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White House: Full speed ahead on late-term abortion ban; Update: Passes House, 237-189

Get ready for another political maelstrom to burst open this week. Last night, the White House came down foursquare in favor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (HR36), which would bar all abortions after the 20th week of gestation. The statement emphasizes just how extreme US abortion procedures are among the global community:

“The United States is currently out of the mainstream in the family of nations,” the statement declares, “in which only 7 out of 198 nations allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.” That data comes from a 2014 study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which studied abortion practices. We are part of a dubious club of nations that includes North Korea, China, and Vietnam, as well as the Netherlands, Singapore, and … oh, Canada.  That basically puts us and Canada in league with euthanasists and forced-aborters, not exactly dignified company for Americans and Canadians.

Getting this bill through the House might be tough. Getting it through the Senate may be impossible, at least in this session. It will be subject to a cloture vote, which means it will need 60 votes to eventually get to a floor vote on the bill itself. Even if all 52 Republicans stand firm on HR36 — and that’s questionable considering the support for Planned Parenthood from Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski during the ObamaCare repeal efforts — they’d need eight Democrats to avoid a filibuster.

So … which Democrats will want to take on the abortion lobby? Planned Parenthood spent slightly over $20 million in the 2016 cycle, including $4 million in direct contributions, according to data at OpenSecrets. (In contrast, the NRA spent around $58 million in the same cycle, but only $1 million on direct contributions.) They’ll paint a target on their backs in a party that has declared unfettered abortion rights as a litmus test for candidates, and any support will draw an immediate primary challenge effort. Republicans will need a good midterm to push their numbers closer to the magic 60 to get this through, and right now there’s a fair chance that they may not hold the House after 2018.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has influence across the aisle, urged Senators from both parties to do the right thing and pass HR36. He called the bill “common-sense reform,” and wondered what is says about America that we even have to debate its wisdom:

“All decent and humane people are repulsed by the callous and barbarous treatment of women and children in clinics … that abort children after 20 weeks,” said the cardinal, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. He made the comments in letters to each member of the House.

“While there are divergent views on the practice of abortion,” Cardinal Dolan said, “it is widely recognized from public opinion polls that a strong majority of the public is consistently opposed to late-term abortions.” …

“What does it say about us as a nation, if we will not act against abortions that even full-time abortionists find abhorrent?” Cardinal Dolan asked.

Nothing good, Donald Trump appears to say. Believe me.

Update: It’s heading over to the Senate on what looks like an entirely party-line vote:

That doesn’t bode well for the bill in the upper chamber, but … we can pray for miracles.

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Hurricane Maria Could Change the Politics of Puerto Rico, Florida, and America Forever

Puerto Ricans relocating to Florida have already had a significant effect on the politics of the Sunshine State, and the process may well intensify after Hurricane Maria’s devastation of the island.

Since Florida is a hotly contested swing state that has changed the course of presidential elections, it’s no exaggeration to say that Maria may end up changing the American political landscape permanently.

Politico quotes San Juan Municipal Assembly President Marco Rigau bluntly predicting that the post-Maria exodus of up to one million Puerto Ricans will mean “a lot more people voting Democrat in Florida.”

“Puerto Ricans don’t like President Trump. When he shows on Tuesday, he’ll say, ‘The Puerto Ricans love me’ because people won’t be picketing. But he has no idea,” Rigau added, offering a preview of what the migration could mean for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020.

Florida already has about a million Puerto Rican residents, concentrated around Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. That gives Florida about 20 percent of the total Puerto Rican population in the continental United States. Far more Puerto Ricans live on the continent than on the island. If most of the anticipated evacuees decide to settle in Florida for the long term, it’s possible Florida could end up with more Puerto Ricans than Puerto Rico, whose current population is around 3.5 million. Lower-end estimates anticipate perhaps 100,000 new immigrants to Florida, which would still have a significant impact on the state’s precariously-balanced politics.

The Miami Herald noted in January that Florida has become a much more popular destination for Puerto Ricans than traditional favorites like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Driven by a recession on the island since 2006, Puerto Ricans were considered on track to become the largest Hispanic group in Florida by the next presidential election, and that was before Hurricane Maria.

The first Puerto Rican congressman from Florida, Democrat Darren Soto, was elected from the 9th District (eastern Orlando) in 2016. He defeated his Republican opponent Wayne Liebnitzky, by 15 points.

