Dr. Ford with George Soros
Showing posts with label @sbalich #Turningpoint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label @sbalich #Turningpoint. Show all posts
Friday, September 28, 2018
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Eight big problems for Christine Blasey Ford’s story
Eight big problems for Christine Blasey Ford’s story
Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Brett Kavanaugh are serious. She is accusing him of violent attempted rape. “I thought he might inadvertently kill me. He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing,” she told The Washington Post, recounting the alleged incident at a high school party “one summer in the early 1980s.”
But her story is also growing less believable by the day. Here are eight reasons why it’s hardly “anti-woman” for senators to question her account at Thursday’s hearing:
1) For starters, Ford still can’t recall basic details of what she says was the most traumatic event in her life. Not where the “assault” took place — she’s not sure whose house it was, or even what street it was on. Nor when — she’s not even sure of the year, let alone the day and month.
Ford’s not certain how old she was or what grade she was in when she says an older student violently molested her. (But she doesn’t plead inebriation: She described having just “one beer” at the party.)
2) Ford concedes she told no one what happened to her at the time, not even her best friend or mother. That means she can rely on no contemporaneous witness to corroborate her story.
3) Worse, the four other people she identified as attending the party, including Kavanaugh, all deny knowledge of the gathering in question, including Leland Ingham Keyser, who she calls a “lifelong friend.”
Keyser’s lawyer told the Senate Judiciary Committee: “Simply put, Ms. Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present, with or without Dr. Ford.”
The other two potential witnesses — Mark Judge and Patrick “P.J.” Smyth — also deny any recollection of attending such a party. The committee took their sworn statements “under penalty of perjury.” “These witnesses directly contradict Professor Ford’s allegations against Judge Kavanaugh,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley advised Ford’s attorneys last week.
This is, to say the least, highly problematic for her case. No witness corroborates any part of her story.In her original letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Ford claimed that Kavanaugh talked to Keyser and Smyth right after he assaulted her. Yet neither shares her memory.
4) Her own immediate family doesn’t appear to be backing her up, either. Her mother, father and two siblings are all conspicuously absent from a letter of support released by a dozen relatives, mostly on her husband’s side of the family.
The letter attests to her honesty and integrity. “Why didn’t her parents and brothers sign the letter?” a congressional source familiar with the investigation wondered.
5) This summer, Ford tried to reach out to old friends from high school and college to jog her memory. They couldn’t help her. “I’ve been trying to forget this all my life, and now I’m supposed to remember every little detail,” Ford complained to one friend in July, according to an account in The San Jose Mercury News.
6) Yet she still pushed forward with her bombshell charge, contacting The Washington Post tip line and Democratic lawmakers, while hiring a Democratic activist lawyer. Ford is also a Democrat, as well as an anti-Trump marcher, raising questions about the motive and timing of the allegations along with their veracity.
7) Ford contends that notes her therapist took in 2012 corroborate her account. But they don’t mention Kavanaugh.
They also point up inconsistencies in her story. For instance, her shrink noted that Ford told her there were “four boys” in the bedroom, not two as she now says. The notes also indicate Ford said she was in her “late teens” when she was assaulted. But Ford now says she may have been only 15.
8) In another inconsistency, Ford told The Washington Post she was upset when Trump won in 2016, because Kavanaugh was mentioned as a Supreme Court pick. But Kavanaugh wasn’t added to Trump’s list of possibles until November 2017, a full year later.
On top of all that, Kavanaugh “unequivocally denied Dr. Ford’s allegations . . . under penalty of perjury” during a Sept. 17 interview with committee lawyers, Grassley said, adding he was “forthright and emphatic in his testimony” and “fully answered all questions.”
The sworn interview will no doubt be used to test the consistency and veracity of his public statements Thursday.
Yet Democrats have already tried and convicted Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Without hard evidence, without substantiation, some even go beyond Ford’s claims to call him an out-and-out “rapist,” “sexual predator,” even a “child predator.”
