Good Ol' Texas Haterade

What happens when Republicans' blind, racist hatred of President Obama and bigotry against Muslims is so extreme it actually causes them to break Federal law while in office? Let's ask Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his sidekick Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, shall we?

Two Texas politicians made public details of an investigation into a terrorism suspect while it was still in progress, potentially jeopardizing the inquiry, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick released details from documents that were still under court seal, the sources said. A spokesman for Governor Abbott had no immediate comment. Patrick's office was not available for comment.

The suspect, Omar Faraj Saeed Al-Hardan, 24, appeared in court on Friday accused of providing material support to Islamic State overseas. He entered the United States as an Iraqi refugee in November 2009 and lived in Houston, according to a court document.

Abbott and Patrick are both Republicans and their party has been fiercely resisting Democratic President Barack Obama's plan to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country over the next year, arguing that they pose a security risk to the United States. The Obama administration has rejected that assertion.

One of the sources said investigators believe Abbott and Patrick may have learned confidential details of the investigation from the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Texas. The group's members include local and state law enforcement officers. There was no immediate comment from the task force.

The sources said the politicians' statements on Thursday night disclosing a terrorism suspect's arrest forced federal authorities to wrap up their inquiries and rush out public statements and court papers on the case earlier than planned.

Willful obstruction of a federal investigation, sounds like.   They found out about the investigation from state law enforcement, and while keeping in mind both men are, you know, lawyers, they knowingly leaked this information under a court seal.

Ought to be fun to see what happens next, huh?

Hey Greg, worry less about your Confederate re-enactment fantasies and more about federal charges.

Cincy's Trump Cards

The Cincinnati Enquirer profiled several Trump supporters in the area to see why they prefer The Donald, and found they all have two things in common: they're white, and they're pissed off. People like Pam Fitzgerald, a retired teacher.

“I try to be as conservative as I can,” she said. “Because I know they were right.” 

So while she believes diversity makes America better and has no interest in closing its borders, she says officials have been too generous in allowing people in. She believes President Barack Obama wants to let all Muslims, regardless of their background, into the country. This is not a good thing, Fitzgerald says. 

She believes the military has shrunk under Obama. So when Trump says he will "make America great again," the campaign slogan struck a chord with Fitzgerald. 

She remembers the respect she was taught growing up. That doesn't mean she agrees with everything Trump says, but she likes that he is not afraid to say it – respectfully or not. 

There’s a fire in Trump she hasn't felt from a president before. 

"He's opened the doors,” Fitzgerald said, “for people to open their mouths."

And guys like Ed Kirker, who has spent 26 of his 46 years in the military.

Kirker explains his Trump support with a saying he frequently used in the military: “I’m an (expletive). Get over it.” 

He acknowledges Trump is flamboyant. To Kirker, this is part of his appeal. 

When Trump made a campaign stop in Columbus, Kirker volunteered. That night, Trump made waves by saying he would bring back waterboarding. The way Trump explained his position was an example of the “common sense” approach Kirker has come to love. 

In 1994, Kirker saw a man’s head chopped off inches in front of his face at the public Saudi Arabia market that is familiar to many as Chop-Chop Square. The man had been caught stealing. 

When other countries do this, what is wrong with waterboarding? That’s a question Kirker can’t get past. There are questions about how Trump avoided the draft during the Vietnam War, but Kirker believes he is a natural leader. 

A leader unafraid to say what he thinks. 

A leader unafraid to offend. 

A leader who could be president.

Or Kentucky Democrats like Larry Saunders, switching parties to the GOP to vote for Trump.

He worries about his wife and his two children when he is not around, even though Fort Wright is not a crime-ridden city. He believes top U.S. officials don’t know who is in America. He says Trump shouldn’t have singled out Muslims in comments about immigration, but agrees with his sentiment. He even takes it a step further. 

“I would say stop all immigration for a time,” Saunders said. 

He explains his thinking like this: “I wouldn’t let anybody into my house I don’t know.”
The United States should do the same, he said. Trump, he believes, will make sure that happens. 

As to Trump’s sometimes abrasive tone, Saunders says he didn’t know what tone meant until it was discussed in the media. But it was part of the reason he remained leery about Trump as a presidential candidate. 

Then he saw the polls. Trump was leading. 

“Maybe that’s the tone we need,” Saunders said.

