Now Cotton — along with colleagues Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Rick Scott (R-FL) — has introduced the China Trade Relations Act to “strip China of its Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status and return to the pre-2001 system.”
If passed, the legislation would require China to obtain Most Favored Nation (MFN) status through annual presidential approval, per the requirements of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. The bill would also expand the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to include human rights and trade abuses as disqualifying factors for MFN status. Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Chris Smith (R-New Jersey).
“For twenty years, China has held permanent most-favored-nation status, which has supercharged the loss of American manufacturing jobs. It’s time to protect American jobs and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their forced labor camps and egregious human rights violations,” said Cotton.
Much has been written in the last couple of days regarding United States District Court Judge Roger Benitez’s decision on Friday declaring California’s ban on “assault weapons” — as defined in the statute — to be an unconstitutional limit on the right of California citizens “to keep and bear arms” under the Second Amendment.
But this was not Judge Benitez’s first foray into Second Amendment jurisprudence that produced a favorable outcome for advocates of Second Amendment rights. Back in August 2020, the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision that similarly found as unconstitutional a related California statute — one banning the ownership of “large-capacity magazines.” The author of that lower court decision was Judge Roger Benitez.
In between those two decisions, there was an “en banc” decision from the Ninth Circuit on a different subject of constitutional disagreement over the meaning of the Second Amendment. In Young v. Hawaii, the Ninth Circuit upheld Hawaii’s “open carry” firearm regulations, which require applicants applying for an “open carry” license to show either an “exceptional case or demonstrated urgency” to carry a firearm. The plaintiff, George Young, twice applied for an “open carry” license, but his applications were denied based on his failure to meet the “exceptional case or demonstrated urgency” requirements. //
there are some interesting aspects of Judge Benitez’s opinion on Friday that are worth noting because he takes some time to explain where Second Amendment jurisprudence stands — 13 years after the Supreme Court changed everything with its decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller.
As Judge Benitez wrote, there was Second Amendment law pre-Heller, and there is Second Amendment law post-Heller, and only the latter seems important to Judge Benitez — unlike the majority view in the en banc decision in Young v. Hawaii. //
The Second Amendment “elevates above all other interests the right of lawabiding, responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home.” Heller, 554 U.S., at 635. The Supreme Court clearly holds that the Second Amendment protects guns commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.
This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection. The banned “assault weapons” are not bazookas, howitzers, or machineguns… Instead, the firearms deemed “assault weapons” are fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles. This is an average case about average guns used in average ways for average purposes.
Prior to 2008 [Heller], lower court opinions did not acknowledge that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to own firearms, or that the right applied against the states. See e.g., United States v. Hancock, 231 F.3d 557, 565–66 (9th Cir. 2000) (“[T]his court has concluded that ‘the Second Amendment is a right held by the states, and does not protect the possession of a weapon by a private citizen.’”)
Judicial recognition of an individual right to keep and bear arms to be respected by the states would come later with the Heller decision in 2008 and the McDonald decision in
- //
Heller involved a “federal” law, in that it was gun ownership prohibition in the District of Columbia. McDonald extended Heller to state and local regulations by holding that rights under the Second Amendment were applicable to state law under the 14th Amendment. //
When a severe restriction on the core right of self-defense amounts to a destruction of the Second Amendment right, it is unconstitutional under any level of scrutiny. “‘A law that imposes such a severe restriction on the fundamental right of self-defense of the home that it amounts to a destruction of the Second Amendment right is unconstitutional under any level of scrutiny.’” //
DeeInFL
17 hours ago edited
This line of questions from Justice Alito I found quite interesting during oral hearings on New York State Rifle & Pistol case.
Alito: Mr. Dearing, are the people in New York less safe now as a result of the enactment of the new city and state laws than they were before?
Dearing: No, I don't think so. We made a judgment, expressed by our police commissioner, that it was consistent with public safety to repeal the prior rule and to move forward without it.
Alito: Well, if they're not less safe, then what possible justification could there have been for the old rule, which you have abandoned?
Dearing did not have an answer except that the city's arbitrary restrictions on transporting firearms may have made its other rules a bit easier to enforce.
Fox News Channel’s Steve Hilton aired a video from December 17, 2012, showing Dr. Anthony Fauci explaining what types of research experiments constitute “gain-of-function” — and that, surprise, surprise, those very types of experiments were funded by NIH at that time and continued through 2020, despite government moratoriums on such research.
So, what does that mean? It means that Fauci lied to Congress on May 11 (and probably on other dates) and that NIH Director Francis Collins repeatedly blatantly lied to the public in interviews. //
Hawkwood markvol
14 hours ago
My theory is that "bureaucrats" are gain-of-function enhanced democrats.
Imagine being so anti-Trump that you would throw even historic peace agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab nations down the memory hole just because President Donald Trump brokered those deals.
