All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[numberthirty]

The Dayton shooter was stopped in 60 seconds, he still had a double digit body count. If that doesn't debunk the 'good guy with a gun' myth, nothing will short of an active shooter with a 30+ person body count at an NRA meeting, and even that seems unlikely.

Don't disagree.

That said, the idea that we should even be entertaining "What about the good guy with a gun stopping the shooter before the police showed up?" in an instance where a police stop started the entire thing is just foolish.

[Powerboy]

Democrats and Republicans differ over role and value of scientists in policy debates

Republicans/ Conservatives say scientists should focus on establishing sound facts so they can reject them when they seem to almost never coincide with conservative beliefs and economic interests.

[Gray Lensman]

Let me guess, another Black Identity Extremist?

A white one, perhaps. Which is so far the only detail detail that has been released. White Male in his 30s.

[worstblogever]

A white one, perhaps. Which is so far the only detail detail that has been released. White Male in his 30s.

Based on the traffic stop, I'm guessing he's got a criminal record, didn't want to go back to jail... and that because Texas guns laws are so lax, even though he shouldn't have had a firearm, he managed to get one he shouldn't have had to shoot up Odessa with.

Gonna wait and see if that's the case, but based on the description of his behavior, I'd think it would be.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published our original profile of David Dreier, the former member of the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 26th District who who once was a rising star in the GOP, until of course his secret started to leak out that he was a closeted homosexual. Still, through the years, Rep. Dreier managed to vote with his party against all manner of LGBT issues, including not only against gay marriage, but even gay adoption rights. Dreier also had th highest paid Congressional intern once upon a time, which ended up being a bit of an ethical issue because that intern just so happened to be his boyfriend. After eight years of rumors, Dreier finally chose to not to run for re-election in 2013.

On this date in both 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" shared profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Virginia’s 6th Congressional District, Bob Goodlatte, who has been allowed to run for office in a very conservative district with almost no primary challengers, at all, from 1992-2018. Goodlatte was one of the co-sponsors of Florida Rep. Bill Posey's "Birther Bill" in 2009, and in 2015, he accused the Department of Justice of funneling money to liberal organizations such as ACORN and LaRaza. The former would have been an amazing scandal, mostly because ACORN had long since defunded and had not existed since 2010. Goodlatte's voting record through the years includes voting for the Defense of Marriage Act, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", voted to allow displays of the Ten Commandments on government property and for a Constitutional Amendment to allow individual states to vote for their own state religions, voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton,voted to try and keep Terry Schiavo alive against her wishes, and voted for the invasion of Iraq. And that's the stuff from before the Obama administration. Since, the guy will vote against anything sensible, even disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, or against the Zadroga Bill, to pay for the healthcare costs of 9/11 First Responders. But what Rep. Goodlatte felt was a wise use of taxpayer money was to spend years investigating Hillary Clinton for doing all the bad stuff at Benghazi, and in July of 2016, after FBI Director James Comey declared there was no wrongdoing found, Goodlatte demanded an investigation into Comey’s investigation. Which, at that point, he might as well take taxpayer dollars into a 55 gallon drum and set them on fire. He celebrated by starting the new session attempting to orchestrate a secret vote to eliminate funding for the Office of Government Ethics. When the effort collapsed due to political outcry, he immediately changed the subject and voiced his opinion that FBI Director James Comey should investigate Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Because of course he did. But really, can we be surprised he loathes ethics when he literally was busted for going twice the speed limit through a school zone, then sent his wife to argue on his behalf that it only happened due to a faulty speedometer, because he’s too stupid to be able to tell the difference between 70 and 35 MPH. Goodlatte finally announced he’s retiring and not running for re-election in 2018 after 13 terms in office, and he’s so inspiring that his son, Bobby Goodlatte, donated the maximum amount to the trying to flip his father’s seat blue (and she pulled it off). The younger Goodlatte actually chastised his father on social media for “political grandstanding” in demonizing FBI agent Peter Strzok for working for the Mueller investigation and called the hearing where his father did it “a low point for Congress”. And that will likely be Bob Goodlatte’s legacy. Being so insipidly partisan and craven that his own son turned his back on him. It’s… fitting. We’ll retire his profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 777-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Russell Walker

