You break it, then you break it some more, then you demolish it completely. Way to go!
I just finished watching your video, Marcus, which was produced by Guardian Films. I assume they are the same people that produce The Guardian in the UK?
The film revisits things we have discussed in the past over at Zeyad's. I don't know much about James Steele, or his job in Iraq, but the film was certainly intent on implying any number of things. From what I gathered from the film, though, the phrase "fighting terror with terror" was coined by an Iraqi, not an American.
Was the US responsible for the sectarian war that developed in Iraq? I think that to be an over the top assessment of the facts on the ground, even the narrator in the film was labeling the insurgency that developed after the invasion as a "Sunni" insurgency. That you could find Shia willing to fight against them was in itself evidence of ill will from the past.
I found it rather interesting that the general who helped set up the police commando unit was a Sunni general who worked for Saddam.
We made mistakes, that is true, but others played a vital role in the mess that Iraq turned into.
I watched the documentary "The Bible's Buried Secrets" last night. It was on YouTube. It seemed to contain some subject matter that I had discussed with a co-worker in the past, particularly the apparent multiple writers of the Bible.
Whether or not you believe that the Bible is the word of God or not, it is an important historical document.
They did another one that I thought was better. It was replayed back around Christmas--called "From Jesus to Christ". Four hours on the first four Gospels. If you liked that one at all I'd recommend "From Jesus to Christ" much higher.
Yemen? Oh, lucky I checked in today, that sounds like something I'd like to watch.
That piece that Frontline did on the Rise of ISIS that I used for the blog has been changed to requiring a payment to watch it. I think it's a nominal amount of around $2.99, but my first thought was they'll try to make money on anything, even something that was originally broadcast for free viewing over the air. *shrug* Oh well, I think whoever wanted to view it through the blog was able to do so while it was still free.
I'll have to check into the other documentary you mentioned, maybe a little later when I have more time to relax in front of the TV. I want to start that book too. What I'm finding interesting is putting the biblical stories in the context of the period.
I'm a little over a third of the way through "We Are Anonymous". It is interesting reading. I ran across the story of how one of the "hacktivists" brought down the Tunisian Prime Minister's website by using someone's computer within the country, albeit with his permission and help. This was at the beginning of the Arab Spring protests in that country. Unfortunately the guy in Tunisia was arrested. Something the Anonymous hacker didn't seem to consider the possibility of beforehand or show much concern about afterward. Don't know what happened to the Tunisian guy. A prank is one thing, getting someone killed is another.
"…this is rapidly becoming a regional sectarian war."
That can't be right. Marcus and Guardian Films have assured us that Muslim sectarianism is the result of ‘institutionalized crimes against humanity by the USA’. Ain't been any USA in those Houthi mountains. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ "… it does make you wonder what would have been revealed if the Brown-shooting had been filmed."
It is too bad the Brown shooting wasn't caught on film. The autopsies (plural) made it pretty clear that kid was charging the cop for a second round of hand-to-hand when he was shot. Would have been a lot of trouble averted if they'd had that on film.
"…it will for certain cement the view among many african americans that the police is a hostile and racist force."
Depending on the area, they already think that or they don't. Local cop shot a white guy in the back near here, just last year--damn near same circumstances. Made barely a ripple except locally because they were both white, and the victim lived. Sometimes it ain't racial, just a bad cop.
Lee, with regards to Russia's and Russians sentiments to the USA I believe the disastorous 90's play a huge part. The "shoch therapy" where 15-20 Oligarchs plundered that entire nation while the people saw their previously meagre earnings and savings dwindle into nothing is still fresh o their minds.
They, rightfully so, link that shock therapy to the US and the west in general. And they do NOT want it back.
The russians in general live much, much better under Putin than they ever did under Jeltsin. And they see Jeltsin as having been a pawn for the US and international coorporations. With Putin they are also feared, which seems to bring some pride into nations (look no further than your own).
So really, can you blame them for siding with Putin? If not for him they believe the west has another Jeltsin in store for them (and they're most likely right).
And, I would suggest that Russians are tolerant of autocratic regimes because they're Russians, and that's what they've always known, and that what they're used to having. Citizenship can be something of a bother, and that's never been much in vogue in Russia.
Although one case should have no bearing on another one...
This is true. A just society will not judge one person by another's actions.
