America

[morepork]

Sweet Titty-Fucking Christ.

[cashead]

Yeah, that shit got debunked a while ago, so of course the racist would post it.

http://www.factcheck.org/2015/11/trump- ... e-graphic/

[Which Tyler]

@morepork - I saw his, and thought of you

http://gomerblog.com/2017/08/tears-stat ... wakefield/

Cleveland, OH – An angry mob of medical students tore down a statue of Andrew Wakefield in front of the Cleveland Clinic Saturday. This Anti-Vax champion was best known for a falsified study linking the MMR vaccine to autism, and later a movie claiming the same. Cleveland clinic has been a vocal critic of Vaccines despite all of the evidence.

As the mighty statue was brought down chants of “Your lies can no longer kill our children!” and “Down with pseudoscience!” Even broke-out in song: “You take the good, you take the bad, the Vax of life, the Vax of life!”

An anonymous medical student told reporters: “We were tired of the lies of the AntiVax movement and the rise of measles in America!”

The statue was ripped from its base, hit with stethoscopes and tuning forks for about an hour, then dragged through town from a 2001 Honda Accord with a missing passenger side mirror, most likely a medical student’s car.

Critics upset with this measure aren’t necessarily Anti-vax, but worry that this Anti-Vax movement, which is killing children, is part of our history.

[morepork]

Ha!

"...a 2001 Honda Accord..."

[SerjeantWildgoose]

[Son of Mathonwy]

Maybe, only the world hasn't gone to poop since corp tax rates have dropped. There are still more people than at any point in history, both absolute and relative, having been raised from poverty.

So the world is conceivably still a bad place, but it's not like it left a good place to arrive at where it is today.

Is massive and increasing inequality a good thing or a bad thing? How about we try to make things better than they are?

A couple of hundred years ago we had all the time in the world to arse about with different systems. It was dreadful for most people, but - it's possible to argue - there was time to get it right with slow improvements.

Now, we don't have time. We're running out of or ruining too many things. We are taking irreversible steps. By the time people see (if they ever do) that maybe there's something other than grabbing 10 times more than your share, it may be too late - the world will be tipping into a series of disasters driven by shortages and environmental stress. Civilisations have collapsed before. This global civilisation is not immune.

Myself I'm against the widening gap in equality, partly on grounds of immediate fairness, but also allowing the gap in income to so widen will in the end hurt society I fear. It also doesn't to me make economic sense to allow wealth to be stockpiled in a fashion that doesn't see it reinvested.

However whilst the gap has been growing, and for the last 20 odd years been growing at a rate not really seen in hundreds of years there is still there are less people on the lowest of incomes, and that's a very good thing. We've also either maintained or reduced the number in poverty (that varies depending on how you calculate it), so maybe no improvement (or maybe slight improvement) and that's meh to good.

Are we running out of time? I doubt it, it's even possible to suggest in the last decade the income inequality has reduced, but I suspect a lot of that would stem from falling stock markets 2008 onward, and that such correction will soon prove corrected. However the idea we're now living at a crux point in history is likely false, just as those who believe in Rapture so often seem convinced that not only is the Rapture true but that Jesus will return in their lifetime I'd posit that the notion we're taking irreversible steps places too much importance on our age, when really we're as insignificant (or significant if you want a more positive label) as those who came before

There are dangers of course, still widening levels of wealth may cause society to fracture, there's again the reliance on debt and just how leveraged the financial world is, there's the concern over politicians for decades taking short term decisions on health services, on welfare, on pensions and just pushing important decision down the line until one implodes like Greece (or worse), and there's will any have a job in another 50 years as tech changes the nature of employment over and over. But of course at any point in time it's easy to claim we're doomed, had you told people 200-300 years ago what % would be employed in mining, milling, agriculture and so on, then supposing they understood what percentages are they'd have thought we were doomed. At most I'd suggest we don't know what the future holds, we're better set than we've ever been to be successful, if we blow that, well we'll have had chances.

Agreed that the widening gap is bad, I'd want it significantly reduced, for the reasons you give and plenty more: more unequal societies are worse for crime, physical & mental health, education, economic stability and a lot of other things (see the Equality Trust).

Running out of time? Agreed that there's a tendency to focus on one's time, but this isn't some millennial thing and not about job categories changing either. This is about the planet, and we are degrading it measurably over a span of mere decades. The planet's not going to become uninhabitable any time soon, but living conditions could easily regress - and if they do, it's likely cause feedback which will make the problem even more difficult to deal with (wars, mass starvation and migration will push the environment further down the agenda, or off it altogether - it already is in the US).

