USPOL: Pulitzer Feeling Increasingly Out Of Place In New York Times Office

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL: Pulitzer Feeling Increasingly Out Of Place In New York Times Office

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botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

but we already had a USpol thread :confused:

anyway, today on "burn everything, salt the earth":

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/new-hampshire-police-refuse-to-discuss-apparent-lynching-of-8-year-old-biracial-boy/amp/

quote:

�These people need to be protected�: Police won�t release info on lynching of 8-year-old biracial boy

A group of white teens attacked an 8-year-old biracial boy and hanged him by a noose, his family says, and police in Claremont, NH are refusing to release information in the case.

The Root�s Angela Helm reported on Sunday that an 8-year-old biracial boy was hanged by a rope around his neck by other juveniles in what his grandmother said was a racist attack.

As the child was being flown by a medevac to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, his mother Cassandra Merlin posted to Facebook, �So my son is being flown to Dartmouth after a 14 year old kid decided to hang him from a tree. I don�t care if this was a so called accident or not. My son almost died because of some little sh*t teenage kids.�

NH1.com said that Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase refused to comment on the case, but said the department is investigating the incident, which took place on Aug. 28. He said that because the perpetrators are juveniles, he is prevented from discussing the case publicly.

He said that unlike the adult judicial system, which is aimed at punishment, the juvenile justice system is designed to correct and rehabilitate aberrant behavior.

�These people need to be protected,� Chase said. �Mistakes they make as a young child should not have to follow them for the rest of their life.�

�Notice how he called these predators �young children,'� wrote Helm, �infantilizing the white teens. Conversely, teens like Trayvon Martin are made out to be hulking, menacing adults. Chief Chase seems to be centering the perpetrators feelings and futures, all but forgetting about the trauma of a little boy who had his so-called friends hang him from a tree to the point where he had to be medevaced to a hospital.�

According to the victim�s grandmother Lorrie Slattery, he was playing with a group of children and teens when they began to taunt him with racist epithets and throw sticks and rocks at him.

Someone stood on a picnic table and the group wrapped a rope from a nearby tire swing around the boy�s throat, then kicked him off the table.

The victim swung back and forth three times before he was able to free himself. None of the teens came to his aid.

NH1.com said Chief Chase refused to state whether the crime was racially motivated, although accounts of the incident make it clear the attack was based on the child�s race.

Slattery told Valley News it�s clear to her that the attack was racist because her grandson has been targeted for racist abuse from the same group of children and teens in the past.

Her grandson is recovering now and preparing for his first day of school on Tuesday.

Helm wrote, �Welcome to Donald Trump�s America. Say what you want, but when the U.S. president defends avowed white supremacists, one can�t be surprised when bullying takes on a decidedly racist tone as it did with an 8-year-old biracial boy who was hung from a tree in the year 2017. The climate has been set.�

Since Donald Trump�s election, hate crimes have spiked dramatically in the U.S., particularly in the area of hate-related murders.

public service announcement: buying the wrong brand of moisturizer is a mistake. lynching a teenager because you can't handle his skin color is not a loving mistake.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2017 16:30

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 13:37

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Even the most financially-illiterate person should probably have known that something was up when they were denied by every bank for any traditional mortgage, but offered a $425,000 mortgage with 3% down on a $30,000 a year salary.

How some of those loans were ever approved is beyond belief.

why would you assume they ever got denied? a whole lot of people were first targeted for homeownership during the bubble, they didn't get denied earlier. then there's the scores of people who were straight-up scammed, like people thinking they were getting a fixed rate mortgage only to find later that they were sitting on an adjustable-rate one. and the reason NINJA mortgages were approved is because they made everyone a shitload of money. the people who got them were expecting to flip the house in the short term, the banks who signed them passed them off to the financial industry, the financial industry figured out that AIG was offering CDS protection on them at a price that literally made them money just for sitting on the instruments, AIG figured out that they could make millions betting on MBS. the whole thing was a clusterfuck on all levels, and just about the only people who are genuinely not to blame are low-income people who got got with offers of mortgages at great rates without ever being told what was actually going on.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2017 21:13

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

fifth time's the charm i guess

https://twitter.com/seattletimes/status/907698725551853568

# ¿ Sep 12, 2017 21:19

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

RuanGacho posted:

