Sunday, July 10, 2016

I find myself in a sort of racial quandary

Nothing happened for a while now there's been a few more unarmed black men killed by police.  MN and LA and of course the cop ambush in Dallas.  The conservative position seems to be whenever an unarmed black man winds up dead at the hands of the police he must have done something to bring it upon himself.  The liberal position might be the cops are always 100% wrong in these tragic cases.  Meanwhile most police departments today have taken to social media platforms as a kind of warmer friendlier more community-orientated police/social service agency so the juxtaposition between the cultivated department image and these ongoing recent and tragic news events is rather jarring.  The Long Hot Summer;)

53 comments:

  1. Would that it were simple. I ponder the economic factor, black unemployment about double that of white. Not much minority in my sector, but increasing homeless. Town of 30,000 has five major food banks and they are sleeping outside downtown. Example of one crummy job; a young guy came by with a bottle of 'super cleaner' which he could clean anything in my house with and yet it was harmless.
    So he took a swig to demonstrate. His eyes were a bit dilated. As for the long hot summer, rioting just worsens
    things, IMO. Then there is the culture divide and especially, I think the slim choices available for minority
    youth. Dems say spend more money, GOP says lower taxes on the rich..don't see much progress there.

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  2. Cosby used to talk about stuff like this until his hidden predilections came out. He would talk about unwed births among blacks not mentioning at the time drugging a woman and just fingering her was his idea for lowering the birth rate.

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    1. What the Shawnee termed speaking with a forked tongue and we call hypocrisy. The double life. Now old Hef,
      even though he puffed pipe, you knew he was philandering at a professional level.

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    2. & by all reports he was against drugs big-time. You got kicked out of the Mansion if you used them. Dunno how God will view him. Definitely not earning heaven but not serious enough to put into hell.

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    3. We surmise that maybe Hef will proceed on to that other place in the clouds; the Casbah where instead
      of 72 virgins he will frolic with the playvirgin of
      the month for infinity? Coz meanwhile will be dealing with the lawyers and victims and purgatory
      press while the afterlife judges continue their
      investigation. Maybe..maybe not.

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  3. Everybody, the medical community, sleep foundations, John Tesh says to develop a regular sleep routine. Go to bed the same time every night and turn off all smartphones, tablets and devices well over an hour before retiring. Basic sleep hygiene but if there's riots on tv I'm watching the riots. A phalange of cops in riot gear and another line of protestors just a few yards away and something's going to happen. I'm going to work tired the next day.

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  4. I am pretty hysterical about getting to sleep at the same time every night. It's a big part of keeping me stable and even one night off makes a difference.

    I think the liberal position is to highlight the institutional racism. Conservatives deny such a thing exists and that's like saying you don't breathe oxygen. White people are fond of screaming white privelege doesn't exist because they don't feel priveleged or because they have struggles and they don't understand white privelege isn't about those things, it's about living in a system that favors you because you're white, period. The system is skewed in your favor. The same people screaming ALL LIVES MATTER discount the basic reality that in America some lives matter more than others. And that's the core of the protests.

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  5. See here's why we're not making progress on the issue. It's the things Giuliani and Limbaugh are saying.

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  6. White privilege, ok I get your point. Ever since I started this new job my health insurance got all screwed up. It's like I have it and I don't. I'm COBRAing, have called the union and they're supposed to mail me a form. Honest to God I think they want to get you on the exchanges. Never had this problem with the old job.

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  7. Chief Brown of the Dallas police is very impressive: the man
    is at the intersection of law and race, understands both sides and is dignified and thoughtful. Sleep: the last few
    years the Mrs. has taken to snoring. 90% of the time, I wake up and head to the downstairs guest room for another few hours. It is sort of like 2 short nights of sleep every
    night. Health insurance = paper work, too much. Now that people have been replaced by computers we deal with an entity without empathy.

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  8. Universal health care is the way to go. It works in so many other countries who actually almost all get better outcomes than we do (we are 37th on the list). It isn't impossible, it's just that the Republicans get in the way. They get in the way on most things commonsense; I can be mentally ill and on a watch list and still buy an assault rifle easier than I can buy Sudafed.

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    1. Jamaican chef told me in some European countries like Scandinavia the gov't takes 80% of your paycheck. I think his figure's high but point being you have a card and can walk into any hospital and get free health care so if I get the sudden unexplainable urge to get a colonoscopy I just prep and go.

