It’s roundup time again
Some days it just seems like roundups are the only way to handle the cascade of news. So here we go…
(1) Tomorrow is the Virginia gubernatorial election, which seems especially important because the right actually has a chance. But modern-day voting policies in a state such as Virginia can make all the difference in the world for the left:
So how do Democrats plan to ensure a McAuliffe win and a subsequent retention of power in the state and U.S. Senate? By using the same tactic they used in the 2020 national contest: profligate mail-in voting and fake grassroots get-out-the-vote efforts funding by philanthropies and wealthy leftists, a strategy revealed through Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s gift to the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).
(2) Speaking of the left and voting, there’s Wisconsin, in which the 2020 election saw subversions of Wisconsin voting law regarding residents of nursing homes. For example:
Luell also excerpted details from a document the WEC apparently distributed to nursing homes throughout the state. That document, entitled “Absentee Voting at Care Facilities in 2020,” informed “care facility administrator[s] and staff member[s]” that they could, among other things, “assist residents in filling out their ballots or certification envelops,” in express violation of Section 6.875.
Throughout the press conference, Luell made election law minutia understandable with the personal element, beginning with the fact that he launched his investigation based on a complaint his office received from “Judy.” As Luell explained, Judy discovered her mother had purportedly voted by absentee ballot in the November 3, 2020 election, even though “Shirley” had died on October 9, 2020…
In addition to Judy, the children of six other residents of Ridgewood Care Facility expressed concerns about a ballot cast in their parents’ names. The patients’ children detailed to the sheriff’s office their parent’s lack of mental capacity and other facts indicating the votes did not represent the freewill of their parents, such as the difficulty in convincing one mother to sign any documents and one father’s statement that if he couldn’t vote in person, he did not want to vote. Also, none of those other six residents had voted in the 2016 presidential election, or in any election since 2012.
More at the link.
(3) Here’s what may have happened with the shooting by Alec Baldwin, from someone who seems to know a lot about the gun involved and what Baldwin is alleged to have been doing with it when it went off. An excerpt:
The actor, as reported, was sitting in the pew of the church, practicing. He was trying mightily to get the draw-cock rhythm down and that was his focus, though dangerously adding the element of speed. It never occurred to him that the gun was loaded. (Rule No. 1: All guns are always loaded.) He was unaware that his muzzle had drifted onto the camera crew where Ms. Hutchins and director Joel Souza were crouched. (Rule No. 2: Never let your muzzle cover anything you aren’t willing to destroy.)
In practicing the draw-while-cocking integration, his index finger had wandered onto the trigger, depressing it just far enough to bypass the cocking function. (Rule No. 3: Don’t touch the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.) Struggling awkwardly, he released the hammer under the impression he had cocked the pistol. He hadn’t. The hammer flew forward. The gun fired (Rule No. 4: Always know what your target is.) It is quite possible that absent knowledge of these mechanics, he still believes the gun fired on its own, out of some defect. The defect was his.
The writer also discusses the fact that Baldwin had little to no experience with firearms even as an actor.
(4) “Migration Crisis Overview: Americanists vs. Transformationists“:
Most significantly, operational control of the border is no longer in American hands. Judd declared on television on April 10, “I was asked last night who is controlling the border? Is it President Biden? Is it Kamala Harris, who is it? And my answer was, it’s the cartels. The cartels control the border now. It’s not even the Border Patrol. It’s not even the U.S. government.”
(5) Jen Psaki tests positive for COVID. I think, based on a combination of her age and vaccinated status, plus the odds in general, that she’ll be absolutely fine. But her positive test is another example of the fact that even the vaccinated can be infected though often symptom-free or with very mild symptoms (she reportedly has very mild symptoms), and that the persecution of the unvaccinated is an unwarranted power play. Anyone can get this thing, and the risk the unvaccinated pose is mainly to themselves, if that (many are already immune because they’re already had COVID, and I don’t think they pose a risk to anyone at all).