I'm starting to wonder what it is about Seattle Mayors.

oh is this a recurring theme? i don't know that much about seattle politics.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2017 21:34

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

There Bias Two posted:

I'm not talking about just being a douchebag. I'm saying that there probably aren't many influential people in the world who haven't done some really hosed up poo poo during their lifetimes.

missteps? sure. hosed up on the level of literally owning slaves? i really don't think so. MLK cheated on his wife. that's not exactly a nice thing to do but doesn't even loving register on the nathan bedford forrest scale. what hosed up thing did harriet tubman ever do? i feel like saying "all influential people have dirty spots on their CV" trivializes how uniquely hosed-up slavery is.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 14:42

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

i never understood the "but it's part of our history" argument, or rather i never understood why the counter to it wasn't "okay, then let's just replace them with monuments that accurately portrait that history". i mean, we have holocaust monuments in germany, they just don't, you know, celebrate that the holocaust happened. it's part of our history, it's important to remember, but for the right reasons please. therefore these monuments are somber places, with inscriptions or short movies that inform visitors about what happened. there, best of both worlds. the US still has monuments, but ones that don't celebrate slavery. has this ever been proposed?

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 15:07

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

i am genuinely skeptical that single payer is politically feasible in a system where the health insurance companies have that much political pull. i think it's still fine to push for it openly and as hard as possible, but the more likely outcome is that you'll end up with a public option as a compromise. which, hey, is still great!

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 15:25

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Condiv posted:

if we had a public option i think the aca would be doing a lot better. without it, the insurance companies have no incentive to be honest, and companies really don't care about collusion laws anymore nowadays so free market competition doesn't really exist there

public option would've given us a good benchmark, and not including it was extremely idiotic and doomed the aca to its current state

it was included though? the house version that pelosi drummed through had a public option. it lost it in the senate.

BarbarianElephant posted:

I think you really need the far left to play "bad cop" and terrify the insurance companies with the thought of single--payer so that the moderate left can compromise with either a public option or a stronger version of Obamacare. Otherwise Obamacare ends up being the scary socialist option that ordinary people can be easily manipulated into being scared of. It's like offering a toddler a choice between carrot sticks and apple slices, rather than carrot sticks and donuts.

yeah, that's basically how i feel about it.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 15:52

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Condiv posted:

i have never once seen prester jane post in the "the democrats are a waste" thread. the speed at which you guys will rush in to a thread to cry about any criticism of hillary clinton is pretty sad tbh. stop demanding tons of safe spaces from any criticism of hillary (especially when it's topical after axeil brought that into the thread all on his own).

if you want that kind of place, maybe you'd be better suited to one of the many private facebook groups devoted to hillary clinton

i've also never seen a novel point in this eternal debate. people are posting the same old things at each other, loudly, without changing anybody's mind. it's not so much that we can't handle criticism of HRC, it's more that these discussions are tiresome as poo poo and don't lead anywhere, ever.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 19:39

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

boner confessor posted:

leftists robotically repeating dogma which has failed to have any real world impact, you say

no, that's actually not at all what i'm saying. that isn't even close :confused:

Condiv posted:

it's not an eternal debate if you let the debate actually happen naturally. primary chat isn't a huge part of the dems thread, entirely because most everyone has said their piece on it

of course it is. once the first group have tired themselves out it's only a matter of time before somebody wanders into the thread, drops a line about clinton and like the world's most annoying energizer bunnies you all go again. there's a really good reason primary chat is against the rules, and i'm sincerely hoping we keep it that way.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 19:48

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Condiv posted:

i'm guessing you don't actually read the thread

the dems thread? god no. every now and then i drop in and decide it's bad for my bloodpressure. but i read this one and the trump thread, and we've had the same points made by largely the same people over and over.

also: if you've had such a deep, intelligent discussion in the dems thread that i somehow missed, great! the topic has been debated! no need to do it again in another thread!

also also: if you absolutely can't stand not having this discussion, here's a genuine suggestion: ask the mods for a quarantine thread specifically about the primaries. that way you filter out all the discussion about current dem politics from the dems thread and it doesn't spill over into the trump thread or USpol. you can all come together and debate the primary in the quarantine thread that way. i promise i'll drop in every now and then and point out that HRC won by 3 million votes.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 20:04

