dogcows

Bought Washington’s Football Commander Skins Team for $800 mil and sold it for $6 billion. Withheld millions in shared revenue from the NFL, sexually harassed employees, lied repeatedly about it, and the fine is $60 million, or 1% of what he sold the team for. https://apnews.com/article/dan-snyder-investigation-sexual-harassment-revenue-withheld-bf6a2ec478e15355e0bd026cf24dfb65 Yet another example of the rich playing by a different set of rules..

How about a thread dedicated to documenting incidents of police violence? I’ll start with a recently documented one from LA County: A cop followed a guy for miles, but didn’t pull him over. But when the guy stopped at a 7-11, the cop beat the crap out of him. The alleged reason for the “stop” was an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. Then they charged the driver with 3 bogus felonies after the fact. Well, now we have video disproving some of the officer’s claims, such as the person supposedly biting him.

Hypotheticals… again. Then we move to: DOSSIER! TRUMP!

Why are so many people treating the interview, which Republicans did privately instead of publicly, and NOT under oath... of a convicted criminal... as credible evidence of ANYTHING? If he wasn’t willing to say it under oath.... come on, man. Just another day in this complete scam.

Yes, we’re a democratic republic. There are undemocratic republics, which is what some seem to want. Still, the terms were used interchangeably, even by the founding fathers who knew that our proposed republic was one type of democracy... but not a direct democracy. From Alexander Hamilton: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0162 Glad to be having the discussion instead of just dealing with the one-liner. We can get super technical on this, but for Chrome-Gnome to blurt out “we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic” is inaccurate. We’re not a direct democracy, nor are we an undemocratic republic. Our Republic practices representative democracy.

What a great country when paid public servants stand around, watching somebody drown, and say “not my problem."

This blind support for the police is really something. Here’s a better question - could you live with yourself if you saw somebody drowning, and didn’t even try to help them? Here’s what a real man does, and this wasn’t even a full-grown man - he was a teenager: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/06/us-teen-hero-rescue-mississippi-car-plunges-river

The devil’s in the details

If it supposedly isn’t their job to save people, then they shouldn’t prevent anybody from jumping into the water if they want to. No law against jumping in the water, right?

I bet all those cops who refused to lend a helping hand (and even prevented others from helping) claim to be Christians.

Most people who criticize others’ parenting like this have at least one kid in prison. It’s called projection. Another sign is if they post 20 videos of Jordan Peterson every day.

I guess you are unable to have an actual discussion of the history and interchangeability of the terms republic and democracy. Or even “doing your own research” on it. You can only regurgitate the one-liner you saw on grandpa’s Facebook timeline. So you “pile on” like that idiot in the mob who never had an original thought, but decides to go with the crowd. Good job, sheep man. Funny how I said “‘consensus” which Jerry turned to “majority” and now a bunch of passers-by have decided I’m some kind of tyrant who thinks we should get rid of the bill of rights. Even though I specifically said that’s not true… and the laws I’m arguing AGAINST are ones that limit, not expand, the rights of Americans. If your only method of argument is not to discuss the merits, but to intentionally misrepresent the position of the other side, I hope you know it makes your own argument appear much weaker.

You completely ignored the facts I just presented. He wasn’t scheduled to go to jail in the next day or two. It was still months away. You swallowed the fake story from the GOP committee, hook, line, and sinker... again. But let’s hear more about the assassinations. Who else other than Devon Archer is getting “Epsteined”? This is a VERY serious discussion you’re having.

OK well before I leave abortion, I’ll just reply to your numbers above: if the issue was really 3rd-trimester abortions... why did they challenge Roe v Wade which already allowed states to block abortions in the 3rd trimester? Back to the trans panic - I think it’s going to be yet another losing issue for R’s. It is possible to get a lot of conservatives worked up about an issue because most of them watch the same very small number of news sources, the biggest and most famous being FOX. But most people in America don’t watch FOX. They aren’t upset about something that’s only affecting 1% of the population. So the anti-trans rhetoric might help in the primaries. But it’s most likely NOT going to be something independent voters care about come November 2024. It would be “common sense” to stop trying to regulate trans medical care for minors. It’s rare, it requires parental and doctor approval. I don’t see how banning it truly helps anybody.

