Hanaguma

Brian, the real problem is police violence in general, not the race element. The police kill about 1,000 civilians every year. Of those, about 14 are unarmed black people. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/police-black-killings-homicide-rates-race-injustice Black Americans are also more than 10 times more likely to be victims of homicide in general, and most often at the hands of another black person. Another point that gets ignored in the stampede to paint this as a racial problem. Black cops kill a black man in a majority black city with a black police chief and a black mayor, and the most important issue is race?!? Come on, man.

Also you have to think of the cost of disposing of solar panels and batteries, A nuclear plant can last a century- can a wind farm? No easy answers, especially when the so-called "renewables" all rely on strip mining for their materials, and on China for their manufacture.

The US pours billions into a LOT of places- Jordan and Egypt together get as much money as Israel, for example. Ukraine is getting a ridiculous amount IMHO, but that is not relevant here. One might ask why Arab countries don't do the same for the Palestinians- more than 75% of aid comes from western/European countries. Seems the Arabs and Israelis can at least agree on that one point- that the Palestinians are a pain in the neck. And the "who was there first" argument is a non starter. Both groups have been there for centuries, and part of larger empires (from Roman to Ottoman) for centuries as well. I guess two large differences are that: Israel is a functioning democracy (and the surrounding states are not), and that Israel respects human and minority rights far more than the surrounding nations. Try being Jewish or LGBT in Egypt or Saudi Arabia!

Lovely idea, except for the cost to the environment of producing thousands of solar panels and batteries. Plus, where do they actually come from? Something tells me....China? Not a good idea to have parts of your energy infrastructure dependent on China for spare parts. I would say a better plan is using nuclear power, with home made facilities and uranium from the US or Canada.

You could always queue up nice and polite, like our Indian brothers...

Sadly, to far too many people Israel is not "just another country", it is a target. How many other countries get told that they do not have any right to exist? That are threatened with extermination? I don't condone every excess of the Israeli police and military, but there is a certain level of justified paranoia in their behavior.

As a card carrying member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, I am going to have to go ahead and agree with you completely. Naming a police unit "Scorpions"? Sounds more like a gang name to me than a group of men who will protect the public from crime. You are right, the mindset of policing needs to change, as well as the training.

Could you be a bit more specific, I am not sure what you are referencing. What class of people are being made invisible? How? And please show the link to genocide.

Nice to see Godwin's Law enter the discussion. I am sure it is a valuable rabbit hole to dive down. Of course the similarities between asking that elementary school aged children not be exposed to sexual/mature themes in books and burning titles written by a particular religion are obvious...

I generally agree with you and also I do support law enforcement. However... The attitude of "every time you knock on a door you may be killed on the spot" is the basis of the problem . There should be NO training for that attitude whatsoever. Treating the general public like the enemy, not like your employer, is the anathema of good policing. Besides, overall, police don't even rank in the top ten most dangerous jobs in the US. Truck drivers die more, as do loggers, roofers, even farmers. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-police-officers-die-in-the-line-of-duty/ And a big problem is that the "men in blue" are no longer in blue. They are in black, or in cammo. Neither of which are very conducive to being a peace officer. And yes, better and longer training is absolutely needed. In Memphis, standards have been lowered and lowered until thugs like these guys made it onto the Force. Better pay, better training, better screening of applicants, learning de-escalation tactics, all can make a difference.

Standards were being lowered year on year- two of the accused joined the department in 2020 and could not have qualified in earlier years. Yet in just 2 years of police service they managed to get promoted to an elite special unit? The rot begins at the fishes' head.

On a local level, the Memphis Police have been in trouble for a while. Lots of officers quitting and retired, very low recruitment numbers, basically scraping the bottom of the barrel to get numbers up to even a minimal level. Even so, why were these 5 members of an elite anti-drug squad making a simple traffic stop?

As someone who taught online during the lockdown, I will have to respectfully disagree. Not saying that online is as good as in-class, but it does provide a window into what the teachers are teaching, and how they teach it, as well as the materials they choose.

Never said they won a majority, but their taking more votes than any of the other parties was as irrelevant as the Democrats getting more votes than the GOP in 2016. There is no such thing as "combining the vote" either. Trudeau won. So did Trump. End of.

