How does the World view America these days?

[ignatius]

good morning. it's all going according to plan

[Rubin Farr]

https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/watch-masked-drivers-wielding-guns-running-drivers-off-roads-memphis-neighborhood/f9c07391-0998-4e52-9d5f-b2efcac9be2e/

[Rubin Farr]

 

[Nebraska]

some dope new flavors of ice-cream for marginalized groups in america. gotta appreciate how they kept the theme of not giving women a choice of their own "celebration edition"

[ignatius]

meanwhile... 

also, jfc this is fucked up. 

The Supreme Court Just Said That Evidence of Innocence Is Not Enough

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-supreme-court-just-said-in-in-shinn-v-ramirez-that-evidence-of-innocence-is-not-enough

Quote

 

In 2018, a federal court overturned Jones’ conviction, concluding that he had failed to receive effective counsel, a violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. Had that happened, a federal judge ruled, “there is a reasonable probability that his jury would not have convicted him of any of the crimes with which he was charged and previously convicted.”

After losing in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Arizona’s attorney general appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. During those oral arguments, state prosecutors repeatedly argued that “innocence isn’t enough” of a reason to throw out Jones’ conviction.

On Monday morning, by a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court concurred: Barry Jones’ innocence is not enough to keep him off of death row. The state of Arizona can still kill Jones, even if there exists a preponderance of evidence that he committed no crime.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by ignatius

[BobDobalina]

1 hour ago, ignatius said:

meanwhile... 

Too rich to be true... sigh.

https://www.truthorfiction.com/telegraph-money-kyle-tweet/

[ignatius]

4 minutes ago, BobDobalina said:

Too rich to be true... sigh.

https://www.truthorfiction.com/telegraph-money-kyle-tweet/

it's crazy the amount of fact checking that happens on totally random internet bullshit. how many hours go into that sort of thing? that tweet is essentially a meme i guess. it's weird to think about how dumb shit makes work for someone. 

[Nebraska]

2 hours ago, ignatius said:

also, jfc this is fucked up. 

The Supreme Court Just Said That Evidence of Innocence Is Not Enough

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-supreme-court-just-said-in-in-shinn-v-ramirez-that-evidence-of-innocence-is-not-enough

 

but this only applies to poor people

 

 

[ignatius]

7 minutes ago, Nebraska said:

but this only applies to poor people

 

 

yeah.. if dude could've afforded proper counsel he'd have had a better go of it but ya know.. all the things... 

[Nebraska]

8 minutes ago, ignatius said:

yeah.. if dude could've afforded proper counsel he'd have had a better go of it but ya know.. all the things... 

or he could just do like the other guy and find a grandfather with a house that he can sell in monterey and liquidate some savings to give to a lawyer to "probably" plead his case for him. supposedly, it absolutely never fails

[ignatius]

fucking grim news out of texas today

[Squee]

What the fuck are you guys doing?

[azatoth]

46 minutes ago, Squee said:

What the fuck are you guys doing?

School shootings are as American as apple pie. It's just how it is and nothing can change it, no matter how high the pile of dead children gets. Whole country is a hyper capitalistic death cult.

[Squee]

7 minutes ago, azatoth said:

School shootings are as American as apple pie. It's just how it is and nothing can change it, no matter how high the pile of dead children gets. Whole country is a hyper capitalistic death cult.

So you're telling me they love children in wombs... but hate the ones that walk among them?

Trying to wrap my ahead around what these people are like.

[Rubin Farr]

The US was built on hypocrisy and slavery, that explains most of it. 

[ignatius]

14 minutes ago, Rubin Farr said:

The US was built on hypocrisy and slavery, that explains most of it. 

so is the UK and other places but we have all the guns.

the violence visited upon the world through colonialism by the England and various European countries is a horror show of ethnic cleansing and genocides and outright slaughter. the USA picked up the torch and ran w/it with a shiny new version of capitalism but with the same old cruelty... and now it'll be china's turn. who knows wtf their version will look like. it's already pretty ugly and racist in places.

for my adult life there's been articles every year asking the question why is america so different. "what's wrong with us" whenever something happens. now that something happens so often there's no time for the articles to come out.  it's fear, it's guns it's unresolved racial injustice.. a failure to accept the past honestly as a culture and political system. and of course the myths of the shining city on a hill and blah blah blah that people love to believe in like john wayne and the bible...   and a million other things. 

as a species we're going over a cliff and likely will be shooting at each other on the way down. 

but in a nutshell america is failing in every way and the velocity is picking up maybe? any kind of progress is eroding and economically well.. it's pretty simple to see what's what. 

the town where this shooting happened is small. like 20,000 people i think. none of those people will ever be the same again. 

i don't know. it's fucked up. kids getting shot in school by the dozen is not something anyone should accept as normal... 

[beerwolf]

I’m definitely not Nostradamus but it’s hard to envision America ever getting out of this insane gun situation. And whoever the president is at the time has to put on some Oscar worthy performance about doing something about it, because deep down he knows it’s completely futile waste of time because it’s never gonna happen.

