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NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Political Discussion Thread

You are 100% correct. The shooter in Nashville was being treated by a doctor for an undisclosed emotional condition.

This is the EXACT reason we need medical related red flag laws on the books. If it was combined with background checks for the sale of all firearms, then something like that would have prevented this person from legally purchasing any of these weapons.

This is the same message that I have been preaching for a while now. It is practical, rational, and obtainable.
Where should a militia's firearms be kept? How about a centrally located and secure armory? Store all personal firearms there under guarded lock and key. Allow owners to check them out for limited times if they want to, say, go hunting for a few days, or want to go to the firing range to practice a few hours and then check the firearms back in afterwards. Most importantly, this arrangement would ensure militias can maintain firearms securely and will be available whenever there is a muster, or if indians attack, or a foreign power invades. Would also be in keeping with the spirit of the Second Amendment.
 
Where should a militia's firearms be kept? How about a centrally located and secure armory? Store all personal firearms there under guarded lock and key. Allow owners to check them out for limited times if they want to, say, go hunting for a few days, or want to go to the firing range to practice a few hours and then check the firearms back in afterwards. Most importantly, this arrangement would ensure militias can maintain firearms securely and will be available whenever there is a muster, or if indians attack, or a foreign power invades. Would also be in keeping with the spirit of the Second Amendment.

What about my recommendation do you disagree with?

Or are you so willing to stick to your absolutist view with such ardent passion that you are willing to let others die in hopes of an all or nothing approach? How many will need to die before you are willing to accept progress towards a common goal?
 
Conservative Justices: We read the Constitution for exactly what it says. We are ORIGINALISTS. We DO NOT read anything else into what the Founding Fathers gave us.
Sarcastic little bastards like me: Hmmmm. Where does the Constitution say you can ban the mentally ill from owning weapons?
 
What about my recommendation do you disagree with?

Or are you so willing to stick to your absolutist view with such ardent passion that you are willing to let others die in hopes of an all or nothing approach? How many will need to die before you are willing to accept progress towards a common goal?
I think your suggestion is like removing a bucket out of a lake. I guess if we want to look upon it as baby steps we can, but how many more people have to die before we address the root causes of the problem? Besides, what's wrong with my suggestion?
 
I'll just preach the same message I always do. DO FUCKING SOMETHING!!! I don't care if it's ban all weapons or just putting a limit to some things or maybe adding some red flag laws. Talking about it hasn't changed things. We're at the point that the reporters covering the shooting were involved in a school shooting as a kid. My wife is pressuring our local congressperson to come down to my kids high school and discuss with the kids why shooter drills are important and why there should be no action on fixing the problem.
Next time. They'll definitely do something next time.

I've seen calls for more police officers at schools. Most schools in my state have a resource officer at the high school and maybe middle school. In most of the cases, I know its considered more of a pr position and somewhat light duty assignment. But the idea that we're going to put teams at every school including all of the private schools. That's going to be an expensive bill to keep our unfettered gun addiction.

One school district in the state is testing out two bulletproof whiteboards that create a box around the kids. They've figured out we can protect all of the public school classrooms for $1.2 Billion. Alabama has decided that our schools may have too much funding so we're giving $100 Million to build prisons and $25 M for a water park that can teach kids about jobs and responsibilities.

whiteboard.JPG
 
I think your suggestion is like removing a bucket out of a lake. I guess if we want to look upon it as baby steps we can, but how many more people have to die before we address the root causes of the problem? Besides, what's wrong with my suggestion?

The problem with your suggestion is that the current political and cultural climate in the US will not turn in their guns.

Do you in all seriousness think that it has a real chance of happening? Do you really think that 1, the federal government will pass laws to require that and 2 that people will willingly comply, and 3 that law enforcement will go after those who don't, and 4 that those who want to do harm to others will give a rip about #1 or any of the following steps?

You reference that my solution is like removing a bucket out of a lake... maybe so... but it is better than standing at the shore yelling at the water to do something.
 
