Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Lindbergh baby kidnapped; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed caught in Pakistan; Bobby Sands begins hunger strike; JFK creates Peace Corps; Ron Howard born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.
It’s been my great misfortune to watch the parade of liars and traitors at Trump’s “Gun Control” summit of which the basic message has been- “Gun Free Zones are bad and dangerous. Everyone should have a gun at all times. The only people who shoot others are by definition crazy so no person we can define as crazy (like for instance thinking something is seriously wrong with this transparently sad farce we call government) should have a gun, except Neo Nazis and Racist Militiapeople because they are totally rational and would never harm a fly!”
Were I your Representative and invited to this meeting (which of course I wouldn’t be because I’m a troublemaker) I would have declined because it was such an obviously bad and pointless idea from the start.
Had I been dragged by force or made a terrible navigation error finding the bathroom I would have stood up and walked out after moments.
What the hell were you doing Feinstein, drenched in the blood of Moscone and Milk? Why did you lend this any legitimacy at all?
I hope you get your ass kicked by de León. You’re no better than a Republican, not a Democrat at all.
On the 9th I pointed out the inherent contradictions of the Tory position on Brexit and predicted that it would soon end with a breach of either Paragraph 50 of the coalition accord between the Conservatives and the Democratic Unionist Party or the Good Friday agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Well, I didn’t quite expect it this soon.
Monday Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, gave a speech saying that a Labour government would remain in the EU Customs Union.
Mr Corbyn used a keynote speech on Brexit to clarify his party’s position and put clear water between Labour and the Conservatives on the issue of the customs union, saying his party would seek to maintain existing terms by negotiating a new deal with the EU.
Speaking at the National Transport Design Centre in Coventry, Mr Corbyn said: “We have long argued that a customs union is a viable option for the final deal.
“So Labour would seek to negotiate a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union to ensure that there are no tariffs with Europe and to help avoid any need for a hard border in Northern Ireland.”
…
Mr Corbyn said a customs union with the EU would only work for the UK if it is given a seat at the table when new deals are negotiated.
Any attempt by Brussels to force the UK to accept deals negotiated by full EU members would see Britain end up “as mere rule takers”, he warned.
In this case, Labour could ditch attempts to negotiate a new union and instead follow the Conservatives in ruling out any customs union with the EU after Brexit – a move that would likely see tariffs imposed on goods and lead to a hard border in Northern Ireland.
Mr Corbyn said: “We are clear that the option of a new UK customs union with the EU would need to ensure the UK has a say in future trade deals.
“A new customs arrangement would depend on Britain being able to negotiate agreement of new trade deals in our national interest.
“Labour would not countenance a deal that left Britain as a passive recipient of rules decided elsewhere by others. That would mean ending up as mere rule takers.”
Accepting that staying in a customs union would prevent the UK forging independent trade deals with other countries, Mr Corbyn said Labour did not believe “that deals with the US or China would be likely to compensate for a significant loss of trade with our trading neighbours in the EU” – a fact he said was confirmed by the Government’s own impact assessments.
As I’ve pointed out before there is considerable merit in the Left criticism that the European Union and in particular the EuroZone single market is an inherently Neo Liberal and anti-Democratic institution.
Unfortunately, as in the U.S., it appears a lot of the working class resentment against it stems from pure racism and the sentiment (somewhat justified) that free movement of Labor increases unemployment and drives down wages by removing Supply side constraints from the Market.
To put it in domestic terms, if I can get an indentured servant to be my Nanny or Burger Flipper for pennies a day what is my incentive to provide a College Student with a living wage?
So that’s bad ok, and there are ways to mitigate against it without discriminating like minimum wage laws, strictly enforced for all.
In Britain a majority (sorry, that’s the way it is) has decided for whatever reason the solution is to eliminate free movement of Labor up with which the EU will not put (told you they were anti-Democratic Neo Libs).
Corbyn has always been an EU squish on institutional grounds. He views them as captured by Global Mega Corporations and Billionaires standing in the way of socialist reform, like re-nationalizing Public Utilities (think Railroads and Power Companies). There are others in Labour that think an independent Britain is more vulnerable to regulatory capture (think Wisconsin or Indiana).
