In case you needed any more reason why we need to arm the citizenry

[dolphins4life]

Pittsburgh police officers now will not respond to emergencies.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/03/cops-will-not-respond-to-theft-burglary-other-emergencies-in-major-us-city/#:~:text=In%20response%20to%20the%20Pittsburgh%20Bureau%20of%20Police%E2%80%99s,emergencies%2C%E2%80%9D%20such%20as%20harassment%2C%20theft%2C%20and%20burglary%20alarms.

For the Democrats on this board, is the ONLY reason to vote for Biden just to spite Republicans?  I know it's not for the free stuff.  That's why many other people in the country will vote for him, but not the people on this board.  I know you all work.

Immigrants are costing the Taxpayers $451 billion dollars per year.

[CF DolFan]

I saw a funny video the other day where they compared Canadian "Sheriffs" to American Sheriffs. The first clip was a Canadian who was giving a speech to the public where he was telling people to leave their keys and key fobs by the door so if someone broke in they would take the car and go. He said most break ins were only to get the keys so they could take the car and that most criminals are armed so you don't want to have to deal with them. The following clips were various Florida Sheriffs telling their residents to blast criminals out the door. hahaha I really hope the Canadian thing was an isolated incident because that is f'ed up.

If you have Tik Tok you can look up "Difference between Canadian police and Florida police" to find the video.

[Downunder Dolphan]

In Australia we see the need NOT to arm any regular citizens.

The only people here with a handgun is a bad guy, or a cop, or a legitimate athlete or recreational shooter. There aren't that many.

Farmers have access to weapons for vermin control, and park rangers likewise.

Everything has strict restrictions - if not in use it has to be kept in a firearm safe. That's as much for self protection as anything else. But you also can't just walk around with them without a legitimate reason. Everything has to be registered with a place to store it, or it's illegal.

The other thing is that most military-style weapons like semi and fully automatics are basically banned here. There is an NRA-like lobby group that has been pushing hard for farmers to have some access to something like a semi (which can potentially be illegally modified to be fully automatic) but so far that's been rejected.  

We haven't had a single shooter massacre since Port Arthur in 1996. We haven't had a school shooting massacre since... well never.

[Pappy13]

For the Democrats on this board, is the ONLY reason to vote for Biden just to spite Republicans?

Well for me there's a lot of reasons to vote for Biden but the only one that I need is to do my part to ensure that Trump isn't elected. Beyond that not much else really matters.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/presidents-ranked-worst-best/

[CF DolFan]

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/presidents-ranked-worst-best/

That is the dumbest ranking I have ever seen. My parents voted for Jimmy Carter. My dad and his whole family are  from Georgia and really supported the guy. Even they admitted how was the worst president in their lifetime! Jimmy Carter is an awesome person but pretty much no one thought he was a good president. LMAO ... until Biden no one has ever come close.

Trump is a dick and I will not vote for him again but he had the American economy humming and kept us out of wars. Horrible person but he was actually a good president.

[Dave Gray]

We are in a strange place.

I will be the first to say that it's not the President who is responsible for the entire American economy.  But if you did want to do that, Trump's economy when he left office was awful.  It was due to COVID and lots of other things, but things were terrible.

I feel like I'm in crazy town.

[Fau Teixeira]

Trump's economy wasn't that great even before Covid. Trade war with china and high gas prices. Anyone remember that ?

[Spider-Dan]

It's hilarious to listen to conservatives insist that Trump's economy "was booming before COVID" but Biden's economy - which is better in nearly every metric today than the economy in 2019 - is somehow "terrible."  Next you'll be telling us that the Bush economy was amazing before Obama destroyed it.

Trump is a dick and I will not vote for him again but he had the American economy humming and kept us out of wars.

The economy was better under Obama than under Bush and Obama took us out of Iraq.
The economy is better under Biden than under Trump and Biden took us out of Afghanistan.

21st-century Democrats not only improve the economy, they END wars too.

[CF DolFan]

Trump's economy wasn't that great even before Covid. Trade war with china and high gas prices. Anyone remember that ?

High gas prices? What hell are you smoking? Trump is an exaggerator but his gas prices were very good and we were energy independent which makes it even better.


Our ruling
Trump said that gasoline prices were $1.86 a gallon when he left office.

