Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
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GasBandit
Staff member
You might just be getting your wish, you angry, angry little man.
Gun sales spike in Missouri
http://rt.com/usa/180084-gun-sales-ferguson-protests/
However, it seems the demonstraters of Ferguson would rather help themselves to free rims and electronics, steal ATMs, loot convenience stores, and burn local businesses to the ground.
The moral high ground is getting bulldozed fast.
Which isn't what he was trying to say.
Unfortunately, the only thing being reported is the looters, but what people are uploading, tweeting, that other social media stuff, shows sniper rifles aimed at people gathering on campuses and churches holding signs and police shooting rubber bullets and gas door-to-door. So while there are definitely civilians causing problems, there are also police causing problems, and they seem to want to take it out on the peaceful protestors and journalists. Seriously, why arrest the journalists if the police are doing nothing wrong? They know what they're doing, and videos have caught them saying "stop videotaping us" and the like.
I mean, fuck, I can't make fun of Charlie anymore the next time he calls the U.S. a militarized police state. They took that away from me!
According to the news, Obama's just been briefed on the situation and will get briefed again today. I'm sure that'll be a clear statement of events.
(Wow, we really do have a crappy eyeroll icon. Hrm.)
Yup, break down the cameras, guys. As if there aren't a thousand other ones watching, like it's 1990.
Necronic
Staff member
Good article here asking a pretty obvious question that I for one had missed:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...hy-arent-libertarians-talking-about-ferguson/
Seriously. Libertarians, or Ancaps or sovereign citizens, love to get tumescent about overreach of police. So right now, where are they? It's almost as if their libertarian views only apply to whites.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...hy-arent-libertarians-talking-about-ferguson/
Seriously. Libertarians, or Ancaps or sovereign citizens, love to get tumescent about overreach of police. So right now, where are they? It's almost as if their libertarian views only apply to whites.
Your argument got kinda destroyed already. A direct rebuttal to that article: http://www.mediaite.com/online/libertarians-have-not-been-silent-about-ferguson/
That link was even in a comment on the story you linked man. So good on spreading the FUD about Libertarians w/o research, just like the original article you linked.
GasBandit
Staff member
Good. Heads need to roll in the FPD, obviously. Probably even higher up the chain, too.[DOUBLEPOST=1408034575,1408034166][/DOUBLEPOST]Tired of waiting for government to build a road, English entrepreneur puts in his own, finances it with tolls. People overjoyed to have another option besides a 14 mile detour.
Libertarianism. Fuck yeah.
Libertarianism. Fuck yeah.
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Necronic
Staff member
See, I can't help but see the libertarian/tea party reaction to Ferguson in stark contrast to the reaction to Cliven Bundy, and it doesn't look good. Even Rand Paul's arguments in the oped he just released, while good on their own, seem tame in comparison to his defense of Bundy, who he lauded as a hero.
I'll give credit to Paul for getting out in front of this one, more or less, and addressing the racial aspects of this. And ok, I'll give credit to the people mentioned in Eriols argument. But what about the rest? They were chomping at the bit to protect Bundy, this time it feels more like their hand is being forced.
I'll give credit to Paul for getting out in front of this one, more or less, and addressing the racial aspects of this. And ok, I'll give credit to the people mentioned in Eriols argument. But what about the rest? They were chomping at the bit to protect Bundy, this time it feels more like their hand is being forced.
Necronic
Staff member
I would consider people being tear-gassed in their own backyards to be significantly worse than government capturing illegally grazing cattle on public lands (it wasn't private property). That said your point on the timeline of things is completely fair. Ferguson is a very recent event. But the Bundy affair set a precedent that will color the hell out of their responses here, when and if they come.
GasBandit
Staff member
Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-perry-indicted-coercion-veto-threat-25003869
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-perry-indicted-coercion-veto-threat-25003869
GasBandit
Staff member
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ence_escapes_jail_for_18th_assault/?ref=var_0
The UK will send you to jail for mean tweets but won't imprison a woman for her 18th assault conviction.
See? Red Light Cameras are totally about public safety.
They're certainly not about graft/bribery.
--Patrick
They're certainly not about graft/bribery.
--Patrick
Necronic
Staff member
This is why common law is such a terrible idea.
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/ne...ence_escapes_jail_for_18th_assault/?ref=var_0
The UK will send you to jail for mean tweets but won't imprison a woman for her 18th assault conviction.
GasBandit
Staff member
Florida prison guards lock 50 year old mentally ill inmate in the shower with the hot water on full blast till he dies, because he crapped in his cell.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/17/4123183/behind-bars-a-brutal-and-unexplained.html
Dave
Staff member
ISIS beheads American journalist. Has another captive waiting in the wings.
http://twitchy.com/2014/08/19/evil-...list-james-foley-reportedly-beheaded-by-isis/
I am not a war hawk. I was against the second Iraqi war (I was for the first). I think we need to go in. And yes, I'm saying this with a son as an infantryman in the Army.
http://twitchy.com/2014/08/19/evil-...list-james-foley-reportedly-beheaded-by-isis/
I am not a war hawk. I was against the second Iraqi war (I was for the first). I think we need to go in. And yes, I'm saying this with a son as an infantryman in the Army.