I have to accept multiple incorrect assumptions to even discuss this. And I’m not going to. So let’s just say: it’s a bad analogy, with no connection to the topic we were discussing.

Archer was convicted in 2018, long before this sham of an investigation started. He also was in no danger of being tossed in jail before he could testify. https://wapo.st/3rV4oqy Why do so many on the right believe these things despite the committee’s lies constantly being exposed?

I'm gonna have InstaCart deliver a DiGiorno pizza to you. Let’s watch your head explode. “It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno... but no it’s a delivery..... ARRRGRGRRGGHHHH!!!!”

I bet you won't let reality get in the way of your insane conspiracy theories.

Funny how I always hear that one-liner from people who want to force their minority views on the majority. Gerrymandering is one way to make sure that voters have little to no power. Then the gerrymandered states take over local control too if the voters there elect local officials not liked by the state government, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/27/georgia-augusta-judicial-circuit-split-republicans So yeah, maybe there is some truth to your statement; there are some parts of the country where the sitting governments are working as hard as possible to prevent the will of the voters from coming to pass. But if you actually care… here’s a bit more on the definitions of republic and democracy. They are not mutually exclusive. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/democracy-and-republic

It is working out nicely. Crime went down the next year. Funny, I looked this up and Fox is very very angry about this. Dozens of articles trying to turn a positive into a negative. Even the state government of Texas wants a piece of the action: sending in state troopers! Why, if crime was already going down? Well, at least looking this up showed me why right-wingers are all up in their feelings about Austin. 24/7 nonsense about it from Fox.

On abortion, I don’t have any problem with your beliefs. I simply disagree with them. My only issue is laws forcing that belief on others who don’t agree. Also, FYI - people are granted rights in our constitution. Embryos and fetuses aren’t. As for state-by-state abortion laws? Let’s talk about rights. If you believe a fetus has legal rights, then you cannot support state-by-state laws because states that allow abortion would be taking rights away from those fetuses. So if I believe women have reproductive rights, I similarly believe those need to be protected nationwide. The state-by-state thing doesn’t make sense for either of our viewpoints, if it’s truly about human rights.

How about a feel-good story about a police officer? https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/officer-surprises-young-boy-with-playstation-ps5-after-neighbors-ask-for-him-to-be-removed-hapeville-georgia-police-department-officer-colleran-video-game-system?fbclid=IwAR3SlQUiegjVhX38P1_ZxgfhJPbhZVEguKkd2BxC7LR6LqQNTlvW06ctrkw These are the kind of police officers we need more of!

Really? How many police departments got defunded?

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that majority rule is how democracy is meant to work. Also, I said consensus when it comes to imposing moral laws on people, which to me is stronger than majority. Especially if we are going to pass laws about personal decisions such as abortion and transgender medicine. We have a bill of rights and other amendments to protect minority groups from oppression by the majority. I’m sure we agree that such protections are critical in any democracy. Embryos don’t have rights in our constitution though. The constitution also doesn’t confer a right to put value judgments on other parents’ medical care for their kids. You may wish for a nation in which banning most abortions is supported by almost everybody. Same for banning most transgender care for children. But that isn’t the nation you live in. Attempting to force minority views of morality upon the entire populace is not an effective strategy for winning future elections. If you’re offended by the proverbial tyranny of the majority, how much more offended should I be at the contention that a minority’s moral beliefs should be imposed upon the majority who don’t believe them? Abortion bans and transgender care bans remove rights from people. I am advocating that people should have rights. So to compare my stance to slavery or Jim Crow laws is nonsensical. The main issue I have with “zero plus” on these issues is that you start from a place of zero rights, and then add as little as possible. I think it should be the other way around. At least my way doesn’t force anything on anybody.

So abortion beliefs aren’t absolute? They are various shades of grey? You don’t say! Almost seems like we should just leave it to each person’s conscience then. As for transgender care for kids. We are very far from consensus on that as well. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/majority-of-americans-reject-anti-trans-bills-but-support-for-this-restriction-is-rising