That theory that you've heard that Trump actually had far more support than he's showing in the polls?  I'm starting to think maybe that's true.  I'm starting to think a lot of pissed off white folks are going to be voting for him in 2016.

If the rest of us don't show up, this asshole just might win.

Last Call For Compassionate Conservatism

Not that Jeb Bush has any shot at even being the nominee right now, but as with Marco Rubio, it's very illuminating to see just how far to the right the "moderate" Republicans are going in order to try to win over the Tea Party disaster that Republican primary voters have become.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush on Friday proposed an overhaul of the U.S. welfare system that would eliminate what he called failing programs for the poor and send the federal dollars from them to the states to develop their own plans.

Bush, continuing an effort to position himself as the most serious, substantive candidate in the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, laid out his plan ahead of a poverty forum in South Carolina on Saturday.

Bush said decades of federal policy have not solved the vexing problem of how to help generations of Americans mired in poverty.

"We have spent trillions of dollars on the ‘war on poverty,’ but there are now still more than 46 million Americans living in poverty," he said in a statement laying out his plan.

Well, your father's cuts to programs and your brother's crashing the economy didn't help either, Jeb. America spent a total of 12 years under your family's policies as part of what you call a failure, let's not forget.

Bush, a former Florida governor, would take some controversial steps as part of his welfare plan.

He would eliminate the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps, housing assistance programs and a cash program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

He would use the money to give so-called "right to rise" grants to the states to let state governments fund programs they develop as the best way to address poverty.

To encourage more Americans on welfare to seek jobs, Bush would include in "Right to Rise" grants work requirements and time limits for able-bodied adults.

So Jeb would just eliminate federal welfare programs completely and let states deal with the problem, because states like Florida have such good ideas.  Block grants to states is the new universal fix for everything in GOP land, no doubt states wouldn't be required to use that money to help the poor, but it sure would be great if we could give it to rich people, right? They'll totally promise to creat jobs with it, Jeb pinky swears.

Compassionate Conservatism at its finest.

Marco And Greg Awesome Show, Great Job!

They keep telling me the smart money is on the GOP's great "moderate, establishment conservative hope" in Marco Rubio, but the reality is Rubio is far to the right of the entire country on issues like same-sex marriage and having abandoned his own immigration plan for political expediency, he's now publicly pushing the fringe notion of a convention of states to rewrite the Constitution.

America was built on the revolutionary idea that our rights come from God, not from government. To protect those rights, our founders created a government of the people, by the people and for the people. But today, that government has been hijacked by politicians and bureaucrats who disregard the will of the people, rack up trillions in debt and expand the federal bureaucracy into more and more aspects of our lives. As president, I will promote a convention of states to amend the Constitution and restore limited government. 

The framers of our Constitution allowed for a constitutional convention because they knew our citizens were the ultimate defense against an overbearing federal government. They gave the American people, through their state representatives, the power to call a convention made up of at least 34 states, where delegates could then propose amendments that would require the support of 38 states to become law. 

This method of amending our Constitution has become necessary today because of Washington’s refusal to place restrictions on itself. The amendment process must be approached with caution, which is why I believe the agenda should be limited to ideas that reduce the size and scope of the federal government, such as imposing term limits on Congress and the Supreme Court and forcing fiscal responsibility through a balanced budget requirement. Limiting the agenda will prevent the convention from being overtaken by special interests.

Let's keep in mind that this has never happened before.  The convention of states method of amending the Constitution has never been used, not even once.

Secondly, term limits for Congress has long been ruled unconstitutional and for good reason, where term limits are in place for state lawmakers, lobbyists control the agenda much more easily.

Finally, a balanced budget amendment would destroy the economy overnight.

Ahh, but it seems Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is taking Marco Rubio's advice and is running even further to the right with it..

Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday called for a constitutional convention to gather and adopt nine new amendments he proposed in what he’s billing as “the Texas plan.” 

“Departures from the Constitution are not the aberration. Now they have become the norm,” said Abbott, speaking at an event by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in Austin. His proposed amendments — which include allowing a two-thirds vote of the states to repeal any federal law and preventing Congress from regulating economic activity that takes place all within the borders of one state — would “put teeth in the 10th Amendment” and guarantee states’ rights, he said.

It's all about states' rights when there's a black president, I guess.

Here are Abbott’s proposed amendments: 

“1. Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one State.

“2. Require Congress to balance its budget.

“3. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from creating federal law. 

“4. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from preempting state law. 

“5. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision. 

“6. Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically enacted law. 

