OPEN CARRY COMING TO FLORIDA? Senate Judiciary Committee to Hear Open Carry Bill.

The legislation, SB 140, is sponsored by Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, who introduced the measure last year when he was a state representative.

If passed, the bill would allow Florida’s 1.7 million concealed carry permit holders to openly carry their firearms. The more sweeping part of the measure, however, would eliminate gun-free zones in places like secondary schools, local centers and government meeting areas.

The bill would not allow CCW permit holders to carry their firearms on college or athletic events and restrictions would still exist on carrying guns to restaurants and bars. Any permit holder in violation of the restrictions in the bill would face a misdemeanor charge.

The Judiciary Committee is the first stop for the bill, and the odds are in its favor this year since Steube chairs that committee.

“ONE OUGHT ALWAYS TO BE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY:” The 21st century left has quite a schizophrenic relationship with the concept of history, don’t they? It’s a very different relationship than that of midcentury liberals, who had their own concept of “Whig history,” and teaching that all of history, including the Founding Fathers, set the stage for Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, the New Deal, and America’s victory in WWII.

In contrast, today’s far left views virtually all history until the arrival of Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the Beatles as little more than a non-stop series of brutal oppressions, ugly stuff that’s hardly worth learning, and famously dubbed “Black Armband History,” by Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey. The effect renders virtually all western history prior to about 1962 as original sin, with the left rejecting every historic figure from Christ to Columbus to the Founding Fathers as each being uniquely destructive individuals.

(And they’re slowly turning on their own. QED, Princeton students’ recent attack on Woodrow Wilson, once seen as such a vital linchpin of “Progressivism,” his racism, brutal crackdowns on free speech, and indeed much of the domestic history of America during WWI were largely expunged from classroom study, a real-life version of Woody Allen’s gag in Sleeper about Nixon being airbrushed from history.)

And yet, simultaneously, as Brendan O’Neill writes at Spiked, in an essay titled “History Begins,” in recent years, the left has weaponized history, in the form of the cliché frequently uttered by Mr. Obama to demonize the other side of the aisle when and if they dared challenge his policies as being “on the ‘wrong’ side of history,” as if history was a quasi-religion like the Force in Star Wars, with a good side and a dark side:

What ends up happening is that history, in the objectified and even weaponised sense it is understood today, becomes the enemy of history-making. History is conjured up to counter change, to weaken and dilute the very urge to make history. 2016 has made this clear. It has confirmed a profound fear of change among the West’s intellectual and political classes, which look upon Brexit and Trump and other events with an extraordinary sense of dread. They fear in particular for the standing of the Third Way, of what they view as the stability conferred on Western affairs by the wrapping up of the Cold War and the winding down of the historical political conflict of left vs right. In their eyes, that was history’s greatest achievement — history being the bestower of occasional fortunes — and now a more vengeful history threatens it, and threatens to unleash uncertainty, violence and possibly fascism. So they marshal history, objectified history and its warnings and threats, against change, against the making of history, against human agency. History becomes, not Marx’s ‘activity of man pursuing his aims’, but a check on the activity of man. It becomes a means of questioning and slowing man’s activity and thinking and choices. History becomes the controller of men, and a warning against change.

In this situation, it is imperative that we argue against history, against history as power. That we rage against it, in fact. The wonderful thing about 2016 has been its rekindling of the historical imagination. Vast numbers of people, using their intelligence and will, decided to impact on history. To strip away a temporary institution that had been naturalised by the elite as the normal and historically correct way of doing politics: the EU. And to deliver a salvo against an American establishment that presumed its way of politics is the only way of politics. People said, ‘There must be an alternative’, and in doing so they thought and acted historically, upon history.

As O’Neill writes, “in 2017, do not heed ‘history’; challenge it. Challenge the dead lessons dredged up by a new political, expert and history class keen to correct our estimation of ourselves as the potential makers of history. Use the ‘daring, courage, imagination and idealism’ that technocracy has sought to decommission, and think and act historically. One ought always to be on the wrong side of history.”

Read the whole thing.

(Via Kathy Shaidle.)

