Can Biden Push Through Gun Bans? AOC's Crew Targets WV/AZ Dems, Cuomo's Emmy Nomination Backfir, Abe Lincoln on Star Trek/ MTV, a "Pet Civil War Chicken at Cracker Barrel?!" (The Five For 02/15/21)
Hey,
Welcome to The Five. As a reminder, if you like what you’re reading, forward to a friend. Non-partisan news needs all the help it can get in a world dominated by clickbait.
A few quick notes before we begin.
One thing that absolutely breaks my heart is to see people spend on designer labels and luxury goods but skip out on life-saving essential winter gear. My go-to include an Eddie Bauer Parka that goes down to -20, as well as below zero Sorrell boots I wear hunting. Last night, I walked the dog for 45 minutes in -17 with windchill and was pretty comfortable. (Dog people, my Great Pyrenees is a mountain breed and LOVES this weather, so chill).
I only throw in pop culture stuff in the end-of-week newsletter, but as a quick hit the trailer dropped yesterday for Zach Snyder’s Justice League and features Oscar-winners Ben Affleck and Jared Leto face to face as Batman and the Joker.
Since it’s President’s Day, IGN has a rather hilarious list of the times Abraham Lincoln has “appeared” in movies and TV, including Star Trek (1969), MTV’s Celebrity Death Match (1999) and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (2012).
And on that note, let’s get into the news.
[one]
President Biden called for more gun control on the third anniversary of the Parkland School Massacre.
The TL/DR (internet speak for Too Long, Didn’t Read) via CNBC:
President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to strengthen gun laws on the third anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The president called for several provisions including background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and eliminating legal immunity for gun manufacturers.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement on Sunday that Congress would work with the Biden administration to enact two background check bills.
I’m not hiding the ball on this one, I’m a gun owner, a hunter and I frequently carry a pistol concealed. (For the record, I’ve taken so many hunter safety/concealed carry courses living in three different states that I have more training hours than many police officers).
It’s a complicated issue and one that people don’t change their minds easily on.
So I’ll just share some quick thoughts for you:
In 2019, more people were killed with hammers and clubs than “assault rifles.”
Violent crime has been steadily falling since 1993, with the exception of rape, which is up. You know what solves rape? The potential victim putting one or more bullets into would-be rapists.
The deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. is still Virginia Tech, which was carried out with a 9mm handgun and a .22 handgun, which are not in discussion for being banned.
There are up to 20 million new gun owners in the U.S. This is difficult to track/guestimate, but it’s likely that many of these new gun purchasers are Democrats, since more and more women and minorities are purchasing firearms. So, many Biden voters may not welcome these proposed new laws.
Speaking personally here, I never purchased an “assault rifle” in Chicago, due to not having a place to shoot one/lack of interest. However, I’m currently building a gun on the AR (which stands for Armalite, the original designer) platform for deer season 2021. The reasons for this are: A) lighter to carry into the back country, as I’ll be hunting from a mountain bike on 1 million acres of public land B) Performance. Like cars and computers and smart watches, guns get better with innovation. and C) Versatility. Technically, the gun below (which I’m using as inspiration for my build) counts as a “pistol,” so I can hunt both rifle and pistol season (two different seasons in MO).
[two]
The No Excuses PAC (political action comittee) that put Democratic Rep AOC in office are trying to primary the two moderate Democratic Senators.
Newsweek Reports:
A progressive group called the No Excuses PAC aims to replace West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, claiming the Democrats "stand in the way of progress."
The co-founders of the No Excuses PAC are searching for candidates to run against the pair since both Manchin and Sinema are up for re-election in 2024.
Two of the PAC's co-founders, Saikat Chakrabarti and Corbin Trentare, are former aides to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2018, the PAC helped elect Ocasio-Cortez to Congress.
On its website, the PAC claims that Manchin and Sinema "stand in the way of progress" because they sided "with Republicans to shrink their own party's pandemic relief, climate, and economic investment plans."
Essentially, the PAC is looking for a couple of “social media stars” in the vein of AOC to knock off two moderate Democrats who are beloved by their respective home states.
