Trump 7 - Cheeto in Charge

[Childless]

10 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I definitely feel this pain. It seems like after many states turned teachers into overpaid villains, they're now turning their weapons on federal employees on a national scale. In both cases, there aren't as many bad employees as the Tea Party wishes people to believe. Most federal employees (and teachers) are hard working individuals, who want to make a difference with their jobs, and who are willing to get paid less than private employees while they are working in order to have a more secure retirement that doesn't involve the crock that a 401K is, especially the ones that lower paid workers have.  Don't get me started on 401k's, especially for employees who aren't upper level management. 

 

Education has been doing this for about ten years, and the teacher shortages are starting to hit. Fewer students are studying education at the University level, which is going to mean scary times for those we know who have infants are small children. Unfortunately, these nitwits can't see any correlation  between what they've done to teachers and what they're trying to do to federal employees. 

I think they're idiots.  The private sector can't do everything, shouldn't do everything, and won't do everything.  We need government employees and I would think Americans would want skilled, hard working ones.  If they're going to be treated like shit though, they won't choose to work for the government.  And then what will we do?  Already, I know several people who had planned to make the military their career deciding to get out after their current tour is up out of concern that Trump will get us into some stupid ass war over nothing.  That coupled with his animosity toward government employees has changed their plans about serving their country.  What happens when people stop joining the military?  Sometimes I think Republican politicians don't have two brain cells among the lot of them.

[Howl]

As just one example, Texas privatized coordinating benefits to poor recipients, because *business is so much better at everything*.  It was a disaster; a complete unmitigated clusterf**k that sent millions of taxpayer funds down the drain and left recipients without their payments or access to benefits.  Meaning, those who did not receive their benefits couldn't pay rent or buy groceries/gas (if they even had access to a car) or go to the doctor.  The same with privatizing prisons or whatever else.  What business is super good at is sucking $$$ out of a situation and walking away from the wreckage with golden parachutes.  Privatizing profit while letting the state or feds assume the risk?  Good for business, bad for citizens. 

The vilification of federal and state workers and teachers is just an ugly lie.  State and federal workers and public school teachers in my family (including me) have been hard working and responsible to a fault. 

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, Childless said:

Ha!  You actually think she's going to move to D.C. after the school year?  Why would she?  She's finally free of her orange monster of a husband.  I wouldn't leave NYC either if I were her.

They'll have to pry her out of her penthouse. She's not moving to DC. She'll probably make a few appearances, but that's it.

 

Someone has sort of wised up: "Former CIA director James Woolsey quits Trump transition team". A couple of excerpts:

Quote

Former CIA director R. James Woolsey Jr., a veteran of four presidential administrations and one of the nation’s leading intelligence experts, resigned Thursday from President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team because of growing tensions over Trump’s vision for intelligence agencies.

Woolsey’s resignation as a Trump senior adviser comes amid frustrations over the incoming administration’s national security plans and Trump’s public comments undermining the intelligence community.

“Effective immediately, Ambassador Woolsey is no longer a Senior Advisor to President-Elect Trump or the Transition. He wishes the President-Elect and his Administration great success in their time in office,” Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Woolsey, said in a statement.

Woolsey suggested in a pair of cable television interviews Thursday evening that he was only an informal adviser to Trump, with duties that included speaking to the journalists about Trump and his national security policies.

Woolsey said on CNN that he did not want to “fly under false colors” any longer. “I’ve been an adviser and felt that I was making a contribution….. But I’m not really functioning as an adviser anymore. When I’m on the [television] screen, everybody announces that I’m a former CIA director and that I’m a Trump adviser and I’m really not anymore.”

 

Quote

The person close to Woolsey described him as having chafed at Trump’s loose style on Twitter. They described Woolsey as a “very principled” diplomat who takes care to communicate the right message with just the right words. “This is a guy [for whom] commas, periods, etc., all have special meaning,” this person said.

Woolsey joined the Trump campaign last September, issuing a statement commending Trump’s plans to grow and modernize the military.

