Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said President Obama is overreaching
The White House directed schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity
Washington (CNN)Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that the White House guidance on
transgender bathrooms in schools is unconstitutional and the latest
example of executive overreach.
"Understand
this, there's only one body of the three branches of government that
can write the law and that is Congress," Abbott said on Fox News' "Fox
and Friends." "We have a president who decided, well, if Congress is not
going to pass the law, he's going to impose the law. And so the
President is turning the Constitution on its head."
Abbott charged that Obama is making executive decisions because he's in the "waning months" of his presidency.
"He's trying to cram down as many parts of his liberal agenda on the United States of America as he possibly can," Abbott said.
Abbott also said Hillary Clinton is nothing more than an "extension of the Obama agenda, if not worse."
In
an earlier interview Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Abbott said he
will support the Republican nominee for president, who he expects will
be Donald Trump.
"We do have a
choice, it's not like 'none of the above' is a potential option," he
said. "Texans will robustly come out and support a campaign against
Hillary Clinton ... Donald Trump is going to win the state of Texas."
Abbott's
comments on the transgender bathroom issue come after the White House
issued guidance last week directing public schools to allow transgender
students to use bathrooms matching how they self-identify their gender.
If schools don't follow the guidance, they risk the loss of federal
funding.
The White House is in a heated legal standoff with North Carolina over its controversial House Bill 2, part of which has to do with transgender bathroom access.
CNN
reached out to the Obama administration for comment on Abbott's remarks
Monday. On Friday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest defended
the guidance, saying it came after the "extensive requests for guidance
and for information and advice that have been put forward by school
administrators and teachers."
"It
is my strongly held belief -- and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be right
about this -- that the vast majority of schools and school districts and
school administrators across the country will welcome this guidance and
will implement it," Earnest said when asked about Republican opposition
to the guidance. "For those that don't, there's an established process
for them to raise any concerns that they may have."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said President Obama is overreaching
The White House directed schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity
Washington (CNN)Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that the White House guidance on
transgender bathrooms in schools is unconstitutional and the latest
example of executive overreach.
"Understand
this, there's only one body of the three branches of government that
can write the law and that is Congress," Abbott said on Fox News' "Fox
and Friends." "We have a president who decided, well, if Congress is not
going to pass the law, he's going to impose the law. And so the
President is turning the Constitution on its head."
Abbott charged that Obama is making executive decisions because he's in the "waning months" of his presidency.
"He's trying to cram down as many parts of his liberal agenda on the United States of America as he possibly can," Abbott said.
Abbott also said Hillary Clinton is nothing more than an "extension of the Obama agenda, if not worse."
In
an earlier interview Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Abbott said he
will support the Republican nominee for president, who he expects will
be Donald Trump.
"We do have a
choice, it's not like 'none of the above' is a potential option," he
said. "Texans will robustly come out and support a campaign against
Hillary Clinton ... Donald Trump is going to win the state of Texas."
Abbott's
comments on the transgender bathroom issue come after the White House
issued guidance last week directing public schools to allow transgender
students to use bathrooms matching how they self-identify their gender.
If schools don't follow the guidance, they risk the loss of federal
funding.
The White House is in a heated legal standoff with North Carolina over its controversial House Bill 2, part of which has to do with transgender bathroom access.
CNN
reached out to the Obama administration for comment on Abbott's remarks
Monday. On Friday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest defended
the guidance, saying it came after the "extensive requests for guidance
and for information and advice that have been put forward by school
administrators and teachers."
"It
is my strongly held belief -- and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be right
about this -- that the vast majority of schools and school districts and
school administrators across the country will welcome this guidance and
will implement it," Earnest said when asked about Republican opposition
to the guidance. "For those that don't, there's an established process
for them to raise any concerns that they may have."
By Tom McHale This is a list of things I like to check out
when I have my AR 15 rifle field stripped for basic AR-15 Maintenance
& cleaning.
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- Cleaning
your AR-type rifle is a great opportunity to run through a quick
checklist of preventative maintenance and inspection steps.
Investing
a few seconds in some quick checks may just help your rifle from
vomiting parts while at the range, which can ruin your fun range day and
embarrass you in front of your friends.
If you kick in doors for a living, you (hopefully) already have a personal routine for rifle maintenance – it’s life and death after all.
But
if you’re a recreational or competitive shooter, then you can afford to
be slightly less rigorous. Contrary to internet myth, the AR platform
has become a pretty darn reliable piece of equipment.
Back
to the point. I jotted down this list of things I like to check out
when I have my rifle field stripped for basic cleaning. Take a look, but
don’t get all stressed out about every little detail. Your AR-type
rifle is a remarkably resilient platform.
We’ll be using a Smith & Wesson M&P15 OR (Optics Ready) rifle as our model for this exercise. It’s a common gun that’s solid and reliable, with standard parts.
1. AR-15 Takedown Pins
You
can check the very first item as you separate the upper and lower
halves of your rifle. If everything is fit properly, you should be able
to push the takedown pins through
with hand pressure or very light tap. If you have to break out a hammer
to move your takedown pins, something is wrong – the whole point of the
AR design is to be able to use a finger, bullet tip or field-expedient
tool, like the Real Avid Ar15 Tool, to field strip the rifle for basic maintenance.
Besides, hammering away on your (most likely) aluminum receiver is usually detrimental to the long-term health of your gun.
