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maxomai- Turks are rioting in Istanbul after the government tried to violently quash omnibus protests. So much for that! And yes, this does affect America's ability to form a coalition in their Syrian proxy war, which might be a possible motivation for renewed claims of WMD use.
- Have you noticed that, since Sandy Hook, more television shows (like Burn Notice and Psych) have referred to fully automatic weapons as "semi-automatic?" I have, and I wonder how much the White House is paying those shows to push their messaging. It wouldn't be the first time the government has done this.
- SCOTUS rules that Arizona must accept Federal voter ID standards and can't impose their own, more strict and odious standards. The Federal standard requires that one swears out an affidavit that one is a US citizen. That's it. No trying to find birth certificates and marriage licenses from the days before they kept archival grade copies of records, no de-facto poll taxes, no fooling around. It'll be interesting to see how hard other states (Georgia, Wisconsin) fight this.
- Chicago just had its deadliest weekend so far this year - at least six dead, 40 shot overall. Second Amendment advocates will point out that this happened in the city with the strictest gun control laws in the nation, and that it demonstrates the futility of banning guns. Fair enough, but it also points to the necessity of a framework to address the flow of guns into the hands of gangbangers. Universal background checks were supposed to be a part of that, if only because it gave the police another hammer with which to beat gun traffickers.
- A woman is suing the McDonald's she worked at because they would only pay her with a pre-paid debit card. It's not just that the debit card is heavy on fees, by the way; it's that it's her only option. Even direct deposit to an other account, or being paid by check, were not open to her. This needs to be nipped in the bud now before owing your soul to the company bank becomes the future for low-wage workers.