Politicians and strategists from both major political parties are already positioning themselves for a Puerto Rican influx to Florida. Everyone from Governor Rick Scott to the state’s congressional representatives has been deeply and visibly involved in hurricane relief efforts. Aggressive political warfare is being waged over President Trump’s handling of the crisis, most likely with an eye toward shaping the opinions of Puerto Ricans who decide to move stateside.

The Tampa Bay Times notes that Senator Marco Rubio won the Puerto Rico primary during his 2016 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and has favorably impressed island residents with his response to Hurricane Maria.

“Puerto Ricans are American citizens, they have the right to live anywhere in the country. They’ve certainly enriched Florida. My only view on it has been is that if people come to the mainland from Puerto Rico it should be because they want to, not because they have to,” Rubio said at a press conference last week.

Rubio also offered the politically difficult but logical observation that if a large number of Puerto Ricans leave after Maria, it will shrink the already distressed tax base and economy even further, making long-term recovery efforts difficult. It remains to be seen if such considerations sway potential evacuees, especially those who were already thinking about moving to Florida or New York in search of better job opportunities.

Many analysts thought the Puerto Rican economy was in a death spiral already, and it simply cannot absorb the shock of Maria. Conor Sen made some grim predictions at Bloomberg View.

While many Puerto Ricans will want to stay, or lack the resources to leave, we should be realistic about what shape the rebuilding process will take over the next several months. Electrical systems need wholesale reconstruction. Water systems were damaged. Agriculture is in ruins. Cell towers and power lines need to be rebuilt. And that’s to say nothing of roads, homes and schools. What Puerto Rico needs is a blank check of resources – political will, labor and money –  in order to rebuild. There’s a sad chance that the resources simply will not be found. The mainland should prepare for an influx of Puerto Ricans over the next several months and years. 

Emily Bonilla, a Puerto Rican elected to the Orange County Commission in Florida in 2016, speculated to the Tampa Bay Times that Puerto Ricans’ strong sense of family will motivate those already living in the United States to invite relatives in distress after Maria to come and live with them.

“We know people will come here. They have family here. They have friends here. They’re comfortable coming to Florida,” Governor Rick Scott said on Tuesday while announcing the opening of three aid centers for displaced Puerto Ricans, echoing Bonilla’s point about family ties.

“We’re going to do whatever we can. Do they need a job? Do they need housing? Do they need to find a family and friend? Is there a host family that could help them?” said Scott, who has been criticized by Florida Democrats for not doing as much as he could to help Puerto Rico after the hurricane. (Scott says Puerto Rico has not formally requested the aid materials assembled by Florida or committed to pay the upfront costs, as required by the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, but Democrats charge he’s allowing bureaucratic concerns to thwart the delivery of vitally needed supplies.)

“Scott declined to say whether Maria evacuees – upset at President Donald Trump’s handling of the disaster response – could turn into blue Florida voters casting ballots against the president and governor in future elections,” writes the Miami Herald.

This, of course, suggests that a reporter hit Scott with that supremely loaded question, and he “declined” to answer it. If he, or any other Republican, is foolish enough to answer a question like that in the heat of hurricane coverage, the new storyline will become that Republicans view Puerto Ricans as political enemies, even when they’re in distress.

Conor Sen took a shot at estimating the political fallout from Maria at Bloomberg View:

Since 2010, Pennsylvania’s Puerto Rican population has grown by 78,000. Donald Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by only 44,000 voters. Since 2010, Florida’s Puerto Rican population has grown by 220,000. Trump won that state by 113,000 votes. If Democrats flip those two states in 2020 and every other state voted as it did in 2016, Democrats will win the presidency. Now imagine Pennsylvania takes in another 100,000 Puerto Ricans, and Florida takes in another 300,000 over the next few years, all of whom would be eligible voters.

Republican Puerto Rican activist Jorge Bonilla offered a contrary view at Politico, noting that the PR vote has been more difficult for Democrats to turn out in practice than in theory. According to Bonilla, many register as independents because “they have seen the failure of partisan politics back home, and that’s why the Puerto Rican vote in Florida is so abysmally low.”

Still, the Puerto Rican vote is seen as easier for Democrats to get, especially if the political fallout from Maria response permanently damages Trump with evacuees. As attorney David Efron put it to Politico: “Trump should be doing everything in his power to rebuild Puerto Rico and keep people here. Otherwise they’re coming to Florida, and they’re not voting for Trump.”

