Last night, President Joe Biden gave his second State of the Union address. It was difficult to watch at points. Biden made a series of questionable statements like claiming that he added 12 million new jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Biden has only added 2.7 million overall jobs. However, it was his statement on assault weapons that stood out for some of us who have previously flagged his claims as legally and statistically flawed. The claims have not improved with repetition.
The same lines appeared again in the address virtually verbatim from prior campaign speeches:
“Ban assault weapons once and for all.
We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994.
In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled.
Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.”
I would truly like to “finish the job” and have the President drop this dubious claim. Biden again does not define what he means by assault weapons. He previously has included 9mm handguns in his proposed ban.
The President is referring to the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act or Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The law banned the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms as well as some large capacity ammunition magazines. That ten-year ban was signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994 but expired on September 13, 2004.
That was before the Supreme Court recognized that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to gun ownership in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008. The Act was not challenged under the Second Amendment in any major litigation.
Putting aside the constitutional challenges, the President’s factual claim is far from established. Indeed, there is no evidence that the ban had any appreciable impact on gun violence and most studies questioned the impact even on mass shootings. There does appear to have been a decrease during this period and an increase after the period. However, the cause-and-effect claim has never been well-established.
Support for this claim could be based on a 2019 study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery that found that “Mass-shooting related homicides in the United States were reduced during the years of the federal assault weapons ban of 1994 to 2004”. However, the authors said that this reduction was merely “observational” and that the Act was not clearly the cause of the reduction in shootings and deaths.
A Rand study found such claims “inconclusive” while the National Institute of Justice noted:
“A number of factors—including the fact that the banned weapons and magazines were rarely used to commit murders in this country, the limited availability of data on the weapons, other components of the Crime Control Act of 1994, and State and local initiatives implemented at the same time—posed challenges in discerning the effects of the ban.”
Even the Washington Post noted that “Part of the problem is that the assault weapons ban existed for only 10 years, and there are relatively few mass shootings per year, making it difficult to fully assess its impact.” The Post would only say that some studies show the law was “effective.”
A 2020 study published in Criminology and Public Policy found that “bans on assault weapons had no clear effects on either the incidence of mass shootings or on the incidence of victim fatalities from mass shootings.” This study noted that “most mass shootings do not involve assault rifles, but many involve the use of [large caliber magazines].”
A 2004 Justice Department study found little support for this cause-and-effect claim.
The obvious problem with this claim is that mass shootings are statistically rare. It is very hard to associate a decrease to the law, particularly with the abundance of existing weapons and the fact that many shootings do not involve the AR-15 or similar models.
The State of the Union should, in my view, not be just another stump speech. Just as members need to show greater restraint, so should a president.
Of course, we were spared the disgraceful act of “liberated” former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up the speech of former President Donald Trump. It is doubtful that Democrats would be as thrilled and supportive of a “liberated” McCarthy shredding the Biden speech due to his own deep disagreements with it. He did not do so and it helped restored dignity to the chair and decades of traditions.
I admit that I am a bit of a purest on the decorum question. Kevin McCarthy could be seen mouthing words and shaking his head. It was reminiscent of the controversy over Justice Sam Alito mouthing objections in response to President Barack Obama. While it paled in comparison to the offensive conduct of his predecessor (who also would shake her head and roll her eyes behind Trump), it was still inappropriate in my view. The Speaker represents the entire body of the House of Representatives — Democratic and Republican — in the State of the Union. As difficult as it may be at times, it is better to remain stoic.
The worst part was the yelling and heckling from Republican members. They were clearly baited by the President and it worked. As I tweeted last night, it was wrong when the Democrats did it and it is wrong now when Republicans do it. At one point, Biden was called a “liar” for again claiming that Republicans want to cut social security (a position rejected repeatedly by the vast majority of Republicans). Biden responded that he was not saying “I’m not saying it’s a majority.” It was still a low blow. However, I continue to follow the old school view that members should remain respectful and silent. To his credit, McCarthy was seen glaring at some colleagues and on at least on occasion telling them to “Shush.”
The State of the Union captured the state of our politics and it is not good. While calling for unity, Biden took cheap shots at his opponents on issues like social security while Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Ga.) screamed “Liar.” We have lost the civility and, with it, the dignity of such historic moments. Joe Biden is our President. He is granted entry to the House once a year for this constitutional function. He is entitled to a respectful audience. He is also expected to be respectful and accurate in his own words. He also failed that test.
Things will not change in our country until we demand more from both parties and all of our leaders. Fortunately, my children are older now, but I always had them listen to the State of the Union addresses. I would have been mortified to have them watch this spectacle of sparing between the President and members last night. It goes against everything that we have sought to instill in them about mutual respect and civility.
“The worst part was the yelling and heckling from Republican members.”
it seems Biden’s speech wasn’t the worst thing. It was the atrocious behavior from some members of the Republican Party that they learned from Trump and his own disrespectful behavior. Republicans didn’t chastise their own for doing it and or call for civility. We should thank Trump and his examples during his rallies. he condoned such behavior, in fact he encouraged it. That’s where it comes from. The basket of deplorables that Hillary inartfully but accurately used to describe Trump’s base. Those congressmen who heckled Biden are the cream of the crop out of that basket.
oh, gawd.
Lin, well isn’t the whole reason why Trump’s rallies were so popular was because he embraced and encouraged such behavior? Remember Tump supporters heckling the media and beating up protesters? Wasn’t it Scalia’s who first yelled out “YOU LIE” during Obama’s SOTUS speech?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green is clearly a rabid Trump supporter and her behavior is well inline with those who attend Trump rallies. She’s very much a part of that FJB crowd.
The absolute Queen of disrespect and unbecoming, base behavior, -below the dignity of Congress was Nancy Pelosi and her live-TV moment smiling into the camera as she shredded Trump’s speech. JT rightly raises this, while MSM this morning went on ad nauseam about the Republicans.
p.s. Scalia??????? I thought it was Rep. Joe Wilson.
Nancy Pelosi ripped up the President’s speech in plain view of the cameras. That disrespect demonstrates how far the left will go. Compared to the left the right act like nuns in church. This demonstrates the lack of knowledge Svelaz possesses.
Of course, as you pointed out, the knowledge Svelaz does possess is wrong.
He is a fountain of ignorance mixed with lies.
S. Meyer,
“Nancy Pelosi ripped up the President’s speech in plain view of the cameras. That disrespect demonstrates how far the left will go. Compared to the left the right act like nuns in church. This demonstrates the lack of knowledge Svelaz possesses.”
She let Trump speak without interruption. She remained silent throughout the entire ordeal. All she did was tear up some paper. Republicans constantly interrupted the president and were acting like drunken hecklers at a county fair. Those republicans proved Hillary was right when she called some of Trump’s supporters deplorables. She was obviously not wrong.
Svelaz: “all she did was tear up some paper.”
lin: Kind of like Omar referring to 9/11 as “some people did some things.”
Righto, Svelaz. I got it.
Lin,
You have such a way to own someone with just a sentence or two.
Very nice!
All he did was offer a false equivalence and some witty retort pretending to seem smart. It was pretty bad.
Svelaz, she quickly showed the idiocy in what you have to say.
“She let Trump speak without interruption. “
McCarthy sat their dignified and even tried to quiet some of the Republicans down something not seen when Trump was being heckled. Pelosi representing the House which is all parties, not just Democrats, acted like a child having a tantrum and showed the world what jerks the Democrat leadership contains.
“All she did was tear up some paper.”
Thank you for saying that because there are no words that would demonstrate what an idiot and fool you are, better than your own lack of understanding.
Biden lied repeatedly. If they weren’t such blatant lies they could possibly pass, but the numbers he provided proved him to be a liar or incompetent. You might not recognize it because that is what you are.
Comradette Pelosi.
Lin, my apologies I meant to say Scalise. But you’re right it was Wilson. Pelosi ripping up he copy of the speech was pretty benign compared to what republicans were doing. They were actively interrupting the president while at least Pelosi remained silent and let trump speak without interruption. Right?
Yelling “YOU LIE” repeatedly while the president was speaking is much worse that simply ripping up a piece of paper to express her disdain. Heckling and yelling show a greater disrespect than what Pelosi did. Trump set the example first and he encouraged it. That’s why MTG is comfortable doing it. Because she uses Trump as an example to emulate.
It was Justice Alito at Obama’s 2015 SOTU: https://theweek.com/articles/497190/sotu-obama-vs-alito
Wrong. Go back and read what you just linked. Obama criticized SCOTUS by misrepresenting what they decided in a case, followed by jeers against SCOTUS. Alito mouthed, “not true, not true.” Do you understand the difference?
