Grounds for Impeachment?

No; he actually cannot do that.

Trump vows to end birthright citizenship with executive order:

President Donald Trump said in an interview that he plans to sign an executive order ending "birthright citizenship" for the children of non-American citizens who are born on U.S. soil, a move that would likely be challenged immediately in the courts over its constitutionality.

American Democrats have been waiting for President Trump to make a misstep, and he just tripped over his big mouth with this statement.

The office of the President is an "executive" position, which means he is responsible for executing the law.  He cannot make, change or delete laws ... which are based on the Constitution.

Trump's declaration that he can end "birthright citizenship" puts him in the political position of attempting to undermine the Constitution, and that might reasonably be grounds for a move for impeachment.

Which will certainly happen.

Impeachment isn't necessarily the same as removing him from office, but it certainly is justification for requiring him to resign (as did Nixon) with a sufficient number of responsible Republican Congressmen to reinforce the inevitable Democratic motion.

He has crossed the Rubicon, and he's not an American Caesar ... he's not strong enough to defeat all of his enemies when his own party concurs that he has overstepped his authority.

I voted for Trump on the basis that he was "Not Hillary"; but this move puts him in the same category as the power-mad Clinton family.

If there's a small town in America who is looking for a new dog-catcher, I can name a candidate.
Although it may offend the dogs.

Here's the bad news: his replacement is likely to be the vice president; and can anybody even remember HIS name?

Getting Shot: "It Hurts!"

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2018
Quora Question: What does it feel like to be shot with a .22 caliber firearm?

Strange as it may seem, there are still people out there who deliberately coax people to shoot them ... just to see what it feels like.

Have you ever had your curiosity overwhelm your good sense?

Well, of course you have.  So have I.  But chances are, neither of us have taken it to this degree of inanity.   I've seen people get shot, and I have no doubt that it hurts.  More-over, it typically results in a degree of leakage of "Precious Bodily Fluids". 

Usually the leakage is blood, but I've seen grown men piss themselves after being shot too ...  I'm not sure which is the most embarrassing, but apparently when you're bleeding a lot you don't care much about being "embarrassed".

Here's my advice about being shot:   Avoid it.

Teapot ... meet Tempest

If someone buys a soft drink in California and requests/receives a straw, and later sells the "Like New Straw Only Used Only One Time!" to a third party via the internet ... is that a Straw Purchase?

Borepatch: Criminalizing Soda Straws:

There is a proposed bill in the California House that would make it a crime to give a restaurant patron a straw unless the patron specifically requests one. Each instance would be punishable by 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Leaving aside the costs associated with incarceration and the availability of jail space for the offending wait staff, The larger issue is the ongoing criminalization of activities performed by non-criminals regular people everyone.

There are more "Second Amendment" allegories in here, but I've used my Bad Pun quota already.

Readers are invited to contribute.

A Credit To His Profession?

Secret Service special officer accidentally shoots himself while on duty:

A Secret Service special officer on Tuesday afternoon accidentally shot himself and is hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to the agency. A news release from the Secret Service said a special officer assigned to the Washington field office accidentally discharged his weapon while on duty.

I hope the Secret Service "special officer" (what does this mean?) recovers completely.

I see that the article published in the Washington Examiner includes the following note:

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the special officer involved in the incident as a "Secret Service agent," which is a different position. We regret the error and have pasted the full statement from the Secret Service below.

Weasel Words; I'll assume that "Special Officer" isn't a member of the Presidential Protection Team.
It's just that, we don't know what is the difference between a "Special Officer" and a "Secret Service Agent".   Don't we need to know?

If I Were A Conspiracy Theorist ...

I would wonder about the Rafael Prieto factor.

And,  I would suspect there's a Back Story which will never be told.    I doubt that this happened "Accidentally".

Inadvertently, perhaps, but it's been a long time since I saw a firearm discharge occur "accidentally".

The proper adverb might be "Negligently".  That makes me more comfortable, assuming "bad gun-handling expertise" rather than some Conspiracy Theory balderdash.

