COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

[cmdrfunk]

Again. This is why they should have taken action. These legislators should have called themselves into session. De-certified the electors and sent a new certified group to congress. MAKE THEM TAKE US TO COURT. We are always playing defense and it clearly isn’t working.

They're largely playing political games. They cried they can't call themselves into session. They're lying. The Constitution says state legislatures decide how to choose electors. That overrides everything else. No state law or whatever bullshit they claim can shut down their ability to do that. You don't need permission from your governor to do what is explicitly your function in the Constitution.

They pretended to be stupid so they didn't have to do what their constituents wanted. Their phones rang off the hook and they gave some limp wristed last minute thing to Pence about "just gimme 5 more minutes" to get their peasants off their backs to say "we tried." They purposely dragged their feet for 2 months.

The senators before the GA runoff did the same thing. Oh yes we're totally going to object to those electoral votes. Then next day suddenly they're like "after what just happened I guess those votes I said were illegitimate have fixed themselves and now i have to approve them to satisfy my conscious because that meaniepants Donald Trump tweeted to go home peacefully and caused a riot that was 1000x less violent than the summer's peaceful protests."

They're all lying to you all the time and deserve the gallows. Both parties. And all silicon valley big tech companies.

I live in Pennsylvania. I sat here and watched them violate state law and the state constitution repeatedly. I can't tell you why the state legislature did nothing. They just allowed all sense of rule of law to be violated. Then the PA supreme court rubber stamped all of it. They modified the state constitution by decree by changing some of those voting laws. Our state constitution has to be modified by two consecutive legislatures and then put on the ballot for a vote. It was all ignored.

Any action the populace takes is justified ethically. Rule of law is gone. Social contract is gone. Law of jungle is in effect.

I'm not clear on this but this concept of "standing" is claimed to have been made up out of thin air during the FDR period so no one could challenge what was going on then. I have no idea if that's true. It seems bullshit that any citizen cannot challenge any violations of the constitution. Citizens don't have standing for the document that literally has the People telling the government what powers it has? What a joke.

[wal]

Pelosi consulted with the chairman of the joint chiefs about preventing the president from authorizing use of nuclear weapons.

Does Nancy realize that other nations would like to know that the US would loose its first strike capability? You sure have some crazy folk in the House.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

About like this because so far no one has shown any aptitude for pointed organization. What it should have looked like was less stupid shit for internet likes and more holding the floor of the Senate for a while and making the media hear people and our grievances. I assume not enough people are ready for more decisive and revolutionary action so the point would have been to get a message across. To appear coherent and organized.

I like this. What happened in Washington reminds me of what went on in July 2001 in Genoa (Italy) during the G8 meeting. Any organised political rally needs a strong and organised internal security service, to stop agent provocateurs from infiltrating the crowd. Back in 2001, the no-global rallies were easily taken over by Black Blocks, who proceeded to ransack the city; a classic flase flag operation that destroyed the political credibility of the (correct) message the rallies were carrying.
I am pretty sure the well-meaning majority at the Washington rally were victims of a similar operation, made much easier by the fact that no internal security seemd to be provided at all; this was a catastrophic error, as Jenni correctly points out.

Note: twenty years later, a lot of those who took part in the no-global rallies in Genoa have now gone full circle and are now promoting no-borders policies. I wonder if the same 180-degrees shift will happen for those who went to Washington, although I doubt.

What happened in Washington in particular, and to the Trump presidency in general, seems to prove another wider, more important point; the USA is not a democracy, but an oligarchy. For four years, the supposedly most powerful man on the planet, the embodiment of the popular choice, had is action obstructed (remember the NYT op-ed about internal resistance in the administration?) and contained by a coterie of lobbies, medias, tech companies and assorted interest groups. The site of a man who holds the codes for nuclear Armageddon shut out of the Internet by a spotty CEO is beyond paradoxical, but I think it's also the natural consequence of the worldview held by the majority of the US citizens (certainly by the majority of the members of this board).