BINGO
Dems always lie about Citizen United. “Congress shall make no law” absolutely confuses leftists.
(and it was not during SOTU, it was when Obama was speaking in a meeting before joint session of Congress.)
Lin, a distinction without a difference.
LOL!
Are you saying the pubs were uppity? I sure hope that isn’t what you’re saying.
Look, I realize it is more difficult for you and the other spokesmodels to defend the ineffectual and corrupt regime that is the dnc, but to stoop to that critique in the face of the dnc apparatchiks of the past 15-years or so is purely laughable. From pelosi tearing Trumps speech up, to blm and antifa (the dumbest black and white people in the nation not with cable TV shows, respectively) to the pussyhats, the anti-war protestors (where’d they go? lol,), and the cable tv producers and hosts…nothing compares to the idiocity that is the dnc.
Bobthere, tearing up a piece of paper after letting the president speak uninterrupted vs being interrupted and yelling out “YOU LIE” is no equivalent comparison. The republicans who were interrupting the president are the ones setting the example of what republicans are about. Showing disrespect in the loudest and most obnoxious way possible.
It’s notable that Turley mentioned the republican heckling as the worst part of the event. Not the speech.
Seems to be pretty common behavior on college campuses today.
I’m not convinced Turley is correct on this one. He points out the flaws of the president’s speech but then tries to have it both ways in denouncing the “incivility” while calling for “decorum” and “respect.” Perhaps the many years that members afforded the president that respect was unrewarded and misinterpreted by recent presidents as a license to say anything. No, from here on out, anyone who gets up before the people or their representatives in congress and lies to them will and must suffer the public consequences. It is a good thing when good men and women act and when they fail to act, well, we know the consequences, don’t we? Silence in the face of lies makes the listener an accomplice after the fact. Turley should know that and also know that times change, people change, and so, too, should our reactions to those we elect and who have the audacity to lie to us. It is not a question of our respect for the person but, instead, respect for the truth. Tell it and you’ll have the respect of your audience. Ignore it and they quickly will remind you.
Dear Prof Turley,
The state of the union was freak show central. All of them. Preening self-absorbed scavengers picking over the bleeding remnants of a once-great nation. .. O’ how the mighty have fallen.
At least on the plains of the Serengeti, the hyenas and hooded vultures serve a useful purpose.
Poncho and Lefty wore their guns outside their pants for all the honest world to feel. .. these people spend a Trillion dollars/year on guns and ‘defence’ and the Russians will win the war – short of nuclear Armageddon – on $60 billion/yr.
*something’s missing
Never let facts get in the way.
Over the same period of times as the the “assault weapons ban” 1994-2004” there was also a general decline in crime. We were in a cycle of increased police work, stop and frisk, and such, especially when Rudy Guliani was Mayor of New York. Many other departments replicated his program. The “assault weapons ban” was placed about midpoint to that decline. Still year by year more people are stabbed to death or beaten to death than are killed by a rifle, bolt action or autoloading (the correct term for semiautomatic). Most mass shootings are conducted with glock, beretta, colt, sig, Springfield armory hand guns with magazines up to 19 rounds with 9 mm and some with 13 rounds in .45 caliber. Autoloading rifles have been around for over 100 years and even predate the M1 Garand.
As far as the state of the union speech is concerned, I usually read it rather than watch because it serves the same purpose as a collection of certificates on a wall (all saying how great a guy I am). At least no one was near caned to death, which occurred pre civil war in the chamber (but not during the state of the union).
My preference is the Question Hour practiced in the House of Commons. Now those are lively, entertaining and informative. My suggestion would be that the president come before a joint session of congress quarterly, open with short speech and then take any questions from the floor. A limit on time, like 2 hours, and with a series of questions from each party with a time limit on answers. That would truly be informative, might even have a bigger audience and higher ad rates. No press secretaries.
GEB: Great suggestion about the Question Hour. Biden wouldn’t survive one minute. We do need less “decorum” and more truth in government.
Wonderful suggestion, GEB!
How many Americans refused to watch or listen to Biden’s ranting and lying last night?
Count me in that number…..I have an utter hatred of being lied to….by People who are the damn problem and have caused the problems….as Joe Biden with his half century sucking off the Government Tit and lining his pockets by selling himself to the higher bidder.
I suggest the Republicans in Congress bring signs like are seen at Football games….that put together spell out messages such as “Liar!”, “Pants on Fire!!…..or just “What a load of Bull Sh@t!.
That would require the MSM to keep their cameras safely pointed at either the Clown on the Dais or at the Democrat side of the House (the rest of the Clown show).
I read Sara Huckabee’s response a few minutes ago….and like what she had to say in general.
I shall not waste my time reading the text of Biden’s campaign speech that I know was pure bunk.
When I see the MSM doing instant Fact Checks on Biden….or a Focus Group thing where the members of the focus group evaluate what is being said…..as it is being said….I would tune in for that.
For sure the real Clangers Biden offers up would be seen for what they are…..Bull Sh@t!
I have no problem with dignity and decorum during the State of the Union speech, but when Lunch Bucket Joe made the patently absurd claim that he added “12 million jobs”, I think he deserved a little heckling frankly.
Why is it people with no understanding of firearms always want to talk about them?
Most of “mass shootings” are committed with handguns. IIRC, the FBI reported only 6% involve rifles. More murders are committed with blunt objects and knives.
Due to rising crime from soft on crime DAs, no cash bail, we have seen record numbers of firearm purchases. The people who are buying, are law abiding US citizens. Of note, minorities and women have made up some 40% of first time purchases. These are not people committing gun crime. These are people who are in fear for their lives, and decided to exercise their 2ndA right to self-defense.
A recent study found 11 US cities were on the top 50 of the most dangerous cities to live in the world. All 11 US cities have Democrat mayors.
“Biden made a series of questionable statements . . .” (JT)
Why would anyone believe a word spoken by a serial plagiarist and pathological liar? Lying is built into his political philosophy: Power — by any means necessary.
“Lying is built into his political philosophy: Power — by any means necessary.”
So is Trump’s. Republicans have no issue with lying as evidenced by their attitude towards Trump’s own lying. Every politician lies. Every single one. So it would be pointless to complain about it when one readily accepts it without much of a fuss when it’s their party that does it.
The difference being that when Trump lied, the economy got better. When Trump lied, employment went up, When Trump lied, we became more self-sufficient. When Trump lied 250,000 or so Ukrainians didn’t die. When Trump lied, the middle class expanded.
When Biden (the dnc) lies, everyone gets hurt, except their party members…sound familiar?
“The difference being that when Trump lied, the economy got better. When Trump lied, employment went up, When Trump lied, we became more self-sufficient. When Trump lied 250,000 or so Ukrainians didn’t die. When Trump lied, the middle class expanded.”
Nope. Trump lied because he claimed all those things as his work. Trump loves to take credit for other’s work. He inherited a growing economy and claimed it as his own work. The pandemic exposed that lie and he tried to deflect by blaming democrats for his own inaction. During Trump’s term he lost a lot of jobs and added to the deficit by engaging in trade wars that harmed the economy.
Economic Growth under Obama was 1.4% and we were headed into a recession in 2016.
Trump inherited a stagnant economy.
Even with Covid Trump averaged 2% growth/yr over 4 years. More than 0.5% higher than Obama.
Without Covid Trump averaged 2.5% growth over 3 years – more than 1% higher that Obama.
Conversely Biden actually inherited a rapidly growing economy.
All Biden had to do was leave everything alone and he would have had long term sustained growth, high employmet, energy independence, global peace, and low inflation.
“All Biden had to do was leave everything alone and he would have had long term sustained growth, high employmet, energy independence, global peace, and low inflation.”
That fact is missed by too many. Biden’s speech appealed to those that cannot deal with numbers. People like Svelaz ate it up and then regurgitated untrue facts never realizing your point above.
John Say,
Under Trump, the economy, Wall St. and Main St were all doing quite well.
COVID, or should I say, the response to COVID is what killed the Trump economy. Notice how all the people who said closing the economy/society would cause more damage than the virus itself? You know, the people that wrote The Great Barrington Declaration. Sweden.
The deficit went up because of all those “stimulus” checks, and all those other programs that were supposed to help the every day American. What was it? $60billion in fraud because they did not put some kind of accountability into the law?