As a result, Kavanaugh and his family, “including his two young daughters, have faced serious death threats and vicious assaults,” Grassley said. “And they’re getting worse each day.”
Ford, who also has received threats, is by all accounts a respected scientific researcher in the field of psychology with an impressive pedigree. While that makes her credible, the same can’t be said for her story. Unless she can fill in the many holes, Kavanaugh still deserves the presumption of innocence.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Politics is a cult
Modern politics and the political process is a perpetual psychic system for creating an ongoing hallucinatory mentality for the mass mind. It is psychic persuasion that coerces the people individually and collectively to imagine political and economic freedom.
On the national level, politics is the art of pacifying the workers and producers of wealth while creating a false dichotomy of political conflict. The political process capitalizes on our degree of mental specialization, which has caused our thinking processes to be narrowly prescribed.
We are trained from early on to focus on our occupation and specialty. From the beginning we are unconsciously channeled into a mental straightjacket. Few men and women engage their mental processes in introspection. They have no contemplation of their own thoughts, feelings and sensations. They do not engage their minds in self-examination. They do not question external influences upon their minds because they are unaware that they exist. They do not question the sources and reasons for their political persuasion because they are unaware that they exist. The majority is systematized into a learned process that has killed all imperative to inquire into the nature of things.
The baffling thing is that discriminating people seem to come from various levels of mental abilities and initiatives. We cannot seem to index people according to I.Q. Some people have introspection, logic and reason. They inquire into relationships. Education does not promote these mental attributes. They seem to be innate or expressed as biochemical individuality. It seems to be a sixth-sense syndrome.
Human nature responds to authority. Human nature does not question authority. In other words, it is more natural to the human species to respond to authority than not to respond to authority. Authority can be political, medical, economic or social. We are intellectually lazy. It is easier to follow the crowd with conditioned responses. It is far easier to be dependent than to be independent. Everything in our culture is created for us, even our mental processes.
In his book, The Crowd, Gustave LeBon writes:
"The majority of men, especially among the masses, do not possess clear and reasoned ideas on any subject whatever outside their specialty… We are overwhelmingly supplied by the mainstream media electronic media and "by the periodical publications which manufacture opinions for their readers and sup…
I would take issue with Monsieur LeBon on the fact about the source of the illusions of the crowd. They are not forged by the crowd but by the dogma implanted in the minds of crowds. Our thought processes are not our own. They are supplied to us. We are only the "hard drive." We respond exactly according to our programming, except those few of our readers who still have the mental capacity for introspection and discrimination. Congratulate yourself for not being a part of the automatic response society. An inquiring mind is symptomatic of intellectual freedom. Few have it.
Now, shouldn’t we give these words practical application as to our current political situation? Separate your thinking for a moment from the mass mind.
Look at the last week’s lionization of Senator John McCain. All of the former presidents and most of the political establishment were on hand for the political theater. One would think McCain was George Washington or Thomas Jefferson rather than a lifetime political hack, member of the Keating Five, godfather of the Muslim Brotherhood, ally to al-Qaida terrorists, supporter of the slaughter of innocent women and children in the Middle East and puppet of the globalists who work behind the scenes to destroy our liberty and steal our wealth.
Politicians and media who previously accused McCain of fathering an illegitimate child with a black woman, spreading rumors that his second wife, Cindy, was addicted to pain-killers, that McCain was unstable due to his time as prisoner of war and visited prostitutes (George W. Bush campaign); that claimed he was having an affair with a lobbyist (The New York Times); that cast him as the kin of the evil ruler in Star Wars (The Atlantic); and who likened him Hitler and Stalin (Hollyweird and DailyKos); and a racist (Democrat politicians); sang his praises as if he were a great statesman and patriot.
Here’s an experiment for you. Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On one side put Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. On the other put George W. Bush and John McCain. Forget, if you can, personalities and physical appearances. List the differences of each. Have you discovered that their differences have become their similarities? Are they not politically the same? Whence came these manufactured politicos?
