Watch the Left go apeshit… oh wait, they have already.
Category: Politics
Trying not to start the public floggings
What Constitution?
Seems like a couple of asshole socialist Congressmen [redundancy alert] from (duh) Massachusetts and Maryland are going to try to subvert the Constitution by… banning militias?
Never mind that militias are specifically protected by the U.S. Constitution, and defined and entrenched in the U.S. Code as well. Those are, to the would-be totalitarians like Markey and that other tool, just inconveniences to be brushed aside. Here’s a choice bit:
“Patrolling neighborhoods, impeding law enforcement and storming the U.S. Capitol, private paramilitary groups like the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys are using political violence to intimidate our people and threaten democratic government and the rule of law.”
Wait… the Oathies, Threepers and Proud Boys are paramilitary organizations now? Here’s what they’re talking about:
The legislation creates different tiers of criminal penalties based on whether violations result in injury or property damage; provides harsher penalties for repeat offenders; and allows for a probationary sentence for first-time offenders. It also creates civil remedies by authorizing the Department of Justice to seek injunctive relief against paramilitary activity, and by creating a private right of action for individuals harmed by paramilitary activity to seek injunctive relief and/or damages.
I’m curious as to how these Commie legislators are going to sidestep Antifa and BLM, who are paramilitary groups: uniforms, command structure, multi-state organization, very prone to violence and even at times, armed — and who routinely perpetrate actions that “result in injury or property damage”. Will they be scooped up by this proposed legislation, do you think? (Okay, you can stop that bitter laughter now.)
Whatever. None of what these politicians are talking about in their little extra-Constitutional exercise should be supported, and I can only hope that it won’t be, even by RINO twerps like Susan Collins and her ilk. But I fear for the worst. Why?
Because, you see, this is what happens when one side of the aisle demonizes the other side successfully*: all sorts of mischief can ensue as long as “public safety” can be trumpeted as the excuse, even when — as in the case of the three inept “rightwing” organizations cited above — there is absolutely no circumstance or rationale under which they would behave in the manner feared.
Of course, the Left and their foot soldiers will be exempted and excused because MAGA… but you all knew that.
Range time? I think so. And I’m not a member of any organization such as the above. But I am part of what can be described as the “citizen militia”, and unashamedly so.
*Here’s the international equivalent of demonizing (and eventually) criminalizing the opposition:
(link in headline)
Does everyone see the parallels, or do I have to spell them out?
Inspiring
I have often scoffed at people who build or live in houses located in a flood plain (or at least a place prone to occasional floods — not the same thing). But here’s a story of a guy who did:
Nick Lupton, 60, and his wife Anne, 50, live in a converted 17th century house on the banks of the River Severn. Since they moved into the four-bedroom detached property in Pixham, Worcestershire in 2016, the house and one-acre of land has been flooded 11 times.
But instead of weeping and wailing when his house was repeatedly underwater, he said, “Fuck this!” and did something about it.
The couple became so fed up with the costly clear-ups, they decided to surround the entire property with a 7ft-high flood defence. They spent four months constructing the brick barrier before finally finishing it last October – just weeks before Storm Henk swept Britain.
Here’s before:
And after:
The house itself? Dry as a bone. Read the whole story; it’s excellent. With more people like this, the Brits would still have an empire.
Of course, this being Britishland, when the flood waters go down the local council will doubtless tell him to tear the wall down because it ruins the character of the 17th-century house, or something.
But let me not be so cynical.
Not Just No
…but “fuck off and die” no.
I refer here, of course, to this push to make us all give up our regular gasoline-powered cars and replace them with fucking Duracell* vehicles.
Here’s one tale of woe.
And here’s the problematic infrastructure.
So fuck ’em.
Come to think of it, we could always switch to horses, except that those assholes at Peta will probably throw a hissy about that too.
I think I need to go to the range (he said, apropos of nothing). Those guns aren’t going to shoot all by themselves, you know.
