June 15, 2016

Disney resort custodian says he warned managers they should have fences

between guests and the alligators.

And "officials" now say the family wasn't wading in the water -- they were sitting on the shore.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-alligator-history-20160615-story.html

Grand Floridian custodian Mike Hamilton was so concerned by alligators occasionally swimming up close to the shore of Walt Disney World's Seven Seas Lagoon, he said he warned managers they should fence off the area.

"There are signs that say, 'No swimming,' but no signs that say gators and everything else in this lake," he said.

SNIP

San Diego attorney David Hiden told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday that last year he whisked his son to safety at Disney's Coronado Springs after a gator approached the boy playing in calf-deep water. Then Hiden saw a second gator nearby. Hiden said a hotel manager called one of them a "resident pet" and seemed unconcerned.

SNIP

Alfred Smith of Charleston, S.C., said he alerted a Grand Floridian employee Tuesday night after seeing a gator in the lagoon. He thinks it's the same one that attacked the boy less an hour later.

"I did warn another family of three that had small kids too close to the water and they along with another family took their children and left," Smith said via email.



http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-child-dragged-alligator-disney-20160614-story.html

In response to reports the family was watching a hotel-sponsored movie near the shore, Disney said it hosts such events but believed the film ended before the attack. The family was sitting near the shore, not swimming or wading in the water, officials said.

June 15, 2016

Elizabeth Warren Joins Filibuster over Gun Control

Source: Boston Globe

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic senator launched a filibuster Wednesday to force a vote on gun control legislation three days after 49 people were killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said he would remain on the Senate floor ‘‘until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together,’’ as he also evoked the Newtown school shooting in his state in 2012. His plea came as presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would meet with the National Rifle Association about the terror watch list and gun purchases.


‘‘For those of us that represent Connecticut, the failure of this body to do anything, anything at all in the face of that continued slaughter isn’t just painful to us, it’s unconscionable,’’ Murphy said.

Twenty children and six educators died in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. Murphy said he cannot look into the eyes of those children’s relatives and tell them that Congress has done nothing since.



Read more: http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/06/15/democratic-senator-frustrated-inaction-guns-begins-filibuster/s0PdS7XEnjWLshf9lPZeFP/story.html?event=event12

June 15, 2016

I admit it, I'm dumb about alligators.

UPDATE: Authorities now say that the family was not wading in the water. They were sitting on the beach by the water, during or right after a Disney "Beach Night."


I wouldn't expect alligators would be living in man-made lagoons in a Disney resort. (Fake alligators maybe -- like everything else in a Disney resort.)

I didn't know that in warm weather, alligators feed mostly at night.

And I didn't know that their jaws could exert thousands of pounds of force -- so there was no way even a quick-acting dad could have pulled his child out of the alligator's mouth.

So I understand why that Nebraska family, attending a Disney-organized "Beach night" didn't understand the risk they were taking. Didn't understand that the "no swimming" sign really meant "stay off the beach or an alligator might eat you."

But how can the people in charge of the $75 billion corporation that owns the resort have been that dumb?

Surely they had to have known about the risk. Did they just count the occasional alligator-caused-death as a cost of doing business? But why didn't they have signs warning of the danger from alligators? And why the heck did they plan a "Beach night" that lured the dumb tourists to the water's edge at feeding time?

Why didn't they post one of these:

https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=752&q=warning+alligator&oq=warning+alligator&gs_l=img.12..0j0i8i30.1390.5827.0.8154.17.15.0.2.2.0.71.729.14.14.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.16.734.zu65UIPBZ40


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-child-dragged-alligator-disney-20160614-story.html

In response to reports the family was watching a hotel-sponsored movie near the shore, Disney said it hosts such events but believed the film ended before the attack. The family was sitting near the shore, not swimming or wading in the water, officials said.

June 14, 2016

Omar Mateen's wife KNEW he was planning the attack, sources claim.

She even drove along with him to "scope" out the site.

She says she tried to talk him out of it. Authorities are considering filing criminal charges against her.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/orlando-nightclub-massacre/omar-mateen-s-wife-tried-talk-him-out-orlando-attack-n592051

The Orlando gunman's wife has told federal agents she tried to talk her husband out of carrying out the attack, NBC News has learned.

Omar Mateen's wife, Noor Zahi Salman, told the FBI she was with him when he bought ammunition and a holster, several officials familiar with the case said. She told the FBI that she once drove him to the gay nightclub, Pulse, because he wanted to scope it out.

Mateen opened fire at Pulse early Sunday, leaving 49 dead and 53 injured. Twenty-seven victims remained hospitalized Tuesday. Six were in critical condition, according to hospital officials who said the death toll was still at risk of rising because one or two of those patients were "profoundly ill."

Authorities are considering filing criminal charges against Noor for failing to tell them what she knew before the brutal attack, law enforcement officials say, but no decision has been made.

She is cooperating with investigators, several officials say.

June 14, 2016

Clinton Has 12-Point Edge Over Trump in Bloomberg National Poll

Source: Bloomberg

Democrat Hillary Clinton has opened up a double-digit lead nationally over Republican Donald Trump, whose negatives remain unusually high for a presidential candidate amid early indications that the Orlando terrorist attack has had little direct impact on the 2016 race.

A new Bloomberg Politics national poll shows Clinton leading Trump 49 percent to 37 percent among likely voters in November's election, with 55 percent of those polled saying they could never vote for the real-estate developer and TV personality.

Read the questions and methodology here.

