TheAuthority

43 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I am kind of suprised that Trump hasn't been assasinated, but when you think of it, he has most of the crazies on his side.  What chance has Biden got? I'm surprised he's not had any pot shots taken at him during campaigning. 

In fairness, he hasn't been out much 

52 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Scary situation, though perhaps 'attempted homicide' is an exaggeration of Bamford-esque proportions.

I don't know mate. Ramming an SUV with a pick up truck on a highway? I'm not sure of the speed but reckless endangerment for sure. 

Certainly not Bamford-esque. 

Feels like to pot could boil over here at any second anywhere - it's awful.

Video of some of it

4 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

I've always loved teaching and mentoring people in my career.  Enough to think about pursuing it full time.  It's never been realistic, though, as I love designing too.

Today, my biz partner and I have taken a punt on bringing those two worlds together.  I'm excited, nervous, and hoping beyond hope that this goes the way we think it could...

https://www.sparkdesignacademy.com/

 

Good luck mate!

Just subscribed @omariqy !

4 hours ago, villakram said:

That's not strictly true. The first colonial settlers brought the local indentured class with them, and all the great european migrations have tales of horrid conditions and similar indenture in one form or another. I am unfamiliar with the early asian/latino migrations but I'm sure people treated each other like shit there too. This is no way invalidates what occurred elsewhere and the obvious longer term structural issues present to this day. 

2 hours ago, villakram said:

It is nowhere close to as simple as that.

And acknowledging the complicated history of this country in no way intended to minimize the suffering of any other.

Indentured servants usually worked for 4 to 7 years in exchange for passage, room, board and freedom dues. While it was harsh and restrictive it wasn't slavery. There were laws that protected their rights. 

For those that survived and received their freedom many historians argued that they were better off than those new immigrants that came freely to the country. Their contract may have included at least 25 acres of land, a year's worth of corn, arms, a cow, and new clothes.

Interestingly when the first black Africans arrived there were no slave laws and at first they were treated as indentured servants. Until slave laws were passed.

10 minutes ago, sne said:

Saw him on my ballot today. Just thought FFS.

1 hour ago, villakram said:

Straight up oversight, come on.

However, I don't like it to be honest. They are Americans and I just don't understand the fascination with calling people by the "color" of their skin, so I prefer that term, even though the vast majority of these people are much more American that the average White or Caucasian as they should be called. See, I capitalized the color just there and it reads awful imho, and just stinks of that type of dog whistle talk.

 

 

I think it's because African American's are not in the US by choice. Their ancestors were bought here against their will as slaves. Part of the slow reckoning of that truth started with using the term "African American" to make that distinction (I think sometime in the 80's.) No White or Caucasian's were shipped to America as slaves. So even if it doesn't "read well" I think it shows respect to the thought process behind the term to capitalize the title.

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btw, I find it interesting how you left out the detail that this individual approached the police with a knife. I used approach because the police are straight up unreliable in these situations, but I've seen it described with more action elsewhere. The police are out saying that they used force as they didn't have tasers due to budget cuts from the D mayor. Politics, yet again.

I agree. The police are also yet to release any body-am footage which usually means it's pretty damning. Unless they 'malfunctioned' of course...

13 minutes ago, villakram said:

Meanwhile, loads of rioting in Philly last night for the second night in a row after the police killed another african american man, while at the same time Joe is in all sorts of mis-spoke mode including an emergency visit to Penn on Monday after his fracking comments during the last debate. I wonder what this will do to those remaining to cast their vote in Pennsylvania.

Minor narrowing of the polls in MI, with Trump visiting once again yesterday, Biden still heavily favored. 

 

It's a little more nuanced than that though in the recent climate.

The man was having a mental health breakdown. His family were there trying to help him, and they called an ambulance. Tragically Philly PD got there first and somehow he ended up dead despite the family's presence and trying to explain to the officers what was happening.

His father today was on media outlets pleading that people stop rioting. He said he worked as a street cleaner for the City for decades so please don't destroy the streets.

The "Defund the Police" movement is about reallocating funds so that trained mental health professionals or social workers can be available on call for situations such as this. You would think that the police force would rather not deal with these type of situations too.

