Lurker > WastelandCowboy

Nelson said the timing of the president's decision, against the backdrop of unrest in Charlottesville, Va., "reflects this administrations now open effort to escalate racial tensions in our country.''

Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, said the Obama guidelines were adopted to promote the adoption of "a guardian, not warrior mentality'' among police when responding to local crises.

"Our communities are not the same as armed combatants in a war zone,'' said Gupta, who headed the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration.

A measure of the controversy that has long shadowed law enforcement's use of such equipment was voiced by some Republican lawmakers who parted with the administration on the president's executive order.

"Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous--or false--security,'' Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said. "The militarization of our law enforcement is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm.''

Local access to the high-powered gear was put on national display in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., where armored vehicles and heavily-armed police clashed with protesters for days following the police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old black man by a white officer.

The deployment of such equipment, President Obama argued at the time, cast the police as an "occupying force,'' deepening a divide between law enforcement and a wary community.

"We've seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling like they're an occupying force, as opposed to a force that's part of the community that's protecting them and serving them," Obama said in announcing the ban in 2015.

The military gear ban was among a host of policing reform recommendations to flow from a White House advisory group formed in the aftermath of the Ferguson rioting.

The Task Force on 21st Century Policing, chaired by former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, a former assistant attorney general, called on law enforcement officials to "minimize the appearance of a military operation'' when policing mass demonstrations.

"Avoid using provocative tactics and equipment that undermine civilian trust," the task force urged.

The Obama order did allow for the limited use of other surplus — aircraft, wheeled tactical vehicles, mobile command units, battering rams and riot gear — on the condition that such equipment was approved by the federal government.

The surplus sharing agreement, also known as the "1033 program," was created by Congress nearly 30 years ago as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. It was originally intended to assist local law enforcement in drug investigations.

The program was expanded in 1997 to include all local law enforcement operations, including counter-terrorism. Since then, according to the government, more than $5 billion in gear has been transferred to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.

"Much of the equipment provided through the 1033 program is entirely defensive in nature ... that protect officers in active shooter scenarios and other dangerous situations," the Trump administration proposal says.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Monday lifted a controversial ban on the transfer of some surplus military equipment to police departments whose battlefield-style response to rioting in a St. Louis suburb three years ago prompted a halt to the program.

The new plan takes effect immediately and fully rolls back an Obama administration executive order that blocked armored vehicles, large-caliber weapons, ammunition and other heavy equipment from being re-purposed from foreign battlefields to America's streets.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who led the campaign for the program's reinstatement, outlined the President Trump's new executive order Monday in an address to the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police union, suggesting that Obama's directive was a concession to political pressure applied by civil rights advocates.

"We will not put superficial concerns above public safety,'' Sessions told the group gathered in Nashville, Tenn. "All you need to do is turn on a TV right now to see that for Houstonians this isn't about appearances, it's about getting the job done and getting everyone to safety.''

The attorney general referred to post-hurricane rescue effort underway in Houston, where military vehicles and helicopters--part of the the Texas National Guard--were deployed to assist in the massive response.

The administration's action, first disclosed by USA TODAY, would restore "the full scope of a longstanding program for recycling surplus, lifesaving gear from the Department of Defense, along with restoring the full scope of grants used to purchase this type of equipment from other sources,'' according to a administration summary of the new program.

"Assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be re-purposed to help state, local and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime."

Included in the gear are such things as rocket-launchers and bayonets. According to the Trump plan, the bayonets would likely be re-purposed as utility knives and the launchers used to shoot tear gas canisters, instead of lethal ammunition.

The FOP and some other law enforcement groups have long been pressing for a reversal of the Obama administration policy, arguing that access to such equipment was needed, especially in cash-strapped communities, to better respond to local unrest.

"We're not talking about tanks and cannons,'' said James Pasco, the FOP's executive director. "Armored vehicles don't attack people; they protect people and not everyone can afford this equipment.''

Civil rights advocates, however, warned that the program's reinstatement threatened to inflame tensions in minority communities where such heavy gear has been deployed in the past.

"It is both exceptionally dangerous and irresponsible for the administration to lift the ban on the transfer of certain surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement organizations,'' said Janai Nelson, associate director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "Just a few summers ago, our nation watched as Ferguson raised the specter of increased police militarization. The law enforcement response there and in too many places across the country demonstrated how perilous, especially for black and brown communities, a militarized police force can be.''

