Usa Thread

[Old Hippie]

“…'No I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills."…”-DJT

 

This from a man who has dodged bills for years…filed bankruptcy how many times..?

 

[dean]

On 2/4/2024 at 12:56 PM, buffalo_bill said:

 

"Former President Donald Trump said Sunday he would consider imposing a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports if he regains the presidency. "

 

Oh yes, which would his redneck followers community make paying happily a probably 40 % ? surcharge on anything that Walmart and friends have on offer. 2 years ago I though this idiot would never make it again but if the Amellica people want it like that: up to them. Oh Holy Lord.

 

Correction: Donald confirmed in the meantime it would be more than 60%

That would just cause the Chinese to open plants in other countries that have favorable tariffs with the U.S. They already have several in Mexico and that gets around the tariffs.

[dean]

22 hours ago, Mekong said:

Latest rantings of a mad man

 

I live in Kansas City and know Travis Kelse enough that it’s unlikely that he is a liberal Democrat.  About every commercial on TV that uses a sports figure uses Patrick Mahomes. The few commercials that he doesn’t do are done by Kelse.  I’d like nothing better than to see Taylor Swift endorse Biden and suggest that her “Swifties” also vote for him. The parade for the Chiefs is Wednesday.  I may go down to watch it as the weather should be in the low 60’s F.  It would be a perfect day (for me, anyway ) for the 2 of them to publicly endorse Biden.  

[Mekong]

1 hour ago, dean said:

I live in Kansas City and know Travis Kelse enough that it’s unlikely that he is a liberal Democrat.

But is Trumps little world Republicans don’t have relationships with Democrats, Much like Protestants and Catholics or Coloured and Caucasians.

[Mekong]

One dead and more than 20 injured in Super Bowl parade shooting

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-68300903

Jan 46 Mass Shootings, 98 Dead, 121 Injured

Feb 14 Mass Shootings, 23 Dead, 76 Injured

So in 45 days there have been 60 Mass hooting leaving 121 dead and 197 injured.

Meanwhile in the UK there have been 28 Mass Shootings since year 2000 leaving 26 dead and 85 Injured, last incident was 13 months ago

In Australia 18 Mass Shootings, leaving 48 dead and 95 injured, last incident 14 months ago

New Zealand 2 Mass Shootings leaving 54* dead, unknown injured, last incident 7 months ago (*51 were Christchurch terrorist attack using an AR)

So a combined population of 98 Million has had a total of 48 Mass Shootings leaving 128 dead and 180 injured

The USA population 332 Million or 3.4 times the rest of the English speaking world has more mass shootings similar deaths and more injuries in 45 days compared to over 20 years.

Australia,  New Zealand and UK have sensible gun laws, NOT BANNED, CONTROLLED, and the USA doesn’t, and still the NRA of USA claims “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People”

So 1.5 Months to 240 Months (20 years) is a ratio of 30:1.

Extrapolating USA Figures 

1800 Mass Shootings, 3630 Deaths and 5910 injured

Divided by the 3.4 Population Ratio 

529 Mass Shootings, 1068 Deaths and 1738 injured.

So Population balanced USA has 11 times more mass shootings resulting in 8.25 times more deaths and 9.65 times more injuries 

I am not a Maths Major, but even I can clearly see that it is Guns that kill people and not people. And this is only Mass Shootings. The USA Gun homicide rate is 30 times greater than “The Real World”

And you still wanna play Cowboys and Indians, fucking Grow Up America.

[dean]