Of course though, it's become completely politicized by both sides. So getting to the truth of what policy would look like or any kind of compromise is nigh on impossible.

On another note VK, I see that you capitalized Philly, Joe, Penn, Monday, Pennsylvania, Trump & Biden. However you failed to capitalize African American. Is that a mistake?

@StefanAVFC so sorry mate.  Watching your adopted country torn apart by fascists is horrible. At what point would you pull the plug and up sticks?

29 minutes ago, Vancvillan said:

All good points - let me address them in the context of my original post, which was that Biden is certainly not perfect, but still the better choice.

1. You put "compassionate individual" in bold so I'll address that first.  It's anecdotal from those who have worked with him over the years and from interviews he's done. I think the death of his son Beau was one of many tragedies in his life that have each shaped him in a way that he doesn't look to get to the top by any means necessary - something I would not say of Trump who has a clear cut record of shafting anyone at any opportunity for his own gain.  The story of Trump cutting off medical insurance to his nephew's family (who had a severely disabled infant son) during the contesting of Donald's father's will is especially horrendous.

2. Bussing - that was in the mid-70's and pressure from both R and D white voters meant a lot of politicians opposed bussing.  I could argue that the policy itself was deeply flawed and used kids as pawns in a game that looked to sweep the root cause of systemic racism (white people's fear) under the carpet, but I'd agree that Biden's actions were probably more pure politics in terms of bending to the will of the electorate.   White people did (and do) shitty things - he was one of them in the '70's.  As was Trump, who was being sued at that time by the Justice Department for racial discrimination.  Biden went on to co-sponsor the Voting Rights Act renewal, Trump went on to take out a full page in four NYC newspapers in an effort to bring back the death penalty for the Central Park 5, who were later exonerated.  His racism doesn't stop there, but I'm sure the Internet has a limit on how much I can type.

3. 1994 Crime Act - At the time, that bill wasn't controversial at all and had two thirds support of the congressional black caucus. It wasn't a pander to white voters - it was actually pretty indicative of the mood of the country, which was experiencing a tripling of crime between the 60's and the 90's and a crack cocaine epidemic.  Was it the right solution? No - it had a lot of shitty elements, but it also contained other things like the assault weapons ban that would be very popular today.  In fact it's Trump who now wants to be "tough on crime" and put protesters in jail for a decade if they smash a window.  Using the bill as a way to show Biden isn't perfect is a great idea - using it to suggest Trump is better is a mind-boggling arguement.

3. Glass Steagall - from the horse's mouth "“I’ll be blunt with you: the only vote I can think of that I’ve ever cast in my years in the Senate that I regret—and I did it out of loyalty, and I wasn’t aware that it was gonna be as bad as it was—was Glass-Steagall.”  He **** up, as most people will (regularly) during an almost 50 year career.  Today he wants to tax the rich and increase the power of labour unions. Trumps platform and his actions over the last four years have been to do the polar opposite.  And this highlights another point - Biden will admit when he's wrong. Not always, but a lot more than Trump who will never do anything other than blame someone else.

 4. The Patriot Act - everyone probably associates this with surveillance overreach, but that's a massive simplification. As with most things the truth is a lot more nuanced.  Before I get there I'll get a bit more personal on this one.

On the morning of September 11th 2001 I was in Miami. I left (by car) after the first plane hit, to head to DC to visit a friend (obviously we had no idea what was going on at that point). By the time we made it to DC all exits off the I-95 were shut, so we carried on and ended up staying with another friend in a small town in upstate NY.  A few days later I was on an Amtrak to NYC to catch the second flight out of JFK to get back to London.  I remember looking out of the window and seeing the skyline (I'd been at the top of the twin towers 10 days before) and the smoke still billowing into the air.  I knew people who lived very close by. I knew people who lost relatives. 

I say this because I remember vividly what the mood of the nation was at that time.  It was something that had never been seen before on American soil, and I think it's unsurprising that the pendulum would swing too far in terms of the response.  It's easy for Michael Moore to make a documentary three years later to point out all the overreach, but I'd forgive some decision making that in hindsight looks poor given that legislators were to some degree designing a plane while flying it.  Only one senator (Russ Feingold) voted against it.  Maybe you think that Trump would have vetoed it?  Otherwise I don't get the point of bringing it up.

