George Floyd

constant escape

winter withered, warm
that is not how history works. it is a tidy myth. actual social progress progresses in fits and starts. sometimes it stalls. sometimes it goes backwards. when it does progress, it's uneven and messy.

it also elides the fact that, as droid said, rights have to be actively claimed and defended. that is, like all politics, usually a messy process.

Very true, and I appreciate the reminder. I was ready to settle into that metaphor a bit too much. I see your point about the risks of oversimplifying things, packaging them into, yeah, tidy myths, at the cost of trimming/overlooking some of the more unplaceable elements.

That said, perhaps in a more poetic sense, there is something in what he was saying.
 

Leo

Well-known member
cotton is an ideologue, like a young dick Cheney. but McDonnell is a stone-cold vote counter and poll watcher. he'll stick with trump -- or mostly just look the other way -- as long as trump's got a stranglehold on the GOP and 42% approval (which means he could very well win in the electoral college). but if trump's numbers slide into the mid-low 30s and started to drag down other Republicans running for office/reelection, McDonnell would be off him in a minute. he uses trump for court appointments and business-friendly legislation while the gettin' is good but not a MAGAdude. purely a numbers game.

barr has always favored expansive powers for the president, which is extra dangerous right now.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I worry about Barr and McConnell. Gaetz and Cotton are lunatics as well.
Leo has it pretty well sussed

it's hard to sort out true ideological belief from opportunism in terms of someone like Gaetz. the Trump presidency especially lends itself to hucksters of every stripe.

Barr has always been a cheerleader for President as de facto dictator (in the Roman sense) and he's a Trump yes boi. he ain't a power in his own right tho.

I haven't followed Trump palace politics so closely the last couple years. the question - as always - is who actually has the power to influence or make decisions, and how enforceable those decisions are.

would a majority of Americans be in favor of American soldiers shooting Americans? I strongly suspect not - that is a real change from the late 60s, when that was much less clear - i.e., look at the reaction to Kent State. and I think people like McConnell know this. would that prevent it from happening? not necessarily. but everything that tallies against it is good.
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
perhaps in a more poetic sense, there is something in what he was saying.
it's a dangerous myth. not so much for its simplification, which is irritating, but in that it insinuates an untrue inevitability of ultimate victory.

I understand why someone like Garcetti would say it, but it's not something that should ever pass unopposed.
 

version

Well-known member
fmhop8o.jpg
 

muser

Well-known member
I heard last night on c4 news there was an agenda for all 4 cops to be charged with 1st degree murder. Is that even possible according to US law? Sounded like the agenda was just being skewed into something completely hopeless
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I'd consider owning a gun if I were in the US tbh. It's not just the government you need to protect yourself from. Look at those right wing militias wandering around...
This is why it's such a self-stoking cycle - I need a gun because those psychos out there have all got guns! But owning a gun actually drastically increases your own chances of being shot.
 

droid

Well-known member
Troops withdrawn from DC. Curfew lifted in LA... impossible to say for sure as anything could happen but it seems for now, at least, the moment has passed. The funeral will probably be a flashpoint, and the odds are still fairly high that bullets will fly at some point, but if the de-escalation continues it seems as if a few thousand people have ended up with criminal records, a few hundred with potential life changing injuries and there's been a significant shift in public opinion away from the police.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
all 4 cops to be charged with 1st degree murder. Is that even possible according to US law?
sure. and it happens, it's just rare.

it's hard to convict them of it b/c the counter-argument will always be they feared for their lives etc. manslaughter or 2nd-degree are easier.

Jason Van Dyke - who murdered Laquan McDonald - was charged with 1st-degree, wound up convicted of 2nd-degree (and got 7 years, which is fucking bullshit and was not received well in Chicago, I can tell you)

George Floyd's family was pushing for 1st-degree charges but it ain't gonna happen, Chauvin got 2nd-degree and manslaughter

it's whatever the prosecutor thinks they can actually win
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
there's been a significant shift in public opinion away from the police
confirmation of a fact that already existed, albeit a very welcomed confirmation. maybe there is a chance of some demilitarization.

when push comes to shove I don't think the will currently exists - as we saw - to unleash troops on protestors

I remain worried about unofficial violence

it would actually be better if boogaloo etc was more formally organized - there would be people responsible for making decisions, and organizations to infiltrate
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I don't think there's anything more predictable than the right being caught attempting the stuff they lie about the left doing...
every fucking time

mass movements - which are virtually always (at least post-WWII) the province of the left - are by nature hard to self-police. no one is "in charge". they rely on a certain degree of openness and trust that are conducive to provocateur disruption. especially amidst ideological confusion. also, it usually works, tho it seems like it isn't this time.
 

version

Well-known member
There's a clip circulating of a police officer coordinating with Proud Boys, supposedly on orders from his command...

 
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Leo

Well-known member
...and another unreal day, Dow up 829 points, mostly on may job report. American Airlines stock up 75% this week. a tale of two worlds.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Well this is a twist I wasn't anticipating
Apparently George Floyd was a rapper with a DJ Screw connection
Bandcamp here -
Some background.

The tape is decent though weird to listen to knowing what happened to him.
 

version

Well-known member
I think it was Bill Hicks who had the routine about a bloke with a gun goading another to pick one up then shooting him once he did and saying "You all saw it. He had a gun.".
 
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