Well... Sh*t

I guess the Supreme Court simply doesn't want to hear second amendment cases, for better or worse. Having lived in California (and recently) I can say that this is distressing. Depending on where you live in CA, getting a concealed carry permit can be as easy as any shall issue state, or the next best thing to impossible. Given that California bans open carry, many residents of California are facing a de facto ban on bearing arms, a clear infringement of the second amendment. I fully endorse the dissent voiced by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, who called the decision "indefensible".

EDIT: And I thought that they were doing, a perhaps not great job, but an acceptable one. This is rather disappointing, especially since the court still has the same number of conservatives, liberals, and swing votes as it did for the McDonald and Heller decisions.

Well, It's a Start

Today the Supreme Court denied an appeal concerning non-violent misdemeanor offenses and gun rights, letting a lower courts decision stand. This makes it so that you can't be denied your gun rights for a non-violent misdemeanor. I don't support having any misdemeanor turn someone into a prohibited person - if a person's crime is so bad that they shouldn't be allowed to own firearms, it should be a felony - and I'm ambivalent about prohibiting felons, particularly non-violent felons, for a variety of reasons, ranging from the massive number of felony laws on the book, so many in fact, that no one even knows how many there are, let alone how to avoid committing one, to the fact that a reformed felon is just as prohibited as an unrepentant felon, and the unrepentant one won't have any issues with using the black market or other illegal means (i.e. theft) to obtain a firearm.

So the fact that the crimes that can lead to becoming a prohibited person have been significantly reduced makes me more than a little happy.

US in no condition to Lecture Communist Cuba on human rights?

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Oh wait... They're actually serious. Whatever the US's problems (and we have a few) the communist shithole of Cuba is not a state in any position to criticize us. Not to mention that most of their criticisms are complete bullshit:

"We have deep concerns by the respect and the guaranties of the human rights in that country, where there is a large number of cases of murder, brutality and police abuse, particularly against the African Americans; the right to live is violated as a result of deaths by firearms," the statement read.

It went on to list a litany of concerns: racial discrimination, salary inequality between genders, the marginalization of immigrants and refugees from Islamic and other countries, Trump's proposed wall on the southern border, his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, the imprisonment of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, the killing of US and foreign citizens in drone attacks, the preface for and conduct of the wars in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, and estimates that the Republican health care bill would cause 23 million people to lose medical insurance.

Yeah...

1. It's not unheard of for cops to be complete shitbags. However, it's also uncommon, and unless they get protected by their department and/or attorney general they'll face the consequences for it, and when they do get protection of that sort, it sets of a lot of bad press. It's also worth noting that the levels of corruption among US cops are quite a bit lower than most of the rest of the world. Casual bribery of cops is a part of life in most of the world, but not in the US.
2. Right to live violated as a result of deaths by firearms? I hate to break it, but taking away guns doesn't get rid of violence and murder. It often makes the violence worse.
3. Racial discrimination? There are race issues, but they generally get blown out of proportion.
4. Salary inequality is a nonissue. The causes of it are as follows; many women take significant time off to have children, delaying their careers, and resulting in lower average salaries. Amplifying the problem is that women tend to pick lower paying (in fact, often worthless) degrees. It has nothing to do with sexism.
5. Marginalization of refugees? Trump says some stupid shit. That doesn't mean that his rhetoric is entirely unjustified. The countries on his travel ban are all failed states without the ability to vet their passports, and with heavy terrorist influences in country. Illegal immigration is a major issue.
6. The Paris climate accord is a scam to steal money from poor and middle class people in rich countries, and give it to rich people in poor countries.
7. Killing US citizens with drones? Yeah that's an issue both legal and moral, if it's done on purpose. And if they're not acting as part of a terrorist group. Killing non-US citizens? If they're not terrorists, and it's done on purpose, again it's a moral issue (but not really a legal issue, since our government shouldn't have too much obligation to foreign nationals.
8. I'm not going to go all over the Iraq and Afghan wars right now. I don't really have the time to do it justice, and I want to go to bed sometime. Suffice to say, we had our reasons. And they were good, even if we messed up the execution.
9. Health care? Our system of healthcare works. In fact, the more government has gotten involved in it, the less well it's worked. Moreover, if you want to see what US government ran healthcare would look like, check out the VA. Yeah, all those people with socialized healthcare? They've basically got the VA, but for everyone. 

Cuba, if your country works so great, why were there ever balseros? Why was the "Wet feet, dry feet" policy such a big deal? Stop moralizing.

So, when exactly did you get turned into a Eunuch?

Apparently it's a requirement that British men get their balls cut off.
Who knew.
I mean, who knew that lock-back knives were scary? Or that a (max) 3-inch knife was "girthy-as-fuck". The only reason I can think of for someone to hold those opinions it a lack of balls.

On Trump and Russia.

For the record (and as is fairly evident from reading past posts) I'm not a terribly big fan of Donald Trump. As far as I'm concerned, he was the third worst option last election cycle, running against the worst option.
Based off of his past views as expressed in his (mostly former at this point) associations and written words, he is one of three things:

1. Newly conservative, at a time when most people are quite settled in their ways, and having been a Democrat for the majority of his life
2. A liberal pretending to be a republican (based off of his actions since becoming president, this one is now the least likely scenario, unless he's playing a far deeper game than any US politician has played in decades).
3. A populist with no truly personal political views. I favor this theory, because he's changed political affiliations a total of seven times over the course of his life.

Whatever the case may be, the fact that he's turned out to not be Hillary Clinton with better taste in clothes is not a ringing endorsement.

With that in mind, I have a few things to say to liberals when it comes to Trump.

• This is your fault just as much as it is the conservatives. Trump won the primary, not despite the bad press, but because of it. When you turned Mitt Romney, perhaps the squishiest and most liberal Republican in the party, into the next thing to Hitler, and earlier, John McCain, who is probably the biggest swing vote in the Senate, into the reincarnation of Goebbels, you destroyed your credibility. So when Trump came along, and he actually was an asshole, no one believed you, and a significant portion of the electorate voted for him BECAUSE you said he was an asshole. Then you compounded the issue by running Hillary Clinton against him. You picked the one candidate capable of getting libertarians of any stripe to vote for Trump. You could have ran Jim Webb, who probably could have stolen a good chunk of conservatives from Trump. You could have ran Bernie Sanders, who despite being a batshit crazy socialist could've drawn a significant number of new voters, and basically all current leftist voters. Instead, you ran the absolute worst candidate you could've ran, one who alienated not just conservatives, but a good chunk of middle, and who failed to draw in any new voters to make up for the way she alienated the more conservative portion of the middle.
• Remember the birther controversy? A lot of your recent ideas about getting rid of Trump are just as foolish. The whole "Russia" debacle? Not doing you any favors. If you don't have the conclusive ability to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, you probably shouldn't be making a big deal out of it. Otherwise, just like the birthers, when you can't prove it, you look completely retarded and help out your opposition.
• Even should you manage to oust Trump, you'll get Mike Pence. You don't want Mike Pence. Hillary doesn't even get another shot until 2020, at which point in time you should probably pick another candidate. You're not getting any other democrat, because you'd need to impeach and remove from office 5 people before you got to someone who isn't a Republican. And, not only is he not a democrat, I doubt that you'd enjoy President "Mad Dog" Mattis. This assumes of course that you impeach people faster than replacements can be nominated, which is itself extremely unlikely.

That's it for now. Enjoy your free advice.