I have a lot of thoughts on this thread, and I don't think any of them are positive. We live in hard times because stupidity has been directing this country. Sadly, there's more stupid in this thread than I was prepared for. I see some here have been taking their news exclusively from Facebook and extremist talking heads. More people than just the President, I mean. Thankfully, it seems the minority among a group of incredibly smart posters here, as always. I so sincerely appreciate the people here talking sense.
Well perhaps if you could type coherent sentences and questions it’d be easier. I understand very well when it’s not a retarded child asking the question.
True, but something had to be done. The loss of IP the US has suffered to China over the last 2 decades or so, either as payoff(virtually extorted) by companies in order to gain access to the Chinese market or when a blind eye was turned when it was flat out stolen via industrial espionage and other means....completely outweighs the above point imo. Every time it happened it has made China a little bit stronger and America a little bit weaker. This was YEARS overdue in being tackled but Obama was too much of a pussy to take it on. Trump hasn't been completely successful in this regard, but its been one of the best things he's done in office imo.
Wow, blang buddy, are we not past this by now? The death toll is well over 100,000 people, in a little over 3months!! That silly line peddled by Trump and others that this is "just like flu" is already far in the rearview mirror. The deaths could completely stop tomorrow(which obvs won't happen) and it still wouldn't have been overblown. What amount of dead does there need to be before we get past this perception, 250,00 people, 500,000 people? Not having seen the same media, can you expand on this?
Ev, I don’t doubt the number of deaths or how hard it has hit elderly and otherwise people with underlying health problems. Trust me I don’t think it’s just the flu and Trump’s response to all this only made things worse. My concerns have always been about our reaction to the virus. Outside of NYC, I remain skeptical that going into lockdown nationwide was the right move. Millions of people out of work, hundreds of thousands of small businesses permanently shuttered, livelihoods ruined. Is the cure worse than the disease? What if elderly and other people with health concerns remained safely lockdown while the larger economy remained open? As for my media comment. Just days before George Floyd was murdered, the media and epidemiologists were shaming people for not social distancing in public. There are numerous examples on social media of local or national TV crews making a live TV report in some public space where the narrative was shaming people for not wearing masks, only for the very person giving the report to take his/her mask off as soon as the cameras stopped rolling. Then last week The Atlantic published an article, after the protests had been a week old, where epidemiologists were saying the risks of not protesting systemic racism were greater than the risk of spreading the virus through the protests. How the fuck did that risk change in a matter of days? So what is it? Was the virus threat completely overblown from the beginning? Or is it good if we all infect each other as long as we stop racism? These people have lost credibility with their shameless hypocrisy. Either way we're putting the whole lockdown and social distancing policies to the test now. If it turns out we don't get much of a spike, it will reflect terribly on all the media and politicians who supported those policies and went out of their way to shame anyone who questioned them. Or we're about to get slammed with a huge outbreak that will force a stricter shutdown than before, with hundreds of thousands more about to die.
