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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.” -- Kurt Vonnegut
I ceased being a conservative years ago, mostly over tone and tenor issues. Also, I don't like being herded and branded.
Its not about destroying Democrats or leftists. Its about recapturing the American ideal of a place where we can all voice our opinions and live our own lives without using the power of the state and global corporations to smash and silence our fellow Americans who don't share our views. I respect your right to gay marriage, and you respect the right of my church to not perform them.
The pain behind the protests of 2020 goes back hundreds of years, and we've got to be in solidarity with our fellow Americans. Successive Democrat and Republican governments have failed to take concrete action, just as they have allowed whole working communities to be hollowed out, factories carted off to China, and good people and their communities left to rot, all in the name of free market capitalism.
As my favorite poet has said, "the old road is rapidly aging." The way ahead is neither left nor right.
I've probably angered some of you lately, but I value honesty, and I know you all do too. I hope I didn't insult anyone, that sure wasn't my intent.
“There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—G-d damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” -- Kurt Vonnegut
If your reason and intellectual integrity has angered anyone.....it says a lot more about them than it does you. And certainly not in a good way.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the more rational, thought provoking posts seem to attract less comments.....while the hyper-partisan tautology brings out the lazy, drive-by, empty bombast. A sad reflection on our society.
Thank you. You should see the comments that get deleted.
DeletePersonally, I think that YOU DELETE much to much, you have deleted lots of my posts that had Nothing wrong with then but it obviously didn’t suit you. My posts were CIVIL, and not vulgar, or had any reason to be deleted. Lets not become what the Progressives have become.
DeleteKind of like what the Democrats have been doing. It’s called CENSORSHIP..
And PS, what’s wrong with being a Conservative? Are you ashamed of us Trump Supporter?
The criteria for posting are simple. Don't be vulgar. Be on topic.
DeleteCI posted the following... "Sadly, the more rational, thought provoking posts seem to attract less comments."
DeleteSilver, like some other sites, tends to delete off topic rants or comments. You can see further down that is not a method everyone likes to see. But... those off topic and sometimes vulgar comments, drive the serious ppl away, thus fewer comments.
It's a constant struggle for local bloggers...
Hey Dave, why did you even mention “Vulgar”, nobody is saying thats acceptable, why even mention that?
DeleteCould it be because that is what goes on where you always post?
I think your on to something Frankie
DeleteFrankie,
DeleteDave said "vulgar" because I said vulgar. Do you know how to read? Are you in this thread to have a discussion, or to score cheap points for the BB brains in the peanut gallers?
"The criteria for posting are simple. Don't be vulgar. Be on topic."
DeleteAlso, insure that they do not provide facts that administrators don't want to hear.
...especially when they're off topic and very spam- like.
DeleteCut-and-Paste is boring. If you can't say it in your own words, go somewhere else.
Delete“
ReplyDeleteI ceased being a conservative years ago, mostly over tone and tenor issues. Also, I don't like being herded and branded.”
You have my Sympathy
What an odd thing to say.
DeletePlease don’t try to capture our Sympathy, we don’t have anything against Gays either, but that has nothing to do with our patriotism. I for one am Proud of my Conservative value s. Not ashamed of them. And I am PISSED at the other side for making us Republicans/ Conservatives look like Third World Morons.
ReplyDeleteYou have your Values, and Some of us have others.
NO REASON TO DELETE OUR COMMENTS.
Thank You.
If you think I'm trying to capture your sympathies, you have reading comprehension problems.
Delete"The pain behind the protests of 2020 goes back hundreds of years..."
ReplyDeleteNo, the cry of "cops are murdering innocent unarmed blacks" was created as part of power politics more like four or five years ago.
As a point of fact Jayhawk, African American communities have been saying this for decades. Some however think it is a recent development.
DeleteIf people believe otherwise, they haven't been listening.
