>>18138600

https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/01/12/illinois-prosecutor-gun-ban-gov-fumes-n66100

''Illinois prosecutor vows challenge to new gun ban as governor fumes over sheriffs' non-enforcement pledge''

bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/01/12/illinois-prosecutor-gun-ban-gov-fumes-n66100

By Cam Edwards | 3:30 PM on January 12, 2023

Things are getting very interesting in Illinois after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a massive gun and magazine ban bill into law on Tuesday night.

As we first reported on Wednesday, more than a dozen county sheriffs almost immediately vowed not to arrest anyone solely for violating the new bans.

Now that number has grown to at least 50 counties where sheriffs have explicitly stated they will not be arresting anyone for possessing a “large capacity” magazine or a non-registered “assault weapon” as defined in the new law.

Several prosecutors in Illinois have been weighing in as well; some in conjunction with the sheriff of their county while others have released stand-alone statements. Union County State’s Attorney Tyler Tripp sounded off with a statement declaring HB 5471 a “direct attack on our right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the Constitution”, and while he didn’t explicitly state he wouldn’t be charging anyone with violations of the law he certainly hinted at that outcome, telling residents that “Union County is a community steeped in the traditions of gun ownership for hunting, sporting, collecting, and self-defense” and that he’s “committed to preserving those values for the good and deserving people of the county and beyond.”

One way to do that? A lawsuit and Tripp says he’s hoping to get his fellow prosecutors to band together to bring down the ban through a legal challenge.

“Recently, I along with a class of other State’s Attorneys successfully challenged and put a hold on the implementation of the SAFE-T Act which sought to flood our communities with dangerous criminals. HB 5471 will operate to reduce our right to defend our lives and those that we love against violent criminals. The lack of foresight as to how these two sets of laws would compromise public safety in our community is unacceptable. There are many ways to address crime and gun violence in this state. These recent laws championed by the controlling majority are not the proper means to correct issues with criminal justice and gun violence as they fail to consider the impact on communities outside of major metropolitan areas.

“I am currently working with other State's Attorney to organize and challenge this effort to erode our constitutional rights. I will pursue any and all reasonable measures under the law to protect our community from those who would take our absolute right to keep and bear arms,” the prosecutor concluded, adding that it his duty and oath to not only support the Constitution (including the Second Amendment), but to “give a voice to the good people of Union County in speaking out against those who fail to consider and protect us.”

The widespread refusal to enforce these unconstitutional provisions has left Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker sputtering about removing sheriffs if they don’t strictly enforce the new bans.

Gov. JB Pritzker warned that law enforcement “will in fact do their job” on enforcing Illinois’ new gun ban or else they “won’t be in their job” as some sheriffs have announced they will not enforce it.

Some counties across the state said they will not enforce a gun ban and will not comply with a looming registry.

Pritzker said Illinois State Police will be responsible for enforcement.

“As are all law enforcement all across our state and they will in fact do their job or they won’t be in their job,” Pritzker said.

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>>18138623

Pritzker contends the sheriffs are violating their oath of office by not enforcing the new prohibitions, conveniently ignoring the fact that both police and prosecutors have discretion in deciding on arrests and/or prosecutions. I don’t remember him castigating Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx when she announced her office wouldn’t be prosecuting low-level drug arrests back in 2020, and while he took steps to distance himself from his fellow Democrat during his re-election campaign, he’s never accused of her of violating her oath of office by using prosecutorial discretion.

I don’t know where Pritzker gets the idea he even has the power to remove sheriffs in the first place. Under Illinois law sheriffs can’t formally assume their position until their commission has been signed by the governor, but Article 5, Section 10 of the Illinois constitution states that the governor “may remove for incompetence, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office any officer who may be appointed by the governor.” Since sheriffs are an elected position, I don’t think that Pritzker has the power or authority to remove ones he deems non-compliant from their office, but I’m sure there are several sheriffs who’d love to see him try.

Pritzker was able to get his gun and magazine ban on the books, but he’s facing an impossible task in trying to have these laws strictly enforced throughout the state… and that’s before the courts have had a chance to weigh in. As it turns out, there are lots of Illinois residents who take their Second Amendment rights seriously, and thankfully they have at least some elected officials who feel the same way.

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Kellyanne Conway: The Cases for and Against Trump

archive.is/qg1Ow

January 13, 2023

OpinionGuest Essay, By Kellyanne Conway

Ms. Conway is a Republican pollster and political consultant who was Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager in 2016 and senior counselor to him from 2017 to 2020. She is not affiliated with his 2024 presidential campaign.

Jan. 13, 2023

Donald J. Trump shocked the world in 2016 by winning the White House and becoming the first president in U.S. history with no prior military or government experience. He upended the fiction of electability pushed by pundits, the news media, and many political consultants, which arrogantly projects who will or will not win long before votes are cast.

