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softlynow

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by softlynow

  1. Actions said it. Actions which made this latest massacre more likely, not less. You saw those actions and signed on to the team. You “venture” where facts are spoken because you know your worldview is unmoored from any morality, and want to continue to believe the lies you tell yourself.
  2. Thanks for weighing in. Your complicity is duly noted. To carry water for those who are pro-dead children is . . . well it's something.
  3. Correct. The whole point of this is to muddy the discussion until we move on the next thing. I think we should try to get back on message: Republicans like dead school children.
  4. Just like "mental health(!)," it's not a serious suggestion. He knows the brainwashed at home loll their heads at the suggestion, harden themselves to any serious gun control suggestions because free-dumb, and he's done his part in running out the clock of the news cycle. They know they only need to deflect for a few days, and then we'll be on to the next thing. They're probably hoping a brawl breaks out an NBA playoff game or gas hits a new easy to rail against benchmark in the next few days. If not, a verdict will likely be reached in the Depp/Heard trial next week. Then they're off the hook.
  5. Yep. If you need new material you just have to wait for school to resume after the summer. Another sequel is in the works right now.
  6. RIP Quackenbush's
  7. Link? You're hoping they even respect that. I don't think they can actually be reached. At all. Correct. Elections these days are turnout battles. So tell me how cruelty to this grieving father gets more non-MAGATs to the polls? Whether I want it to be true or not is irrelevant. I never denied it was true. You're preaching to the choir (I'm actually about to head off to choir practice). Hell, I'm silently sipping my vodka on the ledge with you. But I stand by everything I've said to this point. I'll say it again another way. In "Doubt," Meryl Streep's character says you have to take a step away from God to address wrongdoing. I think this is right. Step away from god, become the monster, to WIN at the politics. But going after this father isn't stepping into shadow to win. That rationalization is just an excuse to savage this father because it feels good to do so.
  8. There is no straight-forward way to keep the discussion about policy and the horrible outcomes that you want to prevent. That's not how mass media works. It isn't how humanity works. I'm reminded of a quip about Christianity (paraphrase): Jesus was a man who pointed towards a better way of living. Christianity fails us because it focuses not on where he was pointing but on his finger. Every discussion will break down immediately from the initial message in the directions of all of our individual agendas. You "win" those discussions by realizing that and seizing the opportunity to become the authority on the subject, or a star worthy of many followers. Your comment on this being a mistake for Beto is only right if it not only doesn't work, but worsens his position.
  9. That sounds nice and all, but it isn't how policy is changed. Unfortunately you have to win at the theater to have a say in policymaking.
  10. Tell me why that's necessary against victims like this. Against McConnell, MTG, Abbot, your local DA, or school board member? Sure, I get it. Hell, I applaud it. No rules, just win. I know my posts don't register much, but I've already weighed in on the approach Dems need to take. But going after this poor guy whose life has been turned upside down? And before we even know how he'll react? That isn't cruelty with purpose, it's just sating the lust for revenge. Tell me how this kind of cruelty changes minds. Tell me how it results in electoral or legislative victory.
  11. He didn't ask for sympathy. I just don't think that diverting from the road to justice and good policy to dabble in ineffectual cruelty because of our feels is appropriate. I may not believe in Christian dogma these days, but I still consider myself an Episcopalian because of the positive values instilled in me by growing up in that church. If Jesus exists, he is grieving with this man and hoping for better from him.
  12. Based on your posting style, I don't doubt this at all. Every big tent needs its assholes, I suppose. Carry on.
  13. Suitable for discussion, not for ridicule. Let the man grieve. If he comes out of this unchanged, then, so be it, let the vitriol loose.
  14. Fuck that sentiment. He's not a lawmaker and he was never the deciding vote in an election that prevented the passage of sensible gun legislation that could have prevented this killing. He lost his child and now his shit is on blast. That's not karma, and these posts are cruelty. Dems need to be better at fighting, but along the way cannot become the flaming pieces of shit they're fighting against. Be ruthless towards Pub politicians, not poor folks devastated by their anti-life policies.
