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47283. arkymalarky - 11/16/2019 6:48:36 PM Hey Tonedef! Good to see you! Hope everything is well with you. 47284. winstonsmith - 12/19/2019 1:23:17 AM Wow, I'm checking in and listening to the impeachment hearing from time to time throughout the day on C-Span. Crazy, back and forth short speeches. Every Republican seems to want to get in a loyalty statement for Trump to view. 47285. arkymalarky - 12/19/2019 9:09:01 AM They're all in and there's nothing they can do about it now. Now it moves to the battle between Pelosi the mongoose and McConnell the cobra. 47286. arkymalarky - 12/25/2019 5:15:42 PM Merry Christmas Motebuds!!
Hope you all have a great holiday!
Trying to get my dad out here and hoping he feels up to it. Just got grandson video and Santa got him some Toy Story toys. Life is good. 47287. arkymalarky - 12/25/2019 5:16:11 PM And I could have sworn that was in the cafe. Oh well. 47288. arkymalarky - 3/4/2020 3:47:32 PM A bright spot for me in a tough few weeks is politics. Hope that stays the case.
Wabbit, what happened with Warren in MA? 47289. Ms. No - 3/4/2020 5:41:28 PM Sorry about California, folks. What can I say? Fruits and nuts fer sure.
At this point my hope is for a Biden/Warren ticket.
I'm tired of these "cult of personality" candidates. Sanders' policies are not Trump's, thank god, but he's still an ideologue, and his fan-base is no less abusive.
A couple of weeks ago I thought a friend of mine was going to jump over the table and fight me because I supported Clinton in '16 and am still "not a big fan" of Sanders. That's all I said --- "I'm not a big fan of Sanders. I'm really pulling for Warren." and he went off into a tirade about how Bernie would have beat Trump if he hadn't been cheated by the DNC and how if Clinton had been elected we'd be at war right now (yeah, we ARE at war right now and have been for nearly 20 years) and on and on and on.
And this is a guy who is eminently reasonable 99% of the time about everything else.
I find that most of my Sanders supporting friends are more vehement about their support ---- to the tune of there's something seriously wrong with you if you don't also support Bernie. You can't be a real progressive or can't really care about injustice and corruption if you don't support Bernie. Or maybe you're just not a decent human being because you don't want to join the Bernie Bros.
I swear, his supporters have done as much to turn me off of Bernie as anything he has done himself. Sure, now he's admonishing some of the more egregious agitators, but you have to look hard at someone who draws so many of that kind of supporter.
Obviously not everyone who supports Bernie is like this, but he just seems to have more than his share of them in his base.
47290. arkymalarky - 3/4/2020 6:28:57 PM Mose has a very close friend who's like that. She was in 2016 too, but when Hillary got the nomination she was all in for her so what Mose hopes that that's how she'll be with Biden. I'm relieved that Sanders' loss seems significant enough that they won't be able to disrupt the convention which is obviously what they had in mind all along. He wasn't going to win a majority of delegates but now it looks like not only is he not going to win a plurality, Biden may win an outright majority. 47291. Ms. No - 3/5/2020 12:56:29 AM Yeah, I'm hoping that's what happens this time. Too many Bernie supporters I knew just didn't vote last time at all. Their butt-hurt contributed to the Trump win.
The thing I'm truly disgusted over right now is that Bloomberg spent half a BILLION dollars on his campaign. All for his ego.
How many homeless shelters and clinics could have been built for half a billion dollars? How many schools refurbished, or clean, safe facilities for refugees? He could have funded Planned Parenthood for years with that. 47292. vonKreedon - 5/31/2020 4:34:43 AM This is long.
Well, that was both encouraging and deeply disappointing. Blair and I went to the protest and stayed until they took I-5.
The turnout, on a corona and rainy day Westlake park was filled to well overflowing and everyone was wearing masks, though the ability to stay 6 feet apart wasn't possible unless you kept backing-up away from the protest. That was encouraging.
While approaching Westlake from the northeast there were several things that disappointed me.
There were large groups, 6-10 people, of people all in black, wearing black face masks that now fit in rather than marking them out. I noticed that several carried cases of water bottles. I assumed that they expected to get gassed and were planning to wash their eyes with copious water, as opposed to the pros who use milk. I was wrong, more on that later.
Also as I approached Westlake the police presence was obvious and heavy handed. I've been loving the Seattle Police crowd control since the WTO riots. They use teams of bicycle cops who use their bikes as mobile barriers and have been phenomenally effective in keeping people wishing to do violence to others apart and the tensions low. This time it was all about officers in armor with large sticks standing shoulder to shoulder. It got worse.
Blair and I approached Westlake down Stewart, but 5th Avenue seemed to be blocked up, maybe a police line? So we walked up to 4th, and there was a police line there, but there seemed to be some movement. I went up to where people seemed to be being let through. A guy was taunting/insulting the cops who held there ground, a cop with a paintball gun came over. The guy finally drew a bottle from his coat and threatened to throw it and was told repeatedly, "Don't do it!" He did it and was lit up by the paintball gun and ran away. The Police wouldn't let us through, but they did speak with me and suggested that 5th avenue was open.
