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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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edited 12th May '17 2:07:44 PM by kkhohoho
Something more local: State officials get slammed for the Oroville Dam spillway failure at Sacramento hearing
Seems like the Oroville Dam was already a problem child before the spillway crisis, including a fire and various valve problems.
I'd have posted this way earlier but I had a power outage for a few hours.
The implications of speech are just as harmful as the overt speech itself. But unlike the overt speech the implications require more nuance but still deliver the same message.
It didn't take long until everyone started accepting that Jews were responsible for all the woes in certain countries from which the idea of simply removing them at one point became acceptable, all thanks to years upon years of conspiracy theories and bullshit made up facts and outright racism being a commonly accepted knowledge.
Same thing with the idea of black people being more animalistic and more prone to violence in order to justify their status as a marginals or why it is acceptable for cops to shoot black men over perceived threats created by those notions.
I keep tabs on those people for a while and I know how they abuse the free speech laws to get away with awful stuff. Specially the alt-right speech tactics to persuade people to join their ranks.
Such as spamming black-on-white and black-on-black crimes to create the notion that black people are inherently violent, news over feminists or LGBT activists who did something stupid and paint them as the norm, creating the notion that those groups want nothing but the destruction of while heterosexual males as a group, use code words and dog-whistles where you have (((globalists))) and (((Wall Street bankers))) be the stand in for Jews, including spamming how many Jews own or a related to media groups, news papers and news channels in order to discredit any source other than them as being Jewish manipulation of the public opinion.
Just take a look at this: https://www.dailystormer.com/
It isn't even subtle on their bigotry and yet it is completely legal under the US law to host a website outright using derogatory terms for several ethnic groups. Daily Stormer alone wouldn't fly on any country with even the most rudimentary hate speech laws.
Then you have Global Research, Zero Hedge, Prison Planet and Breitbart with several degrees of fake news and specially Breitbart that not only has news and content that incites hatred towards specific groups but also has been a den of false allegations and slander.
None of those news websites would survive the scrutiny of having any sort of regulation that demanded that their content is verifiable or truthful.
Websites like Storm Front and White Honor wouldn't be allowed to be hosted and accessed, the Resistance Records wouldn't be allowed to even exists. Germany and France for example removed Stormfront from their access list on Google. Which by itself helps keeping it out of reach of people who don't know about that festering hole existence and get sucked by their noxious bile.
I have some hopes now that Google and Facebook are seeking ways to warn about the reliability of certain websites and combat the spread of fake news but I'll believe they are addressing the issue when I see it.
Then you have an Orange Moron in the White House who got in there because he fooled enough people who already think that minorities are taking their hard earned money to be welfare queens, that Muslims are violent religious extremists and that immigrants are nothing but criminals or job thieves, that he and he alone could make things better for them and make those people they don't like disappear.
That is because the news feed and social feed of those people had a lot of bigoted news or messages tailored by racists and nationalists to appeal to their own biases, instill fear of the other groups besides themselves and sell them the message that their life style, their identity and their faith is under threat.
The reason for those laws are to prevent more and more people from being sucked into those bubbles and making the occasions whenever those bubbles burst to be more manageable and their consequences less harmful.
Can we block everything? No. Can we prevent people from entering those places? No. Can we stop people from spreading harmful/bigoted/false content with laws and regulations? Yes to a fair degree.
As sad as it is, the racists have lost a lot of room to operate as they used too in the live society, they have regained the lost room on the internet, organized themselves with the help of anonymity and abusing the hate speech laws not being permissive over the web and they are now coming back to the outside.
edited 12th May '17 3:14:36 PM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesI personally like the way my state (Massachusetts) does gun laws. In order to buy a gun, you must take a gun safety course and get a licence to carry. The idea is not to prevent people from buying guns, but to make sure people know how to use them safely, and keeping them out of the hands of Criminals.
edited 12th May '17 3:38:21 PM by megaeliz
Bear in mind I'm speaking as a Briton, so I'm not naturally inclined to favour gun ownership for the general population (which isn't the same thing as a full ban - the UK has some of the strongest gun laws in the world, but even we don't have a blanket ban).
However, this is a disturbing. If the only way to have gun control in the US is by abolishing an Amendment, then don't do it.
Abolishing an Amendment, any Amendment, creates precedence. By all means, you should ensure the Amendments are interpreted to cope with a modern world, but you do not want to start this kind of precedence without stringent checks and balances in place to protect the Constitution from abuse, such as may be possible in the current climate, under the current leadership.
At the moment, Americans point out that Trump would have a harder time than he thinks in doing something like abolishing the First Amendment. However, had an Amendment (such as the Second) been abolished within recent decades, it would be that much easier to get rid of any others that fall foul of the political winds of the day.
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.It'd be very hard to repeal any of the bill of rights, and would be seen as a serious attack on American society.
Mind you, I'd argue obe can do adequate gun control even with the 2nd amendment.
Leviticus 19:34Gun control =/= gun ban, and the failure of certain groups to understand this very basic fact is a major problem. People who live 30+ minutes from the nearest police station, even while speeding have a genuine need to be able to defend themselves. The only people with a need for a 100-round drum for their shotgun are the military and people who shoot up schools. But God forbid we dedicate even one brain cell to defending the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/TheyYeah abolishing the 2nd amendment isn't necessary as much as overruling Heller. The right to wave a gun wasn't much of a hot topic until that case.
edited 12th May '17 5:27:14 PM by CenturyEye
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our livesSomewhat related to the idea of social change and differing needs of rural people that may be going unadressed: Changing Demographics Reshape Rural America
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Sorry to get back here so late, but...
Here's the thing: I seriously doubt many of the republican base are ever willing to move their votes from Republican. All elections have always been too close, an until the hardcore demographics literally dies of old age I don't think thats ever going to change.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
The ideological ones won't. But even with indoctrination a lot of people only support republicans out of habit. If you have the right platform and make an effort, you can get them to vote democrat at least for their local government. Steve Bullock and that other senator from Iowa prove that to be true, and that's exactly what they said.
An opinion piece that outlines the dilemma the Republicans are in: Pro-Trump Republicans will get nothing, not even retention of a House majority
: '...You do wonder when a political survival instinct will kick in. Perhaps the tribal instinct and abject fear of Trump’s wrath will keep elected Republicans tethered to the failing president through next year. At that point, the potential for a wave election for Democrats looms large. If Trump is still around by November 2018, a thrashing at the polls may be the only thing to persuade Republicans to walk away from Trump."
No new facts, but it summarizes the situation pretty well.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.Again, I think it's just too ambitious to say for sure even with the example of Steve bullock and that guy from Iowa, but if you can help me, can you tell me what % of votes did Bullock and the other guy got over the republican candidate?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes

This is not the hill I want to die on. There are so many more important issues. Like police shootings.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.