Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

...........Remember when Tea Party seemed like a huge nation-wide movement? They are still around, but not as a party with candidates and other requisites needed to get representatives into parliament and government. For Forward to get any limelight, they need a charismatic figurehead. But they don't have it and won't, so it is a total Abort Retry Fail in my humble opinion.

Quote from: ersi on 2020-11-22, 01:02:31

Are you denying that she is a White House aide, spiritual advisor to Donald Trump? Or are you saying something like "Never mind that she is among the top representatives of Team Trump, it's ad hominem because her position is irrelevant when talking about patterns of behaviour in Team Trump!" Geez.

You think she's Rasputin? Geez, indeed!
What policies do you think she promoted? She's a White House aide in the same way that Billy Graham was, for presidents of both parties... You'd take her odd behavior as evidence of Trump's unfitness for office?

Quote from: ersi on 2020-11-22, 01:02:31

Simpson was not a presidential candidate, and his stuff actually went through court. The court decided that he was "responsible" to the extent of all his wealth. He escaped prison only because of technicalities

I agree Simpson wasn't a presidential candidate... His "stuff" went through two different courts. Those "technicalities" you mention include a jury verdict after state prosecution. The civil action -as often happens- was punitive and based on a "well, gee, it looks like" standard. Much more like the court of popular opinion...

Quote from: ersi on 2020-11-22, 01:02:31

Trump is just a sore loser, worse than Hillary.

That may prove to be the case: We'll have to wait five years or more to find out, and Hillary will have to admit that she lost fair and square in the mean time... (If you believe she will, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you -- cheap! )

Nice use of the No True Scotsman fallacy, BTW. ("Nobody competent is saying...")

I also like the promises you ignore... The Wall was, pre-Trump, a Democrat priority! Or did you forget?

The word 'democracy' is yakked about in the US of A but in practice and history a farce.

Scotland’s Justice Minister says he intends to clamp down on hate speech inside the home under his sinister new hate crime Bill.

Free speech campaigners have warned that the Bill leaves out a crucial defence included in other UK hate crime legislation, which protects conversations in the home from police intervention.

However, Humza Yousaf is refusing to provide a “dwelling defence”, insisting that ‘hateful speech’ in the home deserves to be criminalised.

Well-founded concern

The Minister made the comments earlier this week in response to questioning from the Justice Committee, which is tasked with scrutinising the legislation.

Lord Bracadale, the judge whose recommendations led to the Bill, later advised MSPs that they should think carefully about allowing a public order offence to extend into the private sphere.

The Committee’s Convenor asked if the judge would say from his “experience of the operation of criminal law”, that Parliament should “be alert to some danger in that”.

Bracadale responded: “I think that your concern is well-founded”.


Free speech threatened

Last month, the Scottish Government agreed to raise the threshold of the ‘stirring up’ offences from behaviour ‘likely to stir up hatred’ to behaviour ‘intended to stir up hatred’.

The Christian Institute welcomed the Justice Secretary’s willingness to compromise on one of the most controversial parts of the Bill, but warned that many more changes are still required.

I remain "surprised" that no one has yet mentioned the obvious (...except in a "How dare you!" mode): There were two or three kids in the back of that SUV. What cop would't think of their safety first?

......Matthews said officers were aware that Blake had an open warrant for felony sexual assault before they arrived......

The simple answer is usually the best one. Of course, simple answers are usually wrong...

I'll return to an old favorite of mine: Lord Russell wrote, "Naive realism leads to physics and physics, if true, shows that naive realism is false. Therefore, naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false."
Anyone here think it possible to begin with other than naive realism?

Sunday's incident began when a woman called police saying "her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises," the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation said.

In a police call, a dispatcher names Blake and says he "isn't supposed to be there" and that he took the complainant's keys and refused to leave.

The dispatcher later explains she doesn't have more details because the caller was "uncooperative."

Police said that about five minutes after the initial report, a dispatcher received reports of shots fired.

Officers had attempted to arrest Blake and used a Taser in a failed attempt to stop him, the DCI said. Blake walked around his vehicle, "opened the driver's side door, and leaned forward," the agency said.

Kenosha Officer Rusten Sheskey, who has been with the department for seven years, then fired seven times into Blake's back, the agency said. No other officer fired their weapon.

The agency said Blake admitted he had a knife in his possession, and law enforcement agents said they recovered a knife from the driver's side floorboard of Blake's vehicle.

State investigators did not indicate why police moved to arrest Blake, whether he brandished or threatened to use the knife, or why Sheskey shot so many times into Blake's back, and it does not mention his children in the vehicle or other family members standing just feet away.

Authorities said Sheskey and another officer have been placed on administrative leave. The other officers involved in the shooting will be identified soon, according to the state's attorney general.

Police rendered aid to Blake and he was flown to a Milwaukee hospital, police said.

.........He also stole a weapon from one of the two officers although I do not agree with the quickness of getting shot by a US policeman is right. ............