As someone who works hard each week to produce content that might help pull people away from extremes in American politics…I see zero advantage of Democrats (or Republicans) trying to primary members of their own party for talking to the other side.
Anything can happen in the wild west that is politics in the 2020’s…but I don’t expect for a couple of NY Socialists (who lead the PAC) to be able to push rural West Virginians further to the political left.
[three]
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is catching fresh heat on social media in light of accepting an Emmy Award in November for his daily coronavirus video updates.
Recent info has come to light showing that Cuomo forced nursing homes to re-admit patients with COVID (rather than keeping them in the hospital), where the rapid spread likely killed many elderly patients and increased the state’s death toll due to COVID 19.
Amid the swirling controversy over whether New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration knowingly undercounted deaths among nursing home residents during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state, a top aide for the governor apologized to Democratic lawmakers, saying the administration "froze" when initially asked by state legislators back in August about the issue.
Which is a stunning admission. And seems to jibe with a report released last month by New York Attorney General Letitia James that suggested that Cuomo's administration undercounted deaths among nursing home residents by as much as 50%.
"Preliminary data obtained by [the Office of the Attorney general] suggests that many nursing home residents died from Covid-19 in hospitals after being transferred from their nursing homes, which is not reflected in [the Department of Heath's] published total nursing home death data," read the summary of the report.
Currently, Cuomo’s Emmy hasn’t been rescinded (or freely returned), but the evidence that the Governor was blatantly lying during his “Emmy winning” telecasts is growing too large to ignore.
[four]
The new government in Myanmar, which was formed via a military coup last month, is now in the business of beating and imprisoning peaceful protesters.
Security forces in Myanmar pointed guns toward anti-coup protesters and attacked them with sticks on Monday, seeking to quell the large-scale demonstrations calling for the military junta that seized power earlier this month to reinstate the elected government.
More than 1,000 protesters rallied in front of the Myanmar Economic Bank in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, when at least 10 trucks full of soldiers and police arrived and immediately started firing slingshots toward the protesters, according to a photographer who witnessed the events.
The soldiers and police then attacked the protesters with sticks, and police could be seen aiming long guns into the air amid sounds that resembled gunfire. Local media reported that rubber bullets were also fired into the crowd, and that a few people were injured.
Police were also seen pointing guns toward the protesters.
In the capital, Naypyitaw, protesters gathered outside a police station demanding the release of a group of high school students who were detained while joining in anti-coup activities.
One student who managed to escape told reporters that the pupils — thought to range in age from 13 to 16 — were demonstrating peacefully when a line of riot police suddenly arrived and began arresting them. It wasn’t clear exactly how many students were rounded up, but estimates put the figure at between 20 and 40.
[five]
And finally, a story about a teenage Civil War re-enactor, a pet chicken and Cracker Barrel.
I’m just gonna go straight to the Associated Press on this one:
A Mississippi teen who lost his Civil War-reenacting pet chicken Peep outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Alabama was reunited with the bird courtesy of a farmer who helped find the fowl.
Thomas Ramsey, who founded a military reenactment group for youth, told The Cullman Times he was headed home from a weekend event at Spring Hill, Tennessee, when he stopped with a friend at the restaurant in Cullman on Jan. 31. He left Peep, a rooster that participates in simulated battles, tied to his truck in the parking lot.
Ramsey, 18, said he and his friend walked out about an hour later to discover the chicken had flown the coop and was nowhere to be seen.
“I went back into the Cracker Barrel and it was very hard for me to say this with a straight face, even though I was panicking: ‘Do you have cameras in the parking lot? I think someone stole my chicken,’” said Ramsey, of Copiah County south of Jackson.
Someone overheard and said they had seen Peep wandering in the parking lot. An animal control officer got involved in the hunt and “missing chicken” photos of Peep soon spread on social media pages around Cullman, a city of about 16,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Birmingham.
Well, that’s a strange note to go out on, but a true one.
Props to that kid for starting a teen reenactor group. More and more teenagers are involved in zero extra-curricular activities, so anything that increases IRL (in real life) socialization and decreases screen time is welcome in my book.
Happy President’s Day.
Until the next one,
-sth