Trump announces he will not run for a second term

Bump-fire Banned
Let me drop this here before the sun sets.

Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.
— Donald J. Trump, 1:50 PM – 23 Mar 20181:50 PM – 23 Mar 2018

In case you’ve forgotten how stupid (and contrary to physical reality) this is.

And yes; The Zelman Partisans opposes this. Accepting this is in no way a compromise. We did not get reciprocal carry. We did get a dangerous Fix NICS. And this isn’t a merely bump-fire ban; it’s effectively a ban on semiautomatic firearms (and if you think Feinstein, Schumer et al aren’t aware of that, you weren’t paying attention): parts is parts.

As in: all parts of a machinegun are a machinegun, under federal law and rules.

How stupid is this?

This stupid:

SMOD is starting to look better, eh?

It’s just Wednesday, and we have…

“Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool.”
“By the way, bump stocks, we’re writing that out. I’m writing that out myself, I don’t care if Congress does it or not, I’m writing it out myself, OK? You put it into the machine-gun category, which is what it is, it becomes essentially a machine gun.”

— President Donald Trump, February 26, 2018

Bump-fire stock ban by executive order, contrary to the language of statutory law. I’ve heard conspiratorial claims that this is Trump being a genius; that the plan is to issue a blatantly unconstitutional order that SCOTUS will conveniently strike down as… blatantly unconstitutional, thus closing the door forever on ban by fiat.

Bull shit. Please recall the current SCOTUS rejection of RKBA challenges. Gorsuch has been so effective

Meanwhile…

President Donald Trump embraced Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) gun control bill but rejected Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-LA) push for national reciprocity during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers Wednesday afternoon.
[…]
The Manchin/Toomey gun control bill is the same universal background check legislation supported by Barack Obama in the wake of the heinous attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School. It the very bill that was defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate on April 17, 2013.
[…]
Trump spoke of the using the Manchin/Toomey bill “as a base” to which other gun bills can be added, and then continued taking comments from various senators and representatives in attendance.
[…]
Trump shut down Scalise’s reciprocity push, suggesting the gun control package being pieced together would never pass if national reciprocity were added to it.

Oh boy; the return of Manchin-Toomey-Gottlieb. What? You forgot that Alan Gottlieb admitted to helping draft that human/civil rights-raping monstrosity?

On the bright side, I get to resurrect some old graphics (which, frankly, I hoped I’d retired for good).

 

Please note: Trump considers Manchin-Toomey-Gottlieb “‘a base’ to which other gun bills can be added.” As bad as it is, Trump means that as a mere start.

I’m sorry to have been right. I warned you that Trump wasn’t necessarily a good anti-HRC vote: “assault weapon” bans, waiting periods… gun-free zones. Just wait.

And this…

Trump: ‘Take the Guns First, Go Through Due Process Second’
“I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump emphasized. And he said this:

“Take the guns first, go through due process second.”

Which is no due process at all.

I still have some Sweet Meteor O’Death 2016 signs for sale, if you’d like to retro-edit reality and disavow any pro-Trump vote out of sheer embarrassment.

 

See the right sidebar for other options.

Brennan Testimony: TL;DR

o John Brennan, the former CIA director is testifying before the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Congresscritter: Do you have evidence that the Russian government colluded with the Trump campaign to affect the election?

Weasel: I believe they did. (actually took about five minutes to say that)

Congresscritter: Do you have evidence that the Russian government colluded with the Trump campaign to affect the election?

Weasel: No. But they did. (that was around ten minutes and counting, when I walked out)

Lather, rinse, repeat, go to start.

Lamestream Muddia: Seth Rich nonstory

If you’re the sort who normally reads my ramblings, you probably heard the latest on the Seth Rich case. If you aren’t, if you rely on the mainstream media for your approved facts, then you probably didn’t.

News media blackout over Seth Rich revelations
The story that many conservative media considered a “bombshell” Tuesday didn’t even register as a blip on the screens of CNN, ABC and CBS.

All three of the networks completely ignored the revelations by a private investigator that DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was shot dead last July while walking home from a bar, had leaked more than 44,000 internal DNC emails to WikiLeaks before his death.

If you’re in the second, less-informed group, Rich was the DNC staffer who was killed — shortly after emails embarrassing to the the Clinton campaign and the DNC went public — in a robbery in which nothing was taken: not his smartphone, wallet, expensive nor wristwatch. Upon hearing those little facts, even I — who generally prefer to avoid unsubstantiated conspiracy theories other than for entertainment — immediately thought Hmm, a DNC staffer with access to the system allegedly hacked by “Russians” mysteriously dies after Hillary is outed and embarrassed; how convenient… again.

Oh well. You want the “real news” to cover the story? Start passing along an “unconfirmed rumor” that Rich was a Trump mole killed to hide the link. Instant 3 inch headline above the fold.

