Off topic post because the community feed listing comments in chronological order is useless for seeing current commentary. This will be re-posted when an appropriate topic appears.
Russia is continuing to decimate Ukraine as they await promised defensively weaponry which as usual will be too little, too late. The news cycle in this country is no longer covering the Russisn atrocities and I fear that the putin will win crippling concessions for peace - where he will have time to restock the military to finish the job later.
………
I think that our country and NATO allies are not framing our support of Ukraine in the proper context. While our support can be seen as protecting democracy from an encroaching autocracy, it is not a war between between democracy and autocracy.
Rather, it is the world of nations acting to preserve the established rules and norms that has prevented sovereign nations from the unprovoked takeover by another militarily stronger nation.
Our country will need to work collaboratively with all of the world’s governments for needed supplies that only they can provide, to provide markets for things that our country can provide and to resolve pressing geo-political issues that will effect everyone country of the world.
Framing the Russian war crimes as a armed battle between democracy and autocracy instead of as world-of-nations effort to protect a sovereign nation from an unprovoked war of atrocities by a stronger neighbor, is the wrong way to describe the conflict.
In this case, it is the world of nations working together to hold Russia in check from just erasing a neighboring sovereign nation and taking it’s resources in an unprovoked war because their leader wants to.
The treaties, agreements and world agreed to rules have kept the overall world of nations more or less at peace since the second World War.
These rules are being broken in many, many ways by Russia and their expansionist goals to recover former Soviet Union territories, which in itself is a direct and persistent threat to the NATO alliance.
What we and our allies are doing is to provide military tools to this strategically important country so they can defend themselves from a larger country which is trying to erase their nation, their culture, their heritage and their people.
While I am not privy to the intel that Biden has access to and has historically paid a lot of intention to, I think is a great mistake to not give Ukraine all of the military tools necessary to drive the Russian war criminals out of all Ukrainian territories as soon as possible, including the ability to counter attack missile strikes originating from outside Ukraine borders, from inside Russia or from seaborne platforms.
I think a NATO seaborne presence to unblock the ports is also necessary, as part of a needed humanitarian effort to get Ukrainian grain to countries dependent on Ukrainian grain to fend off starvation.
There is a risk in acting proactively instead of reactively in that a ‘cornered’ putin may resort to using even more lethal and war-crime banned weapons against the Ukrainian civilian population than the banned weapons he has already deployed.
This all really comes down to the issue of wether or not his inner circle or the military would let the putin use even more lethal banned weaponry due to the very real fear of a severe western alliance reprisal and an increased severity of already punishing economic sanctions.
On the other hand, not providing the tools to quickly expel the Russians will certainly result in the western alliance pushing for a negotiated peace which will give the putin former Ukrainian territories from which he can rebuild military assets as well as engage in cyber attacks and other ‘hidden-war’ tactics to continue his quest to rebuild the Soviet Union. Any negotiated peace will remain short lived as the putin has an established record of breaking established treaties and agreements - he will just quietly rebuild his military assets stationed along the border and come back later.
Further, some of the resolve that binds the alliance will be under continued pressure to break down from those European countries economically suffering from reduced access to Russian oil and gas.
By not providing all of the military weaponry for Ukraine to decisively defeat Russia we are delaying any acceptable resolution and helping this to remain a war of attrition, a war of attrition that keeps pulverizing critical civilian infrastructure and keeps the war-crime civilian population death toll from banned weapons growing.
The growing Ukrainian civilian death toll should be the justification for expanding unpublicized military weaponry delivery to Ukraine, to end the war holding on to their territories and saving their populous from continuing to be decimated by banned weapons.
The putin cannot be permitted to keep any Ukrainian territories as part of what would be a short lived peace; which Russian would use as staging areas from which to launch their next attack.
Get the kind of military resources needed by Ukraine to decisively and quickly expel the Russian invaders so that any negotiated peace will let Ukraine rebuild using seized Russian funds for reparations.
Let Russia’s inner circle and military leadership deal with their abomination of a demented leader - or continue to suffer from the currently devastating world-wide economic sanctions.
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Off topic post because the community feed listing comments in chronological order is useless for seeing current commentary. This will be re-posted when an appropriate topic appears.
Russia is continuing to decimate Ukraine as they await promised defensively weaponry which as usual will be too little, too late. The news cycle in this country is no longer covering the Russisn atrocities and I fear that the putin will win crippling concessions for peace - where he will have time to restock the military to finish the job later.
………
I think that our country and NATO allies are not framing our support of Ukraine in the proper context. While our support can be seen as protecting democracy from an encroaching autocracy, it is not a war between between democracy and autocracy.
Rather, it is the world of nations acting to preserve the established rules and norms that has prevented sovereign nations from the unprovoked takeover by another militarily stronger nation.
Our country will need to work collaboratively with all of the world’s governments for needed supplies that only they can provide, to provide markets for things that our country can provide and to resolve pressing geo-political issues that will effect everyone country of the world.
Framing the Russian war crimes as a armed battle between democracy and autocracy instead of as world-of-nations effort to protect a sovereign nation from an unprovoked war of atrocities by a stronger neighbor, is the wrong way to describe the conflict.
