Category: Domestic Policies

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Featured Gun Control shooting

Shooting – 9 Year Old Shoots Her 8 Year Old Brother in The Head

The purpose of these posts are usually to show how irresponsible “responsible gun owners” are. Consider this an exception.

This post is about a 39-year-old “mother,” Tonya Charles, who is apparently accustomed to acting irresponsibly. Charles is even known for leaving her children alone for weeks at times. According to reports, 5 of her children are under 10 years old. In this case, two teenage kids were left in charge,  but they were not home when the shooting occurred.

“It was inevitable that it was soon to happen,” said a neighbor, referring to the news that a 9 year old child shot her 8 year old brother in the head. “One time she was gone for two weeks at a time. One time the kids didn’t know where she was, nobody knew where she was, and finally she showed back up again.”

“I was watching TV. All of a sudden I hear like [a] firecracker and two seconds later I hear this kid screaming,” said Zoraida Medina, a neighbor. “How you going to have a gun loaded with small kids in the house? Why? Fine, you can have a gun in the house, but not loaded. I call that stupidity.”

Investigators said the child found her mother’s gun while the older children were out of the house.

The boy is listed in critical condition.

Categories
China Climate change Climate Change

America and China Reach Major Deal on Fighting Climate Change

And you thought the president went on a meaningless trip to China. The man is always working, even when the do-nothing Congress does nothing!

In a surprise announcement Tuesday night, the world’s two biggest economies and greenhouse gas emitters, United States and China, said they will partner closely on a broad-ranging package of plans to fight climate change, including new targets to reduce carbon pollution, according to a statement from the White House.

The announcement comes after President Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping today in Beijing, and includes headline-grabbing commitments from both countries that are sure to breathe new life into negotiations to reach a new climate treaty in Paris next year.

According to the plan, the United States will reduce carbon emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, nearly twice the existing target—without imposing new restrictions on power plants or vehicles.

Tuesday’s announcement is equally remarkable for China’s commitment. For the first time, China has set a date at which it expects its emissions will “peak,” or finally begin to taper downward: around 2030. China is currently the world’s biggest emitter of carbon pollution, largely because of its coal-dependent economy, and reining in emissions while continuing to grow has been the paramount challenge for China’s leaders.

The White House said in a statement that China could reach the target even sooner than 2030. It “expects that China will succeed in peaking its emissions before 2030 based on its broad economic reform program, plans to address air pollution, and implementation of President Xi’s call for an energy revolution.”

Categories
executive order immigration reform Immigration Reform Politics

President’s Immigration Plan includes a Temporary Stay for 5 Million Immigrants

President Obama is determined to get something done on immigration. And despite the threats from Republicans to block all his other policies if he does immigration alone, the president is insisting on doing the right thing.

Seated with 12 top members of the House and Senate in the Old Family Dining Room, Obama shot back that he intended to proceed, saying that he had already waited almost two years for congressional action on immigration. He added that his decision should not upend chances for cooperation on unrelated matters, according to aides familiar with the exchange.

The new focus on Obama’s plans to revamp the immigration system by executive fiat came as the president is reportedly reviewing proposals to allow as many as 5 million illegal immigrants to stay in the United States at least temporarily, according to several people familiar with his plans. He is expected to announce his intentions after returning from a visit to China, Burma and Australia, either this month or in early December, said those familiar with the subject, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not

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Domestic Policies Healthcare News Politics

The Post-Modern Mortem

The days after elections are so much fun. Sort of like the day after Thanksgiving when the turkey and fixin’s get a chance to mature and mellow and the remembrance of a holiday is still fresh in the memory.

Well, at least it’s like that for the Republicans. They get a chance to gloat and tell the country just how much they’re loved and how the voters want them to change the tenor and direction of the debate in Washington and how the war on women didn’t work and Hispanics are more interested in the economy than immigration and that the president is not relevant any more and other things that, take a breath please, just aren’t true.

Democrats did a terrific job with those rose-tinted political spectacles on their noses hoping that the poll numbers were under-counting the young and African-American and female voters who were poised to spring out of their homes and rescue the party one final time before Obama takes his techno-laden GOTV effort back to… well, wherever he’s going come January 20, 2017.

What this election will be remembered for is that the South went all Republican, completing a 150 year flip from solidly Democratic and segregationist to solidly Republican and conservative. We can talk all we want about how diverse the country is becoming; the South is having none of it, even in Georgia where the left left its heart in the not very capable hands of the descendants of Carters and Nunns. What, none of the Mondales or McGoverns wanted to run? And who’s up next? A Clinton? We might need to rethink this one.

