Chaos in USA

[boing]

It seems the military story was run by an extreme anti-Trump editor called Goldberg who claims that four Trump aides confirm the story. Unfortunately none of the four has yet allowed their name to be published or has spoken in public so, until we have a reliable committed witness, the story is unverified and hence suspect but you would never expect this from the claims being made in the press. Goldberg I would think could be in trouble for publishing such a story based on hearsay, I very much hope so because hatchet jobs have no place on either side of the aisle.

Those of you living outside the US can probably not even imagine the level to which the press has fallen in the US. Recently a Youtube contributor ran a video supposedly proving that a homeless camp in Portland Oregon was being used to accommodate some of the Portland rioters. This was quickly opposed by the Associated Press based on comments from the city who claimed that the camp was simply for homeless people for use in the Covid event. Towards the end of the original video a fit looking figure, a young man, dressed in black, came out of a tent, saw the cameraman, drew a slingshot (catapult to you UK readers) and fired several of what must have been a steel balls at the cameraman, you could hear the steel ball hit the metal rail close to him. Strangely these last frames of the video mysteriously disappeared on the press version of it.

I must admit the commentary is a bit excessive but the events filmed certainly do not depict the poor, destitute, homeless to me. The fun starts at 2:51.



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[John Hill]

Seems to be a lot of homeless people...

[boing]

Yeh John,

All the homeless in Portland, and there are hundreds of them to compare, are mid-twenties well fed and fit like those guys, I don't think. If those guys are homeless they are really raping the welfare system.
The positive ID on the trumpet guy? Must be a lookalike.
And, of course, the slingshot with ball bearings is used to take a pheasant or bunny if they stumble upon one.

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[Dushan]

Pity about California but nobody could have guessed.

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There is always St. Andreas fault... one can hope...

[Dushan]

Being a citizen, of the age of majority qualifies one to vote.

For most of America's history the MAJORITY of adult US citizens did not have the vote and this is still the case in some parts of the country.

Who, specifically, pray tell.

[Dushan]

No they bloody well don't because that has never been negotiated in agreements so far. Can you understand that PR is not a state.

The political status of Puerto Rico is that of an unincorporated territory of the United States.As such, the island of Puerto Rico is neither a sovereign nation nor a U.S. state.Because of that ambiguity, the territory, as a polity, lacks certain rights but enjoys certain benefits that other polities have or lack.

Do you get it, "lacks certain rights" "enjoys certain benefits", the major one of which many people would say is no Federal taxation. If they get the rights they lose the benefits which many people seem to think would be a bad idea. Not everyone thinks the same way as you, thank God.

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Boing, trying to explain, to a lefty, that no taxation is a benefit is unproductive. They can’t understand the concept.

[John Hill]

Who, specifically, pray tell.

Women, African-Americans and no doubt others.

[Dushan]

Women can vote, unless residents of the aforementioned territories, as can blacks. Yes there was a time when they couldn’t, but US is not the only country where that was the case.
Let’s not drag ancient history into this. As of today only a very small number (about 1% of the population) cannot vote because they do not reside in one of the 50 states of the United States of America. However they are free to move to any of the 50 states, something you can’t do.

[John Hill]

Women can vote, unless residents of the aforementioned territories, as can blacks. Yes there was a time when they couldn’t, but US is not the only country where that was the case.

Whataboutery!

Let’s not drag ancient history into this.

White American women got the right to vote about 1920 but many black women had to wait another 40 years or so. Hardly 'ancient history'.

It is true then

For most of America's history the MAJORITY of adult US citizens did not have the vote and this is still the case in some parts of the country.

[boing]

John has the sort of logic that would even have him pulling random circuit-breakers to equalise the buss loads.

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[Undried Plum]

Pity about California but nobody could have guessed.

There is always St. Andreas fault... one can hope...

[llondel]

Pity about California but nobody could have guessed.

There is always St. Andreas fault... one can hope...

That's mild, it could wreck a few cities if it decided to let rip, but nothing compared to what the Cascade fault will do to Oregon and Washington if it decides to go. It's theoretically capable of generating a magnitude 9 quake, dropping the land level by 10-15 feet and producing a tsunami as a follow-up about 15 minutes later. I guess it might hit northern California too, and something that big we'll certainly notice down here.

[boing]

Llondel,

Excuse the Oregon humour - you know these jokes have been going on for years. Knowing your approx. location I've been a bit concerned about you and the fires. I used to go to an annual competition off 101 at Bailey Road on the south end of town but I haven't been there since I retired the second time.

We are 150 feet above river level hoping that by the time the tsunami got to us we would be safe but we would probably have beach front property because the river is still tidal at this point 120 miles from the ocean. Our geology is a bit uncertain because the hills we live on were actually the glacial moraines from the last ice age so the underlying structure is completely different to the native geology in the area.

Give me a call if you are ever up here and we can call a truce and get a beer.

