Monzanator

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

I actually think that police attacks on journalists have increased public anger directed at police and the national government.

 

Wearing a "Press" shirt doesn't make you immune to rubber bullets. If you want to cover a story in the line of fire you have to account for damages. Street riots are hazardous to everyone's health

5 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

COVID’s out the window, the U.S. is about be hit with a trifecta. Possibly rapid spreading a semi-deadly virus, major economic depression, and years of anger playing out on the national stage. I always said this year was going to be a fun one in the U.S., but I had never imagined this in my wildest dreams.
 

Europe needs to be careful that they don’t get swept into this mess either.

Like they say, show must go on. That's why I laughed when some qualified morons said "world will never be same again after COVID". Total BS. Things will get back to normal faster than anyone thinks

7 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

They’ve had more issues with the police and National Guard then they’ve had with the protestors.

Even Floyd's brother has distanced himself from this violence. You can't have it both ways since these protests are no longer about police brutality. The guy is locked up and probably will hear charges soon.

Not to mention nobody cares about COVID restrictions anymore either.

50 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Trump just threatened Civil War on national television. We are one civilian being shot away from Civil War and violent insurgency. He is threatening to turn the military on the American people.

Are the journalists getting attacked during these protests? That's the only thing that puts this stuff away. If the press really turns against the protesters even though that would actually fall in line with Trump which I imagine press doesn't want to do.

9 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

It’s complicated. I’m not quite sure I fully understand how it works to be honest. It’s not well defined in the Constitution. 
 

Police fall under the individual States. However, police departments are special federal districts, which means they special rules like school districts, health districts, etc. John Oliver did a good piece explaining special districts of you want to learn more. 
 

National Guard is a federal entity, but each state has their own. I have no clue how that system works if I’m being honest. I do know that these aren’t “combat soldiers” (though they can be ordered into combat (my dad almost was almost deployed into Desert Storm)). They act like normal civilians except they attend training/service sessions either once a week or once a month (can’t remember which). They also have to be ready for a call to action. Their my duty is protecting the homefront (I.e. domestic guard). 
 

Police do not have to take a back seat. In most cases the police and National Guard will work together on whatever issue. I’m not sure who has “final say” though. 
 

Powers granted to the federal government must be respected in all parts of the U.S. However, any power not directly given to the federal government is fair game for the State’s under the 10th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. The focus of our government is “power sharing and power balancing.” There’s no one entity that really ever has a “final say” under law. Congress can pass a law, but the President can veto it, but then they could override then veto with enough votes, but then the Supreme Court could strike the law down, but then the law could be rewritten to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling etc.

But if a state of emergency is declared that opens another box of options? This is where democracy trips over it's own feet. State of emergency makes the decision-making process and the order of command easier - at least in theory.

1 hour ago, Federer91 said:

 

Don't they have to do what the government says? 

US is a federal country. If National Guard comes in I guess police will have to take a back seat no matter what.

Federal law stands above what the 'government' says. Ain't that right, @Olympian1010 ?

Snooker Premier League has resumed and it's live on Eurosport right now.

48 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

They don’t control anything if you don’t give them the time of day 

 

People just need to learn to think about information critically, and to fact-check anything they read.

They create their own space. That's what huge corporations always do? You can say a lot of things about FOX and CNN but being second-tier on the media market is not one of them.

You're asking for too much out of today's society. Short attention span is king. Everything you have to say has to be within the lenght of a single tweet. Gone are hours of talking heads on TV. Either say something quick or goodbye. Everyone with a social media account can call themselves a freelance journalist or "media influencer" at the very least The rise of social media has fuelled the "fake news" era like nothing else. Nobody waits for the evening news to find out what's going on, nobody's buying papers in the morning as well. Time is money and every report has to be done now because it will be ancient history after 3-4 hours, let alone the next day. Fact-checking has devalued faster than triple-double in the NBA where all you do is shoot the damn ball from everywhere.

4 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Says me. I’ve lived in this country for my entire life. I’ve seen our police do horrific shit constantly. I don’t trust the officers in my own community to act as they should. I’ve see and heard officers use racial slurs constantly in conversations, and I see some of the gross shit they share on social media. I’ve seen how they’ve treated my black and brown friends. I never seen one attempt conflict resolution. I’ve never seen one attempt anything outside of brute force to solve a situation. 

Also, it’s always convenient to blame the media isn’t. I get that broadcast journalism is biased and only it for the money (this is something I believe personally). However, they’re are many reputable, honest, and necessary media organizations in existence. 

That's the thing though, they are left in the cheap seats while CNN and FOX suck the air out of the room and control the media narrative. Same thing with these riots, the voice of the peaceful protesters has been silenced by the looters, thieves & hooligans to the point some protesters had to shelter a policeman from getting lynched despite the very same protesters actually opposing police's actions in first place. Talk about grand irony here.

Elliott & Logano make contact battling for the win with two laps left and Brad Keselowski inherits another win. It feels like he never led a single lap until the very end

Little Big One at Bristol Stenhouse involved so I'm cool

49 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Gran Torino was a masterpiece. I watched in my first film class, and I was impressed. Hopefully, Clint sticks around for a few more years.