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

i don't know why this old-rear end meme still makes me laugh but it does

https://twitter.com/socarolinesays/status/677533474555863040

# ¿ Sep 14, 2017 00:18

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Potato Salad posted:

It pisses me the gently caress off when some son of a bitch makes an argument on letter of law that has been entirely subverted in execution. It's like a Republican pointing to the 13th Amendment and saying, "See, racism is dead. "

yeah, that's the common reaction to basically everything dead reckoning posts ever.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2017 14:10

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

i hate that this is a question i have to ask but: which senseless killing was jason stockley involved in?

edit:

No Butt Stuff posted:

Jason Stockley, the cop who said "we're gonna kill this motherfucker," had his partner ram and disable the man's car, then ran up and shot him 5 times and probably planted a gun in the car, was just declared not guilty in St Louis.

The National Guard is already there, but it would appear more are heading in soon. I still have friends that are in and there's some movement on the back end, because Greitens has a boner for activating the National Guard.

ah for gently caress's sake.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2017 15:28

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Relentlessboredomm posted:

This sounds so good. Every city should do this:

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/02/mental-health-workers-join-denver-police-officers-to-help-divert-people-to-treatment-instead-of-jail/

gently caress yea Denver.

that's really cool. it would also create jobs, so i'm sure all the republicans are on board (narrator voice: "the republicans were not on board.")

# ¿ Sep 15, 2017 18:50

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

logosanatic posted:

theres no situation where a homeless person does anything but destroy a property and spread feces all over the walls. they are homeless for a reason. the few times ive sat down with homeless people to feed them and talked to them about helping them turn their life around ive anecdotally learned that its all substance abuse based. and theyre ok enough with their life. they have stolen cell phones they can connect to burger king wifi and scrounge together some food and money for drugs. sometimes the woman talk about wantint different life but cant kick the habit. the men just dont care

im down with a program that gives homeless people care though.

hooooooooly poo poo

# ¿ Sep 15, 2017 23:27

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/...WT.nav=top-news

quote:

C.I.A. Wants Authority to Conduct Drone Strikes in Afghanistan for the First Time

WASHINGTON � The C.I.A. is pushing for expanded powers to carry out covert drone strikes in Afghanistan and other active war zones, a proposal that the White House appears to favor despite the misgivings of some at the Pentagon, according to current and former intelligence and military officials.

If approved by President Trump, it would mark the first time the C.I.A. has had such powers in Afghanistan, expanding beyond its existing authority to carry out covert strikes against Al Qaeda and other terrorist targets across the border in Pakistan.

The changes are being weighed as part of a broader push inside the Trump White House to loosen Obama-era restraints on how the C.I.A. and the military fight Islamist militants around the world. The Obama administration imposed the restrictions in part to limit civilian casualties, and the proposed shift has raised concerns among critics that the Trump administration would open the way for broader C.I.A. strikes in such countries as Libya, Somalia and Yemen, where the United States is fighting the Islamic State, Al Qaeda or both.

Until now, the Pentagon has had the lead role for conducting airstrikes � with drones or other aircraft � against militants in Afghanistan and other conflict zones, such as Somalia and Libya and, to some extent, Yemen. The military publicly acknowledges its strikes, unlike the C.I.A., which for roughly a decade has carried out its own campaign of covert drone strikes in Pakistan that were not acknowledged by either country, a condition that Pakistan�s government has long insisted on.

But the C.I.A.�s director, Mike Pompeo, has made a forceful case to Mr. Trump in recent weeks that the Obama-era arrangement needlessly limited the United States� ability to conduct counterterrorism operations, according to the current and former officials, who would not be named discussing internal debates about sensitive information. He has publicly suggested that Mr. Trump favors granting the C.I.A. greater authorities to go after militants, though he has been vague about specifics, nearly all of which are classified.

�When we�ve asked for more authorities, we�ve been given it. When we ask for more resources, we get it,� Mr. Pompeo said this week on Fox News.

He said that the agency was hunting �every day� for Al Qaeda�s leaders, most of whom are believed to be sheltering in the remote mountains that straddle the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

�If I were them, I�d count my days,� Mr. Pompeo said.