2. AR-15 Muzzle Devices
While we’re still on the outside, give your muzzle device (brake, flash hider or silencer) a firm twist in both directions. Is it solid? While rare for a factory mounted device to work loose, it happens.
If you’ve ever removed the factory muzzle device and put your own in place, it’s somewhat more likely.
A half-second check, every cleaning, can prevent a whole lot of embarrassment and worse yet, flying chunks of metal.
3. AR-15 Optic and Mount
Another
no brainer is your optic and mount. Check the bases to make sure
they’re still tightly affixed to the receiver. Check the scope rings, if
applicable to make sure they’re tight to the proper specification. Poor
accuracy from a rifle is almost always the result of something silly
like a bad scope or scope loose mounts. Sometimes its optic internals
and you can narrow that down by ensuring that the externals are solid.
4. AR-15 Bolt Carrier Gas Key
When
you open the upper receiver, the first thing you do is remove the
charging handle and bolt carrier group. Since you’ve got your hand on it
anyway, this is a great time to do a quick visual and tactile
inspection of your bolt carrier gas key.
Look at it to make sure the screws are firmly in place. More
importantly, give it a firm twist with your hands. It should be rock
solid on the carrier body itself. If it’s not, you’re going to have some
malfunctions headed your way as gas is bleeding off before doing it’s
thing. The repair procedure is too involved to cover here, just know
you’re going to want to take it completely apart, thoroughly clean and
degrease everything and firmly remount it and stake the screws in place.
5. AR-15 Bolt Carrier Body
As
you disassemble the bolt from the carrier, check the carrier body
itself for cracks. Pay close attention to high-impact areas like the cam
pin hole – that takes a beating over time. If you see any cracks in
your carrier, it needs to be replaced. No big worries though, for a
recreational rifle, this is somewhat unlikely unless your bolt carrier group is made out of Mighty Putty.
6. AR-15 Maintenance – Bolt Lugs
This
is also a good time to inspect the lugs on your bolt. Make sure there
are no chips or peening signs. Peening is just a fancy word for “smashed” or “dented.” If you see signs of either, it’s time for a new Ar15 bolt.
7. AR-15 Maintenance – Firing Pin
When
you wipe down the firing pin, put on your Mr. Magoo specs and look at
the tip. It should be smooth and rounded – no chips or weird dents.
Again, if you see either, get a new one. They’re cheap.
8. AR-15 Maintenance – Extractor and Spring
I like to pop off the extractor and
take a quick look since that’s one of the more likely failure points.
Check the extractor to make sure it’s whole and has nice sharp edges.
Also take a look at the spring and booster. That’s a plastic insert
inside the spring. Again, these are all cheap parts, so if anything is missing or looks wonky, replace it.
9.AR-15 Maintenance – Gas Rings, or Not
People get all lathered up about gas rings. If they’re not perfectly “unaligned,”
meaning none of the gaps line up, then the moon might crash into Possum
Kingdom, South Carolina. And that would be tragic indeed. In reality,
If you have more than one gas ring in place, your rifle will most likely
still function – gaps aligned or unaligned. If memory serves, AR guru
Patrick Sweeney did some tests way back when to test this and found that
it just doesn’t matter all that much. Once again, if you’re employed as
one of those dudes or dudettes that line up outside Meth labs or clay
huts, then you might pay more attention. As to the rest of us? Check
them and tweak their orientation, but don’t lose a lot of sleep over the
issue.
In
an ideal world, what you should see is three normal looking gas rings,
with the gaps unaligned. To test for wear, simply pull the bolt out of
the carrier as far as it will go. Stand the bolt and carrier up on a
flat surface. If the carrier doesn’t start to slip down, you’re good to
go. If it does, your gas rings are worn. Get some new ones.
10. AR-15 Maintenance – Lower Receiver
Moving
to the lower receiver, take a peek down into the trigger assembly area.
You’ll almost certainly see grime and crud, and that’s OK – you’re about to clean it after all.
What you don’t want to see are primers or pieces of primers. If primers
are getting blown out of cartridges once in a while, that could be
indicating pressure problems with your ammunition, overheating or
possibly headspace problems.
11. AR-15 Maintenance – Recoil Buffer and Spring
Remove your AR15’s buffer and spring.
Check for gunk in the buffer tube and wipe it out as necessary. While
you have the parts out, check the buffer itself to make sure it’s smooth
and not messed up. Give that spring a wipe too. If you’re a casual or
recreational shooter, you can lube up the spring to quiet some of that “sproing” noise during recoil.
Sproing is another fancy word, but fortunately it does not cause harmful things like peening – it just sounds uncool.
12. AR-15 Maintenance – Magazines
You
might as well pop the bottom off your magazines and give the interiors a
quick inspection and wipe down. If you’re dropping them in the dirt,
they will get crud in them. One of the biggest causes of malfunctions is
dirty and / or damaged magazines and it’s easy to be proactive about
that. If I’m having reliability issues, the magazines are the first
thing I’m going to check.
13. AR-15 Maintenance – the Cool & Fun Factor
Last
on the list, after you reassemble the upper and lower receivers, take a
good look at your rifle as a whole. Is it still awesome? Does it still
look ridiculously handy and fun to shoot? Yes? Then you’re good to go!
How about you? How rigorous are you with preventative maintenance? What are the things you look for?