Trump WAS absolutely found to be a rapist in a court of law, forcible penetration against the victim’s will is rape and it was proven he did that, he managed to run out the statute of limitations for a criminal conviction but he forcibly penetrated a woman against her wishes, it was proven in court.
He tried to sue Carrol for calling him a rapist, but the statements being true is a defense against slander and libel cases so it was thrown out. Try again sucker.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/judge-tosses-trumps-counterclaim-e-jean-carroll-finding-rape-claim-sub-rcna98577

She’s definitely not the only one, his wife said he violently raped her and so did 26 other credible women.
If Joe had done what Trump has been proven in court to have done, the same thing he was recorded bragging about doing, you wouldn’t ever stop calling Joe a rapist and you would be right because that’s what Trump is…you know it’s true.
Donald J Trump raped at least one woman and almost certainly 27 women and girls at a minimum, those are just the credible accusers and don’t include those too afraid to come forward or those he paid for their silence afterwards.

Constant credible death threats and the destruction of her professional career and reputation are worth $88.3 million, again this has been proven in a court of law. Trump said days before the judgement that he intended to continue defaming her forever after the judgement no matter how high it was, so the penalty was designed to change that position because $5 million had no effect at all. It seems to have finally worked. 😂
Also, since the punitive damages are designed to impact the perp, it was tiny if you believe Trump about his net worth. 10% of his total net worth would have been a low amount, and she got under 2% of what he claims to be worth, under 1% of some claims, a nothingburger, stop whining. 😂

Anything else? 😂

https://www.scribd.com/doc/316341058/Donald-Trump-Jeffrey-Epstein-Rape-Lawsuit-and-Affidavits#from_embed



"Trump had known Defendant Epstein for seven years (New York, 10/28/02), and knew that

Plaintiff was then just 13 years old. Exhs. A and B.

10. Defendant Trump initiated sexual contact with Plaintiff at four different parties.

On the fourth and final sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff

to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the

course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but

with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in

the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted. Exhs. A and

B.

11. Immediately following this rape, Defendant Trump threatened Plaintiff that, were

she ever to reveal any of the details of the sexual and physical abuse of her by Defendant Trump,

Plaintiff and her family would be physically harmed if not killed."


"On the second occasion involving Defendant Epstein, Defendant Epstein forced himself upon me and proceeded to rape me anally and vaginally despite my loud pleas to stop. Defendant Epstein then attempted to strike me about the head with his closed fists while he angrily screamed at me that he, Defendant Epstein, should have been the one who took my virginity, not Defendant Trump, before I finally managed to break away from Defendant Epstein."


@bobknight33 remember, this is only one of 35 different allegations, many of them in court now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations

Assault weapon bans. Effectively making illegal the most common rifle in the country (ar15) - even though it's statistically tiny in terms of gun killings.
(~450 people killed per year with all forms of rifle. Only some of that is ar15. That's the ~same amount of people as what die yearly from falling out of bed.)

Suppressor bans. Illegalizing an item that has been statistically as good as nonexistent in firearm crimes.

Banning DIY non-commercial firearms. Illegalizing firearms that have been statistically as good as nonexistent in firearm crimes.

Banning Private Sales (aka gunshow loophole). Effectively banning transfers between family and friends. Even though nearly all illegal arms are acquired by straw purchase at conventional stores by girlfriends.
And commercial sellers at gun shows have to do background checks anyways - this is much ado about old geezers trading collectible wild west / ww2 / antique shit.

Nearly all people are killed by pistols. Nobody is calling for a pistol ban. It makes things like an AWB look like a disingenuous effort - because you can pass all sorts of non-pistol-banning gun control laws and there will be no effect on gun death stats. Meaning you can just make more and more stuff illegal forever so long as you save what really matters (pistols) for last.

Between city, county, state, federal, existing gun laws are fat like an encyclopedia. Most people, unless they are 'gun folk', don't even realize the ways you can go to jail. Put a vertical grip in a pistol and posted it to instagram? Enjoy your time with the ATF. 10 years and $100k, assuming you're lax enough to not hire a lawyer to knock it down a bit. Literally volumes of ways to go to jail for shit you wouldn't even imagine would matter.

Many things people complain about aren't even a thing. Like complaining about buying guns online (you can't, not without an FFL involved), or crazy people buying guns (they can't, unless they've yet to be caught doing crazy shit).

Too many laws as it is. Erase a bunch first.

-scheherazade

Every double blind study done has proven zero positive effects and many negative side effects.
Every study indicating benefits have been combination drug treatments or non scientific studies of anecdotal data. Not double blind studies of hydroxy alone.
Every double blind study of hydroxychloroquine by itself has shown no effect on covid and many bad outcomes unrelated to Covid....there are multiple properly designed studies that confirm this.

More junk science from idiots who can't understand science but insist Trump knows more than doctors.

Tldw so no downvote, but I'm sure it deserves one.

