To my fellow American computer techs

[tf76]

I want to start this by saying, "This post is not about politics".

I am feeling really sad about what is happening in your country right now.

In general I see people being hurt on the news and places being burnt down.

I want you to know, I care. Please look after each other.

In conclusion, I believe love conquers hate. Be a light in this darkness. No matter what.

Regards,

 

[britechguy]

Thank you.

 

[Porthos]

Thank you as well. This city was also hit by violence and looting which is unusual for this city.
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/202...who-helped-clean-up-after-saturdays-violence/

 

[frase]

As a tech from further abroad. I sense your torment in these times. All I can say is can we all come together, we are all human. Whatever race I find it confusing as what skin colour deserves a certain box in life. An admission I have Vitiligo, so am I anti white more than whiter?
Some don't deserve the term.

 

[Your PCMD]

@Porthos Dallas and Denton (close to me) have been having protests as of late, but thankfully they have been peaceful with no looting or rioting. My daughter lives in Denton but is home with us for now until it all subsides as she does not want to get caught up in it.

As far as the rest of the US is concerned, I understand the situation and respect why the protests are ongoing - peaceful protests, however, looting and destroying businesses I just cannot condone it. Those who are carrying out those acts are using the protests as a scapegoat and honestly should be locked up.

As far as race or the color of someones skin is concerned, I could care less as I don't see color, I see human beings.

 

[Sky-Knight]

We have documented cases where protestors are actively protecting police, as well as seeking out and detaining bad actors as well. The news just wants us all to see all the bad. There is a ton of good happening too.

Just don't forget, we had captain cheeto order D.C. cops to gas a peaceful crowd so he could take a picture. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867532070/trumps-unannounced-church-visit-angers-church-officials

Also let me be clear, Tear Gas is considered a chemical weapon under the Geneva conventions, and while said conventions afford its use via law enforcement agencies as a riot control agent... I want you to think about how stupid that is. Our infantry cannot use it in an active war zone, but our cops can use it on our streets? Perhaps that should be limited to the National Guard for actual riot control?

When that reality is held up against what just happened to George Floyd that sparked all this... https://8m46s.com/

My fellow Americans, we have issues.

 

[britechguy]

My fellow Americans, we have issues.

And Paul Krugman nailed it regarding those issues, and how they have been being politically weaponized: Trump Takes Us to the Brink: Will weaponized racism destroy America?

And Thomas Friedman with regard to the results if we do not make this right: America, We Break It, It's Gone: Where can we find the leadership to save the US?

 

[phaZed]

I've seen this coming for a long time in America. We need change and our "leaders" are feckless - leaders is plural. We're wholly and fully corrupted at this point. I know it's not political, but Flyod was the spark for the tinderbox of problems.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy I see Trump as a symptom not the cause.

Look into the history of the marriage license, it didn't exist until the civil rights movement really got started, and didn't really sink in until the era of Jim Crow. It is in many cases, such as Arizona, literally left over Jim Crow as they were created here to attempt to stop the formation of mixed race couples.

Did we repeal them? Nope... we ignored the directives of the 1st Amendment right up until we had a judicial showdown that redefined marriage as a "right", which is clearly isn't... all to avoid the legislative workload of repealing the mess or legally redefining it in accordance to our founding principles.

So marriage licenses are racist, but we keep them. But the LGTBQ fought a legal fight to win the right to be legally racist... but we are a nation of "color blind" people?

The rule of law... nope more like exactly what the Founders were afraid of, Mob Rule... "leaders" that change course with the wind instead of reasoned principle, and no courts except that of public opinion.

So yeah, @phaZed, you're correct it's been a long time coming. Both dominant political parties in the US have their hands in it. But we're supposed to turn the nation over to a mentally deficient creep of an old man in Nov to "fix" it?

I honestly do not know where to go from there. I have no actionable course of action within my power to enact that will do anything to lead to the systemic changes required for our nation to prosper. My Senators are both strong independent woman with power and ability in their own rights, but they are too busy showing the country the largest cat fight known to man to actually lead us anywhere... and I'm really depressed about it.

 

[sapphirescales]

The problem is people seem to misunderstand what "peaceful" protesting means. To be "peaceful" you need to not be hurting anyone OR breaking ANY laws. If you're protesting in the middle of the street and refuse to move, you're no longer "peaceful" - even if you're not hurting anyone. All these videos of "police brutality" that are shown on Twitter are out of context and circulated by people that don't understand the laws.

I fully support peaceful protests, but people that refuse to listen to the police and the people that are burning down homes and businesses will get NO sympathy from me when they get their a$$es handed to them. The people that refuse to listen to the police should get the riot control treatment (teargas, rubber bullets, etc.). As far as I'm concerned, the people burning down buildings should be arrested and charged with attempted murder. This behavior is NOT acceptable under ANY circumstances.

 

[britechguy]

The problem is people seem to misunderstand what "peaceful" protesting means. To be "peaceful" you need to not be hurting anyone OR breaking ANY laws. If you're protesting in the middle of the street and refuse to move, you're no longer "peaceful" - even if you're not hurting anyone.

You really have demonstrated that you live in a world of definitions that is every bit as idiosyncratic as Donald Trump's is, even if you do not share a single one of his.

Your world bears virtually no resemblance to the one the rest of us live in and experience daily. You won't take this on board, and I know that, but someone should put it on record.

 

[britechguy]

@britechguy I see Trump as a symptom not the cause.