An estimated 25 million jobs were lost to COVID reaction. New jobs created by Biden? No. Those were jobs already there, but forced to close due to the COVID reaction. And, who actually led the economic recovery? Red states that re-opened their economies lead the economic recovery. CA and NY were dead last in the economic recovery.
The recent job numbers. When you drill down into the Home Household survey and Participation rate, and adjustments, the actual y-o-y full time job growth was only 10,000 jobs. The rest, part time jobs. That means do to Bidenflation, more and more households had to get second jobs to make ends meet. That is not a good thing.
64% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck. 47% of people making more than 6 figures are living paycheck to paycheck. All thanks to Bidenflation.
Biden talks about wage growth but fails to mention that inflation erases those gains and inflation is still costing Americans more in everything from groceries, to gas, to utility bills to rent.
Biden ran on the campaign promise of putting the fossil fuel industry out of business and made good on that promise on day one in office, and with the Inflation Reduction Act, which actually increases inflation. The fossil fuel industry and Putin had nothing to do with the increase in cost of energy. All Biden.
Upstate, I like what you say. Unemployment figures have to be appropriately used. Here is a bit more.
More older Americans are working than ever before.
Share of the working population that works (16-64) FELL.
Put the two data points together to see Biden did not tell the entire truth. He was spinning, and that spinning is used on this blog by ignorant people who would rather lie than look at the facts honestly.
Inflation has been going down for 6 months straight. It’s still high, but it’s on a downward trajectory. Thanks to Biden’s inflation reduction act.
One has to be pretty Stupid not to realize that inflation should never have been that high and Biden is the direct cause. There are two things with inflation one has to look at, how high and how long. Everyone on a fixed income, especially seniors pay for this stupidity of Biden and the Democrats with the assistance of some Republicans.You might worry about Medicare and Social security, but many seniors will see their savings radically fall in value.
This could have been avoided and the deficit could be falling but for Biden’s bad management of our economy.
“Thanks to Biden’s inflation reduction act.”
I think what you mean is: Thanks to skyrocketing interest rates — which are killing the housing industry, and which make everything more expensive, by making money more expensive.
The inflation reduction act should be called the inflation creation act.
It is a spending bill.
You can not reduce inflation by spending more.
That is like trying to loose weight by eating more fatty foods.
Inflation is dropping because the Fed is increasing interest rates.
That is the only known way to bring inflation under control.
That works by reducing demand – the Fed is actually trying to Weaken the economy deliberately
to reduce demand and therefore prices.
Presumably you have heard of the law of supply and demand.
Reduced demand means lower growth. Lower growth means recession – which is why most every economist expects a recession in 2023.
Some parts of the economy are already in recession.
Big tech has been slammed.
Housing has been hit hard.
Most every part of the economy that is sensitive to interest rates is way down.
The rest will likely follow.
The Fed is TRYING to engineer a “soft landing” – i.e, reduce inflation without going into recession,
or with only a mild recession.
We have never managed that before, so far the US could be doing worse.
But the rest of the world is in Deep $shit.
China is likely in massive economic trouble – though their problems are of their own making and have nothing to do with the US.
All of Europe, Russia, the Mideast, Pakistan, Turkey, Japan, and likely most of the rest of the world are getting slammed by the double whammy of US increased interest rates and the disruption of food and fertilizer as a result of the Ukraine war.
In 2009 the US had Mild inflation and the Fed’s efforts to reign it in doubled food prices in the poorest parts of the world and caused the “arab spring”.
You can expect the next two years globally to be H311.
The only good news is that it is far beyond the power of the rest of the world to get off the US Dollar standard,
As a result despite the fact that we are causing global financial and economic problems.
Capital is still flooding the US. Foreigners are buying US Treasuries.
Republicans are ranting about the Chinese buying US land – purportedly to spy on us.
Maybe they are. But just as likely is because the US remains an excellent investment.
Even the poor economy we are having and likely to have is far better than most of the rest of the world.
So money is flowing into the US.
That is saving Biden from seeing the price of US debt spike which would result in insolvency.
What is really disturbing is that the left wing nuts hear what to argue about this.
And that Biden wants to brag about this.
You can spin numbers, you can not spin reality.
Most people are worse off today than in 2020.
They are not stupid – they KNOW IT
I am not looking for sympathy from anyone – I am personally doing fine.
But I have multiple small businesses. the major ones took a huge hit in the last year.
The tech sector is not really hiring.
I had to lay off oneperson who works with me in that area, and he also lost his regular job.
Due Dilligence fell off a cliff in August.
I had 11 people – mostly part time working for me in August.
Now I have one person, 1/2 day a week.
That is alot of people who have Lost supplimental income working for me.
I did more DD work in July 2022, than I have had in total August through today.
And All the Big DD firms are reporting the same thing.
Eventually the dam will break – because the Real Estate business must buy/sell or refinance periodically regardless of interest rates.
At the same time Real Estate is a way early leading indicator.
It is my view that we have been in recession since 3Q 2020 and that it is going to get worse before it gets better.
The only positive indicator I have seen in the past 6 months is that the Fed has slightly lowered inflation without causing massive economic harm.
But most every forecast in every country is BAD, with no improvement in sight.
The best news for the US is that absent statrting a global nuclear war – the US will be less bad than the world.
John B. Say: Trump can’t even manage his own business affairs, much less the United States. His tax returns prove that his only income comes from investments he inherited–buisnesses he started (those that haven’t already gone under, of which there are dozens) all show losses, year after year, and he is NOT the successful self-made billionaire he has tried to pretend to be. Trump inherited a booming economy, which began a downward trajectory after he started a trade war with China, exacerbated by the pandemic that he was clueless about how to handle, and about which he refused to defer to public health experts and intentionally lied because he thought it made him look bad. Adding to this is lying about a quack “cure”–Hydroxychloroquine–that cost even more lives. When Biden took office, unemployment was at 10%–it’s now at a 50-year low. The so-called economic “figures” you quote are just plain wrong. When Biden took office, the country and schools had been mostly shut down for about 2 years. Demand for petroleum plummetted because people who could do so started working from home and school buses weren’t running because kids were on distance learning. People weren’t traveling for pleasure, either, because it wasn’t safe. Biden inherited COVID and turned it and the economy around in record time, but the national debt that Trump and his tax cuts for the wealthy, as well as shortages of computer chips and consumer goods, and increased demand for petroleum have all contributed to inflation. Trump and his utter incompetence are responsible for the inflation we are experiencing. Trump had NO plan for vaccine storage (ultra cold freezers–Biden had to source them), or distribution. Trump failed to marshal enough PPE and qualified people to administer the vaccines. Biden did all of this and now the US is back in business. We are no longer setting records for COVID deaths and infections. We’d still be floundering if the fat one could have found a way to cheat his way back into office because Trump had NO clue and didn’t have anyone in his administration with a clue about what to do to get shots in arms and start saving lives. So, you’d prefer that Biden just “leave everything alone”–you mean schools still closed down, businesses still closed down, travel and vacations gone, shortages of computer chips and consumer goods, 10% unemployment?
Gigi.
It is clear you know absolutely nothing about realestate investing.
Trump’s tax returns are perfectly normal for a successful real estate investor.
Do you own any investment property ?
If you did you would understand that the vast majority of what you have claimed regarding Trump and his busiensses is nonsense.
While I would be happy with Trump’s inheritance, it is a pittance compared to his net worth.
While he has not had the success of say Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. He has done far better than you or I.
Have you taken what you inherited and increased it by more than 26 times ?
Have you also made most of the members of your family billionaires at the same time ?
It has taken Biden 50 years of stealing from the public to build up wealth equal to what Trump inherited.
Over the same Time Trump doubled his wealth 5 times.
Do you own billion dollar skyscrapers in manhattan ?
If Trump had “no clue” – “please sir can I have more”.
What does it take for you left wing nuts to grasp reality.
I hope the claims that we will have a soft landing prove real.
I hope that the severe recesion that appears in the offing doe snot happen.
I hope that the massive global problems that We/Bidden have atleast partly caused do not come back to bite us in the ass.
But I have to ask – how much failure d you have to see before you understand you are incredibly wrong ?
Does the world have to go into depression under Biden before you grasp that you and he have no idea what you are doing ?
Do we have to have global nuclear war ?
Do we have to have starvation and revolution accross the world ?
Do we have to have the highest inflation in 50 years ?
What has to go wrong before you can get past your idiocy of
“Orange man Bad ” ?
How much failure do we need to have before you grasp YOUR part in causing it ?
