Meanwhile, in non-gun-related news....the Austin city council just voted 9 - 2 to mandate paid sick leave for all non-government employees. If you work at Dollar General (not to pick on Dollar General, I just chose a deep-discount retailer at random) and you don't already receive paid sick leave as a benefit (which, again, Dollar General employees may already receive this...in case any Dollar General lawyers are reading this), in Austin you will now start receiving that benefit. Although this is a fine thing to do--the city leaders in Austin have good hearts and good intentions, but those don't always translate into political reality very well--there will probably be two immediate results: 1) some retailers will cut jobs and/or hours so they don't have to comply and 2) the extra costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices on the shelf.
Why not ban lethal forms of ammunition and restrict bullets to rubber bullets? Most of the normal uses for bullets would work just fine if you used rubber bullets instead of metal.
If you want to stop a criminal in his tracks, a single rubber bullet is going to knock him down long enough for anyone to escape. They work just as well for target practice. Even criminals wouldn't necessarily go to the trouble of finding illegal lethal ammunition if a rubber bullet works just as well for a mugging.
You could make exceptions for lethal ammunition if the person had a hunting license or was a police officer.
This is an interesting thought, but it would be nice to see a study that shows the effectiveness of rubber bullets as self-defense tools. I have no idea how effective they would be (I've never even fired a gun, or held a real one in my life) but it is a necessary fact if we are going to make an informed decision on this.
I do think that non-lethal weapons would severely reduce the deterrent effects of gun ownership, but I don't know by how much.
Meanwhile, in non-gun-related news....the Austin city council just voted 9 - 2 to mandate paid sick leave for all non-government employees. If you work at Dollar General (not to pick on Dollar General, I just chose a deep-discount retailer at random) and you don't already receive paid sick leave as a benefit (which, again, Dollar General employees may already receive this...in case any Dollar General lawyers are reading this), in Austin you will now start receiving that benefit. Although this is a fine thing to do--the city leaders in Austin have good hearts and good intentions, but those don't always translate into political reality very well--there will probably be two immediate results: 1) some retailers will cut jobs and/or hours so they don't have to comply and 2) the extra costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices on the shelf.
It is truly shocking just how much this country hates it's workers, even though most of the people in this country ARE workers. We've deified the the "business owner" (especially the small business owner) in this country to the point of absurdity, and treat workers like nothing more than disposable cogs in a machine. If these business owners have half the brains they think they do, they'll find a way to work around (possibly, since sick leave does require someone to be sick) giving out ONE work week of sick leave a year without screwing everyone over. Of course, that would require some personal sacrifice on their part, which in this country is in short supply.
The story he gave was based off of 4chan. Also, its kind of hard to imagine that a hispanic man is a white supremacist, but then again he was clearly very unstable so anything is possible.
He is a white nationalist. Adopted by a hispanic named Cruz.
Trump took 30 million from the NRA he is going to do nothing about guns.
Most of the money the NRA spends is spent AGAINST opponents of certain candidates without TECHNICALLY being in favor of another, to work around campaign finance laws.
In his defense, the President can't really do anything about guns except to make sure that law enforcement agencies like the FBI and the BATFE do the jobs they are being paid to do.
@jjstraka34 As far as I can recall, the only job I have ever had where I *didn't* receive extra benefits was when I was stocking groceries at Target part-time just for some extra money. There have been times when I was only a little sick but sucked it up and went to work, anyway, making certain to take sinus and cold meds with me. I was young and stubborn in those days (as opposed to now, when I am only stubborn).
Most workers are, unfortunately, paycheck-to-paycheck people and so they often cannot afford to upset their boss at work. Many people don't like to admit this, even to themselves, but they live with a constant level of fear of losing their job.
Trump took 30 million from the NRA he is going to do nothing about guns.
Most of the money the NRA spends is spent AGAINST opponents of certain candidates without TECHNICALLY being in favor of another, to work around campaign finance laws.
