US politics: Manchin to the beat of a different drum

[Fragile Bird]

18 minutes ago, argonak said:

https://abc13.com/mom-accidentally-shoots-her-son-trying-to-shoot-dog-5-year-old-shot-by-angelia-mia-vargas-deadly-conduct-of-a-firearm/10728726/

So on the one hand, large breed dogs (a six month old boxer could be fairly large) can be very dangerous to small children, and should not be out of fenced yards without being on a leash.  Large dogs can even cause serious injury to adults.  Per the article, the dog got loose and charged across the street.  As someone with small children, I am always very concerned when I see dogs on the street in my neighborhood, even leashed, because I have witnessed multiple times dogs breaking away from their owners and charging other animals or people.  I don't know that I've ever felt the desire to shoot one (nor do I carry a firearm anyway).

But on the other hand, untrained morons who don't know how to use a firearm are also very dangerous to children (and everyone).

This just seems bad all around.  

It's the hitting her 5-year old part that concerned me.

No, let me add to that. The idea of living someplace where a person riding by on their bicycle could pull out a gun and kill a dog, try to kill a dog, with a gun is disgusting. 

There's another story, about a man in Florida who killed an iguana and was charged with animal abuse or whatever. He tried to defend himself by saying the "stand your ground" law in Florida let him do that. 

You people are nuts about guns. Just pull out a gun and shoot things. And people. 

It's all related, dontcha think?

And your link shows the size of the puppy. It's obviously a puppy. And until I read your link I didn't realize her husband was there too. There is no mention that the dog threatened anyone. She saw a dog and tried to kill it. Because she was carrying a fucking gun.

[Mindwalker]

@Fragile Bird, guess what they raffle for people getting covid vaccinated in West Virginia. Besides a bunch of money. Just guess.

 

The former guy's blog has been taken down. On a brighter note, he'll soon start his rallies again.

[S John]

You don’t need training to actually buy or own a gun most places (anywhere?) in the US as far as I know. The permit is just to be allowed to carry it in public. The Texas law is about allowing citizens to carry a firearm openly or concealed without a permit. In most states carrying a firearm for day to day stuff requires a permit which usually requires a class which may or may not reach the standard of what most would consider ‘training’.

Some states you can carry a firearm without a permit as long as you carry it openly, but concealment requires a permit. That one always kind of baffled me.

Some states are doing away with permit requirements altogether and people can just roll around armed without any permit at all.

To buy a gun in most of the US is usually just be 18 or 21, pass a background check, and you fill out a form on site promising that you aren’t a felon / domestic abuser / terrorist or something. There is nothing else to it. No proof of competence is needed. I have purchased a gun in two different states and both times I was struck by how easy it was. It’s definitely a faster process than buying a car or taking out a loan.

[Maithanet]

WaPo article about why Florida has moved right even as it's big cities continue to grow (limited clicks).

There are obviously several factors, but a big one that is highlighted here is just that many states like VA, GA and AZ have one major metropolitican area that is growing and moving left.  At the same time, rural parts of those states have comparatively little population growth, and thus the shift in these places is real.  In Florida, that is not the case.  Instead, in Florida many new voters are moving to areas outside the big cities in search of Florida's low taxes and warm weather. 

Quote

The Gray Migration — hardly a new feature of the Sunshine State — provided the GOP with new voters. Between 1988 and 2020, Republicans added 1.5 million votes outside of the major metros — far outstripping the 1.1 million that Democrats added in Miami in that same interval.

We'll see if that continues or not.  I think it's too early for Democrats to be declaring Florida "gone" the way they can for OH or MO, but it is definitely a worrisome trend. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

"I was trying to kill your puppy but shot my kid instead"..

Sounds karmic to me. She better be incarcerated for this. 

Eta: technically she has only allegedly "accidentally" shot this child anyways. She needs to stand trial like any other shooter and have all the evidence weighed imo.

