Top Trump: A Poem

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hollow - I'm not worried about Trump's comments too much. He did the same thing with DACA. He plays the rope a dope as well as Muhammad Ali.

Well yeah Mezz...What's the point? We've been down this road before. Your solution I suppose is blame the gun...not the perp...not the psych meds...not violent video games...not an ultra violent entertainment industry...not an educational system that is practicing social engineering...not not not. You don't ask why this is happening...because we've always had these guns but not the mass shootings. So yes...yawn to talking to folks who aren't serious about the issue. It's kind of like the racism charge...it's used so often as a political weapon now that the charge has been rendered meaningless.

So...did you watch the Olympics?

The argument about video games & films doesn't stack up for me, it fails to explain why so many of us become quite normal people and a minority violent nutcases.

I can remember that argument when they caught the children who murdered James Bulger and they said they mimicked scenes in Child's Play. I don't think that explains why Venables has been realised to then go straight back inside after being found with child porn. These individuals have a lot more going on but it could be argued they can be influenced by their skewed take on what they watch.

I watched some of the Olympics. The winter one isn't seen as the same importance as the summer one in the UK. I watched some of the women's ice hockey where you guys did well against the Canadians. Some curling, the ski shoot ski women's stuff, some bob (2 woman bob from Jamaica making history 30 years after the 4 man men), some other downhill, etc.

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What it takes to buy a gun in Japan.

(In 2014 there were six gun deaths in Japan, compared to 33,599 in the US.)

1. Join a hunting or shooting club.
2. Take a firearm class and pass a written exam, which is held up to three times a year.
3. Get a doctor’s note saying you are mentally fit and do not have a history of drug abuse.
4. Apply for a permit to take firing training, which may take up to a month.
5. Describe in a police interview why you need a gun.
6. Pass a review of your criminal history, gun possession record, employment, involvement with organized crime groups, personal debt and relationships with friends, family and neighbors.
7. Apply for a gunpowder permit.
8. Take a one-day training class and pass a firing test.
9. Obtain a certificate from a gun dealer describing the gun you want.
10. Buy a gun safe and an ammunition locker that meet safety regulations.
11. Allow the police to inspect your gun storage.
12. Pass an additional background review.
13. Buy a gun.

And in Australia … (Sales are limited to one or two shot rifles or shotguns. Hand guns or semi-automatic weapons cannot be bought - with some exceptions, eg specialised sporting pistols used only at a firing range).

1. Join and regularly attend a hunting or shooting club, or document that you’re a collector. Gun owners must provide a valid reason for owning a weapon, such as farming or hunting (self protection is not a valid reason). Gun clubs must inform the authorities of inactive members.
2. Complete a course on firearm safety and operation, and pass a written test and practical assessment.
3. Arrange firearm storage that meets safety regulations.
4. Pass a review that considers criminal history, domestic violence, restraining orders and arrest history. Authorities may also interview your family and community members.
5. Apply for a permit to acquire a specific type of weapon.
6. Wait at least 28 days.
7. Buy the specific type of gun you received a permit for.

Some similarity to the UK.

Alternatively, approach local drug dealer...

[Noivous]

Ok fair enough...you don't think violent games/entertainment have anything to do with mass shootings. Then what would you attribute it to, Terry? You may be right. How bout the psych meds? What kids are being taught in schools? No father in the home? What do you attribute this relatively new phenomenon to?

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Yeah the mens ice hockey is the best of the winter Olympics. But the NHL wouldn't allow players to go to the Olympics which made for watered down play. Shame on the NHL.

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Btw 33,599 gun deaths in US in 2014 is a disingenuous stat. How many by illegal guns? How many suicides? How many by accident? How many in self defense? How many by police?

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Lol...apply for a gunpowder permit...

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And comparing Australia to the USA is kind of ridiculous. I mean it's a pretty tiny country. The USA probably has 2 or 3 states alone that have a higher population than the entire country of Australia.

[MyNameIsTerry]

What links the shooters that you have seen?

There is an argument for desensitisation and studies into it but mass shooting are surely the work of someone who wasn't going to live a normal life without various violent incidents and other abnormal behaviours? I suspect desensitisation may play more of a role in less high profile crimes e.g. domestic violence, petty assaults. But to go out and kill a bunch of people, potentially innocent people you have never met, must surely point to being totally out of your normal mind or that this had been building inside you for some time e.g. the same personality disorder development stages we see with other serious mental problems.

It can't be as simple as TV. Childhood can play a part e.g. child abuse.

Psych meds can be another factor as can the removal of psych meds that are stopping such actions or the mixing of psych meds with other substances such as seen in the cases of violent assaults by paranoid schizophrenics.