Those citizens are living their own capitalist, neo-liberal dream; a dream where regulation is always bad and the State needs its power curtailed, to let free rein to private initiative. But if you remove power from the State, that power does not disappear; it just gets taken over by someone else, by private organisations that in time end up running vast and important parts of public life. What you get, therefore, it not a Smaller State, but another State, a privatised one, where the voice of the people, of voters, counts for nothing. A world where some companies and individuals are so rich and powerful that they can control and effectively take over public debate and policy-making, and use the State apparatus for their benefit.

Just by way of example, the issue, imho, is not whether Twitter or Facebook have the legal right to block a sitting President's account; the issue is why they have been allowed to develop a monopoly on the public debate, without any limits or obligations imposed on them (in Poland, recent proposed legislation aims to address this situation by fining social platforms if they are deemed to prevent free speech, for example when they cancel posts).

I think, again imho, that neo-liberal capitalism and globalisation is not compatible with democracy, as in 'rule for the benefit of the majority'.

IPB

[Nicholas Laureys]

Boston Tea Party, no
Boston Massacre, yes

Thanks for sharing. Other parallels include that John Adams and other patriots tried to be gentlemanly and fair to the Britsh soldiers working to enforce the King's tyranny, like Captain Thomas Preston, which of course would prove futile since you can never appease power- and money-hungry bureaucrats who are "leading" you for your own good.
Our more "clear-minded" Republicans like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and McConnell would do well to re-visit this event and the bloddy revolutionary war that followed it, as they try to give our Progressive rulers fair treatment in the hopes of reciprocal gentlemanlyness!

Both the Bernie Bros and the Trumpsters despise crony capitalism. That would be a powerful alliance

Maybe it's just too early in the game for them to realize they're on the same "team" against the Swamp (government officials who prefer kickbacks and pay-for-play arrangements more than serving the people), but it does feel like the Bernie Bros are too passionate about their racial, immigration, and gender issues to ignore them for economically patriotic policies. And the Deplorables are too high up on the Market Capitalism altar (or just too distrustful of gov't in general?) to unleash Bernie's Bros on the huge corporations, knowing that the broad-brush regulations will gobble up small- and medium-businesses, too?

Ouch, Hag. At least some of that post sounded pretty sensible.

The biggest difference between us may be your insistence that the wealthy or powerful are inherently bad people; That nobody deserves to be elevated for their talents and efforts.
I can find common ground with the Bernie Bros and the anarchists; Our crony-capitalist system, strong Central Bankers & unelected Federal Reserve (demanded by the Communist Manifesto) are choosing winners and losers. They do not serve the interests of the people or the nation. People are undeservedly becoming wealthy and powerful through corrupt, parasitic dealings.
Sometimes fair isn't equal. Sometimes equal isn't fair. Equity is Marxist bullshit. Let me rise or fall by my own hand.

True believers in communism cannot be reasoned with. These are irreconcilable differences.

Great post, Yngvi, you have basically summed up nicely what I have just written in response to your comment that a Bernie-Trump supporter coalition would be understandable (just hadn't caught up to this post yet). It would be interesting to analyze (maybe, LOL, through polls or a survey!!!) how Trump broke through the Religion of Market Capitalism to pull all these former Republican voters to his populist cause, and also poll investigate/Dems to see whether Bernie's "open borders is a Koch idea" comment had to be retracted because his SUPPORTERS are too believing in the Religion of Helping Everyone Except Americans, or if that's just an idea that the PARTY demanded he renounce.
Straighten ut those two barriers to cooperation (which may just be exaggerated as irreconcilable differences by the MSM and the Parties, anyway), and you'd have yourself quite a base for the creation of a Third Party! One can hope!!!

[Jovan Dragisic]

They locked down the city of Brisbane because of 1 case, imagine what they would do in Texas.

Again wal, Australia is in Zero Covid, it is not comparable

Easy. Adrenaline, incompetence, and fear. My experiences of bad crowds was outdoors except for two incidents in high school when all us white kids ran for the exits when the black kids decided to stir up shit.

