Maybe it's like a parking ticket I got once - $13 ticket (max regulated by statute) plus $58 in "processing fees" (not regulated)

Quick google search, since I never really looked at the legal liability side pf this issue before.

Some states actually hold drivers accountable for not wearing their seatbelts and discount the payout for injuries, others don't allow insurance companies to consider whether the driver was wearing a seatbelt or not when looking at their injuries. (California discounts, Pennsylvania doesn't)

I think you are understating the societal impact of obesity compared to drivers getting more badly injured without seatbelts. To be clear I don't think the government should be regulating either.

I'm having a hard time imagining the case where wearing a seat belt is going to make you have better control of your car after a collision.

Your moral case, for wearing a seatbelt, while personally compelling, doesn't mean the government should be controlling that activity for individuals. Being selfish is usually not a crime.

There is shared risk if you look deep enough in all activities that people engage in throughout their lives. Newtboy's assertion that these types of activities should be regulated because of their knock-on effects doesn't seem practical in a "free" society.

The reason I don't understand why this is a law is because the affects to society are so low and are similar to many other unregulated choices people are allowed to make. The inconsistency is painful.

My 2 current cars (and a few others before them) set off the alarms like crazy just a few seconds when I drive without wearing the seat beat. The front passenger seat also behaves the same if significant weight is detected on it. I thought it's probably regulated to be so for at least over a decade or two in Canada. Isn't it so in the States?

250000 more jobs in April.
Unemployment in 2020 topped 14%, today down to 3.4%.
2020 gdp -3%. 2021 gdp +5.9%
Sure sounds like that spending turned some tides.

Markets are somewhat stagnant (but still rising at 5%+- a year) for two reasons…1) the purely Republican caused banking failures caused by Republican forced through deregulation toon in 2018 leading to exactly what the regulations were designed to prevent and 2) the Republican blackmail of the economy using the debt ceiling that daily costs more as investments and international partnerships dry up because no one wants to be tied to a nation that won’t pay its bills…or that threatens to not pay its bills over partisan blackmail schemes.

You must be fucking kidding.
You think this makes your party look sane? Or fair? Or even 1% honest?
I guess he expects no one to remember all the threats righty politicians make against the court, the left, and each other…usually involving a “second amendment solution”, not a threat of basic ethics rules.

Then you think listing some working lecture trips some justices took that were publicly reimbursed by law schools that never had cases before the court and which they reported equates to tens of millions in hyper luxury international trips for the entire family by people with cases before the court that were hidden and not reported as specifically and unambiguously required by law helps make the right seem LESS criminal. 😂

Clarence Thomas delegitimized himself by selling access to himself in secret, selling his decisions in secret, by not recusing himself from cases involving his “friends” (that he only met after becoming a justice), not recusing himself from cases involving his wife, her political movement/business, and pretending that he, the top legal authority in the country, didn’t know it was illegal despite it being incredibly clear in the law…laws he is 100% aware of and followed until corrupt Scalia told him he could get away with it by just not reporting it anymore (like Scalia did with million dollar hunting retreats over 70 times).

It makes you all look criminally unethical and moronic.
Why would anyone want no rules for the highest court unless they are complicit in the bribery schemes?
Self regulation has clearly completely failed, it’s never once worked in human history, but it’s Graham’s/the right’s only plan. Keep bribery legal at the highest levels. 🤦‍♂️

You have no clue how economies work. That’s obvious to everyone.
Every professional economist will tell you clearly, the attempted blackmail using the debt ceiling as a hostage has already cost hundreds of millions or more in lost revenue/investment, and will cost TRILLIONS if our credit rating is lowered significantly, which it will be soon.
How much of that spending was Republican spending (and unprecedented economic losses) from 2019-20?
How much did they/you care in 2017-20? ZERO…that’s how much.

The economy was doing great under Biden until over leveraged banks started failing. It’s still doing well, but could falter. The bank failures are 100% due to thoughtless deregulation by maggots.

“What the Republicans passed is fair even if Democrats dont like it.”
You don’t even know the topic now? “Whatever the maggots passed”…like trillions handed back to billionaires then claiming poverty, claiming millions to feed children bankrupted us, not TRILLIONS TO BILLIONAIRES. (Or do you mean the MAGA brainless budget proposal guaranteed to create a depression, massive unemployment, and doubling or tripling the homeless while bankrupting the nation?). You are such a silly little boy.

What they should have done is repeal the Trump handouts, reinstate reasonable corporate rates (with minimum tax rates so no company and no one making $75k pays zero), that would erase any need to raise the debt, but to your ilk that’s a non starter because those poor billionaires need that money for buying and destroying companies like Twitter.

ROTFLMFAHS!! First, Bush left two wars off those books, then crashed the economy into depression. Obama pulled it out and left the economy healthy and growing. Trump in 4 years, starting with a healthy economy and balanced budget spent as much in 4 years as Obama in 8, raising the spending levels like an rocket and lowered the income of the government by trillions, made gdp a NEGATIVE number, unemployment skyrocketing like never before in history, (and don’t forget over 1 MILLION DEAD Americans and what, 10 million disabled?)