Well, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon, that’s exactly what’s happening. According to the report, based on emails reviewed by The Washington Free Beacon, Biden’s State Department is discouraging employees from “referring to the historic peace agreements signed by Israel and its Arab neighbors by its official name, the Abraham Accords.” The name “Abraham Accords” has also “been erased from a wide array of official State Department communications as the new administration presses officials to refer to the Trump-era deals as ‘normalization agreements.'”
Kagan’s conclusion is blunt: U.S. law “generally requires a lawful admission before a person can obtain LPR status. Sanchez was not lawfully admitted, and his TPS does not alter that fact. He therefore cannot become a permanent resident of this country.” //
Immigration advocates will lament the fact that many of the 400,000 people with temporary protected status are illegal immigrants and that these people will not be able to become permanent residents. Yet blatant violations of immigration law do not disappear when Congress grants illegal immigrants a temporary status due to horrible conditions in their home countries.
The Court made the right decision in this case.
Kamala Harris flew to Guatemala yesterday to talk with their officials about the “root causes” of the border crisis in our country.
Harris showed how narcissistic she was by handing out cookies with her face on them to the reporters on the plane. Then, when she landed in Guatemala, she was met by protesters with big signs saying “Trump Won,” and “Go Home.” //
Giammattei explained how the immediate policy changes upon Biden’s inauguration (such as the reversal of Trump’s “Safe Third Country” policy) immediately led to smugglers organizing in Guatemala bring kids illegally to the United States. //
Ted Cruz
@tedcruz
You mean Biden’s campaigning on amnesty, open borders & free healthcare for all illegal aliens wasn’t a good idea?
No kidding.
#BidenBorderCrisis.
RNC Research
@RNCResearch
Guatemalan president says Joe Biden’s “message” is contributing to the 21-year high in border crossings
The below table has each device, its release year, the generation it was a part of, the short name, and serial number prefixes to help identify it.
Every so often a new scam comes down the pipe that sounds so good, that so many good people want to believe in that the inevitable happens. Innocent people get hurt. Amazon automation is as close to a perfect scam anyone could hope to invent. It subverts a couple of outstanding business models, namely Amazon FBA and Wholesale Distribution.
The left ignored the people in order to flaunt a narrative, but that narrative is costing them voters, and it’ll cost them even more down the line as previously Democrat voters realize that Republicans actually do far better at governing than the left does.
If Democrats are smart, they’ll stop to realize that it’s their own racism that’s blinding them to reality, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Liberty, a North American oilfield company, released a video on Thursday slamming North Face for its hypocrisy.
The outdoor clothing company often boasts that it is an environmentally friendly company that recycles and reuses textile materials to create its gear. North Face even went so far as to deny a different oil and gas company its order in the name of committing to be more “green,” but Liberty CEO Chris Wright says the popular company is mostly talk.
“I went through North Face’s website of wide-ranging products, and I failed to find a single product that wasn’t made out of oil and gas,” he said.
A heroic rat named Magawa has been working for five years in Cambodia, sniffing out dozens of land mines. He is believed to have saved lives.
Now, the animal is about to embark on a well-deserved retirement.
"Although still in good health, he has reached a retirement age and is clearly starting to slow down," the nonprofit APOPO said Thursday. "It is time."
Magawa is a Tanzanian-born African giant pouched rat who was trained by APOPO to sniff out explosives. With careful training, he and his rat colleagues learn to identify land mines and alert their human handlers, so the mines can be safely removed.
Even among his skilled cohorts working in Cambodia, Magawa is a standout sniffer: In four years he has helped to clear more than 2.4 million square feet of land. In the process, he has found 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance. //
Christophe Cox, APOPO's CEO and co-founder, said the organization began exploring new explosive-detection techniques after an analysis found that land mine detection was "the most expensive and tedious part of the problem."
"That's why we came up with the idea of using rats, because rats are fast. They can screen an area of 200 square meters in half an hour – something which would take a manual deminer four days," Cox said at the virtual ceremony. //
Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size – they are too light to trigger the mines. When they detect a mine, they lightly scratch atop it, signaling to their handler what they've found.
The fireworks display at the RNC last August caused more than $42,000 in damage to federal property.
The RNC has reimbursed the federal government for damage on the Washington Monument's grounds.
Trump's unprecedented use of the White House and National Mall for the convention drew criticism from ethics experts.
The controversial fireworks display celebrating former President Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention last August caused more than $42,000 in damage to the National Mall, according to Department of Interior documents obtained by the Democratic group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.
The National Park Service wrote in a February letter to the Republican National Committee that turf on the grounds of the Washington Monument was damaged by a forklift operator "who drove at a high rate of speed" and scorched by fireworks, while "extensive compaction damage" was caused by "improper setup and security/setup/takedown vehicles." A water fountain was also damaged by a dumpster truck.
The RNC has reimbursed the federal government for the damages related to the show, which included fireworks spelling out "TRUMP 2020." The RNC also paid the government more than $177,000 in labor costs for almost 4,000 hours of work by NPS employees on the fireworks show.
Summary.