“Mr. Trump understands the magnitude of the threats we face,” he said in the statement.

I hope more and more of the high profile people who have supported Agent Orange come to their senses and stop working for him.

[Howl]

I think a few people may be quickly coming to understand the visceral Trump: he will crush any entity that disagrees with him, or he feels has dissed him or stand in his way.  This could be a person, an agency like the CIA, or a country.  

It isn't a coincidence that his beef with the CIA is over Russia.  Paranoid me is wondering if Trump's financial ties to Russia and his plans to exploit those ties (!) are such that he would try to dismantle or neuter an agency that might thwart those plans.  Just another red flag in a sea of red flags. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Third lien on Trump hotel brings alleged unpaid bills to over $5 million"

Quote

Workers from AES Electrical apparently went all out to make sure Donald Trump could open his luxury hotel on the day he wanted.

In the frenzied final six weeks of work at the hotel, while Trump touted the project on the campaign trail, AES of Laurel, Md., claims it assigned 45 members of its staff to work 12-hour shifts for nearly 50 consecutive days to get the lights, electrical and fire systems prepared on time.

“We had people there well over 12 hours a day for weeks because they had a hard opening of Sept. 12 and you can’t open if the lights don’t work and the fire alarms don’t work and the fire marshal can’t inspect it,” said Tim Miller, executive vice president of AES. “There is a lot of work that went into that hotel, and it didn’t happen by accident.”

Trump got his wish: The hotel was ready enough that on Sept. 16 he held a campaign event there honoring veterans, which was carried live on national television. He touted the hotel as having been completed “under budget and ahead of schedule” and said that when it opened officially the following month it would be “one of the great hotels anywhere in the world.”

But around the same time, Miller said, the Trump Organization and its construction manager, Lendlease, stopped paying AES. Three days before Christmas, AES filed a mechanic’s lien with the D.C. government alleging that it was out almost $2.1 million. “Merry Christmas and a happy new year to us,” Miller said. 

The AES filing brings the total of allegedly unpaid bills on the hotel to more than $5 million. Washington-area plumbing firm Joseph J. Magnolia Inc. and Northern Virginia construction company, A&D Construction, are seeking $2.98 million and $79,700 respectively.

A representative for Lendlease has referred comment on liens to the Trump Organization. In an emailed statement, the Trump Organization did not address the specifics of the legal action.

“In developments of this scale and complexity the filing of nominal liens at the conclusion of construction is not uncommon as part of the close out process,” a representative for the company wrote. “In the case of Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C., the Trump Organization has invested over $200 million dollars into the redevelopment of the historic Old Post Office and is incredibly proud of what is now considered to be one the most iconic hotels anywhere in the country.”

Miller said he considered not discussing the issue publicly because he does not want to make a political issue out of it. AES had a $17 million contract with the Trumps, and all but the final $2 million had been paid, Miller said.

“The majority of that [final] work was done in the last 45 days or so before the hotel opened, and it required a tremendous amount of manpower and effort on our part to get that done because it was a crunch to get the hotel open,” he said.

Miller said he simply did not want the company, family-owned and founded 32 years ago, to have to eat the costs. The hotel’s total price tag was around $212 million. Trump claims he is worth $10 billion.

“We’re not in this for any sort of political reasons,” Miller said. “We have no ax to grind, political or otherwise. We’re a business. We have 700 employees that we pay every week. We have bills. We are effectively financing this work, and we don’t think it’s right. That’s really it.”

To quote the groper-in-chief: SAD.

And @Howl, I agree about the red flags. He is a giant red flag.

 

[Audrey2]

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Third lien on Trump hotel brings alleged unpaid bills to over $5 million"

To quote the groper-in-chief: SAD.

And @Howl, I agree about the red flags. He is a giant red flag.

 

I just wonder how many people who worked on this project voted for the Groper in Chief (as far as I'm concerned, it's not always as easy to control skin tone, but you can control where you put your hands). I also wonder how many employees who were either stiffed or whose companies went bankrupt because Trump refused to pay,  voted for Trump. 

