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Melania Trump re-emerges amid marriage scrutiny

Can Trump succeed where FDR and Bill Clinton failed?

Several Broward deputies waited outside during Florida school shooting, report says

Coral Springs cops who responded to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say several Broward sheriff’s deputies waited outside rather than rush in as the killer was gunning down students, according to reports.

The allegations emerged a day after veteran Broward deputy Scot Peterson resigned under fire for failing to enter the school during the Valentine’s Day shooting. President Trump on Friday said Peterson, who was assigned to guard the school, “did a poor job.”

The Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that according to police sources at least three Broward deputies, including Peterson, waited outside. The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Friday it is investigating the Coral Springs officer's claims.

The allegations add to a series of failures that have emerged since 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and staff, and wounded 16. Cruz was arrested and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Two additional Broward deputies are also under investigation over whether they mishandled warnings about Cruz in the months leading up to the shooting. The FBI has admitted it failed to investigate similar claims, and Florida child welfare agency looked into concerns about Cruz, but concluded he wasn’t a risk to himself or others.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the Sun-Sentinel that three Coral Springs officers said one or more sheriff’s deputies did not go into the school building when they should have, and their concerns were relayed to the sheriff’s office by the Coral Springs police chief.

“If our investigation shows that our deputies made no mistakes or did things right, or it’s not corroborated, there will be no issue,” Israel said.

“If we find out, as we did with Peterson, that our deputies made mistakes and didn’t go in, I’ll handle it like I always have. I’ll handle any violations of policy or procedures or whatever accordingly.”

This is a primary reason for contempt of police. These cops milled about smartly, outside of a school building, knowing full well that someone was wandering the halls, killing people. Why? Because they are COWARDS!

Oh, I'm sure they can legally justify their actions with policy, and procedure. And, none of them were actually ordered to go inside of the building. Blah, blah, blah - they can defend themselves in a court of law.

But out here, in real life, each of these people stood by while a marauder was taking lives, several feet away from them.

Military veterans? I don't know, maybe some of us would have leaned on policy and procedure. Many, if not most, of us would have charged into the building. We have a tradition of "whatever it takes". A common comment in evaluations (when justified) is "Petty Officer Whoever is mission oriented, and willing to make sacrifices to see the mission through."

The "mission" in this case, would have been to end the carnage, and to save lives. These cops seemed to be content to allow the carnage to continue, until enough of a police force had collected to ensure their own personal survival.

That is a damned good definition of cowardice.

If you aren't willing to put your own life on the line, you are unworthy of respect. You have no right to wear that uniform. You have no right to your paycheck. You haven't even the right to compare yourself to a lowly dog. Many dogs have readily, and willingly, sacrificed themselves in defense of their masters, or children, or even strangers in some rarer instances.

Cops. We've often mentioned that the police force attracts authoritarian, abusive assholes. We need to attract more people who are willing to risk themselves for their fellow man.

It would be interesting to review these coward's service records. How many of them have been abusive pigs, who singled out defenseless (homeless, prostitutes, female, minority, minors, etc) to abuse?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/24/several-broward-deputies-waited-outside-during-florida-school-shooting-report-says.html

I was about to install the Tor Browser into a new VM, but found that https://www.torproject.org is down as of ~0000 on 25-Feb-2018 GMT.

I checked with several browsers on several hosts, but no soap. What's more,
http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/torproject.org.html and https://isitup.org/www.torproject.org both agree.

Is this a DDOS? Recovery from a hack? Fallout from the recent announcement?

I searched around the web and didn't find anything about this, except for a July, 2017 Reddit post complaining that the site was down.

The browser is still available on Github and, I assume, other download sites/mechanisms.

I wonder what's going on?

Had I realized that before now I would have already changed to a new distro.

While I occasionally use Linux, really I'm a Mac Fanboi. User Interface is important to me.

I just posted this to facebook.

Yes: Facebook.

I'm trying to mine Monero on Linux, because my Linux box has an AMD graphics card. Monero must be mined on a GPU - "Graphics Processing Unit". But I'm still setting up the required software tools. That's because I'm using Linux, and the Linuxheads all seem to regard it as some manner of advantage that you can't just install anything, you have to install all manner of prerequisites first.

I finally managed to dig up the required repository sources. I'm going from 17.3 to 18 as I write this. That requires I download 1.6 GB of packages.

While I was able to build cmake myself, XMR Stak also requires g++ 5.

"The game's not over until everybody gets their cookies" -- Gallagher

I'm going to teAch you a new word: "Anorgasmia"

I didn't get my cookies

It worked at first to take only half my dose of Wellbutrin. But after two gentlemen devoted a total of an hour and a half to struggling valiantly to get me off I stopped taking it at all

For a few days I feared it was permanent. But I am happy to report that I finally got them

But there is a problem: I was taking Wellbutrin so I wouldn't sleep all day.

Today I slept all dAy.

"If you're going to change your medicine, tell your doctor " -- Dr. C

Florida governor Rick Scott's three-point plan requires gun buyers to be 21 and up

Scott's plan also includes prohibiting a person from having or buying a firearm if he or she is subject to an injunction for protection against stalking, cyberstalking or domestic violence.

Cyberstalking is serious business.