This election will also be remembered for how ordinary it turned out to be. The unpopular president’s party took a beating in his sixth year. Yawn.

The Republicans had better candidates who mentioned rape not once and found that they could win more votes than the Democrats who ran Usain Bolt-like from Obama. Yawn, roll over.

The right finally learned how to use the new media and mobile landscape to close the techno gap that the Democrats owned for two election cycles. Bound to happen. Yawn, toll over, hit the snooze button.

We also got the day-after sermons from the pulpit about how Boehner, McConnell and Obama will now learn to work with one another for the good of the country and find common ground on the major issues that concern Americans in their daily lives. And they said all of these things with straight faces.

What will really happen is that the Republicans will take out their pent-up frustrations with Harry Reid with laser-like precision, using their slim majority to pass as many bills as they can using reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes, rather than submitting legislation that could be filibustered. There will be no climate change regulations or carbon taxes, but we will get the XL Pipeline. There will be no immigration bill with a path to at least being able to stay in the country, but we will get a bigger, thicker, more secure fence in Arizona and New Mexico, ensuring that fruit prices will skyrocket because it will be rotting on the vines and in the fields for lack of pickers. We might even get some modifications to the ACA, but just enough to mess the law up for those who need it most. And we won’t get any judicial nominees through the Senate. Period.

The country will muddle through for the next two years with the economy continuing its slow $8.25 per hour recovery, states will continue to lead on marriage equality and legalization of marijuana, lower gas prices will help squeezed households, and technology will wow us anew with its ability to make us more productive and efficient.

Big change, though will need to wait.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Immigration Immigration Reform Politics Sarah Palin

Laughable that Sarah Palin Blames Obama for America’s “Open Borders”

In one if her regular rambling pieces produced by her “network,” Sarah Palin stole 3 minutes and 23 seconds of my precious time “talking” about an issue that doesn’t even exist – the apparent “open borders” problem that Barack Obama brought with him when he commandeered the White House.

No, seriously. According to Sarah Palin and the rest of her party, America’s borders are wide “open,” like curtains blowing in the winds allowing anyone to just stroll in and out as they pleased. No border patrol agents, no Immigration Customs Enforcement or ICE as we would imagined them called if they ever existed, just a vast opened landmass where anyone can come and steal our jobs.

Said Palin,  “we can’t continue to allow unrestricted, illegal immigration through our open borders and uninforced, over stayed visas.”

That statement was said by Palin after she showed a clip of two countries using our “open borders” to gain free, unrestricted access to the United States – Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Yes, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. These two countries are apparently allowing their people to travel to the United States because our custom agents are all on permanent vacations, and the Border Patrol agents are figments of our imagination, and the Saudis and Pakistanis are free to roam our borders stealing our jobs.

Sidenote: There are studies proving that our borders have never been more secure. And there are studies proving that under this president, there have been an increase in deportations. These are facts and like we all know, facts have a liberal bias. So Palin and her kind will continue preaching their lies. There is unfortunately, an audience for the nonsense.

Me? I want my 3 minutes and 23 seconds back!

Video

Categories
Gun Control shooting

Gun Surprises Responsible Owner with Unexpected Discharge – Video

Everyone’s an expert on guns these days. Look here for example as this gun enthusiast explains how his beloved weapon works, only to be surprised by the weapon in the end.

Responsible gun owners are so responsible!

Video

Categories
Canada Ebola gun control Gun Control Healthcare Terrorism Terrorism

AMERICA: AFRAID OF EBOLA BUT NOT THEM ALBINO DEER!

As seen on America The Not So Beautiful

October 23, 2014

By Mike Caccioppoli

It never ceases to amaze me what cowards Americans are. They are afraid of everything. Afraid of terrorism, afraid of air travel, afraid of countries thousands of miles away, afraid of Cuba, afraid of rare diseases. Yet somehow they think they are the most courageous people in the world. The rest of the world doesn’t see it that way, which would be the majority of the earth. And for good reason because it’s not true.

Three people have contracted Ebola, only two of them while in the United States. Both of those people are nurses that had direct contact with the man who died. That’s it. Yet, there are screams for travel bans and paranoia over how easy it is to contract the disease. None of it is based in reality, just fear and of course crass politics.  And hey right wingers..don’t tell me about Obama’s “late” response to Ebola when your hero Reagan let over 40,000 Americans die of AIDS before he would even mention the word!