I didn’t go down to the parade today, thankfully. Kansas City has Ben on a roll over the last 15=20 years. They reinvented their downtown area into a place where  millennials like to live, built a large, multipurpose arena, a new airport, brought back streetcars and are planning to help build a new baseball arena downtown (and renovate the Chief’s stadium).  The mayor, Quinton Lukas, is the third mayor in a row to dedicate his tenure to developing Kansas City, Missouri. 
However, during the same time period, infrastructure has been elected.  If you drive there, it’s an experience trying to miss all of the potholes.  If you are there during a snowstorm, you can expect that it will take at least a week to snowplow the side streets, unless you live in an affluent area. For the last 10-15 years, the rate of gun violence has gone up almost every year.  It’s only February, but the rate is higher than last year, and last year was a record year.  
Kansas City, and the State of Missouri, along with the rest of America, responds to gun violence by increasing the budgets for the police.  Politician’s response is to initially pray for the victims, then call for the arming of teachers, and spending money on schools to provide a constant police presence and redesigning schools to make it harder for shooters to enter.  Anytime serious gun legislation is proposed, the NRA and the rest of the gun lobby come out with their propaganda, and but the squeeze on politicians, mainly Republicans, to kill any gun control legislation.  Even legislation to kill regulation of semi automatic weapons (whose only place in in a war setting).  Gun control, like many things including immigration, vaccination and single payer health insurance, has become a polarizing topic, split between the MAGA Republican right wingers and the Democratic moderates and liberals. I’m 70 years old. I don’t expect to see meaningful gun legislation in my lifetime. It’s to the point that enough Americans have to be victims of gun violence, or know someone who was a victim, to get to a point that real pressure can be put on politicians. We haven’t reached that point yet.

[bust]

That point in most countries is called "logic" or "common sense"

[Mekong]

9 hours ago, dean said:

It’s to the point that enough Americans have to be victims of gun violence, or know someone who was a victim, to get to a point that real pressure can be put on politicians. We haven’t reached that point yet.

In the UK in 1996 there was the Dunblane Massacre, within a year firearms laws had been tightened Dunblane

 6 weeks later In Australia in 1996 there was the Port Aurtur Massacre, the firearms laws were tightened Port Moresby

Both Government reacted to public opinion, you know like a government should, and govern for the people. What the UK and Australia has is tightly regulated lobbying,  which in the USA does is outright bribery of Politicians thinly disguised under the concept of “Lobbying”. Lobbying my arse, it is outright bribery and corruption and the two biggest culprits are the NRA and the Health Insurance Industry.

Until “Lobbying” is restricted / controlled in the USA politicians will not be in office for the good of the people but for lining their own pockets and the good of their bank accounts 

Australia may be younger than the USA, but a hell of a lot more mature. I don’t think it is any coincidence that nations which retained ties with Britain, such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand are, in my opinion, far more civilised than the petulant one.

 

[dean]

Unfortunately, what the U.S. has that other countries don’t have is the Second Amendment.  The right to bear arms for self defense has gone from keeping a gun at home to protect against break ins to packing heat almost anywhere you go.  The defense by people of using the 2nd Amendment to allow the sale of semi automatic weapons is crazy. This is not what the founding fathers intended when they wrote the Constitution. But 2nd Amendment hard core supporters, who amount to 20-30% of the population, always talk about the “slippery slop” in allowing even modest gun control laws. Whe way things are now, those supporters, the same that support Trump, would probably start a civil war to keep their precious guns. 

[Mekong]

If the American population is so up in arms ( pun intended) about the Second Amendment, what are we not hearing noises about the ban on Switchblades, Gravity Knives, Butterfly Knives, Disguised Knives (Cane, Belt Buckle etc) Knuckledusters and other such “Arms” being unconstitutional After all the Second applies to ALL arms not just fire arms. Seems rather silly to me that they can ban Switchblades but not Automatic weapons.

Also look at the actual wording of the second “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  What is the derinition of militia?
When the Second was written the definition was “a body of citizens trained to military duty, who may be called out in certain cases, but may not be kept on service like standing armies, in times of peace”

 An example of “Organised Militia” would be e National Guard or State Defense Forces.

I don’t think that Billy Bob with his AR15 sat on his porch drinking beer and shooting bottles is not doing such as part of a “Well Regulated Militia” If there was a Will they could easily have gun control by modifying  the Militia Law , which has previously been modified on many occasions. This will not change the Second Amendment per se, therefore would not infringe on the  Bill of Rights

Questions are now being asked about the validity of holding the Football World Cup 2026 in the USA. If US citizens who are used to gun violence are caught out by a shooter what chance do 100’s of Thousands of foreign football supporters have. Link