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Video Shows Why Country Fans Were Best Prepared to Deal With Shooter

Culture

Video Shows Why Country Fans Were Best Prepared to Deal With Shooter

By Davis
on October 3, 2017 at 3:03pm

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On Monday morning, Americans woke up to news that scores of people had been slaughtered in Las Vegas, and hundreds more were wounded in the worst mass shooting in American history.

The carnage caused by one gunman is almost unfathomable. In the aftermath of the shooting, first responders were simply overwhelmed by the number of injured, and that’s when ordinary Americans stepped up to the plate, Tribunist reported.

Many people who attended the country music concert had pickup trucks, and soon those trucks were being loaded with injured people and driven straight to local hospitals where they could be treated for their injures.

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Video from the scene showed people being loaded into trucks. You can watch one video here. (WARNING: Images may be disturbing.)

With a crowd of 22,000 and over 500 injured, there are simply no plans that can work perfectly. All the first-responder training in the world can’t prepare you for something like that.

Luckily, there were ordinary citizens who were willing to step up and help transport the wounded to hospitals. And thanks to the fact that it was a country western concert, the kind of event  that drew more pickup truck owners in its audience than many other kinds of entertainment, it’s a good bet that many made it to a hospital for treatment who otherwise might not have.

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The level of death and injury is unlike anything this country has ever seen from a mass shooting. There are simply no words to describe the horrors that occurred on that fateful night.

However in the midst of all that pain and suffering, there were good people who stepped up to the plate, and helped out however they could and tried to save as many lives as possible.

From the people who shielded others from bullets with their own bodies, to the thousands of people who donated online to help out those injured, Americans came together after the shooting to help out in any way possible.

This shooting showed us the worst of humanity, but it showed us the best of what this nation has to offer. Going forward we need to remember that there is still more good than bad in this country — even after something as evil and horrific as this massacre.

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Statistician Who Championed Stringent Gun Control Now Argues Against It After Studying Data

Writing in The Washington Post, Leah Libresco, a statistician and former newswriter at FiveThirtyEight, the site run by famed statistician Nate Silver, admits that she reversed herself on gun control, evolving from blaming the NRA for gun deaths to realizing more stringent, blanket gun control was not an answer to gun deaths.

Libresco starts by confessing that before she started researching gun deaths, gun-control policy used to frustrate her, and she blamed the National Rifle Association for blocking the banning of assault weapons, restricting silencers, and shrinking magazine sizes.

Then she started analyzing data from the roughly 33,000 lives ended by guns each year in the United States, and a light bulb went on. She writes that when she examined the evidence, “The best ideas left standing were narrowly tailored interventions to protect subtypes of potential victims, not broad attempts to limit the lethality of guns.”

Notably, Libresco dismisses the oft-stated myth that the tight gun laws in Britain and Australia had any relevance for America, as she writes, “Neither nation experienced drops in mass shootings or other gun related-crime that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans.”

Libresco continues, “When I looked at the other oft-praised policies, I found out that no gun owner walks into the store to buy an ‘assault weapon.’ It’s an invented classification that includes any semi-automatic that has two or more features, such as a bayonet mount, a rocket-propelled grenade-launcher mount, a folding stock or a pistol grip. But guns are modular, and any hobbyist can easily add these features at home, just as if they were snapping together Legos.”

Libresco notes, “Silencers limit hearing damage for shooters but don’t make gunfire dangerously quiet. An AR-15 with a silencer is about as loud as a jackhammer.”

Some more reality: “Two-thirds of gun deaths in the United States every year are suicides. Almost no proposed restriction would make it meaningfully harder for people with guns on hand to use them.”

Segueing to the next-largest set of gun deaths, young men aged 15 to 34, killed in homicides, and the tertiary set, women killed (mostly as the result of domestic violence), Libresco decides, “Few of the popularly floated policies were tailored to serve them.”

Libresco writes, “I can’t endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them … I found the most hope in more narrowly tailored interventions.”

Suggestions?

Older men, who make up the largest share of gun suicides, need better access to people who could care for them and get them help. Women endangered by specific men need to be prioritized by police, who can enforce restraining orders prohibiting these men from buying and owning guns. Younger men at risk of violence need to be identified before they take a life or lose theirs and to be connected to mentors who can help them de-escalate conflicts.

