Politics And Current Events

[Morkle]

Shyster and other's with his viewpoint are not capable of feeling shame in regards to the gun situation. It is pointless to have a conversation about it (as he stated). If you want action, you have to take something from them. While we get defensive when they take our children, they get defensive when it's about losing their guns. 200X crazy time.

IMO, it's why red flag laws are such a scary proposition to them. A lot of these people post insane **** online, or say they're depressed or feeling anxiety openly, that owning guns should be considered a risk, imo.

The problem with those laws, is that once they're applied to someone, they're hard to get off, so that does infringe on rights, but I would bet that if red flag laws were a truly built out thing, I would suspect a lot of people would lose the right to own firearms.

[Morkle]

In regards to the gas prices, this is starting to become a single voter issue, and someone needs to do something about this ****. I WFH full time and it's still quasi pissing me off.

[bhflyhigh]

So you admit that it would accomplish little to nothing. At least that's a better answer than the frivolous bullcrap in the posts above. And what if attitudes don't change? What if it makes a large swath of of the population seriously angry to the point where they start committing violence in response? Would that be acceptable to you as a tradeoff?

Everyone on here can attack me for not agreeing with calls for gun control, but why should anyone go along with proposed solutions that are based on hopes and prayers and magical thinking?

I don't think this is magical thinking. Nobody thinks you can just snap fingers and change this overnight. As MWB has said, it will take time. These things always do. I just don't understand why we need a license to drive a car, but not to have a gun. I think there are plenty of things that can be done that would be effective in the long run. You can what if this to death. You can what if anything in life. What if, what if, what if. That's not a real answer or a solution to anything.

How many of these types of shootings are in countries that regulate firearms? I'm actually asking because I haven't looked it up yet. My guess is that it's a LOT less than we see in the US.

[Troy Loney]

In regards to the gas prices, this is starting to become a single voter issue, and someone needs to do something about this ****. I WFH full time and it's still quasi pissing me off.

Yes, let's nationalize Chevron! (not being facetious)

[Morkle]

All I know is that "it will create this massive problem, so let's just do nothing about it" trope is pretty old.

[nocera]

Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school
https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas ... 83df6e4683

Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team.

When we would do active shooter drills, we were told that we could expect first responders to enter the building around15 minutes after the attack starts. That's apparently the average time it takes in that situation. So we were basically told "you're on your own for 15 minutes." In Texas, police were on scene immediately. Exchanged gunfire with the shooter before he ever entered a classroom. And then stood outside for 40 minutes listening to the sounds of him shooting children.

Another point that I saw on reddit was this kid was 18 years old so he spent most if not all of his life practicing active shooter/lockdown drills. He knew exactly what to do once inside. A few weeks ago we were talking to our nephews and niece about their lockdown drills and they're STILL doing the close the door, turn out the lights, and hide strategy. PPS and others now train "run, hide, fight" because if the shooter gets into your class and everybody is huddled in a corner, it's bad news. Listen for the shots to see how far away it is and if you can, get the **** out of the building.

[Troy Loney]

Shyster and other's with his viewpoint are not capable of feeling shame in regards to the gun situation. It is pointless to have a conversation about it (as he stated). If you want action, you have to take something from them. While we get defensive when they take our children, they get defensive when it's about losing their guns. 200X crazy time.

IMO, it's why red flag laws are such a scary proposition to them. A lot of these people post insane **** online, or say they're depressed or feeling anxiety openly, that owning guns should be considered a risk, imo.

The problem with those laws, is that once they're applied to someone, they're hard to get off, so that does infringe on rights, but I would bet that if red flag laws were a truly built out thing, I would suspect a lot of people would lose the right to own firearms.

Also, every gun regulation is a "slippery slope" to them.

Such a wonderful catch-22 that they have embraced. Every incremental measure that gets proposed would be too small to do anything, and every meaningful measure to address the issue would be "civil war" time.

This absurd posture is essentially the official position of the GOP and the courts (expect SCOTUS 2nd amendment cases ripping out state/local regulations). I respect Shyster for laying it out clearly yesterday, he's entitled to his position, and if I had kids I would probably feel more inclined to engage in this debate. But it's fruitless (based on that posturing).

[DigitalGypsy66]

That is bad news for people that live in vacation hotspots.

Just read an article about Memorial Day Weekend here in Dirty Myrtle. Down to 70-80% occupancy for VRBOs/hotels, and the average stay is more expensive. Will that last through the summer? We'll see.

