Politics

[Ontario Hunter]

So you would kill a child who did nothing to you rather than the man?

He could have justifiably used deadly force on you at that point.

I have a real problem with this conduct.

Called his bluff and that was that. I guarantee you he would NOT have had an option to use deadly force on me at that point. Would I have shot his grandkid? Of course not. Had he fired at my dog or tried to shoot me I could easily move my aim to him standing next to the boy. But if he'd tried that, anything could have happened. Scared the boy badly. And I think he knew who to blame. He was screaming German at old Papa. When that turd got out of his vehicle wearing a handgun, shouting, and waving his arms, I figured it probably was going to get tense. He just couldn't accept "no." He made his point with a gun and I made my counterpoint with a gun. If he wanted to escalate, then the consequences would be on his head. He didn't.

I can assure you my dog's life meant no less to me than his grandson's life meant to him.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I found a video of a couple of AH members lecturing @Big Easy and a couple friends.

 

[Tex .416]

Called his bluff and that was that. I guarantee you he would NOT have had an option to use deadly force on me at that point. Would I have shot his grandkid? Of course not. Had he fired at my dog or tried to shoot me I could easily move my aim to him standing next to the boy. But if he'd tried that, anything could have happened. Scared the boy badly. And I think he knew who to blame. He was screaming German at old Papa. When that turd got out of his vehicle wearing a handgun, shouting, and waving his arms, I figured it probably was going to get tense. He just couldn't accept "no." He made his point with a gun and I made my counterpoint with a gun. If he wanted to escalate, then the consequences would be on his head. He didn't.

I can assure you my dog's life meant no less to me than his grandson's life meant to him.

I understand the power of a pet, truly.

However, to me threatening a child like that is inexcusable, morally or legally.

Tactics were poor on both sides.

Two fools were lucky to walk away alive that day.

 

[Scott CWO]

I agree the price is ridiculous. But it was also ridiculous before the ACA was passed as well. Your article describes premium increases of 74% between 2014 and 2024. But how much did they increase prior to that? That's what really matters, how quickly were premiums and total healthcare expenditures increasing before and after the ACA passed (2010), and before and after it took effect (2014). The math shows similar increases both before and after. The trend lines seem pretty consistent.

Before: 2003-2010 increase: 63% - 9.0%/year
Passed: 2010-2025 increase: 95% - 6.3%/year
Took Effect: 2014-2024 increase: 74% - 7.4%/year

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/documents/___media_files_publications_issue_brief_2011_nov_state_trends_1561_schoen_state_trends_premiums_deductibles_2003_2010.pdf

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Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Medical Care in U.S. City Average

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Medical Care in U.S. City Average (CPIMEDSL) from Jan 1947 to Jun 2026 about medical, urban, consumer, CPI, inflation, price index, indexes, price, and USA.

fred.stlouisfed.org

Measuring total-premium inflation for health insurance in the Consumer Price Index : Monthly Labor Review : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

www.bls.gov

This is utter BS. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I was paying $750 per month with a $1000 deductible per person for a family of four the year before Obamacare. My premiums immediately increased to $1250 with $6600 deductible per person and kept going way up every year! I made too much money to get any discount and I was paying for your deadbeats! The premiums went to $2200 per month and our agent said I should drop our teenagers off the policy to stay at $2200 for just my wife and I. Our teenage twins got on Obamacare for just $50 per month while in college. Obamacare is nothing but wealth redistribution tied with insurance.

 

[Doug3006]

@Ontario Hunter, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I hope that you really don’t mean that you value your dog’s life as much as that man values his grandson’s. I hope it’s just ill-considered. If true, it would mean that you are a soulless, empty vessel.

 

[LivingTheDream]

Called his bluff and that was that. I guarantee you he would NOT have had an option to use deadly force on me at that point. Would I have shot his grandkid? Of course not. Had he fired at my dog or tried to shoot me I could easily move my aim to him standing next to the boy. But if he'd tried that, anything could have happened. Scared the boy badly. And I think he knew who to blame. He was screaming German at old Papa. When that turd got out of his vehicle wearing a handgun, shouting, and waving his arms, I figured it probably was going to get tense. He just couldn't accept "no." He made his point with a gun and I made my counterpoint with a gun. If he wanted to escalate, then the consequences would be on his head. He didn't.

I can assure you my dog's life meant no less to me than his grandson's life meant to him.

You pointed a loaded gun at an unarmed child as part of a bluff and then proceed to say it would have been justified and the consequences would be on him.

This is insane, and violates pretty much every measure of gun safety and just human decency. You are a deeply troubled person.

 

[Killingtime]

You don't think the "cowboy and indians" we played as a child with cap guns were not violent in nature as well?

