A few years ago, when The Walking Dead was dominating the cable schedule, I noted – maybe here, but probably on Facebook – that the message was hard to miss, for everyone but, I suspect, the show’s creators; crisis breeds conservatism.

When one has to focus on finding toilet paper and eggs, and is silently eyeing the property and violent crime rates in the neighborhood, hectoring people about pronouns and carbon footprints, at least for the moderately sane, slides down the priority list

And gun control?

Gun shops on the outskirts of Blue America report a surge of new purchases more brisk than the Obama years – and heavily comprising first-time, often left-of center, gun owners.

I caught this piece, in BearingArms.com.

Pull quote:

At noon, a woman in her sixties came in. She wore plastic gloves and had a scarf wrapped around her face, and she traced a wide arc around the only other non-employee in the store. “I’ve been doing this since the beginning of March,” she said, referring to her protective gear. “I don’t feel sick at all. I’m self-quarantining.” She left her house only for essential activities. This was one. “I’m buying a gun,” she said. “I can’t believe it.”

She went on, “My son was a little upset about it.” (He preferred his bow and arrow.) “I’m old and I live alone, and we don’t know if there’s going to be civil unrest. The world is not the same.” She added, “It didn’t have to be this way.” Unlike many of the shop’s regulars, she was no fan of Trump: “He’s a divider all the way. First he said, ‘Five people have died, big deal.’ Now he’s saying, ‘I always knew it’d be dangerous.’ ” Talk turned to Portland. “It’s a ghost town,” a young woman said. Her name was Rosemary, and she was helping Bales out, since the restaurant where she waited tables had closed.

“I don’t like to go in cities anymore, anyway,” the customer said…Bales helped her customer choose a weapon. (“Pick three,” the customer told her.) As Bales rummaged around, the customer said, “I’m going to have a soldier train me. A friend of my son’s.” Bales returned with the first option. “A .22 Mag,” she said. “Holds thirty rounds.”…“I like the color of it,” the customer said. “It’s not black.” She picked it up. “It feels good. And it’s got a safety…This is just going to be for close range,” the customer said. “In my house. If it happens.” (Asked what “it” was, she said, “In two months, if the cities are starving, they’re gonna come out. And I understand that.”) …

“I think she’s a liberal,” Bales said, once the door closed. “There’s so many coming in. First-time-gun-owner liberals. I’ve probably seen ten this week. It’s so funny, because I hope it just turns them on to liking the Second Amendment. I mean, the Constitution was created for a reason. To protect us.”

Whoops. Did I say Bearing Arms? I meant The New Yorker.

If you are a new gun owner? Perhaps coming from the left?

On behalf of everyone who’s spent decades fighting to keep the right to keep and bear arms safe, you’re welcome.

Hope you remember this when the crisis lifts.

Americans are, to say the least, distracted these days. The epidemic, and its economic fallout, are pretty much front and center for most of us.

Perfect cover, if you’re a weasel.

Georgia Democrat Congressman Hank Johnson is a weasel. He’s introducing a bill that doubles as an encyclopedia of all the Democrats true hopes and dreams when it comes to gun control: bans of classes of weapons, “Universal” registraiton, age limits, purchase limits, and pretty much name it.

This is today’s Democrat party – exploiting misery to grab power.

“…why do you oppose cities running munipical utilities for vital services like water, electricity and trash collection?”

Because it gives tinhorn autocrats an excessive amount of coercive power:

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the city is preparing to launch enforcement efforts against nonessential businesses that have remained opened, starting with a warning.

Those that remain open face misdemeanor penalties, citations, fines and the possibility of the city Department of Water and Power shutting off utility service, Garcetti said.

More power. That was really the intention all along.

There are presidential primaries coming, but who’s going to stand in line to vote, risking the virus?
Isn’t this a clear case of foreign interference in the presidential election?  Since it harms Democrats by lowering turnout and complicating the race, Trump benefits.  Isn’t that an emolument, or collusion, or something impeachable? 
Joe Doakes

Reality is what the media says it is.