Libresco concludes: “We save lives by focusing on a range of tactics to protect the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers, not from sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.”

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President Trump Stands Up for People with Down Syndrome, No Excuse to ‘Discard Human Life’

Amidst widely publicized efforts to eradicate people with Down syndrome, President Donald Trump has issued a forceful statement in their defense, calling for an end to discrimination based on genetic anomalies.

“Sadly, there remain too many people – both in the United States and throughout the world – that still see Down syndrome as an excuse to ignore or discard human life,” Trump said in an official statement recognizing Down Syndrome Awareness Month. “This sentiment is and will always be tragically misguided. We must always be vigilant in defending and promoting the unique and special gifts of all citizens in need.”

“We should not tolerate any discrimination against them, as all people have inherent dignity,” the President added.

In August, CBS News aired a report revealing that nearly 100 percent of pregnant women in Iceland whose babies test positive for Down Syndrome end up aborting their children, a statistic that many view as a sign of “progress.”

“My understanding is that we have basically eradicated, almost, Down syndrome from our society—that there is hardly ever a child with Down syndrome in Iceland anymore,” said Kari Stefansson, a geneticist and the founder of deCODE Genetics, a company that has studied nearly the entire Icelandic population’s genomes.

The selective abortion of babies suspected of having Down syndrome jumped by 34 percent between 2011 and 2014, due to “increased access to blood tests via private clinics,” according to an article by Tim Stanley in the Telegraph early last year.

Stanley cited the head of a midwife association in Denmark, who declared: “When you can discover almost all the foetuses with Down Syndrome, then we are approaching a situation in which almost all of them will be aborted.”

Also in 2016, France’s State Council confirmed a television ban of an award-winning video showing smiling children with Down syndrome, declaring that the “inappropriate” images of happy Down syndrome children might bother women who had chosen to abort their babies.

The Council stated that the video in question could not be shown since it was “likely to trouble the conscience of women who had made different personal life choices in compliance with the law.”

Crusades to terminate babies with Down syndrome are not limited to Iceland, Denmark and France. Last month, an Indiana judge ruled in favor of abortion giant Planned Parenthood in a suit brought against HEA 1337, a state law banning abortions based on a prenatal diagnosis of disabilities such as Down syndrome.

In a 22-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, an Obama appointee, issued a permanent injunction against Indiana’s “Sex Selective and Disability Abortion Ban” that protected babies with Down syndrome from being aborted because of their condition.

The first “National Down Syndrome Month” was celebrated in 1984, after President Ronald Reagan signed a Congressional joint resolution proclaiming the first commemoration of its kind. It has been more than ten years since another U.S. president officially marked the celebration.

In his statement this week, President Trump noted “the significant contributions that people with Down syndrome make to their families, to their communities, and to our Nation.”

“We also salute the family members, caregivers, medical professionals, and advocates who have dedicated themselves to ensuring that these extraordinary people enjoy lives filled with love and increasing opportunity,” he said.

“This month,” he said, “we renew our Nation’s strong commitment to promoting the health, well-being, and inherent dignity of all children and adults with Down syndrome.”

Trump said that a key aim of the month is to “increase public awareness regarding the true nature of this condition, and to dispel the stubborn myths” that still surround it.

“The approximately 250,000 Americans with Down syndrome truly embody the great spirit of our Nation,” Trump wrote.

“They inspire joy, kindness, and wonder in our families, our workplaces, and our communities. We will always endeavor to make sure that their precious gifts are never maligned or taken for granted,” he said.

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Democrats Beg Susan Collins to Stay in the Senate

Senate Democrats beg Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) not to run for governor of Maine, a move that would rid the Senate of one of its most liberal Republicans.

When Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) heard that Sen. Collins might run for Maine governor in 2018, Heitkamp texted Collins, “Don’t do it.” Heitkamp added, “I desperately hope she doesn’t run.”

Collins’ departure would serve as another blow to moderates and centrists in the upper chamber of Congress. She was an infamous roadblock against repealing Obamacare this year; Collins’ vote against the “skinny” Obamacare repeal bill and opposition to the Graham-Cassidy block grant legislation tanked Obamacare repeal twice.

Collins’ opposition to Obamacare repeal drew the ire of Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who endorsed the Graham-Cassidy legislation. During the Graham-Cassidy debate, Gov. LePage called on Collins to “start paying attention to Maine people.”

