Mr. Charles C.W. Cooke - Patriot

As is typically the case with gun control measures, “red flag” laws are sold to voters as riskless guarantors of public safety and come replete with the bad-faith accusations of villainy to which advocates of the Bill of Rights have become sadly accustomed. “If you oppose this idea,” critics are told, “then you must support terrible outcomes.” In Colorado and beyond, opponents have been told that they are bad people who desire the abuse of women, do not care about the death of police officers, covet a general reduction in public safety and so forth. Which, of course, is dangerous nonsense. If one so chooses, one can always demagogue support for the Bill of Rights into enthusiasm for nefarious behavior—and, indeed, the same people always do. In the eyes of the wannabe authoritarian, champions of the First Amendment are mere advocates of “hate speech” or “lobbying” or “religious intolerance”; champions of the Fourth are trying to ensure that criminals have a safe place to hide; champions of the Fifth want “the guilty to walk free” and the evil to “stay silent”; champions of the Sixth hope to permit defendants to “revictimize the accused” and so forth.

There is, as a matter of fact, not a single American liberty that cannot be cast in this light. Depending on what the accuser is selling, the details may change. But the instinct most definitely does not. Thus it is that opposition to stripping rights away from Americans whose names have been placed unilaterally onto secret government lists is transmuted into support for “terrorists buying guns.” Thus it is that opposition to the government snooping around one’s social media and search histories is transmuted into support for “giving crazy people access to guns.” And thus it is that opposition to “red flag” laws that lack even basic protections for due process is transmuted into indifference toward women or children or anybody who is generally liked.

The correct response to this tactic is as simple as it is universally applicable: “No, I’m in favor of the Constitution.”

That, of course, is precisely what the sheriffs in Colorado are saying. And not just once, but twice. Critics of the sort of vaguely written “red flag” laws that have prompted otherwise law-abiding people to meditate aloud upon the likelihood of being sent to jail are concerned with the protection of not one, but of two core rights—the right to keep and bear arms, and the right to due process. As a matter of political rhetoric, it may make sense for the architects of “red flag” laws to pretend that merely to utter “but the children” or “but women” or “but the terrorists” is magically to change the facts on the ground or amend America’s legal and cultural foundations. But as a matter of fact, it does no such thing. For those who have taken an oath, for those who hope to defend the American constitutional order, and, yes, for those who merely seek the protection of the highest law in the land, there can be no “good intentions” exception.

I don't trust bankers in my own country,
much less this freakin' guy:

In late December, Kathy Machir called Marcela Zavala Taylor, her banker of nine years at Mexico’s Monex Casa de Bolsa, to get cash for contractors building her retirement home in San Miguel de Allende. Typically, Zavala would wire money or dispatch her assistant, Juan, on his motorcycle with an envelope full of pesos. Monex, with $5.2 billion in assets and operations in the U.S., was woven into the lives of Machir and the 10,000 other Americans who’ve moved to San Miguel de Allende.

The transfer didn’t happen. Juan didn’t show, Zavala didn’t return calls, and Kathy and Jim Machir discovered that their nest egg was gone. When the Machirs and other San Miguel expatriates met with Monex officials in early January, the bankers told some of them that about $40 million was missing from as many as 158 accounts, many belonging to English-speaking Americans. A dozen people interviewed by Bloomberg News say that bank statements Zavala sent them purporting to show full accounts were apparently falsified. Most say the bank has told them little since they filed complaints, and some say Monex tried to settle for far less than the balances owed. “When they told us we had 6 pesos [32¢] in our accounts, I just felt sick to my stomach,” Kathy Machir says. “Since then, they have not dealt with us in good faith.”

A notarized letter that Karger’s attorney sent to top Monex executives on April 15 lists 12 allegations of fraud, including transferring money to people whom the depositors didn’t know, making unauthorized investments, and changing account login information. “If a relatively low-level employee can go into your account, change your email address for notifications, change your password, redirect deposits, withdrawals, and wire transfers,” Karger says, “then you have a kindergarten-level security system safeguarding tens of millions of dollars.”

The Bezoses, in sadder times ... for the lawyers.:

"Yeah, I'm so virtuous that I'm giving away all my money, people! That'll show him what happens when you screw around with 50 y/o bimbos. After I buy those 2, OK, maybe 25 at the most, dresses, the remaining $16 Billion will go to the needful people of the world, ... no, not privileged American white people .. I want to make sure all $14 Billion, after the small amount needed to travel around the world to make sure this announcement gets heard far and wide, goes to those ... you know ... all these people that make me feel guilty for earning all this profit by calling the lawyers.... What? Pay the warehouse employees more, at "the end of the day"? No, no, they are the privileged ones, not the people you send money to. I remember those old Sally Struthers public service announcements. For just the price of a cup of coffee a day... see with the Vente Lattes I buy, that's $6.50 each, so with the $12 Billion I'm giving away, after coffee, well that's a lot of coffee for the masses ... Bon appetit, African children! "

Pertinent Stats for the better elementary school:



A 5 STAR SCHOOL.

Pertinent Stats for the worse-off elementary school:



A 2 STAR SCHOOL.

I think I'm onto something, fellow parents. Check this out! It seems like whenever you have a lot of white and Oriental kids, the grades are better ... did you notice that ... BONK!