That's why I don't believe it's just TV & video games. If it were, a lot more of us should be violent idiots than your average citizen. But I would agree that taking someone with a certain propensity and sitting them in front of violent imagery is only going to make it worse for them as the boundaries come down in their minds.

Coming back to the Bulger case, a young child abducted by 2 older children who proceeded to torture then murder him. Regardless of what they watched, these children were old enough to know right from wrong. If they knew stealing was wrong, they knew inflicted terrible pain & murder on innocent is very wrong. But sitting a child who is already so messed up or ill, that's a different issue.

We all acted out what we saw on TV when we were kids. I can remember all the lads at school on the yard mimicking The Karate Kid the next day after it had been on TV. We mimicked other violence. We didn't go around committing true violence.

So, what has changed in the mind of later generations? Are they easily brainwashed? I watched violent films as an older teen but nothing came of that. But lads my age who were already violent wouldn't have had the same boundaries and would more easily give you a real smack to act out something.

Is it the trigger or the root cause? The trigger, if TV, is hard to deal with as we are back to the old argument of stopping everyone just in case one nutter does something. That brings sports like boxing, martial arts, your football & our rugby, etc all into the controlled pile. Why should we be denied because of nutters?

The root cause can't be addressed either, it's far too big as it covers potentially any family and many life experiences.

Anyone who thinks taking all the guns out of the US tomorrow will stop nutters killing people hasn't thought it through. It will only cut it down. Now they can see terrorists killing more with a lorry and hey presto they just grab a lorry which is much easier than obtaining a firearm. Or they go and get an illegal one from their friendly local drug dealer. Or they get a nice and run amok.

Tighter gun control will never stop it because some of these people pass all the checks. It doesn't stop it happening over here, it only minimises it. It cuts down the total number of deaths before the perpetrator can be stopped. Guns are just objects, someone inclined to massacre people can do so with a lorry, someone can easily obtain a samurai sword and kill or maim many people before the police get there I could kill someone with my toaster if I wanted...

So I agree & disagree with you on the TV & video games. I think they have their involvement in some of this.

But what have they found in common between these people?

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Btw 33,599 gun deaths in US in 2014 is a disingenuous stat. How many by illegal guns? How many suicides? How many by accident? How many in self defense? How many by police?

Correct.

After the last shooting there was a load of media claims about the number of gun related incidents in schools. This total included a police officer allowing a student to discharge his weapon, a totally unconnected case of a man who committed suicide in a school car park, etc.

That's just the media twisting things to fit their narrative. Ooh look it's KILLER FLU SEASON but the % of deaths is miniscule compared to the number of people who are just fine & dandy but we won't tell you this figure as you will just think we are sensationalising the deaths

And comparing Australia to the USA is kind of ridiculous. I mean it's a pretty tiny country. The USA probably has 5 or 6 states alone that have a higher population than the entire country of Australia.

It's hard to compare countries. I wouldn't compare cities between our nations. You can walk around much of our cities. Can you walk around the worst areas of yours?

[Noivous]

I agree. It isn't violent images 24/7 alone. But that coupled with psych meds/upbringing/lack of a father/pornography possibly/social engineering/on and on. But I think the meds and fatherless children is a biggie.

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In regards to cities here. No definitely can't walk around bad areas here.

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I remember seeing a nature show a while back. There was this area in Africa where all these rhinos were turning up dead every morning. They were being crushed and beaten to death. The authorities couldn't figure out why. What they found out was the testosterone in the young adolescent male elephants was starting to kick in and they were becoming very aggressive and killing the rhinos. As it turned out all the mature bull elephants had been removed from the area by poachers or relocation. So they relocated a bunch of the mature male elephants back into the area and all the killings stopped. In other words the adult males kept the teenagers in line just by their very presence. I'd say it's the same in the human home.

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I know I saw something the other day...Your 100% more likely to get the flu on a plane!

So instead of one in a thousand getting the flu it's two in a thousand.

[MyNameIsTerry]

There's lots of possible factors for some people. Life takes a big dump on many of us whether it's lack of prospects, rejections, working all the hours just to pay the bills and have nothing, etc. Lack of prospects has long been one linked to crime. But then it's never an all-or-nothing thing as many make it through and live good lives.

Rap music. Lots of lovely views towards women in that scene.

If you want to up your odds of catching flu work in a school! They are germ factories. Offices can be bad too if the air con isn't up to scratch.

There are areas you cannot walk around over here but nothing like what I've always heard about the US. Now if I lived in the favelas I might be saying "you've got it easy buddy!"

