The Supreme Court has denied Remington Arms Co.’s bid to block a lawsuit filed by families of victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre. The families say Remington should be held liable, as the maker and promoter of the AR-15-style rifle used in the 2012 killings.
The court opted not to hear the gun-maker’s appeal, in a decision that was announced Tuesday morning. The justices did not include any comment about the case, Remington Arms Co. v. Soto, as they turned it away.
Remington had appealed to the highest federal court after the Connecticut Supreme Court allowed the Sandy Hook lawsuit to proceed in March. In recent court filings, Remington says the case “presents a nationally important question” about U.S. gun laws — namely, how to interpret the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which grants broad immunity to gun-makers and dealers from prosecution over crimes committed with their products.
Remington manufactured the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle that Adam Lanza used on Dec. 14, 2012, to kill 20 first-graders and six adults at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
Attention, businesses of any kind. If you sell a product that someone else uses in a crime, then you may be liable. Welcome to Connecticut, 2019. How conservative to step aside and let communists set national policy! Thank you for your service.
Eric Peters once again sounds the alarm on the dystopian future of automobiles in Amerika.
Volvo – which is not-coincidentally owned by the control-freak Chinese – intends to include an upgraded version of its “Volvo on Call” technology in its cars within the next couple of years. What it means is that your Volvo will make a call – about your driving. If the car doesn’t like it – based on data gleaned from sensors which monitor how you drive – the car will slow itself down and park. Where you’ll wait until the car decides to let you drive again.
Assuming it hasn’t called the cops.
Volvo isn’t the only car company intending to install such technology, either. In fact most cars sold since about 2015 already have the technology to monitor – and stymie – your driving.
Soon, they may have even more technology.
New Mexico Senator Tom Udall – along with Senator Rick Scott of Florida – are “calling” for a new federal law (see here) requiring that all new cars be equipped with passive and active technology to prevent the car from being driven – and stop it while it’s being driven – if sensors detect the presence of alcohol, the amount of that presence tunable to nil by the government-corporate nexus.
Right now, the legal threshold defining presumptive “drunk” driving in most states is a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of .08 – but several states – such as Utah – want to lower it to .05 or even less. For those under the legal age to drink alcohol, which is 21, any alcohol – even if not actually in the person – constitutes “drunk” driving if it is found inside the car, under “zero tolerance” laws in every state.
Will anyone hear what he’s saying? Probably, they are deafened by saaaaaaafety. For the kids and so forth. An old car – buy one.
Weeks before the whistleblower’s complaint became public, the CIA’s top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower’s allegations that President Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
The move by the CIA’s general counsel, Trump appointee Courtney Simmons Elwood, meant she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed, raising more questions about why the Justice Department later declined to open an investigation.
Maybe it’s because the domestic law enforcement (just the jurisdiction and all) didn’t find a crime??? And, this is from an NBC story, so it’s possible it’s all cleverly edited like a Florida 911 call. But, as-is, it’s double hearsay – reporting on a report about things that might have been heard… Impeach!
But, remember: Steve Bannon will now tell you that any conspiracy theory about “THE DEEP STATE” is totally nuts. No word on whether he would tell you that from Jeff Epstein’s house in Paris – where Bannon was a guest just last year. No deep state at all! It’s just the friend of a dead pedophile racketeer and foreign spy telling you to ignore what the fake news broadcasts about the Trumped (ah!) up allegations of a hysterical Congress contrived and based on the complaint of a leaking “asset” (and lawyer) (neither of whom are authorized by law to operate within the US) about the way the chief law enforcement officer and diplomat handled a criminal probe in a foreign country involving yet more usual suspects. Totally nuts…
Come to think of it … the obviously co-opted Judge Napolitano (sad, yeah) would say this is all very criminal. He may be right about the crime but wrong about the suspect.
This may be a very good sign for justice (if that word still applies).
Federal prosecutors in New York overseeing the case against millionaire Jeffrey Epstein are preparing to hand over highly-sensitive investigative material to the financier’s defense attorneys after a federal judge on Friday granted the government’s request to place a protective order on the documents.
Prosecutors sought the order because, they said in court filings, they intends to produce documents and materials that could … “affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals…[and that] would impede, if prematurely disclosed, the Government’s ongoing investigation of uncharged individuals.”
A Brady Motion has been filed by now, I’m sure. The fact that the DOJ was ready, at this early stage, to deliver evidence to the accused means they are ready to fight. In cases where they lack substantial evidence, or where there is ample exculpatory evidence, they either sandbag near or at trial, or they outright hide the goods.
The fact of the protective nature of the disclosure is self-explanatory. “Investigation of uncharged individuals.” Let’s hope they’re ready for those cases too.
Another federal judge halts Trump’s beautiful, beautiful, very impressive plan to stem the tide of invasion.