For the EU’s part they can’t quite see what all the fuss is about. Global Mega Corporations and Billionaires forming Trans-National alliances, rigging regulations to favor them over smaller rivals, shopping Labor to the lowest priced source until the Unions scream? That’s the status quo. They pay for it in Bread and Circuses (Welfare State), been that way since the Romans.
One sharp divide is food. They are picky eaters and one of the grand designs of the Brexiteers is to forge alternative trading relations with the United States. One concession we’re pretty sure to insist on is unrestricted trade in agricultural products (which is frankly not entirely to our benefit, you’ll remember that Mad Cow Disease was waaay more prevalent in Europe and I don’t know that there’s a great demand for Tripe and Haggis). From the European side they’ll be forced to accept Monsanto poisoned GMOs and Chlorinated Chicken.
What? You didn’t know about Chlorinated Chicken? U.S. Chicken are packed together in filthy coops and must be fed incredible amounts of antibiotics to simply survive until they are… uh… harvested. Given that they’re literally plucked out of a pile of shit, after we kill them (humanely) we rinse them in boiling water to defeather them and dip them in a puddle of bleach to kill off the Salmonella.
It’s not if, it’s whether we get it all. Enjoy your KFC.
I’m not Sinclair Lewis so we’ll take the unsanitary practices of Agri-Business as a given and move on.
Wait ek. What do you mean the EU will be forced to accept Chlorinated Chicken?
Without enforcing the regulations side of the current Customs arrangement, if Paragraph 50 (mostly a problem for the Tories because of their coalition agreement with the DUP) guaranteeing there will be no borders between Northern Ireland and Britain and the Good Friday accords with Ireland (an EU member) guaranteeing there will be no borders between Ireland and Northern Ireland there’s nothing at all to prevent Tyson and Perdue from shipping their shit covered Chlorinated Chickens to England, sending them to Ireland…
And from there Pinky, we take over the World.
Ok. So May and the Tories get the boot, no more Paragraph 50.
Yes but. Even if you implement a sea barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK there’s nothing to prevent shipping direct to Ulster, from there to Ireland, and we still bury the World in Chicken Shit.
What Corbyn did was hardly an act of courage, it was a recognition of fact. Theresa May continues to be delusional. Time’s up.
Inside the EU, both Ireland and Northern Ireland are part of the single market and customs union so share the same regulations and standards, allowing a soft or invisible border between the two.
Britain’s exit from the EU – taking Northern Ireland with it – risks a return to a hard or policed border. The only way to avoid this post-Brexit is for regulations on both sides to remain more or less the same in key areas including food, animal welfare, medicines and product safety.
Early drafts of the agreement Britain hoped to get signed off on Monday said there would be “no divergence” from EU rules that “support north-south cooperation”, later changed to “continued alignment” in a formulation that appeared to allow for subtle divergences.
But it raised new questions about who would oversee it and how disputes might be resolved. It was also clearly still a step too far for the DUP.
The British government will be presented with a 200-page Brexit treaty that consists of more than 160 legal articles. Access to the document is tightly controlled. Diplomats are only allowed to view the draft in a reading room and must leave their phones at the door.
The European commission’s leadership is expected to sign off the draft on Wednesday, before handing it to national diplomats of the EU’s remaining 27 member states who aim to revise the draft by the end of March. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, wants to agree a final version with the UK by October 2018.
The Brexit treaty will cover all aspects of the UK’s divorce and transition out of the EU – but is not a trade deal. Negotiators expect to agree a non-binding outline of key points on trade, allowing formal talks to begin once the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.
The EU and UK have agreed three options to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The first option states that a hard border could be avoided “through the overall EU-UK relationship”, meaning that the UK would remain embedded in EU structures.
EU officials think this is impossible as Theresa May has ruled out keeping the UK in the customs union and single market. In a move to outflank the government, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Monday he wanted “a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union”. But a customs union is not enough to solve the Irish question. EU officials think Northern Ireland needs to be aligned in other areas, such as animal, medicine and food standards, to prevent the Irish border becoming a back door for smugglers.
