TrickstaPriest

I believe I'll have to step away from this discussion for a while. It's making me testy, for which I apologize.
 
Fortunately I don't live in the United States, so the political crazy isn't so omnipresent that I can't escape from it occasionally.

Technically, it was people with guns that stopped this last guy.
 
But the big problem is this: Stopping someone who is already shooting is reactive and not proactive. We need to stop these events before they start.
 
The vast majority of these school shooters telegraph their intentions in advance, often in very obvious ways. Our law enforcement and social services need to intervene earlier and redirect these people before they act.
 
Honestly, every teacher in this country should have Stop the Bleed training*. That'd be more effective than arming random teachers.
 
 
 
 
*This is actually good for everyone to have, just as a general life skill. You may never use it, but like CPR it can safe a life if the occasion arises.

Tiananmen wasn't easy to ignore. It completely took over the heart of the government district of Beijing, which was symbolically enormous. And appearances are crucial to authoritarian regimes, and even more so in the Orient where "face" is socially very important. Imagine a crowd that size camped out on Capitol Hill.
 
 
That's the crux. Peaceful protests, disruptive or not, don't withstand armed force. We've seen more than one example in recent years that Republicans have few if any scruples over using force to break up gatherings they don't like.

The problem with Tiananmen, and many other protests, is that they are nondisruptive and easy to ignore.  If a protest does not at least impede commerce or cause (illegal) property damage, it will have absolutely no effect.  Strikes, blockades, and sit-ins are far more effective. 

Also all the genuflecting most (though thankfully not all) true crime shows/podcasts/books give the police.  Hell, COPS is a major culprit of copaganda...
 
...and who produces it?  FOX.

So true!
And omnipresent, from Gunsmoke and Adam-12 when I was a kid to Chicago PD and Rookie today.
Not to mention all those "He had to go beyond the law, because the bad guys were just so bad!" shows and movies explicitly supporting excessive force, extrajudicial killings, and the rest.

No cynicism needed. The Supreme Court has held that the police have no duty to protect us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
 
It's taken me a long time to realize the truth. Police write up reports for insurance companies and (selectively) police our behavior.  Above all, they protect the wealthy and powerful (and their property) from the rest of us.
 
It's not an accident as far as I can tell; the system seems to be set up that way. Heck, when we peaceably assemble in front of a supreme court judge's home, look what happens. Or when we assemble to protest legitimate concerns such as elites shipping our jobs overseas (one-sided trade agreements) or police summarily executing citizens with impunity. But when a murderer enters a school to kill children, the police make room for him and start arresting the parents who ask them why they're not saving the children. And then they lie about it. They apparently lie constantly, seemingly reflexively, about every aspect of their jobs. And they get away with it, are given almost complete impunity for their behavior toward us.
 
It seems pretty clear to me what the police are there for, and unfortunately it's not what decades of copaganda TV shows had led me to believe.

You will notice that the old motto of "To Serve and Protect" does not say who cops serve and protect. A cynical person might say it's the ruling class. And that though police are part of a wider "pacification project" to keep the wider populace sufficiently docile that they do not trouble their betters, a certain degree of random violence does not entirely displease some of the people in power.
 
I have no proof, of course, just a nasty, suspicious mind.
 
Dean Shomshak

Meanwhile, the NRA is holding their Leadership Forum in Houston this week, and are banning guns from the event.
 
https://www.businessinsider.com/nra-conference-wont-allow-attendees-to-bring-their-guns-2022-5

Atwood responds to book bans with ‘unburnable’ edition of Handmaid’s Tale

I'm right there with you, man.  You may recall that my newer kid's school had a social media threat that caused half the kids to be held out of school by their parents for three days.  Once again I'm questioning whether I should send him to the last day of school tomorrow.  What if there's a copycat?  Why do I have to worry about whether it's safe to send my kids to school?!
 
 
Came across this article that explains quite a lot of that.  (Article is from a biased platform, but its sources are not.)  Extremely condensed version: Conservatives are psychologically prone to conspiracy theories and a fear-based worldview; feeding them conspiracy theories is highly profitable for social media platform operators and conservative politicians; some conservatives are worse than others.
 
 
When I first heard about Sandy Hook I almost vomited.  This time I merely was unable to concentrate on work.  Desensitization in action.

First Nations people make up 3.3% of Australia's population.
These First Nations politicians are headed for Canberra
 
There are 151 seats in the House of Representatives and 76 in the Senate (the two numbers are connected).

So First Nations people are underrepresented in the HoR, but proportionately overrepresented in the Senate.

It wasn't so long ago they had no representation. It isn't enough to make a decisive difference in living standards on the ground.

State and Territory level representation varies.