“Economic Growth under Obama was 1.4% and we were headed into a recession in 2016.
Trump inherited a stagnant economy.”
Nope. Trump inherited an economy with continuous growth.
“President Trump has often taken credit for building the pre-pandemic U.S. economy, most notably in his State of the Union address earlier this year. When the Obama administration left office, the economy had experienced 76 consecutive months of job growth, a streak that extended to 113 months under Trump before the pandemic struck with a vengeance. Likewise, unemployment fell from 10 percent at the height of the recession under Obama to 4.7 percent when he left office. It continued to fall under Trump until the latest economic catastrophe occurred.”
https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/22727/seasonally-adjusted-real-gdp-in-the-us/
Trump was riding on Obama’s success and claimed it as his own. Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic created the mess afterward.
Obama’s growth was constant after the financial crisis that Bush left him.
“Conversely Biden actually inherited a rapidly growing economy.”
Biden inherited a recovering economy one that was stymied by unnecessary trade wars and amounted to the biggest tax increases on Americans in years.
“The Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products, which is equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in decades. Based on 2021 import levels and country exemptions, the tariffs amounted to a $52.6 billion tax increase in 2021.”
https://taxfoundation.org/tariffs-trump-trade-war/
What is interesting is that Biden hasn’t rescinded Trump’s tariffs and thus are contributing to the slow growth in his term. He did leave everything alone. He didn’t touch the Trump tariffs or his tax cuts. He did pass his infrastructure bill which a majority of Republicans who criticized it gladly took the money for their districts and even promoted it.
Please take a course in very basic economics.
You are just plain wrong about nearly everything.
Or actually go look at some Graphs.
Obama’s “growth was not “steady” – it was highly eradic.
Trump’s was steady,
Equally important it was even accounting for the Pandemic more than .6% higher than Obama.
There was more improvement in 4 years of Trump than 8 of Obama.
I opposed an infrastructure Bill when Trump proposed it.
Have I ever said Trump was a great president ?
There is no need for infrastructure spending.
In fact it is a mistake and harmful to actual infrastructure.
US Roads are paid for out of local taxes and gas taxes.
Those are fairly steady and correlate to the amount of travel that people do.
Government MUST maintain and expand roads using Those and only those funds.
Anything else results in over building, later poor maintanence, and wasteful spending.
Obama’s ARRA was a disaster. Those “shovel ready” projects – Weren’t.
It took years to get them designed, and completed.
The process took resources – likecivil engineers out of parts of the economy that were working fine – artificially starving commercial construction. When the projects hit construction the employment benefis were poor – highway construction is NOT labor intensive and the skills from those parts of the economy like housing that were in recession are not transferable.
All the ARRA did was make travel difficult for years, and cost us money in delays.
Regardless, Biden did not pass an infrastructure bill, Her passed the green new deal in sheeps clothing.
lots of wasteful spending. More inflation that the Fed has to fight.
Svelaz, You should apply for the Press Secretary job. Or run for Congress to replace Shift
It is not inaction that caused the Pandemic problems, it was government ACTION.
This is one of the most fundamental errors of the left.
Trump did not cause the growth that occurred during his term.
He got out of its way. The economy grows NATURALLY.
Obama policies were a drag on the economy.
Covid Policies were a MAJOR Drag on the economy. Fortunately we abandoned “lockdowns” nearly immediately as incredibly stupid. And the economy nearly immediately recovered.
Biden inhereited an economy where even left wing nut stgates were slowly abandoning stupid covid policies that were dragging the economy down.
All he had to do was NOTHING and the economy would have taken off.
Both Trump and Biden blessed far too much Covid Stimulus – That is what is driving out inflation that is screwing things up.
But MOST of that Spending was under Biden – who Still wants to keep spending like a drunken sailor.
Further as WRONG as Trump’s covid stimulus was- it would have at most gotten inflation to 3-4%.
Biden’s brought it up to almost 10%.
3-4% is bad but tolerable. 6-9% is disaster.
You can verify EVERY claim I have made.
As an example economic growth data is available on Trading Economics going back decades.
I would note that Obama became at almost the bottom of a recesion – He had nowhere to go but UP.
Recovery is automatic if governement stays out of the way.
And yet the Obama recovery was piss poor.
Most of What Trump did was undo Obama nonsense that was holding back the economy.
Frankly by 20th century Standards – Trump is a C- president on the economy,
But the rest of 21st century presidents are D’s and F’s.
We know what is necessary for a strong economy. Look at the last 20 years of the 20th century.
“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.”
Adam Smith.
Most of the economic data that sluggishly improved under Obama started to turn in the opposite direction at the end of his term. One could see that in the numbers. It took almost his entire time in office to get unemployment down when most times we see a sharp decline. As unemployment numbers fall it becomes more difficult for the succeeding President to lower them further, but Trump did so. Comparing Trump’s first year to Obama’s last year unemployment fell under Trump about 2.5 times faster than under Obama. That was true with most of the important economic figures used.
You are arguing with a person who knows nothing about economics and almost never gets the numbers straight. He is a waste of time.
“It is not inaction that caused the Pandemic problems, it was government ACTION.
This is one of the most fundamental errors of the left.”
Nope. It was a very late or delayed action on the pandemic. Remember it was Trump who was saying that it would be over before it would get to the U.S. he even discouraged any preparation work because he didn’t want to “cause a panic”.
“Trump did not cause the growth that occurred during his term.
He got out of its way. The economy grows NATURALLY.”
Nope. He let Obama’s economy to continue and kept taking credit for it until COVID hit. It is notable that you didn’t mention that he didn’t make any significant changes other than this tax cuts. Prior to his tax cuts he relied heavily on the continuity of growth from Obama’s economy.
“Both Trump and Biden blessed far too much Covid Stimulus – That is what is driving out inflation that is screwing things up.
But MOST of that Spending was under Biden – who Still wants to keep spending like a drunken sailor.”
Biden can’t spend money without Republican support. Republicans voted to spend the money Biden requested. Inflation has been going down for 6 months straight. Still high over a ten year average but is going down nonetheless.
“Further as WRONG as Trump’s covid stimulus was- it would have at most gotten inflation to 3-4%.
Biden’s brought it up to almost 10%.
3-4% is bad but tolerable. 6-9% is disaster.”
Biden’s stimulus spending is just a continuation of Trump’s. To blame the high inflation only on Biden’s is disingenuous. Both of their spending are related to the high inflation rate. Fortunately it’s been decreasing for the last 6 consecutive months thanks to Biden’ s policies enacted to combat inflation.
“Inflation has been on a downward trend since July 2022, but that doesn’t mean we are out of the woods. While the Fed aims to bring inflation down to 2% or less, the latest CPI numbers show inflation at 7.1%.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/01/14/is-inflation-slowing-down-what-the-latest-data-shows-and-what-it-means-for-your-portfolio/amp/
“Recovery is automatic if governement stays out of the way.
And yet the Obama recovery was piss poor.
Most of What Trump did was undo Obama nonsense that was holding back the economy.”
I wouldn’t call 72months of continuous economic growth “piss poor”.
Trump didn’t do anything to undo Obama’s economy. In fact he relied on it so he could claim credit for the continued growth.
Trump was wrong. Nearly everyone was Wrong.
It is trivial to find stupid quotes from people left and right from the start of the Pandemic.
I can give you stupid clips from Pelosi and Biden saying Trump was overreacting.
There are TWO very disturbing things.
ONE
We had more than enough information in February 2020 to KNOW that ALL the actions we took would accomplish NOTHING except cause other far worse problems.
TWO
People like YOU
After the fact are STILL spouting idiocy when we are no longer predicting that all actions would fail.
But we KNOW that all actions DID fail.
You are still selling this completely idiocy that if only stupid and ineffective measures had been taken sooner – all would be well.
This is complete BS and should be obvious to everyone right now.
China took absolutely draconian measures – welding sick people into their homes.
And that sort of worked for two years, And now they have lost control and Covid has run through the country like wild fire and the death rate is no different than elsewhere.
At great cost all China succeeded in doing with the most draconian measures was delay the inevitable.
Only a complete idiot could look at the world, at different countries and the results and STILL try to claim that anything government did anywhere was effective.
Wise people knew nothing would work at the start.
Total Morons are still arguing.
Are you living in the Real World ?
We spent More on Covid Than the entire Federal Budget – Almost Twice as much and Most of that under Biden.
This is not “a little high but going down” – it is MASSIVE spending.
And it is the direct cause of inflation.
