Pete Buttigieg admits he got it wrong on the Ohio train derailment response.
But while the criticism is fair, he says, the critics are mostly not.
“It’s really rich to see some of these folks – the former president, these Fox hosts – who are literally lifelong card-carrying members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been tax cuts for the wealthy, and who wouldn’t know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country,” the Transportation Secretary said. “You think Tucker Carlson knows the difference between a T.J. Maxx and a Kohl’s?”
That’s an actual fucking quote from the Secretary of Transportation.
His metric for what separates the middle-class and working class from the wealthy is shopping at Kohl’s and TJ Maxx.
This guy is supposed to be a Rhodes Scholar who worked at McKinsey and sounds like a freshman community college politician science major.
He is irredeemaby amateurish.
Nothing will get fixed on his watch.
Even of he wanted to fix things, it’s clear he’s too incompetent to do so.
This could have gone very wrong. If stupid mode is engaged, why should you want to win an argument? Ego is a silly thing to feed when things go wrong. It will kill you.
B.L.U.F. The 2008 Heller case was a huge win for us. Yet somehow it didn’t result in the changes in infringements we expected. This is one of the cases we lost which was used to keep infringing regulations in place.
In this interlocutory appeal, Leonard Fyock, William Douglas, Scott Hochstetler, David Pearson, Brad Seifers, and Ron Swanson (collectively “Fyock”) challenge an order denying their request to preliminarily enjoin an ordinance recently enacted by the City of Sunnyvale, California (“Sunnyvale”), restricting the possession of “large-capacity magazines”—statutorily defined as a detachable ammunition feeding device capable of accepting more than ten rounds. Fyock claims that Sunnyvale’s ordinance, part of a ballot measure known as Measure C, violates his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and will irreparably harm him if not immediately enjoined.
— Fyock v. Sunnyvale, 779 F. 3d 991 – Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit 2015
Why is this case important?
This case is important because this is one of the circuit level cases cited in multiple Second Amendment cases to support the use of intermediate scrutiny. The other commonly cited case is Kolbe v Hogan which was decided in the 4th circuit court.
These two cases came post Heller. As discussed multiple times in previous articles, when a case is decided that puts the brakes on for some sort of infringement, the infringers read through those opinions with a fine tooth comb looking for something to hang their infringements on.
Prior to Heller cases were heard and dismissed for lack of standing. Those same cases, post Heller came back through the courts and the state had new arguments to support their infringements that fit within the framework set out in Heller.
We’ve all had this type of argument. They say something you disagree with. You counter with your argument. They bring up supporting evidence and you counter. You win because you have a better grasp of the facts and reality. They immediately tell you that they didn’t have the position they had because of the reasons they just argued unsuccessfully with you, no it is this other reason.
I’m a numbers guy. My brain hears numbers and they just make sense. When we were dissolving a LLC the other people in the LLC were buying us out. They offered a sum. They justified it with a set of numbers. I pointed out their numbers were bogus. At the next arbitration they offered exactly the same sum but with an entirely different set of justification numbers.
Those were just as bogus. I shot them down. At the next arbitration they offered the same amount yet again with still a third set of numbers to justify. I showed how those numbers were bogus as well. I then asked “All you have for the buy out is that sum, right?” They looked at each other and nodded.
“Ok, then stop trying to justify that offer with bogus numbers. It is what you have and there isn’t any more.”
Sometimes these court cases feel like that. The state has but a single position and they will argue that position a dozen different ways, all as bogus as the last.
LCM in Sunnyvale California
After Heller the states didn’t have the same knee jerk reaction at the legislative level that they did after Bruen, instead the issues were fought in court. In court the state through plate after plate of spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick. As soon as one piece stuck, the rest of the infringing states incorporated that argument into their own building up case law to the point where the Heller opinion had been all but neutered.
Fyock v. Sunnyvale came about because the city of Sunnyvale decided to “do something” and passed an ordinance banning Large Capacity Magazines.
The history of LCM bans in California started with the federal “Crime Control Act” of 1994. Part of the CCA was the AWB. There was also a LCM ban as part of that. In 2000 California put into place a ban on the manufacture, sale, purchase, transfer, and receipt of LCMs. They did not ban the possession of LCMs.
They didn’t feel the need to for some reason.
In 2004, the CCA sunset ending the federal AWB and LCM ban.
The state and the Ninth Circus court declared that this created a “loophole” where people in California could possess LCMs even if they couldn’t get new ones.
In 2013, the city of Sunnyvale had a citizen driven initiative on the ballot to ban the possession of LCMs. It passed.
From Colonel (Ret.) Craig Tucker, who is the AR-15 “expert” of the Gun Control side in the Rupp v. Bonta (C.D. CA, assault weapon ban):
This moron just said that Eugene Stoner was not and could not been an expert on the AR 15/M4 because he did not use it in battle.
Tucker is just pissed because his earlier document about the evil efficacies of the 5.56 round (decapitating bodies, exploding flesh) has been severely mocked pretty much anywhere in the gun and legal circles.
For once, the Amazon Music’s recommendations actually helped. I cannot remember the last time I listened to Cat Stevens. All my favorites of his now reside in my list.
B.L.U.F. Fluff piece because I can’t stand reading another word of Bonta’s so called “experts”
Through one of my feeds I get a notice of some case that is happening and interesting. If I’m very lucky there will be a link to that case in some way. Most of the time there is not.
If the source is a news article it is highly likely that not only have they failed to link to the case or legislation, they have likely miss named it as well. For example the “Don’t say gay” Florida bill that didn’t have those words in the bill. All searches for “don’t say gay” will take you to propaganda pieces telling you how bad the “Don’t say gay” bill is but with no links and no text.
Once I find some official documentation I next attempt to find the case number.
This has been a learning curve for me. It turns out that case names and numbers change as cases move through the courts. So what was filed as “Steven Rupp; Steven Dumber; Cheryl Johnson; Michael Jones; Christopher Seifert; Alfonso Valenceia; Troy Willis; and California Rifle & Pistol Association, Incorporated vs. Xavier Becerra, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California; and DOES 1-10” had a case number of 8:17-cv-00746 assigned to it.
This became “Steven Rupp, et al v. Xavier Becerra” with a case number of “8:17-cv-00746-JLS-JDE” when it got to the ninth circuit court. The turned into “Steven Rupp; et al v. Rob Bonta, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California” case number 19-56004.
When the case was vacated and remanded back to the district court the case number became 8:17-cv-00746-JLS-JDE and became known as “Steven Rupp, et al. v. Xavier Becerra, in his official capacity as Attorney General of State of California”.
And the case is known as “Rupp v. Bonta” for the most part. It is all the same case.
Ok, but I have conditions: You can ask but it ain’t guarantee I will answer. It depends on how private or possibly security compromising the reply would be. And some shit simply is not for public consumption.
Send your questions to miguel@ and the obvious rest of the address. Subject: Ask Miguel Anything.
When is that I have to post the answers? I forget… because I am a grumpy old asshole!