In any case this is real bad and it will for certain cement the view among many african americans that the police is a hostile and racist force.
I think Lee is right, this will make very little difference in what people already think. They have made up their minds one way or another.
Certainly racism is still a problem here in the states at times. But it is not fair to color everyone by the actions of others. And that includes the police force in its entirety. You will find good people there as well as the bad.
I have been playing a bit with the blog. I found a site with some interesting articles, so I added a new category(Sites of Interest) to the sidebar providing a link for your convenience, if you are interested.
There are several things that could be said about race relations in the United States (especially with the police). Obligitories are that things are better than they used to be and are getting better faster, and that we ain't quite there yet.
Some things not obligitory, and often not said at all are that everybody's got a tendency towards bigotry and prejudice. Tribalism, clannishness is an inborn human trait. It has (or at least had) strong survival value in early human evolution and even in later human evolution. It's bred in the bones. Like many evolutionary traits, it's not got near the value in civilized society that it had in pre-civilized days, and a good part of being civilized is just getting over our latent neandertal tendencies such as racial prejudices.
Something else not often said is that Americans are actually less racially and ethnically prejudiced than most other people and most other cultures, including those self-righteous bastards in western Europe who like to babble on about American racism. When the French elect a Muslim or a Jew as President, ya'll get back to me on that. Or the Swedes pick either for Prime Minister for that matter. Or the Germans… (The Brits have actually elected a Jewish Prime Minister, but he had to officially convert to Anglican before they'd pretend to believe he wasn't still a Jew so they could elect him without too much groveling over the matter.)
♫♪everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on Someone to be better than at any time they choose Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me
♪♫Some folks hate the Whites who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan Most of us hate anything that we don't understand
♫♪'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on Someone to be better than at any time they choose Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me♪♫ Kris Kristofferson -- Jesus was a Capricorn
You don't think opening with Radio Free Europe is a little provocative for Marcus?
Nope. :) Besides, no one has to look at the sites if they are not interested. I am also thinking of adding a book site.
I was actually just going to post a link to one of the articles, but then realized that there were more in depth articles about regions that I don't normally read about on CNN or other American news sites. So I thought I would share with anyone who was interested.
"Something else not often said is that Americans are actually less racially and ethnically prejudiced than most other people and most other cultures, including those self-righteous bastards in western Europe who like to babble on about American racism."
It might be so. But a difference is we Europeans tend to live in a country we feel we have an historical right to and for good reason. We swedes for instance have been living here for a couple thousand years and feel this is OUR country (well, at least most of us do).
Ya'll know very well that ya'lls history and claim to the land you now live on is not so very rosy and clear cut. You're a descendant of western Europe yourself, whether you like it or not, and live on largely stolen property.
You try going to japan and becoming "japanese" or to China and becoming "chinese" or to Thailand and becoming "thai". You'll fast learn that the in the vast majority of countries the people and the land are linked in the minds of the inhabitants, and that your so called multicultural society is an abberation on this globe.
And then look inward at your own "multiculturalism" and tell us how well that's actually working if you're completely honest, and give us one good goddamned reason why we should strive to follow in your footsteps towards that end.
And, for that matter, I never made any allegations about "american racism". I merely posted a link to this new story and said it would likeely cement the view about racist white cops among many blacks. And I really don't think you'd disagree with that.
And I said I saw the movie as a clear cut execution annd that the policeman should be charged with murder. And I don't think you'd disagree with that either.
So I didn't say anything really that you have grounds for disagreeing with. But you had to go and make a US/Euro-bruhaha about it. Well guess what hillbillyboy - ya ain't winnin' that one.
"I never made any allegations about ‘american racism’."
And I did not name you as one of the self-righteous bastards to whom I referred. However, as you seem eager to claim the prize of place for yourself…
"You're a descendant of western Europe yourself, whether you like it or not, and live on largely stolen property."
You live on stolen property too. The fact that your tribe overran the locals some 2000 years ago rather than 200 years ago doesn't change that. The main difference is we Americans didn't wipe out the aboriginal people and their memory; there's more ‘Indians’ in America now than there were when the 13 colonies first declared their independence from the British crown (and I'm not even counting the ‘breeds’ who do not claim tribal memberships). And, instead of forgetting them we made nostalgic, semi-heroic movies about them, which much of the rest of the world mistakes for American history.