Most national polls in late May and early June showed a closer race, but they were taken before criticism intensified of Trump's charge that a U.S. judge overseeing fraud cases against Trump University is biased because of the judge’s Mexican heritage. Fifty-five percent of likely voters in the new poll said they were very bothered by those comments.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-06-14/bloomberg-politics-national-poll-june-2016

June 13, 2016

People on the terrorist watch list can legally purchase pistols and assault weapons.

Mateen was off the list by the time he purchased the weapons used in the murders -- but it wouldn't have mattered. Even if he was still on the list he could legally have purchased the weapons he used.

Shouldn't, at the very least, someone be banned from purchasing weapons while they're on the terrorist watch list? U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy thinks so. But his bill has been blocked by R's in Congress

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2015/dec/29/patrick-murphy/terrorist-watch-list-no-obstacle-buying-guns-rep-m/

U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy joined other Democrats in demanding the House take up a bill that would keep people on the FBI’s watch list from buying guns, saying far too many people on the list have been allowed to get firearms.

Murphy tweeted a graphic on Dec. 8, 2015, claiming that "91 percent of suspected terrorists who attempted to buy guns in America walked away with the weapon they wanted."

His tweet came after Republicans repeatedly blocked a bill that would keep people on the FBI list from buying guns. In an unusual procedural move, Murphy and other Democrats signed a petition to bring the bill to the House floor, but it currently doesn’t have the required 218 signatures for further action. The Senate earlier in December struck down a similar bill.

We were curious if Murphy -- who is also running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2016 -- was right to say that 91 percent of suspected terrorists looking to buy guns were able to get one. Our research showed that is accurate by the best available estimates, but there are some caveats about the watch list we should keep in mind.

SNIP

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-orlando-nightclub-shooting-live-omar-mateen-was-taken-off-a-terrorist-1465772737-htmlstory.html

Even if Mateen were still on the terrorist watch list — known as the Terrorist Screening Database — the designation would not have precluded him from buying the semiautomatic pistol and assault-style rifle that he used in Sunday's massacre.

Mateen bought two guns in the last 12 days from a gun store not far from his Florida home, federal officials said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives described the weapons as a “.223 caliber AR type rifle and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.”

June 12, 2016

Was another mass shooting at a gay pride event planned for today?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gay-pride-la-weapons-20160612-snap-story.html

Man with weapons and explosives arrested, was going to L.A. gay pride parade, police say

AAuthorities in Santa Monica found possible explosives as well as a cache of weapons and ammunition Sunday in the car of a man who told them he planned to look for a friend at the L.A. Pride festival in West Hollywood, a law enforcement source said.

Federal and local law enforcement decided against canceling the annual parade, which went forward Sunday morning under tightened security. Investigators are now trying to piece together what happened but said they don’t believe their is any connection between the incident and the massacre at a gay bar in Orlando that killed 50 people overnight.

Early Sunday, Santa Monica police received a call of a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered an individual who told officers he was waiting for a friend, according to a law enforcement source familiar with details of the arrest. That led officers to inspect the car and find several weapons – including three rifles, one of them an “assault rifle” -- and a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb, said the source.

The car had Indiana plates, and the law enforcement source said the man arrested was white.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said the suspect told police he was going to the pride parade to look for a friend. Authorities are now looking for that individual.

June 12, 2016

ABC news: Orlando shooter was licensed for guns (contradicting the position

of the NRA that only law-abiding people will follow license or registration laws.)

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/orlando-nightclub-massacre/orlando-nightclub-shooting-emergency-services-respond-reports-gunman-n590446

Mateen had active security officer and firearm licenses, according to Florida records, and his family said he worked in security. Marriage records show he was married in Port St. Lucie in 2009, and a relative said he had a 3-year-old son.

The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism, officials said.

Mir Seddique, Mateen's father told NBC News, "this has nothing to do with religion." Seddique said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting.

June 12, 2016

Bad news for Trump: in informal poll at Romney's retreat, HALF of attendees said

they might support Hillary over the Don.

Meg Whitman got the headlines, but she's not the only prominent Republican who hates Trump.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/high-profile-gop-donor-meg-whitman-support-hillary/story?id=39774523

Two sources in the room said Whitman also compared Trump to historical demagogues, including Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

SNIP

Whitman has previously gone on the record saying she wouldn't be voting for Trump.

"Look at the comments he's made about women, about Muslims, about reporters, it's just repugnant," she told CNBC in March.

According to Jim and Joanne, a couple from Southern California who declined to provide their last names, Whitman isn't the only donor here considering Clinton. The summit attendees took an informal poll at lunch, with the room splitting evenly among Trump and Clinton supporters, they said.

June 11, 2016

Good essay, Huff Post: "My husband's unconscious racism almost destroyed our marriage"

***POSTED TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FORUM***

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-establishment/my-husbands-unconscious-r_b_10322380.html

Needless to say, dating white men was tiring. I had to constantly be on guard, preparing myself for their racist comments. And I knew they were coming. I knew there would be a point where I’d have to talk about why I could say n***** and they couldn’t. I knew there’d be a conversation about Black on Black crime. I KNEW there’d be some fucked up assumption about Black people that I’d have to dismantle and then beat my white date over the head with—thereby ending whatever the fuck we were doing together. And I really wasn’t there for that shit.

But you know how they say timing is everything? Kevin entered my life at a particularly vulnerable point. My father had passed three months before we met. He’d been sick for over a decade with cancer and I spent that entire time blocking out everyone. When he passed, all that energy I’d used protecting myself started to dissipate and my walls softened. I started letting people in. I was willing and capable of giving people opportunities to be a part of my life, and I was also willing to do the work to keep them there.

That’s why I let Kevin in, but it’s not why I kept him around. . . .