From the outset of his tenure at the C.I.A., Mr. Pompeo, a West Point graduate and former Army officer, has made clear that he favors pushing the agency to take on a more direct role in fighting militants. Afghanistan, the most active war zone in which the United States is fighting, makes sense as the place to start: In the past three years, the number of military drone strikes there has climbed, from 304 in 2015, to 376 last year, to 362 through the first eight months of this year.

The C.I.A., in comparison, has had little to do across the border in Pakistan, where there were three drone strikes last year and have been four so far this year, according to the Long War Journal published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

�This is bureaucratic politics 101,� said Christine Wormuth, a former top Pentagon official. �The C.I.A. has very significant capabilities, and it wants to go use them.�

Spokesmen for the C.I.A. and the Defense Department declined to comment on the pending proposal, which involves delicate internal deliberations.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has not resisted the C.I.A. proposal, administration officials said, but other Pentagon officials question the expansion of C.I.A. authorities in Afghanistan or elsewhere, asking what the agency can do that the military cannot. Some Pentagon officials also fear that American troops on the ground in Afghanistan could end up bearing the burden of any C.I.A. strikes that accidentally kill civilians, because the agency will not publicly acknowledge those attacks. The military has also had to confront its own deadly mistakes in Afghanistan.

One senior Defense Department official said that the United States would gain little from having the C.I.A. carry out drone strikes alongside the military, and that it raised the question of whether it was an appropriate use of covert action.

A former senior administration official familiar with Mr. Pompeo�s position said that he views a division of labor with the Defense Department as an abrogation of the C.I.A.�s authorities.

Mr. Pompeo�s argument seems to be carrying the day with Mr. Trump, who has struck a bellicose tone in seeking to confront extremist groups in Afghanistan, including Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Haqqani network, a faction of the Taliban.

In Mr. Trump�s speech last month outlining his policy for South Asia, including Afghanistan, the president promised that he would loosen restrictions on American soldiers to enable them to hunt down terrorists, whom he labeled �thugs and criminals and predators, and � that�s right � losers.�

�The killers need to know they have nowhere to hide, that no place is beyond the reach of American might and American arms,� the president said. �Retribution will be fast and powerful.�

Mr. Pompeo may have a potentially important ally: Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the top commander in Afghanistan, who reportedly favors any approach to train more firepower on the array of foes of Afghan security forces and the 11,000 or so American troops advising and assisting them.

Mr. Trump has already authorized Mr. Mattis to deploy more troops to Afghanistan. Some 4,000 reinforcements will allow American officers to more closely advise Afghan brigades, train more Afghan Special Operations forces and call in American firepower.

Among the chief targets for the C.I.A. in Afghanistan would be the Haqqani network, whose leader is now the No. 2 in the Taliban and runs its military operations. The Haqqanis have been responsible for many of the deadliest attacks on Afghanistan�s capital, Kabul, in the war and are known for running a virtual factory in Pakistan that has steadily supplied suicide bombers since 2005.

Despite their objections, Defense Department officials say they are now somewhat resigned to the outcome and are working out arrangements with the C.I.A. to ensure that United States forces, including Special Operations advisers, are not accidentally targeted, officials said.

Beyond the military, critics see the proposal as another attempt to expand the C.I.A.�s drone wars without answering longstanding questions about whether American spies should be running military-style operations in the shadows.

�One of the things we learned early on in Afghanistan and Iraq was the importance of being as transparent as possible in discussing our military operations,� said Luke Hartig, a senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the Obama administration.

�Why we took the specific action, who all was killed or injured in the operation, what we were going to do if we had inadvertently killed civilians or damaged property,� he continued. �I don�t know what the Trump administration is specifically considering in Afghanistan, but if their new plans for the war decrease any of that transparency, that would be a big strategic and moral mistake.�

When John O. Brennan, a former top White House counterterrorism adviser, became C.I.A. director in late 2013, he announced an intention to ratchet back the paramilitary operations that have transformed the agency since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mr. Brennan�s goal, he said during his confirmation hearings, was to refocus the agency on the traditional work of intelligence collection and espionage that had sometimes been neglected. During those hearings, Mr. Brennan obliquely criticized the performance of American spy agencies in providing intelligence and analysis of the Arab revolutions that began in 2009, and said the C.I.A. needed to cede some of its paramilitary role to the Pentagon.