[Larry of the Lawn]

21 minutes ago, S John said:

You don’t need training to actually buy or own a gun most places (anywhere?) in the US as far as I know. The permit is just to be allowed to carry it in public. The Texas law is about allowing citizens to carry a firearm openly or concealed without a permit. In most states carrying a firearm for day to day stuff requires a permit which usually requires a class which may or may not reach the standard of what most would consider ‘training’.

Some states you can carry a firearm without a permit as long as you carry it openly, but concealment requires a permit. That one always kind of baffled me.

Some states are doing away with permit requirements altogether and people can just roll around armed without any permit at all.

To buy a gun in most of the US is usually just be 18 or 21, pass a background check, and you fill out a form on site promising that you aren’t a felon / domestic abuser / terrorist or something. There is nothing else to it. No proof of competence is needed. I have purchased a gun in two different states and both times I was struck by how easy it was. It’s definitely a faster process than buying a car or taking out a loan.

There are some places where you need a permit, but I think at this point that only applies to handguns, and a Heller challenge in any of them would probably change some of the 'may issue' to 'will issue' if the objective criteria are met.

In CT (even before Sandy Hook) you needed to take an NRA certification and then apply for a "may issue" pistol permit to have any gun with less than an 18" barrel.  Not just to carry it, but to even own it.  Even weirder, the permits were at the discretion at the head of the state police for your county.  New Haven county was well known for not issuing pistol permits to anyone other than cops, lawyers, and judges for a very long time. 

In NYS you can buy a handgun without training but to transport it anywhere other than between your home and a gun range you need a permit.

If I remember correctly there are several other states where you can buy a handgun but having it anywhere other than your home without a permit is illegal.  

Then there are a bunch of states that have non-reciprocal agreements- Massachussetts has been a state where even if you have a gun and every permit for it in your own state they do not allow you to transport it through Mass.  Some of my highschool friends who hunt up in Maine and Canada always disassembled their guns and put them in separate boxes when travelling through Mass.

eta: I took the pistol permit cert in CT but never ended up getting a handgun.  I took it because it order to get a falconry permit you needed a pistol permit (yes, a falcon is considered a handgun in that state).  Never got the falconry permit for a variety of reasons, mostly didn't think I could commit to taking care of a raptor.

[Fragile Bird]

You may have noticed that one of the world’s biggest meat-packing companies, JBS, was hacked, necessitating the shutdown of processing plants in Canada, the US and Australia. Apparently $50 M in ransom was requested.

Today’s hack has shut down the ferry system in Massachusetts. The Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority has been the target of a ransomware attack this morning.

I am going to predict that all this crap is just practice for the day you guys are going to wake up and find pipelines shut down, power generating stations shut down, hospital systems hacked, financial institutions compromised, dams opened and all kinds of other shit hitting on the same day or within days of each other. It’s being labeled as criminal behavior (and the Russian government says, hey, we had nothing to do with it) but the guiding hand behind it all is the Russian government. One day there may be a war started over this stuff.

I’m having a flashback memory to a post I did in this thread 6 or 7 years ago where I reported that a company that specialized in software security announced they detected a hack that affected a couple of million US accounts, and I almost got laughed out of the thread. Nonsense! You guys said. Look at the company that’s making the claim! They’re just trying to drum up business!

[Reny of Storms End]

22 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

You may have noticed that one of the world’s biggest meat-packing companies, JBS, was hacked, necessitating the shutdown of processing plants in Canada, the US and Australia. Apparently $50 M in ransom was requested.

An obvious point for me to make, but this is a problem I hope we have people working 24/7 to figure out how to combat effectively. However, at the same time I have to believe the way this is being reported just makes the mess so much worse. Like would gas stations have run out, if every major and local media site hadn't been running coverage all day about how there was a huge gas shortage and you'd be lucky to get any gas if you waited a moment longer to go fill up? 