Most Republicans remain quiet about whether Collins should stay in the Senate or run for governor, although Senate Democrats and independents continue to urge her to stay in Congress.

Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who caucuses with Democrats, reportedly urged her to remain in the Senate also.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), too, called on her to stay in the Senate. McCaskill claimed, “She’s so important to the country here. We don’t have enough folks like her.”

Sen. Collins faces an uphill battle if she runs for governor of Maine. A survey indicated that Collins has become increasingly unpopular among Maine Republican primary voters. Sixty-two percent of Maine citizens disapproved of her job performance, and 62 percent of those polled also said they would rather vote for someone else in the Republican primary for Maine governor. Forty-four percent of Maine Republicans polled suggested they would rather support Mary Mayhew, the former Health and Human Services commissioner for Maine. Sixty-one percent of Maine Republican primary voters suggested that Sen. Collins’ voting against Obamacare repeal made them less likely to vote for Collins for governor.

Given that Collins voted against Obamacare repeal in 2015, voted against the “skinny” repeal in July, and opposed the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal bill this fall, some conservatives have questioned whether she represents Maine in the Senate as a Republican in name only.

Jason Pye, vice president of legislative affairs for FreedomWorks, asked, “Is Susan Collins actually a Republican? She conferences with the Republicans, there’s an R next to her name, but a question mark is more appropriate.”

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Professor Targeted for Termination over Column Critical of Transgender Activists

Professor Targeted for Termination over Column Critical of Transgender Activists

AP Photo

The Associated Press

by Tom Ciccotta2 Oct 20170

2 Oct, 2017
2 Oct, 2017

Boise State Professor Scott Yenor has been targeted for termination by students after he published a column critical of transgender activists.

Yenor published a column in The Daily Signal that criticized a new law passed in Canada that would prevent families from adopting children if such parents would refuse to acknowledge a child’s chosen gender identity. “This can be seen in the Canadian province of Ontario, which passed a law allowing state agencies to prevent families that will not affirm a child’s chosen “gender identity” from adopting or providing foster care to children,” he wrote.”

“Children in Ontario can now make life-altering decisions before the age of consent against their parents’ wishes,” Yenor added.

During a campus debate that took place on September 25, some students argued that Yenor’s column could be considered hate speech. Others called for him to be terminated.

An op-ed in the school’s student newspaper entitled “Fire Scott Yenor” makes the case for his termination. “Women, survivors, and queer folk shouldn’t have to learn constitutional law from a slut-shaming trans-phobe who isn’t even in favor of gay marriage,” the student wrote.

A petition signed by over 2,000 people calls on Boise State to fire Yenor. “Boise State University Professor, Dr. Scott Yenor, has recently published an article that threatens the existence of queer and non-binary folks by promoting rhetorical violence against their livelihood,” the petition reads. “For multiple reasons, Dr. Scott Yenor is unfit to teach, but largely that he promotes an ideology of violence is grounds for his dismissal.”

The President of Boise State’s Young Democrats is also calling for Yenor to be fired. In a statement made to a local television station, Joe Goode argued that Yenor’s column is hate speech. “In our belief, this is hate speech, and it’s alienating a lot of folks in this Boise State community,” he said. “We want to show that our university stands for more than hate, we are a community of equality and inclusivity.”

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Millionaires Want Anthem Disgraced, But Didn’t Count on These Teenagers Showing Up

Culture

Millionaires Want Anthem Disgraced, But Didn’t Count on These Teenagers Showing Up

By V Saxena
on October 3, 2017 at 3:30pm

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While the multimillionaire athletes in the NFL continued their disgraceful national anthem protests last week, students at a Georgia high school took it upon themselves to show the world what real patriotism and unity look like.

Prior to a home match-up Friday against Greater Atlanta Christian School, football players from Fannin County High School rushed onto the field carrying dozens of large American flags.

And although the team wound up losing the game that followed, the inspirational message of patriotism and unity they imparted continues to resonate with many.

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Watch:

The performance, which was reportedly organized by players, coaches, and parents to pay tribute to veterans and those currently serving in the armed forces, was beautiful, wouldn’t you say? Local district superintendent Michael Gwatney certainly thought so.

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“It was an awesome and unifying moment for the audiences on both sides of our stadium and reminded us that no matter what team we support, we are all Americans,” he said to local station WSB.

Here’s the kicker: According to Gwatney, one of the team’s football players has joined the military. Excellent decision.