Poor Bob, the BBC light ribbing over Trump's anemic "biggest inauguration audience ever in the nation's history" dwarfed by the wedding crowd upset you? Snowflake. ;-)

Not a memory lane of me saying that.
I called it for Trump when the DNC got caught....actually before then but not with certitude until then. I knew he was right, he could murder someone publicly in cold blood and not lose a vote, because his supporters are morally bankrupt tribalists. I knew decades of philandering, often with his friends wives, pussy grabbing, daughter lusting, school fraud, charity fraud, repeated bankruptcy, thousands of lawsuits, hush money, mob/Russia ties, a long history of cheating the little guy, blatant racism, being narcissism personified, and having zero capacity for honesty had no effect on them, it was clear that Clinton, whose voters had morals, was a huge long shot at best when the primary underhandedness came to light, she only drove the right to the polls, not the left. They couldn't have created a more polarizing candidate with more baggage.

Never underestimate the stupidity and gullibility, or count on the morality of the American voter or you'll look the fool like these people did.

I didn't dismiss it. I stated what he provided and implied it was inadequate.

I literally just wrote that there are opposing papers. I hope you don't think putting opposing papers up is some sort of "gotcha" moment.

"Are you calling them liars?"

No. Are you calling the authors of the papers I've put up liars? I'm sure you can see how silly a question that is now it's put back at you.

"We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%"

I haven't been talking about suicide - but if you must then yes, it dropped the suicide by firearm rate. I never contended otherwise.

"The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise [somewhere between 35% and 50%]"

43% variance is large. The reality is the data isn't very good (as multiple studies have pointed out) and it makes it very hard to measure, analyse, and draw appropriate conclusions.

"NFA seems to have been incredibly successful in terms of lives saved."

Note the language, "seems to have". They aren't affirming that it has because they probably can't back it up with solid data.

"The NFA also seems to have reduced firearm homicide outside of mass shootings"

Again, non-concrete affirmations. The same data sets as analysed by multiple other studies points to no change in the rate. Are any of them liars? I doubt it.

I believe the McPhedron paper is one of the most important, illustrating that some of the key legislative changes had no effect when comparing it to our closest cultural neighbour who didn't legislate the same changes (and maintained a lower overall average homicide rate and lower average homicide by firearm rate for the last 20 years).

As I already wrote, it's a contentious issue and there are opposing papers on this topic.

Mental health is a pretty big issue that is connected. So are socio-economic issues. There is a bigger puzzle of which access to firearms is only the last piece.

I don't think anyone should expect the NRA to address mental health. This is not their mandate. They exist to champion firearm rights. Mental health or other issues are some other lobby group or the general population's responsibility.

The Australian and New Zealand law changes show that restricting the types of firearm, caliber, and magazine capacities has little to no effect. There are multiple studies (the majority in fact) concluding that the draconian Australian laws didn't even affect the homicide by firearm rate.

"There's no other legal tool available to the public capable of mass murders with so little effort."

I disagree. Petrol and cars/trucks. Both are legal and easily used to commit mass murder (and have been). I'll add swords (long knives) into this with a caveat - you need to be a highly trained swordsman to commit such an atrocity.

Cars are so dangerous that they have killed more people in the US in the last 50 years by accident than guns have on purpose. It took 50 years of concerted effort by subsequent US administrations to get the yearly death toll by cars lower than that of firearms (the curve for cars only recently dipped below that of firearms).

Knives can cause as much or more vascular damage than a typical firearm wound. The difference is that knives require the smallest interpersonal confrontation distance (it is hand to hand combat - people don't like this), and to consistently achieve high levels of vascular damage requires a higher degree of training.

The right of non-restricted people to own firearms has little affect on murder rates. E.g. Australia has a higher rate of firearm ownership now than before its lauded firearms laws came into effect in 1997. The majority of studies done on this topic conclude that the restrictions had no effect (or no measurable effect) on the continued reduction in firearm fatalities.

I think the greatest issue in the US is that some people see the use of firearms as a solution to some problems where it is not a good solution. I.e. it is a cultural issue.

Yep. Not allowing people to buy missiles, bombs, high explosives, and weaponized machines has no effect either. Of course not, it's ridiculous to blame the tool that makes mass murder simple and easy.
Good plan. No single simple solution could completely solve the problem, so it's better to do nothing at all. That's how we deal with all dangerous products, right?

But.. it didn't help? It did help? This video was confusing as hell.

The roll-on seemed to help her but that sounded like the equivalent of a menthol rub.

The charlotte's web tincture looked like it helped, but it has 0.03% THC. She smoked the flowers which only helped with headaches/migraines, but that has a higher concentration of THC wouldn't it? The entire video makes it seem like "hey great this is what we need" but at the end she sneaks in that "this is not the solution" and follows it up with a bright happy smile. Cmon now.

