US Politics: Deep State Solution

[OldGimletEye]

53 minutes ago, Samantha Stark said:

You haven't shown me anything that contradicts what I said. The federal tit dried up and now there aren't any rich liberals willing to step up to the plate and fill the void? What happened to Michael Bloomberg?

Yeah well okay. But, think it's rather interesting the NRA felt the need to shut down research on the topic.

And it looks like the NRA's tactic was very effective in keeping us  ignorant about this issue. 

Also, I don't know why you think it's not a legitimate activity for the government to spend a little money to research this issue.

Finally, there does seem to be research out there, not funded by the CDC, which does rebut your assertion that gun control doesn't work.

[Larry of the Lawn]

3 hours ago, Samantha Stark said:

So you have to be an adult and not be a felon and wait five days for a background check on top of their being a state level AWB? Is that somehow unreasonable and not enough gun control?

And there were counties that were harder to obtain a pistol permit and other where it was easier?

You do know that none of the above is the case in alot of US states, including the very idea of a pistol permit right?

Yes, I am aware of the county differences, but that was only for pistol permits.  Anyone adult who wanted to buy a long gun could get one after he waiting period, unless they were a felon, or had an active restraining order against them.  That's not strict gun control. 

Additionally, private sales of long guns were completely unregulated.  

And counties in CT aren't like much of the rest of the country.  Only New Haven was reluctant to issue permits; you could move five minutes away and get one from another county.  

And the pistol permit class?  Tough to say it's strict when it was literally the NRA course. 

[LongRider]

5 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Of course, it's hard to see how any law could have a serious effect in the US now that there are hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation. With gun culture, the NRA and the Republican Party, I'm afraid the US is screwed.

I agree with this, plus, with the variance of gun laws from state to state, plus, the variances of laws on how guns are sold make for chaotic gun control anyway.  As mentioned here, private sales have different rules than sales from a vendor, and this has played out in the gun shows where sales there didn't need the background checks and the waiting periods of other sale points.  In the western US there are lots and lots of gun shows.

It was known that during the AWB, one could at gun shows, find the people and the parts one needed to turn ones weapon from semi automatic weapon to full automatic, so the AWB couldn't be fully enforced anyway.  I also get the sense that many conservatives think that liberals don't own or shoot guns and they couldn't be more wrong as many liberals own and shoot guns and always have.

[OldGimletEye]

Just now, Nasty LongRider said:

I also get the sense that many conservatives think that liberals don't own or shoot guns and they couldn't be more wrong as many liberals own and shoot guns and always have.

Yeah, I second this. I'm not really a zealous anti-gun person. I, generally, think that responsible people should be able to own fire arms if that is what they choose to do.

That said, I would like to have some sensible regulations in place to stop the worst excesses of gun violence.

Of course its a bit to difficult to know what that might like look, with conservatives trying to kill research into the matter and all.

[Commodore]

12 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

My God, more of your brain dead bullshit reporting. There is so much that's misleading in that report. First of all, Sweden has very wide definition of rape. The USA, for example, for statistics gathering used an 80 year old definition of rape until just 2011, that required force to be rape.

If you're attributing the increase to better reporting and broader definitions of rape, how would one prove an actual increase?

Here is a 60 Minutes crew going into a no-go zone in Sweden. Without a police escort, they are assaulted my Somali migrants.

[LongRider]

Gun control laws do get passed in the US and in 2016 Calif, Nevada and Washington passed new laws and Maine did not. Here is an article from a pro gun site that has a brief discussion of the three laws that passed.

https://bearingarms.com/jenn-j/2016/11/09/how-california-washington-maine-and-nevada-voted-on-gun-control/

Not long before the election I was in Nevada visiting and saw some of the NRA adds playing heavily there and yet, the law passed.  This is interesting to me as there are many guns and shooters in Nevada as Nevada a lot of public land and shooting and target practice are a common activity on the land.  

[Ormond]

4 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Gun control laws do get passed in the US and in 2016 Calif, Nevada and Washington passed new laws and Maine did not. Here is an article from a pro gun site that has a brief discussion of the three laws that passed.

https://bearingarms.com/jenn-j/2016/11/09/how-california-washington-maine-and-nevada-voted-on-gun-control/

Not long before the election I was in Nevada visiting and saw some of the NRA adds playing heavily there and yet, the law passed.  This is interesting to me as there are many guns and shooters in Nevada as Nevada a lot of public land and shooting and target practice are a common activity on the land.  

