wolfriverjoe

No. Not having extremists destroy an entire industry (one that actually IS important to the country) by abuse of the legal system. Keep in mind that the cops & military need to get their guns from somewhere. And even if every single gun factory was shut down today, we have over 300 million guns out there. Ceasing production won't make the problem 'go away'. It would just be more 'performance theater.'

Keep in mind that those laws protecting the industry from lawsuits are in place because the anti-gun crowd decided to 'sue the gun industry out of business' back in the 80s & 90s. They filed a whole bunch of lawsuits. Every one got tossed out. EVERY SINGLE ONE. But the manufacturers had to spend money to defend them. A lot of money. The anti gun groups knew perfectly well that their suits had no merit. But they kept filing them in order to drain the manufacturers of money. I don't like all the deaths, but I like the idea of intentionally filing frivolous lawsuits in order to bankrupt large companies even less.

It's kind of funny (not really). All of these sports organizations, up to and including the Olympic Committee have polices in place regarding trans folks competing. They have doctors and scientists examining the evidence, actual real world tests and evaluations that they use to determine who should and shouldn't compete. And, of course, the actual number of high level trans athletes is miniscule. Like single digits. But hey, the Alt-Right has to get their undies in a bunch about something. And, as usual, their hatred and bigotry is directed at a myth. A lie. https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/four-myths-about-trans-athletes-debunked

Given that the F-16 is in use all over the world, parts & tools won't be a huge problem. They just have to get there. Not trivial, but the West does logistics a LOT better than Russia. Mechanic training really shouldn't be all that big of a deal. They have people experienced on similar Soviet aircraft. I don't think the stuff specific to the F-16 would be an insurmountable issue. I've seen posts in various places that the Ukrainians are recruiting former/retired F16 maintenance folks to come help them. Not sure how much I believe that, but it's a possibility.

Biden was asked about Russia claiming that giving Ukraine F-16s was a risk.

Is it the same in that it's specific thing said, or things said in a way that wouldn't be ok in 'polite society', stuff that the participants expect to be protected by the 'bro code'? That becomes a very difficult thing. In one respect, it's a private group of people, in a private conversation. In another, it's a group of public employees, on duty, on publicly owned property. In theory (maybe?) those conversations could be legally recorded. And then played back at a city council meeting. Or a promotion hearing. Or a disciplinary hearing. When it became common for women to be firefighters/paramedics and spend their on-duty time in the firehouse, sexual harassment was a real problem. The men 'acted like men', and the women weren't happy with it. There was a lot of pushback, with some people saying 'if they don't want to be around men acting like that, then they shouldn't be in that sort of place.' Fortunately, that sort of argument didn't work very well or for very long. That sort of behavior isn't appropriate and shouldn't be tolerated.

Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, had an informant inside the Washington DC metro police. That informant passed along all sorts of useful info to Tarrio, then lied to investigators about it. Shane Lemond was arrested Thursday. One message he sent to Tarrio was "Of course I can’t say it officially, but personally I support you all and don’t want to see your group’s name or reputation dragged through the mud.” Right. Because the Proud Boys have such a sterling name and stellar reputatation. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shane-lamond-dc-police-proud-boys-enrique-tarrio/

Maybe? I think it's sort of the idea that in a 'safe space', people can speak in a way that would get them in a WHOLE LOT of trouble were they to say the same things in the same way in, say, a work setting. That feeling of safety and security allows them to vent their hatred, racism, misogyny and a host of other VERY ugly things. But... The wide range of people, backgrounds, orientations (both sexual and political) that I have typically seen around the DZ bonfire after jumping keeps the real assholes from venting how they really feel. The very few people who (often when pretty drunk) openly reveal their racism, sexism or other hatred often get shut down pretty quickly.

Just out of curiosity, is 'firehouse talk' similar to 'locker room talk'?

About time. Of course, the Russians don't like it, and are issuing their 'standard empty threats'. From the story:

Of course they haven't. They are exactly the same as you.

Interesting to me is the idea that you can have that 'personal relationship' with Jesus, while blatantly ignoring just about everything he taught. Helpful hint: Matthew 7:21-23.

3 dead. Six wounded, including a cop. The shooter fired off somewhere around 150 rounds before being stopped. Apparently you have a slightly different definition of the word 'instant' than I do.

Oops. You're quite right. My bad.

Yeah, they have lots of impossible fantasies. It won't happen that way, though. Unless you're already 'privileged', you are screwed. Kinda like the mafia, only the ones 'in' get rich. Getting 'in' is not easy. Much easier to end up dead.