This article makes some fascinating postulations about religious belief and the purpose it serves, as well as the question of judging the rationality of beliefs versus the rationality of actions. It's a tough read, but I found it fascinating.

Kylie Jenner just wiped $1.7 billion off Snap’s market cap, and the worst isn’t over for the stock

In One Tweet, Kylie Jenner Wiped Out $1.3 Billion of Snap’s Market Value

Why Kylie Jenner May Be to Blame for Snap's Recent $1 Billion Loss in Value

Tweet

Would you like to see this story on the front page of SoylentNews?

I've heard this theme several times after a mass shooter has acted out. One, two, maybe three news sources blame the shootings on drugs - but the media doesn't really pick up on it. Well, I've just heard it again, in regards to Cruz, the Florida shooter. Drugs are to blame. Hmmmmm . . . let me search for SOME kind of source, I can't just take a radio DJ's word for it, right?

http://www.wnd.com/2018/02/media-ignoring-1-crucial-factor-in-florida-school-shooting/ Yep, depression. All the other conduct I've seen attributed to Cruz ranges from normal, to weird, to maybe a little crazy. But, he WAS being treated over several year's time for depression. Interesting . . .

Paddock, the Vegas shooter - likewise. https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/the-strip/las-vegas-strip-shooter-prescribed-anti-anxiety-drug-in-june/

Adam Lanza, of Newtown, ditto. https://ssristories.org/the-antipsychotic-prescribed-to-adam-lanza-has-a-troubled-history-all-its-own-business-insider/

Ok, I'll try to be fair here - and honest. Those links aren't exactly "mainstream", and they may or may not be "credible". I don't place a helluva lot of credibility in any of the media, to be honest.

But, how about psychologytoday? Is it credible? Unlike some Soylentils, I'm not a part time psychoanalyst. I have no degree in pretending to understand people. I see the title, and hope that it is more credible than say . . . The National Enquirer. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/obsessively-yours/201212/newtown-shootings-caution-about-violence-and-ssris

Newtown Shootings: A Caution About Violence and SSRIs
SSRIs rank high in the top ten drugs that cause violence
Posted Dec 20, 2012

As the debate moves forward about how to keep events like the shooting in Newtown from happening, the inevitable topic that comes up is how to best detect and treat young people with mental illness.

Many of our politicians have opined on this subject, sometimes as a way of deflecting from the issue of gun control. While it is obvious that better screening and treatment of troubled adolescents can be of enormous benefit, we also have to exercise caution.

The reason for the note of caution is that when a typical young person is diagnosed with depression and/or a host of anti-social conditions, the standard treatment offered is SSRI’s [Selective Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors] also known as Prozac-like drugs. There has recently been a great deal of debate about the effectiveness of such medications.

But more relevant to the discussion, is that these very drugs we hope can treat mental illness are at the same time drugs that cause violent behavior including suicide and aggression toward others. In fact, SSRI’s are the leading drugs in a recent list compiled of the Top Ten Drugs that cause violent behavior.

It’s been well known that adolescents and young people have an increased risk of suicide when they begin to take SSRIs. But what we may forget is that suicide is an impulsive behavior that is turned against oneself. But impulses, particularly violent ones, can be turned against others.

An accompanying effect of SSRI’s is the dulling of feelings that cause depression—and one of the main feelings in this line is empathy. If empathy is dulled and violent impulses increase when young people are on SSRI’s, then certainly that is a recipe for causing harm to others.

With every shooting, the hoplophobes resume screeching and squawking about the need for gun control laws. We never hear them even ASK about psychotropic drugs.

As I say, I've heard this question asked, several times, over the years. Aren't the psychotropics suspect? Maybe they're to blame? But, I've never really looked at it. Call it some naive faith that if the drugs were to blame, then someone is working to expose that fact. Except - that is a terribly naive thing to believe. Big Pharma is in the business of making money - even when it creates an opium addiction crisis.

So, what about those shooters? Are they picking up their guns because the guns removed all their natural(?) inhibitions?

Can anyone find an account of a shooter who WAS NOT on anti-depressants or some other psychotropic?

This really is worrisome. The shrinks tell us that one in four, or one in five, or one in seven Americans have mental health issues. Let me find something on that . . . Newsweek claims one in five - that is, 20% of all Americans are nuts, to some degree or another - http://www.newsweek.com/nearly-1-5-americans-suffer-mental-illness-each-year-230608 (no, of course they don't use the word "nuts" - I can paraphrase them however the hell I like)

So, the shrinks claim that 1/5 of all the people you meet are nuts. FFS, are they really nuts, or are the shrinks the ones who are nuts?

Seemingly, people who are NOT vititing shrinks, don't shoot people at random. While, seemingly, people who routinely see shrinks, and take the drugs offered them, are far more likely to pick up a weapon, and start spraying everyone in sight.

So, WTF is going on here? Ideas? Opinion? Should we stop demonizing guns, and start demonizing drugs and Big Pharma?

What is the possibility that the drugs actually MAKE people crazy? From my experience with friends and family who are prescribed drugs for ADD/ADHD, hyperactivity, and other "problems" - they often turn zombie-like. Once close acquaintance described feeling "angry" whenever he was on his drugs. As the drugs wore off, he was much less angry. Of course, that is just one example - one person who felt free to talk to me about his experience.

Are shrinks what is wrong with America today?