Politics

GW Johnson · 2017-11-06 12:38:30

This was apparently yet another crazy person getting guns because no judge ever committed him. THAT is the leak behind most of the non-terrorist incidents. If there's no record of a judgement of insanity, you cannot refuse to sell him a gun.

Note also that he (like so many others) picked an undefended gun free zone as his target. The lesson of the 19th century frontier towns has long been forgotten: you can have a gun free zone, and there are many good reasons to have them, but ONLY if you defend it adequately.

If you actually examine the gun violence data objectively, those two things simply JUMP OFF THE PAGE at you, as the two things most likely to do some good if remedied.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2017-11-06 12:42:34)

Terraformer · 2017-11-06 16:06:41

The guy was court-martialed for beating his wife and sentenced to a year in prison back in 2012. I thought felonies disqualified people from buying guns?

IanM · 2017-11-06 18:45:09

Apparently he was, but the Air Force failed to notify the FBI of such a conviction, hence why he was able to purchase them anyway.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/breaking … ar-AAuwkQ7

SpaceNut · 2017-11-06 20:00:29

Lots more news on character of the man doing the shooting as to how disturbed he really was.

Neighbor Stephen Willeford and Johnnie Langendorff witnessed the shootout between the suspected gunman wanted in the massacre at a Texas church and as a neighbor, he decided to help. 'Why Wouldn't You Want To Take Him Down?' He ended up following the alleged shooter down a highway for 11 miles. Langendorff remained on the phone with authorities during the car chase, and told the police which roads they were taking. Eventually, when the suspect hit about 95 mph, he “lost control on his own and went off in the ditch.”

Not recomended but well done....

Fix what is broken......

Trump blamed the incident not on guns but ‘A mental health problem.’

If the president truly believed that mental health was behind the thousands and thousands of gun deaths in the U.S. every year, why would he cut funding for mental health via Medicaid in his tax bill?

SpaceNut · 2017-11-11 20:05:11

This story rings of being funny coming from a 12 year old but its as real as the healthcare issues that we al face.
Jeff Sessions Is Being Sued Over U.S. Marijuana Policy by a 12-Year-Old Girl claiming that the federal prohibition on marijuana is unconstitutional.

Bortell uses a strain of cannabis oil called Haleigh’s Hope to help with her seizures, and hopes that the lawsuit will help normalize and further legalize marijuana, Bortell was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was a young child and traditional medicine was not helping. She and her family moved to Colorado from Texas so they could legally obtain cannabis oils to help treat the sixth-grader.
"As the seizures got worse, we had to move to Colorado to get cannabis because it's illegal in Texas," said Bortell.
Some doctors even suggested that Bortell should consider having brain surgery instead of using the drug, but a drop of liquid THC twice a day has kept her seizure-free for two-and-a-half years.

Terraformer · 2017-11-12 03:26:45

Are they voluntarily draining the swamp? Or are they reincarnating as a different critter, such as a lobbyist?

SpaceNut · 2017-11-12 18:54:13

Emergency Manager Resigns in Puerto Rico; Army Ends Its Mission

The moves came as Puerto Rico tries to shift away from the emergency phase of its hurricane response, and just a day after a widespread power failure underscored the enormous challenges that remain. More than 2,000 people are still in shelters, and the power grid is operating at 41 percent capacity, 52 days after the storm. The federal government had distributed 51 million gallons of water and 20 million meals and had tended to 5,000 sick residents.

