sne Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 (edited) The driver has been shot dead apparently and there are reports he exited the car with a knife before he was killed. Not confirmed yet thou. Edit. One of the cops that was hit by the car has now died. Edited April 2, 2021 by sne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 Going back to the earlier discussion, I don't like term limits for politicians. They're anti-democratic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 7 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: Going back to the earlier discussion, I don't like term limits for politicians. They're anti-democratic. In principle, I agree. However, as a band-aid to a broken system like that in the US, I think they could only improve the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 3 hours ago, bickster said: As a general point, medical professinals and scientists etc generally learn more as time goes on, they don't have a shelf life Are you suggesting there's a better person qualified for the role? In the middle of a pandemic in which he was advising on but being ignored by the previous encumbent? Maybe you could nominate who you think would be better suited I'm not sure what you appear to think, but it seems that you and @nick76 appear to believe that people with scientific PhDs are immune to the power/political games that the classical business/legal set engage in. The same issues that plague the business and political world also plague academia. In an ideal world, the mindset of one engaged in a life of discovery will involve constant growth. Unfortunately, one only needs to spend a small amount of time in a research department to understand how over valued PhDs are. Those who end up with doctorates have capabilities that range across a wide spectrum of general human capabilities. The question on an alternative candidate is a little silly. There are numerous world leading research institutions in the US, each of which contains at least one individual that could do a job just as effectively as Fauci. He has done nothing special during this time, not that he has done a bad job, but nothing he has done suggests he was/is uniquely capable of this role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 4 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: Going back to the earlier discussion, I don't like term limits for politicians. They're anti-democratic. In a perfect democracy I agree but in a bitter divided country it means advancement in any bills is not going to happen because people are always campaigning. If they slightly deviate from the extreme party line they will get voted out or severely hammered by his opponent at the polls. Simple things like gold medal and promotion bills get delayed because of party tricks, bigger things like infrastructure are extremely problematic for years. The bigger bills should be hard and complex to complete, no doubt but the goal by both sides should be to eventually agree things for the betterment of the country and all Americans. The current political climate is reject the anything proposed by the opposition and then delay delay delay if you are the minority party. You’d have to hope that with a term limit there is no need to campaign and they’d want to leave their legacy mark by pushing through some big bill like a voting right bill, infrastructure bill, healthcare or something because these politicians all have big egos and will want their name remembered in history. So maybe good of the country over being fully democratic especially with things like the electoral college not totally democratic with one vote in one state not worth as much as a vote in another state given the allocation of the number of Senators to % of their population to country population. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 12 minutes ago, villakram said: I'm not sure what you appear to think, but it seems that you and @nick76 appear to believe that people with scientific PhDs are immune to the power/political games that the classical business/legal set engage in. The same issues that plague the business and political world also plague academia. In an ideal world, the mindset of one engaged in a life of discovery will involve constant growth. Unfortunately, one only needs to spend a small amount of time in a research department to understand how over valued PhDs are. Those who end up with doctorates have capabilities that range across a wide spectrum of general human capabilities. The question on an alternative candidate is a little silly. There are numerous world leading research institutions in the US, each of which contains at least one individual that could do a job just as effectively as Fauci. He has done nothing special during this time, not that he has done a bad job, but nothing he has done suggests he was/is uniquely capable of this role. But are they any better, materially better than the candidate in the current position. Having a campaign for a term over and over is only going to put a political edge to the roles which is not what we want. Also changing person often in a field that work is over decades and not short terms like four years is going to be detrimental to the advancement of medicine. Also, respected people around the world would argue differently about what Fauci has done. It’s not my field of expertise but leading people from around the world seek him for advice so he must know what he’s doing and while not uniquely capable, he’s one of few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 44 minutes ago, nick76 said: You’d have to hope that with a term limit there is no need to campaign and they’d want to leave their legacy mark by pushing through some big bill like a voting right bill, infrastructure bill, healthcare or something because these politicians all have big egos and will want their name remembered in history. But the flipside is that may not be what happens, what can happen instead is politicians who know that they do not need to appeal to voters any more use the opportunity to position themselves for a future in the corporate or lobbying worlds shortly afterwards. Across America there are a huge number of political positions, many