Conservative Justices: We read the Constitution for exactly what it says. We are ORIGINALISTS. We DO NOT read anything else into what the Founding Fathers gave us.
Sarcastic little bastards like me: Hmmmm. Where does the Constitution say you can ban the mentally ill from owning weapons?
Other sarcastic little bastard in the audience: And, Conservative Justice, you/your wife doesn't get to vote?

o_O :smokingcigar::scotch:
 
Thoughts & Prayers is a hollow meaningess phrase.
It's more than hollow and meaningless. It's downright offensive.

Of course, it has been used by the GOP politicians and their sycophants to be dismissive of mass carnage for years. It's was always their way of being contemptuous under the guise of actually giving a damn. It was their way of exercising plausible deniability.

But recently it has taken an even more sadistic tilt. Now, the majority of those that say "thoughts and prayers" actually relish in the fact that they can be dismissive of mass shootings, blurting out this perverted phrase with sadistic glee. And every time there is a mass shooting like this, they just dig in deeper and demand even more loose gun laws.

They just want more mass shootings, more death and mayhem. So fuck their "thoughts and prayers" statements and all the other vomitous and soulless festering sewage that spews out of their mouth.
 
I'll just preach the same message I always do. DO FUCKING SOMETHING!!! I don't care if it's ban all weapons or just putting a limit to some things or maybe adding some red flag laws. Talking about it hasn't changed things. We're at the point that the reporters covering the shooting were involved in a school shooting as a kid. My wife is pressuring our local congressperson to come down to my kids high school and discuss with the kids why shooter drills are important and why there should be no action on fixing the problem.
I'm told that in Japan guns are for sale anywhere but bullets are hard to find and illegal.
 
Where should a militia's firearms be kept? How about a centrally located and secure armory? Store all personal firearms there under guarded lock and key. Allow owners to check them out for limited times if they want to, say, go hunting for a few days, or want to go to the firing range to practice a few hours and then check the firearms back in afterwards. Most importantly, this arrangement would ensure militias can maintain firearms securely and will be available whenever there is a muster, or if indians attack, or a foreign power invades. Would also be in keeping with the spirit of the Second Amendment.
Another word for militia is the National Guard, that keeps just such armories in cities and towns all over. Citizens could be made to stash their guns there and check them out to go squirrel hunting. For people hunting, not!
 
Just so we are clear, mental health is a problem, but making gun ownership harder is the answer.


The shooter was under doctor's care, and purchased 7 guns legally. What my take away from that is - mental health cannot be fixed and will always be a problem in our society. We can fund more support, but there will always be crazy people, and people who need services that they are not getting.

Gun ownership can be fixed by regulation and other countries have shown that proper regulation removes a substantial amount of events. If we put $100 billion into mental health services, we would still see school shootings. If we put $100 billion into gun buybacks, and didn't allow the sale of the majority of the guns in the US, or invested in ATF staffing and require all guns be massively regulated and rules strongly enforced (permit, tracing/tracking numbers, limited sales on bullets, etc.), we would see a dramatic change in 10 years.

We can do something, we just have a group of people who would rather see our children locked in cages than actually try to make our country safer for the next generation. It is extremely sad.
 
It's more than hollow and meaningless. It's downright offensive.

Of course, it has been used by the GOP politicians and their sycophants to be dismissive of mass carnage for years. It's was always their way of being contemptuous under the guise of actually giving a damn. It was their way of exercising plausible deniability.

But recently it has taken an even more sadistic tilt. Now, the majority of those that say "thoughts and prayers" actually relish in the fact that they can be dismissive of mass shootings, blurting out this perverted phrase with sadistic glee. And every time there is a mass shooting like this, they just dig in deeper and demand even more loose gun laws.

They just want more mass shootings, more death and mayhem. So fuck their "thoughts and prayers" statements and all the other vomitous and soulless festering sewage that spews out of their mouth.
Get help. No one wants this.
 
Just so we are clear, mental health is a problem, but making gun ownership harder is the answer.


The shooter was under doctor's care, and purchased 7 guns legally. What my take away from that is - mental health cannot be fixed and will always be a problem in our society. We can fund more support, but there will always be crazy people, and people who need services that they are not getting.

