Gun Free Zone

In its simplest form, a companion bill, or companion measure, is a bill – introduced in either the House or Senate – which has identical or similar language to another bill introduced in the other chamber.

The reason for this is that House and Senate lawmakers who share similar views on legislation may introduce a companion bill in their respective chambers to promote simultaneous consideration of the measure.

Part 6: Companion Bills

I am going to make lots of noise this year about companion bills for Florida. Last year, the Church Carry bill in the house sailed through all the sub committees and committees with actual bipartisan support, but died because there was not a companion bill in the Senate which could have given it the extra inch of help to move forward and land in governor’s office. And obviously it works the other way around: If the Senate has a bill you like but no companion in the House, it is pretty much dead.    I know there are some sort of workaround, but I believe it is seldom used in the Legislature.

So, if there is a good bill without a companion, I want you all to focus on pestering your Senator or Representative to file his/her version or even an identical one. As usual I will provide the links to the bills with the text included and you are welcome to use them and abuse them.

Insurers balk at covering Portland businesses; brokers say downtown upheaval has made carriers wary

Eric Murfitt watched helplessly from a live security feed as looters trashed his downtown clothing store, Mercantile, during a riot on May 30. Murfitt said the business suffered $1 million in losses due to the break-in and had to file an insurance claim to stay afloat.

But in November, Murfitt was informed that his insurance carrier would not be renewing the store’s policy. Nearly a dozen other insurance companies declined to even offer Mercantile a quote.

The riots, protests, vandalism, looting, lack of policing, and general Leftist utopia disarray have made many business uninsurable and has left others with unaffordable premiums.

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has declined to file charges in 70% of the protest-related cases that have been referred to them since May, although District Attorney Mike Schmidt has said he would pursue cases that involve “deliberate” property damage, theft or force against another person or threats of force.

He hasn’t.

The city government has made this happen.  Their utter mismanagement has cost these businesses everything.

This is where qualified immunity needs to die.  Every person in the city government needs to personally pay for making this happen.

This is beyond bad policy, this is malfeasance.

Politicians should be held personally accountable when their policies lead to the destruction of communities. More than losing an election and getting a cushy job at a lobbying agency or think tank.  These politicians need to be rendered permanently destitute.

This was the pawn shop owner whose store was broken into by looters in Minneapolis and Mr. Rieple was inside, used force to defend himself and ended up charged with murder.

No charges will be filed against a pawn shop owner in the May fatal shooting of Calvin Horton Jr. because looters destroyed all the video, only one witness cooperated, numerous other witnesses refused to come forward, and a second identified witness to the shooting refused to be interviewed, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced Monday.
After an exhaustive six-month investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department, with guidance from county prosecutors, there was insufficient evidence to overcome a self-defense argument in court by the shooter, John Rieple.

No charges in Horton shooting due to lack of evidence

If you read the whole thing, I believe you can notice a certain tone of “Shit, we could not stick it to the guy and he is gonna get away with it!” Now I come to expect that from the Media, but this is the  press release of the Hennepin County Attorney and not a Social Justice intern working for the local rag.

Based upon the facts and available evidence, the state could not prove it was not self-defense and prosecutors are ethically prohibited from filing charges against someone knowing it would not be possible to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

That sounds a lot as “Well, we are bounded by stupid rules and we have to let the fucker go.” which makes you all warm and fuzzy inside, right? And then the warning that he will never be out of the woods and he will be carrying a Damocles’ sword above him for as long as they want.

If additional evidence becomes available, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office could reconsider the decision not to bring a charge.

I do believe that this will be the future focus on Gun Control: Not the weapon’s ownership  but the usage in Self Defense will be criminalized.

 From the American Bar Association:

Get ready, it is gonna be a bumpy ride.

We have entered day two of “PhDs aren’t really doctors.”

Objectively I don’t understand why this is a hill the Right feels it needs to die on, but it does.