Asbolutely Trump and Republicans bought into the initial 2T in wasted spending.
And that is responsible for maybe 30% at most of inflation.
Most of us would be much happier with inflation at 3% rather than 9%.
The damage from inflation increases exponentially with the rate.
Absolutely a TINY number of republicans – probably less than a dozen in the house and senate supported Biden’s wasteful spending.
Inflation is decreasing SOLELY because the Fed is raising interest rates.
This is all economics 101. It has NOTHING to do with Biden (or Trump).
Technically it is not the massive spending that cause the inflation,
it is the FACT that theFed financed that spending by “printing money” – buy monetizing US Debt.
They have stopped.
Regardless, if we had not spent like drunken sailors the Fed would not have had to monetize that debt and there would be no inflation.
Biden has done NOTHING to reduce spending – and in fact continues to increase spending.
To the extent inflation is down a little that is entirely due to the Fed.
“inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. ”
Milton Friedman.
You did not have 72 months of continuoue economic growth. Obama’s economy teetered all over. 4% growth -1%,
It just never stayed down enough for a recession and never high enough to be a good economy.
Regardless the 20th century average was 3.5% – much more than double that.
The 19th was 7%.
Growth near 1% is horrible. Growth compounds, so every additional percent reduces the time it takes for standard of living to double by almost half.
Do you want your children to do twice as well as you ? Or just the same ? or 4 times as well ?
That is the difference 1% in growth makes either way.
Since Mao died China averaged 7% growth until recently.
That is how a country goes from the bottom of the 3rd world to the bottom of the 1st world in one generation.
Trump’s 2% growth was poor. Obama’s barely over 1% is absymal.
Biden is getting higher growth – but with very high inflation.
As a result standard of living is actually DECLINING.
The average working class family gained $4500 in yearly spendable income under Trump.
That is more than the entire Obama 8 years.
They have already LOST $3500/yr to inflation under Biden.
Trump was the most deregulatory president since Carter.
One Executive order alone turned out to be possibly the most important measure of the Trump administration.
The requirement that for every new regulation enacted, agencies had to eliminate 2 older regulations.
That was not thought of as significant at the start.
But even though the agencies remained almost as left wing nut as under Obama – you can not change the federal workforce to sane people in 4 years. Even left wing nuts were able to Get rid of costly and ineffective regulations, whenever they wanted to enact new ones.
But Mostly Trump did one simple thing – NOTHING.
That is the most important thing of all.
Obama did not understand that.
Biden does not understand that.
You do not understand that
But Adam Smith understood that 250 years ago.
And it remains absolutely true.
Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.
Adam Smith
Biden has spent I beleive it is an extra 5T in the first 2 years of his presidency – for unknown reasons that is not getting counted as deficit spending.
But it has ballooned the Debt.
Trump’s “unemployment increases” are entirely do to lockdowns and had all pretty much cleared BEFORE Biden took office.
Bad Covid policy by democrats – almost entirely by Blue state governors is responsible for economic carnage during Covid.
The vast majority of Red states saw less than half the impact that blue states did and STILL are leading the recovery.
We can all play games with numbers.
But some of those games are bogus,
others reflect reality.
There is no economic theory were confusion and chaos produce good results.
Nor has that ever happened in reality
“Biden has spent I beleive it is an extra 5T in the first 2 years of his presidency – for unknown reasons that is not getting counted as deficit spending.”
Biden isn’t the one approving the spending. Republicans also voted for that spending.
“Trump’s “unemployment increases” are entirely do to lockdowns and had all pretty much cleared BEFORE Biden took office”
Nope. The unemployment increases were due to the late reaction and indifference to the pandemic in the beginning. The lockdowns were the result of Trump’s lack of urgency and lackadaisical attitude towards the Pandemic. Governors were forced to make a choice due to Trump’s lack of urgency. You can’t blame the whole issue on democrats when they were forced to act. Trump left it to the states rather than take decisive action himself. He’s just as responsible.
Red states indeed recovered faster economically after the pandemic, BUT that came at a very high price. They also took the heaviest losses in terms of healthcare and deaths from covid. Red states cumulatively suffered 38% more deaths from Covid. They also prolonged the infection rate among their populations.
Very few republicans voted for any of that spending.
Democrats controlled both the house, the senate and the WH,
You own the spending.
But I will be happy to vote out the handful or less of republicans who supported any of this.
Regardless, Biden proposed and signed the spending legislation.
He owns the inflation.
You are an incredible idiot.
First Democrats FOUGHT Trumps early actions on Covid.
Do we need to link to the Video of Pelosi walking through China Town in March saying there is no problem,
and that Trump is overreacting ?
Do we need to Link to the Video’s of Biden in February calling Trump a Xenophobe for restricting access from China ?
Next – None of this WORKED.
Whether Trump responded Quickly or too late is completely irrelevant when NO RESPONSE AT ALL was the BEST RESPONSE.
The DATA is in – though anyone understanding Basic Math knew in Feb 2020 that Covid could not be stopped by masks of lockdowns, or social distancing. or ….
It is stupidity to rant about Trump being to early or too late when there was no policy at all that would have worked.
Next, the issue here is employment.
That Crashed concurrent with the lockdowns. PERIOD.
That was inevitable. There was no step that could have been taken prior that would have changed that at all.
There was only ONE way to save the economy and jobs, and that was NOT to do stupid things like Lockdown the economy.
Trump bears some of the blame for that – not for acting too fast or too slow, but for buying into the idiocy of lockdowns AT ALL.
But those Like YOU – and Biden have no moral ground to point fingers – YOU demands were WORSE.
You supported this nonsense – and wanted MORE.
And still do.
“You are an incredible idiot.”
That is the only reply to Svelaz, for nothing matters to him and despite proof he remains ” an incredible idiot.”
Actually it is trivial to blame democrats.
And NO they were not FORCED to act.
You are constantly deluded over what is an is not FORCE.
Regardless, the states that had the least damage due to the Pandemic are those that did not act, or that acted the least.
Those Democrats you claim were FORCE to Act – did not have to do anything.
And as the results in those states – red states that did not act.
There is no difference in Covid outcomes between red states that did few if any stupid covid actions,
and Blue states that responded massively.
But there are many many other differences.
The increases in unemployement are almost entirely in blue states.
The increases in suicides are almost entirely in blue states
The increases in violence are almost entirely in blue states – and entirely in blue cities.
The increases in drug overdoses – blue states.
It is likely that if we have state by state data on the other causes of excess deaths – those too – the increases in cancer and heart disease will be primarily in blue states.
Trump did not act too early or too late.
He acted when the right course was to do nothing.
But mostly Trump correctly did not act. Blue state governors did, and they increased unemployment and destroyed their economies in doing so.
No Red states did not have higher death rates from Covid.
That is just Malarky
Are you completely clueless ?
Where is it that you get this complete and total idiocy
The Top 5 highest rates of death were in Blue new england and mid atlantic states.
Because they are cold, do not get as much sun, have high population density and have older populations.
The overall death rate from Covid varies based entirely on demographics and demography.
Northern states did worse than southern ones.
Elderly states did worse than young ones
Populous states did worse than sparsely populated ones.
Where in the world are you getting this complete stupidity from ?
First, only a moron would claim that doing nothing prolonged Covid.
The exact opposite is true – and your left wing nut Experts like Fauxi were openly saying exactly that.
Flattening the curve means reducing the spread rate so that the pandemic takes LONGER but hospitals are not overwhelmed – so it is hoped.
This was an untested and stupid theory from a childs science fair project more than a decade before.
This ONLY works when a disease is treatable, and hospitals would be overwhelmed.
Neither of those was True of Covid.
Regardless, doing nothing means the disease spreads FASTER – not slower.
Do you actually think about the nonsense you write before posting it.
That is what did not get enougbh media attention.
What is scientific about cribbing some girl’s science fair project?
There is nothing wrong with the “flattening the curve” concept.
So long as you grasp that it is beneficial only under very specific circumstances.
The health care system IS able to take measures that reduce the number of deaths,
AND without extraordinary measures the healthcare system will be overwhelmed.
If there is no effective treatment – Flattening the curve is useless.
If the healthcare system is in no danger of being overwhelmed – flattening the curve is useless.
If there are no effective means to reduce the transmission rate – you can not flatten the curve.
For Covid NEITHER of those was true – therefore Flattening the curve was completely absurd.
While there MAY be condictions in which “flattening the curve” is a wise course – they will be the rare exception, not the rule
lolol. You don’t have to tell us what you’ve been told to think, we already know.
