snot

Credit to the dept. for firing them and making the disclosure, not that there would have been any other reasonable way to deal with it.

they posed a serious and effective threat to them; the powerful needed to shut them down and make an example of them.

(So I don’t think it’s just about vengeance; it’s an effort toward control.)

Thank dog for Hedges & his guests.

Police need to decide: are they trying to be our heros, or are they trying to be a mafia?

“WTF Popo,” among others!

Replace fiat money with fiat electronic tokens (much more easily surveillable), force us to accept them if we want UBI; so the rich could afford privacy and the poor would be surveilled.

Negative interest penalizes us for saving for education, a home, retirement, or other goals – we must consume consume consume!

And re- voting, you wouldn’t d…[Read more]

Similar to Zoom but solid on privacy.

Skype used to be a good option; haven’t used or researched it lately.

I appreciate their effort toward rational discussion, and I think it’s important for people like this at different points on the progressive-conservative scale to listen to each other and find points of common ground; so thanks for bringing this here.

since I’m not knowledgeable about UAW; but I’ve speculated w.r.t any organization – whether it’s a nation, corporation, church, union, etc. – that once it gets past a certain size, there start to be too many layers between those at the top and those at the bottom; transparency and accountability suffer, and the top becomes both a target for and…[Read more]

since I’m not knowledgeable about UAW; but I’ve speculated w.r.t any organization – whether it’s a nation, corporation, church, union, etc. – that once it gets past a certain size, there start to be too many layers between those at the top and those at the bottom; transparency and accountability suffer, and the top becomes both a target for and…[Read more]

add allure to fascism?

I disapprove of the censorship regardless; just trying to understand the logic.

…if the police manage by whatever means necessary to incite us to violence (see also the bricks), it would justify Trump in invoking the Insurrection Act and thus in bringing in the full force of the military, is that it?

Or is this just a test-run for future refinement of tactics, equipment, and how we react?

Lately my paranoia can’t seem to keep up.

we haven’t committed enough violence to justify actually invoking it – yet.

This could go far to explain the bricks, and why the police have been so openly provocative.  It wouldn’t take a large team to get a bunch of bricks distributed.

@rufustfirefly‘s recommendation of Adam Curtis’s Century of the Self – even if you think you know all about this subject, you’ll learn something not only about “p.r.” but about how it’s affected our social psyche; and the explication proceeds largely through original, vintage footage and interviews of people who were directly involved in the e…[Read more]

that they seem to believe that if we just get rid of all the bad guys, we won’t need government anymore – some kind of leaderless, crimeless society will spontaneously arise in its place.  If we could get rid of entropy along with the bad guys, maybe that would be true, but.

First they came for Assange…

I don’t think businesses should even be allowed to re-open unless they do require masks, social distancing, etc.

If they DO that stuff, then I can see an argument for shielding them from liability.

and I wouldn’t put it past him; but just to be clear, the video’s obviously been edited.

“My mask protects your mom.”

but I do.