[Childless]

2 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I just wonder how many people who worked on this project voted for the Groper in Chief (as far as I'm concerned, it's not always as easy to control skin tone, but you can control where you put your hands). I also wonder how many employees who were either stiffed or whose companies went bankrupt because Trump refused to pay,  voted for Trump. 

Probably a lot.  People are stupid.

[Howl]

Skipping out on bills and stiffing contractors by declaring bankruptcy is SOP for Trump.  Now that he's PEOTUS, declaring bankruptcy isn't a good look for him, and he's now faced with actually paying his contractors. 

 

[iweartanktops]

[GreyhoundFan]

11 minutes ago, iweartanktops said:

 

Go Mr Posnanski! I actually spit out my water!

 

[bashfulpixie]

Best.  Response.  Ever.  I literally cackled.

[AmericanRose]

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-border-wall-20170106-story.html#nt=oft12aH-1la1

 

No worries, apparently; even if Trump changes his mind / forgets about some of his "campaign promises", Congress will make sure he follows through!

This is funny only because... aren't the GOP supposed to be the fiscally minded ones who want to reduce spending and the debt?

This makes no sense to me. If Americans, for some reason, started to overrun the Canadian border, and Canada built a wall in response... no, I know we wouldn't pay for it.

[JMarie]

19 hours ago, Childless said:

Ha!  You actually think she's going to move to D.C. after the school year?  Why would she?  She's finally free of her orange monster of a husband.  I wouldn't leave NYC either if I were her.

And why would she have to move to D. C., if Ivanka already has plans to move there?  She can put on an Ivanka dress, a pair of Ivanka shoes, and that fancy Ivanka gold bracelet, while wining (with Trump wine) and dining (at a restaurant inside a Trump hotel) the foreign dignitaries her stepmother doesn't want to deal with.

[Cartmann99]

22 hours ago, Childless said:

Ha!  You actually think she's going to move to D.C. after the school year?  Why would she?  She's finally free of her orange monster of a husband.  I wouldn't leave NYC either if I were her.

Nope, I don't think she'll move to DC either, but some of Trump's female supporters on social media keep going on about how wonderful a mother Melania is for not making Baron move in the middle of the school year. If the standard is doing what is in the best interests of families, then our ambassadors with school age children should also be allowed the choice to stay until the school year is over.

I know it's petty, but I get a kick out of exposing how their family values nonsense is a pile of crap. 

 

 

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

56 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Nope, I don't think she'll move to DC either, but some of Trump's female supporters on social media keep going on about how wonderful a mother Melania is for not making Baron move in the middle of the school year. If the standard is doing what is in the best interests of families, then our ambassadors with school age children should also be allowed the choice to stay until the school year is over.

I know it's petty, but I get a kick out of exposing how their family values nonsense is a pile of crap. 

 

 

 

 

 

I just keep thinking about the right wing whiny uproar if Michelle had stayed in Chicago with Sasha and Malia "to finish out the school year." The Republicans would have been howling about the added expense to the taxpayers, not that she was a good mother.

 

Interesting article on CNN: "Is Jeff Sessions Trump's scariest Cabinet pick?". An excerpt:

Quote

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is Trump's scariest pick of all?"

Even a magical mirror would have a tough time answering this question, given how many stunningly bad people President-elect Donald Trump has chosen for his administration.

There's Steve Bannon -- Trump's chief strategist -- whose selection elicited cheers from white supremacists. There's Trump's nominee for national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who has a history of embracing wild conspiracy theories and backing some of the nation's most notorious anti-Muslim activists.

But the worst of this horror show may very well be Trump's choice for attorney general: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, known to most as U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions. It's a selection that should concern Americans who believe in equal rights for all.

If confirmed as attorney general, the Alabama Republican would have vast powers such as serving as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government, providing legal opinions to the President on key issues and deciding when the Department of Justice will become involved in fighting for the civil rights of Americans.