Let's expand on this for a moment. Everything you said in the quoted section is 100% true and there is zero argument. What isn't being mentioned is that TN does not have a red flag law that would have let the doctor put a medical flag on the background check process. There is a required background check process in TN for the purchase of the guns used, bot there was no way for the firearm dealer to know of her mental issues. For me, that is a massive issue and if a medical red flag issue was in place in TN before she bought the guns, then there is a good change that those 3 adults and 3 9-year olds would still be alive today.

It does make it harder for some to purchase weapons, and I don't think that this should be isolated as a state regulation, but a federal regulation and that a backgound check must be conducted for the purchase of any fire arm, by any person, in any state, from any buyer.
 
Let's expand on this for a moment. Everything you said in the quoted section is 100% true and there is zero argument. What isn't being mentioned is that TN does not have a red flag law that would have let the doctor put a medical flag on the background check process. There is a required background check process in TN for the purchase of the guns used, bot there was no way for the firearm dealer to know of her mental issues. For me, that is a massive issue and if a medical red flag issue was in place in TN before she bought the guns, then there is a good change that those 3 adults and 3 9-year olds would still be alive today.

It does make it harder for some to purchase weapons, and I don't think that this should be isolated as a state regulation, but a federal regulation and that a backgound check must be conducted for the purchase of any fire arm, by any person, in any state, from any buyer.
The issue is that even after the tragedy in TN the state legislature will utterly fail to do anything except continue to weaken laws. Currently, on the calendar for the state to consider there are bills to limit civil liability for gun manufacturers and sellers, laws allowing law enforcement to carry while intoxicated, reducing permitless concealed carry down to 18, adding criminal offenses to anyone who "disenfranchises" a person right to bear arms, and limits on preventing concealed carry on private property or place of business. There was also a proposed bill that would allow their enhanced carry of any firearm including:
(1) A firearm that cannot be carried and used by one person;
(2) A firearm that has a bore diameter greater than one and one-half inches and that uses smokeless powder, not black powder, as a propellant;
(3) Ammunition with a projectile that explodes using an explosion of chemical energy after the projectile leaves the firearm; or
(4) A firearm that discharges two or more projectiles with one activation of the trigger or other firing device.

Another doozy of a bill that I think narrowly failed in the TN Senate, made it a criminal offense for a medical provider to ask if a patient had guns in the home, prevented medical providers from discriminating against individuals who exercise their 2nd Amend, and prevented insurers from denying coverage or increase premiums to anyone based on any legal storage or ownership of firearms.

The last 3 years a red flag law has been introduced and stuck in committee.

As one legislator (Burkett?) responded to question of whether anything new laws would be put in place "We're not gonna fix it." "I don't see any real role that we could do other than mess things up."

From a federal level, there was the repeal of the Obama executive order that created a red flag database. And that was before most of the moderate Republicans decided to retire or lost reelection.

 
Far too many elected politicians believe it's perfectly acceptable that children shall be repeatedly sacrificed at the altar of the 2nd Amendment. Stop voting for them at all levels. Firearms are the #1 cause of death of children in this country.
 
DeSantis’ Reedy Creek board says Disney stripped its power
Royal clause and King Charles III invoked in Disney vs. DeSantis board dispute
 
In case anyone has been living under a rock, Trump was formally indicted yesterday by a NY grand jury in the Stormy Daniels payoff case (and 30+ other counts of business fraud charges). Probably the least serious of all the potential criminal cases he's facing. In a perfect world it should not have been the first indictment to drop, but we must content ourselves with the fact that at least some form of accountability for Trump's many - often publicly committed - crimes is at long last being formally pursued.

 
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^^^ I think of it as an appetizer. The main courses are yet to come.

"I need you to find me 11,780 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ votes"
 
Nothing strange is happening, the grand jury process is moving along as it’s supposed to. This grand jury will be seated until June so there’s no hurry. It’s better for the DA to be deliberative and try and get things buttoned up as tight as possible.

Trump doesn’t know if he’s going to be charged and arrested or not. But grifters are gonna grift and that’s pretty much been his life’s work. I’m not holding my breath that he’ll actually a) be convicted of a crime or b) serve time. He’s a shitty person and his minions are shitty people too.
Yep, guaranteed hung jury. Almost zero chance of a jury without at least one of his supporters on it.
 
