Quote:

---

Are we giving each other a rundown of what's been said on the last page now? What I wanted to know is why you brought up a statistic that ultimately raises no valid point to the conversation, but is rather there only to serve as a basis for the rhetoric: "look at what your America did for the past 250 years, Trump, you shouldn't be the one to talk or ask for anything".

---

Salamandre said:

---

Also I hate the pack attitude, when I see 99% of people attacking on one, I always side withe that one. Sorry, this just lights something in my head, I can't do else.

---

Kayna said:

---

I'm fairly certain that if Trump is backing out of environmental agreements, it's because the establishment either asked him to do so or doesn't care about it.

---

Quote:

---

RENTON, N.J. — Gov. Chris Christie got blistered online Monday after he was photographed sunning himself on a New Jersey beach that he had closed to the public over the Fourth of July weekend because of a government shutdown.

Commenters mocked the governor as selfish and arrogant and cracked wise about the sight of the heavyset Christie in a beach chair in sandals, shorts and a T-shirt. The photo soon found itself inserted into an Oval Office picture and scenes from "Planet of the Apes," ''From Here to Eternity" and "The Sopranos."

   In this Sunday, July 2, 2017, photo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, right, uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. Christie is defending his use of the beach, closed to the public during New Jersey's government shutdown, saying he had previously announced his vacation plans and the media had simply "caught a politician keeping his word." (Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP)

   A sign hangs from a barricade at the entrance to Liberty State Park, which remains closed due to the New Jersey government shutdown, Saturday, July 1, 2017, in Jersey City., N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and the Democrat-led Legislature are set to return to work to try to resolve the state's first government shutdown since 2006 and the first under Christie. The Republican governor and the Democrat-led Legislature failed to reach an agreement on a new budget by the deadline at midnight Friday. Christie ordered nonessential services, including state parks and the motor vehicle commission to close beginning Saturday. Remaining open under the shutdown will be New Jersey Transit, state prisons, the state police, state hospitals and treatment centers as well as casinos, race tracks and the lottery. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

   In this Sunday, July 2, 2017, photo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie uses the beach with his family and friends at the governor's summer house at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. Christie is defending his use of the beach, closed to the public during New Jersey's government shutdown, saying he had previously announced his vacation plans and the media had simply "caught a politician keeping his word." (Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP)

Christie defended his visit to the shore, saying that he had previously announced his plans to vacation at the state-owned governor's beach house and that the media had simply "caught a politician keeping his word."

The deeply unpopular Republican was photographed Sunday by NJ.com at Island Beach State Park. He and his family had the sun and sand all to themselves.

"I didn't get any sun today," Christie told reporters at a news conference later in the day in Trenton. Then, when told of the photos, his spokesman told NJ.com that what the governor said was true because Christie was wearing a baseball hat.

Christie, who is heading into his final six months in office with his approval rating at an abysmal 15 percent, was lambasted for what many saw as a let-them-eat-cake gesture by the state's chief executive.

"Taxpayers can't use the parks and other public sites they pay for, but he and his family can hang out at a beach that no one else can use?" asked Mary Jackson, a Freehold resident walking through a mostly empty downtown near the Capitol in Trenton. "Doesn't he realize how that looks, how people will see it as a slap in the face?"

Online, one user joked that Christie was promoting the state's whale-watching industry. Another shared video of a simulated tsunami, saying it was the aftermath of Christie jumping into the water.

Others likened the beach closing to the 2013 scheme by Christie allies to close lanes and cause huge traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge. Some said Christie was trying to outdo President Donald Trump in low approval ratings.

"SON OF A BEACH," screamed London's Daily Mail.

Christie's lieutenant governor, who is running in November to succeed him, said Christie's beach time was "beyond words."

"If I were governor, I sure wouldn't be sitting on the beach if taxpayers didn't have access to state beaches," said Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagano.

Christie ordered a shutdown of nonessential state services over the holiday weekend — including parks, beaches and motor vehicle offices — after he and the Democratic-controlled legislature were unable to agree on a budget to start the new fiscal year.

The sticking point is Christie's demand that Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield be overhauled so that the state can tap into the nonprofit insurer's surplus to finance drug treatment.

Christie has blamed a top Democratic lawmaker for the shutdown, with the state plastering CLOSED signs at parks with Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto's picture and office phone number.

"That's the way it goes," Christie said Saturday about his family's use of the beach home. "Run for governor, and you can have the residence."

Later, after he was photographed on the beach, he sarcastically called it a "great bit of journalism."

"They actually caught a politician being where he said he was going to be with the people he said he was going to be with, his wife and children and their friends," Christie said in an interview with the New York Fox TV station. "I am sure they will get a Pulitzer for this one."