“7. Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution. 

“8. Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds. 

“9. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a federal law or regulation.”

If you're wondering what tyranny of the majority looks like, here's your road map.

Part-Time Employees, Full-Time Liars

Remember conservative economists warning that the dangerous scourge of Obamacare would mean millions of Americans working full-time jobs would be limited to 29 hours a week and lose all full-time benefits in order for struggling employers to even stay in business?

Turns out that was a massive lie by the right. Surprise!

A new study further undercuts a major claim by critics of the Affordable Care Act, who contended that the law would encourage companies to slash full-time workers' hours and shift them into part-time work in order to avoid having to offer them health insurance.

The research "found little evidence that the ACA had caused increases in part-time employment as of 2015," according to a summary of the findings published in the journal Health Affairs on Tuesday.

"We can say with a large degree of confidence that there is nothing we can see nationwide when we look at the whole workforce" that would support a claim that the so-called employer mandate or other Obamacare features have led to increases in part-time employment at the expense of full-time jobs, said Kosali Simon, a professor at Indiana University, and a co-author of the report.

Simon noted that even the slight shifts to part-time employment from full-time jobs — of just about 0.5 percent from 2013 to 2015 — in two subgroups could not be attributed to the Obamacare employer mandate. Those subgroups are people with no more than a high school degree, and workers between the age of 60 and 64.

Oh, and there's more:

A related analysis released Tuesday also found that the expansion of Medicaid benefits to more poor adults in the United States — a crucial component of Obamacare — did not lead to job reductions or other significant employment changes in 2014, when the Medicaid expansion's effects began being broadly felt.

You mean JOB-KILLING OBAMACARE didn't actually kill jobs?  Hoocuddanode?  By the way, this morning we found out that December saw 292,000 new jobs and 50K in upward revisions to October and November, meaning 2.8 million new jobs in 2015 to go with 3.1 million in 2014.

Yep, Obamaxare is killing jobs alright.

StupidiNews!

• President Obama participated in a town hall meeting broadcast on CNN that discussed his executive actions on gun safety, taking questions from supporters and fierce critics alike.
• Alabama is the latest state to sue the Obama administration over the placement of Syrian refugees, claiming the White House was negligent in screening and placed state citizens at risk.
• Global stock markets appear to have stabilized after two days of intense selloffs in China's markets as Beijing has raised its currency higher.
• The first lawsuits against GM for its faulty ignition switches begin on Monday as the automaker faces potentially billions in damage claims.
• The FCC says that broadband internet is still unavailable to about 34 million Americans, but that's a major improvement from the 67 million figure from 2012.

Last Call For Chartering A Scam

I've long railed against charter schools as a massive sinkhole for giving billions in education money to private companies in order to weaken public schools to the point of destruction, but there's always been a racial component to the scam as well.  Charter schools are sold to black and Latino parents as a way to get their kids out of "failing public schools" when of course all it does is send money away from already strapped inner city schools.

In North Carolina, the extent of the charter schools scam is now becoming somewhat more evident.

A report showing the student population at state charter schools is wealthier and whiter than student bodies at traditional public schools was pulled Wednesday from the State Board of Education’s consideration. 

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest argued that the report, intended for the legislature and full of data on charter school enrollment, demographics and costs, was too negative. 

“The report, to me, did not have a lot of positive things to say,” he said.

No kidding?

And of course since the report wasn't so nice, Forest pulls the report off the NC assembly's agenda.

More than 57 percent of students attending charter schools in the current school year are white, compared with traditional public schools’ 49.5 percent, the report said. 

The proportion of African-American students is about the same across both types of schools. A little more than 8 percent of charter students are Hispanic, while enrollment at traditional schools is more than 16 percent Hispanic. 

The report also references an April 2015 study by Helen Ladd, Charles Clotfelter and John Holbein of Duke University that showed little integration within individual charter schools. Student populations at individual charters, their study found, are predominantly white or predominantly minority. 

The state board sends a report on charters to the legislature each year, but this one comes as charter school enrollments are accelerating while growth of traditional public schools stagnates. 

Charter enrollment increased quickly after the state lifted the 100-school cap in 2011. About 41,200 students were enrolled in charters then. Last fall, nearly 82,000 students enrolled in one of 158 schools, according to the report. Overall, traditional public schools were expected to add about 3,700 students this year. 

