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Abstracted from Fox News: Concealed handgun permits surging, blacks, women lead growth

• Concealed handgun permits in the United States soared by 1.83 million since last July,
• New record for the fourth consecutive year
• Concealed handgun permit holders in the country = 16.3 million
• Largest rate of growth among women and African-Americans, the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) said.
• More than 6 percent of American adults hold CCW licenses
• Outside the restrictive states of California and New York, that figure rises to about 8 percent.

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Winning is only the precursor; what you do afterwards is most important

Stephen Green (“the VodkaPundit”) makes a few observation about what the DC GOP has been doing that runs counter to what they SAY they stand for.  It’s the reason why I’ve been saying for years is don’t LISTEN to politicians. Instead, pay attention to what they DO. And in this case, especially what they DO as they OWN DC politics.  We gave them what they wanted – are they keeping their word in “being Republicans”?

I hate to ask, but how’s that GOP majority workin’ out for ya?

• Jeff Sessions Announces Justice Department Will Increase Asset Forfeiture.
• House Republicans work to torpedo Trump’s air traffic control plan.
• House Republicans to fall back on more modest spending plan — counting on Democrat votes while ignoring fiscal conservatives.

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“Everybody does it” is no excuse, but not everybody fights a horrible Civil War over it, then constitutionally elevates former slaves to full citizenship.”

Yes, were there slaves in the Colonies at the start of the Revolutionary War?  Were there slaves when the Constitution was written?  Of course there were and no conservative would argue the opposite (even as the Left now has migrated from calling everyone that disagrees with them from Birchers to TEA Partiers to extremists and now, to fit their latest narrative, White Supremacists).  But it seems that in reading about the college campus rampages and watching the “man in the street” interviews, it seems that our young’uns seem to think that ONLY the US had slavery in our history.  Why?

They aren’t taught actual history – the Leftist Academy conveniently leaves that out.  Makes it easier, I guess, to undermine the Founders with that “old white rich slave-owners” which, in turn, is meant to discredit the Constitution.  Which, in turn, makes it easier to “turn” a coupla few generations:

Slavery is by no means peculiar, odd, or unusual. It was common among ancient peoples such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Armenians, and many others.

Large numbers of Christians were enslaved during the Ottoman wars in Europe. White slaves were common in Europe from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages. It was only after A.D. 1600 that Europeans joined with Arabs and Africans and started the Atlantic slave trade.

As David P. Forsythe wrote in his book, “The Globalist,” “The fact remained that at the beginning of the 19th century an estimated three-quarters of all people alive were trapped in bondage against their will either in some form of slavery or serfdom.”

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Yep.  The Democrat Party.  They are the ones with “the Political is Personal; the Personal is Political” and have turned it into the absolute weapon.  NOTHING in life can be made, seen, or discussed outside of their political realms – even eating a hamburger has life and death ramifications.  They haven’t figured out that sometimes eating a hamburger is just eating a hamburger with no other nuance that it tastes good.

Progressives have a problem: They ladle unto every decision, even the most mundane and trifling one, an unattractive glop of gooey political significance. They can’t resist warning the rest of us that we’re abetting the destruction of the planet every time we, say, tuck into a Quarter Pounder.

Josh Barro is a recovering ex-Republican who is now a member of a niche political group: the non-crazy Democrats. He coined a cute phrase — “the hamburger problem” — to describe the relentless politicization of everything by progressives and Democrats. He writes, “Democrats’ problem isn’t that they’re on the wrong side of policy issues [I vehemently disagree  -Skip]. It’s that they’re too ready to bother too many ordinary people about too many of their personal choices, all the way down to the hamburgers they eat.” He cites nonstop Democratic hectoring on, inter alia, the team name of the Washington Redskins, the way men sit on subway trains, and even some Americans’ choice not to abide by China’s one-child standard as the reasons why the party is today as electorally wobbly as Rocky Balboa in the 15th round. Yet the GOP’s success puzzles him still, because so many core Democratic cultural ideals (notably, gay marriage and marijuana decriminalization) poll more and more strongly.