  15. Hard hitting journalism right there. Lloyd Christmas would be riveted. But I guess the average tv news viewer needs this shit spelled out.
  16. Y'all can argue it all you want, but nobody knows right now, whether Beto's move pays off. It was a gamble, to be sure. Sydney's thinking is the mainstream. The safe play. Schedule a rebuttal. Hope it gets press coverage, beyond the Tribune and some local tv affiliates. In most situations, Beto's scheduled PC gets little play. So in the coverage vein, this move worked. He is now solidly a part of this discussion. There's also a real possibility that this school shooting is one too many. At some point that day will come. Is this the shooting that changes minds? The smart money is that it is not, but the smart money often sticks with the aging champion well past his prime. For a campaign that most, including yours truly, gives little to no chance of winning, it was a fairly smart play. What does Beto have to lose if 18 children dead 5.5 months before an election doesn't move the needle with moderates? If it doesn't, he loses anyway.
  17. Republicans should simply be asked the following over and over and over: Do you actually want to prevent future school shootings? How would you do so? When can we expect that legislation? Until forced to answer the first question, Dems should assume, by their actions up to this point, that their answer is "no." And should be screaming that from the rooftops every got. damn. day. Republicans accept school shootings. Republicans accept school shootings. Republicans accept school shootings. Republicans accept school shootings. Republicans accept school shootings.
  18. True. It just got more likely that teachers will be required to carry.
  19. It still stunning to me that these people advertise their tiny dicks and their doubts about their own masculinity.
  20. The body of that website does detail that some other countries do have school shooting problems. Some of that text: European countries have had their share of school shootings, although not as frequently as in the United States or Canada. These include eight in Germany since 1913, one in Lithuania (1925), one in Sweden (1961), three since 1967 in the United Kingdom (none after the 1996 massacre), three in Finland since 1989, two in the Netherlands (1999 and 2004), one in Denmark (1994), one in Hungary (2009), two in France (2012 and 2017), one in Estonia (2014), Spain (2015), at least five in Russia since 2014 (including events in May and Seotember 2021), one in Crimea (2018), and one in Poland (2019, no deaths). Gun violence in Central American countries is extremely common. In Honduras, the homicide rate is many times the global average. Because of heavily armed gangs in Honduras, school shootings “are so common, they are subsumed quickly into the country's news cycle and barely register outside its borders.”. As such, the true number of school shootings in Honduras is unknown, but believed to be high. Mexico has experienced 17 reported school shootings since 2004. All of these incidents have resulted in zero to two deaths each. In each of the three shootings that had two deaths, one was the perpetrator. South Africa has experienced five school shootings since 1994, resulting in eight deaths in total. Excluding China, several Asian nations have experienced school shootings. These include one in Taiwan (1962), two in Israel (1974 and 2008), one in Yemen (1997), one in the Philippines (1999), one in Thailand (2003), one in Lebanon (2007), one in India (2007), one in Azerbaijan (2009), and one in Pakistan. The "Peshawar siege" in 2014 was a Taliban attack that killed 145 (plus the gunmen), making it the deadliest school shooting in Asia
  21. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/school-shootings-by-country Top 3 US - 288 Mexico - 8 South Africa - 6
  22. No, there’s an urgent need to be armed or working on exiting this country.
  23. A bunch of these threads could simply folded into the American Fascist thread. The Center-Right has lost control of its radical flank, and all it will take is one election giving WH and Congressional control to the GOP for the American experiment to end badly. Big lies like this “theory” are the prelude to catastrophe.
  24. It's not totally clear you understood the post to which you're replying. Who would want to invest in an instrument that doesn't increase in value? Who would want to use an instrument as currency that does increase in value?
  25. Has the American electorate and electoral system been replaced by rational counterparts from a different universe yet? No? Prepare your anus for the fascist buttfucking.
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