Judge overturns California’s ‘assault weapons’ ban
Sometimes you have to argue on the terms set by others, so for the sake of this post we are going to pretend there is such a thing as an “assault weapon” and that it is not simply a made up term to describe black weapons the liberals think are scary looking. (I would argue we have been winning this battle in recent years, which is why the liberals have rebranded them as “weapons of war” or as “military-style” weapons)
Now we may be on the verge of winning some major battles and not simple a war of terms. California has had an “assault weapons” ban in place since the late 1980’s but that could be changing soon because a Federal Judge has just ruled this ban is unconstitutional, here is more:
A federal judge overturned California’s longtime ban on assault weapons on Friday in a ruling that likened the AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife.
Assault weapons have been banned in California since 1989, according to the ruling. The law has been updated several times since it was originally passed.
According to the ruling by US District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego, the assault weapons ban violates the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms and deprives Californians from owning assault-style weapons commonly allowed in other states. Benitez issued a permanent injunction Friday so the law cannot be enforced.
“Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” Benitez said in the ruling. “Firearms deemed as ‘assault weapons’ are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles.”
He also used the ruling to criticize the media’s portrayal of these weapons:
In his ruling, the judge also criticized the news media, writing, “One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles. The facts, however, do not support this hyperbole, and facts matter.”
According to the article the Judge issued a permanent injunction halting the ban, however it is unclear how “permanent” the injunction will be as California has vowed to appeal this ruling. Still, it is a step in the right direction and we have to hope that when this makes it to the Supreme Court the unpredictable court will hand down the proper decision.
US Government funneled millions of dollars to Wuhan clinic at the center of COVID controversy
So much has happened in regards to COVID-19 over the last year or so that you might not remember–and honestly, I did not–that last year all hell broke out with the Democrats when Donald Trump canceled a $3.7 grant to a non-profit organization named EcoHealth Alliance because of its connection with a certain lab in Wuhan. The Democrats went to the old standby line of attacks about our xenophobic, nativist, racist President but now we are finding out that one grant was just small potatoes when it comes to the Federal government funneling money to the lab in Wuhan at the center of the controversy. Here is more:
The Pentagon gave $39 million to a charity that funded controversial coronavirus research at a Chinese lab accused of being the source for Covid-19, federal data reveals.
The news comes as the charity’s chief, British-born scientist Dr. Peter Daszak, was exposed in an alleged conflict of interest and back-room campaign to discredit lab leak theories.
The charity, EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), has come under intense scrutiny after it emerged that it had been using federal grants to fund research into coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
The U.S. nonprofit, set up to research new diseases, has also partly funded deeply controversial ‘gain of function’ experiments, where dangerous viruses are made more infectious to study their effect on human cells.
Federal grant data assembled by independent researchers shows that the charity has received more than $123 million from the government – from 2017 to 2020 – and that one of its biggest funders is the Department of Defense, funneling almost $39 million to the organization since 2013.
Just to be clear that $39 million represents only the money sent to EcoHealth (ironic name by the way) from the Pentagon, the United States as a whole sent $123 million. It certainly looks as if the United States government was funding biological warfare research and then outsourced the work to China thinking that was somehow a good idea, and then China released the results of our own research on the world. And to think the Democrats must have known this when they opposed the cancelation of grant money to EcoHealth by Donald Trump…
Joe Biden to cancel oil and gas leases in ANWR
Gas prices might be skyrocketing since Joe Biden became President but apparently his policies, such as canceling the Keystone Pipeline, have not risen the prices high enough for him because he is now preparing to cancel oil and gas leases in ANWR. Here is more:
President Joe Biden’s administration will reportedly cancel several oil and gas leases granted in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the last weeks of the Trump administration
The decision was reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, and would mark an attempt to reverse one of President Donald Trump’s historic achievements: the opening of ANWR’s coastal plain in his tax cut legislation in December 2017.
The Post reported that “Interior would halt the leases on the grounds that Trump officials rushed the Jan. 6 auction and did not follow proper procedures.” But environmental groups have also lobbied to reverse Trump’s decision on ANWR.
With gas prices rising we are already seeing the price of goods and services rise along with them as the costs are passed on to us and it is only going to get worse over the next three years as the left pushes its radical global warming agenda. This is just the beginning and I thought good ole Uncle Joe and the Democrats cared about the little people…
Sunday, May 30th open thread: ‘Toxicity’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is System of a Down performing “Toxicity” live in 2005:
When last we left Doctor Fauci here at America’s Watchtower it was April 6th and he was should have been catching heat because it was just learned that while he was part of a group that was funding gain-of-function research on the COVID virus in Wuhan he bypassed proper Federal oversight.
Now today we are learning the stunning revelation that Doctor Fauci actually said this research (making a SARS-like virus more contagious) was so important it was worth the risk of causing a pandemic. Here is more:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director and medical advisor to Joe Biden, defended controversial “gain-of-function” research in 2012, and said the research was worth the risk of a pandemic.
“In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?” Fauci wrote in an article in the American Society for Microbiology in October 2012—which was first reported by The Australian. “Scientists working in this field might say — as indeed I have said — that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks.”
This news coupled with the fact that we know Doctor Fauci bypassed proper oversight leads me to take this to the next level. Perhaps he not only saw a pandemic as a risk worth taking but also an opportunity too good to pass up. Kind of like the Tuskegee Study…
Hunter Biden was paid $1,000,000 a year for sitting on the Board of Directors of Burisma despite having no experience in the energy field for the obvious reason of his father’s position as Vice President. Of course both Hunter and his father deny this was the reason, and also claim there was no wrong-doing–such as influence peddling–by either of them.