Unfortunately, not everyone appreciated this grand gesture by Fannin County High School’s football team. In fact, station WSB’s Facebook page was littered with negative comments from racial grievance mongers desperate to besmirch this moment of unity.

“(T)he protests were never about the flag !!” barked one very angry Facebook user. “A lot of Whites figure if they keep the conversation about the flag & the anthem ; THEY WON’T HAVE TO DISCUSS THE REAL PROBLEM !!!”

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Many Americans, including the NFL’s multimillionaires, have forgotten how lucky they are to live in the freest nation on Earth. However, the patriotic boys at Fannin County High School certainly haven’t.

H/T TheBlaze

Please share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know what you think about the awesome stand for patriotism and unity these high school football players took.

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Jimmy Kimmel Didn’t Cry for the Nearly 59 People Shot Each Month in Chicago

Jimmy Kimmel Didn’t Cry for the Nearly 59 People Shot Each Month in Chicago

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

by AWR Hawkins3 Oct 20170

3 Oct, 2017
3 Oct, 2017

During the opening monologue on Monday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, host Jimmy Kimmel cried over the Las Vegas attack, pushed for more gun control, bad-mouthed Republicans, but did not say a word about the number of innocents gunned down in Chicago every month.

Kimmel rightly lamented the “59 innocent” who are dead as result of the Las Vegas attack, but there was a not a peep about the nearly 59 a month on average that have been killed year-to-date in Chicago in 2017.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the current death toll for Chicago 2017 sits at 527.

Moreover, Kimmel’s monologue contained no lamentations for the more than 63 individuals who were killed on average every month in Chicago during 2016 (the Chicago Tribune reported a total of 762 murders for 2016). And nothing was said for the nearly 4,400 victims who were shot and wounded during 2016.

But Kimmel suggests Republicans ought to be ashamed for not passing more gun control now.

Chicago is a tough one for the left because all the gun control imaginable has been tried–including an all-out ban on handguns — so Chicago is actually a case study in the ineffectiveness of gun control; an example of how murder numbers rise when strict gun control laws are in place.

For example, the handgun ban was instituted from 1982 to 2010 and Breitbart News reported that the death toll was much higher during that time. Chicago Police Department reports show there were 850 homicides during 1993. That is nearly 100 more homicides in 1993 than the 762 homicides for 2016. Moreover, the Chicago Police Department shows there were 930 homicides in 1994; 921 homicides in 1991; and a startling 940 homicides in 1992. If you break these figures down by averages, it means over 78 individuals were killed every month in 1992, 70 were killed every month in 1993, and 77 were killed every month in 1994.

Where is the hand-wringing for these deaths?

We should mourn every innocent life that was taken in Las Vegas and we should be outraged at the animal who took those lives. But we should also be broken over the death that continues to mark Chicago and we should be outraged at the vestiges of gun control that continue to make the acquisition of self-defense handguns a difficult proposition.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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The Left Pulls the Trigger

Once again, Democrats are screaming that the ones who must pay the price for a lunatic’s evil are those who had nothing to do with that evil. Knowing that almost all the guns in this country are owned by their political opposition, they see every mass shooting as an opportunity, a gift, if you will, by which they can achieve something truly immoral and unjust: the forcible eradication of the right of self-defense against enemies, foreign and domestic, though mostly domestic. They still haven’t forgotten that they will never fully overthrow this country if its citizens are armed and can resist totalitarian fascism, which is always preceded by disarmament of the populace. Disarmament is a unique trait of the political left.

What makes this rerun all the more galling is the fraudulent emotionalism with which they try once again, before the bodies have even been identified, to manipulate peoples’ decency into agreeing to a “solution” that solves only the political dilemma of how quickly they can prevent us from defending ourselves against them. To achieve this political goal, it has become necessary to demonize guns, making each and every one of them a non-negotiable instrument of evil incarnate. By doing so, they have successfully fooled the gullible and weak into agreeing that we should not focus upon who is holding the gun at the time of a crime, or what motivates their actions, but only upon the fact that there is a gun, creating the absurd alternate reality in which the gun controls the person, rather than the opposite.

