US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8935

On October 06 2017 05:25 ahswtini wrote:

if you would be willing to finance the purchase of 29 more guns, sure :p

i don't think the US gov is even supposed to know how many sales from gun stores you have made.

On October 06 2017 02:40 Danglars wrote:

And of the (2014) 2mil foreigners you have living there, 1.6mil were of European extraction. Pretty homogenous. ~8mil vs 330mil. Pretty small. Half our poverty, lower inequality. You don't have to fudge how diverse your society really is. It's the very large and different populations that make up the US where you get situations like the coasts/metros vs middle america where these issues are talked about completely differently. Urban poor, rural poor, rich suburbs, etc etc.

I'm not just bashing on Switzerland. You've got a great gun culture. Semi autos too. (How can you be so regressive on gun policy, Switzerland???) It's just you won't see nearly the same issues by virtue of your demographics/situation.

Republican donors paid up to $5,000 per couple for a photo with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at a fundraiser held during a taxpayer-funded trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to documents reviewed by POLITICO — raising questions about his habit of mixing official government business with political activism.

The new details about Zinke’s March trip to the Caribbean, including the previously undisclosed invitation to the Virgin Islands Republican Party fundraiser, emerged after weeks of scrutiny of the former Montana GOP congressman’s travels. The nearly two-hour event was one of more than a half-dozen times Zinke has met with big donors or political groups while on department-paid trips, Interior travel records and other documents show.

Ethics watchdogs say Zinke is combining politics with his Interior duties so frequently that he risks tripping over the prohibitions against using government resources for partisan activity, even though his appearance at the Virgin Islands event seems to have been legal. Democrats have also seized on the issue, including 26 House members who wrote in a letter Tuesday that Zinke’s travels “give the appearance that you are mixing political gatherings and personal destinations with official business."

Zinke has said all his actions have obeyed the law, dismissing concerns about his travel as "a little BS."

But some ethics advocates say Zinke’s attendance at a fundraiser during his first month as secretary is not in line with past administrations' conduct, even if he crossed no legal red lines.

"It happens on occasion with other Cabinet secretaries, perhaps even a little more often as you get near the election, but it is not a very common practice for Cabinet members to be hopping around from campaign event to campaign event like we're seeing with Zinke," said Craig Holman, government affairs specialist for government watchdog Public Citizen.

The secretary is already under investigation by his department's inspector general over his use of taxpayer-funded private planes for some of the trips, and the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel is looking into an activist group's allegations that he violated the Hatch Act, the law limiting political activism by federal employees. The White House has cracked down on Cabinet members’ travel habits following former HHS Secretary Tom Price's resignation on Friday, which occurred after POLITICO reported on his own expensive flights.

Zinke visited the Virgin Islands from March 30 to April 1 on an official trip related to the Interior Department’s role overseeing the U.S. territory. On his first day, following a “veterans meet and greet” and a reception with Gov. Kenneth Mapp, he appeared in his personal capacity at a March fundraiser for the local Republican Party at the patio bar of the Club Comanche Hotel St. Croix, department records show.

Tickets for the fundraiser ranged from $75 per person to as much as $5,000 per couple to be an event “Patron,” according to Zinke's official calendar and a copy of the invitation. Patrons and members of the host committee, who paid $1,500 per couple, could get a photo with Zinke at the start of the event, which was attended by local party members and elected officials.

The following day, Zinke took a $3,150 flight on a private plane, paid for by the department, from St. Croix to official functions on St. Thomas and returned later that evening. Interior Department officials said there was no other way to accommodate his schedule, which included official events on both islands commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Dutch government transferring control of the islands to the United States.

Zinke is allowed to engage in partisan political activity in a "purely personal (not official) capacity," so long as he does not use government resources, according to Interior Department guidelines on the Hatch Act and other federal laws. The invitation to the GOP fundraiser did not identify Zinke by his official title and included a disclaimer that the money is being solicited by the local party and "not by any federal official."

All told, Zinke has spent around $20,000 for three charter flights as secretary, nowhere near the $1 million tab Price racked up on non-commercial trips. But he has on numerous occasions attended political receptions, spoken to influential conservative groups or appeared alongside past campaign donors during trips has taken outside of Washington, D.C., for official department business.

In one instance, Zinke gave a motivational speech for a professional hockey team owned by a major campaign contributor that he said was official business — and which required him to charter a $12,000 flight to Montana for an appearance at the Western Governors Association the next day.

In another case, during a speech to the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, he was introduced via a recorded voice as the Interior secretary and Zinke proceeded to talk about the agency's priorities. The summit was organized by the Centennial Institute, which bills itself as Colorado Christian University's think tank and is a part of the State Policy Network of organizations that collectively push for conservative state-level legislation.

An Interior spokeswoman said Zinke always follows the law but declined to answer specific questions about his appearance at the Virgin Islands fundraiser, nor say whether he would keep raising political money. The agency also has yet to post Zinke's trip expenses involving any of the political events.

“The Interior Department under the Trump Administration has always and will always work to ensure all officials follow appropriate rules and regulations when traveling, including seeking commercial options at all times appropriate and feasible, to ensure the efficient use of government resources,” spokeswoman Heather Swift said in a statement.

Swift did not respond to questions about whether the department had gotten reimbursement for the political portion of Zinke’s three-day Virgin Islands trip, as the head of one watchdog group says it should have.

"Some of this travel is clearly political and that part of the travel should have been paid for by the RNC, NRCC, state political parties, a campaign committee or Zinke personally," said Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability.

