TrickstaPriest

I mentioned this before I think, but without reference. I heard they had evidence of this years ago, but couldn't track down where I heard it from. I found a reference now: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xvzwp/baltimore-cops-carried-toy-guns-to-plant-on-people-they-shot-trial-reveals-vgtrn?fbclid=IwAR3ZUf853YkkaxiJplPRLZIT5VqdhsxihazDZM0rXWsGtGzgfXR6IwPoQdk

Decided to delete this. A bit too rough on some

I can't speak about this specific incident, but in general there's quite a high list of unarmed shootings. "Resist arrest" is often used as an excuse even when video evidence contradicts them. Furthermore, I strongly expect human beings' natural reactions to resist force (just in the most basic way, not violently) acted on them are what are provoking the often lethal counter responses from officers.

Both India and China have had incredibly strict restrictions in affected areas. The government delivers food, everyone stays at home, etc. It's the only reason there aren't millions more dead.

Yup. That's why I was saying that a '1% overall population fatality rate', or deaths of 'a few million', would be an unprecedented disaster in the history of the US. Even the Spanish Flu only hit 0.65% of the population at the time, which was roughly as much as our major civil/wars (though I somehow opted out of including WWII... oops). I am curious if that's 675k is over a single year, or a couple years. They are predicting roughly 60-70% of the population to get coronavirus. If the fatality rate is less than a percent, that makes it near (but not at) Spanish Flu level for overall impact. But since this disease is now too widespread to control, it will likely be here for years. The amount of people that will have breathing problems, diabetes, other ongoing health conditions will be a huge burden on our healthcare/financial system...

There are a bunch of bubbles... but the radioshow/host bubble has been doing its thing for the better part of a century

That's what I was trying to describe / remember about, why they were mass produced (and some information on their mass production to begin with). Thanks for supplying the resource.

At least some of those statues are mass produced. IIRC, there are literally hundreds of copies of them scattered throughout the states. those statues I think can safely be destroyed/demolished. Even without these, there are plenty of things to remember our past here. It's okay to be down on it. There are lots of little things that bother me. The big thing that bothers me is more just making sure that this successfully tackles the issues it's facing.

...yep. Changing the attitudes and the way policing is done is going to be hard. 😕 I'm glad we got this start. We'll need it.

The last I don't think is going to have much of an impact until the people who still use that symbol to threaten others change. But it might be a comfort to some. Right now we still have people using nooses in their protests and other fun and delightful things online, so let's see how that goes. The rest is a great change. I hope we can get this to stick... but I have no idea what else to push for. I also wish we could get our country off oil. In theory that's easier... you just have to fight Big Money.

I appreciate it, thanks.

I heard they did - at least at the hospital someone I know is connected to. They converted everything they could, but... hospitals aren't meant to hold multiple people for ~2 weeks, especially not lots of people. And there hasn't been exactly a serious effort in this country to try and increase our ability to handle these spikes through better preparation and supply production. Though maybe I'm mistaken.

You'd -definitely- need to know your group and know what themes they want in the game...

Sorry for the attitudes from them! But, because it's being discussed...

It'd be hard to run a game like this without a keen understanding of your players. However with a group that you know well, it could be an interesting drama piece and a good storyline to roll with.

I really appreciate you too, Old Man, for having the patience I do not.

edit - removed post. just wasn't happy with it.

I brought it up in the police thread, but I wonder - how many examples can we get of a 'first world' country deploying military assets or legal behavior to harm its own citizens on a semi large scale? Historically. I mean directly. Hence, my current best picks list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing (and the 65 nearby houses) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44 Got any other takers?

It's pretty hard to differentiate between rioters and protesters when you are going in guns blazing.

I appreciate you being a kinder person than I am, Liaden

It often takes popular response in order to push against people like this (edit- clarification, like Michael Savage, below). Our current President encourages it. More relevant to the thread, certain police forces encourage or tow close to this mindset. Policing is essential, but this is an attitude that is not acceptable. https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-savage/michael-savage-says-military-should-be-called-against-protests-those-punks-shouldve Let me briefly remind people why that's a problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#1985_bombing (and the 65 nearby houses) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Executive_Order_44

You are speaking from a position that America "the system" slavishly cowtows to. It is a country, culture, and legal system that kisses you on the feet and brushes your hair. It doesn't do that for a lot of other kinds of people. You can be proud to be an American, and white, and from a police family. But the system often (not always, but often) does not respect anything else. It allows us to exist, sometimes, but only when we aren't an inconvenience. If we dare be an inconvenience, then things begin to happen. So you'll see a lot of people, who do not exemplify the direct paramount virtues that America touts, view that system with increasing cynicism the further you get away from that. Call it moronic if you like, you are entitled to your opinion.

Opinion Hosts are comedians without the comedy. They come off as more respectful so people mistake them for journalists or legitimate information sources. That might be even more deceptive than information-delivered-as-comedy, particularly when it's not as well researched.

I mean, I don't accept that reasoning on its face (edit: I mean, on its face alone). I accept the reasoning that, if you track who voted and their address, and you send them a letter "congratulations on voting", you can find voting fraud pretty quick. And I totally accept THIS: And this: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/defcon-2019-hacking-village/ I was at that con