The Swamp

The Sybian wrote:

Gunpowder wrote:

The Sybian wrote:As many have said before, America won't wake up as long as we have our cable TV, broadband internet, Kardashian-style "news" and accessible food. Things need to continue to deteriorate down the path they are heading until we reach a tipping point. Once income disparity reaches a level where enough people are struggling to get by, we'll see a movement take shape. The Tea Party has become bigger and lasted longer than I would have thought possible. OTOH, they never would have taken off (or subverted the original ideas of the TP) if not for FoxNews driving the movement. The problem is, the idiot brigade is screeching for policies that will only benefit the wealthy and corporations and the detriment of the rest of us. It is really shocking how far the wealth of the 99% has fallen since 1980, and how much power and control multinational corps have assumed.

People already are struggling, they don't seem to even realize it, and at their core they believe in what they perceive to be the rationale behind it.

I agree, but as long as struggling people remain distracted with all of our electronic devices and TV, and are able to eat, we remain placated. I think my generation is in for a major shock when we reach retirement age. A huge percentage don't have a retirement savings account or much in savings to begin with. The days of using your home as an economic nest egg are gone and may never come back. Salaries have not increased much nearly as much as inflation, and nobody outside of a union has a pension. And unions are a dying concept. Social Security, at best, will be a fraction of what it historically has been.

Oh, retirement is going to be crazy for us. Me and Nicole just finally woke up and started getting long-term financial planning going. Buying a house is ridiculous these days. She said something recently along the lines of how other people can do so much (my opinion is debt, no savings/long term outlook for the most part) and how it's so hard for us despite our relatively high combined income (most of it hers). And she's pretty far to the right. I think that's when she started to realize that shit is fucked up and bullshit.

Also, you can only embed three quotes in the Swamp, AND THAT IS TRES FUCKED UP

I'd just like to point out that all this military grade gear must be costing the taxpayers an awful lot.

Rex wrote:I'd just like to point out that all this military grade gear must be costing the taxpayers an awful lot.

The Tea Party doesn't care about gubmint spending as long as it's on stuff that kills black people.

A few more questions I have. (The fact reporting in this story has lagged way behind the emoting and the opining.)

Which PD is in charge of this shitshow right now? Is it still Ferguson PD?
Is Ferguson part of a county with a police department?
Is there a governor in this state who could maybe do something?
Is there a president in this country "" "" "" "" ""?

Ok Missouri, you're legit SEC now.

I see the questions asking Nixon to get involved, but what is the state's option(s) here? Send in the National Guard to control the police?

If the police are acting in an illegal manner ... isn't that exactly what should happen?

Brontoburglar wrote:I see the questions asking Nixon to get involved, but what is the state's option(s) here? Send in the National Guard to control the police?

He can call in the National Guard to take the place of the St Louis County police. Which could very likely considerably de-escalate things.

mister d wrote:If the police are acting in an illegal manner ... isn't that exactly what should happen?

I'm not saying it shouldn't. But if it seems to be the only possible outcome, why are there simply the cries about "Where is the governor?" rather than a call for the Guard?

And Brian, ignore got you on that one.

Also, I'm probably not using the right Google terms here, but the two high-profile incidents where the Guard has been brought in were in LA and Detroit. And for those purposes, it was because of civilians rather than police, no? Would this be unprecedented if the NG was brought in as enforcement for the supposed enforcement rather than re-enforcement?

Most counties have a police force. Every state has one. Really, a 50-man municipal police squad going all GI Joe on the local populace is not something that should have ever reached the level where people are calling for the Feds to step in. And yet, here we are.

Brontoburglar wrote:Also, I'm probably not using the right Google terms here, but the two high-profile incidents where the Guard has been brought in were in LA and Detroit. And for those purposes, it was because of civilians rather than police, no? Would this be unprecedented if the NG was brought in as enforcement for the supposed enforcement rather than re-enforcement?

Much of the 50's and 60's in the South

Rex wrote:

Brontoburglar wrote:Also, I'm probably not using the right Google terms here, but the two high-profile incidents where the Guard has been brought in were in LA and Detroit. And for those purposes, it was because of civilians rather than police, no? Would this be unprecedented if the NG was brought in as enforcement for the supposed enforcement rather than re-enforcement?

Much of the 50's and 60's in the South

That's comforting. And maybe we're not SEC material after all.

Good reading for tomorrow.

