Category: Social Behavior

Divided America

Based on news reports thousands and maybe millions of Americans believe the 2020 election was fraudulent.

The disparate responses from the governors of the two most populous states in the nation highlighted the stark political divide in America, deepened by radically different approaches to healthcare, gun control, the COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQ rights, immigration and now, once again, reproductive rights.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor Kate Brown of Oregon, and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington joined together in announcing a multistate commitment to defend access to reproductive health services and contraceptives.

Bill Maher’s monologue on Friday’s episode of “Real Time.” joked that “It’s gonna be a fun America that we’re going to live in, isn’t it?” and eventually lamented that “we are going to be living in two very different Americas.”

On Saturday June 18 thousands of Texas Republicans approved a new platform at the 2022 party convention in Houston calling on the state legislature to authorize a referendum on secession from the United States. There are 275 planks in the platform and among the planks it defines homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle,” marriage as only between “one biological man and one biological woman,” and supports eliminating sex education from schools altogether. On the political side, it calls for abolishing the direct election of U.S. Senators, nullifying Supreme Court decisions, ending birthright citizenship, repealing the Voting Rights Act, and holding an Article V convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.  I am not making this up. The convention decisions were reported in The Week magazine.

Perhaps it is time for the United States to split apart. The Calexit plan started in 2015 calls for succession of California. The South, those that tried to succeed in 1861, calling themselves the Confederate States of America never really surrendered. The Confederate flag is still in prominent use.

Abraham Lincoln speech June 16, 1858: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He was correct but his solution has not brought peace to the people of those southern states.

I believe is it is time we all went our separate ways. 

Supreme Court’s Confusing Contradictions

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. may not be the chief justice of the Supreme Court but he is clearly the leader of the majority conservative members of that court.

In a matter of just one day the Supreme Court has voted against human rights and for gun lovers. The Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. Then rules the rights of gun owners to carry a loaded weapon in public is legal in all states. They ruled that the 2nd Amendment right to “bear arms” overrides laws in New York and California that restrict who may legally take guns when they leave home.

The inconsistency of these rulings is mind twisting. Abortion rights should be determined by the individual states BUT New York and California gun laws cannot be enforced.

Juneteenth Day

Juneteenth, also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. June 19, 1865 — more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been implemented, America’s remaining enslaved men, women, and children are freed.

Originating in Galveston, Texas in 1866, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 throughout the United States as an official federal holiday since 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.

Carnivals and parties in celebration are all over the country. US post offices will be closed and mail will not be delivered from the USPS on Monday, June 20. Because the federal bank reserve will be observing Juneteenth on Monday most banks will be closed including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan. However, TD Bank will be closed Sunday, as is their normal schedule, and will be open Monday.

A Phony Effort to Control Guns in America

Senators felt the necessity to show they care about the never ending mass shootings. So a bipartisan group of senators said Sunday that it has an agreement in principle on gun control legislation, though the lawmakers did not provide specific and detailed legislation.

The group said its plan “increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons.”

The agreement doesn’t include a provision that would expand background checks for all firearm sales or transfers in the country. Currently, background checks are not required for gun sales and transfers by unlicensed and private sellers. Also left out is a federal ban on military-style assault weapons. Additionally, the agreement doesn’t include a change to the age at which a person needs to be to purchase an assault-style weapon.

This absurd effort to prevent mass shootings does nothing to control the guns now in the public’s hands. Today, one of out of every five firearms purchased in this country is an AR-style rifle, according to a NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) estimate. Americans now own an estimated 15 million of those weapons.

We love our guns more than we love our family and friends.

Laws Cannot Protect us from the Mentally Ill

Nicholas Roske, 26, A Simi Valley native who studied philosophy at Cal State Northridge now stands charged with plotting to kill a Supreme Court justice.  He surrendered to Montgomery County, Maryland police officers outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. 

Roske had a black tactical vest, pepper spray, duct tape, a knife, a hammer, a screwdriver, a crowbar, more zip ties, and a Glock 17 pistol with ammunition.

He told police he had planned to kill Kavanaugh and then commit suicide.

Nicholas Roske Was Upset About the Leak of the Roe v. Wade Draft Opinion & Believed That Kavanaugh Would Side With Decisions That ‘Would Loosen Gun Control Laws,’ Authorities Say.

Simi Valley Police Department Cmdr. Ritchie Lew told the New York Post that Roske had no prior record with the police in his hometown but for what the paper called “a minor traffic infraction in 2015.”

Would raising the age limit to buy a gun from 18 to 21 have any impact on Roske’s plan? Obviously the answer is NO.

This is an example of situations that no law could stop a deranged individual.

We Love Guns

You don’t have to be a “red neck” to want lots of guns You don’t have to be a Republican to want lots of guns. As reported by CBS LA

As the 14th gun store opens in Burbank California, a local community has gathered to protest the store’s location — just blocks from an elementary school. 

On Tuesday evening, a large group of those protestors met on the steps of Burbank’s City Hall hoping to catch the attention of their City Council.

They’re fighting to curb the number of stores in the area — now the second highest per capita in the nation, with one gun store per 13,000 residents.

“There’s a gun store in Burbank for every two-and-a-half Starbucks,” said Aimee Powers, one of the many residents in attendance and speaking out against the newest store’s opening. “That’s a lot of gun stores.”

Obviously they love of guns is in my area. This is an area where “progressives” and “liberals” out number those gun loving Republicans in almost every poll. Congressional members of congress in this area are all Democrats. Adam Schiff, Tony Cardenas, and Brad Sherman. None of those congressmen face any consequential challenge by a Republican.

Burbank Ammo & Guns

Gun shop

1313 Magnolia Blvd

Open ⋅ Closes 7PM · (818) 859-7534

“Best service best place to buy a gun”

In-store shopping·In-store pickup

Gun World

Gun shop

2412 Magnolia Blvd B

Open ⋅ Closes 7PM · (818) 238-9071

“I highly recommend Gun World for all your firearm needs!”

In-store shopping

Guns Direct

Gun shop

1521 Magnolia Blvd

Open ⋅ Closes 7PM · (818) 848-4867

“nice place .. nice people .. very very helpful buy my first gun was great .”

In-store shopping

Homelessness

Homelessness in Los Angeles has reached epidemic proportions. The sad reality is that our politicians refuse to address the issue for fear of not being re-elected. Last year’s homeless count showed a jump of 12% in L.A. County and 16% in the city.

The annual point-in-time count, delivered to the Board of Supervisors, put the number of homeless people just shy of 59,000 countywide. Within the city of Los Angeles, the number soared to more than 36,000, a 16% increase. The survey found 8,000 homeless in San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

The rising impacts of automation and the flood of low cost products from other countries that deny us jobs. Walmart, Target, Costco all buy the cheap products we crave. We are all to blame.

Just keep putting your head in the sand and hope this will all work out. But will it and how?

President Biden on Gun Control

The president has emergency powers. It’s time he used them!

I was disappointed in President Biden’s speech on gun control. He had the megaphone to demand congressional action but instead of being loud and demanding action. “My fellow Americans, enough. Enough.” He should have said if congress won’t pass the needed laws I will take action.

What could he do as president? The National Emergencies Act (NEA) enacted September 14, 1976, codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1601–1651) is a United States federal law passed to end all previous national emergencies and to formalize the emergency powers of the President. 

Congress has delegated at least 136 distinct statutory emergency powers to the President, each available upon the declaration of an emergency. An explanation on wikipedia.org also lists the specific situations when the act was implemented. For health reasons asylum seekers have been required to apply from outside the United States.

For health reasons the president could implement requirements pertaining to the use of firearms. The health reason? Savings lives!