Gun Free Zone

Welcome to the wonderful world of Death Squads.

Elite Venezuelan police officers allegedly summarily executed a young man after a grim interrogation inside his home in a slum on the outskirts of Caracas.

Before daybreak on January 8, 15 masked police officers barged there way inside Jose Arevalo’s home in Barrio Kennedy.

The 29-year-old’s girlfriend and her two children were kicked out before Arevalo was told by an officer: ‘If you collaborate, you’ll go free, otherwise you’re going to die.’

‘Brother,’ Arevalo pleaded sitting shirtless and unarmed, ‘Don’t kill me.’

‘You’re going to die’: Maduro’s death squad interrogates an unarmed Venezuelan shopkeeper, 29, moments before they shoot him inside his home –

FAES is the Special Action Force ( Fuerza de Acción Especial) of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Police. Heavily armed, trained and impervious to any legal recourse, they are the most feared part of the Venezuelan government in the capital city of Caracas and nearby zones.

The tactics are simple: one a trouble spothas been detected, saturate the zone with overwhelming force, terrorize the whole neighborhood, “interrogate” suspects, arrest a couple of promising informants kill several people (with or without reason) and leave the area. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Now, I am not going to blow smoke up you-kn ow-what and tell you death Squads did not exist prior to Venezuelan Socialism: they did and were well known, but their tactics and application were different. regular police would go after known dangerous criminals they could not build a case, kidnap him and the body may or may not appear somewhere; it depended on the message the cops wanted to give.  The old Political Police (DISIP) would target those conspiring against the government and get rid of them silently or otherwise.  But both had a very narrow target: The individual.

FAES targets areas of unrest under the excuse of combating crime which is why they do not care if they hit the right people. Theirs is a close up demonstration of the power of the government and how easy is for it to reach over, kill you and there is nothing you can do. It is government terrorism, plain and simple.

FAES are cocky bastards because they know they have both legal and tactical impunity. Bad guys are smart enough to flee and hide when they see them approaching and the average people has nothing to use to defend against them. If you paid attention to the first picture and have given it a thought, you already noticed how narrow is the barrio street and how easy would be to block them into an ambush to do a proper amount killing.  But for that to happen, the people in the barrio (and the whole nation) would need too be properly armed.

Alas! They voted for more gun control.

And they are reaping the consequences.

Hat Tip J. Kb.

A buddy of mine sent me this article from Yahoo! Lifestyle, originally published in Parents.

How My Parenting Changed When I Moved My Family to a Place Where Most People Carry Guns

Let me guess, you became an annoying asshole?

When I became a mom of two in Manhattan, I had already lived in New York City for ten years, in a city with notoriously strict gun laws. Residents with premise permits can only carry a gun outside of their home to a firing range and it must be unloaded and stored in a locked container during travel. Otherwise, guns can’t be taken anywhere, including outside city limits.

I can’t wait for the Supreme Court to change that.

We lived in a two-bedroom apartment only a few avenues away from Central Park and the only guns I ever saw were in the holsters of officers of the New York Police Department or members of the counterterrorism division who guard high-traffic areas of the busy city.

I bolded the “the only guns I ever saw” part because this fallacy is central to all of her whining.

My husband and I definitely did not keep a gun in our home and I never worried whether there were guns in the homes that my children, then ages 3 and 1, visited for playdates. Guns were just not a part of our community’s lifestyle. Even as a kid growing up in Syracuse, New York, my family did not own a gun. No one in my family hunted and I didn’t even own a toy pistol growing up. I never had a reason to learn how to properly hold or shoot a gun.

Sheltered New York Progressive.  Got it.

But everything changed in 2016 when my family moved to Texas.

Why did she move to Texas?  I can guarantee the people of Texas didn’t want her to move there.

Of course, I knew before we moved that Texas has very different views on guns than New York City, but I was still surprised to see the huge billboards on the highway for buying guns and ammo. I was shocked to realize you can buy a pair of soccer cleats and a gun in the same store.

