Tuesday Reads: The Truth is Out There
Posted: January 5, 2016 Filed under: Barack Obama, morning reads, U.S. Politics 36 Comments
Good Morning!!
President Obama has announced executive actions he will take in an effort to “reduce gun violence.” The previous link will take you to the White House website where you can read the details. The goals are to increase the efficiency of background checks, encourage effective enforcement of gun laws, invest in mental health treatment and facilitate reporting of people who are prohibited from having guns, encourage the use of gun safety technology as well as funding research on “improving gun safety.”
The Boston Globe reports: Obama moves to require background checks for more gun sales.
The president approved a series of long-awaited executive steps aimed at curbing gun violence despite opposition in Congress to new gun laws.
The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will issue updated guidance that says the government can consider someone a gun dealer regardless of where the guns are sold. The guidance aims to narrow the loophole that exempts weapons sold at gun shows, online, and other informal settings from required background checks. Under the previous rules, only federally licensed gun dealers must conduct checks on buyers.
The White House said the FBI will hire 230 more examiners to process background checks. It is an attempt to speed up the process so buyers don’t neglect the requirement….
‘‘This is not going to solve every violent crime in this country,’’ Obama said, tempering expectations for gun control advocates calling for far-reaching executive action. ‘‘It’s not going to prevent every mass shooting; it’s not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal. It will potentially save lives and spare families the pain of these extraordinary losses.’
Illustration of Flying Saucer over London
No it won’t, because what we really need to do is get guns off the streets and ban assault rifles completely. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. Of course the gun nuts are all rushing to the stores to buy more guns before the new regulations take effect. WaPo:
New federal data shows 2015 was a record-smashing year for the American firearms industry, with gun sales appearing to hit the highest level on record. Background checks for gun purchases and permits jumped 10 percent last year to 23.1 million, the largest number since the federal background check system began operating in 1998.
Black Friday 2015 was the single biggest gun-purchasing day ever, with more than 185,000 checks processed, according to background check figures from the FBI. December saw the highest number of background checks processed in any month. The last five weeks of the year all ranked among the 10 biggest weeks ever for firearm background checks.
The year-end surge happened partly in response to the mass shooting in San Bernardino, followed by calls by President Obama for more restrictions on gun sales. On Monday, Obama unveiled a package of executive actions that seek to curb gun violence, including conducting more background checks.
This matches a pattern we’ve seen plenty of times in the past: tragedy, followed by calls for gun control, followed by surging firearm sales. Interest in concealed carry permits has generally followed a similar pattern.
Speaking of gun nuts, the wacko hillbillies are still camped out in Oregon. Here’s the latest from Oregonlive.com: Oregon militants: What you need to know Tuesday morning.
1. Dave Ward, sheriff of Harney County, where the militants have set up shop,asked them to go home.
“You said you were here to help the citizens of Harney County,” Ward said in a message aimed at the occupiers. “That help ended when a peaceful protest became an armed and unlawful protest.”
2. There is not likely to be an aggressive showdown between federal law enforcement agents and the militants. Experts say federal officials have learned from sieges at Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. They expect federal officialswill take a wait-them-out approach.
3. Meanwhile, the two ranchers whose arson case prompted all of this, Dwight Hammond Jr. 73, and Steven Hammond, 46, quietly surrendered at a Southern California federal prison and their attorneys announced that both men will see a presidential pardon.
And there’s this from Mother Jones: How the Leader of the Oregon Armed Protest Benefited From a Federal Loan Program.
Ammon Bundy runs a Phoenix-based company called Valet Fleet Services LLC, which specializes in repairing and maintaining fleets of semitrucks throughout Arizona. On April 15, 2010—Tax Day, as it happens—Bundy’s business borrowed $530,000 through a Small Business Administration loan guarantee program. The available public record does not indicate what the loan was used for or whether it was repaid. The SBA website notes that this loan guarantee was issued under a program “to aid small businesses which are unable to obtain financing in the private credit marketplace.” The government estimated that this subsidy could cost taxpayers $22,419. Bundy did not respond to an email request for comment about the SBA loan.
Read more at the link.
Esquire reports on survey research they did with NBC News. The article is titled “American Rage.” You can peruse the findings at the link, but I found this notable about women:
When we take a close look at our respondents by gender, women report a greater rise in anger than men over the past year. (See question two.) One possible explanation: Although they share many of the same frustrations with respect to dashed expectations, they are more likely than men to be angry about the treatment of others. (See question 14.) That perception of unfairness has a way of rubbing people the wrong way.
Maybe, just maybe, women are angry about the way so many states are treating women like breeders with no individual rights? Nahhhhh . . . although the survey did find that 48% of women are angry about “the way they are treated. (The question of specifically why individual women are so angry doesn’t even seem to have been asked.)