A California federal judge issued a ruling blocking President Trump from using $2.5 billion in military funds to build a wall along the southern border.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam, who is an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled to permanently block the $2.5 billion after issuing a temporary injunction in May to stop the administration’s use of the funds. The ruling stymies several construction projects in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
There’s a simple workaround for this problem that does not involve a physical wall nor locking Gilliam in a cage, both of which are still defensible. But, hell, we’re just not into solutions anymore. Hey, look! Here comes more “tasty ethnic food,” now!
Groups of hundreds of Africans, Haitians and others from Central and South America continue to trudge across the U.S.- Mexico border in record numbers, despite promises from Mexico to help stop the massive migration.
Footage from the Del Rio Sector of the border in Texas shows scores are making their way in mini-caravans, with many arriving well-dressed in designer clothes, toting luggage and backpacks with their children in tow.
Well-dressed, designer ethnic food! The best kind.
Friends, I really, really tire of this shit. As many of you know, I’m moving deeper into fiction, with which I apparently do a good, popular job and which I also enjoy tremendously. Moving into the second half of 2019, that’s where my focus will be directed. I’ll still do “reality” columns for TPC (maybe elsewhere) and I’ll still link short bits, with commentary, here. But the focus is going to be on issues and stories I directly control, and which both generate better profits and serve to better express theory and polemical messages, if any. Unlike the situation at the border, it’s going to be great. You’re invited.
This week, the gang at TPC is on vacation – a summer tradition and well earned. However, National Affairs never stop, relent, nor sleep. Ergo, this week the C.F. Floyd National Affairs Column slums here at my little old blog. Welcome! Getting right down to it,
Last week, on “Juneteenth” – a holy day among the tribes of the central Congo, I believe – a very special committee hearing convened in Mordor. Specifically, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution (yeah, one wonders if they have another subcommittee on powdered wigs or dinosaurs…) held forth on H.R. 40 (2019), the brainchild (if that’s even possible) of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-La-La land).
This is the first Bill addressed in Congress proposing formal … well, let’s let Mrs. Jackson Lee’s work speak for itself:
A BILL
To address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.
…
This Act may be cited as the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act”.
Knowing that it does not get any better than the above, feel free to waste time reading THE WHOLE BILL.
Before we discuss the … merits… of H.R. 40 … okay, there are no merits, but uh, let’s have a little history anyway. I’ll spin it in a way to support the reparations racket (which I do in fact support). Did you know that,
Black Africans used to build spaceship pyramids? They did before they were enslaved in America in 1619. All true.
Black Africans are (were) the “real” Egyptians, real Hebrews, real Muslims, and even the real Black Africans.
There was no slavery in Africa, prior to the arrival of those wicked men from “Roots.” Africans, Arabs, and other Semitic peoples had absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Just whites. Time to pay!
The very first registered slave-owner in America was certainly NOT a black man… No.
No whites were ever held in slavery in America or anywhere else. Do not let the damned Irish and Slavs try to deceive you.
Blacks in America are almost all slaves today and have been since 1619 (maybe since 619!).
Blacks in America are almost entirely treated as chattel property, without autonomy or the right to own property, vote, or hold office. (This makes Sheila Jackson Lee’s existence as an elected official all the more remarkable).
No Civil War, Presidential Proclamation, law, or Constitutional Amendment was ever even considered to ameliorate this terrible injustice.
Blacks in America, if they are allowed schooling, are schooled in segregated institutions.
No-one named Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, or Maynard Jackson ever lived.
There were no civil rights movement and attendant laws in the middle of the 20th Century.
Except for the extremely odd case of Sheila Jackson Lee (and a few very other strange cases), there are no Black elected officials in America.
Out of … a whole lot of white guys … no Black American has ever served as President. Ever. Certainly not as recently as three years ago.
And – I’ll just throw this in for fantasy measure – there are no other races or ethnic divisions in America. It’s just oppressive whites and oppressed blacks. We also have no demographic, societal, educational, economic, political, or other troubles to worry about.
So, one can plainly see that reparations for something no-one alive today ever had anything to do with, is the right thing to do. That’s not just the accelerationist in me talking. Okay, honestly it is…
Whatever you do, please pay no heed to right-wing, white supremacist, Nazi extremists like Coleman Hughes, who testified at the hearing on behalf of the Ku Klux Klan:
He and his “justice for the dead at the price of justice for the living” crap are just pure hate. Instead, all those of you still working and singing on the Political Plantation, listen to the great wisdom of the Chairman, Mas’ (((Cohen))). “Chill!” like the man ordered. Don’t be “presumptive,” as he condescended. Know your place and your rank on the totem pole. If scraps come your way, then be grateful.
Looking beyond certain failure in the current Senate or on Trump’s desk, the fact the hearing was held and taken with any degree of seriousness, tells you something about AmericaThe United States This Place Between Mexico and Canada. If this passes, and some form of it may in time, then it will be just another heap of dirt in the grave of civilization on these shores. Bluntly, anyone who supports this scheme, at face value and for the “reasons” listed in the Bill, proves himself not necessarily African, but most certainly not American. Take the loot and then go home?