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[llondel]

Llondel,

Excuse the Oregon humour - you know these jokes have been going on for years. Knowing your approx. location I've been a bit concerned about you and the fires. I used to go to an annual competition off 101 at Bailey Road on the south end of town but I haven't been there since I retired the second time.

We are 150 feet above river level hoping that by the time the tsunami got to us we would be safe but we would probably have beach front property because the river is still tidal at this point 120 miles from the ocean. Our geology is a bit uncertain because the hills we live on were actually the glacial moraines from the last ice age so the underlying structure is completely different to the native geology in the area.

Give me a call if you are ever up here and we can call a truce and get a beer.

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I'm not native to these parts, always up for a good joke.

The SCU fire is the one adjacent to us, and it did get down as far as Morgan Hill and the Bailey exit, but pretty much stayed east of 101 down that far. All evacuation orders have been lifted for the fire now so I assume it's currently considered low risk, although probably not yet out. We're under a blanket of smoke from fires further south though, air quality has been getting worse all day.

Not likely to get up your way in the foreseeable future, work has taken me to Portland before, and I am starting to venture forth to dog shows further afield now, but both of those seem to be unlikely to happen this year now.

[boing]

As in:

[ media][/media]



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[barkingmad]

Ok us Europeans, we must get our definitions right when it comes to words like ‘ancient’ and ‘history’.

Please remember that the US is a relatively young country, if you are part of the non-indigenous inhabitants and therefore a couple of decades is perceived as a very long time indeed.

So the voter disenfranchisement practised in Florida in the year 2000AD which helped Dubya to get into power and change the world for the better is ‘ancient history’.

And the more recent voter disenfranchisement practised in this previous decade from 2013-2018 is all ancient history in a country whose short memory, when evident in an individual, would result in a long consultation with a physician specialising in Alzheimer’s disease.

Here is just one quote from a US publication referring to court judgements so I have to accept it is reasonably accurate;

https://time.com/5852837/voter-suppress ... t-america/

and when one puts “voter disenfranchisement” (yeah, I know it’s a big word!) into any search engine, one is presented with a great number of publications highlighting this strange but understandable practice used by the parties various.

So if in the USA, as close as 2 decades ago and less is considered ‘ancient history’, one has to marvel at what utter tosh is being preached in US universities when the topic of history is under scrutiny and discussion (if it is at all?)

Which phenomenon illustrates to this distant viewer what a bag of lunatic asylums are the modern tertiary education establishments in the US and may account for their obsession with PC and ‘woke’ culture to the exclusion of academic rigour and accuracy. A modus operandi which we in the UK are regrettably following to the letter in some ‘universities’.

So guys and gals, let’s also forget the massive sacrifices made by the old Russia in helping to defeat the German empire in WW2 and just say it was us wonderful Yanks who saved Blighty from the horrible Krauts. Please can I have my PhD now?

No tin hat nor coat on and no, I’m not leaving the building just yet...

[John Hill]

Indeed, we must never forget that the Yanks won WWII especially as they don't seem to have won any thing since.

[G-CPTN]

Indeed, we must never forget that the Yanks won WWII

And it wasn't even their war . . .

[Undried Plum]

Indeed, we must never forget that the Yanks won WWII especially as they don't seem to have won any thing since.

It wuz the pesky Rooskies wot won that one, sadly.

The Septics played ketchup. They had to beg the winners to slow down so that the losers (Chump's own word, BTW) could get to Berlin in time for the Victory Parade.

Cadet BoneSpur damn nearly won the War, y'know. He's a hero.

[boing]

Without the vast quantities of arms and critical supplies provided by the US victory for both the UK and Russia would have been very unlikely. Not only did the US supply finished armaments they provided the machinery and raw materials for the UK to produce their own arms, a capability which otherwise would have been totally unavailable. Even at its pre-war peak and not subject to German attack the existing UK industrial base and raw materials were simply not large enough to produce enough armaments to fight a prolonged war.

Now let us look at UK oil supplies compared with the US.

Iran: 10,359,000 t (1938) rising to 19,189,000 t by 1945
Iraq: 4,272,000 (1938) and 4,476,000 (1945)
USA: 172,866,000 tonnes (1938).

The 1938 figures show that the US had over ten times as much oil available in 1938 than the UK had available from their own sources and US oil supplies subsequently allowed much of the Middle Eastern oil to be used in the North Africa confrontations thus not requiring the very dangerous operation of getting that oil to the UK by sea. The oil output from the Middle East increased only moderately throughout the war.

You can make as many sarcastic remarks about US military ability as you like but there is little doubt that without US aid you would be paying taxes to Berlin. If you are the hub of an Empire, at peace, and you control the flow of World resources as Britain did you can take time to develop your military, if you are under attack and the needed resources are being choked off, as an Island nation, you are in big trouble. You only have to imagine how Britain would have fared without the US convoys to see resistance would have been perhaps glorious but ultimately futile unless you plan to fight Panzers with pitchforks.

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