 

Its the same with JBS, I don't want to downplay the problem, but our reporting on it just makes the situation so much worse. 

[argonak]

43 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

There are some places where you need a permit, but I think at this point that only applies to handguns, and a Heller challenge in any of them would probably change some of the 'may issue' to 'will issue' if the objective criteria are met.

In CT (even before Sandy Hook) you needed to take an NRA certification and then apply for a "may issue" pistol permit to have any gun with less than an 18" barrel.  Not just to carry it, but to even own it.  Even weirder, the permits were at the discretion at the head of the state police for your county.  New Haven county was well known for not issuing pistol permits to anyone other than cops, lawyers, and judges for a very long time. 

In NYS you can buy a handgun without training but to transport it anywhere other than between your home and a gun range you need a permit.

If I remember correctly there are several other states where you can buy a handgun but having it anywhere other than your home without a permit is illegal.  

Then there are a bunch of states that have non-reciprocal agreements- Massachussetts has been a state where even if you have a gun and every permit for it in your own state they do not allow you to transport it through Mass.  Some of my highschool friends who hunt up in Maine and Canada always disassembled their guns and put them in separate boxes when travelling through Mass.

eta: I took the pistol permit cert in CT but never ended up getting a handgun.  I took it because it order to get a falconry permit you needed a pistol permit (yes, a falcon is considered a handgun in that state).  Never got the falconry permit for a variety of reasons, mostly didn't think I could commit to taking care of a raptor.

Yeah.  I always shake my head at the gun-nerds I know on some of these issues.  Even in the "old west" you had to check your pistol with the sheriff when you came into town.  But the modern american gun culture is based more on movies than it is on reality.  Also, people seem to only learn about guns from movies, and are more interested in owning said weapons than learning how to use them.

In Washington State if you want a hunting license, you have to take a hunter's safety course which includes a lot about fire arm safety.  The number of hunters who shoot themselves, their partner, or their dog while crossing an obstacle is facepalm worthy.

Which makes it even more stupid that we don't mandate training of any sort for just having the gun in your house, where its much more likely to be part of an accident.

[TrueMetis]

1 hour ago, S John said:

You don’t need training to actually buy or own a gun most places (anywhere?) in the US as far as I know. The permit is just to be allowed to carry it in public. The Texas law is about allowing citizens to carry a firearm openly or concealed without a permit. In most states carrying a firearm for day to day stuff requires a permit which usually requires a class which may or may not reach the standard of what most would consider ‘training’.

Some states you can carry a firearm without a permit as long as you carry it openly, but concealment requires a permit. That one always kind of baffled me.

Some states are doing away with permit requirements altogether and people can just roll around armed without any permit at all.

To buy a gun in most of the US is usually just be 18 or 21, pass a background check, and you fill out a form on site promising that you aren’t a felon / domestic abuser / terrorist or something. There is nothing else to it. No proof of competence is needed. I have purchased a gun in two different states and both times I was struck by how easy it was. It’s definitely a faster process than buying a car or taking out a loan.

TBF The training required to get a gun permit in Canada isn't all that rigorous either. It's mostly around basic safety of the "how to avoid accidentally shooting yourself" variety. As well as how to properly store your weapons. That wouldn't prevent that kind of dumbassery shown in the news story. What prevents that is that it's just straight up illegal to carry a handgun around like that in Canada.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I hate to say it, but Amazon is rather shrewd for laxening it's workforce rules over the weed use. Employers claiming they can't attract enough help may need to compete for workers here in the near future. Weed seems to be popular with a lot of people, even to the point where they will change jobs over these kind of rules.

We recently lost a long term employee that transferred to a company that doesn't drug test for cannabis, even though her pay and bennies are now going to be significantly less. Her freedom to light up freely seemed to outweigh pay, vacay and pension.

Insane if you ask me but people will jump through some pretty crazy hoops to be able to toke without penalty. It's an actual perk for certain types of worker, one more important than money apparently.