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    2. I have relatives in Norway & Switzerland. Norway
      is higher on income tax, both countries charge a 25%
      value added (sales) tax. Comparing Norway & Sweden
      we note:
      income Norway income tax Sweden income tax
      120 11.6% 14.2%
      240 18.5% 21.2%
      480 26.5% 27.4%
      600 29.0% 32.6%
      ..in Norske or Svenska kroners. The income tax inclues the Nat'l Insurance tax, which is social security plus free healthcare for life. The relatives spend a few weeks in winter skiing and
      a few weeks in summer traveling around the world and seem quite satisfied. Its a different culture that many Americans wouldn't care for..but some might.

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    3. That Jamaican chef seems to know a lot about Europe and women. Could he cook?

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    4. He went to cooking school in England. He's the one who said sex is ok but is also the most overrated thing in life. Judging from the abortion and std rates millions must see it differently.

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    5. I could go for that culture. The conservative pov that says work like a horse most of your life then retire for a few years before cancer or a heart attack gets you ain't for me.

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  9. The abortion rate is the lowest it's been in a decade. That's because of the easier access to contraception. Making abortion legal doesn't necessarily translate into higher abortion rates, it just means less women die having one. Don't manufacture a crisis where there isn't one. Beth doesn't come around here anymore.

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    1. OK press the Patrick M button and drop subject. STDs, if people are fairly monogamous why should that rate be so high?

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  10. Was thinking if I were passing one of those semi-swank bars
    with a lot of woodwork and dim lighting and saw John Tesh,
    Dr. Oz, the guy from Duck Dynasy, Glenn Beck, Jimmy Swaggert
    and Ellen DeGeneres having an enlightened discussion, I would quickly pass on by.

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  11. Throw in Pat Robertson and I might hang around.

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  12. Conservatives are in their usual tizzy and this time it has to do with Obama's words at the Dallas memorial service. Correct me if I'm wrong but he's on the record as saying killing cops is a horrible thing to do.

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    1. Yeah, well, Conservatives are sort of like that. Knew a firearms engineer, he comes into the meeting
      bent out of shape, furious at his damn commie sister.
      "What's the deal?" someone asked. "She volunteered for
      the blood drive and donated to the food bank!" Some agreed she was a damn commie, others noted that at least there were some brains in his family.

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    2. Speaking of ideologues, we know a fair number of born again evangelical straight-laced very holy people. One couple replied when we mentioned the
      show 'Big Bang Theory' that they never watched sinful TV..only Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo.
      Another guy, part time preacher that runs a prayer
      service downtown asked be about guns..he had just bought a couple of pistols for 'protection'. I says,
      "you been a preacher going on 50 years" and never needed a gun under your pillow" He says, "well I always trusted the Lord would protect me" I says,
      "So He fell down on the job". He says, "So, how do ya load these things". Dunno, Z-Man

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    3. I must be missing something. I don't recall Jesus having an arsenal.

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    4. Dennis Prager says the NY Times has the blood of the 5 cops on their hands. Conservatives have a real obsession with Times editorials. I don't read them.

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  13. They say road rage is on the rise. Something like 50% have been ragers and ragees in the last year. It seems worse among young male drivers and people in the NE. I suspect
    traffic density is the cause, as the only rage I have had was a dumb dog standing in the street..and it is hard to stay mad at a tail wagging dog for long.

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    1. My theory on road rage is it ain't just the driver who cut them off it's everything else going on in their life. It's like your life ain't going right even the sound of someone talking or getting in your way gets on your nerves. Potential study - what % of road ragers have had bad divorces? It's like w/suicide it's cumulative. My 2 cents anyway.

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    2. I think in general there's a hostility and edge in the air and you see it between men and women. Worked with a chef once and he said to a visiting female co-worker "you have an interesting accent where are you from?" and she goes "why do you want to know?"

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    3. Accents are interesting. Been in Idaho almost 40 years: at least once a week I am asked, "You from the upper Midwest?" Got a call asking for political
      donations awhile back, and the lady had a British
      accent. Asked where she was calling from and she said Boston; she had moved there from England some
      10 years prior. She said "But I can talk Boston if
      you like" and ripped off a perfect down easter stream of Bostonese. I had to laugh.

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    4. One time in the deli I had an older Irish woman with a strong brogue. Always had trouble understanding her. Asked if I had trouble hearing. No you're talking like a leprechaun.

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  14. Pondering do gays reject each other as much as heteros or is that just a hetero thing? Since gays have suffered more and have more of an outsider status are they less anti-social if you will?