The second option calls on the UK to “propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland”. This remains the British government’s preferred option and the government suggested solving the issue through technology or a unique customs arrangement that would make the UK responsible for customs checks on the EU border.
But the EU has dismissed these ideas as “magical thinking” and officials are deeply sceptical that the UK has any “specific solutions” that will be acceptable to the EU. “The issue has been up in the air since 15 December and we have not heard anything,” said the senior official.
The final option, known in Brussels as the backstop, states that “in the absence of agreed solutions”, the UK “will maintain full alignment” with the single market and customs union rules that support the Good Friday agreement and all-island economy.
Turning this promise into legal text is likely to re-open divisions between May and the Democratic Unionist party propping up her government. In December, the DUP insisted on inserting text in the EU agreement stating that there would be no new regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Brussels sees this as a promise by London to the DUP that does not bind the EU.
The Irish government has been pressing the EU to move quickly and not leave the border question to be settled at the final hour. So far, the rest of the EU has supported this approach. “There is no appetite among the EU27 to see the ball kicked into the long grass,” one senior diplomat said. “Things have to move; that is clear. Nobody wants a groundhog day moment.”
Corbyn might have some room to maneuver. In the past the EU has indicated that should the UK Government change from Tory to Labour (merely ditching May won’t do) they could grant some organizational time for new policies to be developed. Also Labour voters, while extremely concerned about wages, are not at all as pro-Brexit as Tories are, nor nearly as racist.
Boris Johnson has blamed the growing political row over the Irish border on those who wish to frustrate the UK’s departure from the EU.
In remarks that highlighted the division between the British government and EU negotiators, who will publish a document on Wednesday that is expected to spell out that their default solution to the Irish border issue is for Northern Ireland to remain in the customs union, Johnson insisted that other solutions to the problem could be found.
Speaking to reporters after returning from a jog in the snow on Wednesday morning, the foreign secretary said: “What is going on at the moment is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try to keep the UK in the customs union, effectively the single market, so we cannot really leave the EU, that is what is going on.”
…
On Tuesday night, a letter from Johnson to the prime minister emerged that was seen as hinting that the UK could countenance a hard border in Ireland and would simply be focused on keeping any accompanying regulation or infrastructure as light as possible.
Meanwhile, government sources said Theresa May would not sign up to “anything that threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK”, meaning there could be no difference in rules governing Northern Ireland and mainland UK and therefore no alignment between Northern Ireland and the EU.
The Democratic Unionist party also set out a firm position ahead of the publication of the draft withdrawal treaty, signalling that it would torpedo any deal to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union.
“It wouldn’t just weaken us constitutionally, it would weaken us economically, because it would cut us off from our main market,” he told RTÉ radio on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the senior DUP member Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: “If the EU or Dublin believes the UK government will be signing up to a border in the Irish Sea, they are deluded.”
A showdown in Parliament is likely to see many pro-Business Conservative MPs defect. Corbyn can likely hold most if not all of the Parliamentary Labour Party Quislings. Though May will try it’s hard to see how she can not call this a vote of confidence in her government, which will bring on new elections for the fourth time in three years (Brexit, Labour, General, next General).
The prospect of dismantling the Neo Liberal Thatcher/Blair/Cameron/May Austerity Program should be enough to assuage disaffected Labour. Nothing will move the Tory’s bigoted base.
“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself. There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress.”
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Scientists discover DNA’s double-helix structure; The Branch Davidian standoff begins in Waco, Texas; Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme assassinated; U2 releases its ‘War’ album.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
The White House has an incredible list of incompetent advisors, cabinet members and agency heads. Most are either close family members, family friends or people who worked closely in the Trump organization. Some others are business associates, as well as, supporters and donors from the campaign. It is frightening to realize how unqualified most of these people are. Donald Trump is now privately pushing his personal pilot to head the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and manage its $16 billion budget. Yes, the man who flew him around the country in his private 757. That is that is John Duncan’s sole qualification. As Axios’ Jonathan Swan puts it this is like a “Seinfeld” episode
One industry insider equated this to the Seinfeld episode when Cosmo Kramer used his golf caddy as a jury consultant. A senior administration official told me that comparison is completely unfair. The source confirmed Trump recommended Dunkin and that he’s sat for an interview for the post. That source said he was impressive.
