johnnybangkok

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Come on NRA, transfer the funds to the BLM to devolve the police so we can have an anarchy state

It’s defunding. If you’re going to spout then at least get the terminology right. 

1 minute ago, CorpusChristie said:

Although this is a thread about peoples paranormal experiences and its not about whether paranormal things  can happen or not 

Sure. Who doesn't love a good ghost story. Not real of course but a good story nonetheless.

14 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Do your own research if you are actually interested rather than being argumentative.

Not being particularly argumentative but when you come up with a sweeping statement like 'There are many, many things that science is unable to explain' I would counter that science has been able to explain pretty much everything, but if you really believe this then it shouldn't be a problem for you to name a few of these 'things'. Look I'll even get you started https://www.sciencealert.com/9-phenomena-that-science-still-can-t-explain but I would also counter these are really small, individual things and the really big things, the universe, the observable world, religion, ghosts etc have been pretty much explained.

P.S. Don't take things so personally. It is an open forum for discussion after all.

10 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

Too simplistic. There are many, many things that science is unable to explain. We're still learning and no doubt have a very long way to go.

Name 10 things that science is unable to explain?

In 1964 the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) offered to pay out one million U.S. dollars to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scientific testing criteria. Over a thousand people applied to take it, but in the 51 years it was going, not a single person could prove that paranormal/supernatural activity was real……and that was with a $1 million incentive. Due to a complete lack of evidence, the challenge was terminated in 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Dollar_Paranormal_Challenge

17 hours ago, utalkin2me said:

Nice argument. I suppose people dying on roads just are not quite as important, huh? Supposedly so, according to you. That must be your stance, whether you know it or not. 

 

The reason these "false equivalencies" need to be repeated, is you all do not seem to understand the first, or second, or third.... time you hear them. The writing is on the wall, Sweden did nothing and has pulled out and recovered from this as fast as anyone. In other words, this seems to need repeating, Sweden did nothing... they did not close their roads or their economy. And, they are recovered. You see how easy that is? 

The reason this is a false equivalent is pretty obvious; we have safety standards regarding road usage (speed limits, seat belts, no alcohol) and no one complains because it is seen as a way to mitigate the horrendous loss of life we still see. However, when we talk about proven methods regarding mitigating loss of life for C19 (lockdows, face-masks, testing, isolating etc), for some reason these are to be ignored for the sake of the economy. 

And Sweden has not 'pulled out and recovered'. They have one of the largest deaths per population, coming in at 6th on the list https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/, so hardly a beacon for all to emulate.

I have said this many, many times on this forum but will reiterate it once again for those that want to listen. The way to handle this and similar pandemics have been in place for quite some time.

Taiwan (458 cases, 7 deaths) and South Korea (14,000 cases, 258 deaths), acted early and decisively, quickly putting in travel restrictions followed by screenings, identifying, tracing and strict quarantining. They never waited around for a non-existant herd immunity to emerge (Swedens method and one that is only reasonably plausible once a vacine has been found) and admirably, didn't ruin their economies as they didn't lock down. 

If you are looking for the correct way to handle this pandemic, look no further than Taiwan and S. Korea. These are the beacons that should be emulated.

2 hours ago, Deli said:

1st of all... never forget who brought this misery to the world !

 

However, how many of these deceased who have died anyhow soon coz of excisting pre-conditions ?

700.000 of 8 billion people... how many will die of the side effects due to lockdowns and restrictions ?

How many will suffer mental problems due to poverty, broken up families, etc. due to caused economical problems due to restrictions ? All this costs billions of $ to fix, if it can be fixed.

Wake up and get your real life back.

 

And never forget America brought the Spanish Flu to the world whilst you are gleefully killing people for the sake of the economy

37 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

 

 

 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/protest-portland-violence-attack-journalist

 

https://nypost.com/2020/06/08/portland-police-chief-jami-resch-quits-taps-black-cop-as-replacement/

 

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1210871/portland-arizona-texas-blm-protesters-garrett-foster/

 

 

Nothing to see here folks, yes I stated the cities are burning, the violence continues. Nothing to see here folks, nothing but peaceful protesters.

 

For some reason you're obsessed with "cities are burning" they are...Portland is still burning, show proof it;s all over across America. Show me the violence and destruction is over. You can't, you can reference ultra left news showing all is well I'll bet.

 

Go find someone else to be obsessed with......

 

Kum 

Bah Yah America..... 

One more time for the people at the back; if Portland is burning, name 5 buildings that have burned? 

35 minutes ago, utalkin2me said:

About 1.4 million people die every year on roads and highways. Maybe we should close those down to all but what those in power deem "essential". 

