What are Your Thoughts on Federal Tax Money Supporting Gun Control Groups?

Ran across this article today. A real conundrum. I thought Bloomberg funding was bad enough…

1 Like

My taxes support a lot of organizations and initiatives I’m not in favor of. Once that money leaves my control, it leaves my control. The only way to grapple with it is to make sure I am voting for individuals at all levels of government whose positions tie in with mine as well as possible.

9 Likes

No lobbying group of any persuasion or viewpoint should be allowed to even apply for tax dollar funding of any kind. The very idea is absurd.

On the other hand, tax dollars pay the salaries and expenses of anti-gun prosecutors and legislators, so there you go.

4 Likes

Radical as always, I say stop paying taxes! (did I say a bad word?). We need to defund the right people. The true fact of the matter is we did vote, and every time we get someone in they turn out to be lazy traitors and treasonous unvetted liars. They sure aren’t working for their paychecks, IE: SCOTUS.

1 Like

Wished we had a tax worksheet for where we want our taxes to go.

3 Likes

The fact that this is even possible shows how deep the swamp is, where politicians can funnel money into organizations that funnel the money right back to them. Shameful.

But I agree. We should have a worksheet for our taxes that allowed us to allocate our tax dollars. That would really tell the government what “the people” want their money spent on. But then that would be discrimination against those who dont pay taxes. I will not complete that thought right now…

2 Likes

I read somewhere, could be related to 501©3 or nonprofits, you’re not supposed to take sides if you’re receiving federal funding.

2 Likes

I guess the covid PPP funds weren’t that specific. I do know Chinese companies in the US also received funds.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/36293-millions-in-ppp-funds-given-to-companies-linked-to-china-s-communist-party

I’ve been mugged once before down a backstreet alley on broadway, feels the same!

1 Like

Amazing that Grassroots Gun Rights Groups Do Not accept PPP funds:

or do away with all lobbyists and legislators, bring the power to the people. I’ve discussed it before (maybe not here), but I’ve come up with a solution whereby we have 100% transparent and secure online voting, and we vote monthly on legislation (only about a single cause… none of that “sneak this one thing in” stuff), and we introduce legislation ourselves with a process (probably “petition style” requiring a percentage of the population affected by the proposed legislation to agree to vote on it). Then we get rid of that entire level of nonsense corruption.

I know there’s a lot of hurdles, like getting the legislators to give up their ridiculous power, and convincing people that by having individuals vote that it eliminates the voter fraud issue that I’m sure people will assume hacking and votes by one person using another person’s login … but that can be taken care of, and when someone dies, their identifier can be deactivated much quicker than their names are removed from voter log book things…

IMO it’s a “utopian” solution that doesn’t have a realistic downside any more than the current setup, and I believe it can be infinitely better. I’ve gotten pushback about people claiming about the electoral college screwing with 2A stuff, but I actually think the most FAIR and HONEST way to run a country is a majority opinion on every piece of legislation… and with the increase in left-leaning gun purchases, I’m even more doubtful that it would even affect 2A rights.


EDIT (pasted from below):
I forgot to include that the transparency in voting I mentioned is that: 1. anyone can download a log of the votes, tied to a unique identifier different from our SSN’s (so nobody knows who voted what), but that each one is there in a database that can be downloaded. Also, votes can be “inspected” by the individual logging in and seeing what the database has their votes stored as AT ANY TIME… and then if there’s a discrepancy for some odd reason, they can petition (file a form) to have it fixed.

1 Like

Interesting…
I’m not sure that would wind up being the best… we’re too selfish.

1 Like

The Electoral College is Constitutional. Prevents population centers like NYC from running the entire country. We are a Constitutional based Republic, not a true Democracy run by mob rule. The folks here in Virginia learned a valuable lesson this year. Even though >96% of the counties have conservative values, the high-population areas like Arlington, Richmond, Alexandria and Norfolk flipped the state blue. The fact that many folks were sleeping thru mid-term didn’t help either.

That is why gerrymandering is such a wicked political tool. Also, why certain parties are pushing for popular vote instead of a real Electoral College.

3 Likes

Yeah, I think that we need an amendment to the constitution to get rid of it. It’s flat out weird and inefficient, and is the opposite of, or maybe just another form of (I’m not sure if it’s different or not), gerrymandering in just as bad a way.


Again, I’m not sold that that is actually fair, and I’m HIGHLY doubtful that it would yield the result that my friends on the right are terrified of.


You are correct, and I don’t want anything run by “mob rule” … we’d have full sets of legislation, it just wouldn’t be influenced by $$ and lobbyists. Who’s going to give every single voter $200,000 to ditch their morals and legalize third term abortions? Nobody, guys… But with the lobbying, they’re just doing that to a SMALL group of people who happen to be legislators… so you remove that corruption automatically.
And then, yes, a true Democracy, that operates well. It wouldn’t have 30 years ago, but it could now. We have the technology to support the voting that would be required now, and if it’s voted on by individuals, we eliminate the hacking…


I forgot to include that the transparency in voting I mentioned is that: 1. anyone can download a log of the votes, tied to a unique identifier different from our SSN’s (so nobody knows who voted what), but that each one is there in a database that can be downloaded. Also, votes can be “inspected” by the individual logging in and seeing what the database has their votes stored as AT ANY TIME… and then if there’s a discrepancy for some odd reason, they can petition (file a form) to have it fixed.

1 Like

I understand what you are saying and will politely disagree, brother. I work in Cyber. We don’t have the technology or discipline yet. What man has created can definitely be hacked. Robert Heinlein suggested a unique government in Starship Troopers. You didn’t become a citizen unless you served the governed first. Military service if my memory serves me. Politicians were selected by real credentials and not by popularity.

2 Likes

Interesting. My dad was a huge fan of Heinlein, and I read some … don’t think I read that one.

I’ll also politely disagree with your disagreement. I don’t love to qualify myself, but since you did, I spent years working in database administration and web development. It’s there, it can be done. I then have had gotten education in Sociology, Social Work and Psychology, which I think has helped with some of the “soft science” critical thinking …
We nearly eliminate the appeal of hacking by having such a sheer number of voters, and we further nearly eliminate the voter fraud with a much more updateable solution… The busses of people to polls to vote where they aren’t even living, under other peoples’ names?
Elect less people, vote on issues directly, makes it much less worth it to hack in that manner. Plus the part about being able to verify that your vote wasn’t hacked…

1 Like

@Jeff-A1

I’m thinking neither of us are talking complete nonsense … but I think my presentation of the dismantling of the legislative branch and restructuring it as a single branch containing the populous (still have judicial and executive) paired with the online voting thing, … I don’t think anyone’s had that concept in the same way I have, and obviously I’m biased towards my idea… But I think that nobody in the country truly knows how my idea would play out until either a smaller case study (do it on the local level in a few small towns first) or a full scale implementation.

I think that ANYTHING will be hackable with the right skills for as far as I can imagine. So, we need to take a non-technical solution to that technical issue, and eliminate the appeal of such hacking.

1 Like

The problem with “soft sciences” like programming AI with deep learning is the subjectivity. Kinda like the predictions for Covid-19 deaths based on a faulty series of models. We both agree there should be no deep pockets coercing political decisions from politicians. Bloomberg bucks influencing corrupt politicians to pass anti-gun legislation here in VA is a sore example. I don’t think dead cats should be able to vote, either :pouting_cat:

1 Like

Sorry, I get what your example IS but I’m not sure how it applies? “Soft sciences” being things like psychology, public health, sociology, social justice, education (as a field of study itself)…

1 Like

No, no, no.

I do not want NY, IL and CA controlling the country.

2 Likes