However, I'm far more intrigued by your fairly clear-cut denunciation of the very notion of a multi-racial society. I truly believe that, in a world fast becoming ‘smaller’ and less insular by the day, we will both find that my society, based as it is on ideas rather than ethnicity, will eventually replace yours. Or, to put it another way, your society will wither and die, and ours will inevitably move into the vacuum. Someday ‘Sweden’ will be little more than a theme park.
The process is, as we have both noted, not entirely seamless, nor painless, but ‘yeah’, we are gonna win that one in the end.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The word ‘execution’ usually implies there is some sort of social or political point to be made or advantage to be had. That looks to me to just be a pissed off cop thought he could get away with killing folks who pissed him off. I'd call that an impulse murder, rather than an execution. Bad cop. Happily, the locals are getting on top of it. They had him off the payroll before the sun went down on the first showing of that clip, and him in a striped prison suit, sitting in the county jail. They've indicated there may be other cops in trouble depending on who may or may not have tried to cover for the offending officer, assuming they find any evidence of that, but they're making it public already that they're looking into that too
And then look inward at your own "multiculturalism" and tell us how well that's actually working if you're completely honest,...
Actually it's working better than you might think. The link I provided in the first comment in this section is an example of at least one place where it does work. No, we're not perfect by any means, but nor are we failing.
You're a descendant of western Europe yourself, whether you like it or not, and live on largely stolen property.
It's a big country, Marcus, there's lots of room for everyone. The problem was the clash of civilizations.
Oops, I was going to write more but I had to make a phone call.
You might tire too if your country was striving to forever be the "humanitarian great power" in this world. Like giving the most foreign aid per capita:
Like we're richer than Luxembourg and have more to spend on others than they do? Yeah right.
And on top of that (and much worse) is we're receiving the most refugees per capita (excluding neighboring nations) by a wide margin.
If ya'll took our levels of refugees and paid our levels of foreign aid it would simply bankrupt ya'll in a generation or less. We in Sweden have more to draw on since we can temporarily finance this with cuts in our massive wellfare sector. But we'll hit a brick wall here. I have no doubt about that.
If we can keep this blog going for another 5 years I will have solid proof of how bad this development has been for Sweden. Really I could produce such proof already but the crash we have in store will be a much better piece of evidence.
Hmmm, switching to the mess Sweden's making of itself these days are we?
I'll make a brief closing then on the American racial discussion--specifically, on Michael Brown and the Ferguson situation.
Michael Brown was a bad choice for a posterboy for police brutality against blacks. Brown had just committed a strong-arm robbery, and he attacked the cop when the cop tried to question him. (Think on this: Brown went for the officer's gun before the officer ever cleared the car. Brown had ‘backup’ on hand, he had his cohort from the strong-arm robbery with him. Officer Wilson was alone. Brown turned and charged the officer after the officer had un-holstered his pistol. Basic police training says to put the guy down in that situation--it's life and death. He gets his hand on your gun arm again, just your arm, he doesn't have to get the gun itself right away, you're probably dead--he's got reinforcements on hand and you're still alone.)
Around here what Brown did would get a white boy shot--no questions.
But, Ferguson had a rather nasty police/public dynamic going on for some years. The black population, knowing quite well the way the police usually treated them, assumed the Brown shooting fit the more common mold of the cops riding roughshod over the people. They didn't believe Officer Wilson's story because the cohort's story about Brown putting his hands up and begging not to be shot fit closer with the way things usually happened in Ferguson.
It just so happened that, in that particular case, the officer was innocent. It happens.
And that, my friends, is the problem we now need to face in a nutshell. It happens; it happens far too often. We need to start gettin’ a handle on that one.
Really I could produce such proof already but the crash we have in store will be a much better piece of evidence.
Are you talking financial crash due to strain on the social safety net from more demand or are you talking violence due to lack of integration of new immigrants?
And, he wasn't black. A lot of what passes for racial bias is actually class based criteria. (Enough of it's racial, don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting that, but a lot of it has to do with against just whom do the cops think they can get away with stuff.) I can switch from my car (says ‘money’ to a cop) to the old beater pickup, change clothes to match the change in rides, and basically be somebody else in their eyes. They'll treat me different. It can go from guns drawn and ‘outta the vehicle; hands first’ to a rap on the window and ‘do you know why I stopped you sir?’.
