Invasion of US Capitol building

[Chris70]

Yeah but you still gotta do bad stuff to get there, or be very stupid 3 times, so try not to cry too much for them compared to being in a Thai prison eh?

In a number of cases (unsure of the percentage), the only criterion is to be BAME!

 

[Chris70]

They are not though. "....As of July 2016, White Americans are the racial majority. Hispanic and Latino Americans are the largest ethnic minority, comprising an estimated 18% of the population. African Americans are the second largest racial minority, comprising an estimated 13.4% of the population...."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_...016, White,estimated 13.4% of the population.Would that include slavery itself? Do you have any references backing up this astonishingly large and precise figure? Is the American justice system really so infallible?

I think 99.9% is probably just a figure plucked out of thin air...

 

[Jacob]

I think the very term puts people off, like communism it has a history and is regarded as an old, unrealistic theory used by politicians to deride attempts to focus on the impoverished. Whereas what you suggest (and I totally agree with) is a fairer economic system that prevents such things as homelessness; however I feel this shouldn't be at the expense of a free market as that is what generates economic wealth to achieve what should be done.

"Free market" is largely supported and couldn't function without the state.
Free market theories "neo-liberalism" etc are much more "ideological" and unrealistic than socialism - which is basically pragmatic and concerned with how to get things done for the benefit of all: you don't need a political or economic theory to remedy homelessness, all you need is to recognise the failure of free markets and build more homes.

 

[Jelly]

"Free market" is largely supported and couldn't function without the state.

Too right it is!

But it's worth mentioning the reason why so many people don't get that: "The Free Market" is the single most misused term in modern economics.

Adam Smith used it to mean a system where measured regulations eliminated "economic rent" (charging money for an activity Wii h doesn't add value, rather than rental of property per se), broadly consistent with the ordo-liberal approach which brought about "wirtschaftswunder" in post war Germany.

The current neo-liberal orthodoxy spurred on by the "Chicago School" seems to use it to refer to some kind of hyper-deregulated anarcho-capitwlist wet-dream consistent only with the views of people who believe Ayn Rand was a visionary prophet on the same level as Jesus.

In a related note modern "Economics" is subject to a whole lot of political biases, and the discourse we see from politicians and on the news is increasingly divorced from the realities which econometric analysis of our systems reveal...

Hence why the IFS and ONS frequently trash policies the government advocates.

Anyway, rant over.

 

[Nigel Burden]

It's getting rather silly now.

Newly elected Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green says that she will file impeachment articles against Joe Biden on his first day in the Oval Office on grounds of "Abuse of power."

Nigel.

 

[selectortone]

It's getting rather silly now.

Newly elected Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green says that she will file impeachment articles against Joe Biden on his first day in the Oval Office on grounds of "Abuse of power."

Nigel.

This is the woman who couldn't see the irony in wearing a mask in congress with 'censored' written on it. Standing up and speaking on TV in front of millions of watchers.

 

[Vann]

...When we have stupid movements like "Defund the police" I don't agree with any of that...

For you to call that "stupid" you obviously don't understand what defunding the police is about. It seems like a reasonable argument IMHO.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Vann]

...Most of the group was unarmed and misguided enough to think they were protesting election integrity...

I agree here. It will be interesting to see if we're wrong, but I doubt it on evidence so far.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[billw]

.

This is the woman who couldn't see the irony in wearing a mask in congress with 'censored' written on it. Standing up and speaking on TV in front of millions of watchers.

She's absolutely batsh1t that one.

 

[D_W]

For you to call that "stupid" you obviously don't understand what defunding the police is about. It seems like a reasonable argument IMHO.

Cheers, Vann.

It's been described as a range of things here - from taking police funding away to restructuring funding, to eliminating police funding permanently to spend the money elsewhere or some combination of the above.

It's idealistic to say the least. If there are other places where funding has merit, it should go there, but most of the places that have "police problems" also have serious drug and domestic abuse ,etc, problems that aren't solvable by social workers in the short term.

If mental health and social work solve the problem, why haven't they solved it already? If there's not enough there in those agencies, why not beef them up and solve the problem and then cut police funding? The trouble with idealistic political movements is that they usually don't solve a problem, create another problem, or pick a strange order in solving a problem. I guess a movement in the pattern of my last point (increasing funding for other agencies and then cutting funding for police once they've shown to reduce the need for the police) isn't popular because someone wants to win a fight or punish someone else.

(separate note, I saw a summary by a BLM member, who is likely antifa but wouldn't admit in his article - he has never voted according to him, went to the protest to film dressed like antifa, faked himself as an election conspiracist by repeating the things other people were saying, and ended up getting the only video of the woman who was shot. Paraphrasing what he said (which matches what I'd guessed), most people that he talked to there had no real objective - they just went in. He expressed anger at the shooting of the protester I guess based on the circumstances - I didn't watch his video - there is no reason for me to watch video of someone dying, I don't have the curiosity bone to see that. More or less stating that she wasn't doing anything that would trigger being shot).

