No sir. I don’t even live in a city…but fools like you are absolutely the reason red states are shithole states, with much worse statistics than cities, (which are nearly all Democratically led so the ploy to say “Democrat led cities are “x”” is transparent), and Republican led cities are usually worse per capita by most measures….just smaller.. Per capita, red states are worse for crime both with and without guns than cities. What is it about Republican leadership that causes such high crime?
For instance, Ohio state, with Republican governor, sec of state, AG, house and senate and Gym Jordan looking out for it has MUCH HIGHER violent crime rates than NYC or NYState with Democratic led governments and diverse populations….but Gym went to NYC to investigate crime, fuck Ohio.
“ Ohio's statewide homicide rate is 49% higher than New York City's overall rate of 5.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents, Ohio's homicide rate is also 87% higher than New York's statewide rate of 4.6 homicides per 100,000 residents.”

Er mer gerd….lack of morality? Name the Democrat led city that is trying to make sex with 12 year olds legal. Republicans are.

Only in your delusional little brainwashed mind is it worse today than in the early 90’s. Crime statistics ( https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm ), economic statistics, the only thing getting worse is life expectancy thanks to Trumps total failure to address Covid and a million dead before their time, but it’s going back up under Biden. I know…but daddy Trump said crime is at an all time high…and you just keep on believing his lies instead of checking obvious statistics even you could understand. Crime rates are 1/2 - 1/4 what it was in 1990.

Democrats are for every citizen’s equality under the law, not “for the black man”. I understand that concept is so foreign to you that you can’t grasp it at all. I believe minorities would disagree with you about being better under Democrats and voting statistics bear that out conclusively. Funny enough, the blatant racist right continues to tell minorities “you’re just too stupid to understand you should vote with us so you shouldn’t get to vote at all”….then can’t fathom why minorities think you don’t respect or care about them or their rights. 🤦‍♂️

Biden has done amazing so far, positive gdp, single digit unemployment, covid under control, deficit significantly down, and wow…2 full years without an impeachment or 3 dozen cabinet members in prison. How did he do that?!? Without even his own “Pravda” to tell his cultists what to believe…holy shit!
He’s not even my choice of Democrats, but he’s done fine….even you admit everything’s going well, you just insist tomorrow it will turn to shit…always a day away but never here.
Why couldn’t those behind Trump prop him up and run the country? He gave them trillions while claiming poverty when it came to helping starving children or destitute families or infrastructure, but they couldn’t help HIM run the country!?! WTF!?!
His entire presidency was demented racist grandpa and his drunk buddies seeing what they could get away with…and it’s coming home to roost. Enjoy.

Ivermectin is dewormer/anti parasitic. Covid is not a worm or other parasite. The human version (used for head lice) sold out immediately after some fuckwit claimed it worked on a virus, it doesn’t, not even a little. Your ilk said ivermectin for humans is the same as horse dewormer, it’s fine to just use that….and you morons did even though it has zero effect on covid and serious side effects and some died. Same for hydroxychloroquine, zero benefit major side effects including death. You said “it’s good medicine, use that not evil Democrat vaccination”. Derp.

You fuckwit. That’s the opposite of reality. Countries that locked down like Taiwan and New Zealand had exponentially fewer cases and reopened much sooner so less economic damage too. You just HAVE to be wrong on every point, why is that?

Lol….you moron. I guess you forgot you eventually admitted to SELLING all your Tesla…or claimed you had sold it all to avoid ridicule for losing your shirt. During the time you would have sold out if you did, you were still telling others to buy all in, every penny, and don’t worry that it drops another 50%, just hold it forever like ENRON and it will all be roses. It clearly was an AWFUL time to buy Tesla, even you knew it would fall much farther, and it continues to get worse. You can’t keep your lies straight….is it always a great buy, or did you sell all yours? Can’t have both.