What is really killing Americans at an alarming rate is obesity, alcohol and cigarettes. This is reality, but all we hear about is how frightened Americans are over Ebola. About as frightened as they are over ISIS. Neither poses any imminent threat at all. AT ALL. But they want travel bans as well as boots on the ground in Iraq so more strangers can die in the name of “freedom.”

It’s not freedom at all but fear. They are afraid so they want others to protect them from their uniquely American fears. Notice how most other nations including Canada have no such fears. They don’t worry about ISIS or Ebola the way Americans do. Maybe the real fear should be with Texas and its health care system. A place where they send you home from the hospital with 103 fever and a free cowboy hat and an autographed Rick Perry head shot.

It’s stunning how Americans have the inability to look around them and see how other countries handle things. It’s like they live in a vacuum. The first reaction to any crisis is fear. Not a common sense solution or a dialogue but outright hysteria. There is no weighing options because that would take brains and courage. Two things that too many Americans are lacking. Stop flights! Don’t allow them damn foreigners in our schools, to learn or teach! Doesn’t matter if you aren’t from anywhere near West Africa or Africa for that matter…you look foreign so you must have the Ebola! You must be feared!

It’s fucking pathetic. It continues generation to generation because kids see their parents being afraid so they become afraid. Speaking of the children, an 11 year old shot and killed an albino deer and now feels like a “rock star” according to his wonderful father. Albino deer are so rare that I didn’t even know they existed. They are also beautiful. They don’t inspire fear at all. They inspire hope about nature and what evolution has given us. Yes evolution. Because if they were created by the lord why would most Christians not be up in arms about the murder of one..right?

The murder took place in Howell, Michigan. Mostly Michigan is fine, but not Howell.  It is a right wing shit fest. Home to the KKK. No wonder this kid is a hero there. So are guys in sheets. Now I don’t want to be too hard on the kid. I do however despise his parents. Instead of teaching their son about empathy and concern for weaker creatures, they have taught him to kill and to love it. To bask in it. Maybe a school or a politician can be his next target? For this there should be a nice place in hell prepared for them. The same can be said for the right wing propaganda ragUSA Today that actually glorified the killing.

This is an all American story for sure. If the obstacle is tough and powerful like ISIS or Ebola, we cower. If it’s an easy target like a poor Albino deer we shoot to kill and show off. What courage! I know what…let’s sing “God Bless America” one more time! Notice how they don’t have the need to sing about blessing Canada in the middle of every hockey game? But Americans wouldn’t notice that, they never notice anything outside their own little universe. Other nations advance while we are stuck in the dark ages.

How to deal with terrorism or a disease? Fear and discrimination. How to raise a child? Violence and power is good, honorable. Dress them up in camo (what war are they fighting?) and send them out to kill nature, destroy the environment, hey it’s OK, you are an American son!

Fear the unknown and the strong, bully the weak and the defenseless. Makes my skin crawl.

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

@CaccioppoliMike

 

Visit America The Not So Beautiful

Categories
gun control Gun Control shooting

Another Gun Shoots 9 Month Old Baby In the Head, Gun Owner Also Shot in Leg

A gun owner was sitting in his kitchen with his baby. His baby was apparently dirty, so he decided to clean it. Not too far from the gun owner was his other baby, his 9-month-old child.

The man began cleaning his baby, but he forgot to remove the bullet from his baby’s chamber. The baby went off accidentally shooting the man in the leg and shooting his 9 month old in the head.

Police are investigating the incident between 31-year old John Hambaugh III of Indiana, his dirty baby with the bullet in the chamber, and the accidental shooting of his 9 month old child.

Both Hambaugh and his 9 month old were taken to Community Howard Regional Hospital Kokomo. Hambaugh is in stable condition but his 9 month old is in critical condition.

Categories
Domestic Policies Ebola Health isil ISIS News Politics

The Real Scare

Ain’t nobody does scary like the Republicans. Even Democrats, who’ve been scaring the elderly for years saying that the GOP would cut their Medicare, can’t hold a candle to the right wing fright machine once it gets enough cheap American gasoline inside it. This week was a banner week for scary, and it’s going to grease the midterm slide so completely, that the Democrats won’t need Joe Biden around anyhow.

Never mind that Ebola is devastating West Africa and wreaking havoc on international travel and national psyches. It’s now a political issue and a subject for conspriacy theories. Some are comparing the government’s response to the outbreak to GW Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, though the scale is, at this point, much smaller. And of course the anti-government crowd is blaming the government, the CDC and local administrations for fumbling the response. There is an element of truth in this. Potential carriers should not have flown on commercial airlines, nor should hospitals be unprepared for possible outbreaks.