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Pentagon to Accelerate Rail Gun Projectile Weapon – Fires From Army Howitzer.

While initially conceived of and developed for the Navy’s emerging Rail Gun Weapon, the Pentagon and Army are now firing the Hyper Velocity Projectile from an Army Howitzer in order to potential harness near-term weapons ability, increase the scope, lethality and range ability to accelerate combat deployment of the lethal, high-speed round.

The rail gun uses an electromagnetic current to fire a kinetic energy warhead up to 100 miles at speeds greater than 5,000 miles an hour, a speed at least three times as fast as existing weapons.

Firing from an Army Howitzer, the rail gun hypervelocity projectile can fire the high-speed projectile at enemy targets to include buildings, force concentrations, weapons systems, drones, aircraft,vehicle bunkers and even incoming enemy missiles and artillery rounds.

“We can defend against an incoming salvo with a bullet. That is very much a focus getting ready for the future,” Dr. William Roper, Director of the Pentagon’s once-secret Strategic Capabilities Office, told Scout Warrior among a small group of reporters.

An 18th Century gun with a 21st Century round.

LESLIE EASTMAN: Let me explain why 53% of white women voted Trump.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Russians! Under my bed! John Podesta fell for a phishing scam. Let’s not start another Cold War over that.

FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION: Inside Trump’s strategy to remodel the Supreme Court. “Trump’s team wants to make filling the seat held by the late Justice Antonin Scalia one of the earliest acts of his presidency, according to multiple transition officials, in hopes of scoring an energizing and unifying victory for the conservative movement. . . . While Scalia’s seat is the only current opening, Trump’s advisers are plotting how to fill that vacancy in tandem with the next one — a slot if vacated by a liberal justice like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83, or swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, 80, could far more dramatically move the court’s political center of gravity to the right.”

I’m so old, I can remember when Trump was impulsive, ignorant and incapable of thinking strategically.

SOCIAL JUSTICE MEDIA: Twitter’s controversial head of China is the latest exec to leave the company.

Kathy Chen was hired seven months ago as Twitter’s managing director of Greater China based out of its Hong Kong office, but she has exited the company following restructuring in Asia. That was part of company-wide changes that included the layoff of nine percent of Twitter’s staff and the exit of a number of high-profile leaders.

Chen, who had never used Twitter before last year, was a controversial appointment when she joined Twitter in April 2016 as its first Greater China MD. Her past employment and apparent government association raised concern in China.

Recognizable names like Cisco and Microsoft apart, Quartz report that Chen previously spent seven years researching missile defense at the People’s Liberation Army and also served as CEO of a joint venture from China’s Ministry of Public Security that specialized in security and, potentially, surveillance.

Oh.

THESE STORIES ARE ALWAYS AMUSING: NY Times goes on safari to Texas, struggles to understand natives’ love for their “trucks.”

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Obama Hung Democrats Out to Dry for Past Eight Years.

The Daily Beast‘s Jackie Kucinich said to CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson on Sunday that it would be interesting to see what kind of reception President Obama will receive when he meets congressional Democrats next week, adding that the president has hung his party “out to dry” during his time in the White House.

Obama will meet Wednesday with Democrats on Capitol Hill to discuss ways to protect Obamacare from being dismantled by the incoming Republican majority, Politico reported Friday. Kucinich noted that the president has not made building relationships with lawmakers a priority during his tenure.

“He is someone who hasn’t really made Congress a priority … or the party in general over his last eight years,” Kucinich said. “Just at the end there did he start kicking in and, you know, trying to make up for lost time. So that will be really interesting in addition to him trying to save Obamacare.”

“It will be interesting to see how Democrats in that room receive a man who led them the last eight years but kind of, in a lot of ways, led them out to dry,” Kucinich continued.

Obama is leaving his party in the worst position they’ve been in since the 1920s. Publicly he’ll move on to become the party’s beloved elder statesman. Privately… less so.

THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA: GOP votes to defang outside ethics panel.

WHEN THEY THOUGHT CLINTON WOULD WIN, ALL THE “BLACK LIVES MATTER” STUFF WAS TO ENSURE A SEAT AT THE TABLE. NOW THEY WANT THE WHOLE TABLE: Van Jones: ‘The Clinton days are over.’