The bill also included a bunch of things like federal funds for victims of terrorism, as well as increased powers for federal agencies to track and seize money related to terrorist organizations, which I highly doubt that Trump is pushing back on. Again, I don't really see what your point is since the Patriot Act is so broad, and so of a specific time.

5. The Iraq war - I believe Biden called it "a march to peace" when pushing for the war.  He was influential in getting GWB the authority to go to war.  In hindsight most people would agree that at least the premise (WMDs) was false, and that the war was a bad idea. I don't agree with Biden's stance now. Did I think that way in 2003? I honestly can't remember.  Did Trump oppose the war at that time? No. He was writing about pre-emptive strikes on Iraq in 2000, before 9/11.  He would have made exactly the same decision.

6. Afghanistan, Libya, Siria - see above.

7. Opioid epidemic - I'd dispute that it was "on his watch", but either way Republicans did everything they could during the Obama years to regulate pharma in any meaningful way. If you're going to tell me that Trump would have introduced regulations to prevent opioid prescriptions and addiction, I think you're being disingenuous.

8. Student loans / bankruptcy - you have Biden bang to rights on this one, he voted (along with 17 other Dem senators) to pass a Republican-led bill to abolish certain bankruptcy protections around consumer debt in 2005. You could argue that he did so as credit companies had donated hundreds of thousands to his campaign. Shitty move.  He's since come up with a plan to tackle that issue, and while it's too little too late for a lot of people caught in the crosshairs of that bill, he is looking to right a wrong that Trump would not touch in a thousand terms. So yeah, he made another shitty decision - but of the two on the ballot, he's the only one looking to help correct that.

9. ACA - I honestly don't have any knowledge of your point there but I'd love to read more. Can you post something?  I personally think the ACA is deeply flawed and building on it vs having a more robust public option is a mistake, but the ACA was on a macro level a net positive.  It was a long way from perfect, but the intent to expand healthcare is something I'll always get behind. Trump's plan right now (after four years in power, two of which he had the house and senate) is "replace is with something better". There's no plan, no policy - just wind.  If I had to pick Biden or Trump to run healthcare reform for four years I'd trust the guy who has been through the process already with the ACA, has a detailed platform and who's intentions I trust a lot more than Trump.

tl;dr - Biden is deeply flawed (as we all are), but is on almost every level a better choice to be in public office. Biden has **** up many times, but I think Trump under the same circumstances would have been worse.

 

 

 

Thanks for posting VV. I looked through VK's points and had exactly the reasoned response you did. I would have posted something similar but many times in the past I have done that and the poster either disappears into thin air or writes something contrite.

On another note I was in Miami on 9/11 - I'd just moved there about a week before. Nice coincidence!

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Trump supporters held an event Sunday, with people waving flags and driving through the area in a caravan of vehicles, according to TMZ, which reported that various groups, including the Proud Boys and Antifa, also showed up.

Link

I mean - a fascist group wants to cause violence and antagonize. What are the people who are being threatened (usually LGTBQ, minorities) supposed to do? Just take it?

Where fascists are concerned wasn't it proved by McDonald, Baldwin & Chamberlain that appeasement doesn't work?

Blows my mind we are even having to have this conversation.

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Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding it's way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"

- Isaac Asimov

6 hours ago, LondonLax said:

Mate I don’t want to get your back up but please listen to what you are saying here.

This is essentially the same thing Trump and his goons say when justifying their attacks on protesters. They label them all ‘Antifa’ radicals and that gives them the righteousness they need to attack their opponents. You have linked an article from a number of years ago saying a group of radicals attacked New York once and seem to be using that as justification for the people in these videos being attacked.

I have watched the videos again and I can’t see any indication that the family in the black car are ‘Proud Boys’, the dad who gets punched when he’s saying ‘do not go after my daughter’ has a pretty thick New York accent. The woman in the purple coat who gives they guy his flag back doesn’t strike me as a ‘Proud Boy’, there is even a guy wearing a ‘Gays for Trump’ T-shirt standing behind the dude who falls while over taking the flag, my understanding is the ‘Proud Boys’ are pretty homophobic.

We really have to be better man.