I’m so sorry that is happening to her.  Having her bubble burst that the rest of the country is not Manhattan must be painful as hell.

More than 1.3 million Texans have licenses to carry a handgun, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. You must be 21 years old to buy a handgun and 18 years old to purchase a rifle. Although licensed gun dealers are required by federal law to do background checks, Texas regulations don’t require background checks for private sales of guns, such as buying from an individual or from some gun shows. Texas handgun licenses require classroom training, a written exam, and a shooting test.

All seem pretty reasonable for a pro-guns state.

While unpacking, my husband asked if I wanted to get my gun license and buy my own gun to keep in a safe in our home. I quietly shook my head, but my gut reaction was more like “hell no.” A license for a gun? Not me! I believed the last thing this world needed was more guns.

I rolled my eyes at the gush of hot air that had meant we were in gun country and we better get used to it. “Guns are not going to be all over our life,” I declared.

How dare she become one of those people.

I used to ask Manhattan parents about their favorite snack to give their kids, now I ask Texas parents if they have guns in their homes or in their cars.

That’s obnoxious.  I wonder how many parents let her daughters play over at their house after that.

If she’s worried about her kid’s safety, she should ask about the last time they changed the batteries in their smoke detectors or if they have stairs or covers on their electrical outlets or a fence around their pool.

Hunting often comes up in conversation on the soccer field before a game, or talk turns to guns used at the gun range on outings with friends. At first, it was shocking how open and conversational others were about firearms—and I couldn’t join in the conversation, as I didn’t have memories of shooting my first deer or celebrating a family member’s successful duck hunting trip. The longer I lived in Texas, I’ve become more comfortable asking other parents or friends, “Do you have any guns in your home?” However, I know I’m not yet settled into the culture of my new home when I want to cover my kid’s eyes when I see someone carrying a gun in a holster.

There were nearly 300 murders in New York City in 2018.  Shootings and murders are up in 2019, but we don’t have the total data yet.  Clearly there are people who are not police carrying guns in NYC and because they are not permitted to do so, they are universally carried with malicious intent.

But mom here doesn’t see them so, out of sight, out of mind.

She sees good guys with guns in Texas but freaks out.  This is paranoid prejudice against guns.

Of course, I had my eyes peeled in Manhattan for any concerns of violence while pushing the double stroller to and from an outing, but while riding the subway or taking my kids to a street festival there was a sense of relief in knowing it was unlikely that an individual was carrying a gun. In Texas, the odds are a lot higher that someone in a crowded setting could be carrying a gun, and that one disgruntled shopper could cause hysteria.

Ah yes, the “concealed carry will turn every fender-bender/argument into bloodshed” bullshit.  Never happened, but don’t tell the mom from Manhattan that.

I glance around restaurants more carefully than I did in New York; I take in who’s shopping in the aisle with me at the grocery store. I always consider who might be carrying a gun wherever we go—the thought is always there while we order our dinner or go to the movie theater. I look for the exits and I’ve become a lot more alert to my surroundings, especially when I’m with my kids.

Those damn concealed carriers.  It’s not like criminals are not busted all the time for carrying guns in New York City.  It’s just that New York City isn’t gun friendly so she doesn’t think about it.

My daughter now notices the symbol for firearms in restaurants and retail stores, something she never would have seen in New York City. She will often comment on the line across a gun graphic on signage and say, “Look, Mommy, no guns.” I know we can’t control everything our kids see, and silence can often create the worst kind of curiosity. So we talk about guns. We talk about how guns hurt and can kill people; it’s blunt language but having a serious tone around this topic is important.

Did she talk to her daughter about vagrants and squeegee-men in New York City?  Would she talk to her daughters about how not to get beat up and robbed on a Subway train?  What about how to check public transportation seats for needles and avoid stepping in human shit on the streets?

This is the Manhattan mentality.  As a New Yorker she has trained herself to ignore all the quality of life destruction around her.

The homeless bum shooting up in a park and shitting on the playground is something she turns a blind eye to.