[J Dory]

"Fuck your honda civic, I've a horse outside", another line I want to find an appropriate moment to use around the conference table.

[SerjeantWildgoose]

"Fuck your honda civic, I've a horse outside", another line I want to find an appropriate moment to use around the conference table.

I have been waiting years to be in a room with Chris Evans so that I could tell him he looks like Billy Piper after half an ounce of coke.

[paddy no 11]

50 and counting, sad state of affairs. Yer man sends his warmest condolences

[Which Tyler]

Source: BBC live news about 2 minutes ago - stressing Reuters as the source, and that they've not been able to verify

ETA: Looks like the original claim was untrue (currently, according to the FBI); so I'll do my little bit to starve it of oxygen

[Coco]

The shooter had been holed up in a hotel room since Sept 28th. The room overlooks the venue where the Harvest Festival was going on all weekend. So so tragic.

[canta_brian]

Share prices in gun manufacturers rose after the Las Vegas shootings. Apparently lots of Americans go out and buy more guns after a shooting like this in case restrictions on purchasing are put in place.

In other gun news the NRA are pushing a law that would end restrictions on silencers. We wouldn't want people to risk hearing damage as they mow down people in a crowd.

Finally, before anyone trots out the NRA line that these automatic weapons are already illegal...

"Converting a rifle to full-auto might be tough for some people, but simple for someone with the right technical know-how and proper tools, said Vasquez, who's also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and runs a firearms-consulting business in Virginia. Often, it's done by drilling a hole in the legal weapon to allow it to accept a part called a drop-in sear, which converts a semiautomatic AR rifle into a machine gun."

Semi automatics can be bought readily.

[Mikey Brown]

Intriguing...

http://uk.businessinsider.com/las-vegas ... nt-2017-10

Contains a lot of the same old shit, unsurprisingly.

"When there's a tragedy like this, the first thing we should be thinking about is praying for the people who were injured and doing everything to help them," Scalise said in the interview that aired Tuesday. "We shouldn't first be thinking of promoting our political agenda. I think we see too much of that, where people say, 'OK, now you have to have gun control.'"

Praying. Of course. The silver bullet.

And I don't even know where to start with this bit.

"People use guns way more to defend themselves from criminals, than criminals use guns to hurt people."

[kk67]

KO posted this on faceplant.

https://www.gq.com/story/inside-federal ... y-guns/amp

We have more gun retailers in America than we do supermarkets, more than 55,000 of them. We're talking nearly four times the number of McDonald's. Nobody knows how many guns that equals, but in 2013, U.S. gun manufacturers rolled out 10,844,792 guns, and we imported an additional 5,539,539. The numbers were equally astounding the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that.

[Sandydragon]

Share prices in gun manufacturers rose after the Las Vegas shootings. Apparently lots of Americans go out and buy more guns after a shooting like this in case restrictions on purchasing are put in place.

In other gun news the NRA are pushing a law that would end restrictions on silencers. We wouldn't want people to risk hearing damage as they mow down people in a crowd.

Finally, before anyone trots out the NRA line that these automatic weapons are already illegal...

"Converting a rifle to full-auto might be tough for some people, but simple for someone with the right technical know-how and proper tools, said Vasquez, who's also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and runs a firearms-consulting business in Virginia. Often, it's done by drilling a hole in the legal weapon to allow it to accept a part called a drop-in sear, which converts a semiautomatic AR rifle into a machine gun."

Semi automatics can be bought readily.

And some of the parts that can be used to convert weapons are legally available. There is no justification for assault rifles to be on public sale. Owning dozens of these weapons is beyond logical reason.

[Mellsblue]

Whoop-Dee-Do

[onlynameleft]

This from a recently former royal marine friend:

Wow.....VEGAS shooting ....I refused to watch the news and partake in any of the lies ....but this is now getting just ridiculous....just spent 5minutes being nosey.....he's fired over 5000rounds (from one report I can't b arsed reading any more)CARRIED 19guns approx....up multiple flights of stairs....without anyone thinking it's a bit dodgy.....ps trained soldiers roughly carry 300 rounds (30rounds in 10 mags) ....and 1 rifle ....and this is HEAVY ....but this 64yr old managed to get 5000 up stairs with multiple rifles ....this would take a stupid amount of trips he'd be sweating his head right off ..... he's then opend up on full automatic fire for 10 minutes .....rifle would be red hot ....I mean GLOWING red literally ...there would be brass literally up to his knees ....seeing as he's fired from ONE LOCATION ....so this red hot metal brass would literally be unbearable .....imagine standing in red hot metal up to ure knees ......FOR 10 MINUTES ..... something Deffo ain't right here and any soldier that's done a firing range will know how dumb this main stream narrative is

No doubt Sandy, SG, OJ will have a view.