The Clintons’ reign over the Democratic party has ended, according to CNN political commentator Van Jones.

“I think that the Clinton days are over,” Jones, a former White House adviser to President Obama, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday’s “State of the Union.”

“This idea that we’re going to be this moderate party that’s going to move in this direction, that’s going to throw blacks under the bus for criminal justice reform, and for prison expansion, that’s going to throw workers under the bus for NAFTA, those days are over.”

Jones said that Democratic candidates will be defeated if they can’t be “an authentic person from the beginning.”

It was a struggle between the urban-black wing of the Democratic Party and the gentry-liberal wing. And it still is, but with the Clintons down and nearly out, Jones, et al., are moving in for the kill. Of course, this may be a good thing for the GOP and Trump. It’ll be a long time before you can win an election with only minorities, and it’s not clear that Hispanics favor a black-dominated Democratic Party.

It’s basically like when a major crime gang gets knocked off and everybody struggles for the turf. And by “basically,” I mean pretty much exactly like that.

SAY WHAT YOU WANT ABOUT MUSSOLINI: Nearly a century after the planning started, a New York subway arrives.

To understand the enthusiasm over a subway, something that’s normally the subject of grousing, consider that New Yorkers have been promised a Second Avenue subway since 1919. Over the ensuing century, the Second Avenue subway became the punch line of jokes and a cautionary tale about the ineffectiveness of infrastructure development in America.

“When you’d mention the Second Avenue subway to someone, they would react with a Pavlovian giggle,’’ said Jeffrey Zupan, a transportation expert and senior fellow of the Regional Plan Assn., an urban policy group. “Nobody believed it would ever happen.’’

Groundbreakings have been frequent, but each time wars or recessions would intervene to jinx the project. Meanwhile, officials were so confident the line would be built that they demolished elevated rail lines on Second and Third avenues, leaving the fast-growing Upper East Side of Manhattan with only one badly overcrowded subway on Lexington Avenue, two long blocks to the west.

Don’t count your blue state infrastructure projects before they hatch.

I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN PRESIDENT OBAMA MOCKED SARAH PALIN AND SAID WE COULDN’T “DRILL OUR WAY OUT” OF HIGH OIL PRICES: US Shale Producers End 2016 on High Note.

SHOT:

Conway on NBC on Trump keeping parts of Obamacare: "He has committed to retaining those pieces that his advisers will say are working."

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) January 3, 2017

CHASER:

People must remember that ObamaCare just doesn't work, and it is not affordable – 116% increases (Arizona). Bill Clinton called it "CRAZY"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

I wouldn’t bet on anything until we see what actually comes out of Congress and onto President Trump’s desk.

CHOSEN FROM A CAST OF THOUSANDS: 10 Moments From 2016 That Sum Up SJWs Perfectly.

Are you anti-social? Uninterested in justice? Anything but a warrior? Then Social Justice Warriors could use YOU!

THAT’S GREAT NEWS FOR PEOPLE WORRIED ABOUT “CLIMATE CHANGE,” RIGHT? The Hill: Why Tillerson and Perry may fuel the uranium, nuclear sectors.

In a world anxious about notable political shakeups, but hopeful about new paths for public policies both here at home and abroad, the U.S. nuclear sector may be reenergized under President-Elect Trump through his nomination of Rex Tillerson (CEO of Exxon-Mobil) for secretary of State, and Rick Perry (former governor of Texas) as Energy secretary.

We all know that two major platforms of Trump’s campaign were U.S. energy independence and jobs. It follows that Trump and his team can greatly promote both of these interests through nuclear energy and uranium mining.

While many people think about “oil” when discussing energy independence, our greatest foreign energy dependence issues are likely in the nuclear sector. Trump, Tillerson, and Perry have stated that they generally support nuclear energy. However, they need to understand just how dependent on foreign uranium our nuclear sector really is – truly a national security issue.

Fracking now, nuclear later: A formula for success!

RICH LOWRY: Defund the United Nations.