After Trump's retweet today, I feel like nostalgically digging up the post on this thread where someone was accusing everyone on this thread of being traitors against the (then) President. >_>
 
I'm in a mood.  Like this was a mood.    Time for some drink and chips.
 

Then I wouldn't suggest using the "Look Inside" function.
 
I will admit, though, that this was bouncing around in my head while I looked at it:
 
 

I registered as Republican just so I could vote in the primary. Originally because Ammon Bundy was running (before messing up and having to be independent). But, McGeachin was a piece of work.
 
I was disappointed that Raúl Labrador won Attorney General.

1. As your next Attorney General I will be the aggressive, relentless leader that Idaho needs. I will defend Idaho’s sovereignty and fight unconstitutional mandates. I will keep our elections fair and honest. I will defend and expand our 2A rights. I will ensure we are the most pro-life state in the Union. I will fight to reinstate President Trump’s border security policies. I will fight the radicals that are trying to force CRT and transgender ideology on our children. And I will fight Big Tech’s social credit scores and their anti-conservative and anti-American censorship. Idaho needs an Attorney General who will be the people’s lawyer, rather than a tool for the bureaucracy and special interests. I will defend every Idahoan’s individual liberties; fight back against the Biden administration’s failed policies; and ensure the people of Idaho have a voice in the Attorney General’s office. I will bring needed reforms to the office. Idaho’s incumbent Attorney General has been in office for twenty-years. He’s been employed by the government for over thirty-years. No wonder he sees his job as defending the government and the bureaucracy, not you. I will change that starting day one.
2. Idaho needs an Attorney General who understands that government exists to ensure that the rights of the citizens are secured and protected. During the pandemic, I fought for the rights of Idahoans to keep their jobs and pursue their livelihoods, to meet with their families, and to continue practicing their religion freely. I fought for Idahoans’ medical freedom and against unconstitutional mandates. I will continue to do so as Idaho’s next Attorney General. In contrast, during the pandemic, the current Attorney General interpreted Idaho’s statutes as granting the chief executive the power to declare a state of emergency for over 750 days despite Idaho law limiting emergency authority to sixty days. That decision closed schools in Idaho, closed businesses and churches, and it affected every single person in Idaho dramatically. It was wrong and will not happen again if I am your Attorney General.
3. The great battles for the soul of our nation are taking place in our courthouses. All across America, strong Republican Attorneys General are pushing back against the Radical Left and their agenda to “fundamentally transform” our nation. Except in Idaho, where our Attorney General is absent from these fights. The incumbent Attorney General of Idaho did not fight for election integrity and instead stood with radical Democrat lawyers. The incumbent Attorney General did not defend Idaho’s pro-girl sports bill, instead saying that biological men had a constitutional right to compete on girls’ sports teams and use women’s locker rooms. Also, the incumbent Attorney General joined with Democrats to support some of Biden’s radical nominees to run the Department of Justice. Finally, he failed to join the lawsuit filed by the other Republican Attorneys General demanding the Biden DOJ either explain or rescind their memo asking to surveil parents for expressing their opinions at school board meetings and other forums. Maybe this is why he has received donations from former Democrat Attorneys General and the praise of the radical Attorney General from the State of Washington.

Hey, it's never too early to begin the indoctrination.  
 
It is unfortunately a VERY real book...and #19 on Amazon.  Not in its category...overall.
 
Reviews are, as you might expect, almost completely split...5 stars or 1 star, for 96% of em.
 
We know that truth has no significance;  only keeping the waters churning.  And not just today;  the Republican strategy has never been about just today.

And now, the counterpoint:
 
Fox News Reporter Says Star Trek Has Never Been Woke Before, DS9 Writer Calls Him A Moron
 
The last paragraph of the article is classic:
 
 

I'm sorry, but I can't let remarks like that slide any more. You're looking at the situation as though it will continue to be politics as usual. I respectfully submit that it will not. The Republican Party, at the national and state level, are instituting policies designed to secure the numbers for them despite the will of the people. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Placing their loyalists in key election-deciding offices. If this process isn't halted and reversed, they will have a lock on power regardless of what the real vote is.
 
I also used to think Mitch and other Republicans were just "chumming the waters." I no longer believe that. Books are being banned in schools, books with the actual history of America's past sins, books addressing issues around race and gender, books describing the rise of fascist states. The GOP want Americans ignorant, and thereby manipulable and controllable.
 
There's no surprise in remarks by the likes of Matt Gaetz that "over-educated women" are problematic, or by Mike Pence that American society has to return to "traditional Christian family values." But that's not fringe any more, it's become mainstream Republican talking points. Are we supposed to believe it's all just talk, that there's no intent behind it by the privileged white men doing it? We have legislation up for debate in more than one state right now, that would classify abortion as murder. The mask is morality, but the true face is control of women's lives.
 