Also, gas prices have dropped here pretty significantly. We track our gas purchases, as we can apply for an SC gas tax refund at the end of the tax year. Paid $4.29 last week and $4.12 yesterday at the same station. (If you're curious, we've purchased 425 gallons of gas for $1612 so far in 2022. That's for three cars, with me commuting 90 miles two days a week.)

Random note: I buy deli meat for lunch making. For months, it was $6-8 a pound for the ol' Wally World brand meat. Over the last few months, it's moved up to $8-10 per pound. The last couple of weeks, it's started to move back down some, to $7-9. That's good, I think?

[faftorial]

Freakanomics Radio has a good 4 part series on the current state of higher education. It's essentially a boom to bust situation. The peak was around 2010 for enrollment and it's been steadily dropping since. The drop is largely in the public sector where they accept nearly everyone that fits the minimum, so they grew fast, but then those applications dried up. More competitive schools like the Ivy league schools are still growing.

One area that has plummeted for attendance since 2010: Male students. Current college mix is 60:40 women to men, and for every degree a man earns, two women earn one. Two big factors behind this:

1. Men can earn more without a college degree than women can (think about the jobs that men would typically go into without a degree than what women would), so when you sit down and do the ROI calculation, it's not as attractive for men to go to college. Women have a far better ROI when you consider the lost wages from the 4 years of college.

2. Women are "better" students in our current K-12 system. The "sit down, shut up, and listen" style of education is better suited toward the American style of raising girls rather than the American style of raising boys. If boys don't feel they're as successful in K-12, it only follows that they don't think they'll be successful post-secondary.

Doesn't the declining birthrate also contribute to this? Gen X is a smaller cohort who had fewer children than boomers.

[dodint]

Four cops couldn't stop an 18-year-old. Heroes.

Wow you are being an dadhole.

How so?

The police
-intimidate the defenseless as a normal way of doing business.
-shoot family dogs at a rate of 500 per day as an intimidation tactic.
-steal from the vulnerable through civil asset forfeiture.
-soak up tax dollars buying military-grade weaponry so they can play warrior cop.
-lie under oath to ensure their illegal and immoral tactics go unchecked.

And in exchange for a society permitting the above and more, when it comes time to actually contribute to a community and stop 20 kids from being slaughtered these tough guys can't contain an 18-year-old when the ratio of police to offender is 4:1?

They're losers, meek bullies that went limp when they were asked to do their job. I'd like to think they'll carry their failure with them to the grave but they're probably seeing themselves as the victims here and put their hands out for a medal instead. The same goes for the guard in Florida who collected a paycheck for years and then ran the other way the one time he was called to perform. Cowards, all of them.

[MR25]

There's video from outside the school (to the article NTP posted) of officers keeping parents away from the building while the shooter was still active inside.

They even tackled a parent who was angry they were standing there doing nothing.

Remember, SCOTUS found that police are not required to intervene in a crime in progress. "Protect and Serve" is a load of bullshit.

[willeyeam]

^^

[dodint]

The Colorado case that set that precedent is tragic. An unstable father kidnapped his kids and murdered them while the police told the mother to pound sand.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

Four cops couldn't stop an 18-year-old. Heroes.

Wow you are being an dadhole.

How so?

The police
-intimidate the defenseless as a normal way of doing business.
-shoot family dogs at a rate of 500 per day as an intimidation tactic.
-steal from the vulnerable through civil asset forfeiture.
-soak up tax dollars buying military-grade weaponry so they can play warrior cop.
-lie under oath to ensure their illegal and immoral tactics go unchecked.

And in exchange for a society permitting the above and more, when it comes time to actually contribute to a community and stop 20 kids from being slaughtered these tough guys can't contain an 18-year-old when the ratio of police to offender is 4:1?