Rex wrote:

Brontoburglar wrote:Also, I'm probably not using the right Google terms here, but the two high-profile incidents where the Guard has been brought in were in LA and Detroit. And for those purposes, it was because of civilians rather than police, no? Would this be unprecedented if the NG was brought in as enforcement for the supposed enforcement rather than re-enforcement?

Much of the 50's and 60's in the South

That includes South-Central, 1965.

Firing into a peaceful protest of civilians and journalists is always a good thing. The craziness starts around 6:55.

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Feels like I'll be listening to a lot of N.W.A. today. What a fucked up country we've made.

Johnnie wrote:Firing into a peaceful protest of civilians and journalists is always a good thing. The craziness starts around 6:55.

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Unfucking believable. Just regular people standing in a suburban neighborhood. Standing. with their hands in the air a block and a half away from the police line. No throwing of objects. Not even chanting threats to the police. Peaceful civil disobedience. Why the need for launching smoke grenades or whatever the fuck those exploding things were. Firing rubber bullets into the crowd? For what? Shouldn't the police be trying to deescalate and try to prevent future violence and riots, or stand around making sure nobody gets hurt? Props to the guy filming this and letting us see what is really happening. Risking his safety and breathing in tear gas.

Anybody see the videos of the two reporters arrested in McDonalds? Just sitting there, recharging their laptops and typing. Police come in ordering everyone out. Gives them 45 seconds and cuffs them. Another reporter tweeted that he called the police chief, who sounded deflated when the reporter told him they arrested 2 reporters. The reporters were let go after 45 minutes and not even processed. That's good, at least.

The Sybian wrote:Shouldn't the police be trying to deescalate and try to prevent future violence and riots, or stand around making sure nobody gets hurt?

Do you think they want to deescalate or do you think they want a confrontation? Not all, but a certain type of officer that exists everywhere and seems prevalent there.

Also, looks like Anonymous just did the police dept's job and released the shooter's name.

Nate Silver likes burritos.

TheAnonMessage @TheAnonMessage · 34m
We have video of Mike Brown's body being shoved into the back of a PD SUV. No EMS was on the scene at all as we first thought. #Ferguson

You know it's bad when the ACLU comes out directly and states that you can videotape the police doing their job. That always seems like one of those things that you have to ask the question for in order to get an answer too.

Plus, the local alderman that was protesting with them was arrested. That's fun. And also, a female media member got tear gassed too.

This is a clusterfuck and a half.

Watching these videos, I learned something. I always thought Nelly was trying to sound cool with his goofy pronunciation of words like "here." The accent cracks me up.

MO Gov. Nixon just confirmed that state police and federal authorities are relieving the St. Louis County PD of their duties.

See, was that so hard? Something tells me that they won't be aiming sniper rifles and throwing tear gas at the protestors tonight.

Twitter just suspended Anonymous' "message" account.

Or did Anonymous request the suspension of their message account???

There's a town a few miles outside of where I grew up (pop. 3,900) and a full-time police force of four people that has two Humvees and two armored personnel carriers.

This is what they did to the Al-Jazeera English media. There's also video out there too.

Entire courses should be taught about the day the first black POTUS made a statement about racially charged police violence FROM MARTHA'S VINEYARD.

"I asked for my BEIGE topsiders, not my tan ones. Who the fuck would wear tan with this outfit?"

Hey, Oak Bluffs, bitches. Black vacation community for doctors, lawyers and other bourgeoisie for over a hundred years.

howard wrote:Hey, Oak Bluffs, bitches. Black vacation community for doctors, lawyers and other bourgeoisie for over a hundred years.

No wonder Clinton spent so much time there.

ANyone see this (I've been gone all morning and sorry if its a repost)

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Waiting for a similar video from police officers asking why they need to shoot unarmed black kids in the back.

They can't figure out a way to do it without videotaping themselves

brian wrote:Waiting for a similar video from police officers asking why they need to shoot unarmed black kids in the back.

Because he was turned around and they couldn't shoot him in the front?

But yeah, I get your point for sure. It's a two-way street and the cops were obviously the tipping point.

For this to be going on in "the home of the free" 2014 is beyond belief.

These cops are acting like jack-booted thugs, and it will be interesting to revisit this thread 6 months from now to see what the consequences have been.

Pruitt wrote:These cops are acting like jack-booted thugs, and it will be interesting to revisit this thread 6 months from now to see what the consequences have been.

I can help you out there.

None. There will be none.

What a trainwreck this governor press conference is. I'm guessing he gets money from the police union.