Most alarming to me is recent statements from SCOTUS, like this leaked draft ruling that calls the very concept of right to privacy into question, from which many progressive rulings have stemmed: gay marriage, homosexual sex, access to contraception. We also have recent remarks from Justice Clarence Thomas blaming demonstrations by people on the political/social left -- expressions of free speech -- for the growing disillusionment of the American people for their governmental institutions. The classic fascist tactic of "othering" a group without actual power, blaming them for what goes wrong so people won't notice the hand in their pocket and knife at their throat.
 
There's an agenda at work here. There's a goal the Right is working toward, and it isn't the America we all grew up with. It's a fascist, racist, classist semi-theocracy in which a minority of people with the "right" attitudes, background and appearance make decisions for the rest of us, and the rest of us do what we're told or suffer. We've seen country after country go down this same road for a hundred years. The past six years have seen results we all thought "possible but unlikely" actually come to pass, and each has been worse than the last.
 
These people have to be voted out, now. It doesn't matter that Democrats aren't perfect and have fallen short of their promises and potential. They aren't the ones actively trying to subvert democracy and cast the United States back to the 19th Century. They can at least hold the line. If Americans don't vote Democrat, Republicans will do everything they can to hold onto power forever, and every person in one of the vulnerable groups they'll victimize will suffer for it. If the Republican Party is destroyed, another opposition party will arise, just as the Republicans under Lincoln replaced the Whigs. Probably a much healthier one. But not voting because no choice is good, is giving the keys to the one that's actively evil.

Well, as the author of the letter said, "Still worse is the fact that you have executive power at your fingertips that could, at the bare minimum, preserve abortion rights on federal property in every state, and yet you refuse to use it. You could save our lives with the stroke of a pen, but instead you are signing off on exorbitant supplies of weaponry for a war half a world away."
 
Besides, isn't there always a rotating villain? It was Joe Lieberman for a long time. Now it's Joe Manchin. Dems offer endless excuses and then say "Vote for us."
 
50 years of voting "blue no matter who" has gotten us to this point, where we're on the verge of theocratic fascism.
 
Yet Biden does nothing at all. Despite all the pre-election talk of his years in the senate giving him a unique ability to get his agenda passed, he claims helplessness in the face of a party member's intransigence.  Heck, he nominated Manchin's wife for a cushy job.
 
Every opportunity to tie his agenda to must-pass legislation, he's split it off and left it for dead.
 
But even outside of the legislature, Biden could take steps to make things better and improve Dem's chances in the fall. In addition to the steps on abortion mentioned in the quote above, he could forgive at least some student loan debt, as promised during the campaign. But he's refused to do that.
 
People waited in line for hours to give Dems the power they now enjoy. But all the Dems have given in return is an endless stream of excuses.
 
That will surely result in a Republican landslide this fall, and then it's just one more election before we lose everything.

I wish Biden and the Dem leadership would read and heed this "Dear Joe" open letter to the President:
https://newsletterwithecm.substack.com/p/dear-joe?r=56osa&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
 
An excerpt:

If you want to just shock them without going to technical extremes, you can point out that there are already efforts to create a medical system that doesn’t bankrupt people and welcome them to the cause…

Mitch McConnell has said publicly that with the overturning of Roe, a nationwide ban on abortion is possible. The topic is "worthy of discussion." One thing we should all be aware of by now, is that when the Republicans say the quiet part out loud, we should take them seriously. Depending on if and by what margin the GOP regain control of Congress after the mid term elections, it could be doable.

Right now, I can't say I've heard any such rumors.  Abortion's a bad litmus test for this, tho, because the federal level is simply telling the states "do whatever you want."  So the liberal states will allow it;  the conservative states will bar it.  The test will come should state A attempt to penalize a woman, who is a resident of A, who travels to state B where abortions are allowed, and has the procedure after the 'acceptable' period in state A.  
 
The more likely hot button problem will be if some states continue to manipulate the federal election process...for example, name electors contrary to the popular vote.  The Constitution doesn't *give* a procedure.  
 
I also wouldn't be amazed if the Western states don't start forming a regional conservation/environmental district, that could grow to, in many ways, a separated government, as for these states' residents, water is likely, in my mind, to rise to the level of Medicare and Social Security is for senior citizens...often transcending politics generally, a single, overwhelming focus issue.  The recent Vegas ban on those little patches of grass is the first signal.

Someone I knew in high school posted a thing on the Book of Face today that said something like this: "They should look at forgiving medical debt for cancer instead of student loans. Education is a choice, cancer is not."
 
It made me want to go back and start working on that app that would deliver a high voltage charge through somebody's phone.