No payments to the department are listed in the Virgin Islands Republican Party's FEC records.

Zinke is not the first Interior secretary, or Cabinet member, to have his activities questioned.

On October 06 2017 05:35 Nebuchad wrote:


I'm from Fribourg.

What was in the form exactly?

I'm curious how they figure out that you're "psychiatrically qualified" from just that (it probably helped that you already had a permit from the UK if I had to guess). In any case I would have to assume that you're a good guy with a gun (TM): if gun regulations work well, you aren't supposed to have trouble. My guess is you would have more trouble if you attempted to buy "more dangerous" weapons, or a larger number than you bought, that type of thing. I think it's also relevant that you store the gun at the range.

On October 06 2017 05:53 ahswtini wrote:

here's the form for Bern
https://www.police.be.ch/police/de/index/vorschriften/vorschriften/waffen/gesuche-dokumente.assetref/dam/documents/POM/Police/de/Waffen/gesuch_waffenerwerbsschein_de.pdf

well, like i said, i have to send them a copy of my criminal record in the UK, and my UK permit. i shoot in switzerland as part of a british club. it was set up by members who wanted to move their pistols abroad after the UK handgun ban in 1997. the authorisation to set up the club went all the way to the Swiss president at the time, who overruled his attorney general who initially had denied the club the right to operate (for political reasons). all of the members also continue to shoot in the UK and so have their own permits. i don't know if someone without a permit from their home country would be able to get a WES. however, many of the members have Stgw90s and AR-15s, as well as the older Stgw57s and K31s, and had no trouble getting permits for those.

there is an NRA-ILA article with a piece at the end that talks about the club: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20080219/backfire-in-britain

On October 06 2017 05:53 ahswtini wrote:
there is an NRA-ILA article with a piece at the end that talks about the club: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20080219/backfire-in-britain

On October 06 2017 06:02 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
That doesn't talk about a club in Switzerland. Instead it describes how apparently after stricter gun laws in the UK, " law and order in Britain was deteriorating at a rapid rate, while the country was experiencing a crime surge much more severe than any recorded within the United States." and " the motherland was indeed racing ahead by a substantial lead, sporting a crime rate in England and Wales that at times peaked at as much as 60 percent above crime statistics here in the States, with gun crimes especially prominent." Yeah right, how about that seems like utter tosh.

On October 06 2017 05:53 ahswtini wrote:
there is an NRA-ILA article with a piece at the end that talks about the club: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20080219/backfire-in-britain

On October 06 2017 06:01 Nebuchad wrote:


There's enough specific circumstances here that I would expect it would have been harder for you to do that without it, even though I don't really have a clue. As part of the club they would know why you want that permit and what you plan to use the gun for, it's a set of circumstances and a logic that work. I'm also fairly confident that, since the UK gun laws are stricter than the swiss ones, already having that permit was helpful.

The range helps especially when it comes to residency since you - I would imagine - don't have a carrying permit.

If you live abroad or do not have a residence C permit, you will need a firearms acquisition permit or a special licence each time you acquire a firearm.

On October 06 2017 06:01 GreenHorizons wrote:
Folks probably missed it but they've already been hedging Mueller's investigation basically saying it's just going to go to congress to die.

There's an outside chance some Republicans grow a spine and Democrats get a majority and they use whatever turns up to impeach but I'd bet 90 days that they don't.

On October 06 2017 06:14 farvacola wrote:
Mueller isn't angling towards a direct impeachment of Trumo, he's going the long way around.

“The police recorded a total of 4.8m offences in the year ending December 2016, an annual rise of 9%. However, the large volume increases driving this trend are thought to reflect changes in recording processes and practices rather than crime,” the statisticians said.

“There are some genuine increases that police forces across the country are responding to, particularly with regard to 14% rise in knife crime and 13% increase in firearms offences. The trend, which had been declining for many years but has now begun to climb more sharply, is a key priority for the police service. Forces will continue to target habitual offenders and conduct wide-ranging proactive operations to seize thousands of illegal weapons before they can be used to cause harm,” Skelly said.

On October 06 2017 06:12 Plansix wrote:

A lot of people have said that the investigation won’t do much until after the mid terms, so I doubt anyone will take that bet.

I do think that Trump might go off the deep end if the investigation turns of something with his kids or family business. If he starts pardoning his kids, even the GOP might not be able to hold back the public pressure.

On October 06 2017 06:23 Tachion wrote:

I actually think people would be sympathetic to him pardoning his kids as opposed to the other people who may be facing indictment.

On October 06 2017 06:17 farvacola wrote:
Don't be obtuse when you clearly don't know anything about how much Mueller's been in contact with New York.

On May 19 2017 14:36 GreenHorizons wrote:
Mueller is a pro at letting people off the hook. He cleared the NFL on the Ray Rice thing (while not really clearing them) and he helped stop the renewal of a wildly unconstitutional wiretapping program (while not really stopping the wiretapping).
...

When Mueller is done he'll say Trump's team did some questionable/bad stuff, none of it will be "throw him in jail/must impeach" bad (although I don't doubt it's there). Or Trump wont be able to control himself (very possible) and he'll force congress's hand into pressuring him out (this is only if they absolutely have to and it's seen as less damaging than keeping him there).

On October 06 2017 06:23 Tachion wrote:

I actually think people would be sympathetic to him pardoning his kids as opposed to the other people who may be facing indictment.