Welcome to the 777th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Russell Walker, a 2018 candidate for the North Carolina House of Representatives who was challenging Democratic incumbent Garland Pierce. This is another simple profile for us, because Walker seemed to just be a racist loon who in 2017, just so happened to be the plaintiff who tried suing the state of South Carolina for removing the Confederate flag from it’s courtrooms, and when was discussing his litigation with the media, he “accidentally” called Martin Luther King a racial slur. Walker would also picket outside the offices of local newspapers for not printing opinion editorials he wrote about the merits of racism, and when he announced he was running for office, the paper went ahead and revealed what some of Walker’s terrible opinions included:

• ”God made the races and he is the greatest racist ever.”
• “What is wrong with being a white supremacist?”
• “The Jews are not Semitic they are Satanic as they all descend from Satan.”
• ”MLK wanted to destroy the Caucasian race through mixing and integration."

Apparently he also was a bit of an anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist, so there’s that, as well.

Russell Walker ended up getting only 37% of the vote, which is about 37% more than he deserves. We’re hoping he never files to run for office again, but if he does, the North Carolina GOP won’t be supporting him as a candidate (not that they ever should have).

[InformationGeek]

Oh WBE! Matt Schaefer spoke up about the Texas shooting and oh boy, what the hell?

“Do something!” is the statement we keep hearing. As an elected official with a vote in Austin, let me tell you what I am NOT going to do. 1/6

I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent. 2/6

I say NO to “red flag” pre-crime laws. NO to universal background checks. NO to bans on AR-15s, or high capacity magazines. NO to mandatory gun buybacks. 3/6

What can we do? YES to praying for victims. YES to praying for protection. YES to praying that God would transform the hearts of people with evil intent. YES to fathers not leaving their wives and children. YES to discipline in the homes. 4/6

YES to supporting our public schools. YES to giving every law-abiding single mom the right to carry a handgun to protect her and her kids without permission from the state, and the same for all other law-abiding Texans of age. 5/6

YES to your God-given, constitutionally protected rights. YES to God, and NO to more government intrusions. 6/6

What a piece of work this guy.

[worstblogever]

Oh WBE! Matt Schaefer spoke up about the Texas shooting and oh boy, what the hell?

What a piece of work this guy.

I'm starting to see the GOP's talking points about mass shootings morph into "single parents are to blame", which based on the analysis... the shooters frequently come from traditional parent homes. But nobody believed video games were doing it, so this was the next excuse.

Republican ideology has become a fantasy-land void of facts and evidence to back up what they want, overall.

[Kusanagi]

Oh WBE! Matt Schaefer spoke up about the Texas shooting and oh boy, what the hell?

'What a piece of work this guy.

Wow he basically said 'You'll get thoughts and prayers, and you'll like it!

[Tami]

Meanwhile

About 160,000 People in New York to See Their Marijuana Convictions Disappear

Even as states across the country have legalized marijuana, potentially opening the door to a multibillion dollar industry, the impact of marijuana criminalization is still being felt by people — mostly black and Hispanic — whose records are marked by low-level convictions related to the drug.

But on Wednesday, New York began the process of expunging many of those records, as part of a new state law to reduce penalties associated with marijuana-related crimes, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo confirmed.

“For too long communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by laws governing marijuana and have suffered the lifelong consequences of an unfair marijuana conviction,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the new law, which was passed in June and took effect on Wednesday, about 160,000 people with marijuana convictions in the state will have those convictions cleared from their record, according to a spokeswoman for the State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

On the one hand we have Texas, where Republicans are basically telling people to stop crying and have a gun (go shoot someone). On the other, we have NY where Democrats are giving people their lives back by removing convictions for crimes that are no longer crimes.

[Tami]

The end of the dollar as we know it

Current uncertainty and worries are clearly reflected in the financial markets. Investors are fleeing into assets that are deemed safe such as gold, U.S. Treasuries and the dollar. They still flock to the U.S. on a massive scale whereas a lot of the current insecurity derives directly from the White House. At the same time, we are seeing more and more commentaries around the question whether a shift is taking place, slowly but surely, from the dollar toward other currencies.