We have to oppose the violence otherwise it just keeps escalating from both sides.

 

Mate - just look at the news articles from this past weekend. It was a Proud Boy's rally. They stand for violence just as other fascist groups have in history.

I posted one article from 2018 to show that it isn't the 1st time they have done this in NYC. A couple of videos of folks getting caught up in the violence does not change the fact that the instigators of this are a fascist group. I have to be better? Come on. 

7 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Our aim should be challenging the Saints/Everton/Palaces of this world in midtable.

Woaaah there Mr. Glamorpuss!

11 hours ago, LondonLax said:

That’s a bit of a dangerous path to go down, justifying or equivocating attacking people who have a different political view to yourself. 

I agree, but I didn't say it it's justifiable to attack people who have a different view to myself. You inferred that so please read what I wrote again.

To clarify: The Proud Boys are not in NYC just to show their support for Donald Trump. They are they to antagonize and one of their stated aims is to cause and provoke violence. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the PB's as a hate group. Their leader Gavin McInnes advocates that violence is a way of settling political disputes.

PB's are based in Portland - I'm not sure if their affiliate membership were present in NYC yesterday. However let's say that even just a few of the PB's leadership were there. They had to fly to NYC, a 5 hour cross country overnight flight and they did that just to wave some flags in Time Square? They have visited NYC before and attacked people (12 on 1) allegedly because they were a "faggot." https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-proud-boys-kick-punch-people-in-new-york

It's pretty clear to me that they aren't just putting up Trump signs on their lawn to show their support for their preferred Presidential candidate. There's a bit more to these groups than that.

This answer also applies to @Demitri_C response.

18 hours ago, snowychap said:

 

Look it's quite simple:

"We are testing far too much.If we didn't test, then our infection rate figures would be great."

This is the 'leaders' of the US & the UK's  argument.  Or am I wrong?

Please explain to me that I've misunderstood and they aren't imbecilic morons spouting anything to give the appearance that they know what they're doing.

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

Notice how the authors German immigrant grandparents bought a Midwestern farmhouse during WW2 while Japanese Americans were sent to prison camps. 

Martinsville IN is the headquarters of the KKK. 

About 20 mins from IU Bloomington one of the most liberal places in the Mid-West. 

The US is a plethora of Dichotomies. 

32 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

I’m certainly no fan of Trump and his supporters but you should be able to drive your car or wear supporter gear without being attacked, even if it’s in New York. 

Hmmmmm. It seems very clear to me that they were there to antagonize not to "support." That's where we are sadly, but that was their intent.

Could you see a peaceful gay pride parade in Tuscaloosa, AL*  ?**

*(Insert any pro Trump county)

** as an example

On 10/10/2020 at 01:11, omariqy said:

 

 

New episode out with @TrentVillaand @NurembergVillan

@omariqy So, we've really got nothing to moan about with Villa at the moment have we Rob?

@NurembergVillan Yeah, which is always a disappointment.

I'm sure the analogy has been made somewhere before, but living in Trump's America is like the ending of the Matrix trilogy. Agent Smith has taken over every person, is everywhere and his persona keeps increasing exponentially.

You just can't escape Trump, his noise, his chaos, his administration's inept attempts to govern, which is really an attempt to cover up their lust for power, enriching themselves at the trough whilst remaining in the good graces of a narcissist by being sycophants.

It's exhausting, and honestly feels like some sort of psychological warfare being unleashed on us. I imagine the two years leading up to  Brexit in the UK felt the same. Inescapable, endless discussion, endless news items, endless opinions and "hot takes." Fear, uncertainty, anger. It's relentless.

10 hours ago, sidcow said:

The most pointless and annoying thing to ever make it's way into football since 1875.

Leeds were founded in 1919 not 1875.

6 hours ago, Bizzzle said:

I liked the new Borat but didn't love it like the 1st. There were a few parts that had me howling tbh 

The debutant ball was just mind blowingly funny. The film wasn't as revolutionary as the 1st and of course "Who is America" is a similar vibe.

But the actual 'story' is pretty funny (how they wrap it all up at the end) and of course outing Giulliani as the absolute creep that we all know he is is fantastic.

Can you have a hairy faced lie?