All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[TheInvisibleMan]

BlackRock Asset Management is putting gun makers on notice

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1G62PC

[worstblogever]

A report on hate crimes from 2017 reveals that in one of 5 hate crimes committed against South Asians or Middle-Eastern people, the attacker invokes the name "Trump" or "MAGA" while committing it.

For those who need evidence that Trump peddles hate.

[GhostPirate]

I find the whole debate spurred by recent events problematic at best, and actually pretty frightening... as well as frighteningly ignorant.

As usual, the agenda of the left debates Constitutional Rights with complete lack of context. It's like their incessant use of the 8th Amendment to protect mass murderers, serial killers, sadists and psychopaths who torture and kill innocent people for kicks from capital punishment. It was instituted by people coming from a country where you could literally be tortured and killed legally for being poor and/or owing money... not to coddle human scum.

The 2nd Amendment was, likewise, not created so people could play around at the range and swagger about like a cowboy in some old western, it was made to allow the citizenry to protect themselves from oppressive government.

But that's the real problem, isn't it? The same people who want to take away guns in times like these are also the same ones who want oppressive government; they want to be the thought police. It's a scary thought. The same people who sit behind computers all day, and so believe all these people they rarely interact with in person, want equality in race, religion, sexual preferences and gender identity... but they want to demonize, ostracize, and often outright criminalize people with different thoughts and ideals who don't follow their usually quite myopic "thought" processes.

After all, even though drunk and distracted driving fatalities actually exceed gun-related deaths (which include accidents and suicides) there's never the same call for prohibition or banning of cell phone usage, usually just some insipid #hashtag campaign. Hell, we can't even get people's driving PRIVILEGES (that's right libs, not everything is a Right) permanently revoked for DUIs or distracted driving, even after they kill someone. But guns to prevent a takeover by ideological fascists? Yes, they need those gone right now.

Because unfortunately, freedom and democracy comes with a fatal flaw: they expect, rely upon, and actually demand both personal responsibility and individual accountability. Also unfortunately, those are 2 concepts the left is incapable of understanding. Everything a given individual does (at least one who doesn't demonstrate a different value system and/or thought process from their hive mind agenda) is the fault of peer groups, parents, upbringing, teachers, the system, the government, big business, society... basically anything BUT the individual.

Take it out of the individuals hands, better to put responsibility into the hands of the government, made up itself of individuals... but held accountable to an unthinking, unreasoning, reactionary mob.

[InformationGeek]

Meanwhile, Rubio doubles down on why he's a spineless whore for the NRA.

Banning all semi-auto weapons may have been popular with the audience at #CNNTownHall, but it is a position well outside the mainstream

My my, you're gonna have fun with this profile update of Rubio, aren't ya WBE? He's just giving you so much.

[BeastieRunner]

Meanwhile, Rubio doubles down on why he's a spineless whore for the NRA.



My my, you're gonna have fun with this profile update of Rubio, aren't ya WBE? He's just giving you so much.

My parents and in-laws are GOP guns nuts ... and they think semi-autos gotta go.

[Carabas]

The 2nd Amendment was, likewise, not created so people could play around at the range and swagger about like a cowboy in some old western, it was made to allow the citizenry to protect themselves from oppressive government.

Then maybe it should be done away with because technology has moved on. If the US goverment is seriously going to oppress the country, it is going to point and laugh at your pityfull guns.
Also, the citizens with the most guns are clearly going to be on the side of the oppressive government.

And meanwhile it is just getting people killed.

[InformationGeek]

Oh boy, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has been charged for a first-degree felony invasion of privacy.

Missouri GOP Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted on Thursday, amid looming allegations of sexual misconduct and blackmail following an admission of an affair last month.

He was charged in St. Louis for a first-degree felony invasion of privacy, according the Missouri court system.

Missouri's KMOV published a report last month where a man said his now-former wife had an affair with Greitens in 2015. The report included details of a recording of a woman saying Greitens had tried to blackmail her to keep quiet about their sexual encounter.

