Sidewalker

I also remember Minneapolis police, in a way, have trained the public that it was okay to fight back against the local police after the George Floyd incident, so the priming and training of that public to form vigilante groups physically attacking law enforcement was many years in the making.

But I suppose we can give the entire city a pass for "political reasons."

Are these "vigilante groups physically attacking law enforcement" paid, or is it just the protestors that are paid?

I would expect the pay for "vigilante groups" to be significantly better than protestor pay, it just makes sense that "attacking law enforcement" would be more profitable than just protesting.

a pretty popular holiday and movie

Groundhog Day is one of the greatest movies, and it is worthy of veneration because Andie MacDowell is a Goddess.

You know what? I've changed my mind about Pretti.

Basically the entire hagiographical narrative constructed about the man by the media thus far has been proven a lie. He'd exhibited violent behavior toward ICE before, they recognized him going into the second encounter, and such a man having a gun on him was the final straw.

He broke a taillight, so he deserved to die.

Wow.

The topic is about Alex Pretti and not Kyle. You can’t be that confused.

Did AI tell you that.

Try reading the OP, all of it, not just the first paragraph, it's about both, Alex Pretti and Kyle Rittenhouse.

Trump lied to the public to get elected. The public are not getting what they voted for. Follow the news.

This is Trump 2.0, they knew he was a liar, he was a felon, a racist, an adjudicated rapist, and an insurrectionist when they elected him. He promised vindictiveness, retribution and violence, this is what that looks like.

They got exactly what they voted for.

Trump voters are to blame.

nobody is going to change their opinion, no matter what the facts demonstrate

Enough moderates have condemned the shooting that I'm not sure this is entirely true.

Yeah, good point, I just saw on the news a recent poll shows only 20% of Americans think the Alex Pretti shooting was justified, that necessarily includes a large portion of MAGA.

 it just seems weird to me that the people defending Rittenhouse as obvious self-defense haven't recognized that Pretti was also obviously behaving within the bounds of the law.

In context of what's happening in this country, there is nothing weird about it.

This is all about the divisiveness and hatred, and the completely different attitudes and opinions depending on which side you are on. The MAGA right thinks violence against the left is justified, and they think dissent, protest, or resistance is criminal, so violence against the "opposition" is justified, this s the way the right sees themselves, and it's the way the left sees them, that isn't going to change based on the details of how and why Alex Pretti was killed.

Comparing the details of Alex Pretti and Kyle Rittenhouse is an irrelevant circle jerk that at best, serves as a distraction from the big picture of what is happening. The right demonizes Alex Pretti for bringing a gun to a protest, obviously the enemy's intent was "to kill as many ICE agents as possible", and they glorify Kyle Rittenhouse for bringing a gun to a protest "to defend property" from the enemy, and beyond that, comparing details doesn't really matter. How you see it is a matter of which side you are on, and nobody is going to change their opinion, no matter what the facts demonstrate. We all saw the extensive videos of what happened at the capitol building on Jan 6, 2021, that violent outburst of lawlessness and brutal violence against the police, with the expressed intent to Kill the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. If the right can see that as a peaceful protest, an glorify those people as "patriots" who should be celebrated and pardoned, then details about what really happened just don't matter. Alex Pretti is the enemy and deserved to be treated like the enemy, that's all there is to it.

The ICE assault of Minneapolis is designed to feed the far-right propaganda machine, the intent is to incite violence and feed the machine, and deception and lies about the situation, about what is happening, are happening in real time. Check out this article, an activist was arrested, a picture of her was taken, and 30 minutes later Kristi Noem posted the photo on truth social, the picture was completely altered in real time to provide a deceptive picture of what is happening in Minneapolis.

Trump's altered image of an anti-ICE protester marks a chilling new era

This isn't a matter of a disagreement in details, pictures don't lie, but pictures altered in real time do lie, and DHS is using ICE and lies, and altered photographs to represent a deceptive picture of what is happening in Minneapolis.

Do we really want to act surprised that the MAGA propaganda machine is trying to make hamburger out of Alex Pretti, when we know full well that it's a hamburger machine?

I don't think selling your stuff is considered a job.

Well...I suppose for prostitutes it is.

Sidewalkerism is the fastest growing religion in the world, going from 0 to 1, it has experience infinite growth.

Yes, but the words have zero official, legal status. It's use "officially" belongs to the media, thus, layman.