He focused instead on capturing a majority in the Electoral College, which is how a candidate does or does not win. Not unlike Barack Obama eight years earlier, Mr. Trump exposed the limits of Hillary Clinton’s political inevitability and personal likability, connected directly with people, ran an outsider’s campaign taking on the establishment, and tapped into the frustrations and aspirations of millions of Americans.

Some people have never gotten over it. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. There is no vaccine and no booster for it. Cosseted in their social media bubbles and comforted within self-selected communities suffering from sameness, the afflicted disguise their hatred for Mr. Trump as a righteous call for justice or a solemn love of democracy and country. So desperate is the incessant cry to “get Trump!” that millions of otherwise pleasant and productive citizens have become naggingly less so.

They ignore the shortcomings, failings, and unpopularity of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and abide by the casual misstatements of an administration that says the “border is secure,” inflation is “transitory,” “sanctions are intended to deter” Putin from invading Ukraine and they will “shut down the virus.” They’ve also done precious little to learn and understand what drives the 74 million fellow Americans who were Trump-Pence voters in 2020 and not in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The obsession with Mr. Trump generates all types of wishful thinking and projection about the next election from both his critics (“He will be indicted!”) and his supporters (“Is he still electable?”). None of that is provable, but this much is true: Shrugging off Mr. Trump’s 2024 candidacy or writing his political obituary is a fool’s errand

— he endures persecution and eludes prosecution like no other public figure. That could change, of course, though that cat has nine lives.

At the same time, it would also be foolish to assume that Mr. Trump’s path to another presidency would be smooth and secure. This is not 2016 when he and his team had the hunger, swagger, and scrappiness of an insurgent’s campaign and the “history be damned” happy warrior resolve of an underestimated, understaffed, underresourced effort. It’s tough to be new twice.

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>>18138689

Unless what’s old can be new again. Mr. Trump’s track record reminds Republican primary voters of better days not that long ago: accomplishments on the economy, energy, national security, trade deals and peace deals, the drug crisis, and the southern border. He can also make a case

— one that will resonate with Republicans

— about the unfairness and hypocrisy of social media censorship and alleged big tech collusion, as recent and ongoing revelations show. Mr. Trump, as a former president, can also be persuasive with Republican primary voters and some independents in making a frontal attack on the Biden administration’s feckless management of the economy, reckless spending, and lack of urgency and competence on border control and crime.

Accomplishing this will not be easy. Mr. Trump has both political assets to carry him forward and political baggage holding him back. For Mr. Trump to succeed, it means fewer insults and more insights; a campaign that centers on the future, not the past, and that channels the people’s grievances and not his own; and a reclamation of the forgotten Americans, who ushered him into the White House the first time and who are suffering economically under Mr. Biden.

A popular sentiment these days is, “I want the Trump policies without the Trump personality.” It is true that limiting name-calling frees up time and space for persuasion and solutions. Still, it may not be possible to have one without the other. Mr. Trump would remind people, it was a combination of his personality and policies that forced Mexico to help secure our border; structured new trade agreements and renewed manufacturing, mining, and energy economies; pushed to get Covid vaccines at warp speed; engaged Kim Jong-un; played hardball with China; routed ISIS and removed Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander; forced NATO countries to increase their defense spending and stared down Vladimir Putin before he felt free to invade Ukraine.

When it comes to Donald J. Trump, people see what they wish to see. Much like with the audio debate a few years ago “Do you hear ‘Laurel’ or ‘Yanny’?,” what some perceive as an abrasive, scornful man bent on despotism, others see as a candid, resolute leader unflinchingly committed to America’s interests.

The case against Trump 2024 rests in some combination of fatigue with self-inflicted sabotage, fear that he cannot outrun the mountain of legal woes, the call to move on, a feeling that he is to blame for underwhelming Republican candidates in 2022, and the perception that other Republicans are less to blame for 2022 and have more recent records as conservative reformers.

He also won’t have the Republican primary field

— or the debate stage — to himself. If one person challenges Mr. Trump, it is likely five or six will jump into the race and try to test him, too. Possible primary challengers to Mr. Trump include governors with impressive records and huge re-election victories like Ron DeSantis of Florida, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, and Greg Abbott of Texas; those who wish to take on Mr. Trump frontally and try to move the party past him, like Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia and former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey; those who can lay legitimate claim to helping realize Trump-era accomplishments like former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and others who wish to expand the party’s recent down-ballot gains in racial and gender diversity to the presidential level, like former Gov. Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott, both of South Carolina.