JP Morgan recently wrote, “We believe the dollar could lose its status as the world’s dominant currency (which could see it depreciate over the medium term) due to structural reasons as well as cyclical impediments.” And this month, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney claimed that the dollar’s status as a hegemon is putting the global economy under increasing strain and needs to end.

That the dominance of the dollar is being questioned is not surprising at the present juncture:

Current and future U.S. policies look vague or non-existent. Allies as well as enemies feel out of control as they have to wait and see what storms are brewing in the U.S. president's Twitter feed, about to be unleashed.

Countries such as China and Russia are taking an increasingly assertive stance.

The relative supremacy of the U.S. has been waning and there are mounting doubts whether the country will continue to support and shore up the international system that it has largely build up and shaped itself.

The power of the United States may be lessening in a relative sense but the country has its tentacles in projects and countries virtually all over the world.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm starting to see the GOP's talking points about mass shootings morph into "single parents are to blame", which based on the analysis... the shooters frequently come from traditional parent homes. But nobody believed video games were doing it, so this was the next excuse.

Republican ideology has become a fantasy-land void of facts and evidence to back up what they want, overall.

Don’t forget violent TV shows and movies along with gangsta rap as contributing factors. Heaven forbid that actual facts get in the way of a good Republican argument.

[Tami]

Don’t forget violent TV shows and movies along with gangsta rap as contributing factors. Heaven forbid that actual facts get in the way of a good Republican argument.

Someone responded on Twitter to something I posted by pretty much saying that it was Drugs to blame. I thought about, but didn't, ask how this person came to the conclusion that any of the recent Shooters had a problem with drugs?

I don't know of any study linking drug use to gun violence, then again the NRA and Congressional Republicans have made sure that the CDC is no allowed to do the actual studies needed to figure out things like that.

Edit: Though this is something I hadn't heard about

The CDC Could Totally Study Gun Violence—It Just Needs Money

The nation’s epidemic of gun violence is back in the spotlight once again, after a weekend that saw mass shootings in El Paso, Dayton, and Chicago. Dozens of people were killed, even more wounded, all within 13 hours. The tragedies have spurred a renewed call for more gun control. But it also has experts clamoring for Congress to pass what they say should be the low-hanging fruit in an otherwise divisive debate: They’re begging lawmakers to simply fund gun violence research.

For all the obsession that Americans have with guns, the country has awful little scientific data to show for it. In 1996, Congress passed a law with a provision known as the Dickey Amendment that effectively prohibited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using its life-saving budget to study gun violence. As a result, for decades the US has not thrown its full resources at the problem the way it has with, say, tobacco or car crashes.

After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last year, and the wave of activism that followed, Congress clarified that the CDC could, in fact, use funds to study gun violence. It just didn’t earmark any additional money for that purpose. Months later, Democrats regained the majority in the House. They’ve been using that status to fight to get $50 million explicitly earmarked for studying the underpinnings of America’s gun violence problem.

“Gun violence prevention research is critical to dealing with the public health emergency we are facing,” representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) said in a statement to WIRED this week.

As chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, DeLauro helped usher through $25 million each for the CDC and the National Institutes of Health earlier this year.

“Their research can help inform further proposals to help us save lives, especially with regard to suicide by firearm, the link between domestic violence and gun violence, safe gun storage so kids do not hurt themselves, and identifying risk factors for those who seek firearms with the intent of murdering innocent Americans,” DeLauro said.

The $50 million earmarked by the House still needs to be approved in the Senate—and that’s a big obstacle. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has tried as hard as he can to prevent bills that even mention firearms from seeing the light of day on the Senate floor he so mightily controls.

[Tami]

UPDATE: 9 shot, teen arrested in football shooting

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) Mobile police have arrested a teenager in connection to a shooting at Ladd Peebles Stadium on Friday night.

Deangelo Parnell, 17, is charged with nine counts of attempted murder, according to a spokesperson for the Mobile Police Department.

The shots were fired in the concourse of the stadium near the end of the LeFlore vs. Williamson High School football game. At least ten people were injured. Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste tells News 5 those injured range in age from 15-18. Five people were critically hurt.