Nothing like Clint using the most common Polish name for his character there

1 hour ago, phelps said:

for what concerns the Raiders, the goal of this season is: tanking, tanking, tanking again, tanking big time...hope for a 0-16 (or 1-15 at best) season, so not to miss out on Lawrence... 

 

the future is now...but we have to speculate a bit on that!  

Jaguars will tank for Lawrence IMO and they won't even try to make it competitive like Dolphins tanking for Tua last season. Jaguars owner wants to move team to London full-time and I'm sure he doesn't care about upsetting the local fanbase if they suck again. Even the Raiders aren't that bad to outbid Jaguars IMO especially if the Chargers QB duo of Taylor/Herbert proves mediocre. I still think Herbert was drafted too high but QBs tend to be overdrafted esp. in the 1st round.

19 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

I think that’s a pretty dangerous assumption. I thought the same thing originally, but the energy and anger people have right now amazing. This won’t be a footnote in our history. I have feel Americans will be talking about this for a while.

The Rodney King riots had a much bigger impact back in the day but that has come & gone. It's just like with all these mass shootings in USA. Once they happen too often, people just shrug their shoulders and accept them as part of the new reality. Minnesota Governor has called the National Guard on standby? The writing is on the wall now. We live in a short-attention span era anyway. These riots have had extra fuel due to people being fed up sitting locked down for weeks. Like the MN Governor said, these riots are no longer about Floyd's death and that's the end of it. Even the yellow vests in France have burned out and so will this thing in Minnesota.

Clint Eastwood turns 90 years old!

19 minutes ago, Agger said:

Or it ends up as a new 1967. Though it's really not that unusual that protests become violent in USA, this one can quickly become more than the small stuff.

We live in a different era now. Since 1967 didn't happen in 1993, it most certainly won't happen in 2020 either

2 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

 

I hope you do, these protests need more people who show they can protest by simply protesting, instead of ravaging, and I'm fairly sure you're not the violent kind. Do let us know.

All it takes is few people who change protests into riots and the thing snowballs out of control. Same happens with hooligans at the stadiums. These protests will be a footnote in history and life will simply go on. I suspect this whole thing will expire within the next 2-3 weeks and the focus will shift elsewhere.

Silverstone booked the double weekend in early August hence Budapest will probably happen in the second half of July now.

9 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

You are very, very, very correct about one thing.

 

Interestingly, the two political parties have largely remained silent in all of this. It’s become more of a minorities v. police/white nationalist issue. I just honestly don’t see how anyone could blame the left for any of this. We’ve advocated for policy changes for years, and right has acted as a roadblock. The only people I’ve seen “spinning” this situation are the ones that don’t understand it, so it might be wise if you do your research.

I have better things to do than worry about America unable to cope with their slavery & segregation legacy  

42 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

It’s not a disaster for Democrats. No one is really blaming them for the violence. Also, we didn’t lock down to stick it to Trump, we locked down to stay safe (of course upsetting Trump was a nice side effect). If you would have watched his full press conference, you would have seen the part where he said the Minnesota government believes (based off the people they’ve arrested on the streets) the majority of rioters are of out state white nationalists and far-right groups trying to incite violence. 
 

Support from most decent Americans is still firmly behind the BLM cause, even if they agree the riots have gotten out of control.

I have better things to do than listening to Trump's press conferences. And I don't need subtitles to know Democrats will do anything that contradicts Trump's actions and words. Nobody cares about decency in politics, least of all the most outdated two-party system in the world over in USA I bet the spin doctors & think-tanks are working extra hours right now thinking how to spin the Minnesota riots against the other party. If this happened in a state ruled by GOP then I'd hear all about it's Trump's fault. The only thing I learned here is that even one of the most liberal states that is Minnesota can turn into Straight Outta Compton 1990s version overnight. America has learned absoutely nothing from Rodney King's death, absolutely nothing. Democrats are stuck in the useless "progressive vs moderate" tug-o-war and blue-collar workers have voted a millionaire like Trump into office. This would have never happened in the industrial right of way reality of the 1960s or 1970s.

Minnesota Governor has thrown in the towel and admits the protests are no longer about Floyd's death. Ya think??? All in all, this is a disaster for the Democrats who wanted to keep people locked down to counter Trump's stance and now the streets are full of looters & thieves and the Governor can't do anything about it even though the policeman has been arrested.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52863506

37 minutes ago, MHSN said:

let me surprise you that in Persian we also call your country as "Hindustan" (or Hendustan to be accurate) often shortened to "Hind/Hend"

Yeah, Persian is one of the few languages that still call Poland with the outdated name Lechistan. There seems to be a certain pattern there

First thing that comes to my mind when I hear Bakersfield is Rick Mears And 99% of TO probably doesn't know who the guy is

14 minutes ago, Vic Liu said:

I wonder why Trump can make many decisions on his own including some major ones like tax/tariff policy and quitting international memberships? Isn't it supposed to be passed by some procedure?  

WHO is just a side branch of United Nations. You don't have to pass any bills to stop funding them. Same happens with UNESCO which USA and Israel quit over a year ago.

Well, China can pour money into WHO now and WHO becomes a Chinese puppet like Trump preached it was already