He also said there was relatively little resistance from the police except for a few individual officers (which matches the account of the person whose post I read the next day - the first I'd heard of the invasion/riot in the first place).

Across the board here now, the military and .gov agencies are being screened for anyone who thinks they're not loyal to the incoming president. The issue is dying quickly aside from the chance that wingnuts or small groups of wingnuts may do something stupid.

 

[D_W]

It's getting rather silly now.

Newly elected Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green says that she will file impeachment articles against Joe Biden on his first day in the Oval Office on grounds of "Abuse of power."

Nigel.

She'll be voted out at the end of her term if she isn't chased out before.

 

[D_W]

"Free market" is largely supported and couldn't function without the state.
Free market theories "neo-liberalism" etc are much more "ideological" and unrealistic than socialism - which is basically pragmatic and concerned with how to get things done for the benefit of all: you don't need a political or economic theory to remedy homelessness, all you need is to recognise the failure of free markets and build more homes.

And what's the solution with regulation and socialism? We lost multi-unit housing here because it's politically incorrect. The solution is to build townhouses for housing assistance that cost more than the average home price in the united states (per townhouse unit). Unfortunately, the funding doesn't go as far doing that, but I guess it looks good.

The publicly assisted housing usually gets destroyed quickly and there is no remedy to prevent it from happening, and no consequence (what could the motivator be when the residents have no assets and can just move to a different municipality when they're evicted?).

Socialism generally doesn't have much long-term economic success. Without economic success, you don't have sustainability, and the decline brings corruption (argentina) and inefficient direction of money.

mock free markets with socialized downside protection and wide open upsides don't work that great, either, but do better at increasing the overall standard of living. At least the groups getting the downside protection tend to be the ones paying for it.

 

[Jacob]

Unless there is unequal treatment of course. When did unequal treatment stop in the USA?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...f-force-protests-black-lives-matter-far-right

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Across the board here now, the military and .gov agencies are being screened for anyone who thinks they're not loyal to the incoming president.

That is surreal and bizarre, and has all the hallmarks of a third world banana republic. Purge the government at every change of leadership. Purge all social media of any right - wing politics. Purge. Does no one else see this as ominous? Or are all Trump supporters now beyond the pale, and to be treated accordingly?

Nothing to be scared of at all.

...the Pale of Settlement, after Russian čerta osedlosti, literally boundary of settlement, was a set of specified provinces and districts within which Jews in Russia and Russian-occupied Poland were required to reside between 1791 and 1917.

 

[Jacob]

That is surreal and bizarre, and has all the hallmarks of a third world banana republic. Purge the government at every change of leadership. Purge all social media of any right - wing politics. Purge. Does no one else see this as ominous? Or are all Trump supporters now beyond the pale, and to be treated accordingly?

Nothing to be scared of at all.

Sounds like a simple and necessary intelligence test to me. It's their job to protect democracy. They were protecting Trump before he finally blew it and became a threat to democracy.
The surreal and bizarre part is those mobs of nutters threatening people with lethal weapons, quite legally, trying to restart the civil war.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Sounds like a simple and necessary intelligence test to me. It's their job to protect democracy. They were protecting Trump before he finally blew it and became a threat to democracy.
The surreal and bizarre part is those mobs of nutters threatening people with lethal weapons, quite legally, trying to restart the civil war.

Ah, yes. Trump is insane, therefore all Trump supporters are insane, therefore all actions are justified. This must be true, because Twitter, Facebook and all media outlets confirmed it. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Droogs]

could say the same about german politicians and their supporters one lifetime ago. Perhaps a complete de-trumpification programme is needed within the realms of US governance and politics. After all you wouldn''t want to risk having "werewolves" hiding in the bushes would you?

 

[TRITON]

Hey guys. What do we think on Trump moving to Texas after being sacked and then that state going rogue ?.
Texas has always wanted to be a country in it's own right, and has recently brought that issue up.

If he is impeached- unlikely- as he didn't actually say Invade the capitol and attack/imprison/**** the members, rather to fight them and as we know fight can mean many things, not necessarily using violent means.

 

[Noel]

Hey guys. What do we think on Trump moving to Texas after being sacked and then that state going rogue ?.
Texas has always wanted to be a country in it's own right, and has recently brought that issue up.

If he is impeached- unlikely- as he didn't actually say Invade the capitol and attack/imprison/**** the members, rather to fight them and as we know fight can mean many things, not necessarily using violent means.

If he is impeached..........

 

[Trainee neophyte]

could say the same about german politicians and their supporters one lifetime ago. Perhaps a complete de-trumpification programme is needed within the realms of US governance and politics. After all you wouldn''t want to risk having "werewolves" hiding in the bushes would you?

So Trump = Hitler?