As you said Republicans completely bought off by the NRA. They will do nothing not even common sense gun control of assault weapons and any kind of background checks or anything. Remember after Las Vegas they almost banned bump stocks? For some reason, they didn't follow through. (hint: $$$$$$$$)
Trump had an ad where he said democrats are complicit with every single thing any undocumented ever immigrant does but only the bad things. Using that argument Trump and Republicans are complicit in the child murdering happening in Florida and elsewhere. There's been ten school shootings this year alone resulting in 23 deaths and 38 people injured (61 children with bullet holes).
In his defense, the President can't really do anything about guns except to make sure that law enforcement agencies like the FBI and the BATFE do the jobs they are being paid to do.
Trumps proposed budget cuts funding for background check agencies and another gun control thing each by like 16 percent...
In his defense, the President can't really do anything about guns except to make sure that law enforcement agencies like the FBI and the BATFE do the jobs they are being paid to do.
Trumps proposed budget cuts funding for background check agencies and another gun control thing each by like 16 percent...
That it does, but the *actual* budget is set by Congress, not the POTUS.
Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals in regards to election interference, SPECIFICALLY mentioning their intent to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.
In his defense, the President can't really do anything about guns except to make sure that law enforcement agencies like the FBI and the BATFE do the jobs they are being paid to do.
Trumps proposed budget cuts funding for background check agencies and another gun control thing each by like 16 percent...
That it does, but the *actual* budget is set by Congress, not the POTUS.
Agree. But it tips off congress on his priorities that he will sign off on.
I actually find the following quote to be sorta funny:
"“It may seem odd that Jereb would bring attention to his group by claiming a connection to Cruz, but Jereb has always been somewhat of a publicity seeker,” wrote SPLC. “In 2014, in fact, he wrote to us to complaint that we had not already listed ROF as a hate group.”"
This guy sounds like the scum of the Earth.
"Hey you! We're totes evil! Why haven't you listed us yet? How many more puppies do I have to kick?!
Meanwhile, in non-gun-related news....the Austin city council just voted 9 - 2 to mandate paid sick leave for all non-government employees. If you work at Dollar General (not to pick on Dollar General, I just chose a deep-discount retailer at random) and you don't already receive paid sick leave as a benefit (which, again, Dollar General employees may already receive this...in case any Dollar General lawyers are reading this), in Austin you will now start receiving that benefit. Although this is a fine thing to do--the city leaders in Austin have good hearts and good intentions, but those don't always translate into political reality very well--there will probably be two immediate results: 1) some retailers will cut jobs and/or hours so they don't have to comply and 2) the extra costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices on the shelf.
If "society" (through the state) decides that paid family leave is important, then society should bear the costs of it, rather than throwing it onto the shoulders of private parties (in this instance, employers).
I like Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump's idea of taking an advance on your Social Security payments for paid family leave. Gives families security without passing on the burden to third parties.
The story he gave was based off of 4chan. Also, its kind of hard to imagine that a hispanic man is a white supremacist, but then again he was clearly very unstable so anything is possible.
He is a white nationalist. Adopted by a hispanic named Cruz.
The notion that he's a white nationalist is based on nothing but a retracted story by a crazy white nationalist leader. Also his teacher talked about his Hispanic background in one interview
Anyway, this is getting irrelevant. He was a lone actor and a monster. Whether or not he was a white nationalist doesn't make white nationalists any better or him any worse.
@semiticgod I'd be in favor of taking that a step further, and only allow police departments access to rubber bullets as well. Only authorize SWAT to use lethal rounds.
@booinyoureyes A rubber bullet would put you on the ground. They are technically non-lethal, but guns put out an astounding amount of force. Even blanks can kill under the right conditions.
Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals in regards to election interference, SPECIFICALLY mentioning their intent to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.
They also organized pro-Trump and pro-Hillary rallies in close proximity in the hopes of spurring violence. How vile.
They also promoted third parties and tried to discourage minorities from voting.
I'm interested to see how the US national security apparatus responds to the Russian Government's actions. Maybe they will try to undermine the legitimacy of Russian elections..... oh, wait.