They're losers, meek bullies that went limp when they were asked to do their job. I'd like to think they'll carry their failure with them to the grave but they're probably seeing themselves as the victims here and put their hands out for a medal instead. The same goes for the guard in Florida who collected a paycheck for years and then ran the other way the one time he was called to perform. Cowards, all of them.

cops aren’t a monolith so your first point is shitty

however I do agree that they still should’ve gone in. There were children in there. I’d sacrifice myself to try to save children from being slaughtered right now even not being a police officer

[shoeshine boy]

let me start by telling you some things about myself.
1) I've never shot a real gun much less bought one
2) I don't have kids. never have, never will.
3) my father never had guns either
4) my brother is a former cop so he has several
5) my sister is a public school teacher

now, I don't want to infringe on your right to own a gun but I don't want to make it so easy either.
I think gun purchases should require background checks
I think guns should have to be registered
I think the first time you buy a gun, you should have to pass some kind of safety course. I had to pass TWO tests (road and written) in order to get my license to drive a car.
I don't understand why people buy high capacity "assault style" weapons other than to seem cool.
I think gun owners should be required to carry insurance on their guns, similar to auto insurance. (to my knowledge they don't)
Chris Rock was right. maybe if bullets were $5k each, maybe the gunman in Texas wouldn't have been able to buy 300+ rounds of ammo.

[MR25]

And this is why the "mental health" discussion is flawed to begin with. It's just a red herring to distract you from the fact none of these people care about it until it's a convenient excuse to shift blame.away from guns.

[nocera]

Oh also the Uvalde PD makes up 40% of the city's budget. And there's also this (NY Post so take it for what its worth)

[dodint]

cops aren’t a monolith so your first point is shitty

Tell me you don't interact with police without telling me you don't interact with police.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I’ve interacted with police a lot more than I wanted to this year (three traffic violations [two 15 over the speed limit and one when I totaled my car])

[NTP66]

In regards to the gas prices, this is starting to become a single voter issue, and someone needs to do something about this ****. I WFH full time and it's still quasi pissing me off.

How? No President has control over this. You want the free market? You’ve got it. This is what it looks like. Unless you start taxing the oil industry - and even then I don’t see that alleviating anything - you can’t control gas prices from private companies.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I was thinking about property taxes. In SC, we pay a property tax on vehicles. No annual inspections, but I digress.

What if there was a substantial gun tax for registered firearms, payable each year? Large magazine capacity rifles are top tier at say $1500 each year. Lower tax rates on lower capacity rifles, pistols, shotguns and whatnot. Don't want to pay? Transfer it/sell it to someone who can or have it destroyed and get a credit for another gun or rebate.

[NAN]

Four cops couldn't stop an 18-year-old. Heroes.

Wow you are being an dadhole.

How so?

The police
-intimidate the defenseless as a normal way of doing business.
-shoot family dogs at a rate of 500 per day as an intimidation tactic.
-steal from the vulnerable through civil asset forfeiture.
-soak up tax dollars buying military-grade weaponry so they can play warrior cop.
-lie under oath to ensure their illegal and immoral tactics go unchecked.

And in exchange for a society permitting the above and more, when it comes time to actually contribute to a community and stop 20 kids from being slaughtered these tough guys can't contain an 18-year-old when the ratio of police to offender is 4:1?

They're losers, meek bullies that went limp when they were asked to do their job. I'd like to think they'll carry their failure with them to the grave but they're probably seeing themselves as the victims here and put their hands out for a medal instead. The same goes for the guard in Florida who collected a paycheck for years and then ran the other way the one time he was called to perform. Cowards, all of them.

Ass

[NTP66]

Also, this new information on the cops in that school shooting is infuriating. I wonder how many children would be alive if they actually did their **** job. Cowards, every last one of them.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I was thinking about property taxes. In SC, we pay a property tax on vehicles. No annual inspections, but I digress.

What if there was a substantial gun tax for registered firearms, payable each year? Large magazine capacity rifles are top tier at say $1500 each year. Lower tax rates on lower capacity rifles, pistols, shotguns and whatnot. Don't want to pay? Transfer it/sell it to someone who can or have it destroyed and get a credit for another gun or rebate.

I like the idea (though the Shysters of the world would likely argue that putting a tax on them is unconstitutional because it becomes a barrier to ownership)

really the only way I can see things changing is if we amend 2A. Which is very unlikely to happen because as I alluded to yesterday, support of gun reform has seemingly decreased over the last 30 years

[NAN]

There's video from outside the school (to the article NTP posted) of officers keeping parents away from the building while the shooter was still active inside.

They even tackled a parent who was angry they were standing there doing nothing.

Remember, SCOTUS found that police are not required to intervene in a crime in progress. "Protect and Serve" is a load of bullshit.

Yep, let's let parents run in and even further muck up the situation. 3 officers were shot while trying to get in.

Honestly, I'd love to see the dadholes that dodint and moan about the cops and how they should handle things in that situation. They have a family to go home to as well and can't blindly just run into a building or it would probably bring even more choas. Go **** yourself.