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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[bodiddley]

https://www.justsecurity.org/71279/trump-pushed-cia-to-give-intelligence-to-kremlin-while-taking-no-action-against-russia-arming-taliban/

Really good article.  Thanks for the link.
Unsurprisingly, the Russkie bounties were only one step in a broader failed Trump policy that coddled Russia.  I seriously wouldn't be surprised if after Trump loses the election his Moscow Trump Tower deal is back on.

“It was always the same line from downtown, even when failure was so evident and so obvious–keep engaging on CT.”  Polymeropoulos said. “This myth that Russians could be a good CT partner—that former National Security Advisor Flynn first perpetuated and then became the cornerstone of this farcical engagement strategy–was by 2019 met with near total derision and eye rolling in the IC.”

First off, Polymeropoulos is a great name. 
Second, CT = counter-terrorism; IC = intelligence community

3rd if the Russian know they can play us so badly in Afghanistan with no consequences, it's not surprising that they know they can meddle in our elections or do whatever else they want without repercussions.  Obama at least slapped sanctions on Russia for the Crimea invasion and invasion of eastern Ukraine.  Trump otoh was concerned about his reelection rather than helping Ukraine and fending off Russian aggression.

[Hamilton Samuels]

Look what these OHIO

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/bethel-ohio-black-lives-matter-protest

THUGS DID!!!

Watching footage of the day, you can see the energy grow darker and heavier. You can hear a man yell “you came to the wrong fucking town,” a woman scream “you’re supporting the goddamn niggers,” another man threaten to “break your fucking jaw, bitch.” You can see rifles and handguns and a literal bag full of baseball bats. You can see a woman in a pink sweatshirt repeatedly calling a Black woman the n-word. You can see people grabbing sign after sign from the pro-BLM demonstrators and ripping them to shreds. You can see a biker come up behind Nick Reardon and punch him directly in the skull. And you can see the police officers watching the encounter do nothing.

“People were screaming at us to go back where we came from,” Anwen Darcy, who attended the demonstration with her mom and sister, recalled. “But I was looking around, and I saw Mrs. Dennis, who’d been a teacher for 30 years. I saw my mom, who’d been on the PTA for years and served as the drama director. I saw the woman who ran all the prom fundraisers and a city councilman. The people yelling at us weren’t from here, because if they were, they would’ve known we were home.”


When Lois and Andrea first entered the scene, someone yanked Lois’s sign and tore it in half. She didn’t recognize that person, or any of the others pushing her around. But later, once she’d made it to the rest of the demonstrators, she looked across the street. Like everyone else, she saw people she knew. She got in a “stare down,” as her daughter later described, with one of her former colleagues.

“Lois, I cannot believe you’re here,” the other teacher yelled.

Andrea and her mom knew it was time to go. When they arrived home, Lois walked straight to the backyard to debrief with her husband and drink a glass of water. Andrea thought her mom would be mad at her. But Lois was resolute. “I wanted to be there,” she said. “I needed to be there.”

Lois Dennis needed to be there, she later told me, because when she was a kid, growing up 30 minutes away in Ripley, Ohio, she would spend her summers at the local pool. From that pool, she could see a nearby hillside. And on that hillside, silently watching the kids in the pool, were her Black classmates. The schools weren’t segregated. But private pools still could be. “I never questioned or asked why. That’s why I want to stand with Black Lives Matter — that sort of quiet racism, that’s accepted for so many years, and never questioned.”

So glad I'm not from that backwoods state.

To be fair,.that's the part of Ohio generally referred to as Northern Kentucky. Anything below I-70 might as well be Alabama.

not sure why you would insult the Alabamans like that.

[Hamilton Samuels]

I just think slavery seems very remote to most Americans, so much so that they can hardly conceive it existed.  And then they dodge that their ancestors came over later, or they were all Northern folk or whatever.  I think if you want to talk about reparations or some serious wealth transfer, you need to make it more immediate and closer tied to today.

I get your point that some will never see what they don't want to see.  But I think switching from slavery to segregation/racism reparations. you can win over a significant chunk of more moderate white folks who would be resistant to any compensation for slavery.

So, if it's sold to them on the basis of how the black community has "always depended on the kindness of strangers", that will work?

Seriously, taking money from any group of Americans to give to another group of Americans based on race is a terrain that even the most committed egalitarians among us would tread upon with fear and trepidation.

