All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[PwrdOn]

The colonies did not revolt to preserve slavery...

...but it does need to be emphasized that there was a period where no doubt at least a few fence sitters, especially in the South, are likely to have become Patriots instead of Loyalists when the British offered freedom to any slave who escaped and would fight for them. And Johnson’s famous quote about the cries for slavery being loudest among the slave owners needs to be understood for its accuracy as much as its context.

The main cause was still a bad execution of a Tory government in London trying to tighten the economic reigns and establish its de jure supremacy over what had been a more de facto egalitarian economic relationship and autonomous local rule under Whig governments. The 13 colonies were more concerned with avoiding a political and economic fate similar to Ireland than anything else, and had already established an infrastructure and bureaucratic tradition that could not be replaced with Parliament-controlled rival without refusing the freedoms under which the colonies had grown in Whig rule.

The Tories honestly could have resolved a lot of their personal problems if they’d recognized the de facto landed aristocracy of the colonies as their peers; instead, they managed to antagonize the upper, middle, and lower class leaderships enough that it became a question of whether rule would come from home or abroad in the colonies, instead of a typical colony-mother country relationship (want the North Government wanted), or a peer-of-the-realm relationship (what Ben Franklin and others proposed in the colonies, and what would have required representation.)

The place of slavery in the situation is effectively the same as it was in the UK itself - slavers and nascent abolitionists were peers and business partners slowly turning towards the question. The difference was that the US had a larger slave population... and within a few decades would have the Cotton Gin make the cruel apathy of economics reinforce the dedication to it in the South. There’s a reason why Wilberforce and others ended slavery in the UK long before the US, but still took decades to do so.

The wealthy planter class that led the revolution absolutely wanted to not only preserve slavery, but to expand it westward. Indeed one of the main reasons they revolted was because the British had been trying to enforce treaties made with native tribes that blocked settlement west of the Appalachians, and once the war was over they started flooding over the mountains en masse, driving off the natives and establishing massive plantations worked by slave labor. The cotton gin especially contributed to this by making cotton production much more efficient and profitable, causing demand for slaves to peak and ensuring that it would not die a natural death like some optimistic moderates had been arguing.

[PaulBullion]

I'm reminded of Terri Schiavo and Jeb Bush.

Exactly.

I talked to a doctor friend once who felt so guilty about his supervisor keeping the machines on for a patient everybody only called "the mummy." There were no relatives to ask, and the clinic just decided that, as nobody else needed the bed at the time, they could charge the health insurance a few more weeks.

[Kirby101]

I'm reminded of Terri Schiavo and Jeb Bush.

Hadn't thought of that.

[numberthirty]

Hadn't thought of that.

Even that one is sort of murky.

It's not like her parents weren't actively pushing to keep her alive.

While it is not really something folks want to think about, having those sorts of "End Of Life..." wishes down on paper is really important.

In a perfect world, someone has even discussed them with their family.

[InformationGeek]

Looks like he doesn't know when to quit.

Rep. Yoho hits back at Rep. @AOC: ”She's making hay out of this, she's fundraising off of this ... but yet, she's on the floor crying saying how bad this is ... You know, it's disingenuous." https://t.co/2BEswZrxDC

[worstblogever]

Looks like he doesn't know when to quit.

In January, he will have. He should just shut up and go now, though.

By the by, I'm not going to be surprised if this ***hole challenges Marco Rubio or Ron DeSantis in 2022.

[worstblogever]

Overnight, someone set fire to Arizona Democratic Party HQ in Phoenix.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-...n-arson-probe/

[Tami]

[WestPhillyPunisher]

That ad said it all, plainly, bluntly, strongly. Yeah, America’s greatest mistake, and not by a narrow margin either.

[mathew101281]

In your opinion what is the best form of government? There isn't a perfect form, but I think representative Democracy, with strong term limits, is the best. Monarchies and dictatorships are too reliant on the strength of one individual, and pure democracy, is succeptible to mob rule, and fads that seem good in the moment but are damaging in the long term. Representative democracy as I defined it isn't perfect. It doesn't guarrenty a good leader, but it does offer some tools against bad leadership, that alot of other forms of government doesnt. Take the US presidency, no matter how bad (or good) a president might be we are never more then 4 years away from getting a new one. but if a monarchy gets a bad leader, that leader is in there for life. The only way you are going to get him out of there is via blood shed. Where America falls down, is that they don't put term limits on all the branches of government.