In a speech in May 2013 in which he sought to redefine American policy toward terrorism, President Barack Obama expanded on that theme, announcing new procedures for drone operations, which White House officials said would gradually become the responsibility of the Pentagon.

But critics contended that effort, too, proved slow-going, and that Mr. Brennan did not push forcefully for moving all drone operations away from the C.I.A.

Now, with Mr. Pompeo in charge, the agency appears to be aggressively renewing its paramilitary role, and pushing limits on other forms of covert operations outside conflict zones, including in countries where no fighting is underway, such as Iran. A veteran C.I.A. officer viewed as the architect of the drone program was put in charge of the agency�s Iran operations this year, for instance, and Mr. Pompeo has made it clear that he believes the C.I.A. has a robust role to play in fighting militants.

�We broke the back of Al Qaeda,� he said at a public appearance in July, referring to the drone campaign inside Pakistan that decimated the militant network�s leadership ranks.

�We took down their entire network,� he said. �And that�s what we�re going to do again.�

you know, i often find myself hoping, whenever the US makes a decision, that the Eternal gently caress Up Division of the government has more of a hand in it. what could go wrong.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2017 11:38

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

nwo hatchet man posted:

This doesn't make sense. If "logic warrants lethal force" they should aim to kill. If there's an opportunity to intentionally not kill them then lethal force isn't necessary in the first place. No one cares what weird Hollywood poo poo Finnish cops are taught. This just encourages cops to go to their gun more often to solve problems.

oh cool good to know that you understand better what law enforcement practices make sense than law enforcement in pretty much the entire developed world with the exception of the US.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2017 12:17

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Chilichimp posted:

To be fair, cops don't usually carry guns in a number of those countries, which plays into his point about not threatening use of lethal force.

The problems with American cops isn't that they use their issued murder dicks to shoot people, it's that we allow that escalation of force from the Chief of Police on down to a rookie beat cop. They all get issued murder dicks to enforce the law, and they use them.

Stop strapping guns to cop's belts. It shouldn't be a shotgun locked in the trunk, it should be their loving side-arm. Cops aren't here to shoot bad guys. They're here to keep order and protect others from harm. They can do that 99% of the time with less-than-lethal mean, but we give them guns, train them to use them, and their institutions encourage the use of them in the in-group.

I'd say, "This isn't the wild west", but come on. We all know that cops today as all Wyatt Earps, and America is loving Tombstone.

you're talking about the UK, new zealand, norway and iceland. that's it. in all other countries, cops carry guns. i agree with the dumb wild west mentality (and the severe lack of training, it's actually somewhat difficult to become a cop in most countries) but you can train your cops to not go on murder sprees at the slightest provocation without disarming them.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2017 12:33

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

nwo hatchet man posted:

It's almost like tiny European countries have large geographic and demographic differences from the US

and what would those "demographic differences" be? :allears:

# ¿ Sep 18, 2017 13:47

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

https://hopenothate.com/

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/opinion/alt-right-white-supremacy-undercover.html

quote:

Undercover With the Alt-Right

Last September, Patrik Hermansson, a 25-year-old graduate student from Sweden, went undercover in the world of the extreme right. Posing as a student writing a thesis about the suppression of right-wing speech, he traveled from London to New York to Charlottesville, Va. � and into the heart of a dangerous movement that is experiencing a profound rejuvenation.

Mr. Hermansson, who was sent undercover by the British anti-racist watchdog group Hope Not Hate, spent months insinuating himself into the alt-right, using his Swedish nationality (many neo-Nazis are obsessed with Sweden because of its �Nordic� heritage) as a way in. It wasn�t always easy. �You want to punch them in the face,� he told me of the people he met undercover. �You want to scream and do whatever � leave. But you can�t do any of those things. You have to sit and smile.�

[...]

Some of Mr. Hermansson�s most arresting footage comes from a June meeting with Jason Reza Jorjani, a founder, along with the American white nationalist Richard Spencer and others, of the AltRight Corporation, an organization established to foster cooperation and coordination among alt-right groups in Europe and North America.

