Nahvi

They are definitely something, but they were not the main qualities that Newsom repeatedly stated that he was searching for.

I think that is a reasonable stance, one I even mostly agree with. If any of the charges were misdemeanors, I might even have let that one through myself with time served and a request to take a firearm safety or self-defense course. However, I think the judge would still be having to decide whether to throw it out in a month.

However, once you say the self-defense is justified, trying to tack on additional charges is pretty unfair to the defendant. If he had another method of self-defense with him, he might have used it, but he only had the firearm and he used the minimum amount of force possible with that tool.

As I said below:

The driver owning a gun is not a danger to random members of society. His actions clearly indicate he is willing to deescalate the situation and try to walk away before defending himself. Even when he did fire, he didn’t unload the chamber at the aggressor and his friend, he fired a single round while continuing to try and leave. It was the bare minimum for the weapon he had available.

It would be pretty reasonable to lay the entire situation at the feet of the instigator. I will be interested to follow a civil case if the defendant attempts to sue the aggressor.

While I agree in the lesser of two evils kind of way, meaning its better than they are in the House rather than Senate or President, I still think it is pretty shameful. If they just can't let go of politics it is time to go back home to city and state legislative bodies.

Still, it is wonderful to read an actually well-stated view point in this post. Seems that most of the thread has devolved to name calling and verbal diarrhea.

Have an upvote for some quality content!

There wasn’t a threat or posturing like a bar fight. There needs to be some actual positive evidence to be able to claim you fear for your life.

You don't need to fear for your life just your safety. Those guys cornered him up against the counter and then followed him when he tried to get away, despite repeated requests to stop.

Seems to me that people are just happy about the annoying guy getting shot for shitty behavior, and they’ll rationalize it however needed.

There are plenty in this post that would take that stance. However, I am not one of them, and nothing in my comments indicates otherwise.

The driver owning a gun is not a danger to random members of society. His actions clearly indicate he is willing to deescalate the situation and try to walk away before defending himself. Even when he did fire, he didn't unload the chamber at the aggressor and his friend, he fired a single round while continuing to try and leave. It was the bare minimum for the weapon he had available.

At any point, the self-described "Goon" could have ended this hostile interaction by just standing still.

You know that his life wasn't in danger because you know it was a prank. The defender here did not have the benefit of that knowledge.

When someone nearly a foot taller with 50 more pounds of muscle gets in your face and starts accusing you of thinking about their private parts, then you get to decide if self-defense is necessary. The defender tried to get away from the aggressor multiple times and told him to stop multiple times, but the aggressor obviously kept engaging.

Do you think he should have waited until the giant started punching or kicking him before he decided to draw his weapon? Should he have tried to punch the giant instead of using the weapon he has? Do you think you could outrun someone taller and in better shape than you are?

If the defender had multiple self-defense options he might have chosen another, but all of this is arm-chair quarterbacking. We weren't there and the person that was chose the only real defense option they had.

This situation is entirely the Goon's fault. He should be the one facing charges. While it might be reasonable to recommend a self-defense course for the victim, my understanding is that he already followed good self-defense principles.

Edit: Also, since no one else is saying it, I will. If the victim happened to have been gay, the aggressor probably would have been charged with a hate crime. The goon was clearly accusing him of it.

Thank you for clarifying. Could not remember for the life of me.

McCarthy finally put on his big boy pants and is proposing a 45 day clean spending bill

While I was definitely a proponent of this, I will easily admit that I was a bit surprised that he actually did it. There are far too many "non-starters" for both parties right now, and it seems to be getting worse not better. Even identifying as a moderate or centrist is pretty well derided at every turn. It is a bit crazy, but the most heated arguments I get into are with people that I agree 80% or more with.

and then their constituents buy into the “fiscal conservatism” ploy

I am sure that the fiscally conservative Republicans are just as frustrated by this issue as you and I are. Over and over we hear the talk and then they come back with even more spending and less taxes, which is definitely the opposite of what is needed. The problem I see, is that I can't even remember the last time I heard a Democrat in office pushing for a balanced budget. I am not sure what is worse, not mentioning it or talking about it then doing the opposite; probably the latter but clearly not everyone agrees.

The worst thing in all this, is that we have some how taken on all this excess debt during during a virtual golden age. It is a bit scary to think about what the future would look like if we had a long-term recession.

No one is willing to take on our defense spending issues

I fully agree that this is an issue, and with most of your related points, but I really don't have any kind of a solution for it. The idea of creating or propping up an additional military company indefinitely frustrates me even when just thinking about it.

I keep teetering on an isolationist bent, where we would pull back from a lot of our military bases and make it clear that some old commitments are about to be updated, but I think it is pretty clear that some of our world adversaries would take that as a sign of weakness and start pushing their boundaries immediately.

I think it is time that some of our allies that rely on our military take on some of their own responsibility, but most of them are nowhere near ready. Also, I am pretty sure it will just create more world level chaos and likely lead to a new great war.

I think we likely have gotten ourselves into a bit of a pickle. Doubly so, since we are having such a cultural and political division issue at home. When its nearly impossible to handle simple issues, deeply complex issues like these are almost laughable, in the Joaquin Phoenix as Joker kind of way.

Are they in session while walking the halls?

B) all the news sites that popped up at the top of Google search are literally identical. Cool.

I was just skimming through them, so it took me about five articles to realize that they weren't just sharing quotes but were actually exact copies. I felt like I was crazy for a minute. I have never seen this kind of thing with news articles, but makes me wonder how common it is.

Also, I was using DDG not Google so it is not just their problem.