That's troubling because of Sessions' well-documented views on issues ranging from equal pay for women to voting rights to the LGBT, which are jaw-droppingly extreme. We aren't talking mainstream conservative views, but a worldview that is often far to the right, skirting outright bigotry.

Here's a sampler of Sessions' views on key issues that should send shivers down your spine:

...

The article goes on to outline Sessions' views on racism, women's issues, LGBT issues, and voting rights. He is a scary, scary man.

Horror show is a good description.

[iweartanktops]

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

Go Mr Posnanski! I actually spit out my water!

 

 

15 hours ago, bashfulpixie said:

Best.  Response.  Ever.  I literally cackled.

I know. This is still funny! 

[Cartmann99]

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I just keep thinking about the right wing whiny uproar if Michelle had stayed in Chicago with Sasha and Malia "to finish out the school year." The Republicans would have been howling about the added expense to the taxpayers, not that she was a good mother.

 Don't you understand?!? Mrs. Trump is a wealthy white woman who represents the ideal wife and mother, while Mrs. Obama is an uppity black woman who leaches off the hardworking American taxpayers. 

I'm really going to miss President Obama, Mrs. Obama and their lovely daughters. 

[VixenToast]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

 Don't you understand?!? Mrs. Trump is a wealthy white woman who represents the ideal wife and mother, while Mrs. Obama is an uppity black woman who leaches off the hardworking American taxpayers. 

I'm really going to miss President Obama, Mrs. Obama and their lovely daughters. 

That's probably the most depressing thing about it all.  The Obama's have been prejudged by the color of their skin.  I thought Michelle's statement about how amazing it was that's a black family lives in the White House, when the building was built by slaves was beautiful and I couldn't believe the uproar. How does acknowledging history make her a racist? People hate that she made school lunches healthier. Like wtf?!

Melania will NEVER be as classy and sophisticated as Michelle O.  I respect Melania if only because she will be FLOTUS, but I doubt I will ever love her.

[GreyhoundFan]

"After weeks of tweeting, Trump and team face open questioning this coming week"

Quote

President-elect Donald Trump has made plenty of news since he won the election, but the coming week should be the most important of the pre-inaugural period by far, a moment when tweets and mixed signals could give way to greater clarity about the incoming president and his administration.

For weeks Trump has been mostly out of sight, heard from mostly in random, 140-character bursts that have rattled cages from Capitol Hill to corporate boardrooms to world capitals. But for all the running commentary, Trump’s transition has been particularly opaque. Over the next week, he and many of his Cabinet nominees will all be out in public, providing answers that could start to bring his administration into sharper focus.

The focal point will be Trump’s news conference Wednesday in New York, with two issues uppermost: how he answers questions about the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails; and how he explains the steps he plans to take with his business enterprises to avoid conflicts of interest as president.

Confirmation hearings are scheduled for a slew of his Cabinet picks, so many there won’t be enough television screens to accommodate them all. They include two of the most controversial nominees: Exxon’s Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state; and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the early Trump supporter named to be attorney general. The many confirmation hearings are likely to be overshadowed by Trump’s event, but they deserve as much attention as can be given.

The coincidence in timing for Trump’s news conference couldn’t have been written better by a Hollywood scriptwriter. The president-elect hasn’t met with the press corps for a full-fledged question-and-answer session since last July (days after the first DNC emails were leaked by WikiLeaks), when he approvingly called on the Russians to find and reveal emails from Clinton’s private server.

“They probably have them,” he said that day. “I’d like to have them released.” He has sung a different song about the Russians since then. Could he have imagined that questions about Russian interference with the election would be front and center as he prepares to take the oath of office?

Trump’s decision to delay until next week a scheduled December news conference puts him up against the release of a declassified version of the intelligence findings that pinned the orders to interfere in the election squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin and that ascribed the Russians’ motivation as intending to hurt Clinton and help him. That leaves Trump open to more pointed questions about the Russians’ role and motivations and his confidence level — or lack thereof — in the intelligence community he will soon oversee — all of which he has avoided since winning the presidency.