Charter schools have a smaller proportion of low-income students, the report says. At charters last year, 36 percent of students were economically disadvantaged, compared with nearly 55 percent at traditional schools.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article53438435.html#storylink=cpy

In other words, charter schools are quickly becoming a two-tiered education system at taxpayer expense.  And that's exactly how Republicans want it.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article53438435.html#storylink=cpy

A Bunch Of Lazy Government Moochers

Guess which states depend on federal tax dollars the most?  If you said "Republican-controlled Southern and Midwestern states" then you get the brass ring.



That's Mississippi there at the most dependent state in the nation, 42.9% of the state's revenue comes from Washington DC.  Meanwhile, large blue states like California and New York?  Near the bottom.

In fact with the exceptions of Louisiana at number 2 (who just elected a Democrat in late November) and #6 Montana (Democrat Steve Bullock) all the top ten moocher states have GOP governors. Fiscal conservative John Kasich, running for the 2016 White House on a federal balanced budget? His own state is #19 on the list, getting more than a third of all revenue from the Feds.

Funny how that works.

Dispatches From Bevinstan, Con't

Gov. Matt Bevin's plan to flip the state 100% red like neighboring Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri is proceeding apace, with the Governor having already gotten rid of two Kentucky House Democrats with new appointments to his cabinet and knocking the Democratic lead down to 50-46, he's now calling special elections for the seats in just nine weeks.

Gov. Matt Bevin has set March 8 as the date for critical special elections to fill four vacancies in the Kentucky House of Representatives. 

Those elections could tip the balance of power in the House, which will stand at 50 Democrats and 46 Republicans when the General Assembly convenes on Tuesday. 

During an impromptu news conference Monday at the Capitol, the Republican governor also said he plans to campaign hard in those elections to elect candidates who share his views. 

"I want conservative people. I want people in those seats that will represent the people of Kentucky. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that the people who I think embody the values that I was elected to represent are elected. I do think they'll be Republicans," Bevin said. 

Two of the four vacant House seats were caused by resignations of Democrats John Tilley, of Hopkinsville, and Tanya Pullin, of South Shore, who resigned to accept appointments from Bevin. The other two seats were made vacant by the resignations of two Republicans to accept jobs to which they were elected in November: Ryan Quarles, of Georgetown, who was elected agriculture commissioner, and Mike Harmon, of Danville who was elected auditor. 

In addition, two House Democrats - Jim Gooch of Providence and Denny Butler, of Louisville - switched to the Republican Party last month. 

"I think the tide is turning; the tide has already turned in some measure," Bevin said of the growing GOP numbers in the House. "And I think that's going to become increasingly evident in the days, weeks and years ahead."

A 50-50 tie in the Kentucky House would be something of a disaster, as there's no clear law as to who would be in control of the assembly.  It's entirely possible another legislator could flip parties to break the deadlock, but Bevin's made it clear that Democrats no longer have a place in the state. He's apparently drafted the state's most powerful Republican to help, too.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after privately meeting Wednesday morning with Gov. Matt Bevin, said it’s inevitable that the Kentucky House will flip to Republican control and that he is working to make sure it happens. 

McConnell, a Louisville Republican, said he is working with state Rep. Jonathan Shell, R-Lancaster, to recruit Republican candidates for the four special House elections Bevin has called for March 8 to fill vacancies and for this year’s regular House elections, in which all 100 seats will be contested. 

Democrats now control the House with a 50-46 margin. If Republicans win all four House special elections, the political party makeup in the chamber will be an even 50-50. 

That has never happened before in Kentucky history, and Republicans are trying to wrest control of the state House for the first time since 1921. Republicans now control the state Senate and governor’s office. 

Both McConnell and Bevin said it is a matter of time before Republicans control the House. Bevin said he expects it to happen this year.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article53290090.html#storylink=cpy

We'll see where it goes, but Bevin doesn't seem to be wasting any time in turning Kentucky into another basement dwelling Southern red state.  And in case of a 50-50 tie in the House, Bevin is already laying down markers that he's the decider.

Ironically, Alison Lundergan Grimes is still Secretary of State, and Steve Beshear's son Andy is now state AG, so we'll see how they weigh in.  I'm hoping they do, and soon.

StupidiNews!