In this case, it is the world of nations working together to hold Russia in check from just erasing a neighboring sovereign nation and taking it’s resources in an unprovoked war because their leader wants to.
The treaties, agreements and world agreed to rules have kept the overall world of nations more or less at peace since the second World War.
These rules are being broken in many, many ways by Russia and their expansionist goals to recover former Soviet Union territories, which in itself is a direct and persistent threat to the NATO alliance.
What we and our allies are doing is to provide military tools to this strategically important country so they can defend themselves from a larger country which is trying to erase their nation, their culture, their heritage and their people.
While I am not privy to the intel that Biden has access to and has historically paid a lot of intention to, I think is a great mistake to not give Ukraine all of the military tools necessary to drive the Russian war criminals out of all Ukrainian territories as soon as possible, including the ability to counter attack missile strikes originating from outside Ukraine borders, from inside Russia or from seaborne platforms.
I think a NATO seaborne presence to unblock the ports is also necessary, as part of a needed humanitarian effort to get Ukrainian grain to countries dependent on Ukrainian grain to fend off starvation.
There is a risk in acting proactively instead of reactively in that a ‘cornered’ putin may resort to using even more lethal and war-crime banned weapons against the Ukrainian civilian population than the banned weapons he has already deployed.
This all really comes down to the issue of wether or not his inner circle or the military would let the putin use even more lethal banned weaponry due to the very real fear of a severe western alliance reprisal and an increased severity of already punishing economic sanctions.
On the other hand, not providing the tools to quickly expel the Russians will certainly result in the western alliance pushing for a negotiated peace which will give the putin former Ukrainian territories from which he can rebuild military assets as well as engage in cyber attacks and other ‘hidden-war’ tactics to continue his quest to rebuild the Soviet Union. Any negotiated peace will remain short lived as the putin has an established record of breaking established treaties and agreements - he will just quietly rebuild his military assets stationed along the border and come back later.
Further, some of the resolve that binds the alliance will be under continued pressure to break down from those European countries economically suffering from reduced access to Russian oil and gas.
By not providing all of the military weaponry for Ukraine to decisively defeat Russia we are delaying any acceptable resolution and helping this to remain a war of attrition, a war of attrition that keeps pulverizing critical civilian infrastructure and keeps the war-crime civilian population death toll from banned weapons growing.
The growing Ukrainian civilian death toll should be the justification for expanding unpublicized military weaponry delivery to Ukraine, to end the war holding on to their territories and saving their populous from continuing to be decimated by banned weapons.
The putin cannot be permitted to keep any Ukrainian territories as part of what would be a short lived peace; which Russian would use as staging areas from which to launch their next attack.
Get the kind of military resources needed by Ukraine to decisively and quickly expel the Russian invaders so that any negotiated peace will let Ukraine rebuild using seized Russian funds for reparations.
Let Russia’s inner circle and military leadership deal with their abomination of a demented leader - or continue to suffer from the currently devastating world-wide economic sanctions.
Reposting - Another take on the rise of American Fascism as the modern GOP promises to destroy Democracy and everything that matters with it.
#GunsOverPeople
#RepublicanNaziParty
https://apple.news/AtcRi-HWcSk-2TPGqlqEhOQ
I'm happy to see my House rep Lamb voted for this, as we need action now to keep our kids and elderly safe. This is a good start.
It's time to take back our country from the gun lobby and the radical right. It doesn't have to be this way.
Republicans are the 21st century's Vichy Americans.
They are to democracy what the Confederacy was to the union.
They are the anti-Democracy enemies to all of us.
#RepublicanFascists
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/9/2103155/-Endorsed-by-Elise-Stefanik-Paladino-says-We-need-somebody-inspirational-like-Hitler
Looks like a party line vote ignoring the evidence that red flag laws save lives especially suicide which is the largest percentage of gun deaths.
Risk-based gun removal (red flag)
-2/3rds (61%) of gun deaths between 2008 and 2017 were suicides.
-more value in preventing suicide than mass murder
-Most states only law enforcement and family or household members while some states allow medical professionals, school officials, coworkers and current or former partners.
-APM Survey
—-- 77% support family-initiated
——70% support law enforcement
——women (83%) v men (70%)
——urban v rural
——higher educated
<2018 only 5 states (CA, CT, IN, OR, WA)
-2020 19 states+DC (CO, DC, DE, FL, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, MN, NY, RI, NV, VA, VT)
-OK prohibits local red flag laws
Success factors
-1 in 10 suicides averted
-IN suicide rate dropped 7.5% in 10 years
-56% of mass shooters warning signs
-Researchers from the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis School of Medicine reviewed 414 cases that occurred from 2016 to 2018,
——the study authors received 159 court cases for people subject to the orders and developed an aggregate history and individual histories for a preliminary series of 21 cases.
—-52 firearms were taken from individuals (26 of them in one case).
—-Profile: non-Hispanic white males, with a mean age of 35, though they ranged in age from 14 to 65.
—Four cases arose primarily in relation to medical or mental health conditions, and such conditions were noted in four others. The cases involved workplace threats, school threats or those targeting children, as well as cases with political, social or domestic motivations.
