Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
They had better.
GasBandit
Staff member
There's a small debate on this picture at Imgur:
It's divided among those who:
1) think he was on his way to the open carry rally in Medina, OH, and couldn't get a babysitter
2) think he just purchased the rifle and was walking home
3) are appalled - "THOSE sandals with that gun? Honey please."
4) are more concerned about the driver taking a picture out the side of the car with his phone instead of watching the road.
It's divided among those who:
1) think he was on his way to the open carry rally in Medina, OH, and couldn't get a babysitter
2) think he just purchased the rifle and was walking home
3) are appalled - "THOSE sandals with that gun? Honey please."
4) are more concerned about the driver taking a picture out the side of the car with his phone instead of watching the road.
I'm pretty sure 5/3 is HQed in Franklin County, Ohio like Chase is. We have a ton of bank HQs here.
More evidence that Wisconsin is Bat-Guano Cray-Cray.
Though I do like what the police chief did in retaliation (though it was VERY UNPROFESSIONAL, you should FEEL BAD).
Though I do like what the police chief did in retaliation (though it was VERY UNPROFESSIONAL, you should FEEL BAD).
#1 is the winner. Yay Medina.There's a small debate on this picture at Imgur:
It's divided among those who:
1) think he was on his way to the open carry rally in Medina, OH, and couldn't get a babysitter
2) think he just purchased the rifle and was walking home
3) are appalled - "THOSE sandals with that gun? Honey please."
4) are more concerned about the driver taking a picture out the side of the car with his phone instead of watching the road.
http://medinagazette.northcoastnow....medinas-business-district-goes-without-hitch/
I'm all for open carry, but if you feel a need to show off while doing it, maybe you should think about whether you have the emotional maturity to do so.
GasBandit
Staff member
And of course I had to read the comments. Which meant I had to post in the comments.
GasBandit
Staff member
US Law Enforcement is becoming a de facto military force - and not for typical SWAT situations. Rather, it's escalating the failed "war on drugs."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...ngerous-militarization-of-u-s-law-enforcement
FTA:
— 62 percent of SWAT raids were for the purpose of conducting drug searches.
— Just 7 percent of SWAT raids were "for hostages, barricade, or active shooter scenarios."
— SWAT raids are directed disproportionately against people of color — 30 percent of the time the "race of individual people impacted" was black, 11 percent of the time Latino, 20 percent white and 30 percent unknown.
— Armored personnel vehicles that local law enforcement agencies have received through grants from the Department of Homeland Security are most commonly used for drug raids and not school shootings and terrorist situations.
— In cases in which police cited the possible presence of a weapon in the home as a reason for utilizing a SWAT team, weapons were found only 35 percent of the time.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...ngerous-militarization-of-u-s-law-enforcement
FTA:
— 62 percent of SWAT raids were for the purpose of conducting drug searches.
— Just 7 percent of SWAT raids were "for hostages, barricade, or active shooter scenarios."
— SWAT raids are directed disproportionately against people of color — 30 percent of the time the "race of individual people impacted" was black, 11 percent of the time Latino, 20 percent white and 30 percent unknown.
— Armored personnel vehicles that local law enforcement agencies have received through grants from the Department of Homeland Security are most commonly used for drug raids and not school shootings and terrorist situations.
— In cases in which police cited the possible presence of a weapon in the home as a reason for utilizing a SWAT team, weapons were found only 35 percent of the time.
So what you're saying, is that the (para)militarization of our law enforcement units has been funded with drug money?
Also, a couple big things that came down the pike today:
SCOTUS rules 9-0 a warrant is (almost always) required prior to searching contents of cell phones.
(really, the report should've just said, "A-duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh....")
Aereo should be treated like a cable company, which will probably kill their business model.
(Aereo is the "thousands of tiny antennas" company)
--Patrick
Also, a couple big things that came down the pike today:
SCOTUS rules 9-0 a warrant is (almost always) required prior to searching contents of cell phones.
(really, the report should've just said, "A-duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh....")
Aereo should be treated like a cable company, which will probably kill their business model.
(Aereo is the "thousands of tiny antennas" company)
--Patrick
The Areo decision is going to lead to some bad precedent. The judges basically stated that following the letter of the law doesn't matter because they violated the spirit.
Personally I think their decision was as absurd as the hoops Areo was jumping through in order to stay within the legality of the law.
Personally I think their decision was as absurd as the hoops Areo was jumping through in order to stay within the legality of the law.
As someone else put it, "It's illegal for Aereo to hook a customer up to OTA broadcasts, but when Comcast takes the OTA broadcasts, encrypts them, and then forces you to pay an equipment fee in order to watch them, it's totally ok?"
--Patrick
Necronic
Staff member
Not really politics I guess, but thought you guys would like this. I despise Nancy Grace, but this is pretty funny:
http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/06/nancy-...ing-son-had-been-found-alive-in-the-basement/[DOUBLEPOST=1403815704,1403815362][/DOUBLEPOST]Seriously though I think the world would be better if she died.
http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/06/nancy-...ing-son-had-been-found-alive-in-the-basement/[DOUBLEPOST=1403815704,1403815362][/DOUBLEPOST]Seriously though I think the world would be better if she died.