I asked my wife about a year ago while we were watching the rifleman with my young boys if I was being a bad dad letting them watch this show since Lucas McCain kills someone almost every episode. And she goes what your worried about them learning justice? Lol. The truth is it was common a 150 years ago to take kids to public hangings. And dime novel westerns and comics before the ethics code was made were definitely different shall we say than those that came after. But most people have done alright. It’s a parents job to explain what there kids are seeing and hearing not the worlds. I grew up reading and watching westerns,war, and mob movies but I didn’t become a degenerate.

 

[Brent in Az]

Zelinskyy claims that Ukraine struck an Iranian ship in the Caspian sea that was carrying arms between Russia and Iran
Probably the reason that Iran is always trying to buy time with their disingenuous claims of wanting negotiations.
They are just trying to regroup and reload

 

[Scott CWO]

Laura Loomer, who I hope most of you have never heard of much less listened to, is a "MAGA" influencer with millions of followers who has been a mouthpiece for nearly every luns atic far right conspiracy that livens up the nether reaches of the internet. Like Tucker Carlson, she has been a faithful mouthpiece for Russian propaganda spreading notions such as Zelensky and the Ukrainian people are Nazis, the Bucha massacre was "fake news," Ukraine has banned the Orthodox Church, Russia is inevitably winning, the aide we sent to Ukraine went into oligarch's pockets, and on and on and on. Goebbels could not have done a better job than Russia has in exploiting a foreign spokesperson. We have seen the results of a lot of that information dominance success fed into this discussion over the last several years.

In any case, Loomer was invited to go to Ukraine. It seemed logical that if you were going to spread this nonsense, then a visit to the location of the on-going crime would be informative - particularly if one has obviously never studied any actual history and have no background in international issues (she has a BA in Journalism from the University of Miami Shores in 2015.) To her credit, she went, and to his credit, Zelensky gave her an interview where he patiently walked her through almost every question she asked. Her escort took her to Bucha where she spoke with surviving citizens, saw the mass graves, and even experienced a timely Russian missile attack on the civilian center of the town that killed several and wounded dozens.

To her credit, after returning a couple of days ago, she apparently has spent hours on her keyboard apologizing for every bit of Russian propaganda she has amplified since the start of the war. The horrified comments from her tinfoil capped followers to her redemption posts are hilarious were they not so indicative of Russia's information space success.

Interestingly, Trump posted on Truth Social the interview between Loomer and Zelensky. The interview below is an hour long, but it is worth dipping into. The interviewer is one of Ukraine's leading journalists.

It’s time to give Russia hell — even Laura Loomer thinks so

Everybody loves a redemption arc, and Laura Loomer’s abrupt reversal on the war in Ukraine may prove particularly rewarding.

nypost.com

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy. Describes her to a "T".

So she lost her her Twitter account and that's why she listened to RT and bought into Russian propaganda because she couldn't find any other sources of information? This woman is an imbecile. Unfortunately, many of our Republican brethren did the same. Use your brain, people. I swear some people were asleep all throughout the Cold War era after WWII until the breakup of the USSR.

 

[Scott CWO]

I dont expect everyone to agree with me on my posts I dont always agree with Big Easy. I am happy he posts here. He is the fly in the ointment. If he wasn't here thr opposition to the common mind-set would be almost non existent.IMHO

Except for you...

 

[Newboomer]

I have done that very thing. If enough members hit the ignore button on this rascal it will be as if he was never here.

Yes. As a wise man once told me,"He's(BE) alright in his way. He just doesn't weigh very much."
He also said,"He's alright in his place. It just needs to be dug."

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

Yes. As a wise man once told me,"He's alright in his way. He just doesn't weigh very much."
He also said,"He's alright in his place. It just needs to be dug."

Old man used to bounce back and forth between if brains was dynamite he couldn’t blow his nose or if brains was blood pressure he couldn’t sustain an erection depending on company and captain Morgan consumption

 

[WAB]

Old man used to bounce back and forth between if brains was dynamite he couldn’t blow his nose or if brains was blood pressure he couldn’t sustain an erection depending on company and captain Morgan consumption

I’d have got along just fine with your old man. Headed your way this fall, owe you a beer.

 

[Big_Easy]

How about this for a plan to start fixing things, move the social security retirement age 1 year for every 15 years. So everyone under 47 now, now 63, everyone under 32, 64.

Thats an idea. Theres not much data on that, but some estimate that would reduce the SS insolvency gap by 20-25%. So right now it would have little effect on the deficit. If we raise it to 64 for the under 32 crowd, that's 32 more years before we see savings on that. I wonder how high the debt would be by then?

Or pass a law that says without a balance budget, congressman dont get paid or better yet can't run for reelection.

I'd support such a law, but I don't see it getting passed anytime soon. Plus I think a constitutional challenge would prevail, and in order to get it to stick, it would need to be a constitutional amendment. Which I think is less likely.