For public consumption on the campaign trail they appear to be mortal enemies. Then all gather together outside of "politics" and they’re all in the same club, glad-handing and hugging one another like family.
During his eulogy of McCain, Obama opined that "when all was said and done, we were on the same team. We never doubted we were on the same team."
There is their team: the elites. Then there is our team: the exploited. Their goals and values are far different from ours, and never the twain shall meet.
The definition of a cult is "great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work," and "a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion." Politics is a cult.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Mueller’s Fatal Mistake
Mueller’s Fatal Mistake
Originally published at Fox News Newt Gingrich
There is now no excuse for Special Counsel Mueller to ask to interview President Trump.
In fact, it is now clear the investigators have been given so much information about the President’s actions and had such remarkably open access, they should just close shop and write their final report.
They no longer have any grounds for going to court to get a subpoena to compel the President to testify.
Mueller’s fatal mistake was revealed Saturday in The New York Times story titled, “White House Counsel, Don McGahn, Has Cooperated Extensively in Mueller Inquiry.” Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman reported that there were at least 30 hours of interviews between the Mueller team and the White House Counsel.
Don McGahn asserted throughout the interviews that “he never saw Mr. Trump go beyond his legal authorities.”
McGahn’s cooperation is historically unique because President Trump waived both executive privilege and attorney-client privilege. President Trump was so confident of his innocence that he waived both of these protections to allow the Special Counsel to thoroughly question the White House attorney.
Accepting such thorough and detailed briefing from the White House Counsel will ultimately hurt the efforts of Mueller’s team of left-wing Democratic lawyers.
McGahn is a very widely-respected lawyer, who thoroughly understands the difference between legal and illegal behavior – and he was in the room for virtually all of President Trump’s activities.
It couldn’t be more clear: The Trump White House was comfortable talking for 30 hours with a pack of high-powered, very tough-minded investigators, because the President has done nothing wrong.
Nevertheless, at every stage, Mueller has conducted an aggressive, one-sided, and increasingly irresponsible, investigation.
Mueller was brought in to seek the truth about whether there was collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and Russians to impact the 2016 election.
His first step down the road of abusive aggressiveness was to hire a completely partisan team of mostly Democrat attorneys. Mueller could have hired a balanced team of Republican and Democratic lawyers. He could have avoided hiring lawyers who had worked for Hillary Clinton or gone to the Clinton election night party. Instead he hired totally biased opponents of Trump – who want to take down the President.
Mueller’s second step down the road was to find accusations that had nothing to do with the election, the Russians, or a question of collusion.
Look at the outrageous abuse of Paul Manafort. Manafort had been campaign chairman. He had ties with foreign businessmen. He had done extensive business in Ukraine. I’m sure the Mueller team believed if anyone was the obvious entry point for collusion, it would have been Manafort.
Yet, they found nothing.
Let me repeat this, because it is so ignored by the daily media headlines: The Mueller team found no evidence of Manafort colluding with any foreign entities on the 2016 election.
Manafort is being tried over tax and banking issues that have nothing to do with Russian collusion or any election.
In fact, the Manafort trial is a case study in how a ruthless prosecutor can use the power of the state to intimidate and punish an individual. Manafort and his wife were awakened in their pajamas in pre-dawn hours by FBI agents conducting a raid on their residence – even though the previous day Manafort had been cooperating with the Senate’s investigative body. Furthermore, there was no evidence Manafort represented any danger of violence or flight. The early morning attack was designed to frighten Manafort and send a signal to other potential witnesses to cooperate – or else.
An extraordinary abuse of power was displayed through Mueller’s holding of Manafort in solitary confinement in a cell for 23 hours a day as he awaited trial. This level of deprivation is astonishing when done to an American citizen, who has committed no violent crimes and has not been convicted of anything. Again, it is an effort to intimidate and coerce.