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Jeh Johnson (former Obama Secretary of DHS) (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Johnson argued on CNN’s “New Day” that Trump’s tone toward illegal immigrants has made those in Central America and Mexico afraid to enter the U.S., and the people would rather stay in their home countries instead of risking an illegal entrance. “Through his rhetoric, he scared off a lot of women and children in Central America who’d rather stay in their desperate circumstances or just migrate to Mexico and stop there,” Johnson said. “But these are really desperate women and children, women with babies in their arms, who are trying to flee the poverty and violence in the countries they left.”

Oh, the horror!  And the lie.  The Obama Administration basically said “Olly olly in come free” to just about anyone coming across our southern border (e.g., Alinsky’s taking for the Have-nots).  What else can you say that they’d take unaccompanied children and ship them off to relatives / friends / predators somewhere in the US?  Or bring others in front of an immigration judge, get issued a date to appear in court – and then scamper off never to be seen again?

Yessir – that word got around real quick – the carpet is rolled out, the door bell is working, and the door is wide open.  No, sir, they DIDN’T just stop in Mexico as we saw a tide of illegal immigration rivaling that invading Europe.

I also dryly note the old hackneyed Democrat propaganda of using

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Versus what WE care about.  You know,  “What the MSM WANTS us to pay attention to” + “Democrats with bylines” = Propaganda.  The problem for the media is that:

• They no longer have a lock on how information and opinion is delivered
• They no longer seem to care about what WE want to hear about

What WE care about:

So WHERE did the mainstream media spent its broadcast time?  Hint – it doesn’t look like the above:

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Yeah….er no, the Democrats aren’t going into the pizza business.  But can Papa Johns’s go after them for “re-purposing” their corporate tagline: ?Better Ingredients, Better Pizza”?  I remember when that came out – after a slump in their business, they went back to basics, back to the beginning, to improve their product.

So what did the Democrats come up with?  Well, like the socialists they are, they “borrowed” the form (if not the substance) of Papa Johns:

“A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages”

I guess it was a tad touch better than what the DCCC came up with (really!): “Democrats 2018: Have you seen the other guys?”.  Well, seeing that the Dems lost the House, lost the Senate, lost the Presidency, lost most of the governorships, and the vast majority of the State legislative seats, it seems that We The People looked – and saw Zombies coming at them and reacted.

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You have to hand it to the Democrats – when somebody says “Speak”, they do.  Just like their followers that send in the exact same email or letter when urged.  I know this because I get the Democrat emails that say to send an email.  And Guess Who has fallen right into line?

US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY): Uncertainty

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Tuesday that President Trump’s threat to let Obamacare collapse was actually an attempt to sabotage the country’s health care system and use Americans as political pawns. “The president would not be ‘letting Obamacare collapse,’” said the New York Democrat. “He is actively trying to undermine the heath care system in the county, using millions of Americans as political pawns in cynical game.”

He said the president was creating uncertainty that was undermining the health care system.

US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH):  Uncertainty

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, accuses President Donald Trump of deliberately sowing uncertainty in the health insurance market, which prompted a sharp rebuttal from the Senate Majority Whip.   Shaheen took to the Senate floor today to request unanimous consent in an uphill bid for consideration of her “Marketplace Certainty Act,” legislation for cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act. The GOP leadership in the Senate has blocked two previous efforts to move the bill forward.

 

…“We can address the uncertainty by being clear that we’re not going to replace the Affordable Care Act,” she said.

Translation: throw crap against the wall to see what sticks politically.  Yep, top-down talking points to the point that they sound like parrots

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O’Sullivan’s First Law:

Any institution that is not explicitly right wing will become left wing over time.

Well, the GOP isn’t explicitly right wing and too often we are seeing it isn’t even right of center.  Again, my favorite worst hobbyhorse is that Republicans instituted Medicaid Expansion – a major part of the Democrat process of turning us Socialist.  And now from California we see a similar action in which the Republicans are not only aiding the Dems but giving them “bipartisan cover” in a massive take over CA’s energy sector that is doomed to fail and kill lots of industry along the way (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Stockholm Syndromed CA GOP Partners With Jerry Brown To Continue Funding High Speed Rail

Goodbye, California GOP. At the conclusion of the 2016 GOP Presidential primary crapfest, I decided I was done with the party on a national level. And while not a fan of the state party for numerous reasons, I stayed a member, hoping I could help effect change here. After all, I’m one of the few Californians whose elected officials – from city council to congress – are almost exclusively Republican.

