Bill Gates:
What would you say is the most dangerous animal on Earth? Sharks? Snakes? Humans?
Of course the answer depends on how you define dangerous. Personally I’ve had a thing about sharks since the first time I saw Jaws. But if you’re judging by how many people are killed by an animal every year, then the answer isn’t any of the above. It’s mosquitoes. …
Gates Notes – Mosquito Week
(via Bill Gates on Facebook)
The Institute of Medicine published findings:
In 2010, more than 105,000 people were injured or killed in the United States as the result of a firearm-related incident.
Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Tucson, AZ, have sharpened the American public’s interest in protecting our children and communities from the harmful effects of firearm violence. While many Americans legally use firearms for a variety of activities, fatal and nonfatal firearm violence poses a serious threat to public safety and welfare. …
Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence
William Saletan summarizes:
Earlier this year, President Obama ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the existing research on gun violence and recommend future studies. That report, prepared by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, is now complete.
Its findings won’t entirely please the Obama administration or the NRA, but all of us should consider them. Here’s a list of the 10 most salient or surprising takeaways. …
1. The United States has an indisputable gun violence problem.
According to the report, “the U.S. rate of firearm-related homicide is higher than that of any other industrialized country: 19.5 times higher than the rates in other high-income countries.”
2. Most indices of crime and gun violence are getting better, not worse.3. We have 300 million firearms, but only 100 million are handguns.
4. Handguns are the problem.
5. Mass shootings aren’t the problem.
6. Gun suicide is a bigger killer than gun homicide.
7. Guns are used for self-defense often and effectively.
8. Carrying guns for self-defense is an arms race.
9. Denying guns to people under restraining orders saves lives.
10. It isn’t true that most gun acquisitions by criminals can be blamed on a few bad dealers.
Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence.
Republicans Say No to CDC Gun Violence Research. Most in the GOP don’t want to know the facts. And definitely don’t want their voters to know the facts.
Dr. Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine who runs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, spent $1 million of his own money to continue the research.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think people are very far apart on this issue. Fire arms lobbyists are going to have an increasingly difficult fight buying politicians over the coming years. And they’ll have to outspend their opponents at an even greater rate.
Republicans must change. Or lose. Long term.
On Facebook I link a lot to information confronting Gundamentalists. And Tea Party Republicans.
Both are generally bad for the USA. Bad for the world.
One of my themes is that Republicans must CHANGE or LOSE, long term.
The GOP needs prominent candidates of colour. Pro science. Fiscal conservatives, not shills for corporations and billionaires. Pro immigration. In support of Gay marriage.
Here’s one who looks promising.
Mia Love clinches Republican nomination at Utah convention
On May 18, 2013, Love announced that she would run again in 2014. If elected, she would be the first Haitian American and first black female Republican ever elected to Congress, as well as the first from the state of Utah. …
Love favors “fiscal discipline, limited government, and personal responsibility.” She has also said that she asks herself three questions whenever she approaches an issue, “Is it affordable? Is it sustainable? Is it my job?” …
I’m sure she’s not perfect. But she gives me hope that Republicans can recover, eventually, from Tea Party insanity.
related – What stupid thing did Sarah Palin say lately?
She is purely an Obama-era novelty. As Obama’s tenure ends, so does the career of Sarah …
Good riddance.
The rich are getting richer, the poor poorer.
The US government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country’s citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities has concluded.
The report, entitled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, used extensive policy data collected from between the years of 1981 and 2002 to empirically determine the state of the US political system.
After sifting through nearly 1,800 US policies enacted in that period and comparing them to the expressed preferences of average Americans (50th percentile of income), affluent Americans (90th percentile) and large special interests groups, researchers concluded that the United States is dominated by its economic elite.
Unfortunately for those rich elite, they only get one vote. Those getting poorer and poorer also get one vote.
Eventually, no matter how bad the Democrats are, Republicans will lose every election.
The GOP must change or go the way of the dodo bird.
The biggest split is on Obamacare.
They are not all that far apart on Immigration and Education.
Nate Silver – Like Bush, Many Republicans Are Moderate on Immigration
On April 2, 2014, a shooting spree occurred at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed, while sixteen additional people were injured.
The shooter was 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, an Iraq War veteran who was born in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. He was married and had four children.
Lopez was allegedly distraught over the deaths of his mother and grandfather during a two-month period five months prior to the shooting, and was also undergoing psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety. He tried to take a 24-hour leave of absence in order to attend his mother’s funeral, but it took five days for the leave to be approved, which allegedly upset him.
The Base was previously the scene of a mass shooting in 2009, in which 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded.
President H.W. Bush enacted the current Military Base Gun Regulations in 1992. Not Clinton. Those regulations were not changed by Clinton, G.W. Bush nor Obama. And they are not likely to be changed after this incident.