Mueller also understands that every person he goes after has to hire lawyers, spend their lifetime savings, and potentially end up deeply in debt to simply protect themselves from government lawyers who could potentially put them in prison.
Now, we are at the end of the failed investigation.
With McGahn’s 30 hours of testimony, it is clear there is no evidence of President Trump either colluding with the Russians or engaging in illegal obstruction of justice.
Saturday’s New York Times story should be the end of the story.
No sitting president has the time for distractions as big as the Mueller investigation absent the showing of a compelling need – the most important element of which is that any information President Trump has cannot be derived from some other source.
President Trump has not invoked any privilege and has permitted complete access to his White House Counsel, as well as others. Mueller can no longer even come close to meeting the compelling need standard.
As such, it is time to shut the investigation down and allow the President to do what Americans hired him to do – focus on making America great again. Continuing to draw out this partisan investigation only serves to confirm what most Americans now understand – it had no basis in law or fact.
Mueller should write his report to Congress and return to his retirement.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Is China Winning the 5G Race?
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Is China winning the 5G race?
This technology is fairly new, so it might be too early to say China is winning the 5G race, but the country is very focused on becoming a leader in the industry.
According to a study released by Deloitte, since 2015, China has built about 350,000 cell sites. The U.S., meanwhile, has built around 30,000.
China has been working diligently to install new wireless sites, which need to be placed on either lampposts or utility poles in densely populated areas.
China is so focused on expanding 5G throughout the country that it’s making a significant economic commitment to the technology. Its five-year economic plan, which runs through 2020, is calling for $400 billion in spending on 5G investment.
The Deloitte report said, “Consequently, China and other countries may be creating 5G networks, which will ultimately be used to power self-driving cars, virtual reality, and smart cities.”
5G networks will unlock endless possibilities from technology and enhance any smart devices we already use.
Obviously, the first country that successfully sets up 5G networks will have a massive lead over other countries working toward 5G adoption. The Deloitte report mentioned “first-adopter countries embracing 5G could sustain more than a decade of competitive advantage.” And right now, China is dominating with its installation of new wireless sites, which means it has the competitive advantage.
Two other important factors in the 5G race are research and development and the ability for the government to quickly allocate additional radio frequencies to wireless companies. 5G needs more bandwidth, and the only way to achieve it is with these radio frequencies.
The time, money, and energy devoted to research and development in new technologies is always key when it comes to becoming a global leader in a certain industry or tech. China is devoting its time, money, and energy to 5G, and it’s already paying off.China Mobile Hong Kong is Completing 5G Network Tests
China Mobile Hong Kong continues to work on 5G Wi-Fi. It recently announced that it is completing 5G network tests and is succeeding in connecting non-5G devices and computers to its Wi-FI hotspots.
5G-capable smartphones are still a year or more away from being fully accessible; however, devices will have the opportunity to connect using 5G Wi-Fi hotspots. China Mobile Hong Kong believes it will be ready to provide full services once rollout is complete.
The company said:
This is just one example of the dedication China and its tech companies have to 5G.
China Mobile Hong Kong continues to heavily invest in 5G research and development. It recently signed agreements with HTC to develop a solid 5G infrastructure and compatible 5G devices.
The realization that this industry is going to bring in huge profits and economic benefits is going to outweigh the current costs to deploy the technology. It's all going to be worth it in the end.Does the U.S. Have a Chance?
Despite what is happening right now, the U.S. isn’t sitting back and watching China dominate the 5G market. The U.S. is making its own strides to become a world leader of the next-generation technology.
Last month, the U.S Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was advised by the Executive Branch to deny China Mobile entry. The Executive Branch made this decision based on “substantial and unacceptable risk to U.S. law enforcement and foreign intelligence collection.”