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    1. Good question. Beyond my ken. But, according to the
      Gay Love Coach , from whence I will probably
      get unwanted spam, rejection is universal.

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    2. OK I got another angle on this. I've long had issues with this societal law of ours that the man always has to be the one to risk rejection by asking the woman out. Many times even if the woman likes the man if he doesn't make the formal offer nothing happens over time. In the case of two gay men it's up to either one of them to risk rejection and ask the other out. Risk of rejection is shared equally so both sides know how sensitive it is whereas in the hetero world it's all one-sided. Have we strayed way OT here?

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  15. So what is Tebow gonna say at the Republican convention, how he's hot but doesn't have sex?

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    1. He will probably testify before the lord on one knee with head bowed, then run over and pull a wedgie on
      Newt.

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  16. Horseheads, NY. Never heard of it until I ordered an MRC
    rheostat model train controller from Lantz Hobby there. Nice
    part of your state, Fingerlakes, Ithaca etc. Worked with an Army Chemical
    Corps Captain, PhD in ornithology, of which Cornell has the
    best program. He was an ecology & epidemiology expert, trapping birdlife around Dugway Proving Ground. We note that
    fine school as well was the home of Carl Sagan. Ever been up
    thataway?

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  17. Never been to Horseheads though. Chelsea Clinton got married in Rhinebeck or Rhinecliff on Rte. 9. Kinda curious about the Nuclear Lake up around Pawling but might come back with a third testicle.

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  18. I see that bomb in Central Park was found to be TATP. That
    stuff is too squirrely for professionals. Little wonder it
    is termed Mother of Satan.

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    Replies
    1. Oh you mean that kid that blew his foot off? Tourists have it rough when they visit the City.

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  19. In the white lives don't matter department, we
    note an unarmed teen lying on the ground shot to death by
    the Fresno Police...

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    Replies
    1. Some people are also starting to pick up on Hispanic lives don't matter that much either.

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  20. Lena Dunham wants to tear out the gun images in all those subway ads for the new Jason Bourne movie. I want you to help her.

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  21. T'would be helpful if I knew who Lena Durham and Jason Bourne were. Then, I guess, she should approach both the subway organization and the NRA. Then you could help me fish her and her concrete Zanottis from the East River.
    Have Barney Miller over at 12th precinct give us a hand.

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  22. I heard that Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich are drowning their sorrows over at Soyo Bar. What's left? Chris as Commissioner of Bridges and and Newt in charge of lizards in the National Park system?

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    Replies
    1. I honestly thought Christie had it. It's like when a woman leads you on then turns cold.

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  23. France doesn't seem very good at preventing major terror attacks. For IS it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

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  24. France has some problems in that area; largest Muslim population in Europe, their treatment of the Algerians during the colonial war, the relatively open society. I've
    read differing accounts about how well integrated the 2nd
    generation Muslims are (lot of famous French soccer players,
    people in the medical and academic areas) and other accounts that puts the more recent immigrants in ghettos,
    unemployed and treated like lepers, etc. Hint- don't party
    in crowds on Bastille Day.

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  25. Seems to me the United States is somehow able to thwart most major terror attacks through constant vigilance and better intel whereas as the French PM said we're resigned to them.

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    Replies
    1. Another ambush of police officers; Baton Rouge. With that open carry at the GOP convention, the law will have its hands full.

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    2. The NSA algorithm doesn't seem to be picking up much these days.

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    3. Got a note from bro in law who travels around the world a lot as head of NOAA fisheries NW region. His
      credit card was compromised, the bank stopped it while he was in London. Upon landing in the US, the
      TSA detected 'explosives, on his hands. He spent an
      hour naked in a shake down room and talked to a half
      dozen higher ranking TSA agents before they released him. Glycerin from soaps/moisturizers, nitrates from fertilizer, nitro pills for heart problems and even touching other people leave traces. A 7 month old child was held two hours when
      he failed the explosives scan. Odd thing: although
      hundreds of false positives show up, testing reveals
      that actual explosives residue sometimes doesn't.
      You know, that never happened on the Oregon Trail...

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  26. The failed coup in Turkey and Erdogan wants the imam here he says inspired it all. Was Turkey en route to becoming another Islamic state?

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    1. Erdogan is apparently more religious than the Turkish
      army, which is said to be secular. Turkish politics have been murky since Suppiluliuma I of the ancient
      Hittite Empire.

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