Two Months After Harvey, Coastal Texas Towns Still Desperate for Housing

After six hours of sustained 131 mph winds and gusts that peaked at 151 mph, approximately 80 percent of the buildings in Aransas County — in which Fulton sits — were damaged and 35 percent of the structures in the county were completely destroyed, according to county officials.
More than two months after the hurricane made landfall, families are still living in single motel rooms or in tents next to their destroyed homes.
20 miles south of Fulton, on Mustang Island, more than 75 percent of the homes in the town of Port Aransas were destroyed when Hurricane Harvey walloped the community with brutal winds and an 11-foot storm surge.
Though five of Bujan’s constituents qualified for FEMA trailers, no one is sure when they are expected to arrive, and many said they are pushed back-and-forth between FEMA, the Small Business Administration, Texas General Land Office and the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Jimmy Kendrick owns a 2,300-square-foot home on a corner lot in Fulton, Texas, a small town of about 1,500 people along the coast. Hurricane Harvey hit his home hard, and now he’s confined to his living room and kitchen because the roof is leaking. He still doesn’t have electricity in the rest of his house.
But Kendrick noted that his situation isn’t as bad compared to others in town. “Those people who can’t afford housing at all: their mental anguish is really hard right now,” he said.

As much as we would like to blame the federal governement for the response to those in need its also the local's of each that have also not means to make things better.

SpaceNut · 2017-11-19 17:09:32

Well its happened agian and again the pipeline has sprung a leak causing environmental damage.
Keystone XL Opponents On 210,000-Gallon Spill: We Warned You

April 2016, just five months after President Barack Obama rejected the proposal the existing Keystone pipeline leaked 17,000 gallons of oil onto private land in southeastern South Dakota. Thursday, this time leaking 210,000 gallons ― 12 times more toxic tar sands oil than before ― on a grassy field in the remote northeastern corner of the Mount Rushmore State. It is the largest spill in Keystone’s history.

GW Johnson · 2017-11-19 20:58:00

In sensitive areas, the prudent thing to do with underground pipe is to sleeve it within a bigger pipe and monitor the sleeve space. For above-ground pipe, the prudent thing to do in sensitive areas is to pave the right-of-way, complete with curbing and catchments, to catch the spills.

Spills from pipelines are inevitable, just not as often as with rail or truck transport, but usually larger in quantity because nobody is paying close-enough attention. The real problem is that everything is so damned bottom-line-$-oriented that no one is willing to do the prudent things.

Make screwing up a whole lot more expensive, and that problem we have with deliberate neglect will change.

GW

Last edited by GW Johnson (2017-11-19 21:00:20)

SpaceNut · 2017-11-20 18:02:10

The approval followed years of intense debate over the pipeline amid hefty opposition from environmental groups, who argued the pipeline supports the extraction of crude oil from oil sands, which pumps about 17% more greenhouse gases than standard crude oil extraction. Environmentalists also opposed the pipeline because it would cut across the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest underground deposits of fresh water.

SpaceNut · 2017-11-24 15:52:22

A wall will not fix this type of problem from occuring as 235 people were killed and 130 more injured in a Mosque, attackers unleashed a hail of gunfire on worshipers kneeling in prayer in northern Sinai in Egypt. Isis Militants attacked a crowded mosque during Friday prayers in the Sinai Peninsula, setting off explosives, spraying worshippers with gunfire and killing at least 235 people in the deadliest ever attack by Islamic extremists in Egypt. The Sufis are considered heretics because of their less literal interpretations of the faith. No one claimed responsibility immediately following the attack, but ISIS has targeted Sufis several times in the area in the past, notably beheading a leading Sufi religious figure, the blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, last year and posting photos of the killing online.

President Donald Trump condemned the "cowardly" attack on Twitter, and took the opportunity to tout the need for a border wall and travel ban, even though his most recent ban doesn't affect Egypt.

Antius · 2017-11-24 16:28:50

Ah...the religion of peace. We are all supposed to be soul searching at this point. They were extremists. They weren't proper Muslims. They were 'radicalised'. I don't think it is irrational to want to keep these people out of your country, although Trumps wall won't be much use in this situation.