So yeah, @phaZed, you're correct it's been a long time coming. Both dominant political parties in the US have their hands in it. But we're supposed to turn the nation over to a mentally deficient creep of an old man in Nov to "fix" it?

I honestly do not know where to go from there. I have no actionable course of action within my power to enact that will do anything to lead to the systemic changes required for our nation to prosper. My Senators are both strong independent woman with power and ability in their own rights, but they are too busy showing the country the largest cat fight known to man to actually lead us anywhere... and I'm really depressed about it.

Well, we'll have to agree on your points one and three, and disagree on point two. Joe Biden simply is not "mentally deficient" nor a creep by any conventional definition of those words.

But your last point about "the largest cat fight known to man," while accurate in the larger sense, reads as very misogynistic. And if you don't believe me then you don't really know anything about the history of the usage of "cat fight."

 

[sapphirescales]

You really have demonstrated that you live in a world of definitions that is every bit as idiosyncratic as Donald Trump's is

Laws don't change because you get angry. The law is the law. Without law society devolves into chaos (what we're experiencing now).

 

[britechguy]

Laws don't change because you get angry. The law is the law. Without law society devolves into chaos (what we're experiencing now).

Spoken like someone who has absolutely, positively no knowledge of history at all. And, if a law is unjust, there's very good reason to ignore it.

Civil disobedience is generally classed as peaceful protest, not rabble rousing.

 

[phaZed]

Violence, unfortunately, solves many "problems"...

Spoken like someone who has absolutely, positively no knowledge of history at all. And, if a law is unjust, there's very good reason to ignore it.

Amen to that.

 

[britechguy]

I find it amusing, truly I do, that anyone can hold the concepts of "protest" and "following all the rules/laws" as being internally consistent with each other.

If the rules/laws, or administration of same, were just and equitable what would one be protesting? And how would one be protesting it - by meekly saying, "We don't like this."?

All of the great social justice movements of history (and not just in the USA, but definitely here, too) involve (and involved) the breaking of unjust laws. We would not have (and, sadly, pretty much do not have, these days) organized trade unions, anti-discrimination laws of all sorts, and the list goes on and on if those who recognized the existing laws and social conventions as unjust had just sat there, meekly, and never showed a trace of entirely righteous anger by refusing to be bound by same.

The old saying that, "The radical of one era is the conservative of the next," keeps playing itself out, again and again, because those radical ideas (then) were absolutely, positively right and get woven into both law and society in terms of folkways and mores. Then the cycle begins again, because it must, and because that's how change is brought about.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy You are absolutely correct, my comment used that phrase because that's the way it's being cast in the local news. For my part, it simply means infantile behavior, the sort of thing you'd expect from young teens... not grown women, and certainly not a former military leader such as McSally. It's embarrassing... utterly so. It's not professional, and it belittles both of them.

And if you don't agree with the reality that Biden is a creep, you're blind: https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-allegations-women-2020-campaign-2019-6

I don't think he's a sexual predator, but he's got a well documented history of violating personal space. Such behavior is not presidential, and while it might be seen as an improvement over what Trump provides in the same sphere... but it's still not acceptable, it's still not presidential, and I will not be voting for EITHER of them in Nov as a result.

 

[Sky-Knight]

If violence never solved problems, then we don't need the 2nd Amendment...

Those of you on the left politically... keep that in your quiver... I'm using it too, and I'm leaning RIGHT.

Violent protest is the fulcrum upon which ALL major social advances have happened. And the right to be armed FACILITATES that event.

Armed protests, are by design here in the US. The fact we haven't seen more death and destruction to me says more about who we've become, and how far we've come as a nation to make things as relatively painless as they are given the scale of the issues at play.

 

[britechguy]

I don't think he's a sexual predator, but he's got a well documented history of violating personal space. Such behavior is not presidential, and while it might be seen as an improvement over what Trump provides in the same sphere... but it's still not acceptable, it's still not presidential, and I will not be voting for EITHER of them in Nov as a result.

If the next President of the United States is NOT Hillary Clinton, the next President of the United States WILL BE Donald Trump. That is the way it truly is in the real world, and if you do not believe it, then your mind dwells somewhere else, and I have no respect for you or your political views.
~ Ferguson Foont, commenting on petulant Bernie Sanders supporters, 7/28/2016, in Washington Post article: Winners and losers from the third night of the Democratic convention

You can substitute "Joe Biden" for "Hillary Clinton" this time around, and that statement is still 100% true.

Trump is a narcissist, unbalanced, and a threat to the republic (as well as having a very sketchy history, to put it mildly, with women). Joe Biden is not anywhere near to the class of Trump. The choice is clear.

Voting isn't marriage, it's public transport. You are not waiting for "the one" who is absolutely perfect. You are getting on the bus. And if there isn't one going exactly to your destination, you don't stay home and sulk. You take the one going closest to where you want to be.
~ Commenter Mrsmarv, on New York Times article, Bernie or Biden. Period., March 2, 2020.

 

[sapphirescales]

if a law is unjust, there's very good reason to ignore it.

What is "unjust" about a law that says you can't obstruct traffic during a protest? Do you even hear yourself? Stop trying to virtual-signal like a brain-dead parrot and actually THINK! The laws apply to everyone. They are made by the people, not the police. If you refuse to obey them, you're going to have to face the consequences.

The people that are standing off to the side not obstructing traffic, threatening anyone, or looting and breaking windows are doing just fine. It's the morons that don't think the law applies to them that are getting hammered (and rightfully so).