The law-abiding Texan with a CCW and a pistol on his hip not hurting anybody drives her mad.

She hates guns and is prejudiced against gun owners.  Nothing more.

Maybe she should have stayed in New York City.

Yesterday the Madison County Sheriff did what they should have done all along and release the video evidence that fletcher had a gun at the time he was shot.

Chris Joseph of local news channel WAFF tweeted a video showing a scene by scene breakdown of the justification of the shooting.

@waff48 pic.twitter.com/yFdU90YsvS

— Chris Joseph WAFF (@Chris_D_Joseph) November 15, 2019

This screenshot from the press conference shows the body camera footage from one of the officers, showing Fletcher being pulled from the van holding a gun.

Photo of Fletcher with gun @waff48 pic.twitter.com/CgFpDw1Iw8

— Chris Joseph WAFF (@Chris_D_Joseph) November 15, 2019

The entire press conference can be seen at the WAFF website (I could not embed the video here which is why I am using the Twitter clips).

The Sheriff and DA have concluded that the shooting was entirely justified based on the video evidence.

It seems that Fletcher’s widow was lying on Facebook.

On Monday, three activists were arrested during a die-in at the Huntsville Veteran’s Day Parade, protesting the shooting of Fletcher.

I wonder with this new evidence if the activism will fizzle out like a fart in a wind and Crump will crawl back under a rock in Florida, or if they will go all Michael Brown and continue unperturbed.

The Sheriff could have nipped all of this in the bud had the video been released earlier, but better late than never.

Just now.

I may have to start wearing socks.

I follow Cold Steel in Facebook and this little cutie popped a couple a weeks ago for $10. Needless to say I got two because I am an idiot and I am gonna give it to the wife so she can stab me in my sleep when I snore too hard 🙂

The Cold Steel Secret Edge is a 3.5 inch blade of Japanese AUS 8A Stainless Steel,  6.6 inches overall and 24 ounces is just a tad hefty IMHO for neck carry, specially compared against my CRKT SPEW.

The scales’ texture feels too aggressive initially but is not, and provides great purchase without your skin being sanded to death.

Retailing at $44.99, they are on sale for $10 so you get a decent knife for a price of a gas station knife found in the SALE! bin.

This is a real Tweet from ABC News:

What do we know about Tulsi Gabbard’s base?

For one thing, it's overwhelmingly male. More, via @FiveThirtyEight: https://t.co/VeRlzgGCqs

— ABC News (@ABC) November 13, 2019

The clear implication being that because her fans are disproportionately male, that’s a bad thing.

This is supposed to be more evidence that Gabbard is a bad person.

We know that she’s supposed to be a bas person because she criticized Hillary Clinton in epic fashion.

All those suppositions have to be true because otherwise this proves that men are not misogynistic when they go to the polls because they are supporting a woman candidate.  Not just any woman, but a woman of color.

One would think that would be great news.  But since Gabbard is the “wrong” kind of female candidate – i.e., one who does not have deference for Queen Hillary- being liked by too many men is bad.

These fucking people are never happy.

From the Detroit Metro Times:

Rep. Tlaib teams up with Sen. Sanders to combat ‘excessive’ CEO pay

That’s great.  Now who decides what’s excessive pay for the responsibilities of the CEO.

How about we look into the ‘excessive’ pay of useless members of Congress who grift off their offices with book sales and speaking fees.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Barbara Lee teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders to introduce legislation Wednesday aimed at curbing the disparity in pay between CEOs and rank-and-file employees.

That sounds like something Congress really needs to address.

The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act would impose tax penalties on companies that pay their CEOs more than 50 times the median salary of their employees.

The legislation, introduced in the Senate and House, comes as the pay gap between CEOs and workers continues to widen. Nearly 80 percent of CEOs for S&P 500 companies received more than 100 times the pay of the median employee in 2018, according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies.

A typical employee at the 50 publicly traded companies with the highest pay gaps would have to work at least 1,000 years to earn what the CEO makes in a year, the study found.

So the fuck what?