LOL, since the term is used extensively by American Presidents, including your own cult leader (I mean Trump, not Oaks), maybe you should let him know his use of the term is "unauthorized". I'll bet he doesn't even know he's using a phrase that doesn't even belong to him,

You're not wrong about the Evangelical Right per se, but their irreligious opponents have always been guilty of the same sin.

I've seen arguments that dogmatic secular modernity came first and produced conservative religious fundamentalism as a reaction to it, but I suspect they grew together, like two sides of the same coin.

Separation of church and state neither means that America is an officially Christian nation nor that the opponents of religion are specially privileged to use the state to lessen the role of religion in society via the education system or other state-funded channels of influence. Secularism means governmental neutrality in questions of or pertaining to religion. Both sides have refused to acknowledge the limitations placed upon them by the constitution, and if the Evangelical right really kicked off in the 1970s then chronologically speaking it was the irreligious who were the first to cross that line.

Two groups that define themselves in terms of opposition, result in two groups that taken by themselves, are inexplicable within the context of their respective positions and which represent these two “polar opposites” categories of one and the same movement

To say that opposites are “polar” is to say that they aren't just opposed or separated; it is to say that they constitute a whole, there is a reciprocal, transactional relationship being described. Despite being opposed, they are closer together than either of them is with the reasonable, middle view.

On one side of this polarity is an excessively dogmatic secular modernism that doesn’t appear to be true to science, and on the other side of the coin, it is opposed by a dogmatic religious fundamentalism that doesn’t appear to be true to Jesus.

(And as an aside, the Establishment Clause only applied to the Federal government until the 1940s.)

I Googled to see what you were talking about, very interesting, never occurred to me it wasn't a principle that always applied to all levels of government. Good thing the Supremes made that ruling I guess, or I'd probably live in the Baptist State of Georgia right now.

Trump was caught altering his tax returns as well. Both results looked horrible.

The Trump administration can even make photographs lie.

do you see the problem?

OMG, now I see it, it was definitely bullets when I hit "post comment", I didn't bother to see that posting it changes it.

Interesting, the same phenomenon occurs when Kristi Noem posts a photograph.

Trump's altered image of an anti-ICE protester marks a chilling new era

What happened was a person broke the law by standing too close to a federal agent during an arrest. That's a felony.

Nonsense, “standing too close to a federal agent during an arrest” is not illegal, you just made that up. Obstruction, interference, or disobedience of a command to move back are illegal, and Alex Pretti did none of those things. Even if he did, none of those things are punishable by execution.

The person who brought a gun to a place and knowingly committed a felony escalated the situation.

Nonsense, it is not illegal that he “brought a gun to a place” and Alex Pretti did not escalate the situation, ICE did, which is precisely what they are doing there.

Victim blaming the ICE agents

Oh please, the ICE agents executed an innocent man and you think the ICE agents are the victims? Such blatant rhetorical hyperbole eliminates any reason to take you seriously.

dealing with a felon doesn't change the fact that laws need to be defined and enforced in a lawful society,

Thanks for that insight Captain Obvious, of course it’s irrelevant since they were not “dealing with a felon”.

regardless of whether or not you feel you can get up in an arresting officer's face armed with a camera and a Sig Sauer.

More nonsense, Alex Pretti was completely within his rights to record ICE agents with his phone, recording ICE agents lawlessness is seen as a matter of civic duty and protestor self-defense. He had a concealed weapon which was licensed and accompanied by a concealed weapon permit, again, not illegal.

The situation didn’t begin with ICE enforcement. It began when someone chose to insert themselves into an active arrest zone.

Nonsense, ICE was the aggressor in this situation, it was an unlawful response to a legal and peaceful protest.

Proximity rules around arrests aren’t vibes-based. They exist precisely because chaos spikes fast when crowds compress a crime scene.

You obviously don’t even have a clue what “Proximity rules” are, they have nothing to do with proximity to agents, proximity rules apply to search and seizure during an arrest, in general proximity rules allow an arrest if an officer witnesses a crime in their immediate vicinity, and defines the perimeter of the legal search zone, it establishes the immediate area within the suspects control (typically wingspan), which can be searched and secured.

Standing too close to a law-controlled scene isn’t symbolic 1st amendment speech; it’s physical interference. Because your law defines that as a felony, it’s no longer a gray area. It's FAFO.

Nonsense, you have completely made up your absurd “Standing too close” law, and "standing too close" is not physical interference, physical interference during an arrest involves using force, blocking, or obstructing law enforcement, which did not occur, and even if it did occur, physical interference typically results in charges of resisting arrest or obstruction, neither of which are punishable by execution.