[numberthirty]

In your opinion what is the best form of government? There isn't a perfect form, but I think representative Democracy, with strong term limits, is the best. Monarchies and dictatorships are too reliant on the strength of one individual, and pure democracy, is succeptible to mob rule, and fads that seem good in the moment but are damaging in the long term. Representative democracy as I defined it isn't perfect. It doesn't guarrenty a good leader, but it does offer some tools against bad leadership, that alot of other forms of government doesnt. Take the US presidency, no matter how bad (or good) a president might be we are never more then 4 years away from getting a new one. but if a monarchy gets a bad leader, that leader is in there for life. The only way you are going to get him out of there is via blood shed. Where America falls down, is that they don't put term limits on all the branches of government.

One that that is making a serious effort at keeping the money that is trying to buy it lock, stock, and barrel at an arm's length.

[The no face guy]

In your opinion what is the best form of government? There isn't a perfect form, but I think representative Democracy, with strong term limits, is the best. Monarchies and dictatorships are too reliant on the strength of one individual, and pure democracy, is succeptible to mob rule, and fads that seem good in the moment but are damaging in the long term. Representative democracy as I defined it isn't perfect. It doesn't guarrenty a good leader, but it does offer some tools against bad leadership, that alot of other forms of government doesnt. Take the US presidency, no matter how bad (or good) a president might be we are never more then 4 years away from getting a new one. but if a monarchy gets a bad leader, that leader is in there for life. The only way you are going to get him out of there is via blood shed. Where America falls down, is that they don't put term limits on all the branches of government.

Obviously one that is based on representative democracy with a constitution to protect your liberty from the state, so that you can practice free speech, freedom of press, and assemble peacefully without fear of being imprisoned, tortured or murdered, by government authorities. A state with an independent judiciary that practices due process, so you have a fair trial as oppossed to a political tribunal of elite bureaucrats deciding your fate, and throwing you into a gulag.

Basically a government where you don't have to worry about your door being kicked in and being dragged away by the police at night and imprisoned without trial.

Dictatorships do have their advantages though. For instance, foreign policy is one. Putin definitely has an advantage over a young U.S. administration coming into office because he and his officials have had decades of experience at honing their foreign policy strategy. That is where an American CIA deep state of bureaucrats who know what they are doing, can come in handy.

[worstblogever]

It was back in 2014 on this date that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published our profile of the former U.S. Senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning, a retired Cy Young major league baseball pitcher, who in spite of obvious signs that he was suffering from dementia, was still backed by the Republican Party to not lose a Senate seat in the 2004 elections. Those signs were pretty clear, like leaving interviews to go charging after people supporting his opponent in an angry haze, saying his opponent "looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons”, warning of Al Qaeda attacks that Homeland Security even debunked, accusing his opponent of sending people to stalk his wife (refuted by local police), and only agree to debate his opponent via a satellite connection from an enclosed location where his staffers presumably helped him with answers. The GOP's reward for winning at all costs, even if it meant putting a senile man back in the capitol, was to be embarrassed by a combative and stubborn man for the next six years, who loved screwing with Sen. Mitch McConnell as much as any Democrat in the Senate. By 2007, Bunning was claiming his wife was being assaulted at political events, and "little green doctors were pounding on my back", which was probably the point where the rest of the Republican Party knew they weren't propping him up yet again in 2010. Sen. Bunning began to go missing from the Senate for periods of a month or more, refusing to return for votes, sometimes not explaining why other than vague "family matters" (we're assuming not the kind with Steve Urkel), and then, at other points, saying he would not be present because he would be watching very important college sports events. By the end, Bunning was cursing out fellow Senators, and growling at the press to get away from him as he entered elevators because they were "for Senators only". Bunning passed away on May 25th, 2017, after complications from a stroke he suffered in October 2016.