Look, you are simply wrong. Deal with it.
The reflexive response “What about Trump?” doesn’t cut it anymore, if it ever did.
However, I continue to follow the old school view that members should remain respectful and silent.
Sure. And the old school way to get the SOTU was in written form. If members are permitted to vocalize approval, including standing ovations for speech they like, then they should be permitted to respond vocally and physically to speech they do not like.
If President’s want to seize on this invite to speak in front of a televized joint session of congress, to give what amounts to a campaign speech, then those in attendance should not be compelled to sit silently as the President blatantly lies to their constituents.
Biden himself disrespects the office in delivering a campaign speech rather than a State of the Union. Set his delivery aside entirely, which was horrendous, he continually lies. As we all know the assault weapons ban was allowed to “sunset” because it was largely viewed as ineffective, yet Biden continually lies. Job reports, Biden continually lies. Social Security and Medicare, Biden continually lies. Blatantly, and continually, lies. Before the entire world! How is this president, this office, this congressional body, worthy of respect? Civility, but why? Solemnity, but why? As an act of preservation? Why would we want to preserved this “civil” body politick?
I womnder if FJB is aware of what weapons theSecret Service uses.
https://reloadyourgear.com/secret-service-weapons/
It does not take a statute to stop the Secret Service from having these types of weapons, an executive order will do.
Why has no such executive order been issued?
“We have lost the civility and, with it, the dignity of such historic moments. Joe Biden is our President. He is granted entry to the House once a year for this constitutional function. He is entitled to a respectful audience. He is also expected to be respectful and accurate in his own words. He also failed that test
I want to operate with civility and respect.
But we have to face the facts. Democrats set the rules for the game. The same rules have to apply no matter who has the majority.
Peleosi has set the standard for acceptable behavior of the Speaker of the House. Ripping up the Presidents Speech, refusing to accept Republicans for committee assignments. Disrespect and raw exercises of power for the sake of power. Biden’s State of the Union will not be fact checked by WAPO, or PolitiFact.
Standards? Democrat only have standards for others, but not that apply to themselves.
I was somewhat hoping the US Speaker would out-do Nancy Pelosi’s ripping of Trump’s speech. Speaker McCarthy could have called men in white coats to restrain the psych patient on the dais, who is an ostensible threat to self and others. He could have called for a snap vote from US House Members on Biden’s clearly incapacitated mind and pull the 25th Amendment, while medicating Kamala Harris. Speaker McCarthy could have called a vote to impeach Biden, impeach Harris, and continue down the line, plus arrest Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Eric Swallowswell as traitors.
Instead Americans saw Joe Biden cucked by Jill Biden & Kamala’s husband, Doug Emhoff, a trait that Jill has had since she cheated on her first husband while dating Joe.
#McCarthyMissedOpportunity
“I was somewhat hoping the US Speaker would out-do Nancy Pelosi’s ripping of Trump’s speech. Speaker McCarthy could have called men in white coats to restrain the psych patient on the dais …”
**************************
I would have much preferred the Speaker blowing up a white balloon and popping it.
Or, put a model of a 60’s corvette on his armrest.
Jim:
That works, too.
mespo727272 and Jim22: Your comments/suggestions are so clever and funny! Too bad neither of you were on in-house staff, where your suggestions might have manifested in real-time, non-obtrusive, and “respectful” non-verbal response, there is that chance the entire bipartisan Congressional House would have laughed!
The Lincoln Bedroom has been busy with Quicky Hookups !
Cougar Jill can’t keep her paws of the Secret Service (Secret Servicings) and Doug the Stud.
“Things will not change in our country until we demand more from both parties and all of our leaders. Fortunately, my children are older now, but I always had them listen to the State of the Union addresses. I would have been mortified to have them watch this spectacle of sparing between the President and members last night. It goes against everything that we have sought to instill in them about mutual respect and civility.”
*********************************
One of the things I always respected about my father in his public and private roles is that he never felt that quelling disagreements by chastizing both sides was right or even effective. In his capacity as a teacher and administrator, he did his best to ferret out the culprit and punish him and not the victim pushed into a response. He also believed in civility but understood that to be civil meant to be met with civility among people of good faith. He never let it be a bludgeon by a jerk over an innocent to deflect the latter’s anger.
No believer in the Constitution or Western civilization or even simply right and wrong can honestly think the Dims are adherents to any of those things. They have proven time and again that they are enemies of the Constitution, our culture, our mores, and even right/wrong. In that rare instance where your opponent holds a dagger to the throat of everything we have been taught since the cradle to hold dear, civility rings hollow and is more cowardly vice than soaring virtue.
I don’t like what Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Ga.) did or said. But I do understand the well-spring of righteous indignation from whence it sprang. It’s what we all of an honest character said under our breath, but she alone had the courage to voice it directly to the culprit. Crude, uncivil, lacking in decorum? Yes, all of those things but ultimately, decidedly right and just. And, at the end of the day, isn’t that what matters most?
I understand solemnity and décor but I’m not certain an act of self-defense, which is what happened here, can be labeled “crude” or “uncivil.”
“There does appear to have been a decrease during this period and an increase after the period. However, the cause-and-effect claim has never been well-established.”
But it was noticeable enough that Turley does mention a decrease when it was in effect for 10 years and an increase when it was repealed. Ever since the number of weapons in circulation has increased almost exponentially and so have the number of mass shootings. They are quite common now despite his claim that they are rare. School’s have active shooter drills as part of their normal operations just as common as fire drills. That is not a sign that mass shootings are rare.
There’s a need for more guns by 2nd amendment proponents because there are MORE guns available to anyone who can obtain one. It’s become a self sustaining cycle of needing protection because it’s dangerous out there because there is an ever increasing supply of guns and more shootings.
Svelaz NO ONE IS TAKING OUR GUNS! 100+ million gun owners. According to the ATF 700 million guns in circulation. Try taking guns and we’ll explain the remedy for tyranny. “shall not”. Think Northern Ireland.
In the Twentieth Century Marxist murder 262 million unarmed people according to a University of Hawaii study on Democide. Democide; death by government. https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
The National Socialist Democrat WOKE Party (NAZIS) want a Marxist utopian that always ends in genocide.
Molon labe
Nobody is saying your guns will be taken away, But there is still a problem of more and more and more guns being available. People are feeling less safe because there are ‘criminals’ with more guns available to them. Because those who keep pushing for more unwittingly are providing criminals with an ever growing and more accessible stockpile of guns. Which in turn makes it necessary to get…MORE guns to defend yourself or your property from said criminals who have…more access to and more guns. The only ones benefitting from such a nasty cycle are firearm manufacturers. They rely on YOUR need to defend yourself from the dangers of all those guns out there who may be in the hands of criminals and nut jobs or even disgruntled co-workers who have had it.
The group that bought the most guns recently was urban black women. it wasn’t because a bunch of middle-age men in the mountain states were buying ARs.
Now, go buy you MAOI inhibitors and processed foods, push for NATO expansion where we’d said we sould, and vote for your soros-backed DAs and tell me, with a straight face that my AR is one the spectrum of a threat to you or anyone else. LOL.
Why do you want to con people? Do you get paid to post your BS here or are you really that divorced from reality?
BobThere,
You left out the De-fund the police movement.
Notice how the cities whom embraced that movement now have the highest crime rates?
And they are Blue cities.
Svelaz,
If you really want to know why more people are purchasing firearms, then read this.
Steve,
That was a good read.
Did your article get picked up by someone else? The title looks familiar.
Thanks.
The article hasn’t been picked up by anyone and to be honest hardly anyone reads my blog posts; however, I did link to it about a week ago in Turley’s Wisconsin Survey Finds Almost 60 Percent of Students Fear to Speak Openly in Class post.
I just linked to it on Twitter
Witherspoon, you left out the marketing from firearms manufacturers. They also use fear to sell more. They sell the fear of government coming to take you guns and selling more before they ‘ban’ them or market them to women who don’t feel safe.
They rely on that fear mongering to sell more. They are actively targeting women because that is the next big market.
You must have missed that I had firearms on my list. I didn’t miss it, you did.
Because people in Camden and Compton and the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia are all just imagining street crime, right?
“People are feeling less safe because…”
People are feeling less safe because your foolish liberal policies keep letting criminals (known as the bad guys) out of jail.