[Hamilton Samuels]

https://local.theonion.com/local-jew-feels-left-out-of-worldwide-jewish-conspiracy-1819564292

[barton]

I just think slavery seems very remote to most Americans, so much so that they can hardly conceive it existed.  And then they dodge that their ancestors came over later, or they were all Northern folk or whatever.  I think if you want to talk about reparations or some serious wealth transfer, you need to make it more immediate and closer tied to today.

I get your point that some will never see what they don't want to see.  But I think switching from slavery to segregation/racism reparations. you can win over a significant chunk of more moderate white folks who would be resistant to any compensation for slavery.

So, if it's sold to them on the basis of how the black community has "always depended on the kindness of strangers", that will work?

Seriously, taking money from any group of Americans to give to another group of Americans based on race is a terrain that even the most committed egalitarians among us would tread upon with fear and trepidation.

Not just based on race,  but upon past treatment.   A discriminated group doesn't have to necessarily defined by race.   If, say,  a slave trade had been built on kidnapped Belgians,  with later segregation,  redlining,  etc.  would that cause "fear and trepidation"?  (Bruges = shithole)

[barton]

I think the challenge is to show a level of past offenses against a group that would be distinctly more dire than what other ethnicities have experienced,  like Italians,  Irish,  Chinese,  etc.   It doesn't seem all that difficult, as no other non-indigenous group has faced anything remotely at the level of 400 years of brutal exploitation and discrimination right up to the present.   I like versions like Cory Booker's where the money is targeted at educational opportunities, which really helps people break from the cycle of poverty.   Especially when a college education has become insanely expensive.   

(edited for clarification)

[NeedsAdjustments]

Seriously, taking money from any group of Americans to give to another group of Americans based on race is a terrain that even the most committed egalitarians among us would tread upon with fear and trepidation.

And yet it has happened in this country repeatedly.  See Tulsa, Seneca Village (Central Park NY) Philadelphia, Alabama, Wilmington North Carolina, and any number of places where Native Americans were kicked off their land.

White folks in the US have denied people a place at the economic table in this country repeatedly based on nothing more than a distrust and/or dislike of the color of their skin.

Argue against Reparations, if you like.  But find a better argument.

[Echo4]

no other group has faced anything remotely at the level of 400 years of brutal exploitation and discrimination right up to the present.

The Native Americans raise their eyebrows at you.

[Echo4]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/politics-podcast-conservatives-didnt-get-the-scotus-they-wanted-this-term/

[REDSTATEWARD]

Well, well.
About those Chinese.



Chinese virologist accuses Beijing of coronavirus cover-up, flees Hong Kong: 'I know how they treat whistleblowers'

Hong Kong scientist Dr. Li-Meng
Yan told Fox News in an exclusive interview that she believes the Chinese government knew about the novel coronavirus well before it claimed it did. She says her supervisors, renowned as some of the top experts in the field, also ignored research she was doing at the onset of the pandemic that she believes could have saved lives.



 And lo and behold the WHO just a few days ago admitted it first learned of the Chinese virus (now call COVID-19) from the internet, not the Chinese
Government. 

[barton]

no other group has faced anything remotely at the level of 400 years of brutal exploitation and discrimination right up to the present.

The Native Americans raise their eyebrows at you.

I was comparing groups that have not been compensated (poorly or otherwise).    I didn't include NA (a group with which I'm quite familiar,  as dozens of my  previous  posts here have addressed), because they have a unique and complex history of repression and treaty breaking that I would rather address separately.   There are many circumstances with specific tribes where reparations are rejected,  due to issues of sovereignty and land.   I wasn't ignoring any of that,  just setting that aside to look at groups that were not indigenous.  (I edited that post for clarification of this)

[Echo4]

http://esqr.co/85UIFmN?fbclid=IwAR1XDfFUsz1JqojKLSEmdMrRjGxBBlMTY_TYbk-YRhMB2Sv7MFDp_-BPiO4

Neil Gorsuch Might Be the Best Friend Native Americans Have Had on the Supreme Court Since, Well, Forever

Good piece.

[bambu.]

What about the poor White folk in America who are living on food handouts, and have forever been treat like "trash"?
Surely they should be entitled to some of the reparation money.

[Echo4]

What about the poor White folk in America who are living on food handouts, and have forever been treat like "trash"?
Surely they should be entitled to some of the reparation money.

Reparation for what?

Were their ancestors enslaved? Were they denied the right to vote? Is there a pattern of discrimination against them for their color or religion or nationality? What was taken from them by society and government?

[Echo4]