Dear Media Companies:

Stop letting Trump suck all the air out of any room he enters. Yes, a former president being arraigned is a big deal. Probably not a wall-to-wall coverage big deal, though, given everything else going on in the world at this very moment.

Thank you.
Josephina Q. Citizen
 
Dear Media Companies:

Stop letting Trump suck all the air out of any room he enters. Yes, a former president being arraigned is a big deal. Probably not a wall-to-wall coverage big deal, though, given everything else going on in the world at this very moment.

Thank you.
Josephina Q. Citizen
I guess the public is about to get a reminder of how anticlimactic an arraignment is.
 
Yesterday I saw footage of his plane wandering around the airport. Very important footage there.
 
How much corroboration do you need when spreading office rumors?

Personally, my threshold is 0 corroboration.

Edit: I intended to post this in RTDNTOTO but, on a very local level, it's also political, so...
 
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Liberal judge wins in Wis. Supreme Court showdown

Liberal Wins Wisconsin Court Race, in Victory for Abortion Rights Backers

This wasn't even close. As the election in Kansas proved last year, voters don't like having their abortion rights taken away.

The Wisconsin state legislature is one of the most nefarious in the nation due to extreme gerrymandering. First order of business should be to throw out those maps. Hopefully this result also will help to neuter Ron Johnson and the rest of his pinheaded criminal cronies.

Janet P 1.jpg
 
Lawmakers expel colleagues and put Tennessee in the spotlight for the wrong reasons
https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/david-plazas/2023/04/06/expulsion-votes-put-tennessee-in-spotlight-for-the-wrong-reasons/70090768007/ (Lawmakers expel colleagues and put Tennessee in the spotlight for the wrong reasons | Plazas)
The problem is that that lawmakers did not discuss or do anything of importance to better the lives of the community.

Instead, Republican lawmakers made national celebrities of the three Democratic lawmakers they sought to expel.
 
Tennessee's GOP has an insane supermajority in the house due to gerrymandering. They are an example of a what used to be a reasonable body pushing to hard to the extremes. In the past they've allowed reps under investigation for all sorts of things including sexual assault, harassment, and fraud stick around and even head committees.
 
Tennessee's GOP has an insane supermajority in the house due to gerrymandering. They are an example of a what used to be a reasonable body pushing to hard to the extremes. In the past they've allowed reps under investigation for all sorts of things including sexual assault, harassment, and fraud stick around and even head committees.
But, but...weaponization, blah, blah, blah....
 
Fan the fire....

Every day, about 32 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that's one person every 45 minutes. In 2020, 11,654 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths — a 14% increase from 2019. These deaths were all preventable - NHTSA.

229 children ages 0–14 years were killed in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver in 2020 - CDC.

Why no outrage at this number of 0-14 killed? Likely similar a number of 0-14 every year. The DUI death number will certainly increase when including ages 15-18 (to match school-age children) are included but could not locate that statistic. Far higher than school deaths per year shown below. Why no outrage at the overall DUI death number? Why no cry to ban alcohol as is done with firearms? Each is unacceptable, but not entirely preventable no matter what law is in effect.

Should we ban alcohol? Tried that - didn't work. Should be keep alcohol locked up and you have to check it out to use? Is alcohol vital to life? Has it prevented life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of many? Absolutely. If the argument that firearms are not needed and should be banned, same holds true with alcohol. Think of how many needless DUI deaths can be prevented if only near beer was legal. You are far more likely to be injured or killed by DUI than a victim of a school shooting. But what about other shootings? What about other types of vehicle accidents? NHTSA projects that an estimated 42,915 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year, a 10.5% increase from the 38,824 fatalities in 2020. Thousands of people are killed in vehicle accidents which are caused by 99% human error. But we need vehicles. Well, I need my firearms. Which, incidentally, have never been used in a crime, along with million of others.

Should we have an absence of laws? Absolutely not. With laws, crime will still exist as this is human nature. Do laws prevent some crimes from happening? Yes, and that is best we can ask for since such activity can never be eliminated.