Government has both an income and spending problem…wasting $40 billion on a fence that has INCREASED immigration rates (but refusing to increase border control spending to hire more agents)…wasting $10 billion on a border stunt by Texas that didn’t catch a single smuggler but caused shortages and gridlocks at the border and ports for weeks. Outraged at the idea of staffing the IRS enough to enforce tax laws despite it being guaranteed to make billions in recovered taxes that otherwise go unpaid. Causing billions to be spent protecting government workers and buildings from terrorist maggots and their mobs and death threats and bombs, molotovs, guns, nooses, etc.

Social security isn’t a general fund item, dummy. Cutting it doesn’t put money in the coffer, it merely lowers how much workers pay into their accounts and takes some from those who already paid in.

Bank failures are due to deregulation that allowed over investment without cash reserves so when interest rates went above zero, which was guaranteed to happen sometime, they were guaranteed to lose their shirts. Regulations were put in place to make that 100% illegal after 08, and were removed in 18 guaranteeing a repeat.

Inflation caused by 1/3 of every dollar being created out of thin air under Trump while our GDP tanked. Both caused inflation.

Yeah, sure…Trump caused the crisis, failed to properly address it exacerbating it by a factor of 10, finally started to a hundred days late and billions of dollars short. Biden turned a negative Trump gdp around to positive, fixed the unprecedented high unemployment under Trump, and got Covid under control…but it’s Biden that broke the camel’s back with his 10% contribution, not Trump’s 90%….in fact we should get Trump back and get the ball rolling downhill again. 🤦‍♂️

Blaming both sides (which you are attempting) doesn’t solve the problem. Solving the problem solved the problem, and Biden has solved many problems Trump left behind and solves more every day while Trump gets another indictment for criminally personally benefiting from mismanagement, fraud, thefts, sale of state secrets, covering for murders, vote fraud FOR HIM, etc.

Trying to blame Dark Brandon for the horrific mess Trump left does not solve the problem, it attempts to distract from it with nonsense.

You certainly repeat what’s made up and spouted on Fox verbatim, far more than once, and you’re always in lock step with them except the blue moon when they tell the truth about Trump. If you don’t watch Fox, how does that happen?
I never watched cable news…that’s your fantasy you made up so you can discard what I say without ever researching it. I sometimes post cable news YouTube videos because they make a certain point well, or have footage I’m looking to post, they aren’t my sources. I research, I read, I watch multiple respected news sources to decide what to look into…but never cable news like all “conservative news*” (*for entertainment purposes only).

Not wasting time or pimping for Democrats, I’m entertaining myself bashing on and triggering know nothing fascists. I would likely be a Republican if only THEY would, but the responsible, honest, honorable, non hypocritical, law respecting, ethical, fiscally sound, champion of clean air and water, worshiper of democracy, believer in and supporter of science “Republican” I was raised to believe in didn’t exist when I was old enough to vote, and they’ve gone down hill on roller skates since Reagan.

Not blinded at all, but I do hate liars, and those that excuse lies from their allies/prophet.

Wait, you WANT me WOKE!?! 🤦‍♂️

The economy is doing far better than expected after the apocalypse Trump left, negative GDP, 15% unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, massively increased debt and deficit….still not healthy but off the life support it needed after Republican rule. It would be much better today if Republicans hadn’t removed established common sense bank regulations in 2018 causing today’s bank failures.

I’m a newtboy, not a sheeple. Learn your animals. 🤨


“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”


― Isaac Asimov

Giuliani?

Did you notice how their defense is essentially “nobody understands the laws, so they can’t prosecute Trump for falsifying sworn documents”, even though his convoluted scheme to hide this payoff from regulators proves he understood the law and tried to skirt it.

What we know so far….

The man who used an AR-15 to shoot up a Colorado gay nightclub killing 5 and injuring 25 is the grandson of a MAGA politician Randy Vogel who praised the January 6 insurrection.
We are also learning he had called in a bomb threat against his mother and had an armed standoff with police in 2021, and despite this violent history was still able to easily legally get an AR-15 thanks to Republicans opposing ANY Common sense gun regulations.
Sure sounds like another MAGA terrorist went on a murder spree….party of death, debauchery, and destruction. 🤦‍♂️

Oh no!!!

If you haven’t noticed, I’m not Bob. I decide my positions on my own, and while I’m socially liberal, that doesn’t mean I agree with the “liberal” positions at all times. I’m not insulted at my position being called “conservative”….I’m not tribalistic that way.

EG-I’m pro gun….but very pro regulation.

I’m actually a fiscal conservative, but unlike the right I know that doesn’t really mean the government should only pay for the military and nothing more. I agree with any spending that saves billions or trillions overall, even when it means some people get a free ride.
I think police are a good idea, although I believe they need serious reforms because they have lost their mission completely.
I think public roads are a good thing, as are public water and power systems.
I think national health care is a no brainer that works well in almost every country and saves trillions per year.
I think a safety net is a good idea...give people something to lose so they don’t turn to crime because they have nothing to lose.

