But We Need to Take your Guns Away

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A bad guy armed with a shotgun walked into a Florida store with the intent of robbing it. And bragged about being “from Chicago” in the process.

I got a big (expletive) (expletive) gun, but I’m not from around here is what I’m saying. I’m from Chicago bro.

Then, as paraphrased by Fox News, this armed thug

 ask[ed] the employee what kind of weapon he is holding.

Which the employee showed him, whereupon the thug left.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, the county where the attempted armed robbery occurred, has the right of it [emphasis added]:

He then fumbles for words, resorting to meaningless babble about being from Chicago. Words seem to fail you when your felony attempt is thwarted by lawful and righteous force.

But the Progressive-Democratic Party and its (what has become) mainstream Leftist supporters want us all disarmed. The store’s employee should have been left unarmed, helpless, and possibly murdered during the course of this robbery attempt.

Only an Inch

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That’s how much President Joe Biden (D) said inflation rose, after it rose more than 8% in August.

It’s about to get worse.

Earlier this month, the NEADA [National Energy Assistance Directors Association] projected that the average cost to heat a home would increase by 17.2% since last winter, rising from $1,025 to $1,202. Heating oil costs will jump an estimated 54% to $1,876, while natural gas costs may increase 24% to $709, according to the NEADA.

Nick Loris, Public Policy‘s C3 Solutions Vice President, emphasized the impact on those in the lower economic strata—”folks” Biden pretends so piously to care about:

[M]ore money dedicated to paying for heat means fewer resources are essential for human well-being[.]

And that means

…will be regressive, hurting the poor the most since they spend a higher percentage of their budget on energy costs[.]

I suppose that’s only another inch of increase in Biden’s mind, though, so it’s all good.

European Union Sanctions on Russia

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Another round is in the offing, possibly this week or next. And there’s this hopeful claim of the EU:

EU officials say privately and publicly that the sanctions are inflicting serious damage on Russia’s economy and military….

No doubt sanctions are an important part of a necessary “all of the above” suite of moves to support Ukraine in its defense against the barbarian. But are they strong enough themselves? Will the new round be materially stronger?

After all: how many battalions have the sanctions forced Putin to withdraw from Ukraine? How many battalions have the sanctions in concert with other moves forced the barbarian to withdraw?

Zero.

The pain inflicted on the barbarian isn’t enough. It needs to be orders of magnitude stronger. The sanctions have to be orders of magnitude stronger. The only places in the world with which the barbarian should be allowed to do business of any sort are withing Russia and with the PRC, northern Korea, and Iran. And those need to be tightened down, also.

Shameful

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The subheadline has the question:

Why is Joe Biden skipping Shinzo Abe’s funeral in Japan?

Never mind that Japan has been a staunch ally of ours since the middle of the last century. Never mind that Abe has been a staunch ally of ours his entire time in office and during his nominally retired years.

The other members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue—the Quad—are going to be there to pay their respects.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are set to attend the ceremony alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Regardless of all of that, our President Joe Biden (D) stiffed Abe, and our ally Japan, at his funeral. Biden couldn’t be troubled to make the trip and attend. Instead, Biden sent Vice President Kamala Harris (D), tsar of everything in the Biden administration and doer of nothing, to take up that space.

Cashless Bail and Flight Risk

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Illinois has passed its cashless bail law, euphemistically styled the SAFE-T Act (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act—how cute, how misleading). This is a law that will allow lots of suspects accused of violent crimes to walk without even needing a hearing—an Illinois magistrate can simply release the suspect, functionally, on his own word that he’ll appear in court when called to do so.

Supporters of the law, set to take effect at the beginning of next year, point out it does not prohibit detention and that anyone deemed a flight risk can be detained.

This is as cynical as it is disingenuous.

The degree of flight risk isn’t the only factor that should be used in assessing bail amounts; it isn’t even the most important. What’s central to bail consideration, or should be central, is the nature of the crime alleged and the degree of risk to the people in the local community from having the accused walking free among them.

A man accused of a violent crime needn’t flee in order to commit (further) violent crimes; indeed, most crimes (like politics) are local. And now he has a collection of targets in the local area against whom to commit further violence: witnesses against him, and their families.