“He’s on the list because he’s the president’s pilot, but if he gets the job it won’t be because he’s the president’s pilot,” the source said.
In response to my questions for this story, another administration source stressed that while no decision has been made, Dunkin has the appropriate experience to get the job.
“John Dunkin isn’t just a pilot,” the administration official told me. “He’s managed airline and corporate flight departments, certified airlines from start-up under FAA regulations, and oversaw the Trump presidential campaign’s air fleet, which included managing all aviation transportation for travel to 203 cities in 43 states over the course of 21 months.”
A month prior, Maddow revealed, The Guardian reported that the charter company that hired the pilot in the rough October La Guardia landing had previously employed the leader of a Floridian pro-Trump law enforcement group to fly Pence. That man, the Guardian reported, was at the time “facing violent felony charges” that didn’t come up when they vetted him to fly the then-governor of Indiana.
Rachel goes on to enumerate the all the incompetents in Trump’s circle:
“Donald Trump’s golf caddy is the White House director of social media now,” the hosted said, referencing aide Dan Scavino. She listed off several others as well: Trump’s “long time bodyguard” Keith Schiller who was, until September, head of Oval Office operations; Eric Trump’s wedding planner Lynne Patton, who was tapped to lead a HUD office in the Southeast; and a former Trump Tower staffer’s husband, who got a job with the EPA.
If you can remember waaay back to Valentine’s Day you’ll recall I mumbled something about meeting with our corporate sponsors.
Well, what that meant is that we had “partnerships” with them. They’d kick in some trivial amount of money from their Promotional/Advertising budget to the National Organization and slap together a package of products that looked like a good deal but usually wasn’t which we were supposed to pitch as a “membership benefit” to our people.
In the Nutmeg State we do scams, we don’t buy them.
We, like a lot of other Clubs, had a long term relationship with the NRA that revolved around promoting “Youth Gun Safety”. The concept was that since we were a local civic organization we could hook up with Schools and Churches and stuff and crack open a door for a trained NRA propagandist to come in and brainwash the kidlings that guns were cool and exciting and safe.
In a way it was/is (I have no idea if they still do this anymore) like having someone from R.J. Reynolds train children to smoke.
I suppose I’m a bad person for not getting all outraged but I had plenty of higher priority outrage (I was generally considered a troublemaker, because I was) and it wasn’t really a big deal in Connecticut. It was highly incentivized by the National Awards Program for Locals but most of ours didn’t give a rat’s ass about National Awards and the few that did mostly faked the paperwork without actually doing anything. There were a handful that actually thought it was a good idea for various reasons (there are excuses to make), I ignored it and let them do what they wanted to.
Republicans in Georgia have become entrenched in a ideological intraparty battle, debating over free market ideals and gun rights with Delta Airlines and the National Rifle Association in the middle.
It has come as Delta dropped a discount program for the NRA and seen their tax benefits in the state come into question. Republicans have been left to decide whether to back the long-standing conservative ideal of easing the tax burden on businesses or appearing stronger on gun rights. The debate has become inextricably linked to the state’s upcoming midterm elections.
Last weekend, Delta scrapped a program for NRA members that provided discounted flights to members who planned to travel to Atlanta for one of the gun group’s major conferences.
Delta attempted to paint the move as an apolitical one and an attempt to stay above the fray in the gun debate, which has been reignited after this month’s shooting at a high school in Florida.
…
But several Republicans said in response they would not back a provision in a larger tax bill that would give Delta a significant tax break — it would exempt from state sales taxes some jet fuel purchased at the Atlanta-Hartsfield Jackson Airport. Though the break would benefit several airlines, an estimated $40 million of the $50 million in savings would go to Atlanta-based Delta.
The Republican push reached a fever pitch when Lt. Gov. Chris Cagle, a candidate for governor in the upcoming GOP primary, said he would block a broader tax bill that included the measure.