The lawless border is the biggest threat that will take years to reverberate through the country. That Jen has it might be bad news for the Left, she has it and had Fake Vax. Baldwin should get jailed but will escape all justice until the Civil court lawsuits start unless he pays dearly to escape them.
As to this, “(Rule No. 1: All guns are always loaded.)”
True with one exception. If you have personally, completely checked to see if it is unloaded, and you know how to check the type of gun. And then it is unloaded until it leaves your personal control. That a gun in your hand is unloaded is your own personal responsibility. That said the other rules still apply even when you have checked it yourself.
Regarding the lack of risk that the unvaccinated represent to the vaccinated, I have a question about the mandates for NYC employees. Deblasio says that as civil servants committed to serving the public, they have an obligation to get the shot. It seems to me that if it was not made clear that compliance with vaccine orders was a condition of employment, you can’t fire the employee for failing to comply. I don’t understand why the unions have not been able to get a court to consider this argument. I get that members of the military give up many rights as a condition of signing on, but not municipal employees.
I’m afraid I wouldn’t place much reliance on that post about the Baldwin incident. While the writer gets the mechanics of single-action revolvers right, and is right on in his analysis of the Four Rules of Gun Safety, he gets several other things wrong – some trivial, some not. A trivial example is the “western action shooting” sport, which is properly called Cowboy Action Shooting. A not-so-trivial example is Baldwin’s career. The post makes it sound like he was an ignorant newbie just fumbling around. He wasn’t. IMFDB, the Internet Movie Firearms Database, lists at least a dozen movies, and a couple of TV shows, in which Baldwin handled guns. He’s handled semiautomatic pistols, at least one double-action revolver, bolt-action rifles, and a couple of kinds of shotgun. He may not have fired all of them, or ever tried to use a single-action revolver before, but he certainly has enough experience around firearms to be fully acquainted with the Four Rules.
Among all the incomplete and occasionally contradictory information we’ve heard about the “Rust” shooting, one fact still stands out: At least three people, all experienced with firearms, had an opportunity to check that gun and confirm that it was empty. None of them did.
Regarding 5) Testing “positive for covid” is meaningless. The pcr test was calibrated on a computer guess, using incomplete information from the Wuhan lab, of what covid-19 was likely to be . The pcr test is not a diagnostic tool. It has been decertified by the FDA. Whether Psaki was vaccinated with a placebo or with which brand or batch is not our business but necessary information if one is to make a judgement about this non story.
The Dems have this cheating thing down. I think Terry the Pirate is declared the winner.
Frankly I think Youngkin will lose. And while it may be closer than people hoped for. The Dems simply will cheat to win. Its that simple.
Frankly they have been ramping up for industrial style cheating for years. Previously it was deployed in a tactical manner. Now I think they simply move it into the open. And force someone to try to successfully challenge it. And with the courts using various procedural maneuvers (standing). It will never happen successfully.
I have plenty of doubt about the responsibility, Alec Baldwin the Actor, should take for the shooting. Take his name off that description, put in any other name, and I’d have doubts they did anything but practice what they were told to do with a weapon they were told was unloaded. However, why was a real firearm used on this set? Why did the set have live rounds? These are things Alec Baldwin the Producer needs to explain. Everything described could have been done with a prop in which no rounds of any type could be loaded into the cylinder.
Lots of things went wrong in order for the Baldwin shooting to happen and result in a fatality. I’ve read that the expensive armorers do have a wide variety of realistic looking guns that are incapable of firing anything and these are heavily used on set until a gun needs to fire on camera.
I believe the sheriff’s report says that there were 4 blanks in that gun plus the empty shell casing from the deadly firing which is believed to be from a real cartridge and bullet. So mixed blanks and real ammo; OMG. What about chamber #6? It is conventional for the Colt SAA to be carried with one empty chamber and the hammer resting on the empty chamber. The gun is not drop safe if the hammer rests on a loaded chamber.