So it is either the greatest of ironies or the largest of coincidences that just two months after Joe Biden left office Burisma cut Hunter Biden’s salary in more than half. Here is more:
The Ukrainian energy company that was paying President Biden’s son Hunter $1 million a year cut his monthly compensation in half two months after his father ceased to be vice president.
From May 2014, Burisma Holdings Ltd. was paying Hunter $83,333 a month to sit on its board, invoices on his abandoned laptop show.
But in an email on March 19, 2017, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi asked Hunter to sign a new director’s agreement and informed him “the only thing that was amended is the compensation rate.”
“We are very much interested in working closely together, and the remuneration is still the highest in the company and higher than the standard director’s monthly fees. I am sure you will find it both fair and reasonable.”
After the email, the amount listed on Hunter’s monthly Burisma invoices was reduced to $41,500, effective from May 2017.
Still a hefty salary and higher than any other Board member–probably as a reward for influence peddled–but oddly just happens to coincide with the fact that Hunter no longer had anybody influential in the White House he could talk to for Burisma. But move along, nothing to see here…
We have seen several examples over the last year of politicians who have implemented strict COVID-19 protocols violating these protocols, evidently membership has its privileges…
There have been others, but the two most prominent members of the aristocracy to lecture the plebeians on wearing a mask only to violate the protocols themselves are Nancy Pelosi and none other than Joe Biden himself. Last year Michigan Governor Whitmer’s husband felt a little heat after trying to use his position to avoid COVID-19 protocols so he could get his boat in the water without waiting in line like everybody else.
This year Governor Whitmer herself decided to get into the act. According to this story she was seen at a restaurant with more than 6 people at her table and without wearing masks and this is a violation of her COVID-19 mandates. Here is more:
Whitmer and a large group of friends, including her appointed chief operations officer, Tricia Foster, visited the Landshark in East Lansing, violating her restaurant orders in the process, according to a photo one of the attendees posted on Facebook.
The group shot of 13 individuals appeared to violate the governor’s restaurant capacity order issued May 15 on “gathering limitations for entertainment establishments, recreational establishments, and food service establishments”:
Consumption of food or beverages is permitted only in a designated dining area where patrons are seated, groups of patrons are separated by at least 6 feet, no more than 6 patrons are seated together (at a table, booth, or group of fixed seats), and groups of patrons do not intermingle
“Now Whitmer has once again completely disregarded her own rules. Whitmer orders rules she and her staff don’t follow themselves while Michiganders and businesses suffer. Whitmer must end her restrictions immediately.”
The picture was eventually scrubbed from Facebook and reposted without the Governor or her aide but the damage was already done and her hypocrisy exposed. It is time for people in this country who live in States that still have the draconian COVID-19 mandates in place to say enough is enough and to start living again whether or not our exalted rulers want us to or not.
Sunday, May 23rd open thread: ‘This is the Day’
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24 KJV)
Here is this week’s open thread. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
You can subscribe to America’s Watchtower to receive email updates and you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right.
Here is The The performing “This is the Day” many, many years ago, enjoy:
In a story that sounds eerily similar to the multitude of stories involving pay to play with the Clinton Foundation we are now learning from this story that ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh made a $100,000 donation to the trust fund of Joe Biden’s grandchildren and then sought a little something something in return. Here is more:
Louis Freeh, who directed the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1993 to 2001, made a $100,000 donation to the trust fund of then-Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchildren in April 2016. In July 2016 and March 2017, Freeh approached Biden’s son Hunter, attempting to do business with Joe Biden, mentioning “some very good and profitable matters” that the former Vice President could “enhance.”
Freeh mentioned his hefty donation to the trust after reaching out to Hunter Biden to arrange business with his father, The New York Post reported. The Post published previously undisclosed emails between Freeh and Hunter Biden that the Post acquired by searching a copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“I would be delighted to do future work with you,” Freeh wrote to Hunter Biden in July 2016, three months after he made the donation. “I also spoke to Dad a few weeks ago and would like to explore with him some future work options. I believe that working together on these (and other legal) matters would be of value, fun and rewarding.”
The Biden’s obviously paid close attention to the way the Clinton’s operated over the years and have done a fine impression. We are told that one of the biggest reasons people voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump was because they wanted a return to normalcy and from the looks of it that is exactly what we have gotten. I hope everybody is happy…
We knew it was only a matter of time before we reached 1930’s Germany “show me your papers” types of “reform” in the United States in regards to the COVID-19 scare and now it looks like it will be sooner rather than later. Oregon is now going to require “businesses, employers and faith institutions” to set up what amounts to checkpoints at the entrances in order to check papers. Here is more:
“Businesses, employers and faith institutions now have the option to adjust their masking guidance to allow fully vaccinated individuals to no longer wear a mask in their establishments,” OHA’s website said. “Businesses, employers and faith institutions doing so must have a policy in place to check the vaccination status of all individuals before they enter their establishment. Businesses, employers and faith institutions who do not create such policies will maintain the same masking guidance listed below, regardless of an individual’s vaccination status.”
Notice this not only includes walking into a business such as a store, but also to church and to your place of employment.
You know this will not be a temporary measure implemented during this so-called crisis and this is just the beginning, other States will be following suit and this will spread across this once free nation.
Sieg heil!
America's Watchtower 