*And I mean no disrespect towards Duracell, who make excellent batteries. I’m just not going to use them to power my car.
Quote Of The Day
“We’ve learned in recent years that when the Left’s theories are contradicted by the real world, they stick with the theory. If the laboratory mice aren’t behaving as predicted, the problem isn’t the theory; it’s the mice.” — Stephen Moore
Or as we used to put it: if the facts don’t conform to the theory, they must be eliminated. Sic semper sinistra.
Or, pictorially:
“We don’ need no steenkin’ rails!”
No Consequences
As I never tire of telling people here (and other places), Marxism is one of those strange belief systems that holds that as long as the intentions are praiseworthy, the consequences are irrelevant. Take this latest episode in the People’s Soviet of Kaliforniaaahhh:
In their seemingly never-ending quest to make lives for Californians miserable, the state legislature passed a bill that Governor Newsom signed into law mandating a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers by April of 2024.
…and why not? Don’t we want people to be able to earn a “living” wage in California? (Okay, Califuckingfornia is expensive to live in because of their insane one-party government and its onerous laws, rules and regulations, but we can discuss all that some other time.)
Well, sure. Except that business owners, already driven up against the wall by said laws and regulations, have decided that enough is enough, and they need to rein in costs — in this case, salary costs.
So:
PacPizza LLC, operating as Pizza Hut, said in a federal WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act notice filed with California’s Employment Development Department that the company has made a business decision to eliminate first-party delivery services and, as a result, the elimination of all delivery driver positions. Similarly, Southern California Pizza Co. has also announced layoffs, impacting about 841 drivers across the state.
Thus, Californians too lazy to fetch their own pizzas will now have to rely on expensive “third-party” delivery services (e.g. UberEats etc.) to deliver their deep-dish delicacies.
Oh, wait; didn’t California recently pass legislation that made Uber service essentially too costly for people not on a corporate expense account? Why yes, yes they did:
The California Legislature passed a law in 2019 that changed the rules of who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. It’s an important distinction for companies because employees are covered by a broad range of labor laws that guarantee them certain benefits while independent contractors are not.
While the law applied to lots of industries, it had the biggest impact on app-based ride hailing and delivery companies. Their business relies on contracting with people to use their own cars to give people rides and make deliveries. Under the 2019 law, companies would have to treat those drivers as employees and provide certain benefits that would greatly increase the businesses’ expenses.
But hey, that was too much even for the serfs and helots a.k.a. ordinary Californians, who later passed Proposition 22 in a ballot measure, in essence telling the legislature to fuck off and leave Uber and their drivers alone. Of course, that was no good, so the CalGov tried to get the Prop 22 overturned in the courts (standard Commie reaction when the peasants revolt, if they can’t be stuffed into gulags or shot in killing pits).
App-based ride hailing and delivery companies like Uber and Lyft can continue to treat their California drivers as independent contractors, a state appeals court ruled Monday, allowing the tech giants to bypass other state laws requiring worker protections and benefits.
The ruling mostly upholds a voter-approved law, called Proposition 22, that said drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft are independent contractors and are not entitled to benefits like paid sick leave and unemployment insurance. A lower court ruling in 2021 had said Proposition 22 was illegal, but Monday’s ruling reversed that decision.
Everyone following the story of the film so far? (There may be a test.)
Anyway, now that the Cali Politburo has decreed that workers have to be paid a lot more than their services are worth, and employers have responded by applying one of the basic capitalist principles (when wages get too high, reduce the workforce), expect the Politburo to pass some equally-stupid new law, say that companies which sell fast food have to employ drivers.
You heard it here first.
Frankly, I look forward to the day when Californians have to fetch their own fucking pizzas, driving cars at $7/gallon fuel costs or EVs which catch fire and turn them and their pizzas into extra-crispy meals for buzzards.
Me, I say: Let California sink.