Nothing has caused more consternation — among leading Republicans and more broadly — than the president-elect’s disparagement of the intelligence community’s findings.

Trump’s written statement after being briefed on the findings did pay respect to the men and women in the intelligence community and called for stepped-up efforts to combat future cyberattacks. Republicans found reasons to be reassured by what he said, but some will need to see more.

Notably, however, Trump stopped short of declaring he now accepts that the Russians were solely responsible for what happened during the campaign, the DNC hacking and other nefarious activities. He also claimed incorrectly that the intelligence report said the interference did not affect the outcome of the election. The report drew no conclusion on that point.

Trump also will have an opportunity to explain why he resisted the conclusions of the intelligence community, why he gave more credence to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks (Trump said later that wasn’t his intent) and whether the new report has changed his perspective in any significant ways.

Led by Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Republicans have sought to put Trump in a position of having to choose between the U.S. intelligence community that Trump will soon oversee and Assange, who says that the information he released did not come from the Russians. Trump has been determined to avoid being pinned down.

Trump’s motivations for his multiple tweets questioning whether the Russians were to blame are not clear. Is he worried that any suggestion of Russian interference aimed at helping him diminishes his victory? He told Mike Shear of the New York Times that the whole issue is part of a “political witch hunt,” presumably designed to delegitimize his presidency.

Trump would like the whole issue to go away, but there was enough history before the hacking to raise questions about why he has treated Putin with such respect. Is that friendly posture a genuine effort to recast U.S.-Russian relations with a goal of making them more productive — without making concessions to an adversary?

Is Trump’s reluctance caused, perhaps, by business relationships with Russians that he does not want jeopardized or exposed? He has said no, but the full extent of his business arrangements isn’t fully known. Is he, in some clever way, playing Putin on his way into the Oval Office with some clear strategic purpose? Should Putin be nervous about getting what he wished for: a Trump presidency?

Meanwhile, Tillerson will be going through his own grilling before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His relationship with Putin while serving as chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil has put Republicans such as McCain on edge, fearful of a pro-Russian tilt in the new administration.

Tillerson’s private conversations on Capitol Hill, described by some of the senators with whom he met, have conveyed the impression that he will state clearly that he understands the difference between protecting the interest of shareholders and protecting the interests of the country.

But where will that leave him with respect to the president-elect in his assessment of Putin, Russian aggression in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, the value of sanctions imposed and how U.S. policy could or should change after eight years of the Obama presidency? That’s ultimately up to Trump, but will Tillerson act as a counterbalance or cheerleader for the instincts that the president-elect has shown up to now?

Sessions can expect a modicum of senatorial courtesy, given his long tenure in that chamber, but however polite, his hearings will expose some of the rawness that remains in the aftermath of the election. No nomination has brought about more opposition from the base of the Democratic Party, particularly in the civil rights community. Although Sessions’s nomination appears in no danger, his allies have worked strenuously to counteract the opposition and smooth his path.

Beyond those hearings, Trump’s choices for the departments of Homeland Security, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Commerce, Labor and the CIA will have their moments in the public spotlight.

Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence have set some clear priorities, along with GOP congressional leaders, starting with the dismantlement of the Affordable Care Act, several executive orders on Day 1 designed to reverse some of President Obama’s actions, and a focus on job creation and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Still, there is much that remains unsettled, both about those priorities and with other sensitive issues. Details will have to come eventually. How long will the president-elect, who has said many times he wants to be unpredictable, wait to begin to provide more answers?

How much do you want to bet that he'll worm out of the press conference, just like he's wormed out of releasing his tax returns?

[VixenToast]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"After weeks of tweeting, Trump and team face open questioning this coming week"

How much do you want to bet that he'll worm out of the press conference, just like he's wormed out of releasing his tax returns?

Shit dude, he should release the last 10 years worth. I bet the newest tax returns will be scrubbed and immaculate.

