In Other News

[-Jrabbit]

The George Floyd protests were a heartfelt, emotional reaction against systemic racism and police brutality - both things that are against the principles set forth in our founding documents (as amended).

The Jan6 insurrection (with many participants being similarly heartfelt and emotional) was about the outgoing administration denying the legal, legitimate transfer of power to the winning party in the 2020 Presidential election - something that is in direct opposition to the principles on which our democracy is based.

One was a natural, outraged reaction to the public murder, for no reason, of a black suspect by a white cop, demanding justice and equality.
The other was a coordinated attempt by those in power to illegally deny the rightful outcome of the election.

They are in no way comparable on any level.

[-Jrabbit]

So, just to be clear: Dinner evaluates civil unrest by comparing insurance dollars, and is fine with attacking the US Capitol, disrupting the smooth transfer of power, and destroying democracy in the process.

[BeBMan]

Great effort to avoid the point. "Both groups" didn't try to overturn a free and fair election because the sitting pres didn't like the outcome. "Both groups" also didn't want to hang Mike Pence, for that matter.

[Berzerker]

Whataboutism is what Jesus did to the Pharisees when he asked if they were sinless. What about you, was his point. So if BLM and Antifa make riots fashionable they cant complain about a MAGA riot, especially one that targeted the government. That applies to all the people who defended, condoned, or enabled last year's riots and there were plenty of Democrats who did that, apparently even our VP bailed rioters out of jail. Pelosi said people will do what people do in response to riots but now she's outraged. I think Jesus would be asking her about double standards. Maybe she should have committed the resources at her disposal to preventing a riot, it looks almost like she was inviting them in.

If this is about justice, treat both groups of rioters by the same standard. So far the courts have handed out sentences I'd expect for rioters vandalizing govt property, not insurrectionists storming the capital in a coup. So if Milley wants to compare this to Nazi Germany, how did he feel about months of pre-election riots designed to win the WH last year? Now the Democrats who were caught conspiring with BLM to coordinate protests across the country if Trump won want to talk about insurrection?

[BeBMan]

If you think Jan 6 was worse, lets ask the black lives who lost jobs because Walgreens and Walmart just to name a couple are gone. Lets ask the old timers who needed those stores to get their food and medication. Jan 6 was a blip on the radar, last years riots ruined innumerable lives, black lives... BLM ghettos. If we want businesses to go back in the local taxpayers will have to underwrite the risk because I cant imagine banks and insurance companies doing it.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/15/mark...iden-book.html

“They may try, but they’re not going to f------ succeed,” Milley said of a possible government takeover in conversation with his closest deputies, according to the book.

“You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns,” he said.

The general, having listened to Trump spread an array of baseless conspiracy theories and false claims of fraud throughout the final weeks of his term, had drawn parallels with the rise of nazism in 20th century Germany, the book said.

“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides in early January, according to the book. “The gospel of the Fuhrer.”

(...)

Leonnig and Rucker describe Milley as being shaken after a Nov. 10 phone call with an old friend, who warned him, “What they’re trying to do here is overturn the government.”

“This is all real, man. You are one of the few guys who are standing between us and some really bad stuff,” the friend told Milley, who later shared the exchange with his aides, the book says.

Milley then reached out to former Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security advisor from 2017 to 2018. “What the f--- am I dealing with?” Milley asked, according to the book.

“You’re dealing with some of the weirdest s--- ever,” McMaster reportedly replied.

Seems the guy in the Pentagon found it serious enough to evoke comparisons to 1930ies Germany. But hey, he' just a general, what would he know 'bout violence and stuff, as opposed to a stable genius like Trump.

[Dinner]

And yet it is at least 100 times what the 1/6th riot caused and you claim that is so important and lie claiming it was something other than a riot by a few stupid people. I guess it is ok to riot, loot, and burn as long as you are left wing, dunce.

[Uncle Sparky]

Since certain posters are invisible to me, I'm not sure what you are responding to; however, I would like to see a lot less money for police attack helicopters, armored personnel carriers, and mechanical infantry, and see that money go to poverty relief programs, social workers, education, and mental (and in the states general) health care workers.
I know the American capitalist system needs a slave, or slave wage, working class to function. However, if they are educated, and have easy access to firepower, the system is untenable no matter which of the two center right parties are governing.
Both parties have done everything they can to dismantle unions, but forget collective bargaining became the accepted compromise to shooting underperforming workers who in turn would occasionally kill the factory owners in front of their families.

[giblets]

2 billion? That's 1/10000 of the USA's GDP. Clearly, we need to overhaul the legal system to give the police and district attorneys more power.

[-Jrabbit]

Oh, but it is. According to Russian writer, chess grandmaster and political activist Garry Kasparov, "whataboutism" is a word that was coined to describe the frequent use of a rhetorical diversion by Soviet apologists and dictators, who would counter charges of their oppression, massacres, gulags, and forced deportations by invoking American slavery, racism, lynchings, etc. - without directly refuting or disproving the argument under discussion.

When the discussion is about Jan6 and your reply is "what about the George Floyd riots," that is, in fact, pure whataboutism - a transparent attempt to change the topic. It is totally irrelevant to a discussion of the attempt at overturning election results.

[Dinner]

Comparing damages from riots is not whataboutism. It is relevant data for comparing how bad certain riots are compared to other. I understand you dislike these truths but they are still true and relevant as they are the same topic.

[Dinner]

Do you have an estimate of the total property damage caused by the 2000 highly destructive rioters?

We know that the insurance claims liability was $2 billion as of May of last year (so only about half the riots). Of course, that does not include damages for anyone not insured or under insured in excess of their insured amount. Thus the real costs are going to be much, much, much higher.

[SlowwHand]

My grandfather told me that all bankers, lawyers and morticians need to burn in Hell.
All these decades later, I understand.

[-Jrabbit]

Dude, you are still comparing them. It's whataboutism at its finest -- changing the discussion to avoid addressing the actual issues at hand.
Kid would be so proud.

[Berzerker]

eh, I'm sure we already have a national program for bribing businesses to set up shop in impoverished communities

we should send the bill to BLM

[Uncle Sparky]

Banks and insurance companies are criminal cabals anyway. They should be burnt to the ground.