Poor rhinos!!! Very interesting though. The matriarchs kick them out when they start reaching that hormonal age as they are disruptive. I'm surprised about the fighting though as I would have thought it would be between themselves. Interesting how older bulls kept them in check as aren't male elephants largely solitary? I guess being put in your place over territory helps to cool the libido.

Now an elephant with an AK, that might have been a game changer

[Koncon]

I think, that sometimes we overestimate the value of Trump's decisions. Let's take today's "Mr Trump pledged to rebuild the US steel and aluminium industries which he said had suffered "disgraceful" treatment from other countries"... And markets began falling...
The question is: "Would they begin to decline if there were no prerequisites?". Let's look at Dow Jones, S&P, etc. They've been growing for years. Time to fall. It's just a law of life: growth is always followed by a fall. Trump's words are just a trigger. When the bubble bursts, anything can serve as a trigger.

[hanshan]

The US market has had a steady rise for the past nine years with little volatility (Brexit was a brief moment of volatility). At some point, this market will stop rising. For me, the question is whether there will a steep correction downwards, or just a flat period where the market doesn't do anything much.

This is where Trump needs to be an astute financial manager. The days of the market surging ever upwards are gone. I suspect that the tax-cut sugar hit has now been priced in, as market value is in part a belief in projected gains by a company (like the odds on a horse before it has run its race).

Its my belief that many investors are fearful of what Trump might do - not just abandoning trade agreements and imposing tariffs, but also deporting large numbers of workers when the labour market is around 4% unemployment (statistically regarded as "full employment"), and finally, perhaps starting another expensive war, maybe nuclear, as a distraction and because he's now just a year in and seems (to me, at least) to have run out of any legislative agenda.

[MyNameIsTerry]

The markets don't like change & uncertainty...it's a Stock Market Anxiety Disorder!

Right now we have a lot of uncertainty and a government that won't give anyone the details of their plans. Until some info was at least put forward the markets were down and wobbled after each initial PM speech.

They are caught in the Brexit issue. But they also have the potential for a socialist government at the next GE so they will be bricking it...

[hanshan]

Hi Terry - There will probably be a few more Brexit wobbles in the UK market to come, both before and after "B Day" next year. Actually, I've always been for Brexit, probably for quite irrational reasons. I grew up in the dying days of the British Empire (we still had a half-day school holiday for "Empire Day" until I was in third class (grade, year) of primary school), and I've never really thought of the UK as part of Europe. Multicultural - sure, but not European. As I said, irrational.

What do you think of Putin's claim to have nuclear cruise missiles capable of evading any known defence system? I smell something fishy here, a con job, but I don't know what he is getting at... Is he trying to dissuade Trump from unleashing his "fire and fury"?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, there will be many wobbles yet. Not much has been presented to public and it's been the usual soundbite speeches with little substance. We are now into the second stage where the real negotiations begin so we should start to hear things. But not much so far.

The transition period benefits businesses on both sides so I expect that to go ahead and we really would continue with complete alignment to SM & CU rules anyway. If that's a couple of years there will be wobbles as things hit the buffers.

Re-establishing trade links with the old commonwealth countries is a good thing for us. There is a lot of sneering about Australia having little world trade by the hardcore anti Brexit mob but they are as representative of UK views as their opposites. There is interest in relaxing movement with Aus & NZ which would be attractive to people here if it meant some relaxation of immigration rules.

That's one of arguments for Brexit, the UK has never really felt European. Of course, it's the EU, not Europe. Some argue they are happy integrated with the EU, others argue we still will be European so what changes? Only political & economic alliance. Some on the left argue against the EU due to it's big business influences and share concerns how it's in other EU countries that the far right are on the move, not here.

So, lots of reasons across the political spectrum on either side. But I think it's fair that many of us don't really think of ourselves as European as Europe plays little part in our lives unless you travel or work in the capital. Do we even feel united within the UK? I would say not, much of our sport is separated by country and NI are out there on the fringes. If we don't all feel especially patriotic towards Scotland, why would we the rest of Europe?

This EU flag & anthem business might be useful to those in charge but it's just not part of many people's lives.

Sounds like Putin is doing the military might propaganda. Some of his new weapons sound a bit far off compared to what we have now. Given the mini nuclear reactor cruise missile I would like to know how they are hiding the radiation signature? Is it another flock of birds flying at 800mph on radar? The mini sub drone sounds very complicated, almost AI really.

Putin likes to show his strength and how he is willing to defy the big players. Perhaps that's all it is? The EU aren't fond of his encroachment so it could be a nod towards them as Germany will be left with France as a nuclear deterrent. We would still be there as part of NATO but how close we will be is less certain when we are all squabbling with each other over our separation. His speech may even come as a bonus to us in shaking a few people into ensuring we stay closer together?