• Chinese stocks plummeted for a second day as markets hit limit down within 30 minutes, dropping 7% before trading was suspended for the day.
• Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is again running for President on the Libertarian party ticket, having garnered one percent of the vote in 2012.
• Iraq is offering to help broker an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia after Riyadh cut diplomatic ties with Tehran over the execution of a prominent Sunni cleric.
• South Korea is resuming propaganda broadcasts into North Korea in response to Pyonyang's nuclear test earlier this week.
• German newspapers are reporting that Volkswagen may offer to purchase more than 100,000 cars sold in the US back from owners as fixing the cars' diesel emissions may prove too costly.

Last Call For Alabama Shakes(peare)

Happy New Year, as the Cotton State takes an early January lead in the Worst State in America 2016 race, thanks to our old friend Alabama State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore.

Chief Justice Roy Moore issued an order today saying that a ruling issued last March by the Alabama Supreme Court remains in effect and that probate judges "have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary" to Alabama's law and constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. 

In a four-page administrative order, Moore said the conflict between the state court ruling and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June has caused "confusion and uncertainty" among probate judges. 

Moore said he issued the order today in his role as administrative head of the state court system. He quoted a state law that says the chief justice is empowered to "take affirmative and appropriate action to correct or alleviate any condition or situation adversely affecting the administration of justice within the state." 

Moore wrote that since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that many Alabama probate judges are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while others are issuing licenses only to opposite-sex couples or not issuing licenses at all. 

"This disparity affects the administration of justice in this state," he wrote.

So apparently Alabama's just not going to participate in the United States anymore and isn't actually bound by the SCOTUS rulings.  Interesting.

Then again, this type of obnoxious legal foot-dragging is nothing new in American history, not by a long shot. Particularly in states like, well, Alabama.

Still, same-sex marriage just landed on top of the 2016 presidential race social issue heap, and in a big way. Ted Cruz has gone on record numerous times saying that the Supreme Court has no actual authority to enforce anything, and as President, he implied heavily that he would allow states to simply refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Santorum, Huckabee, and Rubio too have expressed similar opinions.

Trump on the other hand, well this is going to get pretty interesting, isn't it?

Such drama from the kids who have lost.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Kevin Drum asks:

Are Liberals Responsible for the Rise of Donald Trump?

And in classic K-Drum style, answers his own question with "well, let me build a terrible case why that could be right but isn't."

This is hardly a new critique. Conservatives have been complaining about "being silenced" forever. The only difference between Trump and the rest of the GOP field is that Trump's complaints are a little earthier than Rubio's or Bush's. 

Still, even if I think Nichols is overstating things, it's not as if he doesn't have a point. Even those of us on the left feel the wrath of the leftier-than-thou brigade from time to time. I don't generally have a hard time avoiding objectionable language myself because (a) I'm liberal, (b) I'm good with words, and (c) I write rather than talk, which gives me time to get my act together. But even at that, sometimes I cross an invisible line and get trounced for it. 

But for someone without my advantages, I can easily see how it might feel almost impossible to express an unpopular opinion without tying yourself in knots. And let's be honest: we liberals do tend to yell racism a little more often than we should. And we do tend to suggest that anyone who like guns or Jesus is a rube. And the whole "privilege" thing sure does get tiresome sometimes. And we do get a little pedantic in our insistence that no conversation about anything is complete unless it specifically acknowledges the special problems of marginalized groups. It can be pretty suffocating at times. 

For the most part, I don't mind this stuff—and conservatives do themselves no favors by harping on supposed PC idiocy like the "war on Christmas." But that's largely because I can navigate it reasonably well and I mostly agree with the aims of the PC police anyway. People who can't obviously feel a lot more constrained. So while I don't really buy Nichols' argument—conservatives built the monster named Trump, not liberals—I do think he has a germ of a point. Donald Trump is basically telling ordinary people that ordinary language is OK, and since that's the only language they know, it means they feel like they can finally talk again.

In the classic words of Tonto, "What do you mean 'we', white man?"

Seriously, it's like terrible liberals exist solely to give cover to right-wing jagoffs like, well, Tom Nichols, and while I agreed with Nichols earlier today, he's wrong here, and this would be the point where Drum should say "Nichols is wrong and the baggage he's trying to project on liberals is complete straw man nonsense, since nobody is actually trying to silence white men."

But Drum is pretty bad at this, so he knowingly picks up Nichols's point and kicks the straw football through a new set of goalposts which he just moved.

Amazing stuff here when you argument is "Trump is awful and terrible, but he has a point about you people."

Oh, and should you think Drum is somehow alone in this, Washington Post writers Karen Tumulty and Jenna Johnson cover the same ground this week.

