Open Thread - Friday, July 24, 2015

It's Friday! I'll be away from the Internet today. Smile

Peace to the neighborhood.

Have a great weekend!

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smiley7's picture

Not sure if this is applicable to this case, but a few years ago, I did a story about our local police having few options when dealing with mentally ill people. The state stripped the funds for mental health so deeply that there are no beds, and few facilities in which to place those in need.
Locally, first they take them to the Emergency room, but the hospitals refuse to house them, no funds to do so. They take them to jail, but most are released into the streets the next day, no funds to keep them in jail either.

It' a big problem existing under the radar. Thanks Republicans.

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elenacarlena's picture

the mentally ill in San Antonio, Texas, of all places (I had a hard time finding them again on their site, but you can see their films where I covered them here, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/22/1346665/-Over-Criminalized-The-...). Not only did increased funding for the mentally ill ultimately work better to help with their problems, it saved money because, as you say, it keeps them out of jail and the ER. Also, it increased police safety. Crisis intervention teams received increased training and were called for these situations, and now they know how to handle mental health crises and where to take people for help. Once they saw how their training worked in real-life situations, the cops loved it. So there is a solution, and it's pretty low cost. But Repubs would rather browbeat people than solve problems using (gasp) evidence.

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

gulfgal98's picture

Which is what we all say every time something like this happens. But no one really seems to want to actually identify the root causes behind why we are having so many mass shootings for no apparent reason. Obviously, our mental health system has failed and when guns are so readily available, it provides for a toxic mix that leads to these mass murders. Our society (and our government) is failing our people at a greater rate than ever and no one seems to really care. Sad

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

MarilynW's picture

I walked home from my local café with the rain pouring down on me and I loved it. I had to zip up my purse to protect my iPhone otherwise, I didn't care about getting wet. We still have forest fires in the province so this is great news and great for our reservoir and all the trees etc.

Unfortunately my son bought us tickets to the baseball game tonight, but that's okay. There's a possibility the rain might stop before then. If not, nothing can beat rain.

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To thine own self be true.

smiley7's picture

filled air, I presume. Reading about the El Nino that's forecast to be the largest one in around 17 years. It could really shake up our winter weather, even impacts us in NC; unusually warm temps in Winter here from the Nino; read that on the West Coast, most of the moisture is predicted to say south. Last bad one killed our ski business, too warm to make snow. Sad

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I hate Hillary as much as the next guy, but I have to give her props for this.

Hillary Clinton will propose a sharp increase in the capital-gains tax rate for the highest earners for investments held only a few years, a campaign official said Friday.

Under the Clinton plan, investments held between one and two years would be taxed at the normal income-tax rate of 39.6%, nearly double the existing 20% capital gains rate. Neither figure counts an extra 3.8% tax on net investment income included as part of the health-care law, a campaign official said.

The campaign’s proposal would affect only the top 0.5% of taxpayers, hitting top-bracket single filers with taxable income above $413,201 and married couples filing jointly with taxable income above $484,850.

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IF she wins, are we placing wagers on follow through?

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

mimi's picture

I mean just the first part from TC 0:00 to TC 1:09.
President Obama's Kenya Trip Highlights Roots and Africa Policy by HALIMAH ABDULLAH

The text within the video cause a helpless and doubting feeling in me. What would Obama think and feel, if he had known his father?

"At the time of his death my father remained a myth to me ..."
"I had been forced to look inside myself and had found only great emptiness there. Would that trip to Kenya fill that emptiness?"
"I'd be able to translate such feelings into politics, organizing ... In Kenya, these strategies seemed hopelessly abstract."
"I saw that my life in America was connected with this small plot of land, an ocean away...
"a corporate lawyer, an American business man, my hands poised on the spigot, readey to rain down like manna, the largess of the Western world"

I can't understand why someone makes that video. His life in America was really not connected with this small plot of land. And more than a myth, there was a mystery in his life about his father, I believe. And Africa will remain a mystery to him and to most of us.

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It's official

Turkish planes have for the first time carried out air strikes against Islamic State (IS) group targets in Syria.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the air strikes, on three IS positions, "completely destroyed" their targets.

On Thursday, Turkish forces exchanged fire with IS fighters near the Syrian border. One Turkish soldier was killed.

In the early hours of Friday, police launched raids against IS and Kurdish militants across the country, arresting 297 people.

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Ukraine's refugee crisis is one of the worst in the world.

At the end of June 2015, one year after the fighting started, there were more than 1.35 million internally displaced people in Ukraine, ranking the country ninth worldwide in terms of IDPs.
There are also more than 900,000 refugees in neighbouring countries and the estimated number of people in need of humanitarian aid is now five million. People face shortages in food, health services, shelter and medicines, which are in worryingly low supply In Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's economy continues to collapse.

GDP has fallen by 23% in the last two years, a collapse of a similar order to Greece’s but over a much shorter time frame. Because of this, Ukraine’s debt/GDP currently stands at an unsustainable 158% of GDP. Default or restructuring is inevitable. The argument is over what form this should take...
the hryvnia is in a state of collapse and inflation is 46% and rising. Ukraine’s gross reserves stand at about $9.6bn: the creditors’ proposal would reduce them to a dangerously low level. One only has to look at Greece to see the consequences of running down reserves to service external debts...
The creditors assumed a recession in 2015 of 5.5% followed by return to growth and lifting of capital controls, enabling the country to rebuild reserves. But the IMF recently downgraded the growth forecast to minus 9% after a staff visit .
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