Last edited by Antius (2017-11-24 16:33:53)

SpaceNut · 2017-11-25 22:17:47

Definition of Islam and Muslim or straight to the point what is the Difference Between Islam and Muslim

Quick read of the structure of their religion is that they are the same as Catholic versus a Christain but we do not go to neighboring church and commit murder. Catholics follow the Old testament while the Christian believes in the New testament.
https://www.enkivillage.org/the-differe … stian.html
A further breakdown of where the differences are of the other branches are http://www.saintaquinas.com/christian_comparison.html

A mosque is little more than the sacred ground to which the religion is practiced within which is the same as a church. So why would they think that its ok to murder on holy ground....

SpaceNut · 2017-11-26 14:38:48

The question is coming up with regards to extremism related to being muslim / islamic religion and what must be done.
Saudi crown prince leads alliance of Muslim nations against terrorism

Saudi Arabia's assertive crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman's words come as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which sparked the creation of the alliance of Muslim nations against terrorism, vowing that extremists will no longer "tarnish our beautiful religion." The alliance, initially announced with 34 nations, now includes 41, according the Saudi government.

SpaceNut · 2017-11-27 21:19:41

A search of the Hill website turned up other articles, I have not had the chance to read them..

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat … anium-case

Evidence gathered by an FBI undercover informant conflicts with several media reports as well as statements by Justice Department officials concerning the connections between a Russian nuclear bribery case

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in … -one-chart

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/360648 … x-lobbyist

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/36037 … m-one-deal

http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu … -in-russia

SpaceNut · 2017-12-02 13:56:21

Tax bill just past for signature in plain text, this will make your head hurt....
https://www.congress.gov/amendment/115t … /1715/text
for those that want to know:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. PRESIDENTIAL TAX RETURN DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT.
(a) In General.--The provisions of this Act shall be null
and void and of no effect until the President of the United
States makes available to the public the President's tax
returns for not less than the 3 most recent taxable years.
(b) Redaction of Certain Information.--The tax returns
which must be made public under subsection (a) may be
redacted to remove such information as the Director of the
Office of Government Ethics, in consultation with the
Secretary of the Treasury, determines appropriate.

https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media … TITUTE.pdf
500 pages

SpaceNut · 2017-12-02 21:27:03

The american deficit keeps getting larger and with the new tax bill we can expect it to grow eevne larger as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that the Senate GOP tax plan will increase the national deficit by more than $1.4 trillion over a decade. Republicans continue to argue and ignore warnings that their tax plan would increase the national deficit. They have stated that the tax bill will cause economic growth and will more than make up for any increases to the national debt. Just at the risk of causing the value of a US dollar to continue to drop.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell told Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon) that he would have time to read the bill after it passes the Senate. McConnell admission that no one is allowed to to read the bill before it passes came after Wyden voiced his concerns that Senators will be voting on a massive tax bill that will alter the U.S. economy for decades without seeing it in passing a secret tax cut for the wealthy.

Mitch McConnell and his Republican allies in Congress are violating the legislative process undermining the Constitution, a crime against democracy. In that elected representatives of the people can’t represent the interests of their constituents if they aren’t allowed to read legislation before voting on it. Citizens can’t read the bill for themselves because it hasn’t been publicly released.

kbd512 · 2017-12-03 14:44:55

SpaceNut,

Former President Obama didn't care one bit about increasing the deficit for his new entitlement program. We should never admit that those entitlement programs need to go away or that we need to reduce government spending because:

1. Someone will always feel "entitled" to someone else's money
2. We should just tax everyone into oblivion, because that solves all government money issues with out-of-control spending
3. It's worked so well before

You can pay as much in taxes as you want. Nobody can or will stop you from giving more tax money. Some of the rest of us think that as long as we're playing with monopoly money, we may as well tax and spend to a level beneficial for everyone... until someone else calls in our debts... then we're already screwed... long before this tax bill ever came along.

SpaceNut · 2017-12-03 20:04:32

The deficit/ debt of the US and what is incurred by each President is very complex. Agreed Deficit did double as a result of many inherited issues.