I've had both happen in the same week--different rides. And different clothes.
"The clothes make the man" type of thing. People tend to judge too much by outside appearances. And I don't just mean shade of skin. The police are no different. This is certainly not exclusive to the US.
Certainly not. It is, however, a problem in the US. It's a rather more serious and widespread problem than the privileged whites generally recognize. (The police try to hide it from them as that brings on civilian review boards and other accountability stuff like that, stuff not favored by the police officers' associations.)
It's a rather more serious and widespread problem than the privileged whites generally recognize.
I think it's the "Pleasantville" effect, people who live in the perfectly manicured neighborhoods don't really see the real world. Although, while I don't include myself in that group, I have never been on the receiving end, so far anyway, of any type of police misconduct.
39 comments:
A World of Faith, Sharing One Space
A lesson to be learned, perhaps?
Happy Easter everybody! Now in this year of 2015 let us remember the institutionalised crimes against humanity by the USA just a few years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxHEI603bF4
You break it, then you break it some more, then you demolish it completely. Way to go!
You break it, then you break it some more, then you demolish it completely. Way to go!
I just finished watching your video, Marcus, which was produced by Guardian Films. I assume they are the same people that produce The Guardian in the UK?
The film revisits things we have discussed in the past over at Zeyad's. I don't know much about James Steele, or his job in Iraq, but the film was certainly intent on implying any number of things. From what I gathered from the film, though, the phrase "fighting terror with terror" was coined by an Iraqi, not an American.
Was the US responsible for the sectarian war that developed in Iraq? I think that to be an over the top assessment of the facts on the ground, even the narrator in the film was labeling the insurgency that developed after the invasion as a "Sunni" insurgency. That you could find Shia willing to fight against them was in itself evidence of ill will from the past.
I found it rather interesting that the general who helped set up the police commando unit was a Sunni general who worked for Saddam.
We made mistakes, that is true, but others played a vital role in the mess that Iraq turned into.
Lee,
I watched the documentary "The Bible's Buried Secrets" last night. It was on YouTube. It seemed to contain some subject matter that I had discussed with a co-worker in the past, particularly the apparent multiple writers of the Bible.
Whether or not you believe that the Bible is the word of God or not, it is an important historical document.
I think right now Iraqis have more important things on their minds.
They did another one that I thought was better. It was replayed back around Christmas--called "From Jesus to Christ". Four hours on the first four Gospels. If you liked that one at all I'd recommend "From Jesus to Christ" much higher.
Post Script:
I think it was "Frontline", rather than NOVA; subtitled "The First Christians".
Speaking of Frontline, they're doing an hour on Yemen tonight.
Yemen? Oh, lucky I checked in today, that sounds like something I'd like to watch.
That piece that Frontline did on the Rise of ISIS that I used for the blog has been changed to requiring a payment to watch it. I think it's a nominal amount of around $2.99, but my first thought was they'll try to make money on anything, even something that was originally broadcast for free viewing over the air. *shrug* Oh well, I think whoever wanted to view it through the blog was able to do so while it was still free.
I'll have to check into the other documentary you mentioned, maybe a little later when I have more time to relax in front of the TV. I want to start that book too. What I'm finding interesting is putting the biblical stories in the context of the period.
I'm a little over a third of the way through "We Are Anonymous". It is interesting reading. I ran across the story of how one of the "hacktivists" brought down the Tunisian Prime Minister's website by using someone's computer within the country, albeit with his permission and help. This was at the beginning of the Arab Spring protests in that country. Unfortunately the guy in Tunisia was arrested. Something the Anonymous hacker didn't seem to consider the possibility of beforehand or show much concern about afterward. Don't know what happened to the Tunisian guy. A prank is one thing, getting someone killed is another.
Watched the Yemen piece. All it did was reinforce the fear that this is rapidly becoming a regional sectarian war.
That new white cop / black suspect shooting in the states sure does look like an execution:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/us/south-carolina-officer-is-charged-with-murder-in-black-mans-death.html?_r=0
I can't see that resulting in anything other than a murder charge followed by a conviction.
Although one case should have no bearing on another one it does make you wonder what would have been revealed if the Brown-shooting had been filmed.