Because the Rs hate the same people that some veterans hate. They don't care about 'support', or 'funding' or any of that. They care about hating immigrants, women and 'people with dark skin'.

How long before they realize that 'freedom of speech' doesn't exist in Russia? How long before they realize how corrupt it is? And ya gotta wonder if this 'new colony' will have indoor plumbing. I'm sure the plans show it, but I'm also pretty sure that any money these fools 'invest' in anything over there will simply disappear. The same way any and all 'public funds' do.

Ummmm... Because they're the same sort of bigot? I've said it before. I honestly thought the racial hatred & bigotry was more or less done. Not racism, not abuse of power, not injustice. But most of the virulent, violent hatred. And not completely done, but mostly over. And then Obama got elected. And so many people who had been required to pretend to be nice just completely lost their shit. All the 'Birther' garbage. All the "Secret Muslim" crap. All the stupid insults and criticisms of both of the Obamas. The people who had hated people with different color skin, but had been forced by 'polite society' to mute those views came out from under their rocks and went apeshit. Turns out they've always been there, but weren't able to be 'their real selves' in public. Then Trump saw his opportunity. Remember his private detective who was going to provide earthshaking revelations 'in two weeks'? Trump gained traction with his hate and vitriol, got the bigots and assholes wound up and the MAGA moron movement took off. Trump and his idiot followers then proceeded to hijack the R party. Which resulted in Bobo, Gym Jordan and Empty Gee gaining power. People like Liz Cheney decided they weren't very nice people and jumped ship, to their detriment. Keep in mind that Liz is Darth Cheney's daughter. And Trump is too evil for her. But not for the MAGA morons, and the politicians that pander to them.

I wouldn't call her 'moderate'. She's just saying that it should be up to the states to decide. And that getting anything done at the federal level isn't likely to happen (and I agree with that). She's pretty strongly anti-abortion, but refuses to clearly state her position because she knows what that would do to her chances of getting elected.

No. The R legislature passed laws that the R governor signed. The state Supreme Court struck them down. From the article Ryoder linked: I don't know the makeup of the Montana state SC. But it's pretty clear they see the 'right to privacy' as important. It's actually clearly stated in the Montana state constitution. (this is covered pretty well in the linked article)

Well then. We shall see if there are any 'moderate' Rs in NC who are willing to go against the party line. Or are they all "reich wing"?

Gotta wonder if the Alt-right is going to try to revive the Fugitive Slave Act. And if they do, would the SC uphold it? No, I'm not totally serious on this... But I'm also not being totally sarcastic.

Considering that a LOT of governments have a LOT of interest in what goes on in (and under) the Baltic, I'd bet heavily that everyone in NATO who's cleared for the info knows who did it, and how. Most blame is being aimed at the Russians, Ukrainians & Americans. Motive, opportunity, ability. It wasn't a 'simple' thing to accomplish. Investigators are saying it's almost a certainty that it was a 'state actor'. They also know what explosive was used, which may or may not give indications of who did it (not terribly hard to acquire just about any explosive out there if you have the money & the contacts). Like so many other operations of this sort, the truth will come out eventually. But it may well be a while (years), and it's not out of the question that nobody will believe the truth when it's released.

I don't remember those 'other people' pretending it crashed accidentally when it was really on purpose (and that particular one was not on purpose). I also don't remember them pretending they didn't know where the crash scene was, or changing stuff at the scene to try to fool any investigators. I agree that the 'other incident' warrants consequences, but it was quite a lot different.

The theft & corruption was always there. It just got a LOT worse under Putin. There were always competing intel positions about the old Soviet Union. The "hollow shell" theory was somewhat prevalent. It didn't get a whole lot of attention, in part because if the Soviets weren't strong, we wouldn't need a strong military to deal with them. They also had the 'strength through overwhelming numbers'. In WW2, the T-34 tank was widely admired. But when one was brought to the US and put through testing, the testers wondered if they had deliberately been given a faulty one. The reality was that the reliability was total shit. Something like a quarter broke down before even reaching the front lines (and this is after being transported by train to within a few miles of the front). But they had enough that they could lose a lot, either in battle or from breakdown, that they still beat the Nazis. Fun Fact: The Soviet T-64 tank was/is a superior tank. Better in almost every way. Except cost. The T-72 was much cheaper to produce, so they could produce a lot more of them. The fact that the crews inside had significantly lower chances of surviving didn't matter to the leadership.