled rifles, provided they complied with federal law ($200 federal tax, extensive background check, restrictions on movement).Short-barreled rifles AND shotguns were legal until 1994, but once again, the “guns are evil” crowd prevailed and had them banned.

Note that the position on HB 1119 has changed from SUPPORT to OPPOSE. This change is based on a request from the Hunters Heritage Council and other hunting groups who oppose the bill for two reasons: it allows a fee to be collected for heretofore free Hunter Ed classes, and it sets a minimum age for youth hunting (8 for accompanied, 14 unaccompanied).HHC believes the parent is the best judge of when a youngster is mature enough to hunt. The focus of GOAL Post, and my expertise, is in the area of firearms law, not hunting regulations. I am deferring to their judgment.

BILL STATUS:

The Blood Dance

Or: What Do Progressives Do When The Narrative Collapses?

QOTD worthy, from Tamara:

Today show is wall-to-wall "workplace violence mass shooting"as they cut off the legs of jihad to fit it into the Procrustean bed of the gun control narrative.

Meanwhile, as Tamara and Bobbi both also address, the definition of "mass shooting" has been redefined again, to now mean "four people shot, not necessarily killed." Because now they can claim "more mass shootings than days in 2015!" Ignoring the reality that most of these involve gang bangers, usually of the same (non-European) ethnic background, and quite frequently many are winged but few are killed.

Naturally, His Imperial Majesty Barack Hussein Obama, in Paris to deal with the number one existential threat to modern civilization(anthropogenic climate change, in case you missed it) got up on his hind legs, ran his suck, and once again made the claim that "these things don"t happen in other coutnries." 

In Paris.

Three weeks after ISIS slaughtered over a hundred.

The French press, apparently, called him an asshole. (Although I'm not as confident of that translation as the person reporting it is. Then again, insults and swear words often just sound silly, not insulting, in translation...)

Meanwhile, this seems to have been planned: Couple Kept Tight Lid on Plans for San Bernardino Shooting - The New York Times, although the Noo Yawk Slimes still insists a motive is unknown...

A good article: Obama’s inconsistent claim on the ‘frequency’ of mass shootings in the U.S. compared to other countries - The Washington Post

Well, that figures

BuzzFeed News: More Than Half Of U.S. Governors Say Syrian Refugees Not Welcome Now

However:

The governors of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Connecticut, meanwhile, have backed the Obama administration’s policy, voicing their support for accepting refugees in their states.

At least the governor of WA hasn't doubled down like the governor of CT apparently did....

"Panic At The Gunstore", a forum post

This was linked to at Pistol Forums. It's quite good, well worth the time to read it.*

Panic at the Gunstore--The How, When, and Why of Gun Panics - SigForums

There are a few nuggets of wisdom in there that are worthy of quoting, but first, it must be noted that the point of this article is gun-buying panics, not "imminent gun bans/control/regulations."

Nugget #1:

The bottom line is, if you are a hobbyist, buy what you want now. Once you have it, it’s very difficult for civil authorities to take it away simply by declaring it illegal. Folks always fear door-to-door confiscation, but that would be difficult on a state-level, even more so on a national scale. Gun Control is the death of liberty by a thousand cuts. And those who oppose freedom have time to play the long game if their legislation moves progressively in the direction they want it to, which, historically, they have every reason to believe is true.

If you have your AR lower, lower parts kit, "evil features", standard capacity magazines, etc. today, even they are banned tomorrow, chances are good that they will be grandfathered. No guarantees, of course, as Mark Twain recognized ("No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.")

Speaking of magazines, PMAGs are fairly inexpensive, but the price appreciated 300% or more after Sandy Hook. I think I'll buy an assortment new, in-wrapper, and keep them around for trade material...

On ammunition:

I have a general rule when observing panics: Watch .223/5.56. If you get to the store and you can’t find .223/5.56, then buy 9mm. If you can’t buy .223/5.56 or 9mm, then buy .22lr. If you can’t buy either of those three, you’re too late.

