continuing proofs America is wacko [3]

That's odd, I would have thought there would be more mass shootings in the scary bit in the middle, but it looks like the two coasts are the worst from that map.

more people on the coasts. People tend to become more community oriented as the density decreases, and though you may find more wild talk it's mainly focussed on theoretical "others" outside the community.

'A massive multi-agency manhunt including the FBI and U.S. Marshals continued Monday morning stemming from a shooting on Sunday in Austin and an armed former sheriff's detective is wanted for killing at least three people near an apartment complex.'

'A Chicago dad was seriously injured, and his seven-year-old daughter was killed by gunshots while they were sitting in a drive-thru at a McDonald’s Sunday afternoon.'

'At least five people were hospitalized Sunday following a shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to reports.'

{{ And thats all in just one day. Its not even that these shootings are a monthly horror any more, or weekly, they seem to be daily now. In fact multiple in a single day. }}

It's become normalized among the fringe that's prone to this kind of thing.

{{ I have 2 basic questions for the US folk here after todays Supreme Court ruling-

1. Whats the difference between this and the Taliban enforcing how and what women can do? What now seperates the US from any other religous nutjob country?

2. How can America claim to be a democracy when there is no seperation between Government and Courts? How can it be a democracy when unelected political appointee judges can rewrite law and overturn the elected will of the people based on religous belief?


As an addition I also note one of the Trump appointees says this is only the start and gives the examples of the right to contraception, sodomy being legal, and same sex marriage as the next targets to overturn.

America as far as social policy goes may as well be Saudi, or Iran or Afghanistan.
I grew up with this idea of America as the Home of the Free, a stalwart bastion of modern society and individual liberty and freedom. That was utterly dismantled and destroyed today. }}

Don't get me started on this shit. If they ban contraception they have gone full on Handmaids Tale.

I was wondering when somebody was going to bring this up.

So far the Supreme Court hasn't banned anything except an interpretation of the constitution that says abortion of non-viable fetuses is a given right. Where they may go from there is anybody's guess, but I don't think Clarence Thomas's fever dreams about contraception will take root.

I've always considered the court case in question (Roe v. Wade or more correctly the one that followed it that nobody remembers) something that would have made excellent compromise legislation of a difficult topic but was in fact very shaky constitutional law. Unfortunately I don't see congress filling the void with equivalent legislation in my lifetime. We're going to get a morass of varying state level legislation instead, with further division.

the Supreme Court hasn't banned anything- Halfwise

{{ The overall effect for millions of American women is the same as if they had, and they knew that. As soon as this passed entire States instantly made it a crime with years in prison and massive fines. May as well be the Taliban as far as all the women in those states are concerned.

As to the 'fever dream' its already started with this, I honestly see nothing now to prevent the Trump judges from going ahead as they say and going after other 'liberal' policies they dont like because of their nutty religious beliefs. }}

yep, what is there to stop them banning contraception. But can't Biden do an executive order and enlarge the court to include more liberal Democrats to nix the nutters little plans to turn women into brood cows?

Biden can't do it, only congress can.

As for whether abortion has been banned, It's a subtle distinction.  The court decision says states are not obligated to make abortion legal.  Granted as Petty says many states immediately made it illegal and the Supreme Court of course knew this would happen. But on a national level it's not banned and I doubt it will be.

The thing is that I agree there is nothing in the constitution that clearly pertains to abortion, much less a compromise rule.  I think it will be at least a decade before the most conservative states see the pain a strict ban causes and come up with compromise legislation, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

America has become more and more a third world country, with the large disparity between rich and poor, barely existent nationalized healthcare, poor infrastructure, large numbers of guns floating among the population, loss of faith in the election process and mobs attacking the capital.  This will just add to it.

{{ If Im not mistaken the right is attached to the 14th Amendment. In which case its a right protected at the federal not state level. Giving it to the states to decide would be like giving the states the decision on making fire arms completely illegal- which I am sure republicans would oppose and fight on the basis its a protected national right under the Constitution and states cant do that. }}

You mean 2nd amendment.

{{2nd is guns isnt it? I mean the 14th- the one abortion was tied to as a right protected under the constitution in the original Roe v Wade ruling.
To clarify my point was if the court ruled states could decide if guns were legal or not Republicans would go nuts saying its protected nationwide by the 2nd amendment.
Even though abortion was too under the 14th. }}

You're getting into a murky part of constitutional law.  The fifth and 14th amendments say that no-one can be deprived of liberty....without due process.  (5th pertains to the federal government; 14th extended this to state and local governments).  "liberty" was eventually interpreted to include privacy, and restrictions on abortion were seen as a matter of privacy.  But agreeing that governments also had a responsibility to protect children, the freedom of abortion was declared not absolute, and was first limited the first trimester, then redefined in terms of fetal viability.

You can see how much of a stretch this all is.  Nobody can shake the 5th and 14th and anybody's face and say "see! abortion is a constitutional right!"  It's simply not obvious and has always been controversial. It really demands congressional legislation, but that's pulling back from calling it a right.  There is no easy road ahead.

Haha, what a great week.

Turns out that Angela Davis is directly descended from the first people to go over on the Mayflower. You know, the people who founded one of the first European colonies. She was not chuffed. irony is some weird shit.

{{Really America, where is the end point when it comes to guns? At what point is it clear to Americans that enough is enough?
163 mass shootings (in which 4 or more poeple are killed excluding the shooter) in 15 weeks. 1.5 average per day. Often your children being murdered. In their schools.