No, the point, DAVE, is that statistics show that A-A's have never been safer and we're NOT living is the Southern Democrat Jim Crow era of decades ago.
DeleteOy!
DeleteI repeat, "The pain behind the protests of 2020..." The protests of 2020 were a political power play, creating violence that did not erupt until provoked by the media.
DeleteMore to the point, More would be achieved by instituting swimming classes than police reforms.
DeleteJoe... if you read what I wrote, I said the cry of "cops are murdering innocent unarmed blacks", Jayhawks quote btw, goes back decades.
DeletePredating Jayhawks claim that it is a recent phenomenon.
Is that untrue?
The BLM Corporation is a fraud. Having said that, many black people are suffering today from legacy racism. Democrat politicians could fix some of it with school district reform and enterprise zones, but nobody in politics wants to fix anything. Can't let the self-licking ice cream cone melt.
DeleteThe claim they made 100 years ago was true. The claim made today is still true, but barely (cops murdered less than a dozen unarmed black men in 2019). Therefore the conclusion that the reason for making the claim today is purely political is an accurate as all hell assessment.
DeleteFirst, to put the statistics into perspective, it’s helpful to begin with the overall number of arrests. According to the DOJ, police make about 10 million arrests each year. As a rough average, 7 million of the arrested suspects are white and 3 million are black. Out of that number, last year, 25 unarmed white people were killed by police, compared to 14 unarmed black people, according to the Washington Post database of police shootings. That means about .0004 percent of all blacks arrested were killed while unarmed. The percentage for whites is comparable. In total, 1,000 people were shot and killed by police in 2019, the vast majority of whom were armed. Still, that’s a mere .01 percent of all arrests.
DeleteOf course the "operative" word is "innocent". Of the 14 unarmed blacks killed, how many were resisting or reaching for an officer's gun?
DeleteI looked up all 14 cases included in the Post’s 2019 database. A few are straightforwardly unjustified. Atatiana Jefferson was shot while sitting inside her mother’s home. The officers were responding to a call from a neighbor who was concerned that there’d been a break in at the residence. Officer Aaron Dean peered into a window in the dark, spotted Jefferson, screamed for her to show her hands, and then shot her without identifying himself as a police officer. Dean has been charged with murder. It’s a horrible case, and outrageous behavior by Dean, but it hardly amounts to systemic racism. There’s no reason to think that this is even a case of isolated racism. Dean, it seems, could hardly see who he was shooting, which is what makes it an egregiously unjustified act on his part, but also probably not racism.
DeleteOfficer Carmen DeCruz in Texas fatally shot a man named Michael Dean. Body cam footage apparently shows that DeCruz accidentally discharged his firearm while trying to confiscate Dean’s car keys during a traffic stop. DeCruz has been charged with manslaughter. Both of these cases are clearly unjustified, and both officers have received criminal charges appropriate for the offense. Most of rest of the cases, however, are either far from clear cut, or clear cut in the other direction.
Christopher Whitfield was shot allegedly during a scuffle with police after trying to steal from a convenience store. The sheriff’s office claimed the shooting was accidental. A grand jury cleared the officer of any criminal wrongdoing.
Josef Richardson of Louisiana was shot by Officer Vance Matranga Jr during a no-knock drug raid at a Budget 7 Motel. Richardson was unarmed and shot in the back of the head. Deputies on the scene said Richardson turned and reached for his waistband. Matranga was not charged with any crime.
Officer Jovany Crespo was indicted for aggravated manslaughter for shooting Gregory C. Griffin during a car chase. Crespo says he thought Griffin pointed a gun at him. Body cam footage shows Crespo jump out of his police cruiser (another officer was driving) and fire multiple shots at the fleeing vehicle.
Officer Sung Kim shot and killed Jimmy Atchison while trying to arrest him for allegedly stealing a cell phone at gun point. Atchison was backed into a broom closet at the time of the shooting.