Dear god no. Do not go back . It took EVERYTHING just to get out of there after all the money, record oil company profits and dead military members, we can't afford to get stuck there again.
Although in the end if they are threatening the oils fields at all I'm sure the heads of Exxon and BP will be sending our troops in STAT so fuck everyone else.
Although in the end if they are threatening the oils fields at all I'm sure the heads of Exxon and BP will be sending our troops in STAT so fuck everyone else.
It it's just Exxon and BP, they'll hire Xi and just start gunning down people who get too close. The Iraqi's won't go against them in real force because THAT would bring us in.
Dave
Staff member
At least this time we'd be in the right. Actually, this is exactly the kind of thing that the UN should be stepping up for. It has nothing to do with oil. As we all know, the gulf wars did NOT procure any oil for the US, but our reasons for going in in the past were murky at best and illegal at worst (and most likely). This time there would be a clear moral and ethical aim, with a clear and defined enemy that is not wanted in the country.
I know we just got out of there, but it's our fault that ISIS is in power. We have a responsibility to shoulder here whether we like it or not.
I know we just got out of there, but it's our fault that ISIS is in power. We have a responsibility to shoulder here whether we like it or not.
Sounds like a good argument for staying forever! Yay! Let's never leave because we will, NEVER leave if we keep up this line of thinking. At some point we have to say, we've made a huge mistake and we obviously can't stay here without basically colonizing this place. Because thats the alternative. Stay there forever and run the place (colonize) or leave. There's not really a terrible lot of middle ground.
Dave
Staff member
When does doing nothing become tacit approval? I realize this is selective, considering Syria, the Congo, Rwanda, etc. The difference, though, is that in this case we went into a country, deposed the ruler, and then left with a power vacuum that is being filled by a group of individuals who have been deemed too radical by fucking Al Qaeda! That's like a group being called too intolerant by the Westboro Baptist Church.
ISIS is not a group that threatens a single area, but instead the entire region in the middle east.
ISIS is not a group that threatens a single area, but instead the entire region in the middle east.
Oh, I agree there's a huge problem, and even that we in part created it but all I'm saying is we will always have a "reason" to stay there forever. Always. At some point we have to own our mistake and move on. Or stay forever. I don't really see any possible middle ground.
GasBandit
Staff member
More on the nature of bureaucracy -
This year alone, 29,500 individually designed beer labels have been submitted for approval to the Trade Department's Tax and Trade Bureau. And every single one of those label designs was approved or denied by a single man: Kent "Battle" Martin, a man who is the bane of the beer industry for his power to reject labels for the flimsiest of reasons.
Here are a few of the reasons:Battle has rejected a beer label for the King of Hearts, which had a playing card image on it, because the heart implied that the beer would have a health benefit.
He rejected a beer label featuring a painting called The Conversion of Paula By Saint Jerome because its name, St. Paula's Liquid Wisdom, contained a medical claim--that the beer would grant wisdom.
He rejected a beer called Pickled Santa because Santa's eyes were too "googly" on the label, and labels cannot advertise the physical effects of alcohol. (A less googly-eyed Santa was later approved.)
He rejected a beer called Bad Elf because it featured an "Elf Warning," suggesting that elves not operate toy-making machinery while drinking the ale. The label was not approved on the grounds that the warning was confusing to consumers.
(via Fast co design)He rejected a beer label featuring a painting called The Conversion of Paula By Saint Jerome because its name, St. Paula's Liquid Wisdom, contained a medical claim--that the beer would grant wisdom.
He rejected a beer called Pickled Santa because Santa's eyes were too "googly" on the label, and labels cannot advertise the physical effects of alcohol. (A less googly-eyed Santa was later approved.)
He rejected a beer called Bad Elf because it featured an "Elf Warning," suggesting that elves not operate toy-making machinery while drinking the ale. The label was not approved on the grounds that the warning was confusing to consumers.
Dave
Staff member
A little more about ISIS beheading the journalist. Seems they may be British citizens.
Dave
Staff member
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/isis-spokesperson-reportedly-killed-syrian-army
The guy who said they would raise the "flag of allah" over the white house? He's dead now. And I LOOOOVE his picture. He looks like he belongs in a movie about guys from the Appalachians back in the 1880's. You know, the Deliverance type of dudes.
GasBandit
Staff member
The Govt Accountability Office says that the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap was in violation of the law. So now what? Is anybody actually going to be held accountable? Perhaps some pentagon underling can be Obama's Scooter Libby and take the fall.
http://www.stripes.com/gao-pentagon-violated-law-with-bergdahl-swap-1.299368
http://www.stripes.com/gao-pentagon-violated-law-with-bergdahl-swap-1.299368