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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

[barton]

The "public hanging" joke strikes me as more an indication of the tone-deafness of people of a certain age.  When you call people on that, in ordinary life, they are often embarassed and will honestly say that they missed the dark implication.  And apologize.  Perhaps even a gracious and sad face-plant.  However, for a politician, to apologize would be to admit their tone-deafness and suggest a degree of incompetence in dealing with people.  So politicians often flip things around and attack the messenger of "reading things into...."  Kid will drink that koolaid, but I suspect a lot of voters won't. 

[oilcan]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/14/earth-death-spiral-radical-action-climate-breakdown

Interesting perspective on the relationship between oligarchy and environmental degradation.  I'm not sure it's quite right about the differential between the interests of the elite and the rest of us - if society collapses, or falters, you can't eat money.  And the producers do need people who can afford to buy things.  But there are grains of truth in there, regarding capitalism in its present form, and the priority of short-term gains over stewardship.  Would be interested in anyone's thoughts on this article.

On the relationship between capitalism and environmental degradation, I suspect there are a couple members whose thinking on the matter is similar to my cats thinking on modes of alienation in the writings of Camus.   

For me,  I think it will come down to some form of Remediation Tax,  I. E. all goods and services are assessed for the actual costs of ecological repair they entail.   Capitalism,  as many economists will tell you,  is an amoral system.   To have what EF Schumacher called "economics as if people mattered, " requires that government supply regulations and penalties that create a moral imperative where none previously existed.

Your most telling comment, on the future in the US, is on remediation taxes.  If Americans had to pay for the full environmental costs of their cars, the oligarchs would be able to defeat that kind of measure easily:  maybe 5% of Americans could afford to own a car.  Imagine any green politician trying to sell that idea.  We could have a scenario where the most revolutionary grassroots act could be to walk or ride a bike.  The only way to push that idea is to point out the obvious:  either we do that voluntarily now, or we are forced to do that later.  Of course, that doesn't deal with commercial transport.  Any form of capitalism, there will be someone making widgets who has to somehow get them from, say, California, to Kansas.  Zero-carbon will be difficult there.  Electric rail might be the closest. 

[oilcan]

So, Mike Espy - a black man - is running video of lynchings?

You cant be serious.

Have to say this disqualifies him, in my mind.

Stripping the context from your first sentence does not an argument make.  Espy was using harsh footage to underscore the grim reality that his opponent seemed to be idiotically ignoring with her thoughtless words.  The ad said, "this is what your words conjure in the minds of people who remember our history in this state."  Strange fruit. 

[Hamilton Samuels]

The "public hanging" joke strikes me as more an indication of the tone-deafness of people of a certain age.  When you call people on that, in ordinary life, they are often embarassed and will honestly say that they missed the dark implication.  And apologize.  Perhaps even a gracious and sad face-plant.  However, for a politician, to apologize would be to admit their tone-deafness and suggest a degree of incompetence in dealing with people.  So politicians often flip things around and attack the messenger of "reading things into...."  Kid will drink that koolaid, but I suspect a lot of voters won't.

Ooooooohhhh! You said "dark implication"! And you made fun of the tone deaf!

[Hamilton Samuels]

Bob Woodward is no fan of Donald Trump, but he’s not exactly supporting CNN’s lawsuit against the president, either.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist spoke out against the lawsuit Tuesday at the Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Florida. Suing to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials is just playing into the spotlight-loving president’s hands, he said.

“It’s actually a negative,” Woodward said, according to the Naples Daily News. “Trump would sit around and look at this and say, ‘This is great.’”

Woodward is not impressed with other media’s reportage of the president, either, saying “too many people for Trump or against Trump have become emotionally unhinged about this,” NBC News media reporter Dylan Byers reported via Twitter.


“The remedy,” Woodward added, isn’t a lawsuit. “It’s more serious reporting about what he’s doing.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bob-woodward-media-become-apos-190133521.html

Agree. "Follow the money", stupid!

[FlyingVProd]

Some people, if they won the lottery, would retire and do nothing, but not me, I would use the money to start my own company so that I could work, and I would work hard, I would build a team, and I would do many things.
 
I bought my lottery ticket for the Mega Millions back when the jackpot was $1.6 Billion. Here were my thoughts...

If I win then I will make my movie that I wrote, I will publish my poetry book, I will help my friends who are in the music industry to market their albums and make videos and stuff, and I would buy my apartment complex where I live and help my neighbors and stuff, and I would build a movie studio across the street, and I would buy a vineyard and winery in Tuscany, Italy, and I would open a production office at Cinecitta in Rome, and I would open a night club on like Via Cavour in Rome, or in that area, and I would want to meet Princess Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco and date her and marry her, and I would make my Mother's every wish come true, and I would travel around the world and do charity work, and I would buy the house in Malibu where I used to live, and I would start a petition to bulldoze the prison in my hometown where I was born (the people of the Antelope Valley can have a choice on how they want to live, and I will help them get rid of the prison if they want to demolish the prison). I would do lots of good stuff. And a great thing, my movie will make a profit, and so will the winery, and my poetry book, etc, so I will end up richer in the long run, and I will have more money to invest and to give to charity, etc, if I invest wisely then I will be rich for the rest of my life while giving money away.