I guess this is just even more evidence that Nevada is the one state in the USA that definitely bucked trends and shifted strongly "blue" in the 2016 election. I think liberal activists should study that state closely to figure out whether or not its movement can be replicated in other states.

[LongRider]

Just now, Ormond said:

I guess this is just even more evidence that Nevada is the one state in the USA that definitely bucked trends and shifted strongly "blue" in the 2016 election. I think liberal activists should study that state closely to figure out whether or not its movement can be replicated in other states.

I can answer part of that; Harry Reid's machine and California.  Harry Reid has built up a powerful political machine in Southern NV and this helped to get Catherine Cortez Masto to the Senate.  Calif really turns out the volunteers to get out the vote in the prez elections and they knock on door for many weeks before elections which turn out the blue vote.  Really, GOTV is THE most important tactic for getting out blue votes, bar none.  If only really good GOTV had happened in the rust belt states.  Oh well.

While the governor, Brian Sandoval is a R, he did bring the ACA with medicaid funding to the state, which was greatly needed.  So with the ACA on the line, perhaps that helped too.

But GOTV really, really works.

[Commodore]

problem is Dems have no one to run against Heller

 

[Fragile Bird]

57 minutes ago, Commodore said:

If you're attributing the increase to better reporting and broader definitions of rape, how would one prove an actual increase?

Here is a 60 Minutes crew going into a no-go zone in Sweden. Without a police escort, they are assaulted my Somali migrants.

Try looking at the convictions.

[Mexal]

Editing works wonders. Even gets a President to make shit up.

 

[Commodore]

1 minute ago, Mexal said:

Editing works wonders. Even gets a President to make shit up.

treat all pre-taped interviews as suspect if full transcripts aren't made available

[TheKitttenGuard]

An article that I find a nice summary of the discourse we been involved in for the past 20 months:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/20/humiliation-porn-trumps-gift-to-his-faithful-and-now-the-blowback/

Quote

“Humiliation porn” is much about transforming the shame and pain of victimization and powerlessness into some kind of sexual pleasure. If mainstream institutions ignore a large number of people who feel powerless, victimized and angry, that’s easy pickings for a demagogue, who knows that a politician’s campaign promises may not hook a distrusting crowd but that providing them with pleasure—humiliation porn—is enticing and addicting.

We can thank mainstream American institutions—including the Democratic and Republican Parties and the mainstream media—for creating conditions that gave rise to Donald Trump, now the Humiliator-in-Chief. And we can thank the Donald for pissing on all taboos around offensiveness, resulting in reciprocal nastiness and the normalization of psychologically violent discourse. Before getting to the blowback to Trump, a few examples from the Trump humiliation porn collection.

Spoiler

One of the Trump faithful’s favorite “cum shots” is the humiliation of Mitt Romney, who had insulted Trump in the 2016 campaign but who naively believed that he was still seriously being considered for Secretary of State. If you had talked with Trump guys or had listened to their Alex Jones show, you’d know that Trump’s post-election maneuvering with Romney got these guys excited, as they fantasized about what was coming. They were ecstatic when, immediately after Trump instead selected Rex Tillerson, Trump advisor Roger Stone gloatingly told Alex Jones about Trump’s “torturing,” “toying” and “diddling” of Romney. For the Alex Jones brigade, Trump’s humiliation of Romney was his gift to them, providing his faithful with fantasy, orgasm and ejaculation.

At Trump campaign rallies, the cry of “lock her up” drove his faithful into a frenzy, as they visualized Hillary Clinton in prison being humiliated in all kinds of ways. Trump supporters don’t seem to hold it against Trump for his post-election reneging on prosecuting Clinton; as they remain appreciative for Trump providing them with that prison-porn fantasy image.

And then there is the Trump declaration, “I’ll build a wall, and Mexico will pay for it,” which brought the house down at Trump rallies. The first part, “I’ll build a wall,” is pleasurable to this disempowered group as it conjures up an image of a strongman protecting them and jobs, but it creates tension as Trump loyalists hate government spending their money for a wall. And so when Trump completes the phrase with “. . . and Mexico will pay for it,” this is orgasmic delight—tension resolved through humiliating a brown-skinned nation. (To be historically fair to Trump, American politicians have a long history of getting mileage from not only trying to humiliate Mexico but by stealing large parts of it.)