“I’m tired of conservatives being kicked around on our values,” Cagle said Monday. “It’s time we stand up and fight and show corporations that conservative values are important, not just to Georgia but to the entire nation.”
…
On the other side of the argument is the more establishment-minded GOP’s desire for lower taxes on businesses, particularly the state’s largest employer.
While current Gov. Nathan Deal has so far been mum on the fight, he previously touted the jet fuel exemption as a way to keep the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport competitive and drive business growth for airlines there.
“Georgia and our businesses are global competitors; we need direct air travel to provide our companies with immediate access worldwide,” Deal said in a statement on February 6. “By removing the sales tax on jet fuel, we can level the playing field for our airports and airlines to compete.”
According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Deal attempted to assuage the concerns of conservative Georgia Senate members on Monday, but was unsuccessful.
Even some Democrats blasted statements from Cagle and others, saying it shows Republicans prioritize the NRA over Georgia’s economy. Priyanka Mantha, a spokesperson for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, said it proved Cagle was “in the pocket of the gun lobby.”
“@CaseyCagle would sacrifice thousands of jobs, endanger our state’s economy, & stick a finger in the eye of a huge employer in our state just to satisfy his buddies at the NRA,” Mantha tweeted.
Ah, what would we do without the electric twit machine?
I was at another National Conference (We had like half a dozen a year because the State Organization is going to pay, isn’t it? Attendance is mandatory and I was an eligible Officer for a long time.) not the same one I talked about on the 14th, and the NRA brought in their traveling road show.
They set up a live, jive BB Gun Range at one end of the entrance to the main Conference Hall and you could just pick up a piece and crank off 10 or 20 rounds except, of course, the lines were enormous. What do you do while you’re standing around waiting? You hold your buddy’s place in line and send him off to pick up a drink or six. Even at the time I recall thinking- “This is GREAT! Two, Three Hundred Liquored Up and Sleep Deprived people shooting off Guns in a Hotel!”
Sorry, too busy watching to write. Congratulations to Team USA Curling and Lady’s Hockey and a lifetime achievement award to Lindsey Vonn.
Of course you realize what this means- March Madness and Formula One (oh, and Baseball).
Hey! I thought Republicans liked Supply Side.
High School Shooting- The Musical
Coming to a Disney Channel near you. Also Descendants 3 (no, I’m not kidding).
Speaking of Stanislavski (Commie)
But porn? Porn is dangerous, apparently. That’s right, sites like teeni xxx should be banned because they’re too dangerous. That and video games. And movies. And my dog, Shithead. Ok, I don’t need my dog. Did I mention the new phone books are here and the oil cans are defective?
We have at least 40 Million more Guns than People in the United States and have since 2013
We’re like New Zealand only it’s fire arms and not sheep.
So you absolutely don’t need anything except black powder single shot muskets. Just do it like they did during the Revolution and load up one for each person you intend to kill. Maybe a couple of spares for contingencies.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Soviet troops liberate concentration camps; Paris peace accords are signed; Astonauts die on Apollo one; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born; Composer Jerome Kern born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.
As I think I’ve made clear, I have never served in any branch of the armed services or in domestic law enforcement. I would have been a poor fit since I have a very low tolerance for idiocy and petty fascism.
I have been known, because I’m tremendously irresponsible, to take Richard’s ancient Red Ryder BB Gun (“You’ll put your eye out kid!”) and plink some at Dixie Cups and Paper Plates against a backstop of dirt and rocks and trees and water extending some 600 yards or more.
Irresponsible? There were rocks. The BB could have bounced off them back at me and put my eye out kid. I’m not exactly proud of it.
I have also, in more formal settings, fired a .22 with sufficient accuracy to achieve an NRA Pro Marksman Rating which is basically the participation award they give you for following the Range Safety Rules and not killing anybody while getting at least some of your shots on the paper (I ran out of Water electives at Summer Camp).
Now I happen to know something about guns, but it’s entirely academic and a result of my being a War Gamer and Historian. For instance an AR-15 is a rifle, not a gun, and it isn’t even a particularly good one unless you value lightness of weapon and ammunition over accuracy and range. But there are tons of studies that show most firefights take place at 400 yards or less and current tactical doctrine is to lay down a volume of suppressive firepower to allow your maneuver elements to achieve advantageous positions. You don’t have to hit them, you need to keep them pinned down by making it suicidally stupid to move.