Did the shooting happen the first time that Baldwin tried cocking the gun? If not, then the reality of the situation was an unintentional game of Russian roulette. Baldwin would have been drawing and cocking, drawing and cocking, with the cylinder rotating each time. And then drawing and bang. It could have fired on a blank, but it happened when possibly the only deadly round was under the hammer. Sheesh.
Plus all the other mistakes Neo lists.
Leland, Good points.
I think Baldwin the actor may have little or low legal liability, but Baldwin the producer?
I don’t see why Baldwin the actor should have no legal liability. There are safety rules now universally required in films which called on him to verify that the gun was not loaded. If, as wolfwalker says above, Baldwin had acted in numerous productions with guns, he had no excuse for not following the safety rules.
Leland wrote:
“However, why was a real firearm used on this set? Why did the set have live rounds?”
On the Open thread I posted a link to a video about “movie guns” and wondered about that too.
My comment, https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/11/01/open-thread-11-1-21/#comment-2586344
Video about “movie guns.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnOUrRTf6jg
Kate,
I’ve read some things from armorers where the actor does not check the gun.
Specifically, the actor is filming a scene with a completely inert replica gun. Then the action is halted for a few second and the guns are swapped for one with blanks and filming quickly restarted and the blanks fired. I guess the logic is to greatly minimize the time during which an actor is handling blanks. If I understand it correctly, it strikes me as a poor procedure since the actor isn’t checking the gun when it counts the most. It is totally reliant on the armorer’s thoroughness.
I believe in that same piece it was also claimed that it is never ever anyone other than the armorer handing the gun with blanks to the actor. Never an assistant director.
The above procedure was for actually filming, and Baldwin wasn’t filming at the time. So the time issue should have been more relaxed. Still it is perhaps a precedence setting practice.
_____
Having real ammo anywhere near a movie set is just insane.
The democrats cannot win the Virginia Governorship without massive fraud.
I find the Powerline article neo links to unpersuasive. It makes no mention of Baldwin’s verbal response to the director’s call for one more shoot, when Baldwin reportedly said, “How about if I just shoot you? And then pulled the trigger. There is no doubt as to where Baldwin was pointing the gun. His verbal response, yet to be independently denied, indicates he intentionally pointed the gun in the direction of the director and intentionally pulled the trigger.
He probably did assume the gun was not loaded with live rounds.
We know he didn’t personally confirm that the gun was safe and, given multiple reports of repeated unsafe conditions on the set, we know as the producer he was indifferent to and dismissive of safety concerns.
At the very least, he’s guilty of negligent manslaughter.
“The cartels control the border now. It’s not even the Border Patrol. It’s not even the U.S. government.”
When does dereliction of duty in a Commander in Chief amount to treason?
When does dereliction of duty by Congress through a failure to impeach and remove a criminally unfit and arguably treasonous President… amount to treason?
“the persecution of the unvaccinated is an unwarranted power play.
I have to take issue with the term “unwarranted”. It is far more serious than that. Firing people and compelling them to allow the injection of an experimental vaccine with proven serious side effects, including paralysis and death is criminal. Every individual involved in the compulsory enforcement of this criminality belongs in federal prison.
Others have also commented on the ‘Producer’ aspect of this – I was wondering about this potential exposure too. Yes, Baldwin is in the credits as a Producer on this film. But apparently this is a convention, almost an honorific title. There will sometimes be dozens of ‘Producers’ on a given film, but only one or two of them will have any real responsibilities and deliverables. The remainder are just claiming a credit for minimal or nonexistent efforts in that role.
Thus, I have heard, while Baldwin is so credited, it doesn’t amount to any ‘roles & responsibilities’ in his case. And since he apparently wasn’t exercising any authorities as producer, it follows that he probably isn’t liable for much either.