This popped up on Twitter the other day. It’s from “Rick Wilson”, who lists himself as an “apostate GOP media guy”, which means he’s a pretty over the top Never-Trumper.

Comeuppance was delivered fast and hot. Wilson pretty well doggoned it:

What are we looking at, here?:

1. A heat map of people who sniff down their noses at Fox News?
2. An overlay of Covid deaths at this point?

Answer: Why choose?

I suspect it’s really more a matter of population density than intellectual density – densely-packed, transit-dependent people have always been more susceptible, at least initially, to pandemics (and they also develop immunity faster). Nobody knows what that map’ll look like in a year.

The only thing we know for sure?

Rick Wilson is going to have a hard time earning a living from seriousl people.

During last Fridays press conference with Gov. Walz, the prospect of a statewide “Shelter In Place” order, rumors of which have been percolating for a while, got broached. The concept of “essential workers” – people who are allowed out and about without getting hassled – got broached.

Some were obvious – first responders, healthcare workers, people who work in grocery stores, pharmacies, in the supply chain, and similar businesses.

One of the reporters asked “and journalists?”

“Of course”, Walz responded, to a smattering of clubby chuckles.

But the questions keep popping up, especially on journos social media: they see themselves as genuinely essential.

Let’s ignore whether journalism is what journalists say it is, anymore – more on that in a piece coming up tomorrow morning.

The extent to which journos seem to need to think of themselves as class above and beyond the proles strikes me as a little unseemly.

I’m asking:

When you hear journalists scrambling to get themselves counted as “essential” workers, rather than mere lumpen proles, what jumps to mind?

— Mitch “Socially Distant” Berg (@mitchpberg) March 23, 2020

The four options in the poll strike me as about even.

It’s your turn!

I get that the Coronavirus is The End Of The World As We Know It.  I watch the media so I’m fully informed.  But I’m also puzzled by the behavior of Liberals.
Went to the store yesterday, saw shoppers hauling carts full of bottled water.  Wait – I thought plastic water bottles were killing the planet.  I thought we were supposed to be using Nalgene or stainless steel. What are you Liberals doing with them? 
And I thought Cheryl Crow spoke for all you decent people: one sheet of TP per session, to save the trees that eat CO2 and thereby prevent global warming.  There are 500 sheets on a roll of TP.  You’ve got enough in that cart for 6,000 dumps.  How long a siege are you preparing for?
Joe Doakes

I keep trying to tell people – do your panic shopping a few years before the panic. It’s much easier.

Gary Heyer is running for MN House in HD50B.

Sia Lo is running for the GOP nomination to take on Betty McCollum in the Fourth CD.

From our First World War series [which we’ll get around to finishing someday], a look back at the “Spanish Flu”:

The Seventh Seal

Dan Crenshaw on the “why” that our media just can’t seem to bring itself to put out there:

Scoring cheap political points is easy, but also dishonest. In the US, our tests for coronavirus have been delayed and difficult to get. We recently addressed the problem by loosening regulations.

But why’d it take so long? Who is really to blame?

WATCH pic.twitter.com/rYjhWNe6PG

— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) March 13, 2020

Crenshaw needs to become a governor or Senator, and start spooling up to run for President. He is almost literally the character I had in mind in this 2005 serial that seems increasingly timely today.

I stopped by the Roseville Target yesterday morning on my way back from another errand. It was 7:50 AM.

I don’t need toilet paper – a 12 pack tides me over for good long while,  now that I have no kids at home – but I took a stroll past the paper products aisle. There were maybe a couple dozen packages of toilet paper scattered about the place.  Call it 95% empty.   

I thought “must’ve been a busy night“.

Then I talked to one of the girls at the coffee stand. She said trucks came in mid-evening last night and completely restocked the toilet paper (and the produce, which was picked pretty clean last night). And they sold out again before closing at midnight.