This is what reactionary politics has wrought.  Some jackass said something stupid about Jill Biden in the Wall Street Journal.

The Democrats rushed to defend the incoming First Lady, therefore the Right must attack because that is the nature of reactionary pop-culture politics.

Tucker went on a rant on his show last night about how Jill Biden is barely more of a doctor than Dr. Pepper.

Ben Shapiro, who I used to have some respect for, decided to die on this hill as well.

If you’re at a dinner and somebody introduces himself as “Dr. Smith,” you’d be rather upset to learn that he had a doctorate in musicology if you were to suffer a stroke at the table.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 14, 2020

This is the dumbest of takes. “Without context, let’s just assume anyone who calls themselves doctor can respond to a medical emergency” is the lowest form of lowest common denominator, anti-intellectual, populism.

Furthermore, to compare a doctorate in education (or law, for that matter) to a medical degree is the height of absurdity. Having watched my wife do the latter, it simply isn’t comparable.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 14, 2020

I generally hate this term, but here it feels like he’s just simping for his wife.

I just love that in a time when medical doctors should be revered as never before — we’re in the midst of a global pandemic — we’re now standing strong for the proposition that people who get doctorates in education should also be called “doctor.”

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) December 14, 2020

This one really frustrated me because I have written post after post on doctors and nurses violating HIPAA and every canon of ethics dancing and engaging in histrionics on TikTok from inside hospitals.

Matt Walsh, who is the worst part of the Daily Wire had this stupid take:

If I was a master carpenter and insisted that you address me as “Master Walsh,” you would think I was insane. I feel exactly the same way about people without medical degrees insisting that I call them doctor. In fact it’s even crazier. At least the carpenter has a useful skill.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) December 14, 2020

I’m glad every science, math, and engineering PhD I ever studied under has no useful skills.

The closest thing I’ve seen to conceding the point that earning a doctorate entitles one to be called doctor is “well… inside the halls of academic, under limited circumstances…”

Good, then MDs get to be called doctor in hospitals and clinics only.

Then I’ve seen the point swing wildly far in the other direction where dentists and podiatrists shouldn’t be called doctor either.

And if you don’t think that podiatry is life-saving medicine, you don’t know someone over the age of 40 with Type I diabetes.

This is an unserious point that these people on the Right are making just to be fucking petty.

If you want to argue that the Left overindulges in credentialism and that they love to call upon “experts” who are not experts and whose “conventional wisdom” on topics is flat fucking wrong, that’s a debate worth having.

I’ve written several posts on precisely that when it comes to Trump’s handling of the Middle East.

But this “anyone who isn’t an MD isn’t a doctor” just to dig at Jill Biden is as shallow a thought as anything AOC had Tweeted as clapback.

All the Right is doing is burning any credibility that they have as being anything other than anti-intellectual, shit-kicking, knuckle-draggers.

There are bigger battles worth fighting but the Right has to be fucking stupid.

For the love of all things good and holy, let us not develop some form of BDS (Biden Derangement Syndrome), which it really seems like we are doing with attacking Jill Biden’s Ed.D being the first symptom.

Actress, Choreographer and for many years the captain of the Bob Fosse school. Most of us know her from her beautiful performance in All That Jazz.

I just have one tiny little wish: Have the women in the US Soccer National Team displaced by Transgenders because they play better.

I would not mind to see a couple of faces in shock when they are told they are not needed for the team.

Another blogger (I am sorry, I forget who was it)  Bayou Renaissance Man had this video posted yesterday and I saved to watch it last night. It is an hour and a half, but worth it.

I truly believe that out of all the buildings in Seattle that were set on fire by Antifa/BLM, the only one that would have produced any favorable change for Seattle remained untouched: City Hall.

When there are no consequences for your actions, no matter how negative they can be, the behavior will not change and people will suffer. And I do not mean only the criminals of Seattle but their Council people…OK truly there is not that much of a difference between the two groups.