These are serious and substantive men and women, all of whom would be an improvement over Mr. Biden. For now, though, these candidates are like prospective blind dates. Voters and donors project onto them all that they desire in a perfect president, but until one faces the klieg lights, and is subjected to raw, relentless, often excessive scrutiny, and unfair and inaccurate claims, there is no way to suss out who possesses the requisite metal and mettle.

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>>18138699

>>18138689

https://archive.is/qg1Ow

3/3

The main talking point against Trump 2024 seems to be that Trump 2022 underperformed and that it left him a less-feared and less-viable candidate. Mr. Trump boasts that his general election win-loss record was 233-20 and that he hosted some 30 rallies in 17 states and more than 50 fund-raisers for candidates up for re-election, and participated in 60 telerallies and raised nearly $350 million in the 2022 cycle for Republican candidates and committees.

Republican voters should be pleased that Mr. Trump and other Republican luminaries showed up and spoke up in the midterms. Mr. Trump wasn’t the only one who campaigned for unsuccessful candidates. Mr. DeSantis rallied in person for Kari Lake, Doug Mastriano, and Tim Michels.

Mr. Pence, Ms. Haley, and Mr. Pompeo endorsed Don Bolduc, for example. Even the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, seemed warm and hopeful about a few of the U.S. Senate candidates who came up short. In October 2021 Mr. McConnell claimed, “Herschel [Walker] is the only one who can unite the party, and defeat Senator Warnock,” and in August 2022, “I have great confidence. I think [Mehmet] Oz has a great shot at winning [in Pennsylvania].”

Contrast that to Joe Biden, who was unpopular and unwelcome on the campaign trail in the midterm elections. For seven years Mr. Trump hasn’t stopped campaigning, while one could say that Mr. Biden, who stuck close to home for much of 2020 and did relatively little campaigning in 2022, never truly started. It will be tough for Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris to avoid active campaigning when their names are on the ballot.

Any repeat by the 2024 Trump campaign of the disastrous mistakes in personnel, strategy, and tactics of the 2020 Trump campaign may lead to the same 2020 result. With roughly $1.6 billion to spend and Joe Biden as the opponent, the 2020 election should have been a blowout. Instead, they proved the adage that the fastest way to make a small fortune is to have a very large one and waste most of it.

Mr. Trump lost support among older voters, white men, white voters with a college degree, and independents, though he increased his vote share across notable demographics like Hispanics and Black people. One wild card: Will the hidden 2016 Trump voters, those who wish to keep their presidential pick private from pollsters, return in 2024?

Republicans must also invest in and be vocal about early voting. This is a competition for ballots, not just votes. As ridiculous as it was to vote nearly two months before Election Day and count the votes for three weeks thereafter, some of the state-based Covid-compelled measures for voting are now permanent. If these are the rules, adapt or die politically.

Mr. Biden, for his part, will have his own record to run on, typical advantages of incumbency, powerful campaign surrogates who will join him in making the presidential race a referendum on Mr. Trump, and persistent calls for a third-party candidate who as a spoiler could do for Mr. Biden what Ross Perot did for Bill Clinton in 1992: deliver the presidency to the Democrat with less than 45 percent of the popular vote.

Whether the 2024 presidential election is a cage match rematch of Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump or a combination of other candidates remains to be seen. Each of them has defied the odds and beat more than a dozen intraparty rivals to win their respective primaries. Each of them now faces calls for change, questions about the handling of classified documents, and questions about age. For voters, vision matters. Winning the presidency is hard. Only 45 men (one twice) have been president. Hundreds have tried, many of them being told, “You can win!” even as they lost. Success lies in having advisers who tell you what you need to know, not just what you want to hear. And in listening to the people, who have the final say.

Kellyanne Conway is a Republican pollster and political consultant who was Donald J. Trump’s campaign manager in 2016 and senior counselor to him from 2017 to 2020. She is not affiliated with his 2024 presidential campaign.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

>>18138730

Salad.

Word Salad.

''VP Harris Explains 'Where the Caribbean Is'; Hails 'A Moment That Is About Great Momentum'''

VP Harris on climate change: 'I think of this moment as a moment that is about great momentum…'

VP Harris Explains 'Where the Caribbean Is'; Hails 'A Moment That Is About Great Momentum'

cnsnews.com/article/washington/susan-jones/vp-harris-explains-where-caribbean-hails-moment-about-great-momentum

Susan Jones | January 13, 2023 | 9:00am EST

Vice President Kamala Harris (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - During a "conversation on climate" at the University of Michigan on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris discussed global "equity" as it applies to climate change the "interconnection between nations" giving a geography lesson as she spoke about a "moment…about great momentum."

"So, for example, I convened — and I’ve convened now, at least three times — a group that has their acronym, CARICOM," Harris said.

"It is the Caribbean nations — island nations in the Western Hemisphere; that is where the Caribbean is. We are also in the Western Hemisphere; they are our neighbors. And to use a colloquial kind of expression, you know, 'We sneeze, and they catch a cold.'

