Los Angeles Residents: Thank Your Elected Idiots for Paying NRA's Attorneys

 10/2/20 Breitbart:

Federal district court judge Stephen Wilson ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay the NRA’s lawyer fees of approximately $150,000, just months after he ruled a city ordinance violated the NRA’s First Amendment rights.

Wilson ruled on the First Amendment violation on December 11, 2019, in National Rifle Association of America et al v. City of Los Angeles, which was heard in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

This was one of those cases where the officials were so intent on demonstrating their moral purity that they admitted their purpose: to punish NRA for speech.

Survey: I Am Not Paranoid, Or At Least No More Than Normal

 10/1/20 Washington Examiner:

A majority of Americans are bracing for the possibility of a politically-fired civil war, and more than half are already stockpiling food and other essential items to survive and fight back, according to a new survey shared with Secrets.

In the survey, 61% said that the United States is nearing a second civil war, including a shocking 41% who “strongly agree” with that assessment.

And 52% are so convinced that it is just around the corner, or after Election Day, that they are putting away food and other essentials, an historic expansion of the prepper movement that has been brewing for years, now driven by fear and coronavirus-induced shortages.

I can see several possible triggers:  

1. Trump scores such a powerful victory that the left burns down their cities, then comes looking for food.  Trump invokes Insurrection Act and sends Army out.

2. Trump scores a marginal victory, and the Democrats delay counting until they have "found" enough votes to call it into question.  They then ask the Army to intervene.  This might result in a "Yeltsin in a tank" moment, where Trump calls National Guard and unorganized militia to DC.  I think the Regular Army would suffer so many mid-level officer and enlisted changes as to make war unavoidable.

3. Biden wins and the Democrats celebrate by encouraging racist and classist attacks on the suburbs and rural areas.

Nazi as An Alternative to "National Socialist"

 I have long suspected that the term Nazi instead of the formal translation National Socialists was to hide that Hitler's party was a variant or heresy of progressive thought.  In looking for early uses of "Nazi," I found this House Unamerican Activities Committee hearing: Investigation of Nazi and Other Propaganda. p. 517.

Question.  And that is the Nazi Party? 

Answer.  The Hitler Party.  The Nazi Party is never used in Germany.

Question.  And Nazi is the result of N. S. D. A. P.

Answer.  Nazi was just the name the Communists and Marxists gave to the Hitler men before Hitler came into power?

Question.  And wasn't it the result of N. S. D. A. P.

Answer.  No.

Question.  These are the drilling regulations?

Answer.  I mean I never heard anybody in Germany with the exception of Communists or Marxists call any Hitler men a Nazi.

Beautifully Clear and Unturbulent Night Monday

 I was able to get the 0x sight lined up with the 9x50mm finder.  One the mirror had cooled to equilibrium and collimated, I could see at least four cloud bands on Jupiter at 160x.  On Saturn, I could see, in brief moments of calm air, Cassini's Division on the ansae of Saturn's rings, and a pale yellow cloud band on the planet.  A very satisfying night.

Too Clueless to Survive

 A company called Coinbase has decided that their job does not include social engineering and the response of a very rich Twit:

 Remember: he will be safe.  He's a millionaire on their side.

Why You Must Take away All Writing Implements at the Start of Every Meeting Planning Illegal Activities

 A letter from the Director of National Intelligence quoting the CIA Director's notes:

According to his handwritten notes, former Central Intelligence Agency Director Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the "alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services."

10th Circuit Rehearing Bump Stock Ban

 The Bump Stock ban has been challenged in the courts.  While the 10th Circuit ruled against us, an en banc hearing has now been scheduled concerning how to apply Chevron deference to the BATF's regulation.

What is Chevron deference? 

One of the most important principles in administrative law, The “Chevron Deference” is a term coined after a landmark case, Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 468 U.S. 837 (1984), referring to the doctrine of judicial deference given to administrative actions.  In Chevron, the Supreme Court set forth a legal test as to when the court should defer to the agency’s answer or interpretation, holding that such judicial deference is appropriate where the agency’s answer was was not unreasonable, so long as the Congress had not spoken directly to the precise issue at question.  The scope of the Chevron deference doctrine is that when a legislative delegation to an administrative agency on a particular issue or question is not explicit but rather implicit, a court may not substitute its own interpretation of the statute for a reasonable interpretation made by the administrative agency.  Rather, as Justice Stevens wrote in Chevron, when the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency’s action was based on a permissible construction of the statute.

I think this is a good thing for us, but I cannot articulate why.