Check it out at Esquire.
I suppose the Berniebots will beat up on Hillary for this. She talked about UFOs recently in response to a question. At least CNN understood she was speaking tongue in cheek: Hillary Clinton (jokingly) pledges UFO probe.
During a meeting with The Conway Daily Sun, Hillary Clinton jokingly pledged to look into UFO’s, an article from the New Hampshire paper says.
“Yes, I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” Clinton said, tongue-in-cheek, in response to a question from reporter Daymond Steer on UFOs.
This was far from the first time someone in the former secretary of state’s orbit addressed the topic of intelligent life on other planets.
Former President Bill Clinton spoke about the topic at length in a 2007 interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. At the time, the former president said that he had reviewed government information on Roswell and Area 51, locations at the heart of some alien conspiracies. He claimed at the time that he had seen no evidence of visitors to Earth from another planet.
“If we were visited someday, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Bill Clinton said. “I just hope that it’s not like ‘Independence Day.'”
Steer wrote that when he asked the Democratic front-runner about her husband’s comments, she claimed that aliens may have already visited our planet.
“We don’t know for sure,” Clinton said.
And there’s this from Mother Jones:
Clinton’s comments are among the rare public statements she’s made on UFOs and possible government cover-ups—a familiar subject for both Hillary and Bill Clinton. AsMother Joneshas reported, the couple’sinterest in extraterrestrial activityreaches as far back as the 1990s, when Laurence Rockefeller began lobbying the Clinton administration for the release of government documents relating to UFOs—documents that many say reveal the extent of government research into the phenomena.
Additionally, Clinton’s current campaign chairman, John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and anX-Filesfan, has long expressed interest in the topic.
But these statements are Clinton’s first remarks on the subject during this campaign. They will likely strengthen her support among voters who happen to be UFO enthusiasts and are not supporting any extraterrestrial candidates in the Republican field.
Have you heard? Donald Trump is “one of the great advocates for women” and he “100 percent believes in equality of gender.” That’s according Trump’s daughter Ivanka who appears on the cover of the February issue of Town and Country Magazine.
So that settles that then.
Finally, Mitt Romney emerges from the shadows again to dump on Jeb Bush. From the WaPo:
“A Bush-versus-Clinton head-to-head would be too easy for the Democrats,”he told my colleagues Dan Balz and Philip Rucker during an interview last week in Boston fora broader storyabout the political events of 2015.
The 2012 GOP nominee recalled thinking, “I like Jeb a lot, I think he’d be a great president, but felt he was unfairly butseverely burdened by the W. years— and when I say the W. years, it’s not only what happened to the economy, but the tragedy in Iraq.”
Mitt says he expressed this point to Bush’s face during a private sit-down in Utah last Jan. 22.“Jeb, to be very honest, I think it’s very hard for you to post up against Hillary Clinton and to separate yourself from the difficulty of the W. years and compare them with the Clinton years,” Romney recalls telling the former Florida governor when they met at his house in a Salt Lake City suburb. Romney says Bush responded by saying “he was going to make his campaign about the future, not about the past.”
“I didn’t say anything at that point,” Romney recalled. “But as he left, I said to myself,‘Gosh, in my opinion, it’s not going to be as easy to make that separation as I think he gives the impression it will be.’One of the few things I predicted that turned out to be true.”
Gee Golly Gosh. Good one, Mitt.
What stories are you following today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Now I’m going back to bed and pull the covers over my head for awhile. I’m freezing! It was 9 degrees here last night and I don’t think it has warmed up very much.
Have a nice Tuesday, everyone!
Last night around dinner time it was 4 degrees, but it ‘warmed’ up during the night 12 when I got up! 😎
Thanks BB, stay warm.
Hope you are back under covers and warm as toast BB – thanks for this post. I watched Obama’s announcement with high hopes even knowing the inevitable push back from the right. It should be used by Democrats as proof positive the Rethugs are nothing more than parisites like ticks – blood thristy($$$) vampires. One thing I thought would be addressed was banning assault weapons. Obama is a moving speaker in my Opinion. Commenting on iPad that has it’s own thoughts – I hate auto correct. Stay warm and safe Skydancers!
Love the UFO pix! Every one is saying that this was the speech/presser that history will remember! Going out the night to hang with some one special (JJ will die because he’s discovered the Divine) and watch friend pound ivories. Just need to relax with a glass of wine and absurdness.
Have fun! I’m glad you didn’t mind the silly pictures. To be honest, I loved what Hillary said, especially when she said she would take a committee out to investigate Area 51.
Yes. She’s letting her sense of humor show this time out!
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a40693/american-rage-nbc-survey/
Interesting survey and analysis on the white rage out there.