of which have term limits and many of which do not, and I really can't see any difference in the quality of governance between them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted April 2, 2021 Moderator Share Posted April 2, 2021 55 minutes ago, villakram said: people with scientific PhDs This is just silly, no, it's beyond that, he'll be an M.D. for starters. Associating him with an academic qualification rather than his actual medical qualifiaction is just a ridiculous attempt to play down the man's knowledge and contributions to his field in medicine Fauci is a world leading immunologist. He's been head of the NIAD since the '80s for a reason, that reason has nothing to do with corruption or familiarity with business people, it's because there are few better than him in that field in the world 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 30 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: But the flipside is that may not be what happens, what can happen instead is politicians who know that they do not need to appeal to voters any more use the opportunity to position themselves for a future in the corporate or lobbying worlds shortly afterwards. Across America there are a huge number of political positions, many of which have term limits and many of which do not, and I really can't see any difference in the quality of governance between them. Fair point! I don’t know what the answer is then but something needs to change that politicians at least part of the time work for the American good rather their own agendas all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 33 minutes ago, bickster said: This is just silly, no, it's beyond that, he'll be an M.D. for starters. Associating him with an academic qualification rather than his actual medical qualifiaction is just a ridiculous attempt to play down the man's knowledge and contributions to his field in medicine Fauci is a world leading immunologist. He's been head of the NIAD since the '80s for a reason, that reason has nothing to do with corruption or familiarity with business people, it's because there are few better than him in that field in the world That's about as pedantic as one could possibly be. I'm not trying to argue specific details here, so stop just picking on points like that. It contributes nothing to the discussion. To try say that confusing an M.D. and a PhD minimizes his abilities betrays nothing more than an ability to read and a simple ignorance of the equivalence of these fields. There is nowhere in the good corporate governance literature that says that long term individual leadership of any institution is a good thing. Best practice in any modern settings wants something like 4-5 yr terms with maximal number of 2-3 renewals. Being in charge of a federal institution like that for so long is a disgrace, and shouldn't be allowed. Of course, the corporate healthcare industry has been quite happy to have him there all this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 21 minutes ago, nick76 said: Fair point! I don’t know what the answer is then but something needs to change that politicians at least part of the time work for the American good rather their own agendas all the time. A federal retirement age would be great. Link it to the social security eligibility age too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted April 2, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted April 2, 2021 Looks like the rogue driver was at the wrong end of the 'sad white man' to 'drug crazed black criminal' spectrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 4 hours ago, mjmooney said: Looks like the rogue driver was at the wrong end of the 'sad white man' to 'drug crazed black criminal' spectrum. I'm sure Fox News' "best" reporters are scurrying to find a link between this Noah Green person and the Capitol rioters. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 Major League Baseball has pulled the All-Star game out of Atlanta because of Georgia's new voter suppression laws. Not sure it will have too much impact beyond the symbolism as it's not a top drawer event, but the symbolism is stark and hopefully sets a trend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted April 3, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted April 3, 2021 6 hours ago, maqroll said: I'm sure Fox News' "best" reporters are scurrying to find a link between this Noah Green person and the Capitol rioters. He 'had an interest' in Nation of Islam, apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 5 hours ago, mjmooney said: He 'had an interest' in Nation of Islam, apparently. I phrased my post wrong- I think Fox/Newsmax will try to say that the Capitol rioters were Antifa/BLM and thus guy is a residual part of the attack on Jan 6. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 1 hour ago, maqroll said: I phrased my post wrong- I think Fox/Newsmax will try to say that the Capitol rioters were Antifa/BLM and thus guy is a residual part of the attack on Jan 6. Traffic in DC is horrible. He was probably just stuck somewhere and only just got there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted April 5, 2021 Share Posted April 5, 2021 On 02/04/2021 at 22:17, maqroll said: Major League Baseball has pulled the All-Star game out of Atlanta because of Georgia's new voter suppression laws. Not sure it will have too much impact beyond the symbolism as it's not a top drawer event, but the symbolism is stark and hopefully sets a trend. Meanwhile, MLB bend the knee to the almighty Chinese consumer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted April 5, 2021 Moderator Share Posted April 5, 2021 48 minutes ago, villakram said: Meanwhile, MLB bend the knee to the almighty Chinese consumer. All sport is like this now - it doesn't matter where the TV buck comes from, the TV buck is king. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted April 5, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted April 5, 2021 It was only a couple of years back that the NBA was chucking fans out of games for holding up pro-Hong Kong banners. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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