[Tami]

Opinion: Treat the fentanyl crisis like a poisoning outbreak

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released drug overdose statistics for 2018, and they are shocking. Of the estimated 47,000 deaths from opioids last year, roughly two-thirds involved potent synthetic opioids, most of them fentanyl.

America’s fentanyl problem is far deadlier than past crises with other illegal drugs. It also has a fundamentally different character. For most victims, fentanyl was not their drug of choice. Rather, they were poisoned by dealers who mixed it into baggies of heroin or pressed into fake-opioid tablets.

What is happening with fentanyl is unlike the trajectory of previous drug epidemics. Those typically involved “contagious” spread of initial use — primarily among those who may have been ignorant of the drug’s risks. This was the case with prescription opioids, which were prescribed aggressively for chronic pain. Some individuals who sought pain treatment now have an opioid use disorder. So do others who got the pills from neighbors or friends for recreational use.

In the case of fentanyl, it is largely the suppliers — not users — who have embraced the drug because it is an ideal cost-cutting substitute. Synthetic opioids are produced in labs, so they are much cheaper than heroin — perhaps as much as 99% cheaper per dose after adjusting for potency. It’s also easy to acquire. Anyone with an internet connection can purchase synthetic opioids that are most frequently made in China and delivered through the mail or by parcel service. Some Mexican crime syndicates trafficking heroin are also adding fentanyl to their portfolios.

[Tami]

How a Trump Tax Break to Help Poor Communities Became a Windfall for the Rich

NEW ORLEANS — President Trump has portrayed America’s cities as wastelands, ravaged by crime and homelessness, infested by rats.

But the Trump administration’s signature plan to lift them — a multibillion-dollar tax break that is supposed to help low-income areas — has fueled a wave of developments financed by and built for the wealthiest Americans.

Among the early beneficiaries of the tax incentive are billionaire financiers like Leon Cooperman and business magnates like Sidney Kohl — and Mr. Trump’s family members and advisers.

Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey; Richard LeFrak, a New York real estate titan who is close to the president; Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House aide who recently had a falling out with Mr. Trump; and the family of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, all are looking to profit from what is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation bonanza for elite investors.

The stated goal of the tax benefit — tucked into the Republicans’ 2017 tax-cut legislation — was to coax investors to pump cash into poor neighborhoods, known as opportunity zones, leading to new housing, businesses and jobs.

The initiative allows people to sell stocks or other investments and delay capital gains taxes for years — as long as they plow the proceeds into projects in federally certified opportunity zones. Any profits from those projects can avoid federal taxes altogether.

“Opportunity zones, hottest thing going, providing massive new incentives for investment and job creation in distressed communities,” Mr. Trump declared at a recent rally in Cincinnati.

Instead, billions of untaxed investment profits are beginning to pour into high-end apartment buildings and hotels, storage facilities that employ only a handful of workers, and student housing in bustling college towns, among other projects.

Mr. Scaramucci’s development in New Orleans offers a portrait of how the tax break works. His investment company, SkyBridge Capital, is using the so-called opportunity zone initiative to help build a hotel, outfitted with an opulent restaurant and a rooftop pool, in the city’s trendy Warehouse District.

The tax benefit also is helping finance the construction of a 46-story, glass-wrapped apartment tower — amenities include a yoga lawn and a pool surrounded by cabanas and daybeds — in a Houston neighborhood already brimming with new projects aimed at the wealthy.

And in Miami’s hot Design District, where commercial real estate prices have nearly tripled in the last decade, the tax break is set to be used for a ritzy new office tower with a landscaped roof terrace.

Some proponents of opportunity zones note that money is already flowing into downtrodden communities like Birmingham, Ala., and Erie, Pa. They argue that more funds will follow. And they note that because no data exists on where investments are being made, it is impossible to quantify the benefits going to the wealthy versus the poor.

“The early wave, that’s not what you judge,” said John Lettieri, president of the Economic Innovation Group, an organization that lobbied for the establishment of opportunity zones.

But leaders of groups that work in cities and rural areas to combat poverty say they are disappointed with how it is playing out so far.