Ha ha. It’s in my post 3rd story. They don’t get why women are angry, IMO.
Well rats! Sorry! Bumped into it before I got through all your links. Was trying to read up on the prez’s EA.
No biggie.
And yup.
I’m sick from all this gun news. Supposedly adult people standing for their rights to buy tons of guns so that 2 year olds can shoot their 3 year old siblings. Or is it 3 year olds that shoot their 2 year old siblings? Or the 5 year old who shoots himself?
Women are angry because despite being in the majority we wield little to no power. Men are still in control of every branch of government, every major corporation and nearly every aspect of society. We get to work, take care of the house, the laundry, have the kids and take care of the kids, the pets, the chores, pay the bills, shop for the groceries and cook the meals, at 3/4 of what men make with 1/10 of the appreciation. We aren’t even allowed dominion over our own bodies without a bunch of religious zealnuts telling us if we don’t believe as they believe we’re destined to hell. So, we’re angry? What else is new????
Exactly!
Ditto
Women are angry because we are never the focus of conversation, it’s mainly about all the men and football, and shop, and all that shit, that it’s time we talked about our issues.
Oh, Fannie, we are often the focus of conversation, telling everyone they can about how women need to behave, what we can and can’t do or say. My take on it all is: when they can do all we do (including conceiving and birthing babies) then they have the right to voice their opinions until then they should just STOP.
Now that is the real facts Joanelle
Agreed.
UFO’s? Come on, of course there’s life of some sort on other planets. If they’re smart enough to travel light years to visit us, they likely see us as we see snails. We’re the 3rd rock from the Sun, just another place to sight see on their way to somewhere really interesting. If there’s a hidden truth concerning ET, I’m not sure this civilization, built on religious myth that holds up earth as the only planet capable of civilization in the Universe, can handle the fact that we’re not alone and that human beings are on a par with, pets, livestock and wildlife. I personally lean toward the point of view that pets, livestock and wildlife are a step up. 🙂
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-gops-primary-rules-might-doom-carson-and-cruz/?ex_cid=538twitter
That’s what we were talking about, going to be brokered convention, and the republican party takes over. Move over Rover cause they are taking over.
The terrorists in Oregon are already ready to wimp out.
‘I Need to Get Home’: Oregon Occupiers Hint at Exit Plan.
The government is turning off the grid, and believe me they will freeze their balls off. The government should not allow the news people in there. Let them suffer, I don’t want to see it, just do it.
They should have turned the power off the day they took over the facility. Next they should cut off all access to food, water or any of the necessities. It’s going to get really ugly UP IN THERE and fast. No place to pee or poop that is flushable, with no heat and no food will get old quick.
They will have lots of sage brush to burn, so they better have lots of matches. Of course, that might lead to more arson. They didn’t think this through very well at all, well, they came riding in screaming religious scripture. That speaks for itself, bunch of paranoia Mormons.
They have everything they need there without utilities, except probably communications. A well might not work without pizo-electricity, bu they have snow melt and lake water. There are a few trees to cut for heat, though they may be too green. Septic systems will work with melted snow, and there is always the bushes. Maybe they don”t know survival skills, but when I saw a reputed list of their supplies, I thought they were in pretty good shape, if they added fatty fowls, grubs, carp, other fish, lots of cattail roots, shoots and pollen for grain. It looks too cold yet, but that stuff can start blooming Dec. If they make to Feb. There is lots of watercress in the stream up there with spring, wild violets, etc. The Paiutes did fine there. They just have to decide whether they will further damage Federal property, cause their feeding off the land will.
But they don’t believe in “federal property”, so i don’t think that further damaging it would even be a consideration for them.
Yes, I agree, but their actions say they know that the consequences will increase with damage. They started out saying they weren’t going to harm the facility. Then they burned refuge signs. (To keep warm, it was reported.) They know that each action is a statement. have you seen this reaction? It’s only half tongue in cheek: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/01/05/40-million-badss-birders-just-declared-war-on-oregon-terrorists/
They know that we care about that environment. That’s why it’s really a hostage situation.
From what I can tell, the problem is they are wimps. They have already had to beg people to bring them food.
You nailed it. The problem is working their asses off to survive. They better not be killing our deer. They didn’t think to get fishing/hunting license from Oregon. And Oregon says it’s illegal to hunt with lead shot, bet they don’t have steel shots. There is all kinds of things they are doing illegal.
Lumosity to Pay $2 Million to Settle FTC Deceptive Advertising Charges for Its “Brain Training” Program. Company Claimed Program Would Sharpen Performance in Everyday Life and Protect Against Cognitive Decline.
So Obama’s executive order promises more investment in mental health – yet i don’t hear the celebratory fireworks from the NRA.
They are too busy writing fat checks to the GOP.