So, regarding your reply:

Sorry, but STOP. People die because of this stupid fucking philosophy. People also make millions off desperate folks like this lady in the video because of that mindset. 120$ for a bottle of sugary mint chocolate chip flavored water and 0.03% THC? Isn't that just diluted to no effectiveness like homeopathic tinctures? We can't use the homeopathic approach for medicine where, "oh if it doesn't work and there are no side effects than all is fine."

No, it is dangerous to think that way because many people focus ONLY on non-medical treatments. They either continue suffering or die like my dad.

You can look up 1,184 ft or look ahead 1,184 feet and it has no effect what so ever. But to trust myself to stand the edge and look even 2 stories down freaks me out. If I was up there that high you could be damn sure I'd plummet to my death because of a bee.

I know it's Colbert's shtick and I never really got into it, but still...

"I have friends who live and work in London. They said "don't worry,we're very sensible people."

What's sensible for people in London might not be sensible for people in Salford. Or Boston. Or Wolverhampton. London, or the South-East in general, is as representative of the UK as the East/West Coast is of the US.

The hinterland has been drained at the expense of the center, on both a global and a national scale. If you live and work in the City of London, things might look quite ok, and whatever issues there are only need some reforms to no longer be an issue. But if your factory, the factory that provided jobs for the people in your home town, closed down ten, twenty years ago and now the best you can get is zero-hour contracts, then no, things are not ok.

People up top keep telling you that the economy is growing, that everyone's gonna be better off, that it's ok for multinational corporations and rich individuals to optimise their taxes, while they cut your welfare. Banks get a bailout, you get to pay the bedroom tax.

So no, your sensible friends, if they exist, live in a different universe than many of their countrymen. That's the disconnect we've been talking about.

-----
"The British economy is tanking. The pound has plunged to its lowest level since 1985... The Dow lost 611 points."

Again, so what? If the economy is growing and it has no effect on you, why should you give a jar of cold piss about the value of the pound or the stock exchange? Arguably, a drop in the exchange rate of the pound makes it easier for you to export your goods and raises the prices for imports, thereby encouraging you to produce the shit yourself. The UK does have a sovereign currency, unlike the Spanish, the Greeks, the Portuguese or the Italians who have to suffer internal devaluations, because Wolfgang Schäuble says so.

"Equity losses over $2 trillion"

Why should that matter? QE has pushed up stock prices beyond any resonable level, so what meaning do these book values hold? Not to mention that a lot of people made a shitload of money by shorting these stocks, including George Soros against Deutsche.

"There'll be no more money"

QE never trickled down anyway, makes no difference. Corbyn's people call their version "QE for the People" and "Green QE" for a reason: the previous version was only meant to prop up banks and stock values.

--------------

On a more general note, the hatred, the racism, the xenophobia... in most cases, it's a pressure valve. You leash out against someone else, you need someone to blame. The narrative is that we're living in a meritocracy, which makes it your fault that you didn't inherit an investment portfolio. So you start blaming yourself. You're a fuck-up. You worked hard and not only didn't climb the ladder, you actually went down. There's depression for ya. Guess what happens if someone, a person of perceived authority, then comes along and tells you it's not your fault, it's the fault of the immigrants. That narrative is very appealing if history is any indication. Even the supposedly most prosperous country in the EU, Germany, has the very same issue in the eastern parts, where there is no hope for a meaningful job.

People need work, meaningful work. Wanna guess how many of those "xenophobes" would be out in the street protesting against immigrants if they had a meaningful job with decent pay? Not to many would be my guess.

So the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are providing the narrative. But the lack of social cohesion is a result of market fundamentalism, of Thatcherism, of Third Way social-democrats leaving the lower half of the income distribution to the wolves. You can't exclude large swaths of the population from the benefits of increased productivity, etc. Social dividend, they called it. It's what keeps the torches and pitchforks locked away in the barn.

yes, motoko kusanagi is totally a white character. and a white secret agent in japan would totally have no effect on the story.

What sucks ass is that because so many people DO abuse pain killers, it's becoming harder and harder to find a doctor that will prescribe them when they're needed and are the proper treatment out of a fear of being labeled a drug dealer.
My long term doctor just retired. I've been on heavy pain medications for over a decade for chronic back pain, and I have never abused them. The office has told me they have other doctors to take over his patients (lucky me, we have a severe doctor shortage here), but that they will NOT prescribe pain medication. This leaves me in a position where I've tried almost every non-medicinal treatment (PT, acupressure, acupuncture, chiropractors, heat, cold, etc) to no effect and I'm about to be deprived of the one treatment that works to make life bearable for me because other people abuse it.
It's like they are TRYING to force me (and others) to move to the black market and take more dangerous street drugs because some people do that after taking prescriptions.
That sucks ass.

Side note, I'm also a legal medical marijuana patient. That may have something to do with my not ever abusing my medications.

I often get a immediate headaches and flushing when drinking wine, prosecco, beer etc etc. For ages I thought it might be asian flush, but now I think it is more likely some sort of reaction to sulfites or histamines, especially since spirits have little or no effect on me (besides, you know, getting drunk...)