In the 2016 Republican presidential primary, “political correctness” has become the all-purpose enemy. The candidates have suggested it is the explanation for seemingly every threat that confronts the country — terrorism, immigration, an economic recovery that is leaving many behind, to name just a few. 

Others argue that growing antipathy to the notion of political correctness has become an all-purpose excuse for the inexcusable. They say it has emboldened too many to express racism, sexism and intolerance, which endure even as the country grows more diverse. 

“Driving powerful sentiments underground is not the same as expunging them,” said William A. Galston, a Brookings Institution scholar who was an adviser to former president Bill Clinton. “What we’re learning from Trump is that a lot of people have been biting their lips, but not changing their minds.”

The point of this is to again turn Trump into something of a mainstream figure, just in case he wins the nomination.

Let's keep that in mind.

A Bang-Up Job

President Obama's executive actions on gun control focus mainly on tightening gun seller loopholes, and while that's something, it's not much.

The gun industry has enjoyed a significant upper hand for decades, while mass shooting after mass shooting has failed to yield any meaningful gun control. A Bush-era law rendered the gun industry largely immune to legal challenges, which makes it hard to hold shady dealers accountable for illegal sales. Online sales, now a fixture of the firearms marketplace, are exempt from most laws governing dealers. And enforcement of current laws governing gun dealers is weak. 

The meat of the executive action will try to address these problems, notably by requiring all gun sellers to get a license and conduct background checks no matter where they’re selling them. That means online dealers and gun show vendors, many of whom are unlicensed go-tos for people looking to avoid background checks, will have to get approval from federal law enforcement. But the order doesn’t specify how many guns someone will need to sell in order to be considered a dealer. 

The orders will also clarify rules about who in a gun business is responsible for reporting stolen or lost guns. In addition, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) will get new funding to hire more people for background checks and to centralize illegal gun tracking. 

The action will also require background checks for people who buy weapons through trusts or corporations, an increasingly common way to avoid detection when buying serious firearms like machine guns. For instance, former Los Angeles police officer Chris Dorner said he used one such trust to buy silencers and a short-barreled rifle without a background check before going on a multi-day shooting rampage. The White House notes that gun purchases through trust and corporations has risen from fewer than 900 applications to 90,000 applications in 14 years.

It's tinkering around the edges, but necessary tinkering.  If the goal is to reduce the number of firearms in the country, well...that's not going to happen.  Ever.

StupidiNews!

• Several countries remain skeptical over North Korea's claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb last night, the UN Security Council is meeting to discuss sanctions.
• A new Pew report finds that despite what Republican presidential candidates are saying about America's southern border, more Mexican immigrants are leaving the US than entering.
• ISIS is threatening to destroy Saudi Arabian prisons and free hundreds of prisoners in response to Riyadh's execution of 43 convicted Al Qaeda militants.
• Wal-Mart stores in Texas are asking those taking advantage of the state's new open carry handgun law to see their carry licenses before entering the store.
• Online "brain-training" site Lumosity will pay $2 million to settle FTC claims of deceptive advertising over its games staving off everything from dementia to Alzheimer's.

Last Call For Petulant Children

One Texas House Republican is so mad at President Obama that he's promising to defund the entire Department of Justice if the White House moves ahead with any executive measures on gun control.

No, really, not an Onion article.

In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department, warned against enforcing the new gun restrictions.

"The next twelve months will be an especially dangerous time for Americans who treasure our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Culberson said."I have formally notified Attorney General Lynch that I will aggressively protect our Second Amendment rights using Congress' power of the purse,” he added. "I notified the attorney general that if the Department of Justice attempted to create new restrictions on our Constitutional rights that I would use every tool at my disposal to immediately restrict their access to federal funding.”

Culberson appears to be the first Republican to call to block the DOJ's funding over the executive action on guns.

In future budget agreements, House appropriators could specifically prohibit the Justice Department from enforcing the gun restrictions without defunding the entire agency.

Culberson warned Lynch not to “create new law” in his letter.

“The House Appropriations Committee will not provide resources to your department for the development or implementation of unlawful limitations on the unambiguous Second Amendment rights of Americans,” Culberson wrote.

This might actually carry the impact of threat if Republicans hadn't spent the last several years vowing to defund everything from Obamacare to the Department of Education to the White House itself and not following through on anything.

Petulant little kids that they are.