Edit: I’ve said most of my adult life that I would be a Republican if only they would. Today’s Con has no resemblance to the Republican party I thought I grew up with (my entire family was hard core R).
Fiscal sanity, gone. Caring about the environment, gone. Supporting facts and science, gone. Supporting small government, gone (except with lip service). Strong and enforced gun regulations to protect gun ownership rights, gone. Strict supporters of law and order, not anymore. Government out of private life, so incredibly gone. Separation of church and state, gone. Fans of democracy, gone. Honesty, not even a memory.
I’m only a “blue liberal” by default. I might be libertarian if they weren’t crazed anti government extremists and almost MAGA.
Dems are the only ones left that really believe in democratic government.


I agree that 40 years+ without parole is cruel, but certainly not unusual or excessive. I never understand why excessively long prison sentences are considered less than the death penalty…I’m claustrophobic, to me it would be 40+ years of panic. I would give myself the death penalty fairly quickly because I’m not brave enough to face that. Swallow my tongue or bite it off, either works just fine and can’t be stopped. I’m really shocked that’s not the norm, but I’ve (clearly) never had to face it.

Good job….except that means paying to house him for life.
Death would be kinder and cheaper….especially if it’s at his own hands.

Odd posting from @bobknight33, since MAGA still insists this was a false flag operation, no one died, no one injured, and only crisis actors who were trotted out as a reason to take yer guns.
Marge Green went so far as to chase some of the surviving children,screaming and spitting at them in her rage over their existence and their nerve to want stronger gun regulations after nearly being murdered.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/01/19/marjorie-taylor-greene-supported-conspiracy-theory-that-parkland-massacre-was-false-flag-plann
ed-shooting/?sh=40d079754f8c

I’m glad at least a few photons of sunlight might finally be seeping in, but I’m not hopeful that the darkness won’t drive them out.

There's a few startups in South Korea working on this now, with promising results. Apparently the regulations in the US make it very difficult to do that kind of startup.

Your point?
States with highest gun violence rates
Mississippi -- 28.6 per 100000
Louisiana -- 26.3.
Wyoming -- 25.9.
Missouri -- 23.9.
Alabama -- 23.6.
Alaska -- 23.5.
The list, and trend continues.
Republican states consistently have higher gun death rates, the top ten states for gun deaths are all Republican led….so much for blaming Democrats.
Republicans don’t care. The #’s point this out horrifically and consistently.
Republican states also don’t care about keeping the lights on or having running water in their cities anymore…I’m looking at you, Texas and Mississippi. Florida has abandoned education in favor of far right wing indoctrination for children (maybe with field trips to Epstein island with the ex president if they’re good and pretty and will sign a binding NDA).

(Pretty chicken shit to claim Dems don’t care, while Cons block every attempt they make to solve the issue, but you do you.)

Um….did I EVER advocate gun free zones, or even indicate I think they’re possible in America? I don’t think so. Why must you always fight windmills and paper tigers? It doesn’t make you sound sane.
It would be excellent…if it were possible. No one is hunting inside city limits, if no one had guns, no one would need guns. It’s not possible unless we take drastic, unconstitutional actions (or change the constitution like the founders intended).

There aren’t enough gun regulations when a schizophrenic person can legally buy as many guns and as much ammo as they wish, and so can murderous gang members who served their sentence/probation.

They DO need MUCH better enforcement of existing gun laws, we agree there. If laws were applied consistently regardless of the perp, there would already be less gun crime. The problem with that being prisons are so overcrowded they simply cannot house more, and most police seem to not be interested in or capable of legal crime-preventative policing, so making illegal gun possession/use come with harsher sentences simply isn’t going to happen….and has never worked to stop crime.

They also need to remove “loopholes” (intentional back doors) that allow mentally ill and violent criminals to legally purchase firearms with absolutely no background checks and no paperwork. Seems to be a no brainer, but your ilk calls that “terkin’ er guns” (I have to believe because you know you’re all insane and can’t pass mental health screenings), not sane regulation.

No surprise you think more draconian punishment is the answer….how’s that been working out? Not great. Countries that focus on rehabilitation of convicts instead of simple housing for profit have recidivism rates near zero, unlike the US.

Using a gun in the commission of a crime already comes with pretty harsh penalties, btw….often turning misdemeanors into felonies just by having it, not using it.

Prison reform is one part of any functional answer, not more, bigger, worse prisons for longer sentences. Funny, you thought the same when Jan 6 defendants started being rounded up and denied bail…odd you cared about all those ANTIFA and BLM activist though. 😂

So, absolutely nothing new.
2016 277 murders in Philly
2020 500 murders in Philly.
1990 500 murders in Philly.
2022 300 murders 2/3 of the way through the year (and fewer happen in winter there, no one is outside) so the murder rate is DROPPING slightly, on track for 450 this year.
Sure sounds like the murder rate exploded again under Republicans rule, @bobknight33, not Biden as this implies (agreed, last year was the worst number by a few). Not an outright lie, but a lie by omission.

Sure sounds like Philly would benefit from stronger gun regulations….especially mental health restrictions.