A growing number of insurance companies are cutting ties with the fossil fuel companies they used to cover. New insight from data analytics firm Verisk finds that over 30 years, insurers sustained roughly $60 billion in onshore and offshore large risk losses from fossil fuel companies, with only another $30 million or so coming from other companies. The author urges a push toward renewables, examining the obstacles leading to industry hesitancy and how it might overcome them. //
Late last year, Lloyd’s of London announced plans to stop selling insurance for some types of fossil fuel companies by 2030. In the world of insurance, it was a huge move: the centuries-old institution not only took a clear stand in the industry’s debate on climate change, it also cast doubt on the value of the business it intends to give up. And Lloyd’s isn’t the only one with concerns about the future of fossil fuel. Insurers and reinsurers around the world are grappling with issues related to both climate change and the impact of energy transition on their portfolios. Some have made the same commitment that Lloyd’s did, and others are likely to follow.
Emissions of the greenhouse gas commonly known as laughing gas are soaring. Can we cut emissions from its greatest anthropogenic source? //
In the world's effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the source of our food is coming into the spotlight. There's good reason for that: Agriculture accounts for 16 to 27% of human-caused climate-warming emissions. But much of these emissions are not from carbon dioxide, that familiar climate change villain. They're from another gas altogether: nitrous oxide (N2O).
Also known as laughing gas, N2O does not get nearly the attention it deserves, says David Kanter, a nutrient pollution researcher at New York University and vice-chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative, an organisation focused on nitrogen pollution research and policy making. "It's a forgotten greenhouse gas," he says.
Yet molecule for molecule, N2O is about 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide at heating the atmosphere. And like CO2, it is long-lived, spending an average of 114 years in the sky before disintegrating. It also depletes the ozone layer. In all, the climate impact of laughing gas is no joke. Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have estimated that nitrous oxide comprises roughly 6% of greenhouse gas emissions, and about three-quarters of those N2O emissions come from agriculture.
Visual approaches can be tough in the IFR world, especially when you're flying jets. Here's how one experienced, dual-ATP rated crew landed on a runway 6,000 feet shorter than the ATC-cleared runway.
Here on the East Coast, we’re anticipating the arrival of trillions of periodical Brood X cicadas.
So far, their emergence from a 17-year underground slumber has been described as a “plague” and an “invasion.”
The worst example of coverage, however, is the media's attempt to normalize human consumption of cicadas. Gross. //
A WIRED article posited, “Brood X offers something beyond noise and wonder. Namely, it offers a source of free-range, no-cost, eco-friendly protein.” //
The University of Maryland and the Cicadamaniacs do not advocate eating cicadas without first consulting with your doctor. While many people do eat cicadas, there is no guarantee that they are safe for every person to eat. As with all foods, it is possible that certain individuals will have allergic reactions to substances within the cicada. //
Many on the left are environmental preservationists who believe nature should be left untouched and undisturbed. So why are many of them entertaining cicadas recipes? Talk about inconsistency...
My fellow Americans also in the path of Brood X cicadas: Let’s leave them alone and allow nature to run its course.
“If all you’re doing is, the Democrats propose $2 trillion in infrastructure, so we say we’ll do $1.5 trillion, that’s not going to animate anybody,” he told the outlet. “That’s just ‘me, too’ Republicanism and ultimately that’s not going to be successful.”
During the interview, he also said Republicans need to be willing to take the hits that go along with proposing legislation that triggers Democrats, the media, and “woke corporations.”
“I’m totally willing to sacrifice an event in order to stand with the girls of my state. It’s an easy decision, and I don’t view it as pressure as much as saying, ‘The battle lines are clearly drawn, so which side are you going to be on?’”
The most important advice he had for Republicans was in reminding them that they “need to understand where the battle lines are being drawn.”
“Stop trying to grovel in front of them [the media], stop thinking that they’re going to like you, stop trying to impress them. Fight back against them,” he said during the interview. “That’s really what you have to do.”
If there’s anyone who should feel particularly vindicated by the news that has come out over the past few days in regard to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails, it’s Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
As we reported, Paul had previously grilled Fauci over hot coals and exposed Fauci’s contradictory responses on gain of function research.
A person believed to be among the highest-ranking defectors ever to the United States from the People’s Republic of China has been working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for months, sources inside the intelligence community have told RedState on condition of anonymity. The defector has direct knowledge of special weapons programs in China, including bioweapons programs, those sources say.
The information provided to RedState corroborates and clarifies Thursday evening’s reporting by journalist Adam Housley. //
Adam Housley
@adamhousley
Also...US intelligence believes China is trying to produce variants that suggest it came from bats to cover up that it originally came from a lab. The belief is still that it escaped accidentally, but was allowed to spread.
12:27 AM · Jun 4, 2021
Make no mistake — these are official Twitter and YouTube accounts for the Chinese government, and the person delivering the statement is Wang Wenbin, the Official Spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry and member of the Chinese Communist Party. The allegation is that the United States and Japan worked together on continuing “germ warfare” programs that the Japanese were pursuing during World War II.