The talking point of right wing media is that American military bases are “gun-free zones”. That’s wrong, obviously. There are restrictions on who can carry weapons.
It’s clear that Ivan Lopez did not target the Base because it was an easy target.
Billionaires and corporations can now buy politicians legitimately.
The rich have far, far too much influence on American politics already. 😦
I’m hoping there’s more disclosure on who donated how much to whom, in future. But not optimistic.
Unless the GOP changes, they are not going to win many Presidential elections in future. No matter how badly the Democrats run the country.
Nobody believes Paul Ryan cares about the poor.
Republicans are still mostly in favour of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer.
DEREK THOMPSON:
I’ve written, over and over, that the most important divide in our wealth disparity was between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. For example, when I compared the evolution in investment income since the late 1970s, I often imagined a graph like this from the Economic Policy Institute, showing the 1 percent flying away from the rest of the country.
It turns out that that graph is somewhat misleading. It makes it look like the 1 percent is a group of similar households accelerating from the rest of the economy, holding hands, in unison. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A few weeks ago, I shared this graph (from the World Top Incomes Database) showing how the top 0.01 percent—that’s the one percent of the 1 percent—was leaving the rest of the top percentile behind.
It turns out that wealth inequality isn’t about the 1 percent v. the 99 percent at all. It’s about the 0.1 percent v. the 99.9 percent (or, really, the 0.01 percent vs. the 99.99 percent, if you like). Long-story-short is that this group, comprised mostly of bankers and CEOs, is riding the stock market to pick up extraordinary investment income. And it’s this investment income, rather than ordinary earned income, that’s creating this extraordinary wealth gap. …
Unveiling the real story behind the richest of the rich
So why should the top .01% of Americans worry?
Soon there’s going to be a backlash.
60 Minutes revealed that the U.S. stock market is rigged:
in the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized stock trading that now controls more than half the market.
The probes were announced just ahead of a much anticipated book on the subject by best-selling author Michael Lewis called “Flash Boys.” In it, Lewis argues that the stock market is now rigged to benefit a group of insiders that have made tens of billions of dollars exploiting computerized trading. …
Steve Kroft: What’s the headline here?
Michael Lewis: Stock market’s rigged. The United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged.
I’ve got nothing against rich people. Lebronne James has earned every penny.
But when I see a dork, stupid billionaire … I get suspicious.
How did this guy get rich?
It’s not smart. It’s not an efficient distribution of wealth to have so many dollars in the hands of so few people, many of whom do not deserve it.
The ultra rich should be prepared to move to that that retirement estate in Belize. 🙂
Here’s the latest proposal shoveling tax dollars into the pockets of politicians.
Parliament’s new post-retirement travel policy, which could see MPs with 15 years or more of service gain 24 business class air flights a year for 10 years, has been agreed to in principle. It must still be adopted if it is to come into effect.
This policy was agreed to by the national legislature’s highest policy-making structure, the Parliamentary Oversight Authority (POA) …
The new post-retirement travel privileges would see MPs who had served one term of five years receive eight single economy air tickets a year for 10 years; those who had served 10 years getting 16 single economy tickets; and those with three terms under their belts receiving 24 single business-class tickets a year.
This could add tens of millions in expenditure from the national coffers at a time when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has called for cost-cutting and savings.
And in a potentially controversial decision, the POA decided that these post-retirement travel privileges should also apply to all nine provincial legislatures, benefiting a total of 430 MPLs, in addition to the 400 National Assembly MPs and 54 National Council of Provinces delegates. The POA report also said there should be no restriction on the number of tickets used by a spouse from this new quota. …
Travel policy set to allow retired MPs to stay on gravy plane
reaction – Proposed retired MP travel benefit slammed
Here’s an overview of the corruption charges against Zuma.
I’ve yet to talk to anyone here who likes Jacob Zuma.
He’s currently being slammed for this scandal.
President Zuma says he shouldn’t have to pay for government paid improvements to his personal home because … he didn’t ask for the renovations.
I didn’t ask for Nkandla upgrade – Zuma
The cost of the refurbishments, which include a helipad, a swimming pool and even a chicken coop, ballooned from the initial estimate of R65m in 2009 to R246m.
South African elections are coming up. Most assume the NAC will win again. Many hope for some kind of strong opposition, however.
American right wing types love to complain that the USA gives away more foreign aid money than anyone else.
If you count GROSS dollars, it could be argued that the USA is the most GENEROUS nation.
If you calculate per capita or per GNP (Gross National Product) the USA drops down the list to perhaps 17th.
Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark are near the top of the list, per person.
That said, I’m not at all convinced that foreign aid money is well spent. It could certainly be money wasted. 😦
via KRISTJAN WAGER – Is USA the biggest foreign aid donor? (2007)
Rick McCharles 