Mr. Hermansson and Mr. Jorjani met at an Irish pub near the Empire State Building, where the baby-faced Mr. Jorjani imagined a near future in which, thanks to liberal complacency over the migration crisis, Europe re-embraces fascism: �We will have a Europe, in 2050, where the bank notes have Adolf Hitler, Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander the Great. And Hitler will be seen like that: like Napoleon, like Alexander, not like some weird monster who is unique in his own category � no, he is just going to be seen as a great European leader.�

More shockingly, Mr. Jorjani bragged about his contacts in the American government. �We had connections in the Trump administration � we were going to do things!� he said at one point. �I had contacts with the Trump administration,� he said at another.

[...]

(read the full article, watch the videos as well.)

quote:

As video Hermansson provided to the New York Times shows, he got one of the group�s highest-ranking members � Alt-Right Corporation board member Jason Reza Jorjani � to admit his �final solution� for minorities.

�It�s gonna end with the expulsion of the majority of the migrants, including [Muslim] citizens,� Jorjani told an undercover Hermansson at a pub near the Empire State Building in New York City. �It�s gonna end with concentration camps and expulsions and war at the cost of a few hundred million people.�

(http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/its...cubtBIc.twitter)

# ¿ Sep 20, 2017 16:09

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Radish posted:

That people think you can reason these guys out of wanting to reenact the Holocaust is the most supreme hubris.

did you watch the videos? there is literally a scene where they are sitting in (i think) a hotel lobby, talking about how to approach "the jewish question, or, the jewish problem". the solution is, of course, ethnic cleansing.

i want to slap every moron in the face with that documentary who says thinks like this:

https://twitter.com/chadfelixg/status/910287864088420352

# ¿ Sep 20, 2017 16:31

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Dead Reckoning posted:

Funny how I'm the bad guy here for taking the stance "everyone should have strong unions, not just people I think deserve it."

You're also conflating police union representation, qualified immunity, and the structural advantages police have when facing prosecution like they're the same thing.

you're conflating your posts and good opinions like they're the same thing

# ¿ Sep 29, 2017 20:15

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Dead Reckoning posted:

I'm pretty much 100% pro union, it's just that "we should get rid of teachers unions so that we can fire the bad & under performing ones, school reform now" never seems to come up in D&D.

it's almost like teachers aren't killing black people in cold blood on a regular basis :thunk:

also get out DR

# ¿ Sep 29, 2017 20:31

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Dead Reckoning posted:

Literally the exact opposite of my point, which was that I don't have to go to bat for teachers' unions because no one in D&D attacks them.

I only post when there's something I disagree with? I post a lot in the SCOTUS thread at times because sometimes I enjoy discussing my (I guess it would be called) formalist and deontological philosophy, even though I know a whole lot of people disagree with me and think it's monstrous. I think that's what a lot of people find really upsetting about my arguments: I think that, if the rules are good and the rules are followed, then either our objection to the results deserves scrutiny, or the discussion should be about how the rules can be made better.

I don't feel the need to type out "I too agree that people should have the right to take a knee during the national anthem, and the taxes should be increased in order to fund the government to the level of its obligations, that the NPS, EPA, FDA, DOE, IRS and BLM should have budgets commensurate with their responsibilities, and that climate change should be our top national priority, amen" every time one of those topics comes up.
I think this was actually a point of debate at one of my PME courses.

nobody wants you here, go gently caress yourself forever

# ¿ Sep 29, 2017 22:15

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Chilichimp posted:

"Lone Wolf" is just a designation for a single person committing a mass shooting, it doesn't say anything about their motives by itself.

"lone wolf" means white.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2017 13:42

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Trabisnikof posted:

Or third option, some way of making sure they get fed where they are via food subsidies or direct government food assistance.

As a bonus, a nationwide anti-hunger program could target all sorts of people and not just hunters. Plus enable hunters not to die if they are injured or unable to hunt.

i've been looking for statistics on subsistence hunting since i'd like to know as well how common it is, and one of the first things i've noticed is that especially in alaska, subsistence hunting correlates strongly with being way the gently caress out in the wilderness. the problem there isn't primarily poverty, but literal distance from civilization. you could have a basic universal income and people in those communities would still hunt because the next walmart isn't exactly around the corner.

another thing is tribal culture and native communities, where hunting is both common for, again, remoteness reasons, but also part of traditional identity.

basically i'd be okay with giving hunting and weapons permits to those communities and just banning anyone who does not qualify as a subsistence hunter from owning guns.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2017 19:39

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

BarbarianElephant posted:

Fresh venison is much tastier than tinned beef.

