US Politics Mega-thread - Page 3709

On May 01 2016 08:43 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
it should take more than a phone call to mobilize that kind of force. maybe they can call back.. send out a squad car and sit outside the house ..etc....but that is a complex response to the problem. its easier to just put people in jail and that method always gets teh backing of a certain segment of voters who are always happy to put people in prison forever.

i wonder what kind of human being we'll have when the guy gets out of jail when he is 40.

On May 01 2016 08:17 m4ini wrote:


One could argue that it's actually attempted murder. Because that horrible "joke" could end the life of an innocent person.

Sending an not-to-be-fucked-with, highly trained, questions-asked-later, massively armed special force to someones door, .. How much exactly would you get for hiring a hitman on the interwebs? I actually don't know.

20 years certainly isn't too much. There's no reason to not actually go full life-sentence. It's not something that can be excused like stealing (needed food). It's a retarded, absolutely idiotic "joke" to potentially kill someone.

It's also not punishment, but deterrent. It's something that doesn't "need" to happen. Crimes like mugging etc all have a reason other than being a retarded teenager.

On May 01 2016 08:47 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
my solution is difficult to implement and needs additional study from crime experts to be perfected. who said a problem can be solved in 3 sentences in a forum board though.

It’s a time-honored tradition for politicians to deny any interest in the vice presidency. But this year, with the possibility of Donald J. Trump as the Republican nominee, they really mean it.

“Never,” said Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who is still running against Mr. Trump. “No chance.”

“Hahahahahahahahaha,” wrote Sally Bradshaw, a senior adviser to Jeb Bush, when asked if he would consider it.

“Scott Walker has a visceral negative reaction to Trump’s character,” said Ed Goeas, a longtime adviser to the Wisconsin governor.

Or, as Senator Lindsey Graham put it, “That’s like buying a ticket on the Titanic.”

A remarkable range of leading Republicans, including Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, have been emphatic publicly or with their advisers and allies that they do not want to be considered as Mr. Trump’s running mate. The recoiling amounts to a rare rebuke for a front-runner: Politicians usually signal that they are not interested politely through back channels, or submit to the selection process, if only to burnish their national profiles.

But Mr. Trump has a singular track record of picking fights with obvious potential running mates like Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has indicated a lack of interest in the vice presidency generally and has yet to reconcile with Mr. Trump publicly. Ms. Haley and another potential pick, Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, have sharply criticized Mr. Trump at recent party gatherings and do not want to be associated with his sometimes-angry tone, according to advisers and close associates who have spoken with these Republicans.

Several Republican consultants said their clients were concerned that Mr. Trump’s unusually high unfavorable ratings with all voters and his unpopularity among women and Hispanics could doom him as a general election candidate and damage their own future political prospects if they were on his ticket.

On May 01 2016 08:24 Nyxisto wrote:


Bernie has some implicitly nationalist views though. The "the good old times when every screw was manufactured in America" attitude can easily lead to some reactionary views in other areas. Jeremy Corbyn is in a similar situation

Brine spills from oil development in western North Dakota are releasing toxins into soils and waterways, sometimes at levels exceeding federal water quality standards, scientists reported Wednesday.

Samples taken from surface waters affected by waste spills in recent years in the state's Bakken oilfield region turned up high levels of lead, ammonium, selenium and other contaminants, Duke University researchers said. Additionally, they found that some spills had tainted land with radium, a radioactive element.

Long-term monitoring of waters downstream from spill sites is needed to determine what risks the pollution might pose for human health and the environment, geochemistry professor Avner Vengosh said. But the study revealed "clear evidence of direct water contamination" from oil development using the method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, he said, describing the problem as "widespread and persistent."

Wastewater spills are a longstanding yet largely overlooked side effect of oil and gas production that worsened during the nation's recent drilling boom, when advances in fracking technology enabled North Dakota's daily output to soar from 4.2 million gallons in 2007 to 42 million gallons in 2014.

The Associated Press reported last year that data from leading oil- and gas-producing states showed more than 175 million gallons of wastewater spilled from 2009 to 2014 in incidents involving ruptured pipes, overflowing storage tanks and other mishaps or even deliberate dumping. There were some 21,651 individual spills. The numbers were incomplete because many releases go unreported.

The wastewater is often much saltier than the oceans and kills nearly all vegetation it touches, rendering sections of crop and ranch lands unusable. It also contains toxic chemicals, some of which are injected during fracking to release oil and gas from rock deposits and others that exist naturally underground.

In their report, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, Vengosh and other Duke researchers said their findings were based on an analysis of water samples from four areas affected by spills, two of which - in July 2014 and January 2015 - were the largest on record in North Dakota.

They identified unique chemical "fingerprints" that showed the contaminants came from brine spills and not some other source, Vengosh said.

In most samples, toxic selenium was measured in concentrations up to 35 times the level that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for freshwater aquatic life, the report said. And other elements were found in concentrations above the EPA limit for drinking water.

On May 01 2016 08:51 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
check my edited post. and the instantaneous debate style posting highlights the nature of the problem. instant confrontation.. instant solve or die attitude. i'd say its a cultural thing and really won't change via legislation.

i think tis worth it to at least investigates other methods that don't involve taxpayers having to pay to put a teenaged prankster into jail for 20 years. its expensive.

On May 01 2016 02:22 oBlade wrote:

The implications of what people were trying to do with that picture (woman with Trump shirt and arm in the air) were obvious. I didn't dismiss that she could be making the gesture. She did it because people were harassing her, which was something I found likely (along with the possibility of it being a staged photo).

On May 01 2016 02:22 oBlade wrote:



We know how you feel, and you seem to be aware I disagree. You're obviously not going to convince me by childish repetition.

On May 01 2016 09:22 Blitzkrieg0 wrote:


I agree that the US overuses swat for say drug searches, but typically swatting someone involves threats of violence which absolutely warrant such force. Bomb threats and hostage situations are solve or die situations and cutting back the response to actual crimes of this nature to save a few bucks on teenage pranksters is not acceptable.



I think it's worth it to implement actual policy instead of saying there might be a better solution we don't know about. If and when this alternative is found we'll pass judgement on it.



There is a kid currently serving a 25-life sentence for swatting, but he got charged with domestic terrorism. Gogo patriot act!

On May 01 2016 09:34 kwizach wrote:

Again, it wasn't simply about discussing the implications of the gesture, but what the gesture itself was. You couldn't even bring yourself to admit she was doing a Nazi salute.