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh yippee: "Gun silencers are hard to buy. Donald Trump Jr. and silencer makers want to change that."

Quote

The federal government has strictly limited the sale of firearm silencers for as long as James Bond and big-screen gangsters have used them to discreetly shoot enemies between the eyes.

Now the gun industry, which for decades has complained about the restrictions, is pursuing new legislation to make silencers easier to buy, and a key backer is Donald Trump Jr., an avid hunter and the oldest son of the president-elect, who campaigned as a friend of the gun industry.

The legislation stalled in Congress last year. But with Republicans in charge of the House and Senate and the elder Trump moving into the White House, gun rights advocates are excited about its prospects this year.

They hope to position the bill the same way this time — not as a Second Amendment issue, but as a public-health effort to safeguard the eardrums of the nation’s 55 million gun owners. They even named it the Hearing Protection Act. It would end treating silencers as the same category as machine guns and grenades, thus eliminating a $200 tax and a nine-month approval process.

“It’s about safety,” Trump Jr. explained in a September video interview with the founder of SilencerCo, a Utah silencer manufacturer. “It’s a health issue, frankly.”

Violence prevention advocates are outraged that the industry is trying to ease silencer restrictions by linking the issue to the eardrums of gun owners. They argue the legislation will make it easier for criminals and potential mass shooters to obtain devices to conceal attacks.

“They want the general public to think it’s about hearing aids or something,” said Kristen Rand, the legislative director of the Violence Policy Center. “It’s both a silly and smart way to do it, I guess. But when the general public finds out what’s really happening, there will be outrage.”

The silencer industry and gun rights groups say critics are vastly overstating the dangers, arguing that Hollywood has created an unrealistic image of silencers, which they prefer to call “suppressors.” They cite studies showing that silencers reduce the decibel level of a gunshot from a dangerous 165 to about 135 — the sound of a jackhammer — and that they are rarely used in crimes.

But gun-control activists say silencers are getting quieter, particularly in combination with subsonic ammunition, which is less lethal but still damaging. They point to videos on YouTube in which silencers make high-powered rifles have “no more sound than a pellet gun,” according to one demonstrator showing off a silenced semiautomatic .22LR.

Proponents say that’s not a good way to judge the sound.

“You’re still going to hear the gunfire from far away,” said Knox Williams, president of the American Suppressor Association. “These things are still incredibly loud.”

Even with the restrictions, silencers have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the gun industry, which pushed accessories as gun sales level off. In 2010, there were 285,087 registered silencers. Last year: 902,085.

Rep. Matt Salmon, an Arizona Republican who regularly shoots with silencers, introduced the Hearing Protection Act in the House in 2015. A companion bill in the Senate was championed by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

Though the bill never made it to committee hearings, it generated tremendous interest, becoming the third most-viewed piece of legislation on Congress’s website last year. (Top was the Democrat-led Assault Weapons Ban of 2015.)

Salmon recently retired, and it’s not clear yet who will reintroduce the measure. The bill had 82 co-sponsors — all but two of them Republicans.

Easing the restrictions could have a profound public-health impact, champions of the legislation say.

Hunters often shoot without hearing protection so they can hear prey moving. Many recreational shooters don’t like wearing ear covers, which can be heavy and hot and in gun ranges lead to many conversations ending with, “I can’t hear you.”

Silencers are also marketed as must-have attachments for high-powered rifles — a tactical necessity that reduces recoil, thus improving aim.

“Quiet guns are easier to shoot,” the National Rifle Association says in its American Rifleman magazine. “Try it.”

Silencer stigma

Silencers were invented in 1908 by Hiram Percy Maxim, a graduate of MIT whose father invented the first fully automatic machine gun. The younger Maxim had a knack for reducing loud noises; he also contributed to the development of the automobile muffler.

“I have always loved to shoot, but I never thoroughly enjoyed it when I knew that the noise was annoying other people,” he said late in life. “It occurred to me one day that there was no need for the noise. Why not do away with it and shoot quietly?”