See, I know stuff.
What I don’t imagine is that I’m some kind of Sergeant York (who by the way had a much better rifle than an AR-15) or that I could take out a Machine Gun nest with a Browning 1911. There’s a reason they give Medals of Honor to people like that, not the least of which is that they were shooting at him too.
Also we give a ton of very expensive training to soldiers.
The Army spends 10 weeks on Basic Training of recruits in order to begin to get them ready to be soldiers. They aren’t finished at 10 weeks, however. They spend another 14 to 16 weeks on Advanced Individual Training (AIT) of soldiers before the Army figures they’re ready to take up a position in an Infantry unit. That’s about 24 weeks of training — six months before the Army determines that a soldier is prepared to be issued an M-16 or an M-4 and take up those arms against enemy soldiers.
Army training on weapons is extensive. In Basic Training, a recruit will spend several days learning to handle a rifle safely. They learn to take it apart and reassemble it, how to clean the weapon and care for it so that it will shoot safely. All of this before a soldier even lays eyes on a bullet or a firing range. Then soldiers are taken to firing ranges and taught to fire an M-16 or an M-4 from several positions: prone, standing, kneeling, and seated with knees bent. Soldiers are then put through days of practice firing at targets from fixed positions before they are trained to fire their weapons while moving, either in a standing position or on the ground. Soldiers are taught how to safely drop from a standing position to a prone position carrying a loaded weapon without firing it accidentally. When this training is completed, soldiers are tested on marksmanship. All of this happens during Basic Training.
It’s not until they reach AIT that soldiers are taught to fire their weapons in situations replicating combat — that is, in situations that simulate facing an armed enemy, much as teachers would encounter if a shooter attacked a school. This training is difficult and dangerous. Before soldiers are issued live ammunition, they are put through drill after drill simulating combat. They are taught to move from position to position with their rifles in the company of other soldiers similarly armed. They go through this repetitive training because the first rule the Army wants soldiers to follow is not to shoot each other.
Training is continuous in the military, on firearms and everything else. It goes on 52 weeks a year. Trips out to the firing range for rifle practice can take place every two or three months. And at least once or twice a year in the Infantry, soldiers practice live-fire exercises.
After extensive training at fire and movement — imagine aiming a gun in a classroom of 25 or so students, or walking armed into a hallway crowded with panicked students — soldiers are issued live ammunition and put through live-fire exercises.
Truscott makes 2 other very important points one of which is that even after all that expensive training “mistakes are made”. Drill Instructors are not kidding when they say they’re allowed so many deaths per year. People die all the time.
The other is that we are talking about an armed force as large as our Army and Navy (that includes Marines) combined-
If you take the 3.2 million teachers we have in public schools alone, 20 percent is more than 600,000 teachers. We don’t even have 600,000 soldiers in the Infantry in our Army. We have only 480,000 rifle-carrying soldiers out there to defend us from foreign enemies. If you add in the 500,000 teachers in private schools, and 1.5 million on college faculties, because they’re in the nation’s “teaching force” too, that’s a total of 5.2 million people teaching students in this country every day. Trump wants to arm 20 percent of them. That’s over 1 million teachers he wants out there carrying loaded weapons in classrooms every day.
We have about 1.4 million soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines on active duty as of Jan. 31. So President Trump wants to arm a number of teachers nearly as large as the entire armed forces we have defending us from foreign armies. All of this to defend against the next flaming asshole who walks into a school or college carrying an AR-15 and starts shooting.
If that sounds insane… well, it is.
But Trump imagines himself an Alvin York. His Daddy who thought he was a weakling and a failure sent him to Military Academy for discipline. Of course when it came time to serve in the Big Muddy he didn’t even have the dignity to get himself posted to a National Guard unit that specialized in weapons only useful against a Soviet Nuclear Attack the way W did. Instead he paid off a Doctor to invent some mysterious disappearing Bone Spurs.