Because nothing involving the U.N. is clean or straightforward, it’s hard to even know how much the U.S. pays in total into the U.N. system. But it’s probably around $8 billion a year. We should withhold some significant portion of it, and demand an end to the U.N.’s institutional hostility to Israel and the implementation of reforms to increase the organization’s accountability. There are individual U.N. agencies that do good work, and we can continue to support those.

Realistically, though, the U.N. will always be a disappointment. The fact is that the closest thing to what FDR envisioned in the U.N. is NATO, a like-minded group of nations that has been a force for peace, order, and freedom. This is why President-elect Donald Trump should embrace NATO and turn his critical eye to the U.N., where there is the genuine opportunity to, if nothing else, save the U.S. some money and rattle the cages of people taking advantage of our beneficence.

If there’s any way at all to introduce accountability to the U.N., I’ve yet to hear of it.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL FUNEMPLOYMENT: Finland just launched an experiment giving 2,000 people free money until 2019.

The experiment will also provide clues about how people behave when they’re receiving free money. Skeptics say people will sit on their couch all day. Proponents claim they’ll actually use the money to make their lives better. (Limited evidence from developing countries suggests it’s more of the latter.)

Turunen suspects the experiment will compel at least a few wannabe entrepreneurs to make the leap into starting their own business — a risky proposition in Finland today since business owners who are forced to close shop don’t receive unemployment benefits. It’s not unlike the system in place in most US states.

“The system nowadays, it’s pretty negative for people who try to do something — even little — in their lives and get something out of it,” she says.

A basic income might turn a risky move into a much safer one.

We heard similar claims in this country about ObamaCare, but they never quite panned out.

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY EXPECT THAT TRUMP WILL BE TAXING THEM SOON: Remittances to Mexico spike after November election.

Remittances to Mexico saw the biggest spike in more than a decade during the month that President-elect Donald Trump was elected, Reuters reported Monday.

Mexican citizens in the U.S. sent home nearly $2.4 billion in transfers in November, which is a nearly 25 percent increase from the previous year, according to Mexican central bank data released Monday.

Total remittances are projected to reach a record $27 billion in 2016, which is $2 billion more than the previous year. Mexicans sent a total of $24.8 billion in remittances in 2015, overtaking oil income as a source of revenue for the country.

The jump could be a reaction to Trump’s stunning victory, as the businessman has threatened to block the transfers and has made building a wall on the border with Mexico a centerpiece of his campaign.

Trump has not specified how Mexico would pay for the wall, but he previously suggested his government would impound remittances.

What percentage of $27 billion would suffice to build a wall? Because then the Mexicans would have paid for it. . . .

SEE, I’VE BEEN WARNING ABOUT THIS SENTIMENT FOR YEARS: Academia’s Broken, so Why Defend Academic Freedom?

WELL, YES: Obama’s ‘Scandal-Free’ Administration Was Actually Riddled with Scandals.

No one can forget the disturbing onslaught of Obama cult products circa 2008/2009: the Obama flags, perfume, soap, soda pop, basketballs, clocks, flip-flops, soap-on-a-rope — you name it. Obama’s smiling mug was slapped on practically every product you could think of — including even sushi! — and his devoted cultists snatched it up.

Then there were the children singing Obama songs of praise, Obama’s lavish birthday bashes, and his unearned Nobel Peace Prize. While most of “Obamamania” dissipated over the ensuing years, there were still occasional reminders that he still had a very fervent and devoted following — mostly, it turned out, in the mainstream media.

For the entire eight years of Obama’s presidency, we witnessed an obsequious MSM that only very reluctantly reported negative news about their hero, dropping problematic stories like a hot potato at the first opportunity. Thus, Obama’s many scandals became old news in a matter of weeks.

Think of them as Kool Aid-drinking Democratic operatives with bylines and you won’t go far wrong.

RAHM EMANUEL’S CHICAGO: Chicago saw more 2016 murders than NYC, LA combined.

QUESTION THE NARRATIVE: Women are “heroic” because some of them work in male dominated fields? Men have been working these dangerous jobs for centuries, unthanked.

SO THIS HAPPENED: Through Fire.