Maxim solved the problem in the bathtub. He noticed that the water swirled silently down the drain. What if the gases produced from firing a bullet could swirl that way, too? So Maxim put what he called “a whirling tube” on the end of a rifle. It successfully muffled the sound of the gunfire. Soon, the whirling tube was U.S. Patent No. 958,935, titled “Silent Firearm.”

In the 1930s, to curtail gang violence, Congress passed the National Firearms Act, putting restrictions and special taxes on machine guns and other high-powered weapons. Though they hadn’t been used frequently in crimes, silencers were included anyway, reportedly out of concern that poachers would use them to steal food during the Great Depression.

“It’s a very strange tale,” said Stephen Halbrook, a Virginia gun rights attorney who recently published a law review article about the history of silencers. “If you think about it, if [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] had been around then, they probably would have required people use these things.”

Though silencers are now legal in 42 states, industry officials say the onerous and expensive task of buying them keeps gun owners, particularly hunters, from their preferred method of protecting their hearing.

They frequently point out that Britain, with some of the strictest gun laws in the world, has no restrictions on silencers for many types of firearms.

“There isn’t this negative stigma because of Hollywood that has suppressed — pun intended — the use of suppressors in this country,” said Josh Waldron, the founder of SilencerCo, the Utah manufacturer.

Waldron started his company in 2008 after a career in photography, aiming to educate shooters about the benefits of silencers and to essentially hold buyers’ hands through the purchasing process. He sells about 18,000 silencers a month.

“I want to create an environment where people understand the real purpose of these devices and that people aren’t using them for nefarious acts,” he said.

Criminals and silencers

Silencer use in crimes is likely to be the focus of the legislative debate later this year.

Gun rights proponents and the silencer industry cite a study showing that in California, from 1995 to 2005, silencers appeared to be used for criminal purposes only 153 times in federal cases.

“Suppressed firearms are clearly not the choice of criminals,” according to a briefing paper by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is based in Newtown, Conn., and represents gun manufacturers. “The fears and concerns about suppressor ownership and use are unfounded and have not been seen in the over 100-year history of suppressors.”

Gun-control advocates contend that serious crimes are being committed with silencers on guns. Former police officer Christopher Dorner used silencers on an AR-15 and a 9mm handgun during two-day rampage in Los Angeles in 2013.

A serial killer in Vermont used a silencer in the killing of at least one of his 11 victims.

And the planner of a disrupted mass shooting targeting a Masonic temple in Milwaukee last year was charged with possessing a silencer, in addition to other weapons charges.

“They wanted these things so they could kill quietly,” said Rand, of the Violence Policy Center. “The industry wants to make silencers less scary, but they can’t.”

Gun owners such as Trump Jr. can’t understand why people like Rand don’t get it.

In the video, after he’s shown shooting several guns with silencers, Trump Jr. says they can help with getting “little kids into the game.”

“It’s just a great instrument,” he says. “There’s nothing bad about it at all.”

Sigh. 'nuff said.

[Cartmann99]

 Trump has added infectious disease epidemiologist Katy French Talento to his health policy team. She's a pro-birther who doesn't like birth control or transgendered people.

I'll let Wonkette take it from here:

Quote

In an article for The Federalist, Talento wrote about the “risks” of chemical birth control. Now, of course — there are risks with birth control, as there are with any medication one takes. If you are a smoker over the age of 35, there are some birth control methods you shouldn’t take, because they could cause blood clots or a stroke. However! The main gist of her article is that birth control causes abortions and miscarriages… AND COULD BREAK YOUR UTERUS FOREVER!

“Ladies,” she writes in the intro, “it’s time you knew what your doctor isn’t telling you. Chemical birth control causes abortions and often has terrible side effects, including deliberate miscarriage.”

