[The Hill] After three mass shootings in the span of a week left 53 wounded and 34 dead, pressure is mounting on Congress to respond with legislation to restrict access to guns and ammunition. But there is no need to wait for new laws. There are steps that can be taken immediately ‐ ones unlikely to be controversial ‐ that evidence suggests could help prevent attacks or reduce the death toll from them.
Dozens of terror plots have been foiled by members of the public in the last 20 years after a tip-off (widely known as "see something, say something" since 9/11). Mass shootings and other forms of domestic terrorism might similarly be prevented if there were wider awareness of what exactly warrants a report to law enforcement.
In some cases, would-be perpetrators have posted pictures or videos of their weapons online, along with plans. But there are indirect warning signs that might also be worth reporting, such as someone studying how to carry out mass killings more effectively; being in active contact with a terrorist or extremist organization; acquiring (or trying to acquire) weapons specifically in order to engage in violence; or undergoing training or travel to join a violent cause.
If such red flags appear in social media feeds, especially by someone a user knows is not making a joke or trolling, it also needs to be easier to forward them to law enforcement. Facebook and Twitter and the like make it easy for users to report concerning posts (e.g. for violence, terrorism or suicide), but those reports, unless the company’s reviewers discern an imminent threat, remain internal to the company, and are used simply to determine whether to delete the post or suspend the account. There is no mechanism to forward a social media post directly to law enforcement to assess whether a full investigation is warranted. Facebook’s help page on reporting inappropriate or abusive posts just tells users to contact law enforcement if they feel threatened.
[PJ] Overstock founder and CEO Patrick Byrne decided to go public this week with information "about political espionage" in the 2016 election that he thinks will be "the biggest scandal in American history." The businessman said that he had gone to his mentor Warren Buffet for advice and that Buffet had advised him to come forward. What Byrne proceeded to allege in his 22-minute interview with Fox News' Martha MacCallum was his shady work as an informant for the FBI in 2015 and 2016.
"It's going to make some feds furious at me," Byrne told MacCallum Thursday night. "Their heads are going to explode." Byrne also claimed that former FBI director James Comey will "crap his pants" when he finds out that he has spilled the beans about the FBI's election-year espionage activities to the Department of Justice.
The business executive said that he didn't feel like it was safe to come out until the "rule of law" had returned to the country, explaining that he trusted Attorney General William Barr to set things right.
Must see YouTube interview.
"The Chinese look at us as a tributary state."
Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist, sits down with hedge fund giant Kyle Bass to discuss America’s current geopolitical landscape regarding China. Bannon and Bass take a deep dive into Chinese infiltration in U.S. institutions, China’s aggressiveness in the South China sea, and the potential for global conflict in the next few years. Filmed on October 5, 2018 at an undisclosed location.
#3
It’s a service Herb provides when he sees the lack, as one of his contributions to Rantburg, Skidmark. Since I’ve given up on acquiring the skill to do this, despite the explanations people here have provided, I appreciate his generosity in doing it for us.
#4
People should just have the common courtesy to put things where they're easy to get. And to answer your question, yes it is indeed too much trouble to click through to most things. People won't do it.
Embedding videos is easy. You click "share". Then "embed". Then copy and paste the code generated.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/24/2019 14:06 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Thanks for #1 Herb. One of the best presentations on the China issue I've heard lately, possibly ever. Notice Bannon's comments on 'Dovos Man', Kissenger, J.D.Vance's Hillbilly Elegy ?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.