I was a college student in the 60s-70s when riots were common on campuses and in the towns that surrounded them. I got chased once and gassed once then. Fear and panic sends you out of there as fast as you can do it. Standing to fight was more than stupid, and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no dog in the fight anyway. So why get beat to shit and arrested?

Then as a cop I was involved in several more riots involving college students. Retreat is always an option, but unless you get that command, God help you and your career if you run when you have a duty to perform in such a situation. Anyone who says they don't get amped on adrenaline and have at least some fear is lying about it under those circumstances. So the fallback is to maintain cohesion, work together, follow your training, and wait for command to tell you what to do next.

All my engagements as a cop were outdoors on the street and facing smaller numbers than the crowd that swarmed the Capitol. Having to control a crowd with limited mobility and few exits to retreat to along with the crowding and contained noise, I have no doubt magnifies the emotions of the cops involved considerably. But that's no excuse for shooting like that.

It'll be interesting to see how eager the media is to look into the particulars of the justification of this shooting. I suspect this cop will be lionized for his courage under stress. At least by the left and marketing arm in the media.

I understand all of your points, but these guys on the other side of the door weren't exactly fighting a crowd, there was a total of two people beating on the windows, one lady climbing in, and as the rest of the video shows, they weren't exactly alone, because a full SWAT contingent was in eyesight. I don't see how the dudes on the other side of the door would feel overwhelmed. Also, why is the SWAT dude pointing his assault gun on his own dude? And why is everyone in the videos doing exposition - yelling exactly what happened. For anyone here not caught up in emotions (reasonably so) feeling suspicious of the events of Jan 6, I suggest you look up some videos of the protests in Belgrade this summer.

[Robin UK]

Have you deleted your Twitter account Rip? I’m off all social media but just kept Twitter because I liked to follow Taleb but I’m thinking of leaving the platform due to recent events. If I had more balls I’d leave YouTube too but it’s just too damn useful at the moment.

[steve7louis]

Any theories on why the African American community is being hit disproportionately hard, besides the obvious socioeconomic disadvantages?

Sickle cell anemia is most common amongst African Americans.

Interesting note; Sickle cell anemia is prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa due to the sickled red blood cells having a resistance to Malaria. In these areas without readily available medical treatment, people with sickle cell will get Malaria, be sick, but get better. Sickle Cell anemia is passed on genetically, but only if both parents have the trait.

[Haghstull]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md...g-trump-qanon/

If this article shows you paywalled for you gentleman, count yourselves lucky. I originally thought to link it because of the hilarious quote at the outset bout Ashlii: "Babbitt’s mission was to restore American democracy. But she was about to take part in a riot that would go down in history as one of that democracy’s most grievous attacks."

... LMAO. Yes, this was one of the most greivous attacks on democracy, certainly. Definitely not the Wall Street Bombing, the LA times bombing, FDRs internment camps, the trail of tears, the OKC bombing, the assassination of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. It was this thing that happened where a guy who didn't go to college got to put his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk.

But then the tone becomes so contemptuous and cruel, whatever comedic value is trampled. For one thing, they're quoting her tweets with typos/spelling errors uncorrected, in violation of long-standing media norms. "A believer in pluck and American free enterprise, she struggled in her attempts to operate a small pool service company...". They even quote an acquaintance as comparing her manner of speaking--recall that this is published 48 hours after the woman's death--to that of "a chinchilla that had just done a lifetime supply of cocaine". The contempt is just stupefying... and I only got halfway through

yngvi, i will be with you in a moment

[mpalios]

I'll say it again..... All these idiots had to do was conduct a REAL audit of one states votes, prve the votes were legit, and this would have passed.

But couple no audit, lock downs, seemingly zero chastisement of BLM riots vs seemingly universal condemnation of the capitol "take over", and there will continue to be a shit storm that will bubble under the surface for a long time.

My previous post (nothing will change) is prob all wrong......

[David A. Rowe]

This guy usually does videogames, but his content and points are salient.

The Fall of a Society - YouTube