I didn't say Republicans had nothing to do with it. Republicans are also responsible because they go along with social-engineering Democrats, but you must realize that Democrats lead the way.

Crime is down? Crime is down from the 1940s? Prove it.

2400 people shot in Chicago last year. You really think that 'crime is down'?

Also, that wasn't cops shooting people in Chicago.

Maybe when you stop laughing, or looking up words in the dictionary, you can practice a little critical thinking.

500 innocent Americans killed is total bullshit anyway. I want to see names, not just some strawman argument. 11 million people are arrested every year, and many of these 'American citizens' are mental cases, gang members, hardcore criminals, drug addicts etc.

The video states that 'the DOJ estimates that 500 innocent Americans are killed every year'. I would love to see where the DOJ determines their 'innocence'. I want to see the document on that one.

And if one example (Trayvon martin) doesn't invalidate their argument, how can a handful of other examples (as seen in the video) validate it?

If 'a black man is murdered every 28 hours', then ask yourself why so many black men are resisting arrest or engaging in conduct that leads to them getting killed.

You can listen to a police scanner in any major city and the majority of calls will involve police calls for assistance regarding a black man or men engaged in violent criminal behavior. Go ahead and listen, you might learn something. And these calls are generally coming from other black people who want to be protected from the criminals who live amongst them.

The video also states that police officers always get off scott free after killing people. Give me some names. The DOJ went after Darren Wilson with everything they had and eventually had to admit that he acted properly and within the law.

'This ain't a war zone!' the man cries. Did he search everyone in that crowd? How does he know they are unarmed?

The video also concerns an Australian police action. What does that have to do with American police, which is the subject of the video?

Furthermore, the police acting improperly on the video...what is the story behind each officer? Was he/she reprimanded, suspended, fired? There is no followup, it is just assumed that they all got away with improper behavior.

The whole system is racist, says the sign. Tell it to Eric Holder, the black attorney general! lol give me a fucking break

Where is the attention given to black on black crime? You don't hear about it. 2500 people shot in Chicago last year, look it up.

Charles Shaw, you are a fraud.

that's how they do things in Chicago...and washington!

Your video, chicago police accused of running secret "black site", has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

@oritteropo

There are analyses floating around by just about every major player. A majority seems to agree that it would be manageable for the Eurozone and better for Greece. Others, including Varoufakis, argue that Grexit would destablize the Eurozone and be a catastrophe for Greece. Too many variables, too many vested interests... who knows what would happen.

The projections on the other hand were a hoot. What a joke they were.

What was the fiscal multiplier in their initial projections? Something along the lines of 0.75, right? Reduce public spending by a Euro and the economy contracts by just 75 cents. Too bad it turned out to be at least 2.5, probably even far more during certain phases. Ricardian equivalence, my ass.

Here is the IMF outlook of 2010. Bill Mitchell made a nice table for comparison. They did a crackerjack job, didn't they.

IMF research admitted their mistake in 2012, but the policy department doesn't seem to care. Shouldn't come as a suprise to anyone, given the role the IMF played in the application of the shock doctrine all over the world in the last decades. Chicago School of Economics, all the way.

If I look at the list of countries that were ruined by the IMF through policy advisory and loans with strings attached, I wonder just how they still manage to paint Syriza as the ones lacking credibility. Is it because they lack the experience of destroying an economy?

Yet with all that in mind, the Greeks actually prefer the IMF as a partner if the alternative is German officials. How depressing for me as a German.

Remember what Christine Lagarde said about Greece in 2012? The Grauniad still has the goods. Or how she argued for expansionary austerity in 2010? Krugman, to his credit, made fun of the concept back then, but even he severly underestimated just how willing these people are to turn this stuff into policy.

But still preferrable to German officials. Ouch.

That is on Elston Avenue in Chicago.