The CIA, FBI, and NSA told Americans in February that they shouldn’t use products from Huawei and ZTE because of the potential security risks with their devices. However, these agencies don’t have any evidence to back up these claims, but warning Americans that there might be some risk if they purchase devices by those companies could help reduce the market share of the companies, and ultimately China’s lead in the 5G race.
Additionally, the Trump administration has been contemplating creating a set of standards for a nationwide 5G mobile network to prevent China from dominating the industry. The threat is real. But it doesn’t seem like the U.S. is entirely afraid of its place in the industry.
The U.S. is gaining speed when it comes to its research for 5G. In fact, two industry giants, Intel and Qualcomm, are hard at work researching and developing 5G technologies, so the U.S. will have a chance to win the 5G race in the same way it became a leader in 4G technologies.
But as of right now, China is in the lead. A report from CTIA, a trade association for the U.S. wireless industry, said China was the country most prepared to deploy 5G networks. South Korea was second, the U.S. was third, and Japan was fourth.
It’s going to be an interesting race to 5G. I know I’m going to be paying very close attention to it!
If you want to profit no matter which nation wins the race, there's a way to do that. Click here for my colleague Jason Stutman's presentation on the companies set to dominate the 5G revolution.
Monica Savaglia is Wealth Daily’s IPO specialist. With passion and knowledge, she wants to open up the world of IPOs and their long-term potential to everyday investors. She does this through her newsletter IPO Authority, a one-stop resource for everything IPO. She also contributes regularly to the Wealth Daily e-letter. To learn more about Monica, click here.
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The restoration of civil society
By Bob Livingston
In response to the infestation of our institutions and daily lives by pop culture and its practitioners — and invading hoards bringing with them their socialism and foreign cultures — many families have withdrawn to the privacy and safety of their own homes and neighborhoods. Only there can they preserve themselves and Christo-Western culture. This is the first law of nature at work, as it has been consistently since the advent of Western civilization.
The experts are saying that such withdrawal and individual liberty is destroying civil society. These hypocrites are engaging in Orwellian double-speak. Self-preservation is a building block of civil society.
Giving special interest groups privileges under color of law is one thing. Funneling them the wealth of the middle class through the welfare state is another thing, and many balk. Giving them our children, and thus our very blood and destiny, is quite another thing indeed. Locke described those who come against individuals and communities as ravenous wolves to be destroyed by any means. There is no more meaningful metaphor for us today.
As civil society breaks down, so does civility. We are seeing it daily in the growing number of attacks — both verbal and physical — by people on others on the basis of political philosophy. The political elite have used divide and conquer politics to great effect, creating minority special interests to pit against one another for spoils and special privileges.
As for the decline of civility, it can also be traced directly to the same criminal politics. It's a zero-sum game. Virtually every moral, cultural, spiritual, political, business and civil practice of the middle class, including civility, has decreased as a public standard in accordance with the increasing number of special interests and with the increasing number of laws granting them special privileges.
We now know that the combined onslaught of pop culture and the official endorsement of anti-Christian, immoral, anti-American people and activities such as open relationships, consequentless sex via abortion, gay marriage, bisexuality, polyamory, transgender and pedophilia have irretrievably separated the middle class from what was formerly their own United States of America. That nation is no longer their own, and so, against the criminality and incivility of the politicians and alien invaders, the real American nation has withdrawn its borders into the homes of these average Americans.
Self-preservation is the first organizing factor for nations. After all, what are borders? The global elite want a world without borders. Armies and even corporations are organized with self-preservation in mind, both in structure of specific ranks and duties and in the ways they conduct their affairs, whether fighting battles or fighting off hostile mergers.
Christo-Western nations have conquered others and advanced their culture and civilization because of their consistent practice of the first law of nature. Self-preservation does not begin with these large institutions, however, but with the individual and the family. Self-government begins with personal accountability before God and then one's spouse and children. The irony today is that modern (pseudo) conservative politicians ignore the fact that self-preservation is the ultimate family value.