Travis Yates is a serving police commander in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a doctoral student in Strategic Leadership, a graduate of the FBI National Academy, and the author of "The Courageous Police Leader: A Survival Guide for Combating Cowards, Chaos & Lies”. This article was first published on lawofficer.com

The nasty words we, the police, get called all the time have now turned into rocks, bottles and gunfire. It’s over, America: we are leaving.

This is the hardest thing I have written.

I grew up in a law enforcement family. My father worked his way up to the rank of Captain at the Fort Smith, Arkansas, Police Department. As a kid I remember going with him on Friday to pick up his check and I was in awe of these super heroes he worked around.

My dad sacrificed a lot and so did my late mother. Whether it was the week-long surveillance or wiretap or chasing drug runners across the country, he gave it all for my family and worked plenty of extra details to never let our family be without. Some would call that privilege but where I grew up, it was called hard work.

The kids at school thought it was cool what my dad did and while he sometimes asked me if anyone gave me a hard time, they never did. There was respect among all… even the kids in shop class.

I didn’t grow up wanting to be a cop but one fateful night, as a freshman in college, that all changed.

I went on a ride along and my life’s journey would never be the same.

After four years of college my dad wanted me at an agency that respected that education so I moved to Tulsa (Oklahoma) at 21 years old and never looked back.

I didn’t know anyone and all I knew was what I saw my dad do, work hard and treat people with respect. I saw a lot of other cops working hard as well and doing all they could to keep the community safe.

27 years has passed and if you would have told me the condition of law enforcement today, I would have never believed you.

It’s not that law enforcement has changed for the worse but everything around it has.

The mentally ill used to get treatment and now they just send cops. Kids used to be taught respect and now it’s cool to be disrespectful.

Supervisors used to back you when you were right but now they accuse you of being wrong in order to appease crazy people.

Parents used to get mad at their kids for getting arrested and now they get mad at us.

The media used to highlight the positive contribution our profession gave to society and now they either ignore it or twist the truth for controversy to line their own pockets.

There used to be a common respect among criminals. If they got caught, they understood you had a job to do but now it’s our fault they sit in handcuffs rather than their own personal decisions.

If someone attacked a cop, they were seen as such. Now we martyr them and sue for millions.

We used to be able to testify in court and we were believed. Now, unless there is video from three different angles, no one cares what you have to say.

With all this talk about racism and racist cops, I’ve never seen people treated differently because of their race. And while I know that cowards that have never done this job will call me racist for saying it, all I’ve ever seen was criminal behavior and cops trying to stop it and they didn’t give a rip what their skin color was.

I’ve seen cops help and save any type of race, gender or ethnicity you can think of and while that used to mean something, no one cares anymore.

I’ve been called every name you can think of and many of them with racial overtones and it’s never come from cops. I’ve watched African American cops take the brunt of this and even talked one rookie out of quitting after he was berated by a lot of cowards that had the same skin color as him.

I’ve heard words I never heard before being a cop.

Uncle Tom, Cracker, Pig and the N Word just to name a few. I’ve heard them thousands of times and never once did I see a police officer retaliate.

They just took it.

Despite that, it’s been the greatest opportunity of my life to do this job. I would have recommended it to anyone and I secretly hoped one of my kids would do it one day.

They would have been a 4th Generation Cop.

But today, all of that is over. I wouldn’t wish this job on my worst enemy. I would never send anyone I cared about into the hell that this profession has become.

It’s the only job you can do everything right and lose everything.

It’s the only job where the same citizens you risk your life for hate you for it.

It’s the only segment left in society where it’s cool to discriminate and judge, just because of the uniform you wear.

You never get to explain.

You can never reason with them.

The nasty words have now turned into rocks and bottles and gunfire.

I’ve watched it happen to those around me and I have seen the total destruction of their life.

This job is a walking time bomb and you could get cancelled or prosecuted on the very next call, even if you do everything right.

No profession has to deal with that.

Doctors kill 250,000 people a year. They call them “medical mistakes” because society understands that they do a very difficult job under high stress and they must make the best possible decision in the moment.

Law enforcement is tasked with the same and we are highly successful. Despite the most violent society we have ever seen, less than 1,000 suspects are killed a year. 96% are attacking us with weapons and all but a few others are attacking us with their cars or their fists and more and more with simulated guns so Benjamin Crump (an American civil rights attorney) can help their family win the lottery.

I’ve seen cops risk their own lives when they shouldn’t have… just to keep from taking one.

They never get the credit that other professions get.

Cowards are all around us. From chiefs to sheriffs to politicians, no one has our back.

Now, the little we have, we are told they are going to defund us or even abolish us. Citizens with a political agenda will reign over us and all you have to do is wake up and put on a uniform to be a racist.

This weekend I received death threats for just doing my job. It would have been outrageous a decade ago and made national news.

Now, it’s just a Monday.

There will be more threats, more accusations of racism and more lies told about us.

I used to talk cops out of leaving the job. Now I’m encouraging them.