In any case this is real bad and it will for certain cement the view among many african americans that the police is a hostile and racist force.
"…this is rapidly becoming a regional sectarian war."
That can't be right. Marcus and Guardian Films have assured us that Muslim sectarianism is the result of ‘institutionalized crimes against humanity by the USA’. Ain't been any USA in those Houthi mountains.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
"… it does make you wonder what would have been revealed if the
Brown-shooting had been filmed."
It is too bad the Brown shooting wasn't caught on film. The autopsies (plural) made it pretty clear that kid was charging the cop for a second round of hand-to-hand when he was shot. Would have been a lot of trouble averted if they'd had that on film.
"…it will for certain cement the view among many african americans
that the police is a hostile and racist force."
Depending on the area, they already think that or they don't. Local cop shot a white guy in the back near here, just last year--damn near same circumstances. Made barely a ripple except locally because they were both white, and the victim lived. Sometimes it ain't racial, just a bad cop.
Cop in South Carolina has already been charged with murder, just by the way.
"[Russia], frankly, is not especially fond of democracy. That’s the main
reason for Putin’s enduring popularity."
Leonid Gozman
Lee, with regards to Russia's and Russians sentiments to the USA I believe the disastorous 90's play a huge part. The "shoch therapy" where 15-20 Oligarchs plundered that entire nation while the people saw their previously meagre earnings and savings dwindle into nothing is still fresh o their minds.
They, rightfully so, link that shock therapy to the US and the west in general. And they do NOT want it back.
The russians in general live much, much better under Putin than they ever did under Jeltsin. And they see Jeltsin as having been a pawn for the US and international coorporations. With Putin they are also feared, which seems to bring some pride into nations (look no further than your own).
So really, can you blame them for siding with Putin? If not for him they believe the west has another Jeltsin in store for them (and they're most likely right).
"They, rightfully so, link that shock therapy to the US and the west
in general."
I believe that was mostly Sweden's fault. You guys were sittin’ right next door and didn't do a damn thing to stop it.
"With Putin they are also feared, which seems to bring some pride
into nations.
You are oddly tolerant of that when it's facists that're being prideful, but then again, that's a Swedish tradition, is it not?
And, I would suggest that Russians are tolerant of autocratic regimes because they're Russians, and that's what they've always known, and that what they're used to having. Citizenship can be something of a bother, and that's never been much in vogue in Russia.
Although one case should have no bearing on another one...
This is true. A just society will not judge one person by another's actions.
In any case this is real bad and it will for certain cement the view among many african americans that the police is a hostile and racist force.
I think Lee is right, this will make very little difference in what people already think. They have made up their minds one way or another.
Certainly racism is still a problem here in the states at times. But it is not fair to color everyone by the actions of others. And that includes the police force in its entirety. You will find good people there as well as the bad.
U.S. weapons could serve as the same kind of deterrents that the nuclear arsenals of the superpowers were for several decades.
Apparently there are Russians who are not totally against the US involving itself in Ukraine, though.
I have been playing a bit with the blog. I found a site with some interesting articles, so I added a new category(Sites of Interest) to the sidebar providing a link for your convenience, if you are interested.
"…so I added a new category (Sites of Interest)…"
You don't think opening with Radio Free Europe is a little provocative for Marcus?
There are several things that could be said about race relations in the United States (especially with the police). Obligitories are that things are better than they used to be and are getting better faster, and that we ain't quite there yet.
Some things not obligitory, and often not said at all are that everybody's got a tendency towards bigotry and prejudice. Tribalism, clannishness is an inborn human trait. It has (or at least had) strong survival value in early human evolution and even in later human evolution. It's bred in the bones. Like many evolutionary traits, it's not got near the value in civilized society that it had in pre-civilized days, and a good part of being civilized is just getting over our latent neandertal tendencies such as racial prejudices.
Something else not often said is that Americans are actually less racially and ethnically prejudiced than most other people and most other cultures, including those self-righteous bastards in western Europe who like to babble on about American racism. When the French elect a Muslim or a Jew as President, ya'll get back to me on that. Or the Swedes pick either for Prime Minister for that matter. Or the Germans… (The Brits have actually elected a Jewish Prime Minister, but he had to officially convert to Anglican before they'd pretend to believe he wasn't still a Jew so they could elect him without too much groveling over the matter.)