That's odd. I've never had any glitches like that. What's your setup (just curious )

Oi, I got me finger stuck in me bum

Getting ready for a flight tonight back to Dubai from Seoul.....Gonna do last minute shopping. :)))

So mixed feelings; going to miss the place but can't wait to get home too.

WastelandCowboy posted...

Disappointed and confused.

Apparently, the government thinks I could somehow see my father again and turn him into a weapon of mass destruction, even though he's been dead for almost twenty years and was cremated.

this sounds like a metal gear villain origin story

WastelandCowboy posted...

I've only seen the British version. Haven't watched the American version.

It's pretty funny and very true.

I don't think they ever made an American version. Apparently it was supposed to start Joel McHale though so I'm sad it never existed.

Y'see, in Canada we don't have taxation without representation. Any taxes claimed on a lotto would have to improve the lotto in some way, which it doesn't need.

Canada.... 100%

Peterass posted...

This is total bullshit. All of it

Excellent counterpoint. You sure showed me.

Depends on said product. Even something as simple as a battery charger might use different indicators to show the batteries are fully charged. My old charger goes from blinking light to solid light. My new one has solid light when charging and turn off when full.

Depends on the product.

Land ownership kind of sucks to be honest. Lots of labor for very little gain (and pretty much perpetual slavery to the government). If I were them, I would have demanded a Manhattan penthouse or some beach front in the Hamptons.

I didn't believe it for a second even before clicking the topic, and I'm pretty gullible.

There's no way something that huge would happen, and NASA only gives us two months' warning.

Back in July 2015, the fake news web site Newswatch33 published an article titled “NASA Confirms Earth Will Experience 15 Days of Complete Darkness in November 2015,” reporting that:

NASA has confirmed that the Earth will experience 15 days of total darkness between November 15 and November 29, 2015. The event, according to NASA, hasn’t occurred in over 1 Million years.

Astronomers from NASA have indicated that the world will remain in complete darkness starting on Sunday, November 15, 2015 at 3 a.m. and will end on Monday, November 30, 2015 at 4:15 p.m. According to officials, the “November Black Out” event will be caused by another astronomical event between Venus and Jupiter.

Charles Bolden, who was appointed to head of NASA by President Obama, issued a 1000 page document explaining the event to the White House.
This bit of fake news was lifted from an older (debunked) viral rumor that had already been around the online block several times before and has long since become an “evergreen” online hoax — a jape that is typically resurrected a few times a year by dubious web sites that simply update the time span for the alleged “period of darkness” and send it winging around the Internet again.

While Charles Bolden is a real NASA official, he issued no report or announcement about “15 days of darkness.” Moreover, Newswatch33 web site was not a legitimate news outlet, but a fake news site that began darkening the doorstep of social media networks shortly after the nearly identical NewsWatch28 fake news site shut down in mid-2015.

I would consider 1 and 5 because what else would I do if I have no one to leave it to, but the rest is ridiculous.

WastelandCowboy posted...

Undocked with joycons attached.

I've never once actually used the dock. Literally have it boxed away.

are you afraid of warping your console?

Zeus posted...

tbh, never really understood how people can get bored unless they're stuck somewhere with nothing to do but even then you've got your imagination or, if you're waiting for something, it gives you prep time.

It might have something to do with not having a job.
I don't remember what that's like, but that's what I imagine it is.

I'm always happy to have some time off though, I have a lot of stuff to do. Even if it's just for games for me and my friends, they take a lot of prep time.

So not paying this bullshit ticket. Probably some asshole who had to meet his quota so they gave me this ticket.

Becoming a newly minted millionaire comes at a personal price for many lottery winners: They lose their anonymity.

That%u2019s what California man B. Raymond Buxton sacrificed when he came forward Tuesday as the sole winner of the $425 million Powerball jackpot %u2014 following six weeks of staying in the shadows.

Buxton claimed his cash from the California Lottery without the fanfare of a news conference %u2014 even covering his face in a publicity picture with the standard oversized check.

In a news release, California Lottery officials described Buxton as a Northern California retiree who came to their offices on April Fool%u2019s Day wearing a Yoda T-shirt that read, %u201CLuck of the Jedi I have.%u201D

It was all part of a deliberate display that Buxton orchestrated after he realized he bought the winning ticket in the Feb. 19 drawing, according to one of his advisers, Sam Singer.