The left loves alternate realities. Indeed, their existence depends entirely upon impressive numbers of people who have accepted alternate realities and live their lives based entirely upon them. All whites are racist, white supremacists, and Nazis, but all blacks and Hispanics are victims, merely helpless or incompetent rubes who cannot succeed without the benevolence of the left. Human fetuses are not developing humans, but are lumps of tissue. Boys can be girls, and girls can be boys. Islam is a religion of peace. All weather is bad because it is caused by global warming. Republicans hate everyone, while Democrats love the people they used to own but who they now simply trick into living in poverty, waiting for the redemption that never comes and never will. And guns kill people, so no further inquiry is required.

But if we are going to have this great national discussion concerning guns, shouldn’t we be looking for actual patterns and trends? Shouldn’t we investigate things that repeat? Instead of blaming those who do not pull the triggers, shouldn’t we be focusing almost entirely on the commonalities of those who do? After all, if most of those committing gun violence can be narrowed down to a specific subset of society, and their anomaly can be identified and eliminated, while still preserving the rights of the law-abiding, wouldn’t that be a more sensible, logical solution to a clear problem?

Of course, but the left does not want this. Like the Palestinians, who want the war more than they want the peace, the left wants the violence more than they want to solve it. This is so for a couple of obvious reasons. As pointed out previously, they will never stop trying to disarm us so that they can own us and all we have. They pursue socialism and the redistribution of however much wealth they can steal through the force of government. Gun crimes are useful to the left. Mass shootings are gifts, which they cynically exploit as quickly and hysterically as possible, establishing an alternate reality their puppets will believe, before the truth comes out about the shooter.

Which leads me to the second reason the left does not actually want to solve the problem of “gun violence”. In most mass shooting incidents within the last several years, with the notable exception of Dylan Roof, the shooters are either on the political left, or are beneficiaries of the protections of the political left, including those practicing extremism on behalf of the so-called Religion of Peace. There have been examples of how the political left attempted to get out ahead of the facts and prematurely blamed a conservative, such as in the Aurora theater shootings, but then it came out that the shooter was actually a Democrat and the media’s bigotry and hatred were exposed for all to see.

However, merely being exposed would not dissuade the press from telling lies, since they still do that. No, the reason they have stopped talking about who carried out the latest shooting is because it is almost always someone on the political left, including those who have registered to vote as a Democrat, or identify as an anarchist, or a socialist, or a communist, or a “resister”, or whatever leftist grievance-correction mechanism they embrace. They are both victim and avenger. The political left is the country’s incubator of irrational social violence, and nothing so distinguishes them from the rest of the spectrum as their propensity for and embrace of violence as a tool. Whether in the streets of Chicago, or in an MS-13 murder, or while yelling “Allahu Akbar”, or on a baseball field in Virginia, those under the umbrella of the political left are responsible for almost all “gun violence” in this country.   

In their mental-illness cult, they rationalize the immorality of their violence as a moral means to their end, which is their dominance and control over all of us. If we really wanted to stop gun violence, we wouldn’t have to look very far for something to correct. The mentality that encourages the belief in the morality of the use of a gun against one’s “enemies” has preceded every mass shooting carried out by someone on the political left. The mentality that purposefully shields this from public view to bring about political dominance is equally to blame.

The political left cannot afford to have more people understand that it is they who have created the problem they pretend to try to solve by disarming those they deeply hate and wish to see subservient.  They could not be more dishonest or disingenuous than they are each time they step up to a microphone, within minutes of a crime committed by one of their own, or quoting statistics that derive from the actions of their political brethren, and demand that the rest of us be punished for what they allow to persist every day. We help them whenever we fail to point out that this supposed crisis is almost entirely of their own creation, carried out by almost entirely by their adherents.  

If we really wanted to solve gun violence, we should start by identifying the political movement that invites and then hides that violence and its causes, so that the criminality it enables can be used as a political tool to disarm its enemies. 

Once again, Democrats are screaming that the ones who must pay the price for a lunatic’s evil are those who had nothing to do with that evil. Knowing that almost all the guns in this country are owned by their political opposition, they see every mass shooting as an opportunity, a gift, if you will, by which they can achieve something truly immoral and unjust: the forcible eradication of the right of self-defense against enemies, foreign and domestic, though mostly domestic. They still haven’t forgotten that they will never fully overthrow this country if its citizens are armed and can resist totalitarian fascism, which is always preceded by disarmament of the populace. Disarmament is a unique trait of the political left.