One of the beautiful aspects of medieval times was its traditional emphasis on family and community kinship. The misnomer "Dark Ages" has been applied to medieval times by those who want to propagandize history. As Montesquieu, another favorite philosopher of the Founders, observed, perfect liberty proceeded from the ancient Germanic tribes, or families. By the time of Charlemagne and the onset of the Middle Ages, the family and tribal network of the tribes had evolved into feudalism, or the law of the communal manor. The feudal manor was the castle. It had hard, high, windowless walls and towers for family and communal protection against invaders. The tower and walkway walls were cut out for them to shoot arrows and, eventually, cannons. Moats were constructed around the castles, with draw-bridges serving as the sole entry to these mighty fortresses.
Feudal lords owned and managed these habitats, but security and even housing were provided to loyal servants and ordinary folks. The bonds of kinship were extended to families willing to pledge their loyalty, or fealty, to the lord of the manor and to one another. In this way, family duties were extended to others, in covenant. Civil society was born. As the manor grew into small cities, the cities were also walled, just as they were in ancient times. Socioeconomic class levels and bonds tended to reflect martial organization for community defense purposes, led by the true forerunners of the Renaissance man: the citizen-farmer-statesman-soldi
In response to the perversion of our nation, many are reverting to these practices. The streets in our towns and cities are once again becoming "gated communities," with steel bars in gates and windows everywhere. Exclusive housing developments even have high walls, barbed wire and gated entrances with armed security booths manned around the clock. Private security firms police our homes because we have learned that the civil police are either ineffective or corrupted by criminal politicians.
Homes now have dead-bolted and impenetrable doors, sophisticated electronic alarm systems that automatically notify authorities, barred windows, security lights, motion detectors, video cameras, guard dogs, etc. Specialists are hired to design security systems and even to create special homes designed from the ground up with self-preservation in mind. Inventors are busy coming up with new, creative ways to preserve our homes and families.
Criminals are only the most visible of the enemies of self-preservation and civil society. They are already armed for their invasion. It is thus obvious how much the criminals enjoy their role in destroying middle class America.
Yet the trend toward self-preservation portends good. Perhaps in returning to homes and communities built for self-preservation, as in feudal times, Americans will also return to the higher principles of preserving faith and family. Perhaps then the larger nation can restore its borders — spiritually, morally and culturally — and thus restore its identity, purpose and civil society.
For now, true liberty exists only at home, and anything that comes against the home makes war on your family and your attempted self-preservation. Beware of those who would destroy your self-preservation and individuality, ostensibly in the name of creating a more civil society.
Monday, August 13, 2018
Congress is Working to Save Lives and Money
Congress is Working to Save Lives and Money
Originally published at Fox News by Newt Gingrich
If you only watch, read, and listen to the mainstream media, it is reasonable to believe that members of Congress do nothing but bicker. The only stories that earn air time, ink, or tweets are those which the elite media deem the most important (read most entertaining) and focus only on the partisan fights of the day.
According to the elite media’s narrative, Republicans and Democrats never work together, Congress never solves any problems, and legislating has essentially ended on Capitol Hill.
However, this isn’t reality. In fact, members of Congress regularly work on reasonable, bipartisan legislation to make life better for Americans. One recent example which the media has ignored is the Organ Donor Clarification Act (ODCA). It was introduced in the House on July 19 and is supported by a 15-member group of Republicans and Democrats – as well as more than a dozen medical, political, and philanthropic organizations, including The Gingrich Foundation.
The central aim of the bill is to end the nationwide organ shortage and help get new organs to people who need them more quickly. It would achieve this by making it easier for healthy people to defray the costs of donation and by trying new ways to improve the donor system to incentivize healthy organ donation.
For many Americans, this is a matter of life and death. Every day, 20 people die while waiting for lifesaving organ transplants. The need for kidneys drives this problem. More than 80 percent of the 115,000 people awaiting organ transplants as of June needed kidneys. At the same time, healthy, transplantable organ donations have been in decline since 2006. It’s become so bad that the rate of need has now doubled the rate of transplant.