His discussion of ammunition includes a look at .22 Long Rifle that is very succinct;

Ok, so what about .22LR? .22LR is actually a really interesting case of fixed supply/increasing demand. This tiny cartridge is really the perfect storm. As I’ve told customers: “There are many rounds that can kill a man, but there’s only one that can make him sit up and beg—the mighty .22LR!” Let’s look at the supply side of .22LR:

1) .22LR is the least profitable per round cartridge to manufacture. And while we as consumers may be paying more per round than we ever have, that does not mean that manufactures like Federal, CCI, (actually both are owned by ATK), or Remington are making more money per round.

2) The machines that make .22LR cannot make any other cartridge.

If you don’t make a lot of money per round, and you can’t use that machine to make rounds that are more profitable, that really puts the damper on expansion plans for .22LR production. I haven’t been able to confirm that the machines that make .22LR are more expensive to set up than centerfire ammunition machines, but I suspect this to be the case due to the specialized nature of .22LR manufacturing.

IOW, while the shortage of .22 is partly due to people stocking up, the production lines are running at capacity, and consumption is up because more and more folks are shooting .22 versions of their standard pistol, or using a sub-caliber adapter, as a substitute for the larger, more expensive, calibers. My Friendly Local Gun Store & Range uses .22s almost exclusively in their Beginner/Basic/Introductory shooting classes, which is an excellent idea. (During the post-Sandy Hook panic, they had a plentiful supply of .22 LR, and would estimate the needs for classes and training, and break out the excess and sell it over the counter for a decent price.)

With the inherent inability of Some People to avoid the blood dance, and others' desire to Do Something, no matter how pointless, these may (unfortunately) be some good pointers to keep in mind in the coming weeks and months.

***

*And could serve as testimony that brand-specific gun fora are not simply and exclusively filled with unthinking fanbois...

This explains why I don't trust the man...

Instapundit » Blog Archive »
ROGER SIMON ON WHY TRUMP WOULD BE A DISASTER AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS:

Here’s how I would imagine they would handle Trump. They would love him to death, treat him like the king of the world, the genius at deal-making, ask him for advice on everything from golf courses to hospital maintenance,  and if he got suspicious, love him even more, say great things about how rich he is, what a wonderful plane he has, ask for a tour, get pictures with him for People and Der Spiegel… then, after he feels like he’s been just the perfect president and has settled everything, that’s maybe six months,  snatch the Baltic states (Russia), explode your bomb (Iran), move in on practically everything west of Honolulu (China) and look the other way when ISIS blows up three shopping malls in Dallas.
What would Donald do about it? Say “You’re fired”? Brag about his money? I’m not optimistic.

Maybe if he was running as a Democrat, which what he was registered as until 2009. Which, oddly, is when he claims he gave up on Republicans. Huh?

Admit it: We've all thought about it.

​Popular Mechanics: How to Shoot Down a Drone

Speaking of Cascadia...

As I was in a two-month old post, here.

The New Yorker has just published an article about a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake in The Earthquake That Will Devastate Seattle - The New Yorker.

Note that the title of the article on the page is "The Really Big One", not "ZOMG THEY'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!11!"

OTOH, that may be what it takes to get anyone in the Center of the Universe to acknowledge that maybe bad things do happen outside of their little urban paradise. (Note that the author manages to work Hurricane Sandy in, even though it was a minor inconvenience to most denizens of the Eastern Megalopolis.)

Not a lot of science there. Vivid imagery, dumbed down so you can peruse it over your morning bagel or on the subway.

Still, if you need to explain to your family elsewhere why you think it's a good idea to maintain a month's supply of food, water, etc., it's not a bad article.

OTOH, if your family is the type that won't leave you alone until you return to the safety of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, you might want to steer clear...

What He Said

Screw The Facebooks... - The Minuteman

So. This makes three. Does that make it enemy action?

Dear Oregon

No. Just... No.

I was going to be quite a bit more colorful, but my mother occasionally reads this.