But but but but there would be shortages in a socialist economy pic.twitter.com/vnYEFUaIVq

— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) March 14, 2020

I tried to ask Mr. Ackerman if stores in Venezuela were upstocking several times a day between bouts of empty shelves. For some reason – dare I say, “unexpectedly” – I haven’t heard back.

The bad news? There are a lot of panicky ninnies out there.

A friend of the blog writes:

It’s abortion providers day in St Paul. As a woman in St Paul, I am offended with that being a recognized day by the City council and mayor.
I do think women’s health deserves some public recognition, though. And if the city people cared about women’s health, they would focus on things other than abortion.
But, they focus on abortion. Which tells me this is more political than anything. I’m not quite sure where this is going politically, though, in a liberal city that seems to agree blindly with the people they elect. 
As a conservative health care provider who understands that a ban on abortions doesn’t actually save lives (people are going to get back alley abortions if they are illegal), I do support “legal but rare”- counseling, waiting periods, adoption options that actually reduce abortions, etc. Democrats like to say they support these things, too, but then they go and specifically celebrate abortion. I can’t believe they can actually walk proudly into their public offices while supporting things like abortion providers day. There are new lows every day.

The fact that Saint Paul decided to “celebrate” abortion providers shows us it’s not just political, but it’s operating on the same basic level as one of the President’s late-night tweets. It’s there to poke a thumb in the eye of anyone who gives a fetus any moral weight, to show them who’s really boss in Saint Paul.

Bernie Bro youtuber Carlos Maza isn’t especially oblique about his politics:

He’s one of those “eat the rich” “socialists”. I’m not going to link to his material – I watched a bit, so you wouldn’t have to.

Anyway he’s a little more reticent about disclosing his own background.

Fortunately, the NYPost isn’t:

Through his clan, the millennial firebrand is connected to multiple Florida mega-mansions, a $7.1 million pad on the Upper West Side purchased under an LLC — and a yacht by luxury boat-maker Donzi.

Maza’s mother Vivian Maza was one of the first employees at Ultimate Software, a Florida-based behemoth which now employs more than 5,000 people. Starting in 1990 as an office manager, she ultimately rose to become the group’s chief people officer in 2004.

In addition to her day job, Vivian Maza also developed a very close personal relationship with company founder Scott Scherr — so close that an independent assessment of the company in 2016 cited the relationship as a “corporate governance concern.”

The report said they believed the pair to be “more than just co-workers” and have a “familial relationship.” The two later became engaged, and the couple has lived together for years, with Scherr being a de facto stepfather to Carlos.

Public records show Vivian, Scott, Carlos and sister Isabel all registered to vote at a five-bedroom, eight-bathroom waterfront palace in Boca Raton, Florida. The property sold in 2018 for $10.8 million according to realty website Zillow. Scherr also unloaded a four-bed, four-bath home in 2015 mansion in Weston, Florida, for $1,850,000 in 2015.

Back when I had my original show on KSTP-AM back in the eighties, I did a little digging into the background of the leaders of the Minneapolis “Backroom Anarchist Center”, a local precursor to “Anti”-Fa. And every single leader whose background I could find hailed from Edina, Wayzata or (for the real blue-collar heroes) Woodbury; they had degrees from Macalester, Saint Thomas or (for the ones that were slumming it) the U of M, to a person.

And it’s no wonder. It takes a lot of money to maintain the “socialist” lifestyle and mindset.

I stepped in a puddle of vibrancy on the Green Line this morning.

Vibrancy claims one.

West Saint Paul man pleads guilty to vibrancy.

Vibrancy almost claimed someone over by the U of M the other night.

Man vibrates into tent, rapes woman.

Vibrant attacker finds bad vibes.

Human vibrancy charges in the East Metro.

A friend of the blog writes :

I often look at the responses of the liberals when they talk about the homeless and the addicted. They say, “if we can just get them a house, their life will change.” Or “if we just pay them more for menial work, they’ll turn themselves around.” Or, “we just need to make everything free, people will take what we’re selling.”