Note: Other big doin’s around the Nation include Bernie Sanders’s surprisingly good idea to cancel ALL student loan debt. We have “strong” sanctions on Iran (again, still). And, we have no Southern border whatsoever. This, that, maybe more, maybe something else, when TPC resumes on Sunday, the 30th. I may participate in the looming SUPER POST! Stay tuned. Please remember to tip your server as you exit perrinlovett[dot]me…
I’m not going to suggest the President’s vow to deport “millions” of illegals amounts only to hollow words. Not just yet. But, I suggest that no-one in the establishment really takes him at his hollow word. Anyone seen any response, hysterical or otherwise, from the loyal opposition? No. They’re just not taking this seriously. But, various criminal elements are. They’re planning resistance if necessary.
“This [set of hollow words] is inhumane and un-American,” said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant-rights groups. “A massive crackdown will cause harm to communities throughout this nation…. We plan to help immigrants resist this massive abuse of power by preparing rapid- response teams and legal assistance on the ground.”
Aside from what I inserted between the [ ], all of the above quote is either lies or criminal threat. “Inhumane.” Lie; the implications of the hollow words are to be expected under any guise of rule of law. “Un-American.” Lie; the hollow plan is PRO-American, understanding “American” as a distinct moniker. “Will cause harm.” Lie; only benefits away AMERICANS from making America somewhat American again. “Help immigrants resist.” Publically bragging about a conspiracy to commit felonies.
I’m guessing all guilty parties get away with it. I hear the rubes were chatting the old, hollow slogans at the giant WWE, circus tent rally the other night. New Amerika, indeed.
A U.S. jury could not reach a verdict Tuesday against a border activist charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in a trial that humanitarian aid groups said would have wide implications on their work.
Defense attorneys argued that Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018. He faced up to 20 years in prison.
But prosecutors maintained the men were not in distress and Warren conspired to transport and harbor them at a property used for providing aid to migrants in an Arizona town near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Why was a college teacher prosecuted, on very weak charges, while mayors, councilmen, and administrators walk free?
It may be that I’ve recovered from my fit of tobacco shop over-righteousness. Rumor has it that a hatchet has been buried and I’m back where I belong. The bad elements, if any, can usually be avoided; it’s all a matter of timing. And, as with smoke, so it is with politics.
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The timing was just off in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis, his cabinet, and his entire elephantine party in Tallahassee are about what one would expect of any band of Republicans these days. Not even with the unanimous assistance of the (equally what one would expect) Florida Democratic party could they get right a simple matter of temporal patience.
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The Sunshine State has another new and very special law. House Bill 741 (2019) took instantaneous effect upon DeSantis’s signing. It revises and expands certain language concerning Florida Statute § 1000.05, et seq., regarding Florida’s K-20 government education scheme. (Nevermind, the lumping together of all levels of “education,” from kindergarten to graduate school…).
Advised that the first feature picture helps with social madness promos, I include this cutesy snapshot which I believe shows DeSantis and Ashley Moody enjoying lunch. Pic by Perrin.
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Legislation like this is gaining in popularity with the States, being in the mold of this year’s federal H.R. 183. Florida’s new ordinance is designed to silence certain speech. It might best be summed up as The FL Anti-Anti-Semitism Act (in “Education”). Or, it could be summed up as The Unconstitutional, Ordinarily Illegal, Sellout of State Sovereignty Act (in “Education”).
Sex work would be broadly legalized in New York state under a first-of-its-kind bill introduced by state legislators on Monday.
A group of lawmakers first called for legislation in February, but on Monday they finally came forward with a 13-page bill that would bring dramatic changes to the sex trade in the state.
The bill, written with advocacy group DecrimNY, would make it legal to both buy and sell sex under certain circumstances and modifies laws around facilities that are used as places of prostitution.
“For us, this is a bodily autonomy issue — our bodies, our choice — but more than that, it’s an economic issue. And it’s personal,” Jessica Raven, one of Decrim NY’s organizers, wrote in a Daily News op-ed Monday.
Two of the bill’s sponsors, state senators Jessica Ramos and Julia Salazar, have said that 9 out of 10 people arrested in sex-work-related massage parlor raids are immigrants, with most being undocumented Asians.
So, they did the same thing in Germany a while ago. And, over there, certain women discovered a downside to all the freedom. Able-bodied women, on public assistance, were told that prostitution was a career choice and that if they did not try it their benefits would be terminated. It makes perverse sense: many of the women are sexually active, as evidenced by their growing broods. Ergo, they should make money turning their hobby into a business and save the doll a few bucks. Rock. Hard place.
One assumes, this being NY, that any affected immigrants will keep safely feeding at the trough and that any completely unexpected children resulting from the profits can be safely terminated (at any time).
Escape from New York, more of a motto than a movie.