These six shootings range from outrageous to questionable. But these are still only six out of the approximately 3 million black suspects arrested in 2019. Half of the officers have been charged with crimes, so it’s not as though cops are given legal license to kill on a whim. Only one of these cases is murder. Two might be manslaughter. You could potentially make an argument for manslaughter in the other three cases, though the officers weren’t charged or were cleared. And, at any rate, in none of these cases is there any reason whatsoever to suspect white supremacy as a motivation. The last officer mentioned isn’t even white.
What about the other 8 “unarmed” shootings of 2019? This is where the “unarmed” designation really confuses matters.
Melvin Watkins was shot by a sheriff’s deputy after Watkins’ family called 911 to report that he’d become violent and they feared for their safety. When officers arrived on the scene, Watkins allegedly tried to run them over with his car. Multiple witnesses and video support this version of events.
DeleteKnoxville police officer Dylan Williams was cleared of any wrongdoing by the DA after fatally shooting Channara Pheap last summer. Five eye-witnesses, plus video evidence and dash cam footage, confirmed that Pheap assaulted Williams, choked him, grabbed his taser and used it on him.
Ryan Twyman was shot by police attempting to arrest him for possession of illegal firearms in June of 2019. Security camera footage shows Twyman driving away with an officer trapped by his car door. The other officer on the scene opened fire, fearing for his partner’s life.
Kevin Pudlik was killed by police during a car chase. The driver of the car Pudlik was in, Christopher Lee Calvin, nearly pinned an officer between his car and a concrete wall. Cops on the scene finally opened fire when they believed Calvin was intentionally trying to ram into an officer. Calvin was charged with Pudlik’s death.
Isaiah Lewis, a black teenager, was shot by police after pouncing on an officer and knocking him unconscious.
Marcus McVae, a “renowned criminal,” as the local media described him, has a bevy of violent crimes to his name, including assault of a public servant. He was killed by police after assaulting an officer during a foot chase.
Marzeus Scott can be seen on body cam footage attacking a female officer who was trying to arrest him for assaulting a store clerk moments before. The footage clearly shows that the officer was knocked to the ground by Scott, and that she tried to use her taser before resorting to her firearm.
Lastly, Kevin Mason of Baltimore was shot by police responding to a domestic violence call. Mason sent dogs after the officers. When that didn’t scare them off, he called 911 and threatened to “blast” them and “kill every last one of them.” Mason was ultimately shot when he emerged from his home after explicitly announcing his intention to murder the cops on the scene.
No reasonable person could describe any of the 8 cases just listed as cold-blooded murder, much less racist hate crimes. These were violent criminals shot while in the act of physically attacking and threatening officers. Most of them were not truly “unarmed,” either. Some were using cars. One used a dog. Another used a taser. Others used their hands and nearly succeeded in arming themselves with the officer’s weapon. These cases may count as “unarmed” in a strictly legal sense, but any news outlet interested in accurate reporting wouldn’t use the term without careful qualification.
This is what the media and BLM activists mean when they scream about the epidemic of “unarmed” black men killed by police. They mean that a very tiny fraction of black people arrested by police are killed in the process, and that an even tinier fraction are unarmed at the time, and that an even tinier fraction of that fraction of the fraction, actually had no weapon of any kind, and were making no attempt to hurt or kill a police officer. When phrased like that, it doesn’t seem like there’s much of an epidemic here at all.
My definition of Conservative (for the constitution) has very little to do with the reublican party. Let's not throw the word away but try to get it defined properly imo.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is anything in the constitution that judges people. There are lots in the voices of republicans that want to control people so I have little use for them, even long before they told 75 million Trump voters to go have sex with themselves.
We ALL. want the same thing(s). Lets not fight with each other, we should be on the same page.
ReplyDeleteBiden is our problem, not each other
Right it’s times like this that we need Unity amongst ourselves.
ReplyDeleteIt's unbelievable that idiotic people like like Biden can get elected
Silver, regarding China and US jobs...