Here is a compelling point made by Paul Harding.
https://www.quora.com/Wont-curbs-on-gun-ownership-make-police-work-safer-in-the-US/answer/Paul-Harding-14
There are some many common denominators in gun violence. Young males? Violent video games? DRUGS? Someone once said “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics”. People, and especially politicians can and will spin information to agree with their own set of “facts”.
So what?
It is unconstituitional to ban assault weapons.
Back in the 1990’s, amidst the threat of mass shootings and gang violence in Chicago, the polcie and HUD conducted a program to search the Robert Taylor projects without a warrant. They were sued, and Judge Wayne Andersen enjoined them.
https://archive.is/wip/mgil3
I get it.
You fear the street thug and the gangbanger.
Sadly and tragically, too many people (like tenants in Robert Taylor) have compelling reasons to fear the street thug and the gangbanger.
Your fear and their fear do not justify violating constitutional protection.
“There’s a need for more guns” because decent human beings (e.g., suburban women) watch the news. They see the Left abandon city streets to packs of criminals, and the revolving door for those criminals. They see the Left defund and demoralize law enforcement.
Urban women were responsible for as huge number of gun buys in ther past decade. They know that lawlessness and lack of policing is more dangerous for them than any other demographic.
“There’s a need for more guns” because decent human beings (e.g., suburban women) watch the news.”
You mean Karens and the paranoid?
“They see the Left abandon city streets to packs of criminals, and the revolving door for those criminals. They see the Left defund and demoralize law enforcement.”
So protesters are packs of criminals now?
The right is no stranger to demanding to defund law enforcement either. They love to demand defunding the FBI. Thet demoralized law enforcement when they attacked them at the Capitol on Jan 6.
So packs of criminals are now protestors? blm, antifa, defund the popo, the idiots in seattle – remember those geniuses.
The one thing that having a dem president assures is that those radicals crawl back into their cages until the next pub takes over.
Funny how all those things disappear, like Earth First after clinton became president.
It is a media production, that’s it. You’re not fooling anyone, except, unfortunately, suburban middle class white chicks that seem to require conformity within their ranks…sad. But the dems have no problem of taking advantage of anyone for their own (and only their own) good.
There is a significant and relevant difference in the use of logic between Turley and Svelaz; it’s very obvious from Turley’s writings that Turley fully understands that Correlation ≠ Causation where Svelaz regularly uses the pure propaganda non-logic tactic that Correlation = Causation. Turley is correct and Svelaz is a babbling fool.
Thus ends todays lesson in the effective application of logic.
Witherspoon, in your haste due to emotional instability you neglected the fact that I did point out Turley’s admission that made shootings DID go down and DID go up in relation to the ban being in effect and when it was repealed. The fact that there WAS a reduction regardless of whether it was conclusive or not still showed a reduction. Many would go straight to splitting hairs over the significance of an obvious reduction and increase in relation to the ban and it’s repeal.
What matters is that there was a change that was notable enough to mention. That in itself is something that CAN still be attributed to the ban, it did last a decade. Something had to show.
“Republican members. As I teeeted last night, it was wrong when the Democrats did it and it is wrong now when Republicans do it. At one point, Biden was called a “liar” for again claiming that Republicans want to cut social security (a position rejected repeatedly by the vast majority of Republicans). Biden responded that he was not saying “I’m not saying it’s a majority.”
Well….he wasn’t wrong. Sen. Rick Scott did publish the republican agenda that included the idea to sunset all federal laws after 5 yrs and congress could vote to keep the ones they would deem worthy of keeping. That includes both Medicare and Social Security and would have raised taxes on the poorest as well. The majority of the points are all well aligned with what the majority of Republicans talk about all the time. From fighting wokeness to making sure immigrants are kept out and letting Americans claim their exceptionalism more freely. Republicans were offended because it’s what they have been saying for years. Heck they have been clamoring for shrinking government to the barest minimum and that includes eliminating SS and medicare.
Point 6 of the republican 11 point of the republican rescue America plan includes,
“All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
it would even force children to recite the pledge of allegiance in schools
https://rescueamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/RickScott-11-Point-Policy-Book.pdf
The majority of the points are all well aligned with what the majority of Republicans talk about all the time.
Continues perfect record of making statements not supported by evidence.
“Continues perfect record of making statements not supported by evidence.”
Iowan2. I posted a link to the 11 point plan that supports what Biden claimed. Saying that ALL federal legislation sunset after 5 years means everything and that includes Social Security and Medicare. Even Obamacare. The evidence is their 11 point plan.
That sounds scary. Hey old people, are you scared?
The mean ole pubs are going to take your handouts and you’ll be dying in the streets. There will need to be a new-colored trash bin next to garbage and recycling and composting for dead old people.
Do not dare vote for the mean old pubs…
lol. Stop terrorizing the populace with your played-out BS.
“what the majority of Republicans talk about all ”
What was the Republican vote on that legislation?
Svelez,
Now you have to contend with Biden from the floor of the Senate saying exactly what he is demonizing Sen Scott for suggesting. The difference, Dems actually voted on the written legislation.
A sunset and reevaluation requirement for every Federal Law and Regulation would be one of the best things we could do.
I like it! Who wouldn’t? Why would you dislike Tim Scott’s 11-Point Plan?
Any member of congress who claims that they will do nothing regarding Medicare and Social Security is an idiot or a liar.
We can debate details of what should be done. But something MUST be done,
The sooner the better.
John Say,
Well said.
I think their solution is going to be, “Strap the turbo charger on the printing press, and let er rip!”
Wife and I have been planning for retirement with the assumption it will NOT be there, or at a pittance of what we paid into, or will receive. If we do get a SS check, by that time it might pay the phone bill for the month.
“Wife and I have been planning for retirement with the assumption it will NOT be there”
Upstate, the people that didn’t save, hoping the government would bail them out, thank you. The government will use your savings to augment their paychecks.
My sympathies.
S. Meyer,
Good point. That would be typical, socialist thinking: “You worked hard, saved, were frugal, paid only cash, and now I think you should be forced to give up some, most to those of us who were irresponsible!”
Stuff the mattress?
“Stuff the mattress?”
Upstate, my wife comes from a communist nation, the type of nation Biden is working towards. They had an added layer of money management, so their income was partitioned.
One part went to the political neighbor next door, so that trouble was averted.
One part went to government the normal way.
One part went to the one providing a service. Example: When going to the doctor, which was free, money was given to the doctor the night before. The next day the doctor saw you, and those that didn’t pay frequently didn’t get treated.
When one saved money quietly, that didn’t solve the problem, for there was always inflation to contend with, which is another way for government to take your money without any interaction at all.
When stores had certain things available, one waited on line for hours in order to get the chance to buy those products at an inflated rate, though not if you were an elite. That time could have provided cash if one were able to work instead.
The above is the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, she made it out through minefields and provided the west with intelligence on microfilm wrapped in her braids. That is another way people pay for despotic governments and despotic leaders like Joe Biden.
This has been going on for over ten years. When my mom had a stroke just over ten years ago, she and my dad rented a place that had limited assisted living. Dad saved all his life and did all the right things. Then we find out that his monthly rate was based on my parents’ wealth. We have set up a system that encourages a lack of responsibility. After seeing what they did to my parents, we learned that you need to get your money out of the bank for five years. If you don’t, you might as well just hand it to uncle Sam
With respect to Scott’s “plan”
So it is alot of republican talking points.
Super majorities of americans agree with most if not all.
It does not take a moron to grasp that the federal government is by far the highest tax cost to the american people,
And that of the government services that most people receive – the Federal Government delivers the least value.
We can debate whether roads are a legitimate government expense.
There is no debate that the vast majority of our roads are provided and maintained by local government, not federal or state. As are our courts and police, and most of government value is delivered by and paid for out of local taxes.
The republican plan was more than just talking points. They were goals for a clearly ambitious agenda. The plan was prematurely released by Sen. Scott to the chagrin of many of his fellow republicans because he released it before the mid-terms and that was something they didn’t want the electorate to know until after.
A majority of Republican agree with that plan and that includes what Biden claimed.
You are right that McCarthy is lying about not seriously considering SS or medicare for cuts. Sen. Sanders and AOC called out McCarthy’s bluff by noting that the math doesn’t add up. Republicans don’t want to touch the Trump tax cuts and don’t want to cut military spending either. All that is left are the two biggest expenditures, Social Security, and Medicare. Republicans have always wanted to either cut Medicare or Reduce Social Security to it’s bare minimum. Also many have floated the idea of privatizing Social Security which would be a disaster.
“There is no debate that the vast majority of our roads are provided and maintained by local government, not federal or state. As are our courts and police, and most of government value is delivered by and paid for out of local taxes.”