A call for some pagan discussion

About this*:

Mass Spell to Bind Donald Trump Feb. 24th
RITUAL (v. 2.1):

(Light white candle)
“Hear me, oh spirits
Of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air
Heavenly hosts
Demons of the infernal realms
And spirits of the ancestors
(Light inscribed orange candle stub)
I call upon you
To bind
Donald J. Trump
So that he may fail utterly

That he may do no harm
To any human soul
Nor any tree
Animal
Rock
Stream
or Sea
Bind him so that he shall not break our polity
Usurp our liberty
Or fill our minds with hate, confusion, fear, or despair
And bind, too,
All those who enable his wickedness
And those whose mouths speak his poisonous lies
I beseech thee, spirits, bind all of them
As with chains of iron
Bind their malicious tongues
Strike down their towers of vanity
(Invert Tower tarot card)
I beseech thee in my name
(Say your full name)
In the name of all who walk
Crawl, swim, or fly
Of all the trees, the forests,
Streams, deserts,
Rivers and seas
In the name of Justice
And Liberty
And Love
And Equality
And Peace
Bind them in chains
Bind their tongues
Bind their works
Bind their wickedness.”

Most of what little I know of pagan magic is generic Wicca. But it seems to me that a spell specifically invoked to make a person “fail utterly” is a curse. That’s considerably more than something like prevent him from doing harm.

This person even says “In other words, this is not the equivalent of magically punching a Nazi; rather, it is ripping the bullhorn from his hands, smashing his phone so he can’t tweet, tying him up, and throwing him in a dark basement where he can’t hurt anyone.”

Theft, destruction of property, assault, and kidnapping are harm. And this isn’t directed against Trump alone; it targets anyone who supports Trump. That would roughly 50-55% pf the country according to some recent polls.

Anyone planning to participate? Why? Would any Wiccans weigh in on whether (and why) this is harmful or not? Is this a “binding” or “curse”? Where is the line between them?

In mundane terms, if I have a hateful neighbor who speaks outlandishly about doing lawful acts, some of which might adversely impact me, I cannot pull a gun and force him to shut up. I can’t steal and smash his property, kidnap him, and hold him in my basement, just in case.

But… If said neighbor kicked in my front door, waved a gun, and announced his imminent intent to injure/kill and rob me, I would be justified in exercising self-defense to stop him and even hold him for the police to haul off.

Note the differences in the scenarios: Lawful vs. unlawful acts, speech vs. acts, the freakin’ imminent threat vs. fears that something might not be what I like.

OK, pagans; speak up.


* I don’t see who is behind this. It could be real, or it could be someone trolling pagans. Anyone know?

Register with WHO?

Does she realize there is no registry?

Madeleine Albright ‘ready to register as Muslim’ over refugee suspension
Madeleine Albright the former secretary of state, tweeted Wednesday that she is prepared to register as a Muslim in ‘solidarity’ as reports say President Trump plans on suspending the U.S.’s refugee program for 120 days.

Killing them is all good, though.

Twitter Diplomacy

Hmm…

Ana Navarro Destroy’s Trump’s Secretary of State Brouhaha With Single Tweet
“Let’s stop obsessing over who’ll be Secretary of State. We don’t need one. Our Twitterer-in-Chief can set foreign policy in 140 characters”

But I thought it was fine when Obama did it.

Not to mention a certain Secretary of State.

Thanks for the inspiration @ASmith83 & @Sllambe – I’ll take it from here… #tweetsfromhillary

— @hillaryclinton

To pursue, or not to pursue…

…isn’t the question. The question is if someone said this, and who it supposedly was.

From the New York Post:

Trump won’t pursue charges against Clinton
President-elect Donald Trump won’t subject Hillary Clinton to a criminal inquiry — instead, he’ll help her heal, his spokeswoman said Tuesday. “I think when the president-elect who’s also the head of your party … tells you before he’s even inaugurated he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone and content, to the members,” Kellyanne Conway told the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” who first reported that the president-elect would not pursue his campaign pledge to “lock up” Clinton, his Democratic opponent.

Except the MSNBC link doesn’t say that. The talking heads simply say that an unnamed “source” said that Trump has no interest in pursuing an investigation of Clinton’s email usage or foundation. No names in that link, no mention of “healing.”

WTF?

Does anyone have a better source for this apparent 180 on Trump’s part?

Added: Breitbart has a better video link.

“I think when the President-elect, who’s also the head of your party, tells you before he’s even inaugurated that he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone, and content to the members,” Conway said. “And I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that the majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest and trustworthy. But if Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that is a good thing. Look, I think he’s thinking of many different things as he is preparing to become president of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign aren’t among them.”

So it sounds like Conway’s saying that Trump told her he isn’t interested in pursuing charges, but the whole bit about “healing” is her own thought. Now I’d like to see an actual statement from the Trumpster himself saying yea or nay.

But his transition team saying stuff like this…

It’s almost as if he’s deliberately reversing the one thing that got a lot of doubters to vote for him, juts before the Electoral College votes, to torpedo his real election.