I am coming to the conclusion its as simple as Amercians simply dont care or love their own children, not at least as much as they love and care about their right to have lethal weaponry everywhere and farcical safety checks.

You only have to look at other nations to see this is not normal, not even close. And in other nations when such things happened, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Norway the immediate response was to tighten legislation, close loop holes, find ways to try to police the legal ownership of guns better. Once was all it took. 1.
You're on 163 America just this year and what is proposed? Arming teachers! America, thats not even sane. The fact that is even proposed as a serious solution, the fortification and arming of schools, shows just how far down the rabbit hole on this your whole reality is, its topsy turvy and you think its normal. If the US were a person it would be diagnosed insane.

So no when I see, as there was yet again today in Alabama, a 16 year olds birthday party turned into a carnage filled war zone, I just shrug and move on. Why care about American kids getting shot up all the time when Americans dont care about their kids getting shot up all the time?

Not to worry though, I'm sure there will be plenty praying going on, thats bound to fix it. }}

Amen

Talking of an utter batshit crazy society. Armed TRAs surround a 'Drag Brunch' for children.

{{ I think if America was more focused on saving its own childrens lives from mass shootings, and less having a fit over some folk in drag it might be better. I know which I think is more serious.}}

Its all part of a morally degenerate society. Exposing children to adult entertainers is a slippery slope and we are getting all this garbage from the US.

At some point in time the number of guns floating about in America became so large that it was no longer feasible to regulate them in a way that is normal in the rest of the world.  People want to defend themselves without bringing a knife to a gun fight.

I would argue that even having a gun makes no difference in 90% of cases because those who mean you harm will pull them out when you are alone, and will already have them trained on you before you can get yours out.  Private property is a little different, but to prevent shooting a neighbor kid in the dark most people will declare their intentions before shooting, making themselves a target against an armed burgler.

70% of the country wants to ban assault weapons.  But the National Rifle Association (who since the 1970's has ONLY been focussed on promoting gun manufacturers) has nearly the entire republican congress in their pocket via massive campaign donations.  So the will of the people is subverted.

Much of the violence in America not due to lone shooters comes from Mexican drug cartels.  Where do they get their guns?  Not from Mexico, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.  ALL their guns come from the good ole USA.  It's easier to smuggle goods out than in, so supply is not a problem.   We supply both the demand for drugs and the guns to protect the cartel's turf, then turn around and try to blame the problem on Mexico. We don't have European style treatment programs that slows down the problem because we don't have European style universal health care.  Our drug problem, from addiction to violence begins and ends at home, but our libertarian tendencies means it will never be fixed.  God Bless the USA.

Antifa protecting drag shows for children? Not even worth being on the radar compared to other issues.

{{ I dont think you can pass the blame off that way Halfy, the NRA lobby and fund, the Republicans take the cash and do as the NRA want, but they can only do that if the people empower them by electing them to office to carry it out. For as long as a majority of Americans vote for gun advocates and those in the pay of the NRA at all levels of government, you get what you deserve, your children exposed to random murder in places they should be safe and happy. Americans chose this through the ballot, not the NRA, not your politicans even, you, the American people. You elect those who perpetuate this horrific approach.


Though one thing that has always pzzled me, this argument of the need to defend yourself. From what? You live in a modern democratic society, the rest of us in modern democracries dont go through our daily lives feeling constantly under threat to the point where we feel the need to carry weaponry just to go out, or even to stay in our own homes. What need for defense? Ive never had a gun in my life, I've never even felt the need to carry a knife or so much a sheavy stick, Ive never been mugged, never been attacked in my own home. Its not that it cant happpen, but the chances are so slim that there is no practical need or fear driving a feeling of needing to defend myself. Nor should there be in a modern civilised society. Ive never understood what it is Americans think they are arming themselves against or why there is a need to.}}

Its all part of a morally degenerate society. Exposing children to adult entertainers is a slippery slope and we are getting all this garbage from the US. - Figg

{{ How on earth is drag morally degenerate? We've had drag as entertianment in the UK for as long as we've had entertainment. You and I Figg grew up as kids in a UK where drag acts were amongst the most popular entertainment on TV; Danny La Rue, Hinge and Brackett, Les dawson, Stanley Baxter, Barry Humphries, Kenny Everett, Paul O Grady, the list goes on and on, and back in time, through vaudville, theatre, everything right back to pagan ceremonies with their man/woman lead played by the always at the time male leader of the community, dressed as a woman.
And the stuff we grew up with Figg werent on tv after the 9pm watershed for adults, they were on mainstream, often Saturday night after Who in fact. Family entertainment.
You and I were exposed to what you now call 'adult' entertainers all the time in our childhood. I did a school panto in drag, we dressed children up in drag and put them on stage for entertainment, and no one had an issue, it was a threat to no one, in fact that particular panto was so popular with parents we had to do extra nights to get everyone in who wanted to see it. No one protested, no one claimed moral outrage. And quite right too, there was none to claim.

What we have imported from the US Figg is not 'drag' as family entertainment, it was part of our culture long before there was an America, no what we have imported of late is fear of drag, fear of difference and using drag and trans people as a weapon in a culture war. Thats the real crime and real shame here. }}

The reason you feel less afraid of violent crime, Petty, is partly because you don't have so many guns floating around. But in my mind gun owners here also multiply the risk in their heads, then compound it by ensuring even more guns are available to protect them from the very guns they are afraid of!

We also have more crime here in large part due to a drug problem we are structurally incapable of fixing.