[morepork]

His point being? There are more people?

[OptimisticJock]

He was there for days so doing a couple of trips isn't an issue in regards to carrying them in and it wouldn't take that many trips. You could get half a dozen weapons in one decent sized suitcase. I dont know how many rounds he's fired but if it is 5000 through one weapon system then, aye, the barrel will be redders and there could potentially be stoppage issues. The brass wouldn't be anywhere near him as they would be ejected off to the side.

[cashead]

up multiple flights of stairs....without anyone thinking it's a bit dodgy

He probably used a hotel baggage cart, and the Mandalay Bay isn't exactly some rinky-dink operation with no elevators running.

[onlynameleft]

His point being? There are more people?

From what I can gather. Or merely that something isn’t quite right.

[Digby]

His point being? There are more people?

From what I can gather. Or merely that something isn’t quite right.

Must be more people, in an area with tall glass structures there'd be no chance of echoes and muzzle flashes being reflected confusing witness statements

The one query might be how the gun didn't jam, but maybe that's where the multiple weapons come in. A thousand rounds seems a lot for one gun in a few minutes. Though I've simply no idea what kind of stoppages there were in actual event

[Sandydragon]

This from a recently former royal marine friend:

Wow.....VEGAS shooting ....I refused to watch the news and partake in any of the lies ....but this is now getting just ridiculous....just spent 5minutes being nosey.....he's fired over 5000rounds (from one report I can't b arsed reading any more)CARRIED 19guns approx....up multiple flights of stairs....without anyone thinking it's a bit dodgy.....ps trained soldiers roughly carry 300 rounds (30rounds in 10 mags) ....and 1 rifle ....and this is HEAVY ....but this 64yr old managed to get 5000 up stairs with multiple rifles ....this would take a stupid amount of trips he'd be sweating his head right off ..... he's then opend up on full automatic fire for 10 minutes .....rifle would be red hot ....I mean GLOWING red literally ...there would be brass literally up to his knees ....seeing as he's fired from ONE LOCATION ....so this red hot metal brass would literally be unbearable .....imagine standing in red hot metal up to ure knees ......FOR 10 MINUTES ..... something Deffo ain't right here and any soldier that's done a firing range will know how dumb this main stream narrative is

No doubt Sandy, SG, OJ will have a view.

O fully agree that amount of weapons would be seriously heavy. Ok, there are lifts in Las Vegas hotels but there must have been multiple cases to hold all this stuff.

I’m assuming that he swapped weapons during the attack, otherwise there is no way an automatic rifle would have fired that much brass without a stoppage.

The accusation of a second party is interesting. , the LVPD haven’t ruled it out. Equally, with a few days to prepare and plenty of weapons to swap during that attack, it could be one person. There is some debate on the planning for this being so effective, but given that he holed up on his room for a prolonged period after the initial onslaught as a security guard had located him kind of indicates the planning wasn’t that great of the intention was to escape at the end.

Where has the figure of 5000 rounds come from? That’s quite a few ammo cases. It’s alao a huge risk that the maid didn’t look in the wardrobe.

[Sandydragon]

He was there for days so doing a couple of trips isn't an issue in regards to carrying them in and it wouldn't take that many trips. You could get half a dozen weapons in one decent sized suitcase. I dont know how many rounds he's fired but if it is 5000 through one weapon system then, aye, the barrel will be redders and there could potentially be stoppage issues. The brass wouldn't be anywhere near him as they would be ejected off to the side.

It would have looked odd though carrying hat many suitcases up to the hotel room. Noisy too unless the weapons were well wrapped in something.

I agree, the spend cases argument is bollocks.

[OptimisticJock]

He was there for days so doing a couple of trips isn't an issue in regards to carrying them in and it wouldn't take that many trips. You could get half a dozen weapons in one decent sized suitcase. I dont know how many rounds he's fired but if it is 5000 through one weapon system then, aye, the barrel will be redders and there could potentially be stoppage issues. The brass wouldn't be anywhere near him as they would be ejected off to the side.

It would have looked odd though carrying hat many suitcases up to the hotel room. Noisy too unless the weapons were well wrapped in something.

I agree, the spend cases argument is bollocks.

Who's going to notice if he did a couple of trips over the course of a couple of days?