The gun laws in Florida are almost non-existent. Almost ANYONE can get their hands on one of these weapons. Also, that Alt-Right body count has apparently gone up again:
The only thing I've seen is that the white supremacist leader who GAVE AN INTERVIEW claiming he did train with them has now apparently changed his story. As for the photos, they were from his Instagram account, which Snopes is rating as "true" as far as we are able to establish right now. The fake part seems to be the insistence of Trump supporters that it was a post-shooting hit job. All archiving of the Instagram page and interviews with students who knew about him AND his Instagram page seem to confirm that it was indeed his:
Who cares though? He wasn't even old enough to vote in 2016. He may have picked that hat to deliberately piss people off for all we know. He's an unhinged 19 year old teenager...
I'm willing to bet that if a shooter in the Obama years had been wearing a "Hope and Change" hat on social media, we'd have heard quite a bit about it. Just a hunch.....
We did hear about this quite a bit though. However, I don't see how it was relevant to his actions. Perhaps his support for gun ownership? If you're implying that him being a MAGA-hat wearing Trump supporter is the reason he shot kids then I think you're reaching. Are we going to look at the voting history of every shooter now so that their actions can be exploited for political purposes? People of all shapes, colors, and political persuasions can be unhinged.
I find it classless how often Drudge Report and MSNBC try to speculate/share stories about the political beliefs of rampage killers. Having policy debates about guns in the wake of tragedies is not at all exploitative in my opinion, but that stuff is.
I'm saying that there is an ever-increasing trend of killings associated to Alt-right ideology in this country, and that that nexus of political belief in this country views Donald Trump as an almost god-king like figure:
Say what you will about Antifa or radical environmental activists. The worst I've seen from them is property damage and hitting someone with a bike lock. They haven't KILLED anyone as far as I'm aware. The body count is mounting. Alot of these I didn't even know about til this report by the SPLC came out, since they got almost NO media coverage.
To be clear: the SPLC also defines a person with a Nazi tattoo killing a police officer who responded to a domestic violence call as "right wing terrorism". That is nothing like the Dylan Roof killings. The "definitions" they use are quite loose. There is a reason they get no media coverage. When the real ones occur (like Dylan Roof) they get airtime, because killings based on political ideology (especially one so vile) tend to get a lot of play with audiences.
If "society" (through the state) decides that paid family leave is important, then society should bear the costs of it, rather than throwing it onto the shoulders of private parties (in this instance, employers).
I like Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump's idea of taking an advance on your Social Security payments for paid family leave. Gives families security without passing on the burden to third parties.
Now that I think about it, receiving paid sick leave isn't actually an extra cost. If I earn 2 hours of paid sick leave every 2 weeks (numbers chosen at random) then after 4 pay periods I have one full day saved up. That next week, I become ill, so I take the day off. Result: my employer pays me the same amount they would pay me if I were actually there, not extra pay on top of what I already earn. There may be some lost productivity on the employer side of the transaction, depending upon the job I am performing, but that cost is probably much less than the amount being paid to me for using my accrued hours.
I am certain some Scrooges out there are going to complain and find ways to punish their employees for wanting paid sick leave, but the fact is that being given paid sick leave will likely result in *increased* employee morale and productivity. Besides, do you *really* want your employees coming to work with the flu? If you thought giving me one day off was bad, try dealing with half your production crew (or office staff, or whatever) being out for three days because I came to work while contagious.
Meanwhile, in non-gun-related news....the Austin city council just voted 9 - 2 to mandate paid sick leave for all non-government employees. If you work at Dollar General (not to pick on Dollar General, I just chose a deep-discount retailer at random) and you don't already receive paid sick leave as a benefit (which, again, Dollar General employees may already receive this...in case any Dollar General lawyers are reading this), in Austin you will now start receiving that benefit. Although this is a fine thing to do--the city leaders in Austin have good hearts and good intentions, but those don't always translate into political reality very well--there will probably be two immediate results: 1) some retailers will cut jobs and/or hours so they don't have to comply and 2) the extra costs will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices on the shelf.