Well, Syriza is an acronym for Coalition of the Radical Left (roughly), and everything left of the Berlin Consensus is considered to be radical left. So they are going to call Syriza a radical leftist party until the political landscape itelf has been pulled back towards more leftist positions. But you're right, if they were judged by their positions, they'd be centre-left in theory, if centre-left hadn't turned into corporatism by taking up the Third Way of Schröder/Blair/Clinton.

They are, without a doubt, radically democratic though. As your Grauniad article points out, they haven't turned on their election promises yet, which is quite unheard of for a major European party. Francois Hollande in particular was a major letdown in this regard. Few people expected him to bow down to German demands so quickly. Aside from his 75% special tax for the rich, he dropped just about every single part of his program that could be considered socialism.

Grexit... that's a tough one.

Syriza cannot enforce any troika demands that relate to the programmes of the Chicago School of Economics. Friedman ain't welcome anymore. No cuts to wages or pensions, to privatisation of infrastructure, no cuts to the healthcare system, nor any other form of financial oppression of the lower class. That is non-negotiable. In fact, even increases in welfare programs and the healthcare system are pretty much non-negotiable. Even if Syriza wanted to put any of this on the table, and they sure as hell don't, they couldn't make it part of any deal without further damages to an already devasted democratic system in Greece.

So with that in mind, what's the point of all the negotiations?

Varoufakis' suggestions are very reasonable. The growth-linked bonds, for instance, are used very successfully all over the world in debt negotiations, as just about any bankrupty expert would testify. Like Krugman wrote today, Syriza is merely asking to "recognize the reality everyone supposedly already understands". His caveat about the German electorate is on point as well, we haven't had it explained to us yet – and we chose to ignore what little was explained to us.

Yet the troika insists on something Syriza cannot and will not provide, as just outlined above. Some of the officials still expect Syriza to acknowledge reality, to come to their senses and to accept a deal provided to them. Good luck with that, but don't hold your breath. Similarly, Varoufakis is aware that Berlin is almost guaranteed to play hardball all the way.

Of course, nothing is certain and they might strike a deal during their meeting in Wednesday that offers Greece a way out of misery. Or maybe the ECB decides that to stabilize to Euro, as is their sole purpose, they need to keep Greece within the EZ and away from default. That would allow them to back Greece, to provide them with financial support, at least until they present their program in June/July. Everything is possible. However, I see very little evidence in support of it.

Therefore Grexit might actually be just a question of who to blame it on. Syriza is not going to exit the EZ willy nilly, they need clear pressure from outside, so the record will unequivocally show that it wasn't them who made the call. No country can be thrown out, they have to leave of their own. Additionally, Merkel will not be the person to initiate the unravelling of the EU, as might be the consequence of a Grexit. That's leverage for Greece, the only leverage they have. But it has to be played right or else the blame will be put squarely on Greece, even more so than it already is.

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Edit #1: What cannot be overstated is the ability of the EZ to muddle through one crises after another, always on the brink of collapse, yet never actually collapsing. They are determined to hold this thing together, whatever the cost.
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Speaking of blame, Yves Smith linked a fantastic article the other day: Syriza and the French Indemnity of 1871-73.

The author makes a convincing case why the suppression of wages in Germany led to disaster in Spain, why it was not a choice on the part of Spain to engage in irresponsible borrowing and how it is a conflict between workers and the financial elite rather than nations. He also offers historical precedent, with Germany being the recipient of a massive cash influx, ending in a catastrophe similar to Spain's nowadays.

It strikes me as a very objective dissection of what happend, what's going on, and what needs to happen to get things back in shape. Then again, it agrees with many points I made on that BBC videos last week, so it's right within my bubble.

Funny video, in all fairness however I think you can find foreigners being fetishized wherever you go. Like Japanese men wanting to date blonde Caucasian women for example, it turns out that we humans tend to crave novelty.
The "Where are you from?" question also doesn't have to be inherently racist, it's also a simple question that most people ask each other when they're trying to get to know someone, now, if you're Asian and answer something like Chicago, and then they ask "No, where are you really from?", then you can kick him in the balls.

