Today we cover four headline issues: (1) gun laws post-Parkland shootings (“Republicans, Trump cave on guns”); (2) two health reports; (3) the latest in the Russian collusion narrative (“Mueller plagiarizes Russian journalists”); and (4) pipeline cooperation between frequent enemies Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
Gun laws post-Parkland shootings
Senator Rubio, Governor Scott, and President Trump don’t think these eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-year-old Marines are old enough to buy a rifle or gun, just to die fighting for their country
Despite the advice of the Wall Street Journal‘s mainstay columnist Kimberley Strassel that “Republicans have held the political high ground on gun rights for decades, and they’ve done it by sticking together and sticking to the facts. Nothing will lose them that credibility faster than if they jump on the false-hope bandwagon” — some Republican politicians, notably Florida Governor Rick Scott and Florida Senator Marco Rubio as well as the President himself, have done just that. Governor Scott announced today that Florida will no longer allow gun sales to anyone under 21 years of age. (He also removed his name from the speakers’ list at the National Rifle Association’s national convention in May.) President Trump made a similar slightly more limited announcement: no sale of assault weapons (whatever that means) to anyone under 21. Senator Rubio triangulated between Governor Scott and President Trump:
Rubio offered support for raising the age limit on purchasing a rifle from 18 to 21, and said he would consider new regulations on the size of magazine clips. He also broke with Trump in saying he opposed arming teachers.
There are two things fundamentally wrong with the proposal to restrict gun rights of those who have reached their eighteenth but not twenty-first birthday. First of all, those individuals are old enough to vote, marry, live on their own, not go to school any more, drive, buy alcohol, etc. They’re basically full citizens. Age 21 as a marker for anything is ancient history. Secondly, eighteen-, nineteen-, and twenty-year-olds make up an important component of the military. They receive weapons training as good or better as any in the country. They may be sent into battle to risk their lives for their country. And some ignorant politicians are now going to tell them they can’t, as civilians, buy a gun or rifle?!?
CNN meanwhile has been stage managing the children’s crusade. Powerline has the details.
Two health items
Aerobic fitness is apparently key to not losing the white matter in your brain, along with the cognitive functioning that goes along with it.
A Heritage Foundation senior research fellow writes that transgender activists are doing great harm to those, especially children, with gender dysphoria. He explains why and provides an alternative.
Some shockeroos in the Russian collusion investigation of Special Counsel Mueller
There was much ballyhoo when Special Counsel Mueller indicted thirteen Russians for meddling in the US elections. Former attorney general Andrew McCarthy has ridiculed the indictment and the ballyhoo surrounding it. One can compound the ridicule by noting that Mueller’s expensive crack team of anti-Trump lawyers has produced an unenforceable indictment that plagiarizes journalism published in 2015 by Radio Free Europe, supplemented by material “published last October — in an article by a Russian business magazine, RBC.”
The other shockeroo is a report — possibly needing further confirmation — that former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe altered FBI investigator Peter Strzok’s notes of his interview of Michael Flynn. Strzok wrote that Flynn didn’t lie, but McCabe’s alteration of Strzok’s notes is likely to have been instrumental in securing Flynn’s conviction. McCabe later reportedly destroyed the evidence.
A federal judge is now looking into the matter.
hat tip: Eaglebeak
Rare Pakistan – Afghan – Indian cooperation
Leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India greet TAPI pipeline inauguration
A 1,814 kilometer (1,130 mile) gas pipeline was launched today
…that will feed Turkmenistan gas to Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan and eventually to India….
The TAPI pipeline is a rare show of cooperation between often hostile neighbours Pakistan and India as well as the often contentious neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan.
All three countries could become wealthy and advanced nations like South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan if they could manage to suspend hostilities and form a common market.
The ground-breaking ceremony took place in Herat, the third-largest city in Afghanistan:
It was attended by [Pakistani] Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, India’s Minister of State External affairs Mobashar Jawed Akbar, NATO and US Forces Commander Gen. John Nicholson and other high-ranking officials.
Click here to go to the previous issue of Founders Broadsheet (“School schootings, SpaceX reactions, trade war threat”)
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