Lol. Yes you did, repeated it for months, tried to point to one individual who had once reported on BLM as a leader orchestrating it until his true politics became public, then you slunk off to your cave to await the next nonsense lie.
Now you glommed onto this nonsense that some singular proud boy is really, secretly, off all books and with no immunity or protection, an FBI agent (with no evidence) and he, alone, caused thousands of totally peaceful non insurrectionist Trumpists to storm the capitol against their will and better judgement, and those weapons just materialized in their hands using secret CIA transporters, the gallows they brought was a hologram, and the “where’s Nancy. Hang Mike Pence” chanting was edited in after the fact by lefties. 🤦‍♂️
So far to date there have according to you been 50 such accusations by insurrectionist defendants (I’ve only heard the one, but you know your MO- say ANYTHING and see what isn’t immediately debunked then go with that), but zero evidence of a single government infiltrator egging anyone into violence or criminal acts. This “we now know” preface doesn’t mean they know anything, it means they hope one of 12 is ignorant enough to believe the fantasy and deadlock.
If there was a scintilla of evidence that 50 FBI agents were in the capitol instigating the riotous coup that would be such news they would interrupt regular programming on every channel for it, but it’s not even reported outside fantasy land because it’s absolutely ridiculous and there’s zero evidence, just pure fantastical supposition as a Hail Mary defense by those already convicted and their cohorts about to be…but you don’t worry about that, someone blamed “not MAGA” so you’re just going with that as fact, but absolutely won’t be looking into the truthfulness of these defendants (some of which pleaded guilty to insurrection). You think this kind of information is an exclusive by this no name internet troll? Why isn’t it everywhere? I’ll tell you, because it’s ridiculous nonsense made up by failing defendants to excuse their violent failed coup.
At best you have some overwhelmed police that instead of taking on a violent crowd at 40-1 odds stood back and let the insurrectionists that had already violently forced their way into the building severely injuring many officers walk by. That’s not instigating. The lie about the FBI being involved is just that, another lie you’ll deny saying in two weeks like your original “it’s BLM and ANTIFA pretending to be Trumpists”.…or more likely just go silent on and refuse to address it like the subhuman Traitor Ashley Babbitt that got what you all deserve. If there were agents instigating, do you really believe that footage wouldn’t have been the first footage Carlson presented? 🤦‍♂️

Ashley Babbitt wasn’t a person. I’ve seen her. If demons are real, she’s example #1. That troglodyte and the rest of us are better off with her dead. I only lament that 2000 of her subhuman cohorts didn’t get some cold hard reciprocity themselves.

5 police died from injuries sustained that day, not died ON that day. 160 were hospitalized, many long term. Hundreds quit afterwards.

Oops this turned into a semi rant. But I am legitimately open to discussion here, and am curious to get your thoughts on a few points Bob. That is, IF you're willing to actually think about them beyond the level of repeating talking points.

I find it interesting how divergent the two overall "sides" are in this country, in terms of where they focus. None of the issues brought up in this video are really on the radar of most progressives, beyond being aware some on the right are talking about them. And I'm guessing a lot of the concerns progressives discuss rarely come up in your chosen media landscape. A lot of the issues in the video are largely off of my radar, and I have to wonder how you feel they should be addressed - like, actual proposed solutions rather than just complaining about / worrying about them.

We only dedicate one day to remember our fallen soldiers

How many should there be? Arguably we have more than one already: there's Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and it seems that Sept 11th is often used for the purpose as well.

I'd argue we should spend more time acknowledging and understanding the principals behind WHY our soldiers died in the various conflicts which caused them to fall in the first place. Let's make sure our citizenry appreciates what we collectively rejected in the Revolutionary war. Why it was important that we kept the country together rather than allowing the south to split off in the mid-1800s. Why we chose to honor our diplomatic agreements and support our allies in WW1. Why we fought against the countries and governments we did in WW2. What our goals were in Korea and Vietnam, and what lessons we learned from those conflicts and from the Cold War in general. Commemorating and remembering those we've lost absolutely matters, but if we're ONLY doing that while forgetting why they fought OR ignoring what we learned then we're doing them an equal or greater disservice. Remember that America was built on the idea of forming "a more perfect union" - not a perfect one, a MORE perfect one - a work in progress. We're striving towards an ideal, not assuming we're already there. Learning from our past successes, failures, and our struggles around both outcomes is vital. If our self-analysis is no deeper than hero worship we'll never make real progress towards that theoretical perfect union.