Necronic
Staff member
Also, first quarter growth numbers are out and they are not good.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/u...-a-lot-worse-than-everybody-thought.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/u...-a-lot-worse-than-everybody-thought.html?_r=0
Necronic
Staff member
Also, here is a real headscratcher for you:
-QE has created a lot of cash out of nowhere. Historically this is something that would cause inflation. Inflation, however, has been pretty steady. What's the deal?
-Apparently banks and corporations are hoarding cash. This has a deflationary tendency by effectively removing the money from circulation. This makes sense and is troubling, because when these banks release the capital we will start to see serious inflation. But wait, that doesn't make sense.
-If banks are afraid of serious inflation then why in god's name would they be hoarding cash? It's the worst possible time to do so. The most logical thing would be to convert it into equity ASAP. And by being the first out of the gate you will feel the least of the inflationary reaction of releasing the cash.
So. Wtf is going on. Why would banks hoard cash with inflation on the horizon? Are they doing so to protect us from inflation? If you believe that then I have some great gold investments I want to tell you about.
-QE has created a lot of cash out of nowhere. Historically this is something that would cause inflation. Inflation, however, has been pretty steady. What's the deal?
-Apparently banks and corporations are hoarding cash. This has a deflationary tendency by effectively removing the money from circulation. This makes sense and is troubling, because when these banks release the capital we will start to see serious inflation. But wait, that doesn't make sense.
-If banks are afraid of serious inflation then why in god's name would they be hoarding cash? It's the worst possible time to do so. The most logical thing would be to convert it into equity ASAP. And by being the first out of the gate you will feel the least of the inflationary reaction of releasing the cash.
So. Wtf is going on. Why would banks hoard cash with inflation on the horizon? Are they doing so to protect us from inflation? If you believe that then I have some great gold investments I want to tell you about.
GasBandit
Staff member
Like precious metals.
China's bank is probably doing it too. Signs have been pointing to the collapse of the dollar for a while now.
Necronic
Staff member
Show me another currency that is stronger than the dollar and I will believe that it is going to crash. The Yuan is held up through ridiculously corrupt practices that are unsustainable. The Euro is tethered to garbage economies like Span/Greece/Italy where we just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. The Australian and Canadian dollars are ok, but there just isn't that much of it.[DOUBLEPOST=1403817996,1403817801][/DOUBLEPOST]The british pound is good though, maybe a bit too expensive.
GasBandit
Staff member
In other words, the dollar is "too big to fail?"
I just attached a link talking about how china might be adopting the gold standard and moving to a dual-currency system (domestic and international, with the international being backed by gold) in an effort to break the dollar's stranglehold on international commerce.
Necronic
Staff member
It's not too big to fail. It's too strong to fail right now. Also I don't think anyone seriously considers a gold standard a good idea. From the article you linked it mentions how gold dropped 28% last year. That is a HORRENDOUS swing in value, enough to catastrophically and irreversibly damage a country. And this was just last year. In the last month alone it has fluctuated by nearly 10%. This is not something you would ever want tied to your economy.
ed: For some reason people continuously underestimate the US economy and forget that we are the biggest baddest boys on the block by a mile and a half. This isn't to say that we are bulletproof, far from it. But things really haven't changed that much in the last decade. Our debt/GDP ratio took a huge hit in the great recession, bringing us from ~45% to ~77%, which is a serious issue, but outside the recession the ratio has been pretty stable for almost 50 years. Even with the increase we can mange that ratio and I don't think it has come near the tipping point for us, its still way below WW2/New deal.
ed: For some reason people continuously underestimate the US economy and forget that we are the biggest baddest boys on the block by a mile and a half. This isn't to say that we are bulletproof, far from it. But things really haven't changed that much in the last decade. Our debt/GDP ratio took a huge hit in the great recession, bringing us from ~45% to ~77%, which is a serious issue, but outside the recession the ratio has been pretty stable for almost 50 years. Even with the increase we can mange that ratio and I don't think it has come near the tipping point for us, its still way below WW2/New deal.
Necronic
Staff member
Well....if it ever does. Economics are black magic in a lot of ways. It's surprising what you can get away with sometimes. It could be that QE gave the economy back cash that disappeared during the recession that shouldn't have.
We'll see though. If there's one thing I'm certain of it's that time will make fools of us all.
We'll see though. If there's one thing I'm certain of it's that time will make fools of us all.
This is the inevitable trend of the current market, but until an alternative appears it won't happen.
That might be the best gun ad I've ever seen.
And now it seems Fox is wielding this freshly-dried ruling as a weapon against Dish network's Hopper system (which in turn is based on Slingbox).
--Patrick
Isn't the hopper just a dvr with in-home network streaming?