Donald Trump criticized the Florida sheriff’s deputies who reportedly failed to intervene during the deadly school shooting in Parkland, saying he would have “run in there” to help if he had been there.
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon,” Trump said during a White House meeting with U.S. governors to discuss school safety.
The president called the actions of several local law enforcement officers to the attack earlier this month as a national “disgrace,” labeling their job performance “disgusting.”
The president on Friday hammered Scot Peterson, the armed Broward County Sheriff’s deputy who failed to enter the building as a gunman opened fire on students and staffers, killing 17 and wounding several others.
“A security guard doesn’t know the children, doesn’t love the children,” Trump said during a news conference at the White House on Friday. “This man standing outside of the school the other day doesn’t love the children, probably doesn’t know the children.”
Trump suggested Peterson might have failed to act because he was a “coward,” and criticized him for his “poor job” during the attack. The president, who over the past week has pushed for teachers to be allowed to carry concealed weapons as a deterrent for potential shooters, cited the episode as further cause for schools to do away with gun-free zones.
I think it’s fair to say that while Donald John Trump knows nothing about military or police service he knows a good deal about cowardice.
It’s long been known that U.S. Citizens tend to grossly underestimate their wealth. Almost everyone considers themselves “Middle Class” or at most “Upper Middle Class”.
My sister has a job as a manager of a team that has 10 – 20 members and performs other management tasks like developing procedures and training programs that are utilized company wide across a pretty big corporation in addition to her supervisory duties. She puts in about 60 hours a week and makes about $50,000 a year.
This puts her at the median income of the United States, meaning that roughly 50% of people make what she makes or more and 50% of people make what she makes or less. She doesn’t lead what I would call a lavish lifestyle, she has a house and a car. Maybe she spends money on things I don’t know about but it seems to me that she lives from pay check to pay check. She buys clothes (for which women are vastly over charged for shoddy goods) when hers wear out and maybe once a month goes out to a lunch or dinner at what are termed “casual dining” spots like Applebees or Olive Garden with some friends. Dutch treat of course so the tab might be $50.
The average income in your bracket is also about $1.4 Million ($1,483,596 in 2015), but for the purposes of further discussion let’s assume that you’re at the lower end, a mere mid 6 figures.
You can hardly claim to be even “Upper” Middle Class, after all you make more than 99 out of a Hundred random people. You have a nice house, maybe two of them, and a nice car or 4. You can own a boat (not as expensive as you might think, they kill you with gas and Marina fees), $200 a night Hotel bills don’t faze you nor does the same amount for Greens Fees, a Cart, Lunch, and some Drinks at the Golf Club (not to mention $5 a pop for those 6 Balls you left in the middle of the pond at the 15th Hole, each one is two strokes you know). You need some $150 Lift Tickets for your Significant Other and 2.5 kidlings? Whip out the Visa.
Junior not doing well in Public School? Well $45,000 is a small enough bribe to make sure he gets bought and paid for grades and meets the right sorts, not bad influences and riff raff. Oh, sure there will be sacrifices, you might have to cancel the annual Romantic Retreat to Aruba, just you and the SO. Make sure Junior feels guilty about that so he has something to tell his Therapist and learns the value of a Dollar.
To me the amazing thing is the obliviousness of these people to the incredible lives of privilege they lead. “I don’t have a Lamborghini, I drive a Lexus. It’s just a boat not a yacht. It’s only a Cessna (again, gas and Hanger fees- they’re not as expensive as you think) not a Gulfstream. But she really loves that pony (Hay and Stable).”
“I’m just barely getting by. WHY DOESN’T ANYONE CARE ABOUT ME!”
Two things. At this level of the Upper Class you are exposed to people who really can have it all, indeed when you consider how staggeringly, astronomically wealthy they are in any rational way you’ll see they can hardly piss their money away fast enough. If you want a refresher course I recommend Brewster’s Millions with Richard Pryor and John Candy.
Secondly, this is the Donor Class. Is it any wonder our deeply corrupt Politicians and Institutions pander to them constantly?
Je prononce à regret cette fatale vérité… mais Louis doit mourir, parce qu’il faut que la patrie vive.