Edited May 25, 2022 by beerwolf

[prdctvsm]

[EdamAnchorman]

4 hours ago, Squee said:

So you're telling me they love children in wombs... but hate the ones that walk among them?

Trying to wrap my ahead around what these people are like.

DO NOT try to apply logic to Republicans here in America or you will just end up driving yourself mad.

Instead, try to get in the most selfish, racist, xenophobic, paranoid mindset you can and then off you go.

[prdctvsm]

[Squee]

2 hours ago, randomsummer said:

DO NOT try to apply logic to Republicans here in America or you will just end up driving yourself mad.

You know what... and I'm not joking here. It took me about 20-30 minutes to write "What the fuck are you guys doing?" because after reading what had happened I saw a different article that said that the NRA is banning guns from some upcoming Trump rally or something. After reading that I just stared at my monitor trying to formulate something slightly intelligent but ended up being confused.

Anyway... serious question here. What's in it for the government? They insist that people should be allowed to buy and use guns but what do they gain?

[cichlisuite]

1 minute ago, Squee said:

Anyway... serious question here. What's in it for the government? They insist that people should be allowed to buy and use guns but what do they gain?

it's the small arms manufacturers, as a part of military industrial complex that is controlling the government. riding on the Manifest Destiny crusade from the past, now it's about personal liberty and fucking amendments. but in reality is brain washing people so they keep buying guns. the entire culture is riddled with it. similarly to tea culture for the british - it's a part of national identity at this point. because markets and consumers.

[zero]

4 minutes ago, Squee said:

Anyway... serious question here. What's in it for the government? They insist that people should be allowed to buy and use guns but what do they gain?

it's not necessarily the government per se, I see it as primarily coming from the republican party. it's all about votes. the R's are too scared to tell their flock to put down their AR's, because then they wouldn't vote for them. and then the NRA of course. they are tied to the R party, and pump them full of cash and peer pressure to not ban the fucking things.

to psychoanalyze it further - guns are also ingrained into the American way of life, thanks to like old cowboy movies, the dominating military machine churning in the underbelly of the country, etc. the tried and true 2nd amendment "right to bear arms" that was written 250 years ago, when they were talking about muskets and shit, not like the fuckin AR-15's that everyone loves here in 'merica land. had the founding fathers game planned this shit out a bit further, and maybe thought that one day humans would replace muskets with bazookas, then I'm sure they would have been like whoa...we need to put some sort of limit on the whole "bear arms" thing. but nah, they didn't, and so now all these fuck nuts think that bearing arms means I can stock my fucking gun locker packed with as many high powered rifles as possible, because that's like all manly and shit, and it's all well and good...until of course an unhinged 18 year old decides to get one and then all shit hits the fan.

look, I own some hunting rifles and am not opposed to gun ownership at all. but I don't think that they should be as easy to get as they are here, and don't think these high velocity assault rifles are needed to be owned by the public. and to change that requires legislation, which goes absolutely nowhere, thanks to the fucking idiots largely on the R side, who are already saying this morning essentially it's not the guns fault, it's the teenagers fault. well chicken and egg motherfuckers, if there was no assault rifle with a fucking magazine attached to it, would as many kids have died here? would people be more inclined to rise up and stop the guy if they knew he didn't have some thing with a shit ton of bullets that could come flying out of it? we don't know the answer of course. but the easiest comparison to make would be to look at other country's, where they don't let the public own AR's, and this school shooting shit is not as commonplace as it is here.

fucking grim. my kid is in elementary school in Texas, and watched the news last night. I don't even know what to tell him.

[Rubin Farr]

The right has started a new love affair with cowboy lore; machismo, guns, women that know their place, Yellowstone, 1883, etc. Like it’s 1822 not 2022. It’s a fantasy world of self imagining, male status symbols, an inflated sense of ego and birthright. A recipe for disaster.

[J3FF3R00]

41 minutes ago, zero said:

fucking grim. my kid is in elementary school in Texas, and watched the news last night. I don't even know what to tell him.

I have an 18 month old and have occasionally had the thought while out in public enjoying our time “what if someone started shooting right now? What would I do? Could we hide somewhere? I’ll probably just have to throw myself on top of the baby and sacrifice myself, if I’m fast/lucky enough.”

When I have that thought I always have 2 following thoughts: (1) don’t worry, you’re probably just being paranoid (2) thinking I’m paranoid is putting me and my child in danger and this is perfectly normal to wonder what my options are in a far too common scenario.
This is just life in our country… specifically thanks to right wingers. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

I can barely bring myself to consider sending my kid to school in this country. It’s like living on a dartboard. I’ve actually been looking for work overseas with hopes of getting out of this shitbag country for a while now. After this last shooting I’m definitely stepping up my efforts.

Edited May 25, 2022 by J3FF3R00