I always counter with the statistics of mental illness and how many on the streets are mentally ill and while they may not choose to live without shelter, they choose to not take care of themselves, which leads them to homelessness, addictions, and joblessness. They choose to not allow professionals to give them medicine that will normalize their thoughts, allowing them to function in society.

I was surprised when the new Sam Francisco mayor had taken the stance that getting homeless people off the street involved the idea of getting those who are mentally ill a court appointed conservator that would be responsible for enforcing treatment. That actually is a reasonable idea. As is President Trump’s suggestion that bringing back institutions would help those who have burned out their family and are a danger to themselves or others.

Of course, no one is allowed to agree with Trump, so NAMI wrote a response, saying early intervention and better access to care is what is needed, not institutions. 

But, then there are cases like last night in St Paul.

This man was civilly committed. He was deemed to have an illness that would likely make him a danger to himself or others. But, not deemed appropriate for hospitalization. Instead, he was “connected with various services provided by county management.” 

Oh, and he also had 2 pending criminal cases against him.

I can’t help but also think of the 5 year old thrown from the 3rd floor of Mall of America last year. He was thrown by a homeless mentally ill man whose family was burned out and who refused treatment time and again.

The 5 year old survived by the grace of God, but is scarred for life. Last night, a woman in St Paul lost her life. A two year old may or may not have witnessed whatever happened.

Mental illness is common, and there is actually plenty of access and support for people who want help. In fact, in both of these cases, they were supposed to be getting help, but refusing. And it is certainly a right to refuse, but at some point, if a person is a danger to society, they need to lose that right.

At least two victims and their families would be living completely different lives right now if we stopped worrying about the feelings of those who don’t care enough about themselves to get treatment.

It’s truly an area where the people who are supposed to be taking care of the mentally ill have, themselves, gone insane.

…when Democrats said “death panels” were a GOP conspiracy theory and scare tactic? [1]

I’d like some of those “progressives” to explain what Michael Bloomberg is describing here:

I’ll wait. 

[1[ It’s come to my attention that Twitter links frequently disappear from some browser.  Technicians are working on it.  And by “working on it”, I mean “Jeez all friday, WordPress, did you ever screw the pooch with this last bunch of patches”. 

President Trump is going to Daytona.  Oh, he has GOT to do the burn-out at the end of the lap, like the race drivers do.  You know  his car can do it.  And the Secret Service driver would love it.
And while it’s happening, play Trump’s voice over the loudspeaker, “Hey folks, THIS is how Daytona feels the burn!”
The man is running like he means it.  Why not have some fun while you take a shot at the opposition? 

Joe Doakes

It sounds like it was time well spent for the President.

It souIt It

Roseau County becomes Minnesota’s first Second Amendment Sanctuary County:

The resolution, passed unanimously to applause from the dozen residents in attendance, reads that the board “wishes to express opposition to any law in the future, beyond existing laws to date, that would unconstitutionally restrict the rights of the citizens of Roseau County to keep and bear arms.”
The motion goes on to resolve that “public funds of the county not be used to restrict the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of Roseau County, or to aid federal or state agencies in the restriction of said rights.”
Roseau County Sheriff Steve Gust said the resolution won’t change local law enforcement’s operations, since one of the resolution’s main intents is to oppose “red flag” gun laws, which allow courts to temporarily remove guns from people who are found to be a risk to themselves or others. Red flag laws have been proposed in Minnesota but not passed.

Look for more of this in Greater Minnesota in coming months.

While the measures are mostly symbolic – for now – they do show gun voters statewide the seriousness of the choices in this upcoming election. In 2020, if the DFL takes the Senate, this state will make Virginia look like Wyoming.

Urban Progressive Privilege – when nobody in your social circle or professional life is allowed to question your personal, moral or political choices…

…but you pay someone to do it for you.

You   pay them a lot of money, in fact. 

Today would be Ronald Reagan’s 106th birthday.

