Seattle City Council to vote on gun tax: Today, the Seattle City Council will vote on a controversial new gun tax, which has gun owners pissed and most everyone else going, “Yeah, sounds logical.”  KIRO 7 reports that the tax would entail the following: Sellers would be taxed $25 for every gun sold plus 2 or 5 cent taxes on each bullet. Tax estimated to generate $300,000 a year for gun violence prevention. Gun store owner says shop owners and customers will leave Seattle. Also, a second ordinance “would require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns to police.” At this point, you may be thinking, what’s the big deal – these all seem like commonsense standards. And you’d be right. Another day, another shooting: Good morning America, there’s been another act of gun violence. According to the  Washington Post , a man was critically injured by police “following a spasm of gunfire Sunday night, exactly one year to the day after Michael Brown’s death.” Early reports suggest that the police were not at fault. The populism of Hillary Clinton: The Atlantic’s Scott Beauchamp provides a compelling article on why the Democratic nomination “race doesn’t feature a populist pitted against an ersatz liberal. It shows two politicians, both populists, expressing their populism in different modes.” He goes on to explain: If Sanders is a rhetorical populist, then Clinton is one in a different, and more literal sense: She actually tries to cater to the majority of likely voters…It is Clinton’s heightened awareness of these mundane commonalities that defines her version of populism. That is an interesting point to make. After all, if populism is broadly defined as “a political doctrine that appeals to the interests and conceptions of the general population,” then Hillary most certainly falls into the populist camp. Undoubtedly, she doesn’t lead on all issues. But she is most certainly a candidate that pursues the demands of the … Continue reading Daily Clips: August 10th, 2015