Lets make a deal.

Politicians who have at any point between the years 1995 and now who have registered as democrat and/or publicly called for gun control give up all armed security for five years

Simultaneously celebrities who fit that profile do the same with one caveat. Any and all money they made from any project (movies/TV/radio/theater/ect) that has any gun violence is taken from them and any future residuals are taken from them as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr37b-FYj8g

If 75+% of them at the end of five years still claim to support gun control and fiscal redistribution of gun violence profits we then disarm all police for a period of five years

If 75+% of them still support it at the end of ten years, and 75+% of cops support it after five years

We then outlaw the sale of weapons by the US government to foreign countries for a period of five years and to any US non military government bureaucracy like the Dept of Education

If after 15 years the politicians and celebrities still support it, and if after ten years the cops still support it, and if after five years it can be shown the US has not bought or sold so much as a single bullet

Then we enact a five year window for people to voluntarily surrender their weapons.

Sound like a plan?

"How Elderly Lose Their Rights": "Guardians" swoop in, seize their assets and homes and confine them for profit.

Appalling and frightening. Long read (very much worth reading) by Rachel Aviv:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights

The subhead:

"Guardians can sell the assets and control the lives of senior citizens without their consent—and reap a profit from it."

If you have a better solution Amy I am open to suggestions. Having a guardian always leaves you open to this type of abuse. If you are a child actor who earns millions of dollars you parents can spend that money and there is nothing you can do about it. When the elderly appoint a guardian they are in the exact same position as that child. The guardian controls the assets and not them. Which is why no one appoints a guardian until they just about have no other option.

Having government appointed guardians is probably worse than letting people pick their own. This is also why it is very important to have a will. If you don't have a will then the government will appoint an executor (essentially a post death guardian) who will then manage handing over your assets. As I recall roughly 1/3rd of the time the court appointed executor ends up with the estate instead of any inheritors. I expect you would see the same thing even if the person was still alive. There is just an inherent conflict of interest that is hard to manage.

Yep.

Not paying close attention, because others are spazzing deeply enough to cover any shortfall here.

But when investigators talk about "collusion," what's their point?

Why would any international agent, national collective or alliance of individuals go after a bunch of country music fans?

My older brother authored a bill in TN that just recently passed, giving much stiffer penalties for financial elder abuse. Its a sad fact that the elderly have high rates of victimization of all sorts of abuse.

Sounds like grasping at straws to me Crid. Since they can't find any other reason maybe some foreign government made him do it. As for why, just general harassment. Same reason the USSR heavily supported Beatles fans.

Ta-da!

Globe Making (1955)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RWcWSN4HhI

so satisfying to watch...

The film/video quality of that globe film is my favorite thing about it. Digital will be good for humanity. 15 minutes ago I had an essentially free video conference with a beautiful woman on the other side of the country, and the image quality was better than what I made a living with shooting TV commercials, with all my best effort and moderate talent, in the 1980's.

Amy is to be admired for her steadfast clarity about unpleasant gender truths. An enormous number of people want to believe that every characteristic of masculinity & femininity is just a policy choice or silly habit... Those people are wrong.

But I think Mickey Kaus is on to something here... A lot of sexual misconduct is less tolerated than when we were younger.

But still!... Who could be surprised that Harvey Weinstein is one of the holdouts?

Puerto Rico update (by SilvieWaldorfMD):

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3592336/posts

Another Hollyweird meltdown on Twitter:

https://www.mrctv.org/blog/nancy-sinatra-calls-nra-members-be-executed-firing-squad

How the Tax Code Enables Big Government Blue States

http://dailysignal.com/2017/10/04/how-the-tax-code-enables-big-government-blue-states/