National Debt Under Obama; How Much Did Obama Add to the Nation's Debt?

Depending on who you ask, President Obama added anywhere from $983 billion to $9 trillion to the national debt. Who's lying? None of them. That's because there are three ways to look at the debt added by any president.

Accounting method 2:

FY 2009 - Even though the budget had been approved, Congress added emergency funding to stop the Great Recession. It added the first year's worth of spending from Obama's Economic Stimulus Act to the FY 2009 budget. That $253 billion accrues to Obama.
FY 2010 - Obama's first budget created a $1.294 trillion deficit.
FY 2011 - This budget contributed $1.3 trillion to the debt.
FY 2012 - The deficit was $1.087 trillion.
FY 2013 - This was the first Obama budget where the deficit, $679 billion, was less than $1 trillion. Thank sequestration, which forced a 10 percent cut in spending.
FY 2014 - The deficit was $485 billion.
FY 2015 - The deficit fell further, to $438 billion.
FY 2016 - The deficit is expected to be $600 billion
FY 2017 - The deficit is projected to be $441 billion.
When the deficits from all these budgets are added together, President Obama increased the debt by $6.576 trillion.

Deficit shrinks by $1 trillion in Obama era
10.15.15_0.jpg?itok=diS1IQOY

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/national-d … nder-bush/

http://www.factcheck.org/2016/04/obamas … 16-update/
http://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/ … 6-Q1_3.png

http://www.businessinsider.com/national … ama-2017-1

extrapolates the US national debt in real time based on committed government spending
US Treasury, the debt at the end of 2008 — just before Obama took office — stood at roughly $10,699,805,000,000.
Some of this debt is attributable to bills passed by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, since the federal government's fiscal year budget operate differently from the calendar year.
Third quarter of 2016, the most recent data available, the debt as Obama is set to leave office stood at $19,573,445,000,000.
A majority of economists agree that debt-financed government spending during the depths of a recession is a good way to help mitigate the impact of the crisis and help return the country to economic growth.

So its more like with the numbers we can make them say what ever we want with them....

So What Has Obama Done? 13 Major Accomplishments

http://time.com/money/4176949/who-reall … recession/

Think the National Debt Is Large? Well, the Entitlements Deficit Is Even Bigger

The combined 75-year unfunded obligation of the Social Security and Disability Insurance Trust Funds (referred to collectively as the OASDI Trust Fund) reached $13.4 trillion in 2013. Long-term unfunded obligations in Medicare and Social Security alone reached nearly $49 trillion, according to the 2014 report from the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. Medicare and Social Security’s $49 trillion unfunded obligation represents the net-present value of Medicare’s and Social Security’s projected spending in excess of revenues the programs can expect to receive under current law. Medicare and Social Security are the largest and most popular government programs, and they are threatening to impose a huge financial burden on American taxpayers if Congress fails to stop their excessive spending growth. Alternatively, if Congress does nothing, even the most vulnerable Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries would see their benefits drastically cut after 2030.

75 years and we even stole from that fund in the 60's no wonder there is a problem.

Sustainable Tax Reform Requires Taming Entitlements

The deficit indicates a spending problem, not a tax one.

Can Washington afford to cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over a decade? The Washington intelligentsia says absolutely not, given the $78 trillion in budget deficits that CBO is projecting over the next 30 years. But the true answer requires digging deeper into that projected long-term deficit. It consists of Social Security and Medicare running an $82 trillion deficit and the rest of the budget running a $4 trillion surplus. Washington does not have a revenue problem, or even a defense-spending problem. It has a colossal Social Security and Medicare problem.
In reality, the 30-year deficits will total $19 trillion for Social Security, $40 trillion for Medicare, and $23 trillion in interest costs from these two programs’ deficits.

So at what income do the entitlements stop since its starting at zero....what is the time scale for recieving some of these benefits... how do we improve the stars for those that can be changed....