Christie's ratings were thrown into a nosedive by the bridge scandal, his own run for president and his support for Trump. In the past year, he was passed over for vice president, demoted as Trump's transition chairman, and denied a top-level administration post of his liking.

But Christie regularly says that the only time popularity counts is when you're running for something — and he's not. "I don't care," he said recently when asked about the fall in his ratings.

Among those affected by the shutdown were Cub Scouts forced to leave a state campsite and people trying to obtain or renew motor vehicle documents. Liberty State Park was closed, forcing the suspension of ticket sales and ferry service to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. But the two sites remained open.

Prisons, state police, state hospitals and New Jersey's bus and commuter railroad remain open. The vast majority of beaches are open as well, since most are controlled not by the state but by towns up and down New Jersey's 130 miles of coastline.

Christie on Monday morning began retweeting posts by some of those towns promoting their beaches.

"Come and enjoy them," the governor tweeted, "but use sunscreen and hydrate."

---

Quote:

---

MIAMI — Florida's updated "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law is unconstitutional, a Miami judge ruled on Monday.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch ruled that lawmakers overstepped their authority in creating the law this year that forces prosecutors to disprove a defendant's self-defense claim at a pre-trial hearing.

The judge ruled that under Florida's constitution, that change should have been crafted by the Florida Supreme Court, not the Legislature.

"As a matter of constitutional separation of powers, that procedure cannot be legislatively modified," Hirsch wrote in a 14-page order.

The ruling is a victory for prosecutors who have firmly opposed the law they believe makes it easier for defendants to get away with murder and other violent crime.

   Person shopping for guns.
   Florida Governor Rick Scott walks with other politicians as he stops by the Jose F. Caragol Jr. Emergency Operations Center on the first day of Hurricane season on June 1, 2016 in Hialeah, Florida. The governor made the stop to encourage residents to prepare for the hurricane season and have a plan of action if a hurricane makes it to Florida this year.
   A reflection of an American flag is seen on a side a vehicle during the "Stand Your Ground" rally opposed to the shooting death of Robert �LaVoy� Finicum organized by the Pacific Patriots Network in Burns, Oregon January 30, 2016.

The law, an update to the already controversial "Stand Your Ground" statute passed over a decade ago, was pushed by the politically powerful National Rifle Association. Gov. Rick Scott signed the new law into effect in last month.

First passed in 2005, Florida's controversial self-defense law has been criticized for fostering a shoot-first mentality -- and giving killers a pass at justice. The law eliminated a citizen's duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter an apparent threat.

More problematic for prosecutors, the law made it easier for judges — before ever getting to a jury — to dismiss criminal charges if they deem someone acted in self-defense.

The Florida Supreme Court later ruled that defendants, in asking for immunity from criminal prosecution, must be the ones to prove they were acting in self-defense.

In Miami-Dade, judges have thrown several high-profile murder cases after pre-trial immunity hearings, but have also allowed many more to go to a jury.

But the NRA-backed bill, passed in May despite fierce opposition by prosecutors and gun-control advocates, upended the legal framework.

Now, at those pre-trial hearings, prosecutors shoulder the burden of disproving a defendant's self-defense claim. State Attorneys contended that it essentially forces them to unfairly to try the case twice, making it easier for criminals to skate on violent charges.

Under the law, prosecutors must prove by "clear and convincing" evidence that a defendant was not acting in self-defense.

Hirsch ruled on the case of Liletha Rutherford, who is accused of aggravated assault for pulling a gun on a couple during an argument, and Omar Rodriguez, the so-called "Neighbor from Hell" who shot and killed a man after a confrontation over dog poop.

The separate immunity hearings will still be held in the coming weeks — but it will be up to Rutherford and Rodriguez to prove their self-defense claims.

Hirsch's ruling likely sets up legal wrangling in the appellate courts, and the Florida Supreme Court.

It was not surprising that Hirsch was the first to weigh in on the new law. Since becoming a judge in 2010, he's often ruled on broader legal issues that sometimes upend conventional norms.

Earlier this year, the judge ruled that Miami-Dade County's inmate detention policy, spurred by President Donald Trump's threats to withhold funding, violated the constitution.

Last year, Hirsch also ruled that a new death-penalty sentencing structure was unconstitutional, a decision that later proved prescient — the Florida Supreme Court ruled the same months later.

In 2012, Hirsch ruled that prosecutors could not say a fingerprint found at a crime scene was a controversial match, a decision later overturned by an appeals court.

When a Tampa federal judge ruled in 2011 that Florida's drug law was unconstitutional, Hirsch was the only local state judge to follow suit. He tossed out more than two dozen cases, but Miami's appeals court later reversed Hirsch's decision.

---

Kipshasz said:

---

Still better than that cucked, dying hag.

---