The only mask that's gonna save us is duct tape on their mouths

Yeah, sound medical advice and evidence-based science is terrifying. Better to shut up those whose words we dislike, because we're reactionary authoritarian babymen. I truly do not understand being more afraid of reasonable safety measures than of a virus which has been shown to cause serious harm in the short and long terms. The only reason this "masks = liberal / maskless = conservative" crap came about is because politics has devolved to the level of team sports in the US, and one party has chosen "the opposite of whatever our political opponents say" as their entire governing philosophy. (And yes, ONE party - research and understand the GOP's 2020 platform if you want to argue the point.) This video even seems to reach a reasonable conclusion at the end, while coming up just short of that final logical leap to "maybe I should question what the public faces of MY side have been claiming in this Us vs Them madness." Seriously - keep going friend, you're almost there! George Washington was 100% right in wanting to avoid political parties being a force in the US, and it makes me immensely sad that his fears came true.

Big oil runs the world / the only wars to get fought are with the countries who have natural resources they want

Solid point here, no sarcasm. The US military has long been a tool of our profit-driven form of "free market" imperialism. A really great way to combat this, specifically with an eye to ending Big Oil's goddamn death grip on our foreign policy goals, would be an aggressive implementation of renewable energy projects. Remember the space race? America can be an absolute beast at clever engineering solutions when we dedicate ourselves to it. Fuck the petrostates, we have the available land and resources to absolutely kick ass in the realms of solar and wind power, and be leaders in the the post-hydrocarbon reality. We can certainly agree on that, right Bob? Left / Right nonsense fully aside, I think any reasonable American can agree on at least two points: let's stop sending heaps of cash to buy oil off of the Saudis (etc), and Fuck Cancer.

But if a white man acts too white he's white trash / he's a racist he's a bigot he's a monster

What the fuck is this horseshit? What does "acting too white" even fucking look like? Watching NASCAR on a sailboat while listening to polka? Typically when I see racism from white people it's in the form of denying that brown-hued people deal with any additional difficulties in life due to their skin tone, or denying that there have been structural obstacles for them through history, or lamenting that their white children are being burdened with a broader lens on culture or with (gasp! shock!) an accurate accounting of actual US history, including the ugly bits that we shouldn't be proud of (but MUST learn from). I'm progressive / lefty as fuck and there is no aspect of "white culture" or "acting white" which upsets me in the slightest. UNLESS one counts "denying racism exists / has ever existed" as a fundamental value of being white. Which... why would anyone want to claim that nonsense? If you want to listen to classic country music in a rusty pickup truck while driving to an evangelical church, then discuss hockey over Buds after 18 holes with the rest of your tractor pull team, then absolutely go nuts my fellow caucusoid! Just recognize and understand that your life experiences may not be the same as those of others. Further, if we care about trying to avoid unnecessary, avoidable unfairness in life (recognizing that life will never truly be fair, for anyone), then it might be reasonable for some governmental / legal / structural recognition in furtherance of that notion. There is absolutely room for legitimate policy disagreement here without being accused of racism. It's denial of others' reality which tends to garner the label of racist (sexist etc) - steer clear of denying the lived experiences of other people, allow for the possibility they may have encountered difficulties you haven't / won't, and we've room for further discussion.

Edit / final point: I voted the video back up to 0 from the -1 where I found it. Because while I disagree with a lot of the positions taken by the performer, they may have reached them through no fault of their own and with no true malice. Misinformation / disinformation is a devious shit of a motherfucker, and the rot it causes can run deep. It is painful to abandon deeply-held beliefs, on a fundamental level. If nothing else, the video gives us room to discuss some specific viewpoints held by people who think of themselves as good, but which can lead to harm.

the whole 'worthless degrees' is largely bogus. unless it's a DJT University ratskin, just the experience alone broads a person's mind (some more/some less).

a cartoon once read where a woman lamented to her girlfriend, that as a housewife, she didn't get to use her psychology degree. her husband interrupts them complaining about the cleanness of the floors. the wife tells him she just did them and the argument goes into overdrive. finally, she chides him w/"oh! big talk! as if you could do better!" oh, of course, he takes the bait, rolls up his sleeves...and the wife's friend smilingly says "you never use it?"

don't think it ever goes to total waste.

and bk33's contention that free education would be undervalued is largely bupkiss too: the desire to pay back is often a motivation; enhances the tax base; fills jobs that translate to greater national security...etc. the value is too great to be ignored. for the country or the individual.

even if it was worthless, it still can be appreciated. like the time Bob Newhart told the story of a tryst he had w/a woman he met at a party. both drunk, ending up in the back of his car - - as he put it, "it meant nothing. never saw her again. it was the cheapest, meaningless moment that i'll never forget for the rest of my life!"

btw: an idea of what a French citizen pays at the Sorbonne
https://www.unipage.net/en/5563/paris_sorbonne_university

The cars compared were as I described. There are no truly comparable electric vehicles available today. Somehow you think that’s a dig at Tesla? It’s a compliment, and a lament.

Not at all. I would love one. They have made missteps however.
Not a fan of Musk.
What should be clear is I’m not a fan of bullshit.

I’m also not a fan of monopolies.
I’m also not a fan of successful companies bargaining away their tax liabilities for little in return for the public.
I’m not really a fan of space tourism for billionaires either, not while poverty exists. What a waste of resources for no return.

Chip shortages are the only real obstacle, the rest are speed bumps.

It’s a problem if you don’t want to pay $60k for a $25k car…I thought inflation was bad. Now you love it?

Tesla made deals to not pay taxes. You can pretend that’s patriotic, it’s not. I didn’t say they ignored or committed fraud to escape taxes, I said they don’t pay them. That kind of agreement shouldn’t be acceptable for any company, especially one as profitable as Tesla. Yes, it’s a “the governor and/or legislature can waive taxes for companies he likes” policy issue, I find it abhorrent no matter which party does it, they both do.

If you backroom deal with right wing governors/legislatures to avoid taxes, you are far right, at least economically. I thought he came out as a Trump guy too, but might be wrong.

Rittenhouse put on a ridiculously bad crocodile tear performance and the judge acted as his defense.

Not a tear, just huffing and scrunching his face. So transparent.
Remember, weeks after the shooting he was filmed partying and drinking with Proud Boys, throwing white power hand signals, wearing a t-shirt that said “free as fuck”. Where was this fake remorse then? Nowhere.



IMO, the judge has repeatedly shown extreme bias against the prosecution, from barring the prosecution from using the word “victim” unless he’s referring to Rittenhouse being a victim, not allowing discussion of near identical behavior weeks prior when Rittenhouse lamented being unarmed because he said he would have shot several people who annoyed him, and his blatantly hostile demeanor towards the prosecution and kid gloves with the defense. I think the prosecution should move for mistrial and he should be removed from the bench after a mistrial is granted, there’s no doubt he’s allowed personal bias to direct his actions and taint the trial.

"What on earth are you talking about?"
-newt

The rules for property and income when one or both parties decide they no longer want to be in the relationship.




"not having a marriage means you almost certainly will pay for them for 18+ years but won't have many rights to be in their lives"
-newt

Incorrect. If you are on birth certificate, you have the same rights and obligations.
The only pitfalls are that :
- Child support is calculated from the income of the parent with less custody (rather than from the true cost of raising a child).
- Women almost always get custody if the choice is between two parents (like when they live far apart and child can only be at one or the other).



"and may lose your rights to any assets if she grabs first"
-newt

Negative. Co-parenting does not conflate property.

Shared assets when not married are divided either by percentage of purchase price contribution, or by percentage stated in a contract.




"My brother paid well over a hundred thousand dollars for his divorce in Texas"
-newt

"My brother won."
-newt

Won by your own definition. Hence I congratulate.




"You assume women take off time to raise the kids"
-newt

No assumptions. Although afaik they still do it more often.




"You start from a false position that men work both harder and better, but you have no data to back that up. "
-newt

Top result from a zero effort google of "men working hours vs women working hours"

https://towardsdatascience.com/is-the-difference-in-work-hours-the-real-reason-for-the-gender-wage-gap-interactive-infographic-6051dff3a041




"Um...so since you admit many women outearn men and the trend reinforces that"
-newt

I admit that women [as a group] under 35 out earn men under 35 because of preferential admittance (such as to higher education) and preferential hiring (such as to managerial positions).

I did not say that women earn more in the same position for the same hours worked. Young men are simply getting shut out of opportunities, so their incomes are lower. As by design.

It does however highlight how affirmative action is being poorly controlled.
The target statistic is based on overall population at all ages.
The adjustment is skewed to younger ages (school admission is typically for younger people).
So the system is trying to balance out incomes of older men by trimming up incomes of younger women, with no accounting for the effects on younger men or consequences of older men retiring.
The situation is doomed to overshoot with time.

A natural result is the popularity of people like Jordan Peterson, with messages like : "Young men, nobody will help you, stop waiting for someone to help you, stop lamenting your situation, you gotta pull yourself up by your boot straps. Start by cleaning your room, then go make something of yourself".






"Bullshit. You said you would immediately dismiss any woman who has...
"Long dating history? Too much risk[etc]" -scheherazade "
-newt

Straw man argument.

You know I stated that those marriageability criteria exist specifically due to risk of consequences of divorce.

I never stated that I have personal issues with those attributes.
I have dated women on that list. I didn't /marry/ them.

My only criteria for a relationship that I am happy being in is :
- We are mutually attracted
- We like each other
- We are nice to each other
I don't care what your religion is, your politics, your family status, whatever. It's all just noise to me.





" And again, prenuptial. Do you not know what they are?"
-newt

Prenups can be negated by these simple words :

"I did not understand what I was signing"
or
"My lawyer was not present".

Poof. Prenup thrown out.




"their husbands are more likely to break their vows first"
-newt

A woman to cheat needs a willing man (easy)
A man to cheat needs a willing woman (hard)

Times have changed. Online dating made chatting someone up in person and make an impression uncommon, and even considered creepy/unusual. Now people are picked on their online profile based on looks/height/social-media-game.

Dating apps and sites publish their statistics. Nowadays, around 20% of men match with around 80% of women.
Most men aren't having sex. Most men can't find a match to cheat with if they wanted to.

The tall cute photogenic guys are cleaning up.
The 20% of men that match the bulk of women are going through women like a mill. They will smash whatever bored housewife crosses their path.

A 2 second google result :
https://usustatesman.com/economics-of-dating-2-the-brutal-reality-of-dating-apps/




"Women don't like men that believe wholeheartedly that all women are just lessers, leeches"
-newt

Agreed.

Fortunately, I never say that about women.






" you can't grasp that a codified, delineated, agreed to partnership is almost always better, more fulfilling, and has many benefits cohabitation lacks"
-newt

False equivalence.

Cohabitation and Partnership are mutually independent.
Meaning both can exist at the same time.


-scheherazade

Yeah, one of my biggest fears is that on my deathbed I will lament the 45 minutes of precious life I wasted by not walking up escalators or constantly changing lanes on the freeway.

I want to preface this comment by saying that I am a political independent, and something that might help convince you of that is that I didn't vote for Donald Trump. The reason I didn't vote for him is because I had serious reservations about him considering what I knew about his character. Now that he is president I support him because I respect the office of the President and I pray for him just as I did for President Obama. That doesn't mean I agree with a lot of what he does, or that I am under any illusions about his character. It just means that I know God is working in these circumstances for a greater good.

I know a lot of Christians voted for Donald Trump because they knew he would side with them in the culture wars. And he has, to a large part. But that isn't the issue with me. I do not fight the culture wars even though I find abortion abhorrent and I lament the deepening darkness that pervades our culture. It is moral and spiritual darkness which will eventually lead to the one world government of the Antichrist.

My issue has to do with the church waking up, and stop thinking the solution is in fixing the culture because the culture is influencing the church more than the church is the culture. The solution is to get right with God and show the love of Christ to a lost and dying world.

So, here is the comment:

It's obvious that the entirety of news media is corrupt; if 2016 didn't make that obvious I don't know what would. They pick winners and losers, as supporters of Bernie Sanders realized. They all have a political agenda and will write either negative or positive coverage based on that agenda. They will present a certain slant to every issue which is favorable to their political aspirations. It is patently obvious and I think most of the country realizes this.

So, this outrage over Fox doing what every other news media company has done in the past, is pretty lame. Maybe Fox is better at it than MSNBC but the point is, they both function as the arm of their respective parties, and manipulate their media coverage to brainwash people into believing their worldview.

That's pretty damn nice, but when I saw the thumbnail I thought the core component of a T-bird transmission was the 'Lament Configuration' puzzle box from Hellraiser.

That would be so cool.

@bcglorf

i don't think using @drradon 's example of anarchy a good use as a rebuttal.

now may be larken rose's vision is an extreme example,taken from the von mises institute,and where they dreamily offer a counter to police with a "non-aggression principle".while cute and adorable,humans tend to be far more vicious and violent in nature,especially when desperate.

but again,i think our respective approaches to authority will not find common ground here.

i do not seek a leader,but i am ok with a representative,though i do not seem to have any in my government at the moment.

i find it curious,amazing and not a little disturbing just how easily people will quietly,and tacitly accept a police that has become more and more draconian,violent and aggressive while SIMULTANEOUSLY decreasing the citizens rights to protect themselves,defend themselves and resist unlawful police practices.

because they simply change the law to make what WAS illegal...legal.with a stroke of a pen.

and i simply cannot respect when an american says,without any sense of justice or history,to just sit down,shut up and do what you are told.

while claiming they are a patriot,waving their american flag made in china.

the history of law enforcement in this country reveals that their main job,their main focus and duty is NOT to the poor,the dispossessed or the marginalized.

the police's job is to protect those who hold assets,who have money and wield political power.

and before you say anything,i am quite aware that there are some,and they are the majority,who do their job with honor and distinction.my argument is not about singular police officers but rather the systematic problems inherent in the system.

lets take my city for example.
i am blessed enough to live adjacent to a very wealthy and influential housing development.

average police response time?=7 minutes.

right down the street,not 10 miles down the road,is a depressed area of town.industry and manufacturing abandoned that area 20 years ago.it is stricken with prostitution,heroin addicts and abject poverty.

average police response time?=22 minutes

yet the main police station is in THAT area.

or should i bring up the history of american labor movement?
where the coal miners in west virginia decided to strike,and because the owners of the mines were politically connected.the governor sent in the state police to...and this should send chills down your spine...shoot any miners unwilling to go back to work.

and they did.
they murdered any coal miner still willing to stand up against the owners of the mine,and this included women and children.

now lets examine that for a minute.
workers for a coal mine decided to strike for better working conditions (which were horrible) and actually have a day off,besides sunday (because:god).

the owner of the mine,who was losing immense of amount of money due to zero production of coal,called the governor to have the state police,a civil institution,sent in to put those people down.to force them to either get back to work or face violence.

*now the owner brought in his own mercenary group to assist in the process of intimidation,strong arm tactics and violence.

i will add one more story that is personal,and comes from my own family,and may possibly explain my attitude towards police in general.

my father was born in 1930,in alton illinois.
now that small town had been hit particularly hard during the depression.my father spoke of not having indoor plumbing until he went into the navy,and how the floors in his childhood home were simple boards over dirt.

he grew up extremely poor,and my grandfather struggled to find steady work,and i gather from what my father told me.my grandpa made bootleg beer out of the bathtub.so he and his 6 brothers and 1 sister had to bathe in the mississippi river while grandpa tried to make money by selling illegal hooch.

my father also regaled me with stories of the chores he had as the youngest of 8 kids.it was his job every morning to head to the train tracks and pick the coal that dropped from the coal carts.(which he admitted to being lazy and stole directly from the very full coal cart itself while his brother kept an eye out for the station master).

my point is that my father grew up in desperate and poor times.

but one story always stood out,and i think it is because it has a wild west feel to it that always transfixed me,and i made him tell me the story over and over as a child.

when times are tough,people will do whatever they have to in order to survive,so my grandfather making illegal hooch was not the only illegalities being played out in that small town.neighbor upon neighbor did what they had to,and most were considered criminals in the eyes of the state.

so i guess one of my grandpa's friends was on the run from the law,and sought refuge at my grandpa's home.which he allowed,because neighbors take care of neighbors,at least they used to.

well,in a small town everybody knows everybody,and eventually three police officers showed up at my grandpa's house,and demanded that he turn over (i forgot the guys name).

and i remember the pride on my fathers face whenever he retold this story....

my grandfather stood tall on the top of his stairs facing his front door,holding his gun he was given during WW1 and told the police officers (which he knew.small town remember?),that if they took one step into his home..he would blow their heads off.

now this is a story retold from a childs perspective many years later.i am sure my fathers memory was a tad....biased..but i would bet the meaty parts were accurate.

now my question is this:
how would that exact same scenario play out in todays climate?

well,we would see on the 6 o'clock news how a family was tragically shot to death for harboring a criminal and that the police had done EVERYTHING in their power to avoid this kind of violence.

i know this is long,and i hope i didn't lose you along the way,but i think we should not dismiss the very real slow decent into a society that silently obeys,quietly accepts more and more authoritarian powers all in the name of "safety",and that any form of resistance is to be viewed as "criminal" and "troublesome".

so while i agree that "when should we shoot a cop" should be in the realm of:let us try to never do that.

i also cannot agree to placing cops on a hero platform as if their job is somehow sacrosanct and beyond reproach.they are human beings,of limited intellect,whose main job it is to protect those who own property,have wealth and wield political power.

and with the current disparity and blatant inequality their job has been more and more focused on keeping those 30% undesirables down.

the poor,the destitute,the marginalized,the addict and the junkie and the petty criminals.

those are a threat to the "better" citizens.they are a blight on a community that should be cleansed from the tender eyes of those who are deemed more "worthy".

rich folk may wring their hands,and lament the plight of the poor and wretched,but for GOD's sakes! they don't want to actually SEE them!

so a police officer can do all the mental gymnastics they want in order to justify their place in society,but at the end of the day,they serve the elites.

and they always have.

@bcglorf
i hear ya,but that is our responsibility,not the journalist or speaker.

for example i am reading david cay johnstons book "the making of trump".
johnston is a pulitzer prize winning journalist from the la times and the washington post.who also happens to be a republican.

the fact that he is republican does not automatically equate to his investigations being rightwing,slanted or biased.

the time for putting the onus on the outlet,or the individual was destroyed by FOX and it's "fair and balanced" bullshit.

we can lament the passing of walter cronkite,wooward and bernstein and I.F stone,or edward morrow.

but those days are gone,and it is up to us..all of us..to push back the ever increasing avalanche of propaganda and fake news.

@enoch,

but you and i may disagree on some things,but i would like to think we have both earned each others respect.


Agreed.

I also share a similar sentiment in lamenting the lack of actual legitimate journalism. I've only got a handful of people out there that I feel I can actually trust to make an effort to present all sides and the most relevant/important facts when presenting a topic. The dogged determination of most media(independent and otherwise) to show nothing but a single dimension to an issue that fits their own bias is saddening.

Chomsky in particular is a real lose to me as he has rapidly declined from shining a light on America's mistakes into someone that solely, and exclusively documents why America is evil. Anything good or reasonable in it's actions is never touched on or quickly glossed over, the corresponding evils and ills of any and all other parties is similarly ignored. The lone exception being those allied to America in which case their evil once again are documented.

I've lost patience with that kind of single mindedness and call it out as what it is, propaganda.

I can only take the video author at his word, but he claims to have repeatedly attempted to deescalate before he started filming.

And even then, the video begins with him attempting to explain that she has no legal right to detain him in an even tone of voice.

The woman appears belligerent and is acting well outside of her legal rights by physically blocking him.

I think the guy acted with remarkable restraint under the circumstances. The woman shows no signs of being open to reason or changing her mind.

Some people simply cannot be reasoned with. And I say that as a mental health worker who deals with rude and belligerent people constantly. (frighteningly often not the service users but the general public they have to deal with)

I do entirely feel the sentiment of what you are saying. It would be a better world, but it's not the world we live in. Lamentably, wishing will not make it otherwise.

The first time I saw this video, I was a first year law student, lamenting that I hadn't taken the road not traveled. For about a week straight, I would play this as soon as I woke up to get right and face the day. Sometimes it brought tears to my eyes. Right now, I am writing this message in my high school science lab, with the video playing up on the overhead. My students asked me why I became a high school science teacher when I have a license to practice law. This is my answer.

Some people hold the constitution and the bible as infallible documents. Many of us sit on the sidelines and lament the stupidity of organized religion, whether it be political or spiritual.