It’s over America. You finally did it.

You aren’t going to have to abolish the police, we won’t be around for it.

And while I know most Americans still appreciate us, it’s not enough and the risk is too high.

Those of you that say thank you or buy the occasional meal, it means everything.

But those of you that were silent while the slow turning of the knives in our backs happened by thugs and cowards, this is on you.

Your belief in hashtags and memes over the truth has and will create an environment in your community that you will never expect.

If you think Minneapolis will never turn into Mogadishu – it’s coming.

And when it does, remember what your complicity did.

This is the America that you made.

.........Hopefully my fellow citizens will have enough sense to throw asshole m'f'er out next November. Perhaps Bloomberg can gather some momentum?

None of the state department's business regarding your social media, etc.

My point was not to suggest improvements, but to point out the deficiencies. US people operate under the delusion that they are electing their president, thus making evident their lack of knowledge of their own constitution. The politicians and politologists (such as the one quoted) work to perpetuate the ignorance of the people. This situation is irreparable.

........Or else amend the constitution to abolish the Electoral College.

Maybe before this place becomes completely abandoned, we should have a members gettogether irl somewhere convenient, such as Brussels? Flights are cheap right now.

Nah, I guess this place is already dead. The last chance was last year...

Thursday marked the one year anniversary of the terrible crimes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

It was a somber occasion, but some media outlets couldn’t contain their glee this week that last year’s horror might finally advance the anti-gun agenda. A CNN headlined heralded “A new era on guns.” “After Parkland, everything is different,” Salon gushed.

But a new nationwide poll by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist tells a different story. The News Hour headline summarized the essential point, “A year after Parkland, support sinks for stricter laws on gun sales … .”

Specifically, the percentage of adults favoring stricter laws covering the sale of guns has dropped 20 points since the immediate aftermath of the Parkland killings, to 51%. In contrast, 46% of those surveyed believe such laws should be less strict or kept as they are. The difference between these responses is essentially a statistical tie, given the poll’s margin of error.

As the Washington Post noted with reference to Gallup and Civiq’s dalily tracking polls, “public support for stricter gun laws has returned to pre-Parkland levels.”

The Marist poll also found only 42% of respondents believed stricter gun legislation should be an “immediate priority for the current congress,” versus 56% who opined that it was not an immediate priority or not a priority at all.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee advanced two major gun control bills along strict party lines. H.R. 8 would ban most firearm loans and transfers between two private parties. H.R. 1112 would eliminate the current three day safety valve for uncompleted NICS checks. It would instead institute a new procedure where the transferring FFL would have wait 10 business days after initiating the open NICS check.  The prospective purchaser would then have to petition the FBI for an answer to the query, then wait an additional 10 business days before the transfer can proceed. 

Contrary to these surveys, the bills were portrayed by their proponents as reflecting a resurgent demand for gun control following the events of Feb. 14, 2018.

Yet even those proponents could not claim that either bill would have prevented the incident at Parkland.

Nor are they likely to stop other firearm-related crimes. Archly anti-gun media outlet Vox.com recently admitted as much. “[A] growing body of research suggests that comprehensive background checks alone won’t do much, if anything, to combat gun violence in America,” it conceded, even as it argued for far stricter gun control measures.

Democrats likely have the votes to pass both H.R. 8 and H.R. 1112 in the House. Their prospects in the Senate, however, appear far less favorable.

Whatever might have changed after Parkland, it hasn’t altered the basic realities that Americans support the Second Amendment and that gun control advocates continue to push measures that would unfairly penalize law-abiding gun owners, without actually reducing violent crime.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, bedrock American values prove stubbornly resistant to gun control opportunism. Media firestorms always burn out eventually, but the flame of liberty endures.

Fairfax, Va. - The National Rifle Association today applauded South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem for signing into law Senate Bill 47, NRA-backed legislation that fully recognizes the constitutional right of law-abiding gun owners to carry a concealed firearm.

“On behalf of the NRA's five-million members, we would like to thank Governor Noem for her leadership on this critical issue," said Chris W. Cox, Executive Director of the NRA-ILA. "This law is a common sense measure that allows law-abiding South Dakotans to exercise their fundamental right to self-protection in the manner that best suits their needs."

This was the first bill Governor Noem signed into law.

South Dakota already recognizes the right to carry a firearm openly without a permit. Current law, however, requires a state-issued permit to carry that same firearm under a coat or in a bag. This new law simply extends the current open carry rule to concealed carry. Those who obtain permits will still enjoy the reciprocity agreements that South Dakota has with other states.

With this law, South Dakota joins Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, New Hampshire and North Dakota as the fourteenth state that allows constitutional carry.

[glow=black,2,300]Their permit is the United States Constitution's Second Amendment:[/glow]

Quote from: SmileyFaze on 2018-10-26, 18:10:48

Where is all this Violent Gun Crime you fellas have predicted over the past 50 years?

In the news paper?

I mean let's not pretend there's not some sort of problem.