♫♪everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Someone to be better than at any time they choose
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me
♪♫Some folks hate the Whites who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan
Most of us hate anything that we don't understand
♫♪'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Someone to be better than at any time they choose
Someone doin' somethin' dirty decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me♪♫
Kris Kristofferson -- Jesus was a Capricorn
You don't think opening with Radio Free Europe is a little provocative for Marcus?
Nope. :) Besides, no one has to look at the sites if they are not interested. I am also thinking of adding a book site.
I was actually just going to post a link to one of the articles, but then realized that there were more in depth articles about regions that I don't normally read about on CNN or other American news sites. So I thought I would share with anyone who was interested.
Lee:
"Something else not often said is that Americans are actually less racially and ethnically prejudiced than most other people and most other cultures, including those self-righteous bastards in western Europe who like to babble on about American racism."
It might be so. But a difference is we Europeans tend to live in a country we feel we have an historical right to and for good reason. We swedes for instance have been living here for a couple thousand years and feel this is OUR country (well, at least most of us do).
Ya'll know very well that ya'lls history and claim to the land you now live on is not so very rosy and clear cut. You're a descendant of western Europe yourself, whether you like it or not, and live on largely stolen property.
You try going to japan and becoming "japanese" or to China and becoming "chinese" or to Thailand and becoming "thai". You'll fast learn that the in the vast majority of countries the people and the land are linked in the minds of the inhabitants, and that your so called multicultural society is an abberation on this globe.
And then look inward at your own "multiculturalism" and tell us how well that's actually working if you're completely honest, and give us one good goddamned reason why we should strive to follow in your footsteps towards that end.
And, for that matter, I never made any allegations about "american racism". I merely posted a link to this new story and said it would likeely cement the view about racist white cops among many blacks. And I really don't think you'd disagree with that.
And I said I saw the movie as a clear cut execution annd that the policeman should be charged with murder. And I don't think you'd disagree with that either.
So I didn't say anything really that you have grounds for disagreeing with. But you had to go and make a US/Euro-bruhaha about it. Well guess what hillbillyboy - ya ain't winnin' that one.
On another matter, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etXAm-OylQQ
"I never made any allegations about ‘american racism’."
And I did not name you as one of the self-righteous bastards to whom I referred. However, as you seem eager to claim the prize of place for yourself…
"You're a descendant of western Europe yourself, whether you like it or
not, and live on largely stolen property."
You live on stolen property too. The fact that your tribe overran the locals some 2000 years ago rather than 200 years ago doesn't change that. The main difference is we Americans didn't wipe out the aboriginal people and their memory; there's more ‘Indians’ in America now than there were when the 13 colonies first declared their independence from the British crown (and I'm not even counting the ‘breeds’ who do not claim tribal memberships). And, instead of forgetting them we made nostalgic, semi-heroic movies about them, which much of the rest of the world mistakes for American history.
However, I'm far more intrigued by your fairly clear-cut denunciation of the very notion of a multi-racial society. I truly believe that, in a world fast becoming ‘smaller’ and less insular by the day, we will both find that my society, based as it is on ideas rather than ethnicity, will eventually replace yours. Or, to put it another way, your society will wither and die, and ours will inevitably move into the vacuum. Someday ‘Sweden’ will be little more than a theme park.
The process is, as we have both noted, not entirely seamless, nor painless, but ‘yeah’, we are gonna win that one in the end.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
The word ‘execution’ usually implies there is some sort of social or political point to be made or advantage to be had. That looks to me to just be a pissed off cop thought he could get away with killing folks who pissed him off. I'd call that an impulse murder, rather than an execution. Bad cop. Happily, the locals are getting on top of it. They had him off the payroll before the sun went down on the first showing of that clip, and him in a striped prison suit, sitting in the county jail. They've indicated there may be other cops in trouble depending on who may or may not have tried to cover for the offending officer, assuming they find any evidence of that, but they're making it public already that they're looking into that too
And then look inward at your own "multiculturalism" and tell us how well that's actually working if you're completely honest,...
Actually it's working better than you might think. The link I provided in the first comment in this section is an example of at least one place where it does work. No, we're not perfect by any means, but nor are we failing.
You're a descendant of western Europe yourself, whether you like it or not, and live on largely stolen property.