This is what I dont get from those who consider themselves "the right." Tariffs. In America, we don't operate under "an eye for an eye" for things like justice, law formulation, making deals, or starting a business. Other countries do, but not us. So what happened when we put tariffs on everyday non-grocery items at the town's only Walmart because the coffee maker/socket set/vacuum from 'Black and Decker' is made in China? China turned right around and slapped us with tariffs on what America still manufactures today (cars), they don't get steel or aluminum or rare/precious metals anymore from us (they go to Australia.) They don't get beef anymore (the jackaloon in Brazil is ripping down the rainforests for beef farms). They don't get crops or soy anymore, and farmers here have suffered. Justly--because most of the independent, non-mass farmers now out of business liked the same "tough guy" you and your alter-ego poster do. Which furthers the irony, because I thought Trump/the right hated globalism and accuse the left of it, yet they enable it and like the results. We then lie to ourselves, eating up when the pundits and talking heads say dumb shit like "tariffs get America more money!" Whennnn.....no. They don't. The next talking point then comes "well, it will be long term gains" when there is still zero evidence of that. It means the CEO/Senior VPs get a lot more money and bonuses while the grunts in the trenches get a pink slip. But of course when pressed with that, the pundits then revert to stomping their feet, covering their ears, and sucking their teeth to "well you don't understand economics." It means China being a consumer is going to find another seller that isn't going to make them pay double, and companies like GM, Ford, US Steel, among many more in the 'Rust Belt' suffer. Because now your market has shrunk over the president and his zealots denying his micro-penis syndrome. America's manufacturing situation is an entirely different animal, also not a new problem. Beginning with Nixon, we moved manufacturing it to China, Mexico, and scattered third-world countries because why the fuck would profit driven asshole CEOs want to pay an American a real wage with benefits to make happy meal toys or clothing or whatever when you can move shit to China/India/Pakistan, pay the people in sweat shops nothing, and rake in more profits? Which makes the whole "make America great again" slogan another lump of horseshit even though its fantastic branding. Because I thought "making America great again" was to revert back to Eisenhower times. You know, Eisenhower. Arguably the best president of all time that NOBODY talks about because he put working class people first when everybody came home from WW2 and Korea--and a republican--just ironic how he's the guy conservatives should be propping up as the 'best of all time' but Fox News/Bretbart/Q/insert bullshit conservative news outlet here are dead silent because he wasn't greedy or serving to corporate masters like Nixon, Reagan, Dub-yah, Clinton, Barack, or Trump. And the manufacturing jobs still aren't coming back because we put tariffs on China. China is another complicated web. As you've pointed out, they've taken lots from private businesses here and used it to their benefit. Some of it was industrial espionage (especially tech side of things) but some of it? We just gave it to them via public sector deals and private. America has enabled China for a long time prior to 2020. China hasn't changed their stance or their approach, which is "let the idiot be an idiot" and sit back and benefit. Trump deserves credit for at least doing something and Barack deserves criticism (the left just blindly defends him like the right does Trump.) I just don't anticipate anything more than political theatre Twitter slap fighting where Americans lose...because the pundits and talking heads are only talking about "how strong Trump looks" not the fucking lack of plan or actions taken from our masterful deal maker.
This is the kind of comment that we risk on a thread like this. Why can't we just have a civil discussion and accept our disagreements rather than telling people to shut up or hurling insults? Sadly it seems these comments usually come from folks of the same political base... as I think back to the now closed down Politics forum on this site.
The political site isn’t closed,, yes have to PM Tim to get access to it. It’s a shit fest over there so it’s not something you want to really be on.
I have the worst memory in the world, but I just read this morning about a city that is going to make public (Freedom of Information?) the police departments internal affairs. I'm in complete agreement with total transparency, the public deserves to know who is not completely trustworthy. Speaking of which, if I had ever screwed up during my profession as a secondary school teacher I would never have been suspended with pay. I would have been fired. There shouldn't be such a chasm of what is acceptable and responsible behaviour between police departments and the public.
The politics forum is open. If anyone would like to keep that kind of discussion there then they are more than welcome to do so. Knock yourselves out - https://live4sportnetwork.com/forum/threads/general-discussion.29774/#post-719381
Ah, my bad. I thought I remember it was closed a while back? Maybe not, maybe I just stopped visiting it.
No, you're right, it was closed. I just opened up a new one today so people can post there if they like.
What do you think of all police departments having to disclose all police behaviour and activity to the public? What do you think of the idea of treating police officers' crimes exactly how the public get treated?
100% agree with both proposals. Long overdue. Lack of police accountability is the reason guys like Chauvin remain an officer for years and eventually gets to put his fucking knee on a guy's neck and asphyxiate him to death. This change has to happen at the local level, not federal. Individual cities/towns/communities must insist on full transparency and accountability from their police forces, zero exceptions. As for the "Bad Apple" cop argument, I love this video from Chris Rock.
I don't believe simply exposing police behavior and activity to the public goes far enough. By the time it gets to the public, the resulting decision(s) would have already been made. Like I already said, the police currently do a lousy job of policing themselves. Rather, put something in place where they have to answer to the citizens they are paid to protect. However, resulting punishments need to be commensurate with the infraction. If they're relieved of (street) duty with pay - let them work as a corrections officer in the local jail, file reports or work within the 911 system for a period of time. Then, if they continue to appear before the citizen committee, fire their ass.