Now, here comes the fear. If it’s not Ebola, it’s ISIS and the scary possibility that our borders are so porous that diseases and Islamic terrorists are pouring into the American southwest. With the economy growing slowly and the stock market sagging, it’s more evidence to many that the Democrats do not deserve to keep their majority and since most of the Senate races are in red states, well, the writing’s on the wall. I have been saying that the Democrats will hold their majority in November, but that will now depend almost solely on turnout.

So make sure you get out and vote. And don’t be afraid.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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democrats Domestic Policies Ebola Healthcare News Politics vote

The Political Muddle

If the sentiments expressed in this article in the New York Times today is any indication, then the Democrats are in deep trouble in the November Senate elections. President Obama still has his fans, but even people who voted for him are losing some faith that he can lead the country out of its present political torpor in the last two years of his term. His opponents, and at this point there are more than ever, are downright gleeful at the thought of having the GOP take both houses of Congress, though they do express frustration and anger at his failures.

RealClearPolitics is being a bit coy about it, but most of the recent polling gives the Republicans leads in the states they need to win to take control of the chamber. The same is true over at Electoral-Vote, except the Votemaster is not being coy at all and is saying at this point that the GOP will claim at least 52 seats after the elections. And even over at the Princeton Election Consortium the news for Democrats is not positive, with the prognostication currently calling for 51 Republicans come January.

Does this mean that it’s over? Not at all. Democrats famously under-perform in midterm election polling and there’s still a half-month to go before the votes are counted. President Obama has lent his also famous get-out-the-vote apparatus to the national party and most polling organizations make an assumption that the electorate in 2014 will look a lot like that of 2010. If that’s true, then the GOP will win. If not, and more of the Democrats’ constituents come out to vote, then there will be many surprises on election night.

The mood of the country will have a good deal to do with the outcome, and right now the Republicans have the upper hand. Of course, they are running on the fear of Ebola and ISIS, which they are convinced will both run through the United States over the next couple of weeks. It also doesn’t help that the seats the Democrats have to defend are in mostly red states.

If the Republicans win this year, then payback will most likely come during a more favorable cycle for Democrats in 2016. In the meantime, look for Congress to try to repeal the ACA, continue to investigate Benghazi, fortify the Mexican border against terrorists, and lower taxes on the wealthy.

You know, the real issues.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Gun Control Mike Brown Shooting Racial profiling Racism

IF YOU CAN’T SHOOT STRAIGHT DON’T BECOME A COP…AND OTHER COP CRAP

As seen on America The Not So Beautiful

 

October 10, 2014 

By Mike Caccioppoli

The latest shooting of a black kid by a cop, once again in the state of Missouri, has created more hatred and distrust of the police. There are more protests, this time in the city of St.Louis. The details surrounding the shooting are fuzzy, as in they don’t make sense. There seems to be missing elements and someone is either lying or has no real clue as to what happened. An 18 year old boy was killed once again by an unnamed officer. As I write this we only know that he is 32 years old and white. Until we know the name of the person who killed the boy I won’t mention the boys name either. Just my new rule.

What we do know is that the unnamed officer was off duty, working for a private security firm BUT he was wearing his city uniform. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time now. I hate that cops can wear their government issued uniforms at private events. Whether it be working for a small firm or an entity as big as the New York Yankees. I also don’t believe police officers should be allowed to work these second jobs. Let the private companies hire their own security officers, let them be retired cops, but not working police. If the pay you receive as a cop isn’t enough, you can do some other line of work. As I have said before there is no cop draft, one takes the job voluntarily. I don’t know of any other job where you can wear your official uniform, badge etc while working for a private company. I want people who want to be cops, not carry a gun for as many people as possible to make as much dough as possible.

We also know that the off duty officer shot at the 18 year old kid 17 times. 17 times. I will say it again, 17 times. The cop said he wasn’t sure the kid had a gun until he turned and pointed it and took 3 shots while running away. The police claim a gun was found and that three projectiles were recovered that were headed downhill towards the officer. The officer also said he got into an altercation with the kid before the shooting and that he was wearing a “grey hooded sweatshirt.” A surveillance camera which was taken just moments before (image at top of post) shows the victim and two friends buying a sandwich. The store clerk said he didn’t believe the victim was armed, and no gun can be seen which of course does NOT mean he didn’t have one hidden. However there was no grey hooded sweatshirt. Two of the boys had black t shirts and one a grey t shirt. The officer also said he saw the victim holding his waistband as he ran which made him believe he had a gun. In the video we can see the pants “sagging” on at least one of the boys, so it’s possible the victim had to hold his pants up at the waist so they didn’t fall as he was running. Like I said, the facts are murky at this point.