It's a big country, Marcus, there's lots of room for everyone. The problem was the clash of civilizations.
Oops, I was going to write more but I had to make a phone call.
Night.
Lynnette, Lee,
You might tire too if your country was striving to forever be the "humanitarian great power" in this world. Like giving the most foreign aid per capita:
http://www.oecd.org/development/development-aid-stable-in-2014-but-flows-to-poorest-countries-still-falling.htm
Like we're richer than Luxembourg and have more to spend on others than they do? Yeah right.
And on top of that (and much worse) is we're receiving the most refugees per capita (excluding neighboring nations) by a wide margin.
If ya'll took our levels of refugees and paid our levels of foreign aid it would simply bankrupt ya'll in a generation or less. We in Sweden have more to draw on since we can temporarily finance this with cuts in our massive wellfare sector. But we'll hit a brick wall here. I have no doubt about that.
If we can keep this blog going for another 5 years I will have solid proof of how bad this development has been for Sweden. Really I could produce such proof already but the crash we have in store will be a much better piece of evidence.
Hmmm, switching to the mess Sweden's making of itself these days are we?
I'll make a brief closing then on the American racial discussion--specifically, on Michael Brown and the Ferguson situation.
Michael Brown was a bad choice for a posterboy for police brutality against blacks. Brown had just committed a strong-arm robbery, and he attacked the cop when the cop tried to question him. (Think on this: Brown went for the officer's gun before the officer ever cleared the car. Brown had ‘backup’ on hand, he had his cohort from the strong-arm robbery with him. Officer Wilson was alone. Brown turned and charged the officer after the officer had un-holstered his pistol. Basic police training says to put the guy down in that situation--it's life and death. He gets his hand on your gun arm again, just your arm, he doesn't have to get the gun itself right away, you're probably dead--he's got reinforcements on hand and you're still alone.)
Around here what Brown did would get a white boy shot--no questions.
But, Ferguson had a rather nasty police/public dynamic going on for some years. The black population, knowing quite well the way the police usually treated them, assumed the Brown shooting fit the more common mold of the cops riding roughshod over the people. They didn't believe Officer Wilson's story because the cohort's story about Brown putting his hands up and begging not to be shot fit closer with the way things usually happened in Ferguson.
It just so happened that, in that particular case, the officer was innocent. It happens.
And that, my friends, is the problem we now need to face in a nutshell. It happens; it happens far too often. We need to start gettin’ a handle on that one.
Really I could produce such proof already but the crash we have in store will be a much better piece of evidence.
Are you talking financial crash due to strain on the social safety net from more demand or are you talking violence due to lack of integration of new immigrants?
That looks to me to just be a pissed off cop thought he could get away with killing folks who pissed him off.
Bad cop
The latest being in California with the guy who stole the horse, although he wasn't killed.
And, he wasn't black. A lot of what passes for racial bias is actually class based criteria. (Enough of it's racial, don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting that, but a lot of it has to do with against just whom do the cops think they can get away with stuff.) I can switch from my car (says ‘money’ to a cop) to the old beater pickup, change clothes to match the change in rides, and basically be somebody else in their eyes. They'll treat me different.
It can go from guns drawn and ‘outta the vehicle; hands first’ to a rap on the window and ‘do you know why I stopped you sir?’.
I've had both happen in the same week--different rides. And different clothes.
"The clothes make the man" type of thing. People tend to judge too much by outside appearances. And I don't just mean shade of skin. The police are no different. This is certainly not exclusive to the US.
"This is certainly not exclusive to the US."
Certainly not. It is, however, a problem in the US. It's a rather more serious and widespread problem than the privileged whites generally recognize. (The police try to hide it from them as that brings on civilian review boards and other accountability stuff like that, stuff not favored by the police officers' associations.)
It's a rather more serious and widespread problem than the privileged whites generally recognize.
I think it's the "Pleasantville" effect, people who live in the perfectly manicured neighborhoods don't really see the real world. Although, while I don't include myself in that group, I have never been on the receiving end, so far anyway, of any type of police misconduct.
Sounds like the FBI is investigating the case in California.
Hmmm...that horse didn't like that guy riding him.
Well, I'm off to do my endless round of errands for Saturday...
Nervous riders make for nervous horses. If it's also an unknown rider it can make for a resentful horse.
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