erronis
erronis's JournalGuns are for game hunting, not human slaughter
https://vtdigger.org/2019/08/08/schubart-guns-are-for-game-hunting-not-human-slaughter/Since the national opinion writers have thoroughly covered the president’s role in stoking the violence we experienced last weekend we can agree that the next election offers us all the opportunity to repudiate his “thoughts and prayers” response to the violence he has encouraged. But there are two elements that ignite such violence and only one is our national leader. America’s saturation with 270 million guns is the other.
Vermont must look to its own role in the carnage and do better. We have among the most lax gun laws in the country. We also have one of the lowest per capita homicide rates in the country, but the opposite is true of our suicide rate. For decades, Vermont homicides occurred largely within families. Soured drug transactions accelerated the rate somewhat. A good year would be 12 murders, a bad year, 20. Chicago sees that on a weekend. Clearly, our lax gun laws are not affecting our crime rate, as gun rights proponents correctly point out.
But Vermont is not an island. The Gilroy Festival shooter bought his gun in nearby Nevada, as its sale was banned in California. In our national carnage, no state is an island. A drug dealer delivering $10,000 worth of fentanyl to Rutland can double his earnings by buying handguns here cheaply and easily and going back to sell them in New York City.
Moscow Mitch - A Different Recording
Cross-posted but a real foot-stomper. I bet even some kentuckians will want to stomp along.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=548982
Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths, Post Sexist
Source: ProPublica
The three-year-old group, which has roughly 9,500 members, shared derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers who plan to visit a controversial Texas detention facility on Monday, calling them “scum buckets” and “hoes.”
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.
Created in August 2016, the Facebook group is called “I’m 10-15” and boasts roughly 9,500 members from across the country. (10-15 is Border Patrol code for “aliens in custody.”) The group described itself, in an online introduction, as a forum for “funny” and “serious” discussion about work with the patrol. “Remember you are never alone in this family,” the introduction said.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes#164072
The worst of the scum. This is repulsive and repuglican.
Le Pen beats Macron in France as nationalists gain in EU vote
Source: Reuters
Marine Le Pen’s far-right party edged just ahead of the centrist alliance of President Emmanuel Macron in exit polls as French voters led what pollsters expected to be a nationalist surge in an EU parliament election on Sunday.
The defeat for the president was narrow amid a sharply increased turnout that was matched across the continent in what Brussels is portraying as a positive sign, in spite of gains for anti-EU groups.
But it was a bitter blow for those who hope the French leader can inspire Europeans to embrace the Union as an answer rather than as part of the problem in the face of social change that has bewildered and frustrated some voters.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election/le-pen-beats-macron-in-france-as-nationalists-gain-in-eu-vote-idUSKCN1SV0QQ?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
The center and left of Europe (and the US) are being undermined by a concerted effort. From whom? Not just the Putin/USSR group but probably oligarchs around the world.
Trump's VA Firing Spree Falters in Court
Source: ProPublica
Rather than defend a law that the president loves, the VA will reinstate a hospital director whom it twice tried to fire.
President Donald Trump often touts a law he signed to speed up firings at the Department of Veterans Affairs. He and other Republicans see the law as a model for weakening civil service protections across the federal government.
The administration’s case for the new law centered on Brian Hawkins. Hawkins was the director of the VA hospital in Washington when an internal investigation discovered safety risks for patients. The VA tried to fire Hawkins but got held up on appeal. Then-Secretary David Shulkin said Hawkins showed why “we need new accountability legislation and we need that now.” Once Congress passed the legislation, the VA used it to go after Hawkins a second time.
Now, almost two years later, the VA’s case against Hawkins has fallen apart. On Tuesday, the government said it would give Hawkins his job back rather than defend the statute in court.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-va-firing-spree-falters-in-court
How many lives are ruined by this evil administration and how much money is wasted.
Or is that the whole point?
Powerful piece from ProPublica: "I Now Have the Perspective of Both Sides": 18 Voting Officials Take
“I Now Have the Perspective of Both Sides”: 18 Voting Officials Take Civil Rights Tourhttps://www.propublica.org/article/voting-officials-take-civil-rights-tour
It was, she said, “hallowed ground.” Martin Luther King Jr. had preached here for six years and organized the Montgomery bus boycott in the church’s basement. The church is only feet away from the Alabama State Capitol, on whose steps Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the confederacy. At the end of Dexter Avenue is the Court Square Fountain, once the site of a slave trade.
What are the chances that dump/mcturtle will cause another government shutdown
if the impeachment gets too close or an investigation/reporting brings out some critical facts?
I wouldn't put it past the peeResident to pull any stunt whatsoever in order to try to save his hide. Especially if it means wrecking the US.
The most recent one left some "essential" functions in place. I suppose a more draconian one could effectively stop investigations.
Wall Street plunges on heightening U.S.-China trade worries
Source: Reuters
Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled more than 1 percent on Tuesday, as renewed worries over trade negotiations with China stoked global growth worries and kept investors away from risky assets.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/wall-street-plunges-on-heightening-u-s-china-trade-worries-idUSKCN1SD16T
Anyone else think that someone in the WH might be manipulating the markets? Wouldn't put it past him and his cohorts.
It's a better way to make a killing than fishy real-estate deals. And exactly who would investigate/prosecute?
Any chance we can get the forum shown in the Trending/Greatest sections?
This is going to be a long slog and I'd like to be able to filter what shows in the Trending/Greatest sections by their forums.
We're now getting click-bait from various candidate-oriented posters which don't self-label via the title.
I want to read candidate-focused posts but I really want to be able to see posts that talk about our (Democrat) opponents without it being "primary" focused.
Ex-Florida policeman gets 25 years in prison for killing black motorist
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-shooting/ex-florida-policeman-gets-25-years-in-prison-for-killing-black-motorist-idUSKCN1S11UINouman Raja, 41, was fired from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department shortly after he killed Corey Jones, 31, while on plainclothes duty, and was convicted last month by a jury of manslaughter and first-degree murder.
The conviction was unusual in a country in which police officers kill roughly 1,000 people each year, a disproportionate number of them black men, usually without facing prosecution, according to a Washington Post database on police shootings.
Jones’ relatives asked Judge Joseph Marx to give Raja the maximum sentence of life in prison during the sentencing hearing. The judge said it was a “heartbreaking” case before handing down the sentence of 25 years, the minimum required under state law, for both counts, to run concurrently.
...
“Today we can tell many of those families that there’s hope for America,” Crump said, “because a jury in Palm Beach, Florida, looked at all the evidence and said a black man killed by the police can get equal justice.”
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Green Mountains
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Member since: Tue Feb 5, 2013, 04:27 PM
Number of posts: 15,425