[argonak]

2 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Insane if you ask me but people will jump through some pretty crazy hoops to be able to toke without penalty. It's an actual perk for certain types of worker, one more important than money apparently.

That is how addictions/habits usually work, yeah.

Personally I wish MJ was still illegal to smoke.  When some of my neighbors do so, it really makes our neighborhood stink.  I'm sure its also still bad for your lungs.

Why they don't just eat the edibles is beyond me.  Seems like it would be much more enjoyable.

[Larry of the Lawn]

10 minutes ago, argonak said:

That is how addictions/habits usually work, yeah.

Personally I wish MJ was still illegal to smoke.  When some of my neighbors do so, it really makes our neighborhood stink.  I'm sure its also still bad for your lungs.

Why they don't just eat the edibles is beyond me.  Seems like it would be much more enjoyable.

Well, just take solace in the fact that the cops have one less tool in the toolbox of harassing minority communities in places that have legalized it.  And the science is out on the lung issue but it doesn't appear to be anywhere near as bad as tobacco.  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Well, just take solace in the fact that the cops have one less tool in the toolbox of harassing minority communities in places that have legalized it.  And the science is out on the lung issue but it doesn't appear to be anywhere near as bad as tobacco.  

But Larry, don't you remember those commercials from 90's saying smoking weed was like smoking a pack of cigs?????

24 minutes ago, argonak said:

That is how addictions/habits usually work, yeah.

Personally I wish MJ was still illegal to smoke.  When some of my neighbors do so, it really makes our neighborhood stink.  I'm sure its also still bad for your lungs.

Why they don't just eat the edibles is beyond me.  Seems like it would be much more enjoyable.

So do your public duty and buy them some gummies. 

[kairparavel]

The fourth tweet in this thread is spectacular, along with the poster that got dude in hot water. Also, this is some next level bullshit. 

 

'doing a coup' 

[S John]

1 hour ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

I hate to say it, but Amazon is rather shrewd for laxening it's workforce rules over the weed use. Employers claiming they can't attract enough help may need to compete for workers here in the near future. Weed seems to be popular with a lot of people, even to the point where they will change jobs over these kind of rules.

We recently lost a long term employee that transferred to a company that doesn't drug test for cannabis, even though her pay and bennies are now going to be significantly less. Her freedom to light up freely seemed to outweigh pay, vacay and pension.

Insane if you ask me but people will jump through some pretty crazy hoops to be able to toke without penalty. It's an actual perk for certain types of worker, one more important than money apparently.

There may be more than meets the eye here. MJ can help people with all kinds of chronic issues from insomnia to ptsd and often has less side effects than rx drugs prescribed for the same. It could be that the employee has a health issue where MJ is preferable to them over prescription drugs. Unless you live in a medical MJ state, in which case who knows, maybe they do just want to blaze it up indiscriminately.

[Fragile Bird]

Lol, just seen on Facebook, from CNN.

To put the life of “From the desk of Donald J. Trump” in the most Trumpian terms possible, it lasted roughly three Scaramuccis.

[A True Kaniggit]

21 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lol, just seen on Facebook, from CNN.

To put the life of “From the desk of Donald J. Trump” in the most Trumpian terms possible, it lasted roughly three Scaramuccis.

I finally figured it out!
 

Trump has been confusing golf with everything else in life this entire last half decade!

In his mind he was constantly “winning” by always getting the lowest score possible at anything he attempted.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

10 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

I finally figured it out!
 

Trump has been confusing golf with everything else in life this entire last half decade!

In his mind he was constantly “winning” by always getting the lowest score possible at anything he attempted.

Probably also explains his lack of work ethic and propensity to cheat.

[A True Kaniggit]

57 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Probably also explains his lack of work ethic and propensity to cheat.

Naaaaah.

He’d cheat and be lazy even if his go-to game was checkers.