 

[Big_Easy]

@Big_Easy , tell you what, since eliminating 325 billion of problematic cuts is so easy in your mind, do it. I’m waiting. Math is simple! Get it done and then we can talk. This might take you a while, so please focus on it. Please refrain from any further posts on AH until you take care of this easy math problem. Good luck and Godspeed!

Sure. I believe that I have already solved that problem earlier. In post #76,218, on page 3811 of this thread, and proceeding pages. However, I can summarize for you below:

1) The department of education currently spends ~$100 billion sending money to state K-12 schools for non-special education purposes. We can eliminate that. As many on here have said, K-12 testing outcomes are no better now than they were 40 years ago. Doesn't seem like money well spent to me either.
2) The USDA currently spend ~$60 Billion sending welfare to farmers. I believe someone else on this site said that..."we can't keep spending welfare dollars, no more goodies, handouts, and freebies" OK, I agree with that concept. Therefore I think that the farmers would understand why we need to make these cuts.
3) The USDA is also home to the food stamp program. I think a 25% cut is reasonable, so that's ~$26 Billion saved. I doubt anyone would starve on a 25% cut, but we can monitor that and see.
4) The budget sequestration cuts during the Obama admin for the DOD were ~$56 Billion, adj. for inflation thats roughly $90 Billion today.
5) [325 - 100 - 60 - 26 - 90] = $49 Billion leftover. Non-defense discretionary is ~980 Billion. But we already hit USDA and EDU hard, so lets spread the remaining 49 Billion in cuts over every other program except theirs. So the remaining Non-defense, non-USDA, and non-EDU discretionary amounts are ~780 Billion. 49/780 = 6.3%

The answer is ~6% cuts to all other programs to reach my $325 Billion goal. All readily achievable in 5 easy steps. You add this to may big tax increase on the top 2% and you get us back on track, financially speaking. Over the next 20 years, if our debt accumulates at a lower pace than our GDP growth rate, our debt to GDP ratio would be back under 100%. Which is a good thing.

 

[Big_Easy]

Unfortunately, your numbers only work for wage slaves. The self-employed pay 12.4 % SS tax. And you left off Medicare tax of 2.9% no income limit.

That's true, we can reconfigure for them as well. But remember the SS tax is only on the first 185K. So that doubles our estimate above from 1.1% to 2.2%, so a small increase. And then add another 1.5% for Medicare. So that's 53.5% + 1.1% (employer portion of SS tax) + 1.5% (employer portion of medicare tax) = 56.1%. The new answer is 56.1% for the non-wage slave.

Be glad, the Laffer curve has never been fully tested. 100% results in no income for the federal government.

What you fail to understand, is the wealthy can transfer their wealth to a tax haven using the gift tax exclusion and transfer the business and the business bills from the tax haven. The US may tax you worldwide, but good luck collecting.

Again, allowing tax havens is a choice, congress could pass laws plugging loopholes and tax havens if they so desired.

 

[Tbitty]

Yes we did, we just beat the shit out of each other and went on our way.

We didnt have the mass shootings (to my knowledge). But I think fighting in the school yard, or outside of it, was a pressure release valve. Additionally we could go home, go fishing, go hunting, build something, we didnt go home and have social media to keep up the pressure.

Long story short, we didnt have less violence, we just seen an escalation of violence.

Too many people today have zero understanding of consequences. School-yard fights taught those consequences. Talk shit = get hit. Now we have keyboard warriors (not unlike a number of posts I've read on this thread) who hide their identity and/or make up tales to sound tough.

I am convinced if hunter safety / gun safety curriculum were part of school at a young age would drastically reduce gun violence.

In my rural Kansas community, (I graduated high school in the early 2000's), even though all the zero-tolerance laws existed about having no guns or weapons on school property, we would have guns in the vehicles to go hunt before or after school. Teachers and everyone knew they were there, no one was worried about it. Pocket knives were standard uniform for all the farm kids like myself- either belt sheathed or in the jeans pocket (or both) at much earlier ages.

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

I’d have got along just fine with your old man. Headed your way this fall, owe you a beer.

Sounds good to me , if time allows we can see about flushing you a pheasant or two while your down.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Is Lambchop one of the President's advisors?

 

[RLD]

I asked my wife about a year ago while we were watching the rifleman with my young boys if I was being a bad dad letting them watch this show since Lucas McCain kills someone almost every episode. And she goes what your worried about them learning justice? Lol. The truth is it was common a 150 years ago to take kids to public hangings. And dime novel westerns and comics before the ethics code was made were definitely different shall we say than those that came after. But most people have done alright. It’s a parents job to explain what there kids are seeing and hearing not the worlds. I grew up reading and watching westerns,war, and mob movies but I didn’t become a degenerate.

It is NEVER a bad idea to watch the amazing Chuck Connors in that magnificent series. And odd trivia I am pretty sure it was the first network TV show depicting a single father raising a child.