Harris is known for repeating the same word multiple times in the same sentence, and she did not disappoint in Thursday's conversation:

"How are you thinking about this moment?" asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who accompanied Harris to Michigan:

Harris said she's "really excited" about the climate change movement: "I think of this moment as a moment that is about great momentum, inspired by, yes, optimism; inspired by a crisis, no doubt; but inspired by also our collective ability to see what can be unburdened by what has been. And that’s critically important…"

In response to another question "How has your life experience shaped the way you approach work on climate?" Vice President Harris explained the difference between "equity" and "equality."

She responded that all of the Biden administration's work "has been fueled by the importance of equity, which is a big — there’s a big difference between equality and equity. Right?" she asked.

"So, equality, well everyone should get the same amount; that sounds right. But if the point of it is that so that the outcome will be fair, it doesn’t take into account that not everybody starts out on the same base. Right.

"So, equity is for my life work, and for our collective work and responsibility, a big issue…And in order for us to address and achieve equitable outcomes, we also have to be candid and clear about history, which is often, for some people, difficult to hear but must be spoken…"

>>18138762

>>18138984

>She is so dumb she married someone dumber

https://twitter.com/SarahHuckabee/status/1614009624411217922

Today I was proud to sign an executive order terminating five existing orders on COVID.

In Arkansas, we will not have mask or vaccine mandates. We will not shut down churches or schools. And we will move beyond COVID.

I stand for freedom and it’s time to get back to normal.

4:20 PM · Jan 13, 2023, 108.2K Views

https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/12/biden-turned-classified-documents-into-a-scandal-to-get-trump-but-whos-laughing-now/

POLITICS = Biden Turned Classified Documents Into A Scandal To Get Trump, But Who’s Laughing Now?

BY: MARGOT CLEVELAND JANUARY 12, 2023

'' This entire scandal is a joke. And now, thanks to the get-Trump franchise, irresponsible Biden will be forever cast as a laughingstock.''

News broke late yesterday that a search of the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, uncovered additional classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president, stored unsecured in the family garage and separately in another room of the house. And I still haven’t stopped laughing.

Since August of 2022, when the FBI launched an unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, the entirety of the anti-Trump universe insisted

— insisted — that the recently departed commander-in-chief’s possession of documents marked classified was a big f-ing deal.

Never mind that Trump had declassification authority as the president of the United States, or that the documents were stored at his home under the watchful eye of his Secret Service protection. Ignore also the fact that the National Archives could have worked with Trump to coordinate the storage of the documents under the technical possession of the government, but at a location of the former president’s choosing, just as was done with former President Barack Obama.

But because the loony left couldn’t resist one more sequel in their get-Trump franchise, as Trump exited the Oval Office, a backbench bureaucrat at the National Archives launched another hoax meant to finally, finally destroy Trump. Several leaks and a year-plus later, the plot culminated in the raid of Trump’s home followed by the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Trump.

And because the National Archives and the Biden administration went nuclear against Trump for possessing documents at Mar-a-Lago marked classified, they have no option but to pretend to treat Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents in an equally serious way. So the National Archives referred the matter to the Department of Justice, just as it had with Trump, even though when it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mishandling classified documents, no criminal referral followed.

Likewise, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed a U.S. attorney to investigate Biden’s mishandling of the classified documents, to create the impression of equal justice under the law. Of course, given Garland’s appointment of a special counsel to investigate Trump, a plain ol’ ordinary U.S. attorney doesn’t level up, and for that, the attorney general is already receiving heat.

But the heat comes from the hypocrisy, not the gravity of the situation.

The Biden classified documents scandal is not a serious scandal. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is a serious scandal. Biden’s refusal to faithfully execute his duties as president of the United States by securing the southern border is a serious scandal. The Biden family pay-to-play escapades are a serious scandal. And the weaponization of the FBI and the intelligence community to interfere in the 2020 election and hand Biden the presidency is a serious scandal. This is not.

Laughable. Delicious. Outrageous. It is all those things and becomes more so by the day, with news that more classified documents are reposed in a residential garage, in addition to the closet at a D.C. think tank. And the story just becomes funnier the more the corrupt press tries to distinguish Biden’s possession of classified documents from Trump’s because Biden himself on video declared the possession of classified documents in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home to be “just totally irresponsible.”

But a garage, Joe?

Seriously?

And is not knowing there were classified documents there, as Biden claims, any better?

The bottom line here is simple. This entire scandal is a joke. And now, thanks to the get-Trump franchise, irresponsible Biden will be forever cast as a laughingstock

— and so will the propagandists in the press.

>>18139253

https://youtu.be/96v1QVHI4hI

ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY