Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[Old Man]

No, it's a private street.  But the bigger question is, why did the mayor feel the need to dox a bunch of pro-reform activists, and why were all the public roads to her residence closed at the time?

 

Also, Ken & Karen here could not present a better illustration of white privilege--waving their guns around in front of their McMansion, freaking out because OMG BLACK PEOPLE ON THE STREET.

[Pariah]

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

Also, Ken & Karen here could not present a better illustration of white privilege--waving their guns around in front of their McMansion, freaking out because OMG BLACK PEOPLE ON THE STREET.

 

The fact that Ken & Karen didn't get shot by police is a pretty good illustration of white privilege in and of itself.

[ScottishFox]

3 hours ago, Twilight said:

3 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

*Shameless vilification of black people*

If it's a private road then they're scamming money from the city of St Louis because the zoning law says said roads are being maintained by the city of St Louis.  If they city's maintaining it then it's public property plain and simple but there I go being logical rather then mindlessly swallowing whatever story de jour they're using to vilify the black people being threatened by the gun wielding idjits.  

 

Firstly, I said nothing about race whatsoever.  That is a completely disingenuous misrepresentation of what I said.  I didn't even voice an opinion on the situation only clarified the facts - to the degree I understand them - from news articles.  The one I used has a 92.5 rating on Newsguard so that's pretty solid.

 

Also, if you read the article I linked earlier you'd know:

1-  Police consider it a criminal trespass and 4th degree assault through intimidation by the protesters.

2-  The crowd of protesters was mixed-race.

3-  One lawyer quoted in the article thinks the home-owners haven't broken any laws.

4-  The circuit attorney for Missouri is looking to see if there's an opportunity to press charges on the homeowners because they didn't like guns being pointed at the protesters and thought it might be a suppression of 1st Amendment rights.

 

 

The lawyer for Mr. and Mrs. We-Need-Firearms-Training said:

 

“Their entire practice tenure as counsel (has) been addressing the needs of the downtrodden, for whom the fight for civil rights is necessary,” Watkins said. “My clients, as melanin-deficient human beings, are completely respectful of the message Black Lives Matter needs to get out, especially to whites … (but) two individuals exhibited such force and violence destroying a century-plus old wrought iron gate, ripping and twisting the wrought iron that was connected to a rock foundation, and then proceeded to charge at and toward and speak threateningly to Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey.”

 

 

Yeah, that's a real quote from their lawyer.  Who refers to their own clients as melanin-deficient human beings??

 

2 hours ago, Old Man said:

Also, Ken & Karen here could not present a better illustration of white privilege--waving their guns around in front of their McMansion, freaking out because OMG BLACK PEOPLE ON THE STREET.

 

See lawyer quote above.  Also, mixed race group of protesters.  And, I completely agree with you about the Mayor.  Doxxing people on video who disagree with you is pretty messed up in the current climate.

 

Maybe I'm old fashioned or tempered by living in very diverse cities for most of my life, but I didn't see a couple pulling their guns out because "OMG BLACK (and white) PEOPLE ON THE STREET".  I saw an old, rich, white couple who have no knowledge of firearms safety whatsoever pulling their guns out when a crowd broke through the gate right outside their home and came towards their house - on private property.

 

Rather than assume they're racist I'll wait for some follow-up investigations.  The reality is - none of us know.  Maybe they are and maybe they aren't, but my psychic powers don't exist.

 

[Twilight]

7 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

The fact that Ken & Karen didn't get shot by police is a pretty good illustration of white privilege in and of itself.

Though if they'd opened fire themselves, I imagine there's a pretty good chance they'd have ended up shooting each other.

[Ranxerox]

21 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

 

It was private property and the protesters had to break a gate to get onto the private street leading by that residence.  Everyone in that crowd was criminally trespassing.

 

Okay, but think of what Mayor Krewson did.  By giving the names and addresses of people who suggested that she defund the police, she ensured that they could not feel safe and their homes and neighborhoods.  Instead they have to worry about reprisal to themselves and family members.  They have to worry no knock warrants and "routine" traffic stops that magically lead to drugs being found in their vehicles.  Nor is this intimidation limited to those that she mentioned in her Facebook video, it extends to those who suggested she defund or clamp down on the police that she didn't mention by name.  They have to worry that their names and addresses have been passed on to law enforcement by some private communication.

 

All this, she did secure in the belief that while she could make people lay awake in fear in their own homes that, she herself had nothing to fear at night.  At the end of each day she would go home to her safe, affluent gated community.  As the song says, hurting others while she can't feel pain. Well, now she knows that her fortress isn't impregnable and playing the bully might not be the best of ideas. If her neighbors now look at her with side eyes and wish that she would move and take all of her drama with her, so much the better.

[ScottishFox]

1 hour ago, Ranxerox said:

Okay, but think of what Mayor Krewson did.  By giving the names and addresses of people who suggested that she defund the police, she ensured that they could not feel safe and their homes and neighborhoods.  Instead they have to worry about reprisal to themselves and family members.  They have to worry no knock warrants and "routine" traffic stops that magically lead to drugs being found in their vehicles.

 

I couldn't possibly agree with you more.  The Mayor was negligent in a way that should be criminal.  Utterly disgusting behavior.

[Pattern Ghost]

So,  I've been thinking about what I would  have done in that couple's shoes. I've landed on: I'd pull out a couple of folding tables, set them up near the sidewalk, and lay out some refreshments for the protestors. Really, screw that mayor.

 

On the flip side, if I experienced any spillover onto my property (which means near my family), I would act to squelch it.

 

And the couple in the pics needs to have their guns removed until they prove they can handle them safely. They also need brandishing charges.

[ScottishFox]

4 hours ago, Pattern Ghost said:

And the couple in the pics needs to have their guns removed until they prove they can handle them safely. They also need brandishing charges.

 

I could realistically see the wife getting charged for that.  The husband shows he's not skilled with a firearm, but he didn't have his finger on the trigger and he wasn't pointing it at anyone.

 

The wife on the other hand was finger-on-trigger and waving the pistol around like a magic wand.  She also advanced on the protesters while the husband did not.  If she gets charged it wouldn't be a surprise.

 

Which is kind of crazy in a domino kind of way.  Had the Mayor not doxxed people the crowd wouldn't have come through there and the couple wouldn't have had their guns out at all.

 

We could be looking at a situation where the protesters get charged or the couple gets charged - or both - while the mayor walks away without incident despite having caused the whole situation.

[Lord Liaden]

She does have to get reelected. I doubt her gated community would give her enough votes.

[csyphrett]

1 hour ago, ScottishFox said:

 

I could realistically see the wife getting charged for that.  The husband shows he's not skilled with a firearm, but he didn't have his finger on the trigger and he wasn't pointing it at anyone.

 

 

He was pointing his weapon at her. Gun nuts I know are like he's one pull away from not needing a divorce lawyer

CES

[Pattern Ghost]

1 hour ago, ScottishFox said:

The husband shows he's not skilled with a firearm, but he didn't have his finger on the trigger and he wasn't pointing it at anyone.

 

You don't have to point a weapon at someone to meet the requirements for brandishing in most places.

[ScottishFox]

1 minute ago, Pattern Ghost said:

You don't have to point a weapon at someone to meet the requirements for brandishing in most places.

 

True, but I doubt they'd successfully convict on that given that the couple said they were threatened, called the police, and only pulled out the weapons after a person in the crowd said they were going to kill the family and their dog and burn the house down.

 

Not saying their version of events is necessarily true (or not true), but a jury needing to hit a threshold of "beyond reasonable doubt" seems unlikely.

 

7 minutes ago, csyphrett said:

Gun nuts I know are like he's one pull away from not needing a divorce lawyer

 

Yeah, the condemnation of the couples firearm handling is almost universal.

[Lord Liaden]

I'd like to see attention like that drawn to every visible stupid misuse of a firearm. If regulation and legislation aren't going to make people handle guns responsibly, maybe public embarrassment will.

[Pattern Ghost]

40 minutes ago, ScottishFox said:

a jury needing to hit a threshold of "beyond reasonable doubt" seems unlikely.

 

True, plus the area they live in is sensitive to the needs of the melanin deficient.

[DShomshak]

On 6/30/2020 at 5:06 AM, ScottishFox said:

The lawyer for Mr. and Mrs. We-Need-Firearms-Training said:

 

“Their entire practice tenure as counsel (has) been addressing the needs of the downtrodden, for whom the fight for civil rights is necessary,” Watkins said. “My clients, as melanin-deficient human beings, are completely respectful of the message Black Lives Matter needs to get out, especially to whites … (but) two individuals exhibited such force and violence destroying a century-plus old wrought iron gate, ripping and twisting the wrought iron that was connected to a rock foundation, and then proceeded to charge at and toward and speak threateningly to Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey.”

 

 

Yeah, that's a real quote from their lawyer.  Who refers to their own clients as melanin-deficient human beings??

 

Someone who's trying to whip up and exploit white grievance?

 

Dean Shomshak

[Pariah]

So I was looking this morning at preliminary results for our states primary elections yesterday. In the governor's race, incumbent Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox has a slight lead over former Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. I'm okay with either of those people as the Republican nominee, though I prefer the former. Former Utah state legislator Greg Hughes, who's basically a Trump sock puppet and an "open everything up NOW" plague enthusiast, is in third place with about 21% of the vote. The fact that one in five Republicans in my state apparently think he's the right person for the job concerns me.

 

In my US House district primary, it looks like former NFL player Burgess Owens is going to be the Republican nominee. I don't really know much about his platform, other than it involves blaming Democrats for everything that's wrong with the country and saying that if Black players kneel for the national anthem, he won't be watching the NFL. (For the record, Owens is Black.) Apparently this is what the Republicans in my district want. I expect I will be voting for incumbent Ben McAdams.

 

Which reminds me, now that the (closed) Republican primary is over, I've got to get online and change my party registration back....

[Lord Liaden]

 

[Pariah]

Imagine my surprise.

[Starlord]

I think we're gonna be very good with the coronavirus.  I think that at some point that's going to, sort of, just disappear...I hope - Trump told Fox Business on Wednesday

[Hugh Neilson]

18 minutes ago, Starlord said:

I think we're gonna be very good with the coronavirus.  I think that at some point that's going to, sort of, just disappear...I hope - Trump told Fox Business on Wednesday

 

Well, if we handle it based on his approach, it will eventually disappear from humanity, anyway.  Probably not the way humanity would prefer, though.

[Hermit]

21 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

 

 

 

 

Yeah, the condemnation of the couples firearm handling is almost universal.

 

THIS is the one big unifier I've seen to the point it's refreshing. 

[Hermit]

In the politics of OTHER Countries...

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/hong-kong-boris-johnson-pmqs-citizenship-uk-china-law-a4485601.html

 

40% of Hong Kong could get UK Citizenship? Wow. Is it okay to actually approve of something Boris is doing? I mean, I'm probably missing some ramifications, and I know there would be challenges (And the CCP will rattle sabers is not the least of them) but I have to admire the sheer testicular fortitude of the UK here esp if they pull it off. Mind you, if there ends up being a mass exodus from Hong Kong, I have to wonder where the HKers will end up living exactly. I suppose most would be comfy in urban areas like London.

 

Also, it's a big brain and wealth drain off China, or perhaps I'm wrong on that?

 

Oh And Australia is looking to protect Hong Kongers as well

 

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-02/australia-considering-offering-safe-haven-to-hong-kong-residents/12415482

[Lord Liaden]

When China made the transfer deal with the UK in 1993, Hong Kong's GDP represented more than 20% of that of all of China. As of 2018, thanks to country's general economic book, that stood at just 2.7%. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/08/30/how-chinas-economic-boom-eclipsed-hong-kong-infographic/#7076e4a94749

 

Boris Johnson is taking a big political gamble by offering British citizenship to so many Hong Kong residents. Not only is he stirring up a hornet's nest of condemnation and potential retaliation from China, the UK doesn't seem to be in the mood to absorb a big wave of immigrants, particularly non-white (a lot of that going around in the West right now, of course).

[Ranxerox]

22 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

 

I could say many things about this video, most of which would get me kicked off this board for obscenity.  So rather than do that, I am going to say one thing.

 

If the Senate Republicans are planning to do what Beau say they are, they are idiots.  They will throw open our country to huge foreign influence and they will still lose the election.  Are they really so dumb as to fail to realize that they would be starting a game that the Democrats could play also, and that they would gain no net advantage?  While Russia would certainly pay to keep their man in the White House, China would be willing to pay to see him gone.  China is a lot wealthier than Russia.  So they would be doing great lasting harm to our nation, just for the pleasure of being curbed stomped in the next election even harder. 🤬

[csyphrett]

3 hours ago, Ranxerox said:

 

I could say many things about this video, most of which would get me kicked off this board for obscenity.  So rather than do that, I am going to say one thing.

 

If the Senate Republicans are planning to do what Beau say they are, they are idiots.  They will throw open our country to huge foreign influence and they will still lose the election.  Are they really so dumb as to fail to realize that they would be starting a game that the Democrats could play also, and that they would gain no net advantage?  While Russia would certainly pay to keep their man in the White House, China would be willing to pay to see him gone.  China is a lot wealthier than Russia.  So they would be doing great lasting harm to our nation, just for the pleasure of being curbed stomped in the next election even harder. 🤬

I haven't watched the video, but yes, some of them are dumb. Look at Richard Burr. Did he really think no one was going to look at him when he sold his stock before the market crashed?

CES