The national average price for gasoline when Trump left the White House was actually $2.38, or about 28% higher than what Trump said.

We rate the statement False.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2021/12/10/fact-check-gas-prices-united-states-donald-trum-joe-biden/6449849001/

[CF DolFan]

It's hilarious to listen to conservatives insist that Trump's economy "was booming before COVID" but Biden's economy - which is better in nearly every metric today than the economy in 2019 - is somehow "terrible."  Next you'll be telling us that the Bush economy was amazing before Obama destroyed it.
The economy was better under Obama than under Bush and Obama took us out of Iraq.
The economy is better under Biden than under Trump and Biden took us out of Afghanistan.

21st-century Democrats not only improve the economy, they END wars too.

Keep telling yourself that. You'd make a good speech writer who doesn't care about the truth. Numbers are higher but salaries are the same so take 100K salary but you lose  35% because of the current price to purchase anything. Like people were saying ... you can lie all you want on the State of the Union speech but people see the state of the union every day at the grocery store and when they pay for other goods and services. It's in our face all day, every day, and we are living it.

[Spider-Dan]

Numbers are higher but salaries are the same so take 100K salary but you lose  35% because of the current price to purchase anything.

Wages and Salaries Have Grown Faster Than Prices Since January 2021

CF, I have a simple question:

Are you making more money today than you did 4 years ago?  If you don't mind sharing, by what percentage has your income changed?

I won't ask a question I'd refuse to answer, so: my income on my 2023 taxes was 55.7% more than my income on my 2019 taxes.

[CF DolFan]

Wages and Salaries Have Grown Faster Than Prices Since January 2021

CF, I have a simple question:

Are you making more money today than you did 4 years ago?  If you don't mind sharing, by what percentage has your income changed?

I won't ask a question I'd refuse to answer, so: my income on my 2023 taxes was 55.7% more than my income on my 2019 taxes.

Not as a household. While I've gotten promoted and have had a raise this year we look to make almost 75K less than we did 2 years ago. Last year it was more than that as my wife lost her job in Nov of 2022 and was severely underemployed during the 2023 year. We sold off a lot of retirement to keep our house. This also meant we lost a bunch to penalties. She was like the 180th person released from a division that had just over 200 employees meaning they were down to only supervisors.  She is currently making 55% of what she was doing in 2020, 2021, and 2022 while doing the exact same job. A job she has been doing for over 25 years. I can't even remember how long it's been since she made this amount for doing her job.

Even though I make more money all of my insurances and benefits are much higher than 4 years ago so that's pretty much a wash even before I pay the higher prices for literally everything.

Kind of funny but speaks to the BS of the rising wages. A local county (Orange) was bragging about giving the teachers a 10% raise. What they failed to mention that was exposed by the Union is that they also had the teachers paying much more of their benefits which meant they were actually losing salary. It's a numbers game but like I said ... you can see the state of the union for yourself whenever you go litterally anywhere.

[Fau Teixeira]

Not as a household. While I've gotten promoted and have had a raise this year we look to make almost 75K less than we did 2 years ago. Last year it was more than that as my wife lost her job in Nov of 2022 and was severely underemployed during the 2023 year. We sold off a lot of retirement to keep our house. This also meant we lost a bunch to penalties. She was like the 180th person released from a division that had just over 200 employees meaning they were down to only supervisors.  She is currently making 55% of what she was doing in 2020, 2021, and 2022 while doing the exact same job. A job she has been doing for over 25 years. I can't even remember how long it's been since she made this amount for doing her job.

I'm sorry CF, it sucks that a government agency cut your wife's salary so much just to save some taxpayer money.

[Spider-Dan]

Sorry to hear about your wife's layoff and underemployment.  I can see how someone making do on 75K less household income would see prices as out-of-control, even as your own salary has outpaced inflation.

Ironically enough, for me my own economic fortunes have always tended to go against the grain.  During the dot-com boom I was struggling to find a job (as an IT worker, mind you), during the dot-com crash I was doing amazing, during the Bush bubble I was severely underemployed and barely treading water, during the Great Recession I got a big promotion and bought a house, my salary was stagnant during the Glorious Trump Economy, and I got several raises and a promotion during the pandemic.  But I understand that my personal experience is not the national economy, which is why I linked the data.