Oregon typically requires public release of winners’ names, but the state lottery allowed a man from Baghdad to remain anonymous after he won an Aug. 24 Megabucks drawing worth $6.4 million. The man, who purchased the ticket on an international website, said the jackpot would place his family in danger if his identity were known.

Critics complain that allowing winners to hide their identity is a convenient way to conceal criminal activity.

Anonymity “throws a layer of assistance to someone who wants to rig a drawing,” said Dan Russell, former attorney for the Florida Lottery and now a private-practice attorney representing major casinos and gambling industry manufacturers. “It is of no value to those of us who want the system to operate in a clean manner. That is absolutely the wrong idea.”

The risk of anonymous winners came to light after a lottery insider fixed numbers in several games over several years.

Iowa prosecutors say a computer expert working for the Multi-State Lottery Association, or MUSL, which runs games for 37 member states and U.S. territories, figured out how to rig number-generating computers to pick his set of numbers.

Authorities believe Eddie Tipton and his associates successfully cashed in tickets in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, netting more than $2.6 million in payouts. Tipton was convicted of fraud in July for attempting to claim a $16.5 million Hot Lotto jackpot in Iowa. He faces charges additional charges in Iowa related to the other four states.

The requirement that names be made public was “the layer of security he couldn’t break,” Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said.

Gary Grief, chairman of the Powerball committee for MUSL, insists he has complete confidence in the integrity of the time-tested ball-drawing system, and he still supports revealing winners’ names.

Name disclosure is “a positive thing to reinforce to players that real people do win and that those real people don’t work for the lottery or aren’t involved with lottery,” he said.

A Powerball-type game has not had a high-profile scandal since 1980, the year of the “triple six fix,” in which a lottery insider and others secretly weighted balls with paint so only a few combinations of numbers could surface in the Pennsylvania Daily Number game.

The seven men bet heavily on those combinations. The winning number was 666, which yielded $1.8 million. But they were caught, prosecuted and most of the money was recovered.

“The worst thing that could ever happen to the lottery,” McNay said, “is people feeling like it’s fixed.”

AP) — Even a jackpot isn’t enough to buy anonymity for many lottery winners, whose names are often made public by state law.

But now it’s becoming increasingly possible for big winners to hide their identity, and lottery executives are trying to strike a balance between ensuring privacy and safety while still proving to the public that real people can win.

Jackpot winners “get a big old target painted on their backs,” said Andrew Stoltmann, an Illinois attorney who has represented winners. When their names are released “they get harassed and harangued into some horrifically bad investments.”

Forcing people to reveal their names, he added, is like “throwing meat into a shark-infested ocean.”

On the other hand, allowing winners to collect jackpots in secret invites public suspicion and makes it easier for cheating to go undetected, according to gambling experts and others.

The three states with Powerball winners from Wednesday’s record $1.6 billion drawing — California, Florida and Tennessee — require winners to disclose their names, which is the policy of most states that play the game.

Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and South Carolina allow winners to remain anonymous. A growing number of other states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, will award prizes to a trust and allow a trustee — usually an attorney — to collect without disclosing the name of the ticket holder.

States including Illinois and Oregon have made exceptions to their policy of disclosure when winners demonstrate a high risk of harm.

Bills to keep lottery winners names confidential failed in North Carolina and New York in the last few years. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2013 vetoed a bill that called for a one-year delay in releasing names, saying it could reduce lottery sales by hampering marketing and muting public excitement when winners are announced. Similar measures have also been introduced in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Advocates of privacy cite cases in which winners saw their lives upended after their wealth became widely known.

One example cited by Don McNay, a Richmond, Kentucky, financial adviser who also has represented lottery winners, is Abraham Shakespeare, a Lakeland, Florida, janitor won a cash payout of $17 million in the Florida lottery in 2006.

Shakespeare appeared before cameras with family members, holding an oversized check. He had spent or given away most of his prize by the time he met Dorice Dee Dee Moore in late 2008. She tracked him down, befriended him and within a few months became his financial adviser, with control over his remaining money and his home.

Shakespeare disappeared in April 2009 at age 42. His body was found nine months later, encased in concrete and buried behind the home of Moore’s ex-boyfriend. Shakespeare had been shot twice in the chest. The 44-year-old Moore, convicted of his murder, is serving a life prison sentence.