For Pete’s sake, Baldwin the citizen must be charged with involuntary manslaughter, be convicted, and go to prison. We do not need more chatter. He aimed the gun and pulled the trigger.
End of story.
Did Baldwin know he was given an actual firearm rather than an inert prop? Inert props are not firearms and if that was the case then he may have thought it was no more dangerous than a brick. This may have been exacerbated if he was under the impression it was a harmless prop with fake prop ammo and he “fired” it more than once before he got a live round. It may be bad form to point fake guns at people and in some cases is a crime, it is generally not dangerous. I think the armorer is toast. Live ammo stored with movie ammo, functional firearm, recreational shooting with a movie prop, not under her direct supervision when handed to the actor.
They were using real revolvers on the set, the crew had been having fun shooting them between scenes and that’s why there was live ammunition on the set. Should never have happened. There is no indication they ever used replica guns on the set. Part of the whitewash of the story line to make Baldwin the victim.
I have shot a lot over the last 60 years and cocking and pulling the trigger of a single action revolver is not hard and does not have to be practiced, the story that he was safely practicing cocking the revolver and then lowering the hammer makes no sense at all.
Baldwin thought he had a safe gun with dummy (inert) rounds and he pointed it directly at his crew and pulled the trigger which would never have been allowed on a set with actual safety procedures. In order to get the insurance all of the cast including Baldwin had to go through safety briefings and sign off on the procedures.
Baldwin killed a nice young mother and wife because he was being his typical ass self. Multiple rules were broken and I will be disappointed if he is not charge with negligent manslaughter. Any grown up man or woman should know the basics rules of handling firearms if they want to handle any firearms.
The decision to never handle firearms is a good one to make and I respect the decision of those who don’t want to touch a gun, nothing wrong with that either.
Chases Eagles,
They did have a inert plastic revolver available on set, but I doubt Baldwin mistook the real revolver for that one. Just the weight would be much different, and possibly the hammer and trigger would not function realistically on the plastic item.
My comment on 5:55 pm was my recollection, though I can’t find the news item on the sheriff’s report now. It makes no sense that blanks would have been found in the revolver as I stated (A reporter misreported it? Or I did.), and I did find that AD Mr. Halls did state that after the shooting he found 4 dummy rounds and an empty shell casing in the gun.
Dummy rounds are more sensible than blanks, but even so it was only a rehearsal. Why have any rounds? Possibly they were going to start filming immediately after a successful rehearsal.
Assuming there were dummy rounds in the gun, then it is possible that Baldwin had tripped the hammer on one or more dummy rounds before getting to the deadly round.
Coincidence? NCIS had a victim killed with a blank. Possibly a starter’s pistol.
Back in the day of endless westerns on television, my father would get annoyed when somebody, shot in the shoulder with a soft lead slug the size of your thumb, clapped his hand to his shoulder with a tablespoon of ketchup.
Remarkable post assembled by Glenn Reynolds:
Joel Kotkin on “The elite plan to destroy the middle class”…and…The [elites’] Revolt Against the Masses”:
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/482497/
In which the warning is sounded: Under the guise of combatting climate change, “[the elites] are making their move…”—
” ‘The only way we can change this situation is for ordinary people to challenge elite policies – as has already happened, albeit chaotically, in France and several other countries. Even as we confront climate challenges, we must not allow green politics to become yet another nail in the coffin of the once great yeomanry.’ ”
+ Bonus:
Very touching proof of how out of touch—how absolutely CLUELESS—McAuliffe truly is:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcauliffes-decision-to-have-weingarten-speak-at-rally-mocked-by-republicans
File under: Let them eat s%#@
I am not a fan of Carrot Top Psaki but I hope she remains symptom less and tests negative. I cannot imagine the Left saying the same thing about let’s say Kayleigh McEnany. If Alec Baldwin were a Republican he would never be allowed to work again in Hollywood.
Fake carrot top, and poorly done