Given the number of times I’ve had a McDonald’s employee fuck up my order the first time, I’m sure those workers are overpaid at minimum wage.

The legislation calls for imposing graduating tax penalties starting at 0.5 percent and rising to 5 percent for companies that pay their CEOs more than 500 times the rate of their workers. 

“Corporate greed is a disease that has long inflicted this country — income inequality and the pay gap between CEOs and their employees are just two of its symptoms that are harming everyday people,” Tlaib, of Detroit, said in a news release. “In 2018, for example, General Motors’ CEO made nearly 300 times more than the median income of an employee there. We have had enough. The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act will help ensure there is more fairness in the workplace when it comes to wages. It’s common sense legislation on the path toward justice for all.” 

Corporate greed is a problem.  We can talk all day about industries bought out by holding companies for the purposes of gutting them for profit.

But going after CEO pay is a red herring.

A CEO who can make and keep a multinational, multi-billion dollar business profitable is a unique skill that commands a lot on the open market.

“In America today, ordinary workers at some of the richest corporations are making poverty wages. Meanwhile, we’ve got a class of corporate CEOs who make hundreds — sometimes thousands — of times more than their employees,” Sanders said in the new release. “The last time I checked, corporations got by just fine when CEOs made a million bucks a year — one-tenth of what they make now. All around the world today, large, successful businesses manage to be profitable while treating their workers with dignity and not handing out obscene pay packages to their CEOs. If America’s corporate boards can’t understand the absurdity of paying their CEO friends — in one year — more than their workers will earn in a lifetime, then the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act will help them figure it out.”  

Sanders made millions writing a book praising socialism, profiting off his failed Presidential campaign.  He can go fuck himself with a crosscut saw.

In the 1970s, CEO salaries averaged about $1 million a year, or 20 to 30 times more than the average pay of their employees. Today, the average annual pay of a CEO at a Fortune 500 company is about $20 million, or 200 to 300 times the average pay of an employee, according to research by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). 

Adjusted for inflation, a $1 million salary in 1970 would be worth $7 million today.  The CEO of McDonald’s had a base salary of $1.3 million.  His total compensation was $15.8 million, but most of that was in stock value.  So taking inflation into account, the CEO of McDonald’s had  a lower base salary than a 1970s CEO and only double the total compensation, not 20 times the amount.

Either Sanders is stupid or lying.

The issue is that bottom rung salaries have not gone up, and that is due to global competition.  An unskilled, borderline competent worker in the US is not any more useful than the same unskilled worker in Bangladesh at $1 per day.  Wages are market driven.

Here is my question: when the law taxes companies that pay CEOs more that 50 times the median wage of thier employees, how will that work?

Is it base salary only, or does stock value count?

Do they realize that median pay for some companies can be higher than they think?

Median pay at McDonald’s is $54k per year because it includes corporate management, buyer’s, marketing professionals, etc.  The CEO would be allowed to have 50 times their  wage, or $2.7 million, not 50 times the wage of the fat bitch behind the counter that can’t get your order right.

Do they expect CEOs just to take less money?  Or maybe raise the wages of their employees?

I’m sure this will cause US companies to invert to other countries that don’t have this stupid rule or to fire low paid employees.

As CEO of McDonald’s, I’d be happy to fire every single minimum wage employee to raise the median salary and increase my earnings.  Then I’d work with Boston Dynamics and iRobot to create an entirely robotic workforce.

Until they gain sentience, I won’t have to worry about my robot burger flipper getting into a fist fight with a customer over a milkshake and knocking her boobs out of her tube top.

If the current pay trends continue, the legislation would raise roughly $150 billion in new taxes over the next decade.

No.  It won’t.  This law is begging to be hammered by the law of unintended consequences.

It won’t raise new tax revenue.  It won’t raise bottom rung employee salaries.

It will cause bottom rung employees to be laid off and replaced by robots and companies to invert offshore to avoid regulation.

I know this because I’m not stupid.

Sanders and Tlaib  are Socialist idiots.