If "society" (through the state) decides that paid family leave is important, then society should bear the costs of it, rather than throwing it onto the shoulders of private parties (in this instance, employers).
I like Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump's idea of taking an advance on your Social Security payments for paid family leave. Gives families security without passing on the burden to third parties.
Society should cover sick leave (was being discussed not paid family leave). It should be thrown on the shoulders of private parties either through taxes or just a requirement. If we didn't force companies to do the right thing, we'd still have child labor like had less than 100 years ago. Sick leave should be another benefit. Who wants sick people at work getting others sick and doing a lousy job because they are sick but can't afford to take time off?
The story he gave was based off of 4chan. Also, its kind of hard to imagine that a hispanic man is a white supremacist, but then again he was clearly very unstable so anything is possible.
He is a white nationalist. Adopted by a hispanic named Cruz.
The notion that he's a white nationalist is based on nothing but a retracted story by a crazy white nationalist leader. Also his teacher talked about his Hispanic background in one interview
Anyway, this is getting irrelevant. He was a lone actor and a monster. Whether or not he was a white nationalist doesn't make white nationalists any better or him any worse.
I believe there is ample evidence that he was a white supremacist MAGA asshat guy but you make a fair point that either way, dude is a monster.
A white nationalist claimed Cruz was also one and later walked it back. Jordan Jereb, white nationalist, perhaps realized it might not be a great thing to be proud of your association with a school massacre shooter. It might get you or your organization implicated in something.
@JordanJereb posted on Gab, a social media platform popular among fascists and racists. “Are you really going to blame ME for the lying jew media? We know they are liars. Fuck em,” the user wrote.
If "society" (through the state) decides that paid family leave is important, then society should bear the costs of it, rather than throwing it onto the shoulders of private parties (in this instance, employers).
I like Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump's idea of taking an advance on your Social Security payments for paid family leave. Gives families security without passing on the burden to third parties.
Now that I think about it, receiving paid sick leave isn't actually an extra cost. If I earn 2 hours of paid sick leave every 2 weeks (numbers chosen at random) then after 4 pay periods I have one full day saved up. That next week, I become ill, so I take the day off. Result: my employer pays me the same amount they would pay me if I were actually there, not extra pay on top of what I already earn. There may be some lost productivity on the employer side of the transaction, depending upon the job I am performing, but that cost is probably much less than the amount being paid to me for using my accrued hours.
I am certain some Scrooges out there are going to complain and find ways to punish their employees for wanting paid sick leave, but the fact is that being given paid sick leave will likely result in *increased* employee morale and productivity. Besides, do you *really* want your employees coming to work with the flu? If you thought giving me one day off was bad, try dealing with half your production crew (or office staff, or whatever) being out for three days because I came to work while contagious.
Yeah, sick leave is completely different than family leave. Also, sick leave is one of the greatest advantages of those "I can work from home today, see you tomorrow" jobs that I hope to get one day.
Not for nothing, but I have gone to work before when I had to CRAWL across my living room to get out of my apartment. Recently a co-worker was sick as a dog, and I was occupying the same space and using the same computer for that whole week. That weekend, instead of going to a birthday party for my uncle, I was home in bed nursing the virus I had caught at work and coughing my lungs out for 3 days. In the end, I don't see how having sick people at work saves any company ANY money. We are trained from the moment we get our first job that staying home sick is a sign of laziness and not caring. It's ridiculous. It's somehow viewed as "macho" or "manly" to work through the flu, not even taking into account the fact that you could infect a handful of co-workers who will then ALSO possibly miss work.
Family leave will probably be taken up in the Senate as Ms. Duckworth (D - IL) gets closer to her delivery date.
So...the Internet Research Agency sought to engage in "information warfare" against the United States by using fake personas on social media platforms. Is that a Russia problem....or is it a Facebook problem? Couldn't it also be a "brainless American voter who believes everything they read on the Internet" problem? If it is on the Internet, especially social media, you should probably presume that it is false until you can verify that it is true.