ReplyDeleteJobs and factories to China is our current cause, not without some justification.
But if we could wave a wand today and bring all those factories and jobs back tomorrow, what would we have? Companies like Apple, Walmart and more, that have grown and expanded through the availability of cheap, low cost labor, would have to immediately raise prices to levels Americans would not support. Even hiring ppl at minimum wage would not stave off the coming disruption.
At pre-pandemic levels, the US was at full employment. Where would those needed somewhat skilled employees come from? How would Americans pay for the goods produced in these newly minted American factories? What would happen to pension and 401K retirements across the land as companies see sales plunge due to inevitable rising prices and their investments in those companies lose value?
The problem lies not just in "successive Democrat and Republican" governments, it also lies in the pocketbooks of every American invested in constantly repaving the "Road Ahead."
It doesn't all need to come back here. It needs to be spread out all over the globe: India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Mexico and Central American nations. We need to break China's death grip on the global supply chain.
DeleteI am also in favor of taxing/punishing corporations squatting in America and not hiring Americans. Tax them, then give them a break for every American worker they hire.
The rich business owners used to live in the communities where their factories were and they cared about the community. No so to the global citizen corporate whores of today.
"break China's death grip"
Delete100% agree. We should not depend ever on another country like we do China.
Funny, Americans used to but those "expensive" products when they were made in America...
ReplyDeleteJoe I agree 100%. In fact we did. But I would argue that was before stock ownership became reachable for the masses. At that point, with US fiduciary laws, companies had to annually post increasingly better results year over year. That reality pushed companies to look for ways to cut labor costs. And jobs went off shore.
DeleteAs that was happening, the minimum wage is a stat to look at. In the early 1980's, a guy making minimum wage in Los Angeles could rent a 1 bdrm apartment at roughly 50% of his monthly salary.
Now, even if that person makes 30% above the minimum, that same 1 bdrm apt takes up 125% of his minimum salary. In Las Vegas, the story is much the same.
How can ppl pay those higher prices?
I understand those companies will pay marginally higher wages, but even still, will it make up the difference?
I think people would rather buy American. The question is how do we make that happen so the average Joe can afford it, and not wipe his pension or retirement that is also invested in the company he is going to ask to incur higher costs, and lower profits.
I am so proud to live in a nation where all aspire to achieve the minimum wage.
DeletePoeople own stock and the companies they work for still pay pensions? Who knew?
Delete...and somehow I doubt your numbers for LA.
DeleteIn 1980 the minimum wage was $3.10/hr, which comes to $536 per month. Average apartment rent in Los Angeles in 1980 was $698 per month. My math is pretty good, and $698 is quite a bit more than 50% of $536.
DeleteWell Jayhawk, my apartment in those days, a 1 bedroom, was $230 a month. I lived there...
DeleteI lived 400 miles north in San Jose. My 2 br apartment rent was $650 in 1982. You must have been living in Watts.
DeleteIf the 1800's and 1900's political rhetoric could be known to most Americans then most Americans would be aghast at how we the general public have been muzzled (and sound like pussycats compared to the SPEECH of the Past). Call it "PC" or as some say: "offends, demeans, belittles and inflames others. That's the way we role in America-equal offending. If you don't like then listen to other undecided positions.
ReplyDeleteWe complained about the propaganda on the TV. The Left told us just change the Channel.
I call it dumbing down America.
We could not even pass their School requirements for Graduation today. They were a hole lot smarter and Educated in those days than we are today.
So if there were speech restrictions - as we are experiencing today -back then, they would have already have been Ruled on by the Supreme Courts of the Past!
The grouping of the populace is not lumping the "Parties" against each other it is lumping the Populace in a box.
The Country is made up of with "Individual Rights".
But the "Parties" can't do-inflict - their agenda
without taking advantage of the younger generation if the "Individual Rights" took president over group rights.
The founder said that we have a Republic not a democracy,
and stressed - the "Individual Rights" over group rights.