We forget that inflation is a driving factor for the rising income paid out by the entitlements...

So if we can not make it such that the economics can drive the wages to something that is liveable then we will not dig out of the hole but by taxing those that can pay more but we also need to start giving out less. That said the life expentancy has continued to rise and that is also contributing as well.

SpaceNut · 2017-12-06 20:59:14

This must be a sign of making america great as The nation's homeless population increased this year for the first time since 2010

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point in Time count Wednesday, a report that showed nearly 554,000 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January. That figure is up nearly 1 percent from 2016.
Of that total, 193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and instead were staying in vehicles, tents, the streets and other places considered uninhabitable. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9 percent compared to two years ago.

This is a result of low wages and everything else being high such that you are living paycheck to paycheck.....

SpaceNut · 2017-12-06 21:13:17

This is just one area of entitlement that we should be changing...

This is something that I do agree with as Wisconsin hopes to become first state to drug test food stamp users as I have seen the use here and how it impacts life....more states need to get onboard with this.....

SpaceNut · 2017-12-07 20:40:10

To say you will never see the GOP or its leader do the right thing since all of the sexual misconduct allegations are now going to cause another in Sen. Al Franken D-Minn. to resign from Senate. Much like the not speaking out against the KKK the same holds true with in society and in politics which has made it untenable for his Democratic friends and colleagues to line up behind someone accused of multiple instances of inappropriate contact with women. To which the other members of Congress should be doing the same and resigning....

“There is some irony that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office,” ...

Last year, then-candidate Donald Trump faced calls to step aside – some public, other private - after the “Access Hollywood” tape emerged. He dismissed the tape as “locker-room talk,” and labeled the more than dozen women who accused him of sexual misconduct as liars. Trump kept his campaign going and wound up winning.

As powerful Hollywood executives and stars faced a reckoning over sexual misconduct and assault allegations, attention also turned to those on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and other female members of Congress shared their #MeToo accounts of sexual harassment and assault during a hearing to review sexual misconduct policy in the House. Franken spoke out in support of the women, after having sponsored legislation to combat sexual assault and violence against women.

"Sexual harassment and violence are unacceptable. We all must do our part to listen, stand with, and support survivors,"

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, says the U.S. needs a "cultural revolution" to change the way women are treated, reiterating his call for the resignation of Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, over new sexual misconduct allegations. "So I would hope that maybe the president of the United States might pay attention to what's going on and also think about resigning."

Arizona Rep. Trent Franks to resign, facing sexual harassment probe on Thursday announced he is resigning from Congress, facing a House Ethics Committee investigation as to whether he engaged in conduct that constitutes sexual harassment.

SpaceNut · 2017-12-07 20:53:59

The House Ethics Committee said Thursday it is expanding its investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas.

The committee said it will investigate whether Farenthold sexually harassed a former member of his staff and retaliated against her for complaining. The committee also said the panel would review allegations that Farenthold made inappropriate statements to other members of his official staff.

Seems like the swamp still needs a good draining still.....

SpaceNut · 2017-12-08 21:36:14

It appears that the real reason for shrinking the monuments size is Uranium firm urged Trump officials to shrink Bears Ears National Monument Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc., a subsidiary of a Canadian firm, urged the Trump administration to limit the monument to the smallest size needed to protect key objects and areas, such as archeological sites, to make it easier to access the radioactive ore.

BBGpHS6.img?h=505&w=728&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=3318&y=1487

SpaceNut · 2017-12-09 21:26:46

Here is a partial list of the swamp...Here’s a list of political figures accused of sexual misconduct at least 29 powerful men in entertainment, business and the news media have been publicly condemned for their alleged sexual misconduct and many have lost their jobs as a result.

The allegations, reactions and consequences span a wide range. Al Franken resigned as a U.S. senator for Minnesota, while Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore continued to campaign — even garnering the support from President Donald Trump, himself the target of at least 16 sexual misconduct allegations.

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