Is that a Russia problem....or is it a Facebook problem? Couldn't it also be a "brainless American voter who believes everything they read on the Internet" problem?
Family leave will probably be taken up in the Senate as Ms. Duckworth (D - IL) gets closer to her delivery date.
So...the Internet Research Agency sought to engage in "information warfare" against the United States by using fake personas on social media platforms. Is that a Russia problem....or is it a Facebook problem? Couldn't it also be a "brainless American voter who believes everything they read on the Internet" problem? If it is on the Internet, especially social media, you should probably presume that it is false until you can verify that it is true.
I agree with @booinyoureyes, in that it is both. But these indictments also read like a checklist of the worst suspicions of those who have been pushing the importance of this story. And this isn't the end by a long-shot. Of this investigation OR Russia's attempts to make this country dumber than it already is. Russian bots were out in force the last 48 hours on social media spreading purposeful disinformation about the Parkland shooter. We know for a fact they accessed voter rolls in multiple states. It's only one more step to hacking the machines themselves.
The problem here is there is no real way for the US government to respond in kind. We cannot do the same, since the Russian election system is so peculiar already. This means the response will either be overzealous or underwhelming, both of which are not ideal.
We can't bomb Russia over this, that would be completely disproportional and inhumane. We can't just waive a finger at the Russian government either. Ideally the response would be leaking Russian state secrets. Authoritarian regimes fear information leaks more than liberal governments, so maybe there is something that can be done there
I agree with @booinyoureyes, in that it is both. But these indictments also read like a checklist of the worst suspicions of those who have been pushing the importance of this story. And this isn't the end by a long-shot. Of this investigation OR Russia's attempts to make this country dumber than it already is. Russian bots were out in force the last 48 hours on social media spreading purposeful disinformation about the Parkland shooter. We know for a fact they accessed voter rolls in multiple states. It's only one more step to hacking the machines themselves.
Well, I wouldn't say the worst suspicions. Some, like Adam Schiff, were implying that the Russian government actually hacked the voting machines themselves in the aftermath of the election. I know many people who firmly believed that at the time (and a small number still do).
Truth is the effectiveness of the sort of disinformation is questionable. People only tend to believe wild conspiracy theories if they want to believe them, which usually translates into conspiracies by "the other side". Most people who believed fake news either way were likely to vote for the candidate the fake news most flattered regardless of what they read.
The gun laws in Florida are almost non-existent. Almost ANYONE can get their hands on one of these weapons. Also, that Alt-Right body count has apparently gone up again:
The only thing I've seen is that the white supremacist leader who GAVE AN INTERVIEW claiming he did train with them has now apparently changed his story. As for the photos, they were from his Instagram account, which Snopes is rating as "true" as far as we are able to establish right now:
The story he gave was based off of 4chan. Also, its kind of hard to imagine that a hispanic man is a white supremacist, but then again he was clearly very unstable so anything is possible.
Well who's fault is that?? The guy came out and gave an in-depth interview to media outlets and then changed his story. If the guy was straight-up LYING then I would guess that would be the main crux of the problem. As for him being Hispanic, I don't even know if he is. While the name "Cruz" would imply that, it isn't a certainty. Plus we do know for sure that he and his brother were adopted.
As for the Instagram page and the MAGA worship, that all seems to be entirely confirmed. The Snopes article mentions that students at the school were aware of the photos he posted of dead lizards long before this happened.
Multiple media reports said he was Hispanic. Also, having a MAGA hat and being a white supremacist are definitely not the same thing. Alt-right, sure, but the twitter post and the reports that he was a white nationalist appear to be incorrect.
Comments
I do think that non-lethal weapons would severely reduce the deterrent effects of gun ownership, but I don't know by how much.
Trump took 30 million from the NRA he is going to do nothing about guns.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/us/nikolas-cruz-florida-shooting.html
@jjstraka34 As far as I can recall, the only job I have ever had where I *didn't* receive extra benefits was when I was stocking groceries at Target part-time just for some extra money. There have been times when I was only a little sick but sucked it up and went to work, anyway, making certain to take sinus and cold meds with me. I was young and stubborn in those days (as opposed to now, when I am only stubborn).