ReplyDeleteThe new Republican Party, Donald Trumps Republicans are electing and supporting people who call for murdering elected members of Congress, such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortex. A political party that tolerates this sort of thing is not a political party anymore, and they are not a “Peaceful “ party , but a Fifth Column advocating the overthrow the United States government.
Any Republican in Congress who promote the murder of elected officials should be kicked out, shunned, and shamed. And if the President resorts to that kind of thing, he should be IMPEACHED! That's what a party of decent and patriotic people would do.
The current Republican Party is neither. And neither are the people who support them, as you do.
Which Republican called for the murder of Sandy Cortez???
Delete
ReplyDeleteBut keep on allowing your posters to denigrate President Biden and other Democrats, ignore the cretins, and the fools that flock to your party, and here on this very Blog, and pretend that they're not a threat to our democracy. That'll work to make you feel safe while you denigrate President Biden, and Ms. Pelosi.
Have fun with that!
Unlike dictatorial Progressives, we believe in free speech here. You can disagree with everything we say and post counter-arguments and tell us how wrong we are.
DeleteUnlike the totalitarian left, disagreement here is not a crime; we encourage it.
The only criteria: Keep it clean and on-topic, and don't gratuitously insult your interlocutors.
Fair Enough
Delete:)
DeleteThe best thing about Placeholder *President Biden is, he denigrates HIMSELF.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteI guess NNP has woke after the Bernie supporter shot the
ReplyDeleteRepublicans during softball practice.
Been thinking about what SF has been saying recently about left and right having a common enemy, and about how similar BLM is to how he described trump after he was elected: they're both Molotov cocktails aimed at pretty much the same targets. You guys dismiss BLM for the same reason I dismissed Trump, not because we want to protect what they set out to dismantle, but because we can see that they won't succeed, or if they did would replace them with something even worse. we'll probably never get that swamp drained until an agent of destruction comes along which both left and right can get behind. Hard to imagine what that platform would look like, but probably standing up for small & medium sized businesses and decentralised power would be involved.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts. Can't remember which podcast, one of the Weinsteins maybe, where they explored the observation that these different groups did not realize they were all fighting a common enemy, and each side is turned off by the other because of external qualities.
DeleteAlso, where you live geographically largely determines whether you join a left or right movement. It all makes sense to me.
Also, before we become irrationally exuberant at the prospect of a left-right united effort against the dark powers, we should consider that there was a lot of overlap with the observations of Bernie and Trump, but their proffered solutions were in no way reconcilable.
DeleteIf--in this mythical scenario I propose--left and right joined to vanquish or humble the dark forces of entrenched power, a left-right war would break out among the victorious revolutionaries over what kind of world to build upon the ashes of the vanquished.
No matter what, I always circle back to cynical skepticism. Must be my Slavic blood...
Where's William Jenning's Bryan speaking his "cross of gold" speech to GameStop investors and Bitcoin miners when you need him? ;)
DeleteFarmer,
DeleteI love your references. The subsequent clampdown by Robinhood is a good reminder of who they work for. The citizen investors are the product, and Wall Street is Robinhood's customer.
The citizen investors are the ones fighting the real "next" American Revolution. I only pray it will be a thatthey will eventually be victorious and that it will eventually become a thoroughly "bourgeois" one. :)
DeleteAmen Farmer!
DeleteFree silver! ;)
Delete
ReplyDeleteIf you watched what happen to our Cities over the past summer you can see the difference between what happen at the Capital Building, and between all of the major cities being attacked by the communist groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. You can see the very same thugs who destroyed San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, and New York, to name a few as the people that dragged down our Statues last summer, and who graffitied our Monuments, and Governmental Buildings, who Looted the stores, and Burnt Police Cars, and who threw bottles, and bricks at the Police. ..
I’m sorry, you can say whatever you want to, but Trump Supporters DON’T do those things.