We went back to 5th, but no one was getting through the police line. I tried to engage some of the police to find out the authorized access point for Westlake. Nothing. I was told to look around and find out. I asked if their superior officer or some officer in charge could tell me. One office told to take it up with Carmen Best, our Police Chief. Finally, I stood about 7 feet from the line of police and shouted for a responsible officer to tell us how to get into the protest. (Did I mention that maybe a couple hundred people and I can see the protest the other side of the police double lines?) Nothing. I decried them for not being better than this and left.
47293. vonKreedon - 5/31/2020 4:34:53 AM Blair and I walked around the outside of the crowd, found that all the other entrances to Westlake were open. (Why didn't the police just say that?) Eventually we were on Pine, on the opposite, west, side of Westlake with good views of the crowd. After a little bit there seemed to be some energetic, but stationary movement on 5th and Pine. The a couple of pepper bombs (Police anti-crowd flash-bang with rubber pellets and pepper gas) went off. Very loud! Immediately it became clear that the water bottles weren't for drinking of washing. The air was full of plastic water bottles being thrown at the police. So more pepper bombs, more water bottles, pepper spray, tear gas, etc. My third and Blair's first riot. 47294. Ms. No - 6/2/2020 10:56:04 PM "This time it was all about officers in armor with large sticks standing shoulder to shoulder. It got worse."
Yeah, this.
I didn't mean to have my head buried in the sand, but I missed that there was going to be a demonstration on Friday. I was coming home from a socially distant gathering in McKinley park and noticed that the freeway exit before my own was blocked off by police cars.
Both exits/entrances on both sides of the 12th Ave overpass are blocked and I can see that there is police presence, but not really what's going on. Traffic had slowed considerably, but we weren't stopped.
I get mile down the freeway to my own exit and it's open but backed up because of more police. As I came around the exit loop, there were 12 officers in helmets and face masks just standing there with about six police cars. Across the street it was the same and then again on either side of the street as I crossed the overpass.
48 police officers looking like they're ready for a riot --- and at that time I still didn't know what was going on. My first thought at the first exit was that there was some kind of car chase or had been some lone shooter in a hostage situation or something. By the time I got to the second off ramp, it didn't look like that --- how could it have been --- but it did still look the like cops were waiting for a riot.
Found out when I got home that there was a demonstration and that marchers had gathered around the police station about a mile from my house. They had been marching in the street, but peacefully.
I mentioned in our neighborhood forum that I'd been to my share of protest marches and never seen the police presence like this before. Somebody got hot and told me that it had nothing to do with racism they were just trying to keep demonstrators from shutting down the freeways like they did when they marched for Stephon Clark.
Uh, yeah, sure. I have come to know that the question is never "is racism involved," but "how MUCH racism is involved."
47295. Ms. No - 6/2/2020 10:56:37 PM cont. from 47294
So, the SacPD -- which if you pay any attention to CA news is NOT best known for their ability to de-escalate situations and keep from harassing and violating the rights of our black citizens -- shows up dressed for a riot, standing in an adversarial manner and lo and behold we get a riot.
Not unlike the stories coming from some of the other cities across the U.S., in many cases the vandalism and looting is being perpetrated by people totally unrelated to the demonstrators.
But in the cities where the cops took off their riot gear and laid down their batons and marched WITH the citizens, there hasn't been any violence.
It's great to see some police standing for whats right. I'm pleased, but I still want to know what took them so damn long. They've been sitting around with their thumbs up their asses like the Republicans who won't denounce Trump for far too long.
I don't think anyone deserves to be beaten or assaulted, but I cannot in all fairness say the police should be surprised or even all that pissed about it. They have had years and years to fix this problem within their ranks and they have done damn little.
47296. Ms. No - 6/2/2020 11:14:51 PM You may have all seen this already, but if not, I think Trevor Noah explains things very clearly.
Trevor Noah: George Floyd and the Domino Effect 47297. winstonsmith - 8/23/2020 10:37:39 PM 71 days - Can't wait for this to be over. Fingers crossed.
Aside from the worry, it is interesting to watch the strategic progression of the race.
The strategy appears to be, grind it out: Each day, win the day in the news cycle. Each week, win the week.... Like reeling in a powerful fish, keep tension on the line and fight them every inch until you pull them into the boat. Don't give them a chance to rest or regroup.
It is ugly and exhausting but what are you going to do?
Trump has to go.
47298. arkymalarky - 8/24/2020 5:00:04 PM Great analogy. I'm in Colorado right now trying to ignore things and not succeeding, but the Democratic Convention was great last week the Republican convention is already sucking before it even starts. No platform no inspirational guests no inspirational messages 47299. vonKreedon - 8/24/2020 5:43:44 PM No platform? Really, have the Repubs given up on having what they believe in a concrete form for fear Trump will change it on a whim?
47300. winstonsmith - 8/26/2020 11:07:26 PM Trump just announced that he wants Biden to take a drug test before the first debate because he is seeming to sharp.
If reporters ask Biden about this, I suggest he reply, Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV. 47301. arkymalarky - 8/27/2020 2:14:39 PM HAHAHA!! 47302. vonKreedon - 8/27/2020 6:01:24 PM Yep, that should do it. [;-}
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