One reason that mainstream Democrats and Republicans were blind to the magnitude of Trump’s attraction is that part of being mainstream involves a denial and repression of raw emotions, including rage and humiliation over powerlessness. Thus, the mainstream view was: It’s crazy to think that Trump, with his never-ending spewing of politically-incorrect insults, could win the Republican nomination, and certifiably insane to believe that he could win the presidential election.

Yet in 2016, most Americans—as evidenced by the rise of both Trump and Bernie Sanders—were feeling powerless, victimized, and angry. Despising Hillary Clinton and the Democratic/Republican establishment was a sentiment shared by both Trump and Sanders supporters. However, beyond the policy differences between Trump and Sanders, the glaring emotional difference was that Sanders didn’t move into humiliation porn, which would not have attracted mainstream Democrats whom Sanders needed to win the nomination. But for the lucky Trump, there were few mainstream Republican voters remaining, and that’s why he gained steam each time he humiliated a mainstream Republican politician from “Little Marco” to “Lying Ted.”

To the dismay of Trump haters, they discovered that facts, reason and fear failed to stop Trump. And so now, anti-Trump forces have fully embraced psychological violence. Some of their efforts, I suspect, will be impotent but some of their violent efforts might well be quite effective.

...

However, if one is trying to get rid of Trump, professional jargon labels are at best useless and maybe even empowering for Trump’s approximately 40 percent support, who may be more energized than deterred by Trump receiving college-level insults from PhDs. One might want to consider the needs of Trump’s supporters rather than focusing on Trump, if one wants to reduce Trump’s support.

A good chunk of Trump voters—even among the Alex Jones alt-right brigade—are not blind to Trump’s meanness and brutalism. They don’t necessarily like him, only the pleasures that he has provided for them. So for them, it is all business, and when someone else better satisfies their needs, they will move on and listen to what they have to say.

So, Trump should be worried about Saturday Night Live and their willingness to use humiliation porn (including women playing key Trump administration men) because SNL humiliations—and those who will ratchet it up even nastier—will attract some of Trump’s audience share, as it is just too irresistible.

By early February 2017, NBC reported that SNL’s ratings were the highest in 20 years, up 22 percent from the same time last year. On February 4, SNL ran a skit with Alec Baldwin/ Trump being pressed by Steve Bannon/Darth Vader to demonstrate to foreign nations who is boss, with Trump appearing as a jerk to one world leader after another; with finally, the strongman leader of Zimbabwe calling Trump, “a little white bitch.” Last I looked, the Youtube video of that skit had over 11 million views. And more famously on that same SNL episode was Melissa McCarthy’s rendition of an out-of-control press secretary Sean Spicer, which on Youtube is now at 23 million views and climbing.

These days, it doesn’t exactly take Lenny Bruce courage for entertainers to be outrageous about the Trump administration, as Trump himself has created a cultural climate by which nothing is over the line because there is no longer any line and nothing is too taboo to spew.

 

[Mexal]

14 minutes ago, Commodore said:

treat all pre-taped interviews as suspect if full transcripts aren't made available

I think this is fair advice. I just wish the President of the USA adhered to it before spouting off crap to the world.

[Einheri]

Ozzy Man Reviews: Trump's Handshake Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0y2t5sGF6E 

[Zorral]

First -- the very idea that Bloomie is a liberal is risible.

Second -- the states with the toughest gun laws, like the one in which I live, have the lowest homicide rate by gun.  States that have the weakest gun laws also have the highest rate of death by guns, starting with Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.

https://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2016/01/07/map-which-states-have-the-highest-gun-death-rates/

But please, let us not blind ourselves with facts! Gag rules and bans to even research and discuss have been passed by the NRA-funded congress critters.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-02/quietly-congress-extends-ban-cdc-research-gun-violence

 

[denstorebog]

In other news, Trump slowly climbs point by point in the Gallup polls, but falls something like 10 point in the Rasmussen polls from one day to the next. This erratic movement would be hilarious if it wasn't because polls might be the difference between an aggressive and a careful administration, as well as a cooperative vs. uncooperative Congress.

[Zorral]

 

1 hour ago, TheKitttenGuard said:

These days, it doesn’t exactly take Lenny Bruce courage for entertainers to be outrageous about the Trump administration, as Trump himself has created a cultural climate by which nothing is over the line because there is no longer any line and nothing is too taboo to spew.

Still over the line to go after their kids, if they aren't grown.

Though that didn't stop the batshyte wingers from going after Chelsea when they were in the White House.

 

[Relic]

Russian officials dying right and left. Russia's UN ambassador died "suddenly" in NYC today.