The school shooting data below includes stats from 1970 to 2021. Partial 2022 data can be found on the CHDS website - chds.us via campussafetymagazine.com.
  • There have been 1,924 school shooting incidents since 1970.
  • 2021 had the greatest number of incidents, with 249. The next highest year was 2019 with 119.
  • Since 1970, 637 people have died in shootings at schools. Additionally, 1,734 were injured and 73 suffered minor injuries.
  • 2018 was the year with the highest number of people killed, including the shooter, with 51 killed. This was the year of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, which claimed 17 lives.
About 90% of school-associated youth homicide incidents from 1994-2016 involved only one victim - CDC.

CDC.gov:

1680882306803.png


nces.ed.gov
Violent deaths at school*
2018/19 - 39
2017/18 - 56
2016/17 - 42
2015/16 - 38
* A school-associated violent death is defined as “a homicide, suicide, or legal intervention death in which the fatal injury occurred on the campus of a functioning elementary or secondary school in the United States,” while the victim was on the way to or from regular sessions at school, or while the victim was attending or traveling to or from an official school-sponsored event. Victims may include non-students as well as students and staff members.

No child (or anybody) should be a victim of a violent crime. However, there will never be utopia where this exists. With freedoms, comes risks.
 
Tennessee's GOP has an insane supermajority in the house due to gerrymandering. They are an example of a what used to be a reasonable body pushing to hard to the extremes. In the past they've allowed reps under investigation for all sorts of things including sexual assault, harassment, and fraud stick around and even head committees.
Jim Crow is alive and well in Tennessee. What a bunch of backwards-ass racist pricks.

There is not a day that goes by that my unrelenting (and justified) hatred of the GOP isn't greater than the day before.
 
Tennessee's GOP has an insane supermajority in the house due to gerrymandering. They are an example of a what used to be a reasonable body pushing to hard to the extremes. In the past they've allowed reps under investigation for all sorts of things including sexual assault, harassment, and fraud stick around and even head committees.
What happened to those two reps is bogus and completely unjustified.
 
The Hideous Resurrection of the Comstock Act

the Comstock Act bars mailing
“every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion or for any indecent or immoral purpose.”
The law imposes a five-year maximum prison sentence for first offenses and up to 10 years for subsequent ones.
 
Mass casualty event at a bank in downtown Louisville, about three miles from me as the crow flies. Four dead, eight injured - two seriously. Early word here is that the shooter was among the last people you would have expected to commit such a tragic criminal act, previously a 4.0 GPA student. Former employee of the bank where he took innocent lives. He apparently live-streamed his rampage.

I'm beginning to think none of us are ever truly safe anymore. Nobody is going to do a damn thing about it, either.
 
What happened to those two reps is bogus and completely unjustified.
The best part is that the Speaker who led the effort to remove them, has been living out of his district and in Nashville for 3 years. His wife works in Nashville and his kid goes to school there, but his home address is a condo 2 hours away. He's also been billing the State a per diem associated with the 2 hour commute.
 
Mass casualty event at a bank in downtown Louisville, about three miles from me as the crow flies. Four dead, eight injured - two seriously. Early word here is that the shooter was among the last people you would have expected to commit such a tragic criminal act, previously a 4.0 GPA student. Former employee of the bank where he took innocent lives. He apparently live-streamed his rampage.

I'm beginning to think none of us are ever truly safe anymore. Nobody is going to do a damn thing about it, either.
Glad you weren't there.
 
Another GODDAMN shooting

...and another inevitable round of the 2nd Amendment gun-fetishizing and fanatical MAGA cretins digging in their heels to make it ever more easier to get more goddamn guns. Every time there is a mass shooting, it only adds fuel to the fire of the GOPs relentless and bloodthirsty goal to make semi-automatic weapons available to more and more MAGA crazies to inflict ever more carnage and death. They just eat this stuff up.

The only solace in this travesty is at least the Governor of Kentucky is democratic and knows what he us up against, unlike that piece of shit Governor is Tennessee. Of course, nothing will be accomplished as long as McConnell is alive.

Thoughts and Prayers 2.jpg


Thoughts and Prayers 1.jpg
27634199-9ca3-493d-bf95-518fec513947.jpg
 
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