I’ve been writing about Reagan – who, along with PJ O’Rourke, Solzhenitzyn, Dostoevskii and Paul Johnson is the reason I’m a conservative today – as long as this blog has been in existence.  His eight years were not perfect, and I don’t beatify my presidents, even if they’ve been out of office for almost thirty years.  His last term wasn’t as stellar as his first, and his last two years were very difficult.

Still and all, he was the greatest president of the second half of the 20th Century.

But in these difficult times, after two terms of a President who promoted  fear and malaise in the guise of “change” and “doing something”, it’s worth remembering Reagan’s example; when times seemed at their most dire, Reagan walked onto the scene with a smile and a vision, and a backbone of steel, and cleaned up the mess lefty by his failed predecessor – something our next president will need even more of in 2016.

And the most important part? He did it by unleashing something that many, then as now, thought was dead – the inner, optimistic, take-charge greatness of the American spirit.

The best we can hope for from our current president is that he approaches the job with the same tenacity to match his vision that Reagan had.

Oh, there are those who say “today’s GOP wouldn’t nominate Reagan!” – to which I respond with a contemptuous sign, before telling the critic to listen to “A Time for Choosing”, and tell me who is more resembles; Arne Carlson, or Scott Walker?

Reagan’s gone. But that spirit, the one he understood, almost alone among American politicans of his era, lives on in the American people. Most of it, anyway.

So Happy Reagan’s Birthday, everyone!

NOTE: While this blog encourages a raucous debate, this post is a hagiography zone. All comments deemed critical of Reagan will be expunged without ceremony. You’ve been warned.

You have the whole rest of the media to play about in; this post is gonna be gloriously one-note.

So – if you’re an anti-gun legislator and you’re proud of it, how about you show the world?

James O’Keefe asked the question of a phalanx of key anti-gun Democrats and their staffers. And the results were…

….utterly predictable:

Money quote (emphasis added):

After some discussion, Erik Sperling, legislative assistant for Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI 13th) said he thought it would make it more likely for someone to break into his home if they knew for sure there was no way for the people inside to protect themselves.
“So, you’re sort of saying you should have a gun to protect your home then,” the undercover reporter says.
“Yeah, it’s a tricky thing,” Sperling says, adding that he’d want a sign on his boss’s house to say “Armed security, stay back,” because of his status. By the end of the encounter, he says, “What’s the thinking behind this strategy Because it seems to make the case for the (gun rights) side.”

Gun control – for the peasants. 

That moment when virtue-signaling collides with reality:

I have a hunch that’s not going to age well.

By the opposite token, I’ve got a feeling this is going to have repercussions among the “woke” crowd as well.

Big Media and the left seem disappointed that yesterday’s gun rights rally at the Virginia state capitol in Richmond passed not only without incident, but in fact exactly as every *knowledgable* commentator on the subject predicted – utterly peacefully, nothing close to violence, and despite weeks of media gaslighting about “white supremacy”, a crowd that was probably more racially integrated than a “Protect Minnesota” or “Moms Demand Action” or “Minnesota Reformer” meeting.

I’m getting a feeling of deja vu.

This all feels like the Tea Party days, ten years ago – when the establishments on both sides of the aisle, terrified of a unregulated, organic grass roots movement, gaslit the public into thinking the most inclusive, idealistic political movement in my lifetime was either “racist” or “establishment”, depending on the targets.

The gaslighting? Oh ,yeah ,it’s back.

Virginia governor Blackface McMinstrel, presiding over the most ghastly bit of government overreach I can recall, desperately needed to paint the vast, law-abiding majority of gun owners as depraved evildoers just waiting for their moment to cut loose

But every last g****mn word of it was a lie. As predicted. A smear. Collective defamation.

If you know anything about the subject you predicted this – because nationwide, carry permittees are about 1/6 as likely to commit *any* kind of crime…

…as are the police. Who are, themselves, 1/7 as likely to commit any sort of crime as the general public.

Statistically, you are safer in a room full of carry permit holders – people who’ve passed background checks, and in Minnesota, have had to prove they know the law – than you are in a room full of cops.