Oddly, ladies, she doesn’t actually explain anywhere in the article how birth control causes “abortions.” This is just something we are supposed to assume is true. She does, however, explain why she thinks it causes a “miscarriage.”

http://wonkette.com/610178/trump-health-policy-team-adds-transphobic-dingbat-who-thinks-birth-control-causes-abortions-d

Since infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes are her speciality, here are some of her thoughts on women of childbearing age who are concerned about contracting the Zika virus during pregnancy:

Quote

Heads up, ladies: Zika virus is sweeping the globe, and it’s coming for your babies! Okay, the alarmist portion of the program is now over. While Zika virus is marching through Central and South America, most infected people will only suffer a rash and fever.

But the scary part is that the virus is suspected to be linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly, a serious birth defect where the baby’s brain is under-developed, leading to permanent developmental disability and other health problems.

The crisis has generated panic in affected countries, such as El Salvador, where the government recently called on the entire population to avoid pregnancy for at least two years. That’s crazy talk. Babies are snuggly and cute, and fun to make! Go have some.

She then lists some of usual tips about avoiding mosquito bites like wearing insect repellent, staying indoors as much as possible, spraying for mosquitoes around your home and yard, etc... She then finishes the article with:

Quote

Just actually follow the tips above (as opposed to what everyone else will do: share them on Facebook and then go about your business exactly as before, only now with more guilt and anxiety).

Babies with special needs are wonderful gifts from God. But so are smart, slightly neurotic, Zika-zapping moms!

http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/29/12-tips-to-stave-off-the-zika-apocalypse

[Childless]

30 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

 Trump has added infectious disease epidemiologist Katy French Talento to his health policy team. She's a pro-birther who doesn't like birth control or transgendered people.

I'll let Wonkette take it from here:

http://wonkette.com/610178/trump-health-policy-team-adds-transphobic-dingbat-who-thinks-birth-control-causes-abortions-d

Since infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes are her speciality, here are some of her thoughts on women of childbearing age who are concerned about contracting the Zika virus during pregnancy:

She then lists some of usual tips about avoiding mosquito bites like wearing insect repellent, staying indoors as much as possible, spraying for mosquitoes around your home and yard, etc... She then finishes the article with:

http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/29/12-tips-to-stave-off-the-zika-apocalypse

Yeah, I'd be going with Ecuador's advice.  No sense in taking the chance of saddling your child with a severe birth defect that will negatively affect his/her life and cause millions of dollars in medical bills when you could wait a couple of years to have a kid and potentially lessen the chance it will happen.  Thus woman is a lunatic and not particularly intelligent.

[VixenToast]

I love my NuvaRing. Love it. Love love looooooove. 

I would also love to see this witch try to take away my BC. It is my right, and one for which I will fight for, to my dying breath.

However, bear in mind, who knows what can happen, but I worry they will change insurance to not cover BC, and with these repugna-can'ts trying their hardest to murder Planned Parenthood, I predict there could be future troubles.

ugh. Can someone who was older than 11 at Dubya's inauguration please tell me it was as crazy as this, that maybe the end is not nigh? Oh please tell me there were as many questionable nominations, as many crazy wingnuts blabbering about stupid things. 

Am I worried over nothing? Or am I really reading between the lines and have the full measure of the man and his future administration?

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Babies with special needs are wonderful gifts from God. But so are smart, slightly neurotic, Zika-zapping moms!

Bet she doesn't have one of those "wonderful gifts from God."

18 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I just keep thinking about the right wing whiny uproar if Michelle had stayed in Chicago with Sasha and Malia "to finish out the school year." The Republicans would have been howling about the added expense to the taxpayers, not that she was a good mother.

 

Interesting article on CNN: "Is Jeff Sessions Trump's scariest Cabinet pick?". An excerpt:

The article goes on to outline Sessions' views on racism, women's issues, LGBT issues, and voting rights. He is a scary, scary man.

Horror show is a good description.

The Obamas, Clintons, and Carters all had kids about the same age as Barron, and they all moved to D. C. in the middle of the school year.  But I guess they don't count, since all of their dads are Democrats.