 

It is very comical that everyone understands shutting down roads to save 1.4 million lives a year is stupid. Yet nobody understand that shutting down the entire earth to save about 1 million lives (in the first year) is moronic. 

And the prize for todays most obvious false equivalence goes to...............

47 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

 

I never said the city was burning.I said there were riots. Portland isn't Minneapolis.

I wasn't talking about you. EvenKeel said cities were burning

This is for the benefit of Cryingdick, Ozin Pattaya, EvenKeel and the one that loves Thai Beaches.

This subject demonstrates quite succinctly the different approaches from opposing arguments. The frustration when hearing your thoughts (and they are valid sometimes) is your tendancy to have such black and white (pun intended) views on what are quite nuanced subjects. You argue that 'cities are burning' and 'dems can't maintain law and order' by assuming we are advocating the violence and destruction going on by a minority of protestors. This is just simply not the case as no one is condoning the hooligan element obviously present at these demonstrations but what we are saying is a measured approach is required (one that the 6 mayors are advocating) that doesn't incite even more trouble. This is what the facts are saying; yes there is vandalism and trouble (although not nearly as much as you are trying to make out) but the protests where subsiding and petering out (as often these things do) until Trump added fuel to the fire by ordering a heavy handed federal incursion that does nothing to help the situation other than get his own base fired up yet again and distract the populace from his terrible handing of the C19 pandemic.

The 6 mayors are people who know what is best for their cities and they are all saying they don't want federal help because their approach is de-escalating the problem rather that Trumps approach which is not. This is now bearing fruit with Portland courthouse area seeing its smallest crowd in four days and more importantly, those present remained peaceful through the course of the night with no violent agitators apparent therein.  https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/08/03/portland-riots-read-out-august-3 . This of course can be put down to the use of Federal forces but is likely just to be the petering out of these protests.

And correct me if I'm wrong (I've scowered several news sites for verification) but apart from Portland, I cannot see any other troubles in any other US city (I'm not 100% on this so would happily be corrected if not true).

Big problems require nuanced solutions so when you are cherry picking scenarios to back up your narrative, please remember there is more than one way to skin a cat, something that many of us understand but many of you don't.

Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

12 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

You mean the NY Post is fake news, OMG

Yes. That's exactly what we mean.

33 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

Everything I posted was correct as taken from the news. I just think it will be great entertainment if Seattle is able to start the defund process.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/defunding-seattle-police-what-will-council-propose-and-will-mayor-durkan-agree/ar-BB16QEHI

 

Before long they'll be hiring cops for minimum wage. No guns, just a flashlight and a whistle. Sort of like the UK from what I've been told.

 

You could do a lot worse than emulate the Uk police. Only 4% of homicides in the Uk are due to gun crime resulting in a fraction of gun detahs compared to the US. Obviously the UK has very strict gun laws but importantly, UK police don't carry guns (unless in special units deployed for terrorism etc) and therefore are very well versed in de-escelating problems rather than the shoot first ask questions later doctrine of the US. 

Importantly, police in the UK are not called on for every small problem going as you have a wealth of social services linked to the free NHS. This allows them to police and focus on 'proper' crime rather than getting bogged down with issues better suited to other professionals.

1 minute ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Well put and explained....

 

I personally don't have an informed opinion on whether the 50% plan is a good one for Seattle, since I don't live there and am not very familiar with their local circumstances.

 

But I will say one thing -- if any city/jurisdiction's law enforcement agency persists in illegally brutalizing its own citizens, engaging in violence against peaceful protesters and observers, following racist/discriminatory policing practices... then... the most direct and obvious way citizens have to get their attention and enact reforms is through the police budgeting process... 

 

After all, it IS the public and citizens of those communities who are paying their salaries, and whom they're supposedly sworn to protect, not to abuse.

 

Exactly. The main point though is getting the right people to do the right job. Currently in most US cities the police are called for ANY problem and since they are first of all armed and secondly not trained particularly well to de-esculate problems, it then comes as no surprise that so many people get shot for very little reason.  

We get told constantly that a few bad apples can't be held up as representative of the majority but the situations themselves are often the problem with individuals with mental health problems being treated as hardened criminals and of course bcause there is a disproportionate of crime committed by black people (it's true so you might as well get it out in the open) again ALL black people are treated as hardened criminals.

Seattle is a very good case in point. The police budget for 2020 is a staggering $400 million. A large part of this budget could be directed at areas that would better serve the community whilst still maintaining a proportionate police precence that is actually there to serve and protect.

The solutions are all there. It just takes the political will to move towards them.  

If anyone is interested, this is defunding the police explained  

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/19/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CDefund%20the%20police%E2%80%9D%20means%20reallocating,It's%20that%20simple.&text=And%2C%20even%20some%20who%20say,away%20with%20law%20enforcement%20altogether.