What makes this rerun all the more galling is the fraudulent emotionalism with which they try once again, before the bodies have even been identified, to manipulate peoples’ decency into agreeing to a “solution” that solves only the political dilemma of how quickly they can prevent us from defending ourselves against them. To achieve this political goal, it has become necessary to demonize guns, making each and every one of them a non-negotiable instrument of evil incarnate. By doing so, they have successfully fooled the gullible and weak into agreeing that we should not focus upon who is holding the gun at the time of a crime, or what motivates their actions, but only upon the fact that there is a gun, creating the absurd alternate reality in which the gun controls the person, rather than the opposite.

The left loves alternate realities. Indeed, their existence depends entirely upon impressive numbers of people who have accepted alternate realities and live their lives based entirely upon them. All whites are racist, white supremacists, and Nazis, but all blacks and Hispanics are victims, merely helpless or incompetent rubes who cannot succeed without the benevolence of the left. Human fetuses are not developing humans, but are lumps of tissue. Boys can be girls, and girls can be boys. Islam is a religion of peace. All weather is bad because it is caused by global warming. Republicans hate everyone, while Democrats love the people they used to own but who they now simply trick into living in poverty, waiting for the redemption that never comes and never will. And guns kill people, so no further inquiry is required.

But if we are going to have this great national discussion concerning guns, shouldn’t we be looking for actual patterns and trends? Shouldn’t we investigate things that repeat? Instead of blaming those who do not pull the triggers, shouldn’t we be focusing almost entirely on the commonalities of those who do? After all, if most of those committing gun violence can be narrowed down to a specific subset of society, and their anomaly can be identified and eliminated, while still preserving the rights of the law-abiding, wouldn’t that be a more sensible, logical solution to a clear problem?

Of course, but the left does not want this. Like the Palestinians, who want the war more than they want the peace, the left wants the violence more than they want to solve it. This is so for a couple of obvious reasons. As pointed out previously, they will never stop trying to disarm us so that they can own us and all we have. They pursue socialism and the redistribution of however much wealth they can steal through the force of government. Gun crimes are useful to the left. Mass shootings are gifts, which they cynically exploit as quickly and hysterically as possible, establishing an alternate reality their puppets will believe, before the truth comes out about the shooter.

Which leads me to the second reason the left does not actually want to solve the problem of “gun violence”. In most mass shooting incidents within the last several years, with the notable exception of Dylan Roof, the shooters are either on the political left, or are beneficiaries of the protections of the political left, including those practicing extremism on behalf of the so-called Religion of Peace. There have been examples of how the political left attempted to get out ahead of the facts and prematurely blamed a conservative, such as in the Aurora theater shootings, but then it came out that the shooter was actually a Democrat and the media’s bigotry and hatred were exposed for all to see.

However, merely being exposed would not dissuade the press from telling lies, since they still do that. No, the reason they have stopped talking about who carried out the latest shooting is because it is almost always someone on the political left, including those who have registered to vote as a Democrat, or identify as an anarchist, or a socialist, or a communist, or a “resister”, or whatever leftist grievance-correction mechanism they embrace. They are both victim and avenger. The political left is the country’s incubator of irrational social violence, and nothing so distinguishes them from the rest of the spectrum as their propensity for and embrace of violence as a tool. Whether in the streets of Chicago, or in an MS-13 murder, or while yelling “Allahu Akbar”, or on a baseball field in Virginia, those under the umbrella of the political left are responsible for almost all “gun violence” in this country.   

In their mental-illness cult, they rationalize the immorality of their violence as a moral means to their end, which is their dominance and control over all of us. If we really wanted to stop gun violence, we wouldn’t have to look very far for something to correct. The mentality that encourages the belief in the morality of the use of a gun against one’s “enemies” has preceded every mass shooting carried out by someone on the political left. The mentality that purposefully shields this from public view to bring about political dominance is equally to blame.

The political left cannot afford to have more people understand that it is they who have created the problem they pretend to try to solve by disarming those they deeply hate and wish to see subservient.  They could not be more dishonest or disingenuous than they are each time they step up to a microphone, within minutes of a crime committed by one of their own, or quoting statistics that derive from the actions of their political brethren, and demand that the rest of us be punished for what they allow to persist every day. We help them whenever we fail to point out that this supposed crisis is almost entirely of their own creation, carried out by almost entirely by their adherents.  

If we really wanted to solve gun violence, we should start by identifying the political movement that invites and then hides that violence and its causes, so that the criminality it enables can be used as a political tool to disarm its enemies. 

via American Thinker

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