That’s not entirely true. The cast majority of roads and infrastructure is maintained by local government, BUT oftentimes when republicans in local governments call for tax cuts, it comes at the expense of deferred maintenance of roads and bridges or other critical infrastructure. When those roads and other critical infrastructure is put off because republicans and libertarians are averse to raising taxes the remedy is to ask for federal funds to “help” local communities with their poorly maintained roads and infrastructure. When federal money is available republicans and fiscal conservatives have no problem accepting the funds as long as they get to keep their taxes low. It’s a common theme in republican districts as well as some democrat districts. At least democrats are willing to raise taxes to pay for it while Republicans wait for Uncle Sam to send some funds their way when their roads are so bad that there is no choice but to use federal funds.
This turkey never read the plan. I decided to reread it looking for what it said about Medicare.
I found only one statement:
“Force Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.”
Svelaz lies. The nation should do exactly what the plan says so the nation is informed of what is happening.
Now to prove my search was incomplete all Svelaz has to do is show where he read what he said about Medicare. He won’t because when it comes down to the brutal facts Svelaz never knows what they are.
S. Meyer, the plan stated “ALL legislation sunset after five years…”. “All” means everything, and that includes Medicare. Read for comprehension man. Come on.
That is a good idea, but would only be for new legislation so that new spending doesn’t go hog wild. In the meantime Democrats are seeing to it that Medicare will go bankrupt suddenly, and a lot of elderly will be badly hurt. All have to get together to make Medicare viable, but you and Democrats don’t care. You like to add things to Medicare to make sure when it goes down it goes down with a bang and takes a lot of the senior population with them.
You fixate on inside baseball.
I do not give a schiff when proposals that are fiscally sane are offered.
Your argument seems to be that Democrats were better at lying to the public until after the mid term.
Is that something we actually want to encourage ?
I do not know a single sane person on earth that would Trust AOC to do “math”.
Again I have ZERO interest in this MacCarthy vs. AOC vs. Biden Vs. … nonsense.
Without addressing specifics, Scott’s “plan” for the most part is good.
I will be happy to discuss details, or specifics. It is not perfect – it is an outline.
There are things that are missing I would like to see.
An some things present I do not care about.
But unlike Democratic proposals – like the Green New Deal, or the Inflation Creation Act, it is not end to end complete nonsense.
With respect to Medicare and SS – soon both will start to run not only in the red, but run out of IOU’s.
Increasingly they will have to be paid for in addition to the normal government budget, and they will increase the defficit even further.
There is not some moment at which they litterally go bankrupt.
But we are increasingly having to pay for them out of pocket.
They always were a ponzi scheme. Now that is self evident. The money “saved” in the past will be gone – not that we actually saved it. Currect recipients will have to be paid from current receipts in addition to all our othr expenditures.
Increasingly you will get to choose between funding medicare recipients and funding basic government services.
Further though our problems are far less bad than Most of the world. The US has inverted demographics.
More and more people will be drawing from SS and Medicare, and fewer and fewer paying in.
More and more people will be retired and no longer producing and fewer and fewer will be producing and paying taxes.
The US is not sustainable without about 2M LEGAL immigrants a year.
Republicans need to grasp that we are going to have to accept more foreigners to remain viable as a nation.
To continue to be productive and to support those who grow older and retire.
Conversely Democrats need to grasp that this uncontrolled illegal immigration – is not helping anything.
If anything is makes the problems worse.
As a nation we need to look carefully at WHO we allow into the country – not so much whether they are black or brown or yellow, But whether they are the people we need to sustain our economy.
We need immigrants, We need them paying taxes, We need them paying SS and Medicare, we need them being Highly productive.
We do not need lots of hospitaility workers or low skilled labor – unless you wish to see the standard of living for everyone declining.
Demographic factors in the rest of the world are likely to drive more and more reshoring in the US – as the economies of places like China, Japan, Europe falter. We do no tneed more grape pickers. We need more factory workers – for SMART Factories.
We need more skilled immigrant labor – not just to continue to be productive, but also to maintain SS and medicare for those who have grown older.
The alternative – or likely something we must do concurrently is reduce benefits and increase the age at which people become eligable for those benefits.
As I said before I would not trust AOC to ad 2 + 2 and get 4.
But in the real world the math does not work.
The good news for the US, is our demographic problems are SMALL compared to most of the world.
Seriously!?
Are you a troll intentionally spreading disinformation propaganda and paid for by the DNC?
Witherspoon, that comes directly from Sen. Rick Scott. Not I. Biden wasn’t wrong when he made that claim and evidently some conservative here agree with it.
Even John B. Say tacitly agrees with it. The republican plan that Sen. Scott posted is exactly what many libertarians have been demanding for years. Biden got heckled because it was the truth and Republicans were uncomfortable with exposing their real feelings about those issues.
I am going to respond though I find it distasteful. If nothing is done, Medicare will go bankrupt in a matter of years. All seniors will find their healthcare curtailed. That is what happens when things are managed irresponsibly. Democrats are killing seniors in the future and today with their quiet but deadly changes. Many Republicans are trying to stop that slaughter. You stand there with your mouth wide open oblivious to the world around you.
S. Meyer, Huh? As usual your incoherent ramblings leave a lot to be desired.
“Many Republicans are trying to stop that slaughter.”
How? All they are proposing is cutting it off or privatizing it which will be worse. I have seen a lot of complaining about “bad management” but republicans have not produced any solutions other than cutting Medicare funding and letting everyone fend for themselves.
As I said, you are oblivious and lied about the Republican plan. It said nothing about getting rid of Medicare. Stick to what you claimed. You lied, and I proved it. You cannot find the facts to back up your lies or ignorance.
These are the exact words in the plan you acted as if you read (which was a lie).
“Force Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.”
That is what Congress needs to do, make the public aware. Then Congress can fix the problem and prevent future devastation to the senior population.
Keep lying and keep your head in the sand. You do not have the intellectual rigor to debate based on facts. That is why so many on this blog are so disgusted with you.
Aside from having no interest in your inside baseball nonsense.
I have no trust in your claims.
absolutely some of what Scott proposed is weakly libertarian.
Regardless, the real world FACTS are that even what ordinate republicans wish to do is unsustainable.
What Democrats seek to do will run into disaster rapidly.
In many instances already has.
You say inflation is waning – It is STILL way way to high and it is coming down slowly, and reducing inflation ALWAYS comes at the expense of growth and standard of living – so we have lots more pain left to endure.
But that is no the end of it. Due to the US novel position in the world economy. Do to the fact that all global trade is dollar denominated, do to the fact that most of th rest of the worlds economies are weaker than the US economy, and less stable than the US – US exports lots of our financial problems.
We saw relatively mild inflation in the US in 2009, but that inflation was worse elsewhere in the world.
And it ORIGINATED in the US.
When prices here on important goods like food go up alittle – in poor countries they go up alot.
Between the global negative effects of US inflation, and the unnecescary War in Ukraine that Biden gave us,
we will with near certainty see an increasingly unstable world – especially in the mideast.
It has been noted here that Musk (as well as Bezos, Zuckerberg, …) have lost half of their wealth in the past year.
Do you honestly think they noticed ? Is Bezo’s tightening his belt ? Skipping desert ?
The US is the 1% compared to the world. Americans may wine – and rightly so about rising prices – especially food,
We may have to tighten our belts and give up vacations, or the theater, or reduce the number of streaming entertainment services we buy. We might have to wait an extra year to upgrade to the next Iphone. But we are not starving. ‘
The problems that we CAUSE globally result in people dying in conflicts or starving. The left likes to rant about priviledge
The Modern left is the most overpriviledged group Ever, The most over privildged generation, the most over priviledged people in the world.
I believe in the right to arm bears. Rifles.
Its a clown world, so why don’t they bring along the little clown horns and honk them when appropriate.
Frankly, NONE of them deserve any respect.
A ” Mass Shooting” happens at a Catholic Mass. On Sunday.
How about the fact that his dementia caused him to slur his speech. Why don’t you write an article on why he should be removed via the 25th amendment due to his cognitive decline.
Sadly, my wife and I did not watch the SOTU. We knew the president would lie repeatedly, as he has done his entire career. We have lived near Delaware for 40 years and been exposed to his lies too many times. Decorum seems on life support by both sides, but you can’t tear up the speech as Pelosi did and expect no response. The American people are pretty smart, the president can say how great things are, but he doesn’t go to the grocery store every month.