At risk of derailing the thread, both 2016 candidates knew going in how the Electoral College system worked. It was no surprise to either. There is no such thing as "winning the popular vote" because it doesn't matter. It would be akin to losing a chess match due to checkmate, but claiming victory because you took more pawns than your opponent. Or a baseball team claiming victory because it got more hits (but fewer runs) than the winning team. Hillary lost because her campaign was <deleted>. She was arrogant and overconfident. And Trump won.

...and that would make a difference in what way? The victims would deserve killing more?

Trump lost? Surely you mean in 2020. Because the 2016 results were clear. One might also call the parliamentary system archaic, since in Canada for the past two elections the winner of the popular vote did not become Prime Minister.

The Harry Potter books are getting attacked from a new source now, thanks to the widespread criticism of JK Rowlings as a transphobic TERF...

Scott; I gotta tell ya, some Japanese comics are pretty........... risque, to say the least! I think a big part of the problem for schools is that, during the Covid lockdowns, parents got a long look into what was happening in classrooms across the country. And were less than impressed. There has been a grassroots movement to get local schoolboards to have more parental involvement, and also to have a bit more balanced representation on the boards themselves.

The F-150 Lightning is great, as long as you don't want to use it as a pick up truck. As soon as you carry something, tow something, it becomes an expensive paperweight. Towing a relatively light trailer dropped the range to 100 miles (with the big battery). In cold climates, the battery's performance is even worse. If you use it as a penile extension to go to the golf club or to Walmart, it's a great vehicle. If you want a truck, look elsewhere.

I don't disagree with you, but the choice should also be "better trained and better led cops". The standards to join the police in the US are too low, frankly. In Canada there are very few police officers who did not at least attend college- one of my uni roommates became a cop after finishing an undergraduate degree in law. In Ontario the basic training is 20 weeks, followed by a year of practicum at a department, under constant supervision by an experienced officer. Sure being a cop is a dangerous job, but that is known going in. It requires a commitment to stay calm and keep a cool head under trying circumstances. A higher standard than should be expected from the public at large. Getting angry, using profanity, making threats of unwarranted violence, all should be unacceptable. It is, after all, a public service job. If you want fun with guns, join the military. Body cameras are great...but in this encounter two of the officers switched their cameras off, and one had the camera knocked off during the struggle. Only 2 cameras were recording. There are also many cases where police switch off their cameras or turn the sound off so they can discuss things with other officers on scene. This is unacceptable.

Let's imagine this is true. So then, the Jews and the Arabs fought it out for control. The Arabs lost. Couldn't deal with it so they tried again and again, and kept losing. By this point, they should be grateful that Israel is so forgiving and peaceful.

Did it in Chiang Mai on a visa waiver. Bangkok Bank, Siam TV branch. We did get our TM30 forms done by the condo we rented (AirBnB) and also Residency Certificates with the assist of an agency. After that we tried a couple of branches. One just said no, one wanted us to buy some BS insurance policy for nearly 6,000 baht, the one we finally went to was absolutely fabulous. Bank books, ATM cards, all in about 45 minutes.

"Just comply" . With whom? When you have 4 or 5 angry cops screaming contradictory and impossible directions, there is no right answer for the person being detained. Particularly in a case like this, where the initial contact was for a very minor traffic infraction. Seems obvious that this is an extreme case of revenge for Tyre's "contempt of cop" actions. When two officers hold him up so the others can kick/punch/beat him with a baton, they have crossed so far over the line that there can be no justification. And I say this as a "politically to the right of Attila the Hun" guy who supports law enforcement most of the time. But in cases like this, simple human decency has to take over.

Very true. There are places in the US where hairdressers have longer training programmes than police officers. Plus the contents of the training lean heavily towards paranoia and personal safety. "As long as the officer goes home at night" should not the objective, but it has become so. Treating every encounter with the public as a potential life-or-death struggle does nothing but sow the seeds of incidents like this one. A great place to start would be to ban the use of hardcore military/black uniforms. These are signals that the cops are ready to go to war, not to uphold the peace. Certain special occasions/units (SWAT etc) sure, but not regular patrol officers. Ditto the reflective shades. OK when you are driving, not when you are interacting with the public.