—-three cases the researchers studied, the individuals had very recently purchased firearms but, as a result of California’s 10-day waiting period, had not yet acquired them. Because of the court order, the individuals were blocked from getting a gun.
—-According to the study, nearly 80% of perpetrators of mass violence in public places make explicit threats or behave in a manner “indicative of their intent to carry out an attack.” For example, the shooters in the Parkland, Florida; Aurora, Colorado; and Tucson, Arizona events, among others, were known by family members, acquaintances, law enforcement, and in some cases, healthcare professionals, to be at high risk for violence.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/red-flag-laws-states
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/gun-survey-red-flag
https://www.pewtrusts.org/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/10/05/red-flag-laws-are-saving-lives-they-could-save-more
https://everytownresearch.org/solution/extreme-risk-laws/
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/can-red-flag-laws-help-prevent-mass-shootings-21-cases-suggest-answer-yes
https://www.causes.com/comments/10899
Every Republican did not support this Red Flag Law. The do noth Republicans in both the House & the Senate need to be voted OUT of Office. For the lat 12 yrs, Republicans have Voted No on all Gun Legislation that was presented in both the House & the Senate. They have Chosen the NRA, & Far Right Gun loving both the MAGA Crowd, White Supremist Groups like Q-a-Non, Proud Boys, Bugalo Boys & they themselves to kstay in Power. Killing School Children does noy matter to the Republican Party,, keeping the NRA happy is. I will Vote OUT every Republican I can in November & many of my Republican Family Members & Friends will do the same. We hare fed up with these People just collecting a Paycheck & ignoring what we the Voters want done, stop selling AR15 assault weapons that cut off the heads of some of those Children in Uvalde !
This is ignoring the people who placed their trust in you to vote and advocate on their behalf. Shameful.
Mr. Wenstrup, you certainly do NOT represent MY values !
Wow, you can certainly tell who's on the take from the NRA, who oppose the law because they fear Americans will lose their “fundamental right to protect themselves and their loved ones.”. Funny; that's how parents, students, & teachers feel about our rights to not be shot at school by someone who should never be allowed to own a gun, especially, a gun which can kill 20 people in 20 seconds.
Jack Bergman doesn't care about Michiganders or anyone else. Can't wait to vote him out!
Enough is enough. How many children have to die? We want laws to control who has access to guns and to raise the age limit. Stop abetting the killing of our children.
It seems that a standard Red Flag for the country could eliminate a portion of the problems we currently experience along with standardized background checks with waiting periods that are long enough to complete,
As a former loyal Republican, it's become a joke among many of my friends.. We need new blood! Republicans that puts country and the constitution ahead of getting on their knees to pander themselves. Seriously a joke to those with a scrap of intelligence. Rubio and Salazar are an embarrassment and need to go first. Still somewhat hopeful for Rick Scott.
The one measure which would help maintain gun ownership while preventing people so unbalanced that they are a threat to themselves or others and my representative voted against! Hope no one in his family is threatened by a stalker or sufferes with a violent partner 🤦♀️
Shame on you Rep Donalds. With all the recent gun violence why would you vote nay??
You're pathetic, Darin LaHood.
Herrera Buetler votes NO on red flag law. Vote No Way on her re-election.
Why can't my Republican Representative vote in favor of life-saving legislation? The bill isn't trying to take away guns, so what's the problem? I'm beginning to wonder if any Republicans do their own thinking or do they all just do as they are told.
Who in this world would make it known that they poise a treath at the time of purchase. Any reliable sales person would themselves make the call, to not allow the purchase. Even a criminal ,in some cases, would not go through with the purchase. Your case is not well thought out!
Well, Rodney! I had a choice of you or Mary Miller. Guess who I voted for. You got it !! Mary Miller.
Not everyone in America needs to own a gun. The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution states " A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed upon." To me this means that those who belong to a state militia (organized and run by the statein a military fashion much like the National Guard, Army, etc.). Certain people should never own a gun, i.e. someone who is mentally unstable, suicidal, a person who has been involved in domestic abuse and is the abuser. These people should be banned from ever owning a gun. I believe raising the agge to own a gun should be raised to 21. You can't buy alcohol until your 21.
So predictable, he voted NO, yet again on a gun question. Like I said before, he doesn't live here. If there is one there will be many helping him load up and head back to the South!
I support this bill, and my representatives in Congress support murdering children, suicide by firearm, and insurrection and my ONLY House Representative voted against this common sense bill.
We need our children and grandchildren a lot more than MORE GUNS, & and repeating bad decisions [re: gun control] and expecting a differant result is just INSANE. DO SOMETHING NOW!
Granger doesn't care whether people are decapitated, pulverized or even obliterated. She is more focused on kissing the (virtual) ass of the NRA and staying in lockstep with the Republicans. Granger doesn't have the slightest courage. She should take lessons from Liz Cheney who is willing to risk her political career for the truth. But Granger, Cornyn, and especially Cruz will never have any courage. Texas deserves better.
Thank you for your NO vote Mr Massie!!