Lutheran pastor Blames Texas Church Shooting On God

Some in our nation are just insane:


When The Saints Of First Baptist Church Were Murdered, God Was Answering Their Prayers

Sometimes, God's will is done by allowing temporal evil to be the means through which he delivers us from eternal evil.

“Prayers don’t work. We need legislation.” This has been many secular progressives’ mantra in response to recent mass shootings in America. On Sunday, after a gunman murdered more than 20 people during a church service in Sutherland Springs, Texas, some of them found proof of the powerlessness of prayer.

Via the federalist, link removed by request

More than 80K guns missing in Florida over the last decade.

Code of silence is breaking on Tallahassees sex secrets

After a series of revelations and allegatons, Capitol insiders say a culture that has bred sexual misconduct could be vanishing.

For decades, sex has been a tool and a toy for the politically powerful in the male-dominated world of politics in Florida's capital. Now it's a weapon.

Allegations of sexual assault, harassment and infidelity among the state's legislators flew like shrapnel from a bomb blast in recent weeks, destroying much of the trust left in a Republican-controlled Legislature and replacing it with suspicion and finger pointing.

The latest target, Senate Appropriations Chair Jack Latvala, has been accused by six unnamed women of inappropriate touching and verbal harassment. Shortly after Politico Florida first reported the allegations on Friday, Senate President Joe Negron called them "atrocious and horrendous" and ordered an investigation.

Latvala, a Clearwater Republican and candidate for governor, denied the allegations, said he welcomed the investigation, and vowed a fight to "clear my name."

http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2017/11/05/code-of-silence-is-breaking-on-tallahassees-sex-secrets/

This isn't a guns situation?

It never is:

UNLOCKED AND LOADED
First of two parts | Nov. 1, 2017By LAURA C. MOREL

More than 80,000 guns have gone missing in Florida over the last decade.

http://project.tampabay.com/2017/special-report/unlocked-loaded/stolen-guns/



PRIME TARGETS
Weak security makes gun stores a ‘rich environment’ for thieves.
Second of two parts | Nov. 1, 2017By LAURA C. MOREL

http://project.tampabay.com/2017/special-report/unlocked-loaded/gun-dealers/

Kremlin Cash Behind Billionaires Twitter and Facebook Investments

Leaked files show that a state-controlled bank in Moscow helped to fuel Yuri Milner’s ascent in Silicon Valley, where the Russia investigation has put tech companies under scrutiny.

In fall 2010, the Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner took the stage for a Q. and A. at a technology conference in San Francisco. Mr. Milner, whose holdings have included major stakes in Facebook and Twitter, is known for expounding on everything from the future of social media to the frontiers of space travel. But when someone asked a question that had swirled around his Silicon Valley ascent — who were his investors? — he did not answer, turning repeatedly to the moderator with a look of incomprehension.

Now, leaked documents examined by The New York Times offer a partial answer: Behind Mr. Milner’s investments in Facebook and Twitter were hundreds of millions of dollars from the Kremlin.

Obscured by a maze of offshore shell companies, the Twitter investment was backed by VTB, a Russian state-controlled bank often used for politically strategic deals.

And a big investor in Mr. Milner’s Facebook deal received financing from Gazprom Investholding, another government-controlled financial institution, according to the documents. They include a cache of records from the Bermuda law firm Appleby that were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and reviewed by The Times in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/yuri-milner-facebook-twitter-russia.html?_r=0

ACLU AMENDEDS BAR COMPLAINT AGAINST AG JEFF SESSIONS

The ACLU filed an amended bar complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The ACLU filed the original complaint against Sessions back in March and is now amending its complaint to send more evidence to the Alabama Bar of Sessions’ lying under oath on Russia/Trump campaign.

The ACLU has asked the Justice Department, the Judiciary Committees, and the Alabama Bar to investigate Jeff Sessions for perjury.

https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/aclu-files-amended-bar-complaint-against-attorney-general-jeff-sessions

GOP tax bill War on Alimony

Bit by bit we’re getting analysis of some of the more peculiar parts of the Republican tax bill. For example, what’s up with eliminating the tax deduction for alimony payments? This one is so minuscule (about $1 billion per year) that you can’t even say it’s because Republicans were scrounging for nickels under the cushions to pay for their corporate tax cuts. In a $5 trillion tax bill, this is more like scrounging for cigarette butts: it’s just not worth it no matter how hard up you are. So what’s going on?

First off, let’s explain what this is all about. Under current law, you write an alimony check and then both you and your spouse pay taxes on your respective net incomes. Under the Republican proposal, you pay taxes on your entire income and then write an alimony check from what remains. To see how this plays out, here’s an example using the new tax brackets in the Republican plan. Suppose you make $100,000 and a judge orders you to pay alimony of $40,000. Here’s the stylized arithmetic, not counting any kind of deductions or exemptions:

Current law: Your net income is $60,000 so you pay taxes of $9,150. Your spouse has income of $40,000 and pays taxes of $4,800. Total taxes paid = $13,950.
New Republican proposal: You pay taxes on $100,000 of your income and then send out the alimony check. Total taxes paid = $19,150.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/11/the-peculiar-story-of-the-republican-war-on-alimony/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social

Milwaukee Police Officer Rips Wisconsin Gun Laws

Milwaukee Chief Of Police completely dismantles a horrifying gun law that's backed by the NRA. We need more of this.

https://twitter.com/TheRickyDavila/status/880524712237035520

Bermuda cyber attack: the new Appleby data leak

Many of the world's richest and most powerful people are bracing themselves for a huge leak of their information.

The Bermuda hack – which could be somerthing like a repeat of the Panama Papers – may be about to lead to a major examination of the financial, corporate and tax affairs of the most important people on the planet.

High net worth individuals and the world's biggest companies are gearing up with legal firms and PR companies for the huge drop. But here's exactly what it means, who will be affected and how.

What's about to happen?

We don't know exactly, but something big. A number of media organisations are gearing up to release information from the cyber attack, though it's not clear what that information will be.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/bermuda-cyber-attack-why-billionaires-143600292.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw

1% of Americans have never heard of Donald Trump??????

WTF?

If he isn’t sending out his latest tweet storms, his orange hair is clogging up your Facebook feed or he’s mouthing off on TV with yet another nuclear sound bite.

But it turns out "The Donald" hasn’t quite reached total saturation point.

According to the latest National Tracking Poll by Politico, 1 per cent of Americans have never heard of the current President of the United States of America.

A further 1 per cent have never heard of Melania or Ivanka, either.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/37739084/one-per-cent-of-americans-have-never-heard-of-donald-trump/?cmp=st