But I want to go back to the 17 shots. I’m guessing I can do better and I’ve never shot a gun. Held one only once. Here is a cop who has been on the force for six years and is also being employed by a private company. One would think, especially in this day and age where cops are using their guns more and more every year, that accuracy of the shot would be at least somewhat important. Yet in Ferguson we get 7-8 shots at a victim that was just feet away from the officer. Shortly after that we saw over 10 shots at a guy with a knife that was also just feet away from the officer. Now 17 shots at a fleeing kid. 17.

These cops could easily take on the moniker of “The gang that couldn’t shoot straight.” Here is an idea. If, after the first, oh, let’s say 10 shots, you haven’t ended the event, then stop shooting. Just stop and turn around and go get a different job. How about that? How about a limit on how many shots a cop can take? We are talking about densely populated urban areas, with innocent people, children, who can get hit with one of those 17 shots. The autopsy shows the kid was hit 5-7 times. So at least 10 shots missed him. At least 10 shots that could have killed a grandmother or an infant. There is absolutely no reason to take 17 shots at one kid running away, even IF he turned and fired 3 at you. This is incompetence at BEST. The details to come will tell us if there is a worst.

I still can’t figure out why this off duty cop confronted these three kids who had just bought a sandwich. There are no details in the accounts I have read so far that explains it other than there may have been a robbery or something and that the three looked “suspicious” to the cop. These days that usually means they were black and there was a crime within 100 miles of their location. We shall see.

Then there is the cop in my home town of Brooklyn, New York.  He was caught on camera taking $1,000 out of the pockets of a blue collar worker who of course happened to be black. He stole the money and when was asked to give it back, maced anyone who was in his way. He clearly could see that he was being filmed. He didn’t care.

So as you can see cameras won’t solve the issue of police brutality and criminal behavior. It won’t solve the problem because these bad cops believe they can do anything they want and will get away with it. Camera, no camera..audio, no audio…witnesses, no witnesses, it doesn’t matter. And you can’t blame them for that mentality because well, usually nothing happens. At absolute worst they get fired. That’s it. Where you or I would be rotting in jail, the punishment for burglary or abuse or murder by cop is you get to do something else for a living while also getting a pension. That’s it.

Over and over again they get away with it. Either because prosecutors are afraid of putting their buddies on trial or because dumb American juries think a cop can really do whatever they want and acquit. So why would they care about cameras? Or laws?

They can steal money, shoot an unarmed kid, and fire 17 shots in the dark.

We can’t do any of that, but they can.

Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com

@CaccioppoliMike

Visit America The Not So Beautiful

Categories
gun Gun Control gun control shooting violence

Woman Jokingly Slaps Man in Face, Man Shoots Woman in Forehead

Some people just can’t take a joke, especially when they are armed with a gun.

A Clay County man was arrested early Saturday on manslaughter charges after allegedly shooting a woman to death after she jokingly slapped him across the face.

Elliott William Orsborn, 26, is accused of shooting Jamie Lee Martin, 26, in the head after a night of friendly drinking at Martin’s home at 2041 Ashton Street in Middleburg, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

Witnesses told authorities Martin, Orsborn and several other friends had been hanging out in the garage throughout the night while Martin’s two children slept in the house, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Orsborn had flashed his silver .22 revolver with electrical tape wrapped around the handle several times and kept playing around with it.

The gun wasn’t loaded earlier in the night because Orsborn took all the bullets out, the Sheriff’s Office said.

As the night went on and the group drank more, Martin and Orsborn were sitting at a table talking when Martin said something Orsborn didn’t like. Witnesses said Gavin Lamberth, Martin’s boyfriend of about 5 months who lives with her and her children, told Orsborn to “just chill.”

Then, Martin “jokingly slapped the defendant across the face.”

Witnesses told authorities Orsborn pulled his gun out of his shorts pocket, pointed it at Martin’s forehead and shot her, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Orsborn immediately told witnesses he didn’t mean to shoot Martin, and Martin’s boyfriend and friend started “freaking out.” He stayed at the house for a few minutes and tried to help Martin but then ran from the house.

Orsborn was arrested at his home and told authorities he didn’t wish to speak until talking with an attorney. He was taken to the Clay County Jail, where he awaits his first court appearance Sunday. His bond had not been set as of Saturday evening.

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