   Best guess ... holstering a pistol without ensuring that his finger was off the trigger.   Which is an "Amateur's "Accident".

Still ... we always have the example of (federal employee) ATF/DEA Agent Lee Paige:


Thanks, Lee; you make your fellow Federal Officer look good by comparison.

(He's still an idiot.)

To Protect Me, I Can't Close My Garage Door

I came home from a day at the range, opened my garage door with the remote in my car, and moved all my gun gear into the garage.  When I had everything in the right place, I pushed the inside-the-garage mounted controller to close the garage door. Nothing happened.

So I went to the (exterior) frame-mounted, coded controller on the outside of the garage, entered my four-digit code, and waited.   Nothing.  Tried it four more times, being VERY careful to ensure that I used the correct code.

Nothing.

So I went back to my car, entered the four-digit code to unlock the car door (it worked), and used the same in-car remote to close the garage door ... you know, the one I had use to OPEN the door.

Nothing.

I got my landlord to come over.  He couldn't get it to work with his remote, either.
Finally, we physically disengaged the garage door opener mechanism from the garage door, manually closed the garage door, manually pulled it down.  And manually locked it.

That all occurred three weeks ago.

My landlord has been in touch with the GENIE people; this week they gave him instructions how to test the garage door opener.  Everything they tried, doesn't work.  Finally,  they decided that the mother-board was fried.  They promised to send a replacement.   They're a little bit backed up, so it will take a couple of weeks to get one to him.

So the replacement mother-board for the garage door opener will be here late this month.

My landlord was careful to inform me that it won't actually be REPLACED, let alone tested, that soon.

I told him .. that's okay.  I can move my gun gear from the driveway to the garage through the patio doors; it's not convenient, but I can get it 'off the street'.  And I'm confident that nobody will be able to get into my garage in the meantime.

That's very comforting.  Nobody can get at my stuff.

On the other hand .. neither can I, unless I go through a lot of physical 'stuff' that takes a lot of time and inconvenience.

Now: please tell me how the same technology that can't get my garage opener to operate in less than six weeks will help me to defend myself and my home if my firearms uses the same technology 'to protect me'?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rep. Maloney Introduces Legislation to Reduce Gun Deaths, Make Guns Safer | Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney: May 8, 2017 Press Release WASHINGTON —In an effort to improve gun safety, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) has reintroduced The Handgun Trigger Safety Act, forward-thinking legislation to use new and emerging technology to prevent gun deaths. The bill would promote the development of new “smart gun” technology that only allows an authorized user to fire a gun. It would also mandate that all newly manufactured handguns use this technology within five years, and that existing handguns be retrofitted with this technology within ten years. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) will introduce a companion version in the Senate.

OH and by the way: I'm a widower.

I live alone.   Nobody gets inside my home unless I let them in; my landlord and I have the only keys.

Tell me how it protects the children (there are none here) if I don't lock up my guns where I can't access them quickly.  And how does any state mandate firearms maintenance laws when they don't apply to every home situation?

H/T David Codrea

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

 Dirty Harry Fail - YouTube:


(but the smell of feces in the dungarees is not so sweet)

People who don't know how to handle a firearm ought to find some better source of amusement.

Bottle Control

N.Y. liquor store owner beaten to death with wine bottle in heist - NY Daily News:

A Rochester liquor store owner was beaten to death with a wine bottle during a heist that occurred inside her shop, police say. Mother-of-three Charlotte Lahr, 46, was found lying unconscious inside South Ave. Wine and Liquor Thursday when a customer called for help to the scene. Authorities’ efforts to revive the woman were unsuccessful. Local parolee Kevin Quander, 59, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and robbery the next day, thanks to surveillance footage of the crime and fingerprints that investigators were able to retrieve from the scene.

The problem isn't Gun Violence.

It's Violence.

This tragedy didn't have to happen.   You have to be desperate, or an idiot (or both) to commit such a heinous crime.