There are many things that I would do if I won.

Some people would quit working if they won the lottery, but not me, I would use the money so that I could work, and build my company.

And I need to find a financier, in Monaco or somewhere, who will finance my ideas, so that I can do all of the things that I want to do.

Salute,

Tony V.

[whiskeypriest]

Some people, if they won the lottery, would retire and do nothing, but not me, I would...

I would buy Post 306 American Legion, paint it red with five gold stars.

[barton]

Show of hands... how many here had to google Boz's joke and still don't know why Green Lake,  Wisconsin?  I get the Chinese flag part.   

[bankshot1]

Show of hands... how many here had to google Boz's joke and still don't know why Green Lake,  Wisconsin?  I get the Chinese flag part.

I googled "Princess Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco" as I was curious the type of woman who has Tony so smitten.

And she's lovely, (I had a thing for her grandma Grace, I thought she was stunning) but Tony, I don't want to be that guy, and stand in the way of true love, but you might want to pursue another princess. Or maybe a dutchess.

I fear your beloved has eyes and thighs for another.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a24168551/charlotte-casiraghi-monaco-royal-baby-boy/


And you might want to expand your financing search beyond Monaco.

Best of luck in love and literacy

your friend Bankshot

[bankshot1]

Show of hands... how many here had to google Boz's joke and still don't know why Green Lake,  Wisconsin?  I get the Chinese flag part.

I just googled it. I have to admit I was puzzled as to why boz picked this place, and I don't see/get the Chinesse flag reference, but I may have stumbled across boz's interest in American Legion Post 306.

He may have tried to rent the hall.

[whiskeypriest]

It is a Camper Van Beethoven reference.

[barton]

I am not gonna buy all the girls on my block
Silver-plated six shooters and a quart of the finest highland scotch.

That's a bad combination on my block.   

[facilitatorn]

2 years ago I was inclined to dismiss the dementia theory.   Now,  reconsidering.  Trump's Halloween theory of voting reminds me of paranoid stories I would hear when I worked as a counselor, mainly from people with either TBI or neurological issues arising from drug use,  strokes,  or general cognitive deficits from aging.   Am really starting to wonder if we're seeing something similar to the last couple years of Reagan's presidency when his staff had to start covering for him as his Alzheimer's first started to manifest.   

LOL!

It’s the drugs. My cousin used to deliver to his “parties”.

No boomer should be allowed any role in government hence forth. The saddest generation’s downward slide is yielding seriously diminishing returns.

[FlyingVProd]

Show of hands... how many here had to google Boz's joke and still don't know why Green Lake,  Wisconsin?  I get the Chinese flag part.

I googled "Princess Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco" as I was curious the type of woman who has Tony so smitten.

And she's lovely, (I had a thing for her grandma Grace, I thought she was stunning) but Tony, I don't want to be that guy, and stand in the way of true love, but you might want to pursue another princess. Or maybe a dutchess.

I fear your beloved has eyes and thighs for another.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a24168551/charlotte-casiraghi-monaco-royal-baby-boy/


And you might want to expand your financing search beyond Monaco.

Best of luck in love and literacy

your friend Bankshot

Charlotte Casiraghi is amazing. She is beautiful, she is smart, and she does her own magazine periodically for free, and she is into philosophy. And she loves horses.

Here is an old shot of her, it shows her kind soul so much...


 

I could meet her and get her to help me to make a movie about her Great Grandmother whom she was named after...

And I wonder if she likes Anaheim? And does she like Disney? And Club 33? Does she like Malibu? I wonder...

And I attended the same acting school as Grace Kelly.

I think we could hit it off. And she did not marry Dimitri Rassam, she had a child with him, but she does not want to marry him. I think she wants a man like me.

She would be a great muse, and we would have a lot of fun, while we traveled around the world and helped others and stuff, and children love Princesses, the children love her.

Right now I have a movie script all ready to shoot, and I have a poetry book all ready to publish. And I have a lot of ideas. I can also create new stuff.

We will see what happens.

Thanks for your support guys!

Salute,

Tony V.

[FlyingVProd]

I want Ariana Grande to star in my movie, as a blonde...



Here is a You Tube video of Ariana Grande...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WbCfHutDSE

We can create art, while making a fortune.

Salute,

Tony V.