White supremacy? B***s**t. It was the police that denied the Reverend King a permit to carry a gun – as they denied *every* black applicant in Birmingham in the fifties – even though he and his families lives were being threatened constantly.

It was the eeeeeeeevil NRA that stood with Dr. King – allowing his volunteer bodyguards to train at their firing range (the only desegregated one in the DC area at the time), giving them ammunition at cost.

No, the Richmond rally was peaceful. Were there “white supremacists” there? Other than Governor McMinstrel, I mean? Well, sure – in the sense that *everyone* that dissents from Big Left’s narrative is a “white supremacist” these days. Actual “white supremacy”, as in “hatred for non-whites?”

Mark my words – less than among the general public.

Look – I get it. A fair chunk of our society was raised to be terrified of guns. I grew up in a non-gun-owning, gun-control-supporting Democrat home. The TV shows I grew up with in the seventies and eighties treated gun ownership like a character flaw.

I changed. “Elite” culture and politics didn’t.

And Governor McMinstrel is clearly terrified by the genie he let out of the bottle. While the law-abiding gun owner doesn’t have much political killer instinct, when he or she is threatened, they – we – can not be stopped.

If it’s about guns, and the media says it, distrust but verify – and then, almost without exception, keep right on distrusting.

And by the way – for all my gun-rights brothers in arms who are treating Virginia like the final Mexican assault on the Alamo – take a deep breath. Cam Edwards notes that your – our – voices are getting through even to some of the Democrat villains in this story.

So, for all my “progressive” friends? This is what Democracy looks like. Lots of imperfect schlubs, workadaddy hugamommy people of all races, orientations, creeds and faiths, the very backbone of this country, showing you that *we are not for turning*.

Here we stand. We’ve compromised enough. We’re done.

All due respect to my “progressive” friends – but if you bring nothing but emotion or Big Left’s chanting points to this discussion, you will not fare well. God have mercy on your argument, for I shall not.

On August 31 1939, a team of SS propaganda operators dressed as Polish soldiers “captured” a German radio station near the town of Gleiwitz (today the Polish town of Gliwice), close by the Polish border. They did a quick broadcast in Polish, and then fled – dumping the body of a local, loaded with sabotage paraphernalia, as well as those of a group of Dachau inmates that’d been dressed in Polish army uniforms and then shot to make it look like the Germans had repelled a Polish assault. It was one of many false-flag “attacks” along the German/Polish border that morning used by the Nazi regime as a potemkin casus belli for the invasion that started pretty much before the bodies were cold.

I couldn’t help think about that when I heard that Virginia Governor Blackface McMinstrel was banning legal civilian carry at the Virginia State Capitol during this weekend’s gun right lobbying rally, because of “threats of violence” on the part of (naturally) law-abiding gun owners.

I figured this was more or less like Ilhan Omar’s “death threats” last summer at the State Fair – a few of the usual loonies who make threats from the comfort of their mom’s basement, a steady drizzle of which accompanies most public life, but whose timing, in some cases, is just perfect for diverting attention from an inconvenient reality. In Omar’s case, I have little doubt there was a threat, somewhere, from someone. Credible? No – but enough to throw out there to divert the media’s attention from the gathering storm of allegations against her.

And in the case of Governor McMinstrel, something to cast him, his Democrat legislative majority, and the thin little film of Bloomberg-funded victim disarmament activists standing between him and defeat in the next elections, as the victims – after spending their first term trashing the rights of law-abiding Virginians.

Notwithstanding the fact that law-abiding gun owners, as an absolute rule, are better behaved, singly and collectively, than the general public.

Well, there has been arrest of some people ostensibly headed to Virginia for something. Maybe. That’s what we’re told, anyway. Which, given the electoral fury that McBlackface’s coup on liberty has stirred up (and he may not have seen anything yet), and which may have not yet crested, may may have made the three saps that got arrested the most perfectly-timed patsies since the “North Vietnamese Torpedo Boats” in Tonkin Gulf.

I just knew that this wasn’t going to end well for Steven King.