In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Ryan Fattman, Massachusetts State Senator who after getting elected to the Massachusetts state legislature back in 2011, started talking about illegal immigration, saying he hoped if a female illegal immigrant that got raped, that she would be afraid of reporting it to police for fear of being deported. Like many Republicans after saying something clearly inhumane and disgusting, Fattman then tried claiming he was "being taken out of context". Fattman's voting record, meanwhile, is one of the most regressive in his state, as he voted against attempts by the legislature to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill, voted against measures to keep abortion clinic protesters a safe distance from a clinic so that employees and patients could safely get in and out of them, and in an era of our country’s greatest income inequality in almost a century, has voted against minimum wage increases. Not once, but twice. Fattman also took the bold stance with three other Republicans to vote against a prohibition in Massachusetts on discrimination, as relates to gender identity, in 2016.

Fattman was regretfully re-elected in 2018 and he has continued to make his focus in government on demonizing immigrants, fighting to hold up the annual state budget over an amendment in it that would have funded sanctuary cities. Meanwhile, outside the state legislature, Fattman has been at anti-immigration rallies and palling around with Jessica Vaughn, whose Center for Immigration Studies just so happens to be classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Overall, he now can boast of having the most conservative voting record in the Massachusetts State Senate.

For the past several months, Democratic legislators in Massachusetts have been working to pass a sweeping police reform bill, in response to the death of George Floyd, and to answer for systematic racism in law enforcement across the country. But you’ll never guess which little s*** is single-handedly working to delay the passage of a bill that would take steps to prevent minorities being killed… it’s Ryan Fattman, AGAIN, who’s blocking not just a vote, but even debate on the measure.

With Covid-19 cancelling the Democratic Primary, it looks like Ryan Fattman will also be given another free term in office, with no opponent to challenge him even as he grows all the more extreme every year.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Major Storms Headed For Texas And Hawaii This Weekend

Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Douglas are likely to hit this weekend as both states endure worsening coronavirus outbreaks. Here's more bad news....

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FDA Warns At Least 77 Brands Of Hand Sanitizers May Be Toxic

The sanitizers contain methanol, which can be toxic when absorbed through skin. Check your bottles, people!

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States’ Coronavirus Efforts Vary, But Old Inequities Are The Common Thread

As COVID-19 enters a new phase, it’s spreading along familiar political and economic lines.

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In non-coronavirus news:

As A Candidate, Trump Asked FBI In Intelligence Briefing: ‘Are The Russians Bad?’

GOP senators pushed to have this once-classified document released, but maybe they shouldn’t have. No ****, Sherlock!

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Trump’s Campaign Manager Says The Polls Are ‘Askew’

Bill Stepien picks up the president’s “FAKE POLLS!” message as surveys continue to show former Vice President Joe Biden leading. Whistling past the graveyard, eh, Bill?

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‘PAW Patrol’ Fact-Checks Kayleigh McEnany After She Said Show Was Canceled

One Twitter user noted “we’re now at a point where Paw Patrol has to fact check the White House.” No wonder satirists are going out of business when you've got crazy **** like THIS to deal with!

[Kuro no Shinigami]

coronavirus worldwide update

1. USA
2. Brazil
3. India
4. Russia
5. South Africa
6. Mexico
7. Peru
8. Chile
9. Spain
10. UK

Six of those top ten worst-hit countries were poor third world countries. So it is not very surprising since most of the poor people in those poor countries can't afford to buy disposable face masks or disinfectants


United States Coronavirus cases and deaths update

North Carolina, Louisiana and Tennessee already surpassed Michigan in the number of total covid cases and are still below Pennsylvania.

California now has more covid cases than NY. California has 442,938 total coronavirus cases and 8,000 covid deaths

South Korea covid cases update

South Korea Coronavirus Cases:14,092
South Korea Coronavirus Deaths: 298

Only almost 14,100 total covid cases and less than 300 covid deaths?

Both South Korea and California were among the first places hit by the coronavirus. South Korea is more populous and more densely populated than california but has much fewer coronavirus cases and deaths than California. Lots of South Korean tourists visited China when the covid outbreak began. So the numbers should be as high as New York's numbers. But South Korea has fewer cases and deaths compared to most countries of a comparable population size and density.

Perhaps the South Koreans take the threat of the virus very seriously. Perhaps the South Koreans really obey the law more rigidly than the Americans.

A couple of interesting articles might explain the success of South Korea's efforts to combat the pandemic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...tially-failed/

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-exemplar-south-korea

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