Most workers are, unfortunately, paycheck-to-paycheck people and so they often cannot afford to upset their boss at work. Many people don't like to admit this, even to themselves, but they live with a constant level of fear of losing their job.
Trump had an ad where he said democrats are complicit with every single thing any undocumented ever immigrant does but only the bad things. Using that argument Trump and Republicans are complicit in the child murdering happening in Florida and elsewhere. There's been ten school shootings this year alone resulting in 23 deaths and 38 people injured (61 children with bullet holes).
Here's a breakdown of NRA bought off Republican politicians from October. Trump benefited from $30 million dollars from the NRA, he won't do anything for Florida, or Vegas, or anywhere.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/04/opinion/thoughts-prayers-nra-funding-senators.html Trumps proposed budget cuts funding for background check agencies and another gun control thing each by like 16 percent...
I like Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump's idea of taking an advance on your Social Security payments for paid family leave. Gives families security without passing on the burden to third parties.
Anyway, this is getting irrelevant. He was a lone actor and a monster. Whether or not he was a white nationalist doesn't make white nationalists any better or him any worse.
@booinyoureyes A rubber bullet would put you on the ground. They are technically non-lethal, but guns put out an astounding amount of force. Even blanks can kill under the right conditions.
They also promoted third parties and tried to discourage minorities from voting.
I'm interested to see how the US national security apparatus responds to the Russian Government's actions. Maybe they will try to undermine the legitimacy of Russian elections..... oh, wait.
There is a reason they get no media coverage. When the real ones occur (like Dylan Roof) they get airtime, because killings based on political ideology (especially one so vile) tend to get a lot of play with audiences.
I am certain some Scrooges out there are going to complain and find ways to punish their employees for wanting paid sick leave, but the fact is that being given paid sick leave will likely result in *increased* employee morale and productivity. Besides, do you *really* want your employees coming to work with the flu? If you thought giving me one day off was bad, try dealing with half your production crew (or office staff, or whatever) being out for three days because I came to work while contagious.
I believe there is ample evidence that he was a white supremacist MAGA asshat guy but you make a fair point that either way, dude is a monster.
A white nationalist claimed Cruz was also one and later walked it back. Jordan Jereb, white nationalist, perhaps realized it might not be a great thing to be proud of your association with a school massacre shooter. It might get you or your organization implicated in something.
@JordanJereb posted on Gab, a social media platform popular among fascists and racists. “Are you really going to blame ME for the lying jew media? We know they are liars. Fuck em,” the user wrote.
So...the Internet Research Agency sought to engage in "information warfare" against the United States by using fake personas on social media platforms. Is that a Russia problem....or is it a Facebook problem? Couldn't it also be a "brainless American voter who believes everything they read on the Internet" problem? If it is on the Internet, especially social media, you should probably presume that it is false until you can verify that it is true.
Also: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/untangling-gun-violence-from-mental-illness/485906/
And to address the "guns prevent rape" myth directly:
http://ocrcc.org/guns-rape-prevention-a-dangerous-myth/
https://www.knowyourix.org/issues/campus-carry-campus-rape/
We can't bomb Russia over this, that would be completely disproportional and inhumane. We can't just waive a finger at the Russian government either. Ideally the response would be leaking Russian state secrets. Authoritarian regimes fear information leaks more than liberal governments, so maybe there is something that can be done there
Well, I wouldn't say the worst suspicions. Some, like Adam Schiff, were implying that the Russian government actually hacked the voting machines themselves in the aftermath of the election. I know many people who firmly believed that at the time (and a small number still do).
Truth is the effectiveness of the sort of disinformation is questionable. People only tend to believe wild conspiracy theories if they want to believe them, which usually translates into conspiracies by "the other side". Most people who believed fake news either way were likely to vote for the candidate the fake news most flattered regardless of what they read.