This organ shortage is also a matter of dollars and cents. People who need new kidneys require dialysis, which can be incredibly expensive. Medicare spending on patients on dialysis, for example, averages $87,000 per person annually. Dialysis is also taxing on the body and takes time – sometimes people require dialysis for up to a decade before receiving a transplant. So, people who are dependent on dialysis are necessarily less productive – and less fulfilled – than they could be otherwise. According to Congressmen Jason Lewis (R-MN) and Matt Cartwright (D-PA) – the bipartisan team leading the bill through the House – a successful kidney transplant pays for itself in less than two years – just by avoiding future medical costs, which can be as much as $745,000 over 10 years.
The ODCA also seeks to improve the rate of healthy organ donations by clarifying the law. Imprecise terms in current law that don’t clearly define what reimbursements donors can legally receive to lessen the costs of organ donation (coupled with serious criminal penalties for inappropriate reimbursements) have led to a chilling effect on willing, healthy donations. Clarifying this language will help donors get reimbursed quickly for things such as medical expenses and lost wages, hopefully increasing the number of donors.
The bill will also amend well-intentioned but outdated laws that prohibit government-run pilot programs from exploring how non-cash incentives could improve the rate of organ donation. Once this law is passed, federal health agencies could try offering health insurance, scholarships, or other non-fungible incentives to promote healthy organ donation.
In 2003, I wrote a book with Anne Woodbury and Dana Pavey called Saving Lives & Saving Money, which explored ways of transforming our health system so that it focused on (and fixed) the most deadly and costly issues facing Americans. The Organ Donor Clarification Act fits that model perfectly.
It is also evidence that real, important, effective lawmaking is still happening in the House and Senate – we just rarely hear about it.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
"Half"
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Thursday, August 9, 2018
ISRA Thursday Bulletin - August 9, 2018
Executive Directors Message
Recently I have been
getting calls from the media regarding so-called 3-D guns. There are those that think a person can take
a set of plans off the internet, download them to a 3-D printer or CNC machine,
turn everything on and out will come a gun.
Even more interesting, I got one call from a media person who thought
you could make ammunition the same way.
The answer is: uhhh… No.
There are a few points you should know just in case this
topic comes up around the water cooler.
It is not illegal for a person to make their own firearms. People have been doing this for years. There are some rules you must follow. The gun you make must be for your own
use. You can’t sell it or even give it
away because it has no serial number. If
you want to give it a serial number then you have to become a federally
licensed firearm manufacturer. You can’t
make a firearm that is undetectable. The
firearm must be 50% or more metal. You
cannot make a firearm that qualifies for the National Firearms Act prohibited
list - no full auto, no artillery pieces, no mortars, you know all the really
fun stuff. There are prohibitions
contrary to what the anti-gunners and fellow travelers think and the media
espouse. In certain parts of the world
people are making firearms in caves and huts that are not very pretty but they
work, mostly. John M. Browning hand
carved wooden models of his firearms before he turned them into metal. This is not new.
What we really have here is an attack on free speech by the
leftists and the media. They don’t want
that kind of knowledge out there. They
only want what they want out there. Free
speech isn’t free unless you own control of the media. Otherwise, you have to fight for it.
The Grand National Shotgun Championships are in full swing
in Sparta, Illinois. Thousands of trap
shooters from across the United States, Canada and a few other countries
converge on the World Shooting Complex (WSC) in Sparta each year for the
greatest spectacle in the shooting sports.
Illinois should be proud to host this great event put on by the Amateur
Trapshooting Association (ATA).
The youth division of the ATA is known as the AIM
program. Each year the ISRA helps
sponsor the 3-Gun event just before the Grand Nationals. This year 1800 young people took part in that
event. I want to thank all of the ISRA
volunteers who so generously gave of their time to help put this event on. A special thanks goes to Bart Carson of the
WSC and to Tom Fahrenbach for their special efforts to make this event happen.
