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What is wrong with America

Red Alert

By Red Alert,
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badgerx16

badgerx16

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, whelk said:

So big tough armed US cops are not so brave and trigger happy as when they are surrounding a car. Timeline is shocking for such a tooled up police force. Guns stop these things yeah

For every 200 mass shootings, there is always one story the NRA can get behind to promote their argument.......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61615236

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Dark Munster

Dark Munster

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Posted
On 25/05/2022 at 08:41, farawaysaint said:

I have tried to have conversations with Americans about this many times. They are all insane on the topic, I have given up.

Not all of them. The majority of citizens want some assault weapon control or ban. But the screwed up electoral system over here allows the Arm-Kiddies-With-Ar-15s Republican party control (or veto power) over congress with tens of millions of fewer votes (and a psycho orange lunatic to become President with millions of fewer votes than his opponent).

To give an example: the senate has 100 members, 50 of whom are Republicans They got elected with 40 million fewer votes between them than the 50 Democrats. North and South Dakota between them have 1.5 million people and have four (Republican) senators. California, with almost 40 million people and the 6th largest economy in the world, has just two (Democratic) senators. The senate can block all legislation if 41 senators object to a bill. That's how fucked up it is here.

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badgerx16

badgerx16

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

Not all of them. The majority of citizens want some assault weapon control or ban. But the screwed up electoral system over here allows the Arm-Kiddies-With-Ar-15s Republican party control (or veto power) over congress with tens of millions of fewer votes (and a psycho orange lunatic to become President with millions of fewer votes than his opponent).

To give an example: the senate has 100 members, 50 of whom are Republicans They got elected with 40 million fewer votes between them than the 50 Democrats. North and South Dakota between them have 1.5 million people and have four (Republican) senators. California, with almost 40 million people and the 6th largest economy in the world, has just two (Democratic) senators. The senate can block all legislation if 41 senators object to a bill. That's how fucked up it is here.

Surely the US is "democratic", just like the UK ?

The system for the allocation of Senators, 2 for each State, was a compromise system introduced to maintain the political power of the rich, or as James Madison wrote, it is "constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority".

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Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn

Posted
Posted
On 28/05/2022 at 09:38, badgerx16 said:

For every 200 mass shootings, there is always one story the NRA can get behind to promote their argument.......

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61615236

But what is the arguement here?  Assuming she used a handgun then it shows that handguns are suitable, not military rifles.  Obviously America is a long way from sanity, but the immediate argument is about stopping people from being able to purchage semi-automatic rifles, not handguns.

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badgerx16

badgerx16

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, Jeremy Corbyn said:

But what is the arguement here?  Assuming she used a handgun then it shows that handguns are suitable, not military rifles.  Obviously America is a long way from sanity, but the immediate argument is about stopping people from being able to purchage semi-automatic rifles, not handguns.

The issue is how to address a society where 200 mass shootings have taken place this year, with 200 dead and over 800 wounded. Most of those did not involve 'long' guns or assault rifles. It is the blind faith in the archaic and no longer relevant 2nd Amendment that is a direct cause of this carnage.

Edited by badgerx16
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buctootim

buctootim

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

 It is the blind faith in the archaic and no longer relevant 2nd Amendment that is a direct cause of this carnage.

The NRA and other gun nuts refer to the second amendment as some immutable right - but the wording is pretty vague and open to interpration.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Does that mean only citizens who are members of the National Guard can bear arms? or does 'not infringing ' mean anybody can buy any arms, including an F35 or a nuclear missile?  Obviously it is incumbent on the Government to interpret the 2nd amendment in a way which makes sense for the 21st century  

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badgerx16

badgerx16

Posted
Posted (edited)
40 minutes ago, buctootim said:

The NRA and other gun nuts refer to the second amendment as some immutable right - but the wording is pretty vague and open to interpration.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Does that mean only citizens who are members of the National Guard can bear arms? or does 'not infringing ' mean anybody can buy any arms, including an F35 or a nuclear missile?  Obviously it is incumbent on the Government to interpret the 2nd amendment in a way which makes sense for the 21st century  

It is an AMENDMENT, drawn up in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, and is not inviolate. It is as if Magna Carta was still in operation verabtim.

Edited by badgerx16
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buctootim

buctootim

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

It is an AMENDMENT,cdrawn up in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, and is not inviolate. It is as if Magna Carta was still in operation verabtim.

I know. But it is still part of the constitution and the bar for changing that is very high. All you can do is intepret it differently and get cross party support so that you dont get too many legal challenges and politically appointed Judges are onside. Thats why there has been so little progress on this issue over so many years. Even the assassinations by shooting of  four Presidents, two wounded and another four shot at has done nothing to change it.    