... and?

# ¿ Oct 3, 2017 19:42

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

C2C - 2.0 posted:

It's healthier?

no i mean, how does that have anything to do with what i said?

# ¿ Oct 3, 2017 19:51

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Rockopolis posted:

Is it reporting bias or something that makes it seem that despite widespread availability of firearms all we ever seem to get is pointless spree killings? Is it that by the time someone is in the right frame of mind to murder, they skip straight to spree killings? I'm always surprised that we don't have a commensurate amount of political and other kinds of purposeful violence to go with the semi-regular spree killings, like they're an outlier on the amounts of violence. Like, you never hear about people wasting their boss/landlord/bank/insurance or whatever has been tormenting them, just random strangers.

you literally have a shooting for every day of the year. ask yourself how many of those you've heard something about in the news. the smaller ones don't get reported anymore because they're that depressingly common.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2017 21:58

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Dead Reckoning posted:

Alcoholic beverages have no redeeming social benefit and serious negative externalities, yet people will tie themselves in knots in order to insist that it shouldn't be subject to the same scrutiny as guns. Because it's not actually about some numeric calculation of lives lost.

And no one would suggest banning cars for those who need them to get to work, or to get food, but any vehicle not deemed suitable for those purposes should be banned, as should all recreational car trips. Is saving time getting to the bar or the movie theater really worth the lives that would be saved by reducing passenger-miles? (Sound familiar?)

you are legit such a dumb motherfucker actually

# ¿ Oct 4, 2017 19:49

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Crowsbeak posted:

No, I should have the right to defend myself.

people in countries that heavily restrict or ban gun ownership still have the right to defend themselves.

quote:

I should have the right to if hunt.

with a hunting license, sure. those should be heavily restricted both in number and processual requirements. do you depend on subsistence hunting? are you a trained woodsman tasked with population control? you can get a license. are you a hobbyist? gently caress off.

quote:

I should have the right to practice a hobby.

take up knitting.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 11:52

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Crowsbeak posted:

I ma just pointing out that trying to take hobbies away that do you no harm are a great way to piss people off.

nobody gives a gently caress about your feelings. regular massacres are not something society should have to endure because you have a dumb hobby.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 15:13

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Dead Reckoning posted:

I don't trust and am uninterested in moral intuitions.

you misspelled "incapable" you stupid piece of poo poo

# ¿ Oct 6, 2017 20:53

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

C2C - 2.0 posted:

Does DR even have a proposal to deal with gun violence? Or cops shooting unarmed people?

"the problems are bad. but the causes... the causes are very good!"

# ¿ Oct 6, 2017 22:35

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

gently caress off MIGF

# ¿ Oct 8, 2017 03:12

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

you all ready for some really really racist poo poo?

https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/917361118368034818

# ¿ Oct 9, 2017 19:06

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

SgtScruffy posted:

Beyond the racial implications, just physically/mentally how does this happen? is the answer "PCP is a hell of a drug?"

he's rich and white. entitlement is the drug you're looking for, i'm pretty sure.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2017 18:11

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Potato Salad posted:

Why am i reading a clinton rape truther

Is there anyone else in here who believes this, it would be easier for both of us if i just ignore you now

i'm inclined to believe juanita broaddrick. the lewinsky stuff is complicated, since the encounters were consensual according to her but the power differential at play makes that not so easy.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 15:51

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 13:37

botany: Apr 27, 2013; by Lowtax

Condiv posted:

well, that's pretty idiotic. i love keith ellison and a few other dems, while i hate republicans entirely

oh, i guess it's because i don't waste my time saying the republicans suck 20x a day

it's more because you use every opportunity you get to dunk on clinton and the establishment dems. it's not even necessarily that what you say is wrong (of course sexual assault is disgusting and wrong, of course corruption is bad), it's more that you give the strong impression that you're really only looking for ways to get mad at the clinton wing, and the specific allegations are just a means to an end. it's why people get annoyed at glenn greenwald, who also never misses an opportunity to go "but obama :smug:

" whenever a republican does something lovely. it stops looking genuine after a while.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 16:12

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USPOL: Pulitzer Feeling Increasingly Out Of Place In New York Times Office

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