Posts Tagged ‘Juan Williams’

LinkSwarm for June 22, 2018

Friday, June 22nd, 2018

The whole “OMG, we lock up illegal alien kids!” panic the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) have ginned up is a sign of just how good the economy is under President Donald Trump, and just how desperate Democrats are to find an issue to run on in November. Faced with the prospect of running on tranny bathrooms, gun control and calling ordinary Americans racists (yet again), they hit upon screeching about the fate of some 2,000 illegal alien minors as the only naked emotional appeal left in their arsenal.

Here it is, folks: the only tactic Democrats could agree to run on this fall.

So naturally, President Trump defused the issue he inherited from Obama with an executive order, causing Democrats to turn on a dime from “OMG, this is the most important moral crisis of our time!” to “That’s not good enough, you heartless monster, we want immediate full amnesty or we keep screaming our heads off!” Ditto for Sen. Ted Cruz’s legislative fix, which was instantly labeled a “cynical ploy.” You know, just like Democrats manufacturing the whole issue.

Expect Democrats to to start bloviating about something equally ludicrous but completely different with the same overheated emotional furor next week…

  • Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Manuel Padilla says the entire problem stems from Obama-era laxness:

    “It’s a very complex situation,” he told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King. “When you have high levels of activity, and a lack of resources – personnel, technology, infrastructure – it creates this kind of chaotic environment.”

    I know this is complicated for you and your team, but what people are talking about is cruel and inhuman behavior, is how it’s perceived,” said King. “Do you actually agree with this policy?”

    “I do agree that we have to do something. We created this situation by not doing anything,” Padilla said. “So what happened with zero tolerance is, we were exempting a population from the law. And what happens when you do that, it creates a draw for a certain group of people that rises to trends that become a crisis.”

    “I’m going to give you an example: Because we were releasing family units, May 2, just last month, we had a full-blown MS-13 (gang member) accompanied by his one-year-old child. He thought he was going get released into the community; that was not the case.”

  • Congressional Democratic candidates are more left-wing than ever. I’m sure a platform of repealing tax cuts will go over swell among ordinary voters… (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • Actor Peter Fonda (who you may remember as The Devil in Ghost Rider) went off on an “unhinged even by the standards of blue checkmark liberals on Twitter” rant in which he called for Barron Trump to be raped by pedophiles. To which reporter Juan Williams said Fonda’s rant was “poorly worded.” Oh really? Just how should someone word an appeal that the children of one’s political opponents be raped by pedophiles? Where does Miss Manners stand on this vital issue of 21st century American etiquette?
  • Related tweet:

  • Eric S. Raymond on the mathematics of gun confiscation. “The critical fraction of American gun owners that would have to be hard-core enough to resist confiscation with lethal violence in order to stop the attempt is lower than 1 in 317. Probably much lower. Especially if we responded by killing not merely the doorknockers but the bureaucrats and politicians who gave them their orders. Which would be more efficient, more just, and certain to follow.”
  • More on American gun owners:

    The Small Arms Survey estimates there are 393,300,000 civilian-owned firearms in the United States. The survey, performed by the Graduate Institute of Geneva, estimated the United States military has about 4.5 million firearms. It put the number of firearms owned by police throughout the United States at just over 1 million.

    That means American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly 400 times as many as law enforcement.

    Federal Bureau of Investigation background check records suggest that civilians bought more than 2 million guns in May alone, which means civilians purchase more than double the number of firearms owned by police departments. The number of gun-related civilian background checks in May and April, at over 4.7 million, is greater than the number of firearms currently owned by the American military.

    The FBI reported processing more than 25.2 million gun-related civilian background checks in 2017, which is more than the 22.7 million guns the Small Arms Survey estimates are currently held by every law enforcement agency in the world combined. Between 2012 and 2017, the FBI reported conducting more than 135 million civilian gun checks—more than the 133 million guns the Small Arms Survey estimates are in all the world’s military stockpiles.

    The Small Arms Survey estimated there are about 1 billion firearms currently in circulation throughout the world. By its estimate, about 85 percent are owned by civilians and American civilians own nearly 40 percent of all the guns in the world. Researchers said worldwide firearms ownership was up since the last time they studied the issue about a decade ago.

  • In Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that cell phone metadata is protected from warrantless search and seizure:

    “We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier’s database of physical location information,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “In light of the deeply revealing nature of CSLI, its depth, breadth, and comprehensive reach, and the inescapable and automatic nature of its collection, the fact that such information is gathered by a third party does not make it any less deserving of Fourth Amendment protection.”

    Roberts was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

    This is the rare case where I side with the court’s liberal wing against its conservative wing. If there is a constitutional right to privacy, then surely metadata, which reveals your minute-by-minute physical location, among many other things, should be covered.

  • Federal court rules that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional for exercising executive authority but putting its director beyond the each of Presidential power.
  • Turkish jihadist scumbag president Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls a snap election, a tactic that could backfire.
  • The Southern Poverty Law Center just paid $3,375,000 to British politician Maajid Nawaz for smearing him as an “anti-Muslim extremist.”
  • In the wake of that settlement, the SPLC could be facing dozens of lawsuits from anti-jihad organizations and activists it has similarly smeared.
  • Germany just gave in to President Trump’s tariff reduction demands. Our President just might know more about negotiation than his critics would admit… (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Evergreen State College professor warns that the campus Social Justice Warrior crisis is worse than people think. (Hat tip: Zero Hedge.)
  • Texas Democratic State Senator Carlos Uresti resigns after his felony conviction.
  • The Texas Supreme Court smacks down Austin’s plastic bag ban. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • D.C. votes to eliminate tipping.
  • Portland feminist bookstore closing. Naturally they blamed their poor business decisions on white male patriarchy. Insert your own Portlandia joke here.
  • West Virginia Democratic House candidate Richard Ojeda said he voted for Donald Trump.
  • As he himself foretold, Charles Krauthammer has died. He was a welcome voice of reason during the initial burst of Obamamania.
  • Commie soldier boy given an other-than-honorable discharge.
  • A long, sad profile of actor Johnny Depp. Stoned and broke because you can’t stop stupidly spending your money is no way to go through life, son…
  • Onion Social Embraces Diversity By Adding Prophet Mohammed Emoji.”
  • Ted Cruz kicks Jimmy Kimmel’s ass.
  • Hong Kong banks don’t want your stinking money.
  • “Stop! Hammertime!” (Hat tip: Dwight.)