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badgerx16

badgerx16

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, buctootim said:

I know. But it is still part of the constitution and the bar for changing that is very high. All you can do is intepret it differently and get cross party support so that you dont get too many legal challenges and politically appointed Judges are onside. Thats why there has been so little progress on this issue over so many years. Even the assassinations by shooting of  four Presidents, two wounded and another four shot at has done nothing to change it.    

A stagnant Government structure, controlled by vested interests. It's a wonder anything gets done.

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Dark Munster

Dark Munster

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, buctootim said:

I know. But it is still part of the constitution and the bar for changing that is very high. All you can do is intepret it differently and get cross party support so that you dont get too many legal challenges and politically appointed Judges are onside. Thats why there has been so little progress on this issue over so many years. Even the assassinations by shooting of  four Presidents, two wounded and another four shot at has done nothing to change it.    

They can (and did) temporarily ban assault weapons under Clinton, which the Republicans undid a decade later. So a constitutional amendment isn't required for sensible gun restrictions. Banning all guns would be impossible, but doing it for semi-automatics is certainly possible (if we had a functioning democracy over here in the States - see my comments above).

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Weston Super Saint

Weston Super Saint

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

"To protect and serve"

To be fair, that pretty much sums up 'what is wrong with America'.

Homeless guy tells the police he's going into the lake for a 'swim', despite said lake being a no swimming zone.  Police just watch even while he's drowning and help him out by 'calling for a boat' - which could be the prescribed process for those incidents? 

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

To be fair, that pretty much sums up 'what is wrong with America'.

Homeless guy tells the police he's going into the lake for a 'swim', despite said lake being a no swimming zone.  Police just watch even while he's drowning and help him out by 'calling for a boat' - which could be the prescribed process for those incidents? 

Ask yourself - could you imagine this happening in the UK? 3 cops telling a vulnerable person that they're "not jumping in after you" and then just standing there watching him drown? 

In answer to the question "what is wrong with America?", one answer that springs to mind is that, in some states at least, Police officers get less training than fucking hairdressers do before being unleashed on the public.

Edited by Sheaf Saint
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badgerx16

badgerx16

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

In answer to the question "what is wrong with America?", one answer that springs to mind is that, in some states at least, Police officers get less training than fucking hairdressers do before being unleashed on the public.

And hairdressres don't get issued firearms.

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cloggy saint

cloggy saint

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

That pretty much sums up 'what is wrong with America'.

Homeless guy tells the police he's going into the lake for a 'swim', despite said lake being a no swimming zone.  Police just watch even while he's drowning and help him out by 'calling for a boat' - which could be the prescribed process for those incidents? 

 

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skintsaint

skintsaint

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, kyle04 said:

Or stand there doing a risk assessment for an hour, by which time the poor bastard has drowned.

Reading more into it, that lake is known but locals as quite unsafe to swim in and presents a health risk, so can kinda understand why officers didn't want to jump in. 

 

image.png.8c6deb362cf180a95e40db9b898ba518.png

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Mystic Force

Mystic Force

Posted
Posted

Should have included a side by side of a council flat and a Saudi princes opulent palace, the pensioner riding the bus to stay warm with the indoor skiing place with snow at a mall in Dubai, and the skyline of modern tourist trap Mecca with tower blocks in London.

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ecuk268

ecuk268

Posted
Posted

"There have been gun killings in 43 of the 50 US states in the two weeks since the Texas school shooting.

More than 650 incidents have resulted in 730 deaths since 24 May, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.

Twenty-three of those who died were children, more than the total number who died at Uvalde, and 66 were teenagers".

23 children shot in 2 weeks? What is wrong with that country?

 

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Sheaf Saint

Sheaf Saint

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Reading more into it, that lake is known but locals as quite unsafe to swim in and presents a health risk, so can kinda understand why officers didn't want to jump in. 

 

image.png.8c6deb362cf180a95e40db9b898ba518.png

All of which brings us to another of the numerous things that are wrong with America - their environmental regulation in many areas is non-existent, which is hardly surprising when you consider that Big Donnie appointed the former CEO of an oil company as head of the EPA. 

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Dark Munster

Dark Munster

Posted
Posted
On 06/06/2022 at 02:58, Mystic Force said:

For fuck sake! I am starting a new job in Chattanooga, Tennessee today and over the last two weekends this happened.

3 dead, 14 wounded in Chattanooga shooting

6 shot in Downtown Chattanooga

Just nip into the nearest supermarket and pick up an AR-15 and several rounds of ammunition. As the Republicans say, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. 

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