Then last night I watched in disbelief as party leaders joined forces with the Democrats to extend the state’s cap and trade program, which has a lot of partially-related items contained within, and that was the last straw.

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“We know we are violating numerous constitutional rights here, but if you do not comply, we will remove the boy from your home,” the judge said.

This comes home to me – it’s very personal as I am living this same story.  I can’t go into detail (at least right now) for fear of being charged with a misdemeanor (yeah, a gag order), but I know EXACTLY how and what this prior Marine, who simply is continuing to be a Marine in trying to do the right thing, is going through right now.  But imagine that – a JUDGE, for God’s sake, an officer of the Court, knowingly stating that he doesn’t care about Constitutional Rights.  Blatantly, as the story goes, the State is all too willing to use a young child as a political battering ram simply for an anti-gun animus. As I have said over the years, I generally never just repost someone’s entire post but this one mirrors my life the last two years (and it takes that long) but here it is (reformatted, emphasis mine):

On Monday, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed a lawsuit against Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) for impeding on foster and adoptive parents’ Second Amendment rights. SAF filed the lawsuit on behalf of two couples: William and Jill Johnson and Brian and Naomi Mason.

The Johnsons were going to take custody of their grandson to keep him from going into foster care. When they went to pick up their grandson, William, a retired, disabled Marine with a Concealed Pistol License (CPL), was searched for a firearm. He was not carrying a firearm at the time. At that point, agency officials told the Johnsons that they would be required to provide all firearms’ serial numbers to the agency as part of a registry. When Johnson questioned agency workers, he was given a surprising response.

“If you want to care for your grandson you will have to give up some of your constitutional rights,” a MDHHS worker retorted.

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Alternate title: John Thune: Health care debacle makes Republicans look ‘dysfunctional’

Look?  Really, you had the stones to say “look“, Senator?  Are you freakin’ serious?  Is there ANY doubt left? You must be delusional to think that we are SO delusional to even think of accepting that lame spin. But given what Congress has done lately, that could be considered a serious attempt at PR.

This post’s actual title is from a piece in Townhall by Lt. Col. Allen West (ret.), a favorite of the ‘Grok because of one enduring quality (OK, a few): steadfastness.  He knows his principles and never sways from them – and doesn’t hide from them.  And has no problem in pointing out others that TALK the WALK but refuse to actually move their legs. He asks a couple of questions (bullet pointed, emphasis mine):

• …what is rather perplexing is that the latest iteration of the Senate healthcare legislation entails Republicans advocating for maintaining Obamacare taxes on “the rich”. Why are Republicans taking up the progressive socialist mentality of class warfare and wealth redistribution, along with using the tax code as a weapon against a targeted segment of our society?

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“Doomed to repeat” and all that, it seems.  Back then, I just couldn’t understand why people were not just using their houses as ATMs but as slot machines in always betting that the housing market prices would continue to just climb out of proportion that was normal – the NEW Normal, they called it.  I knew what some of these people were making for income – my eyes just bugged out at the mortgage amounts (and rates) they were carrying!  They just knowingly nodded their heads at me when I refused to follow along as if I was just a doddering financial moron.

I’m still in my house – they ain’t.  Who was the fool (ok, I can be a fool for OTHER reasons, just not this one). But a new twist on this has come up that really has my head wanting to be scratched – what, you all want to lose a ton of money AGAIN??? Emphasis mine, reformatted:

Subprime car loans have been around for ages, and no one is suggesting they’ll unleash the next crisis. But since the Great Recession, business has exploded. In 2009, $2.5 billion of new subprime auto bonds were sold. In 2016, $26 billion were, topping average pre-crisis levels, according to Wells Fargo & Co. Few things capture this phenomenon like the partnership between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Banco Santander SA. Since 2013, as U.S. car sales soared, the two have built one of the industry’s most powerful subprime machines.

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