Greitens denied he resorted to blackmail, but admitted to an affair, and the circuit attorney for St. Louis, Kimberly M. Gardner, said they had launched a formal investigation.

Greitens' attorney, Edward Dowd, Jr., said in an email to KMOV: "In forty years of public and private practice, I have never seen anything like this. The charges against my client are baseless and unfounded. My client is absolutely innocent. We will be filing a motion to dismiss."

Here's your new update image WBE!

[master of read]

i see people saying that he could have done anything with his gun against that kid's AR-15.

then i remind them of the north hollywood shoot-out.

[Tazirai]

Remember Dana Loesch from the CNN Town Debate last night? Well, she's at CPAC and my god, she's insane, ranting and mocking everyone from last night. Guess she needs a safe zone, because she certainly didn't have the balls to say that stuff to a tougher audience.

That woman is absolutely evil and the worst type of villain. I do believe she could kill someone and not feel a damned thing.

This is a good thing. It's means they are afraid.

Agreed man.

Also doesn't explain the thousands of years of violence pre video games and movies. War aside, its not like murder, rape and general curalty is new to the human race.

Nothing new under the sun(s) depending on your planet, of which the Repulic party seems to be on.

It's not like people inspired by the Bible did anything like the Crusades or something.

Oh . . wait . . .

Lol. Facts.

The fervor will subside and it's gun business as usual in America. Nothing will change.

I think this time is different. Normally by now the Corporate Media has moved on to the next Trump Tweet. Not this time.

BlackRock Asset Management is putting gun makers on notice

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1G62PC

Love it, things are changing faster than I thought it would. These brave kids will be vilified and eventually made into the heroes they are.

[The Darknight Detective]

Oh boy, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has been charged for a first-degree felony invasion of privacy.



Here's your new update image WBE!

Has he ever met the mayor of Nashville?

[Tazirai]

Good news on the Democratic Front.

Brent Welder a Justice Democrat, TYT member in DEEP RED Kansas has a 49% lead over the Incumbent Republic party member.

Public Policy Poll.

If the general election for Congress were held today, and the candidates were Democrat Brent Welder and Republican Kevin Yoder, who would you be more likely to vote for?
Brent Welder 49% Kevin Yoder 42%
Not sure 9%

Margin of Error? 5.5 %


http://act.boldprogressives.org/surv...8polling_ks03/


His Democratic Primary opponent? Is trailing him. And is as Corporate as can be. He has the WORST slogan ever...


"Leading from the Middle."




Just donated 27 bucks to Brents campaign.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

the armed resource officer never engaged the shooter

But Trump and Republicans think hapless teachers with far less training than that gutless coward can turn into John McClane like action heroes overnight. Once again, with feeling....FUCKING STUPID IDEA!

[Mister Mets]

Or it starts in the classroom and people become monsters due to what the society is doing to them in that setting. Teachers and fellow students aren't always blameless. Sometimes you have people who come from perfectly fine backgrounds, but proceed to loose themselves because of something beyond the household.

This gets a bet messy.

If someone is willing to gun down classmates, they were probably messed up well before that happened, which would be reflected in their interactions with others, and a reasons for their unpopularity.

This just occurred to me: If there were a school shooting with armed teachers in residence, what would happen when S.W.A.T. shows up and, without information on who the shooter is, they see some guy or gal in a hallway or classroom with a gun in their hands? What do you think the cops would do? The more I dwell of this notion of arming teachers, it just gets more and more stupid.

Presumably the police would receive additional training as well.

Remember everyone, the police have no constitutionally enforced duty to protect the public. Not if you have a court order, not if they're standing right there watching it happen. Nothing. This has gone to the supreme court on more than one occasion, it is not their job. So let's not act surprised that the police did squat.

Googled this, and got some interesting results.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2005/06/ye...co-v-gonzales/

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/po...o-protect.html

Meanwhile, Rubio doubles down on why he's a spineless whore for the NRA.