@GaussZ

I've not been to Brick Lane but there are similar areas in Chicago. Chinatown has endless Chinese restaurants on the south side. Devon Avenue on the north has curry place after curry place.

These exist for a few reasons.

First, immigrants often naturally group together in certain areas of a city. This is very true of Chicago if you study the demographic profiles. It is not surprising that people want to open a business in the community they live in and eat food they are familiar with.

Second, these streets become destinations in and of themselves. "Let's go get some curry up on Devon Ave (Chicago) or Brick Lane (London)." You may not even have a particular restaurant in mind - you just go there and see what you find.

I would guess that those restaurants are able to survive because they exist in a community where there is high demand for their goods.

Those businesses are competing with each other but there is enough demand for their product in one area that they can all stay open.

Going back to the beach analogy it is like everyone on the beach wanting a LOT of ice cream AND people travelling to the beach because it is known for its great ice cream (presumably they know how to make the best ice cream, curry etc).

Back to my earlier comment, restaurants do like being next to one another and they would prefer if the product is different. Why?

Imagine there are two retail spaces available in a town that has no restaurants. You want to open a curry restaurant in one of the spaces and sign a lease with the landlord to do so. Ideally you are the ONLY restaurant in town. If people want to eat out they have to come to you. Now the landlord wants to lease out the other space - what would you like to see there most? Another Curry Restaurant, a pizza place, or an ice cream shop?

I can tell you for a fact that fast casual restaurants in the USA love being next to a Starbucks because people got to Starbucks everyday. That means if you sell sandwiches people know exactly where you are. They see you everyday and you are right next door to one of their favorite establishments etc.

Wow... I'm fairly sure I got a message from her too... I remember a message that I ignored and deleted, somebody from Texas, living in Chicago and in the UK. I didn't feel like going through the trouble of the scam.
I did once before though just for giggles. Some cute girl from Russia, or so was the claim. She gave me an address in Russia she wanted me to send her money so she could come see me (the request for money was several emails later)... when I told her I was broke, she complained how I don't trust her, and after she sent me lots of pictures (she did send me some pics, it occurred to me later I should have had her have a pic with my name and her name to prove she was who she was in the pic)... Eventually I just told her to leave me alone if she doesn't believe if I'm broke, but if she's ever in the area to look me up (not that she had any real contact information anyhow to even begin to know where I was). EDIT: I just searched my email... seems I did keep her messages, though not the ones I made to her, and she did send a pic (which looked a bit photoshopped) with my name on a paper... lol. Oh the memories... Olga was her name, though everyone calls her Masyanya... looking Olga Tomsk (the city she's from) seems to indicate she's a regular scammer. Most seem to say she was just using form letters, but mine were personalized, so perhaps she had upgraded her game. Now I wish I had started messages with the Texas/Chicago/UK girl just to have more notes to compare.

"You can't do it alone, you have to do it collectively..."

Remember the way they tried to eradicate any sense of collectivity from the cultures in the Southern Cone? How even group presentations in schools were outlawed as a danger to individual freedom?

Who are "they"? The Chicago Boys, of course.

Everything Giroux mentions can be read about in the truth commission reports from all those South American countries that had their culture upended in order to enforce the economic ideology as taught by Friedman in Chicago. Same thing, just imposed by external players and condensed into a rapid series of shocks.

Same ideology.

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More people are killed in Chicago each weekend than in the typical terrorist attack.

Are you suggesting the police should just ignore them?

An awesome fountain in Chicago has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy on that post.

Will you admit that he at least made a very good point about Al Sharpton and black leaders holding a meeting in Chicago about black on black crime. How that might be important and completely counter to watch Fox is reporting on. I think it makes a very good point that there are serious issues that are trying to be addressed and Fox won't even do a cursory search online to see what is being done. They just spout whatever they want.