The National Rifle and Pistol Championships are winding down
but the good news is still coming in. In
Smallbore, our own Jim Miller won the Senior Prone National Championship and
Paula Lambert won the Intermediate Senior National Championship in 3-Postion
(standing, kneeling and prone).
In High Power, the Elihu Root Team is made up of the six top
civilian shooters and the captain and coach of the top civilian team. The ISRA won four out of the six shooting
positions and the team captain and coach slots.
Congratulations to Team Captain Konrad Powers, Team Coach John Holliger,
both of whom are top team shooters. ISRA
members Tim Klauer and Thomas Power are also on the team. Great job!
Elihu Root, for those who may have missed that chapter in
history, was a really heavy hitter in the late 19th and early 20th
century. He was both Secretary of State
and later, Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt. His accomplishments would fill a book. He was a big supporter of Civilian
Marksmanship.
The ISRA Range will host the NRA Basic Rifle Course on
September 30, 2018. This course is the
prerequisite for the NRA Rifle Instructor Course. This is an eight-hour class with live fire
qualification. Check our website
calendar for details.
By now, last weekend’s shootings in Chicago have slipped
from the front pages and off the 6 o’clock news. Even so, the city is bracing for another
weekend of gang activity. As I have
repeatedly said, the problem is the gangs and the drugs that fuel them. I talked to a retired Chicago policeman
Tuesday and he reported seeing drug deals on the street while driving to pick
up a couple of relatives. If he can see
them, why can’t others? Your guess is
as good as mine. The understaffed
Chicago Police Department said last weekend’s shootings are gang related and so
will next weekend’s shootings, and the next and the next. This is more than a police department
problem, this is a culture problem. One
community activist stated that they want to spread the pain around. That is the excuse for shutting down streets
and demonstrating in front of Wrigley Field.
Instead of running around the city and spreading the pain around why
don’t you folks stay home and clean up your own neighborhood. It is not as much fun, you won’t get on TV
and you will not have 15 minutes of fame, but it will make a difference which
is what everyone wants-isn’t it?
A bunch of FOID cards are coming up for renewal soon. This is the first batch of the 10-year cards
to renew. If you or anyone you know wants
to get a FOID card, I would do it now because things may get hectic later. Remember: if you are a member and need
assistance with your FOID, call Mary at the ISRA office (815.635.3198) for an
appointment; she will give you specific instructions on what you will need.
The numbers are in:
FOID - 2,287,525
ICCL - 307,311
Thanks for being a member.
Upcoming Events: ISRA Calendar
For more information, visit www.isra.org
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Homeland Security Active Shooter Course
Project Appleseed
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Project Appleseed
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Tuesday Night Irregular Rifle League
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Bench Rest League
Wednesday Night F-Class League
Thursday, August 16, 2018
ISRA Smallbore Rifle League
ISRA Smallbore F-Class League
Saturday, August 18, 2018
Intro to Home Defense with Carbine
Sunday, August 19, 2018
ISRA Bullseye Match & Combat Match
Springfield Match
ISRA Marksmanship League
Illinois Gun & Trade Shows
New Berlin Gun Show
New Berlin, IL – Sangamon County Fairgrounds
Dates: August 18 & 19, 2018
Hours: Saturday: 9:00am-4:00pm
Sunday:
9:00am-3:00pm
Admission: $4.00
Belleville Gun & Knife Show
Belleville, IL – Belle-Clair Expo Center
Dates: August 25 & 26, 2018
Hours: Saturday: 9:00am-5:00pm
Sunday:
9:00am-3:00pm
Admission: $6.00
Lake County Gun & Sportsman Show
Antioch, IL – Antioch VFW
Date: August 26, 2018
Hours: Saturday: 8:00am-2:00pm
Admission: $7.00
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