My my, you're gonna have fun with this profile update of Rubio, aren't ya WBE? He's just giving you so much.

So, would anyone who takes the popular position be a spineless whore of the mainstream media or various liberal institutions?

Then maybe it should be done away with because technology has moved on. If the US goverment is seriously going to oppress the country, it is going to point and laugh at your pityfull guns.
Also, the citizens with the most guns are clearly going to be on the side of the oppressive government.

And meanwhile it is just getting people killed.

The US government would be aware that serious oppression would come with a lot of blowback.

These 2 statements are contradictory.

Not really.

It's a country of 300,000,000+ people. The odds of being killed in a mass shooting (a subset of homicide; something that doesn't rank as a top ten cause of death) remain rather low.

You can also think of it in the context of the odds a particular school, college or venue will be the site of a mass shooting.

[Mister Mets]

There's an interesting policy idea that hasn't been discussed as much as it should for the issue of paid parental leave. The proposal is that new parents would be able to make the choice to take money out of their social security accounts to cover costs of parental leave, with the understanding that they would work a bit longer in order to get social security benefits when they retire.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/u...-security.html

Paid leave for new parents, long a Democratic cause, has become a Republican one, too. But policymakers don’t agree on what a leave plan should look like. Now some Republicans have a new idea: Let people collect Social Security benefits early to pay for time off after they have a baby.

Unlike some other proposals, this would require no new taxes. There’s a catch, though: Parents would have their Social Security benefits delayed when they retire to offset the costs.

Social Security has long been viewed as an untouchable part of the social safety net. By letting people tap it for parental leave, it would begin to feel more like an individual account — an idea conservatives have been trying to advance for decades.

The new parental leave plan comes from a right-leaning group called the Independent Women’s Forum, and its president, Carrie Lukas, who said Social Security was based on an antiquated idea of working life. “Women are a bigger part of the work force now, and they need support at different times of their lives rather than just starting at 67,” she said.
More broadly, Ms. Lukas has said that she hoped the proposal would “encourage an important mental shift” in the way people think about Social Security. If individuals view it as “property,” she reasons, it could lead to the embrace of personal accounts.

That reasoning is why some experts view the proposal as a backdoor way to try to curb the scale and cost of Social Security. They also said it could put women in a more precarious position in retirement, adding yet another financial penalty to the list that women pay when they become mothers. Women have lower earnings, smaller Social Security benefits and less financial security in retirement because they spend a disproportionate amount of time away from work to raise children, research shows. Drawing down their Social Security benefits early could compound the problem.
“Here you have a situation where women live longer, but they tend to live both sicker and poorer because of the caregiving they do,” said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, a nonprofit that champions women’s economic security. “With this proposal, we would be asking them to borrow against the already inadequate support they receive from Social Security.”

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a supporter of the idea, said it would provide women with more financial security by encouraging them to stay in the work force after they have children. “I think about those women that will leave the work force because that’s their only option, and this provides them a way to take some time off, spend time devoted to their family and then return,” she said.

The new proposal is one of several being considered by Ivanka Trump and others in the White House to expand paid leave beyond the 13 percent of workers who have access to it through their employers.

They are studying if the Social Security Administration can be used to administer paid leave, according to people briefed on their discussions. It could allow people to collect payments early, as in the plan Ms. Ernst spoke of, or it could administer a new fund, perhaps financed by payroll taxes, an idea some Democrats have proposed. The administration’s goal is to get bipartisan support on what has historically not been a Republican issue.

Three Republican senators — Ms. Ernst, Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah — announced this month that they supported the Social Security proposal, though they were still researching it and had not yet started writing a bill.

I like it as an option for people who want to spend more time with their families that doesn't require higher taxes, or make potential parents less appealing employees in the private sector.

[BaneBreaker]

Presumably the police would receive additional training as well.

Why would we presume that? They shoot unarmed civilians and receive no additional training. What makes this different?