If you want bullets, why not just use the bullet button

1. That way
2. you get
3. bullets
4. instead of
5. your statements
6. being
7. numbered.

And your two has's, though unimportant, are nonetheless obvious.

Yeah, it started out a statement, then I decided to make it a question and made the mistake in editing it.

But at least, but you understood what I was saying.

Is that why your government encourages political attacks on Churches? Why not just outlaw religion?

Religion has become a tool for political control; no way they would outlaw one of their best instruments of control.

Especially not under an autocratic administration who sees it as another weapon in their arsenal

USA has money and guns. Leadership of the world isn't a popularity contest.

International Leadership requires establishing a common goal and articulating it in a way that makes others want to follow, it's about collective action towards a common goal.

Money and guns don't provide leadership, they can force compliance, but that isn't "leadership" by any stretch of the imagination.

The vision this country is articulating is not shared by the international community, there are no common goal, and consequently, no leadership.

For once, I agree with you.

Since our country began, the separation of church and state has “defined” American Politics and American Christianity. In the 1970s Evangelical Christianity began a major push to exert their influence politically, the "Christian Right" was established as a "political" entity. In the process, the Church was appropriated by the political right and used to serve right wing political ends.

Political ends are not compatible with Christian ends, and as the “Christian Right” movement grew as a political entity it increasingly became characterized by political sensibilities as opposed to Christian sensibilities.

In the end, the misguided attempt to make politics more holy, only ended up making the Church less holy.

Has the United States has become a “Rogue Nation”?

No.

Maybe not yet, but it's hard to argue that we should still be considered a "responsible stakeholder", and maybe we aren't a rogue nation yet, but we are clearly moving in that direction.

...and I doubt if the International Community will ever again trust us enough to be considered "Leader of the Free World".

Hmmmmm.

Yes, concerning times for folk like you and I.

We are old enough to know the way things are supposed to be, and we have lived long enough to have seen the steady progress towards a better future.

That the sensibilities of a nation can be flipped, by the white nationalistic rantings of a paranoid megalomaniac.

I still can't believe that resonated with a majority here, I always knew there were white supremacists, but really thought they were fringe, and there just weren't enough of them to matter, but holy crap, never in a million years did I believe that shit would go mainstream. I saw it with my own eyes, and I still don't believe it.

Especially a nation that we came to rely upon for global stability.

We were supposed to be the one that protected the world from Rogue Nations, not become one.

The next elections will be crucial...Other than that there is the second amendment...And I'm not joking.

I agree, no way Trump is going allow "next elections" at all, but given the way his health is deteriorating, and the rapid mental decline, may be a moot point, I really hope so. If it happens, we'll find out just how deep this American lethargy runs, I'd expect an uprising of biblical proportions, but I'm to the point of having lost faith in Americans to log off their phones long enough to do something about it.

Other than that there is the second amendment...And I'm not joking.

I completely agree with you, and no, it's not a joking matter. Trump isn't going to stop until we stop him, there are no checks and balances to this Presidency, he owns the courts and the congress, he owns the Justice Department, he owns the cabinet, all we have left are 25th and 2nd amendments and nobody seems to have the balls for the 25th amendment, but he absolutely must be stopped. Maybe we can hope the military does the right thing, but I don't think we can count on it. One way or another, I don't believe he survives the full term, between his declining health, rotting brain, and the prospect of sudden onset of "lead poisoning", no way he can serve his whole term.

If Trump et al attempt to interrupt or deny the nation the right to vote, then I see even bigger trouble ahead.

No doubt he will try, he's consistently been an election denier, his polls are in the toilet, we know what's coming, and I'm not sure any traditional checks can deal with it. I hope the American people are ready to burn the whole thing down if that happens.

Undeniably.

The Current President and Administration are untrustworthy...Both Nationally and Internationally.

I know you aren't American (you lucky dog), but you and I have made quite a few trips around the sun, so we have a pretty good sense of how things are supposed to be, and how America always was, did you ever believe such a thing was possible, that the US could go down this path?

It feels like we are trapped in a Fellini movie.

I have never really understood how it happened in Germany in the 1930s, I have contemplated it quite a bit as a subject of philosophy, trying to understand what it is about the German people that is so different than American people that it could possibly have happened the way it did, always seeing the question in terms of "different", different people, different time, different place, but never would have believed in a million years it could happen here, today.

I'm walking around in shock 24/7 that it's not that those people were just different 80 years ago, it's traumatizing to some to terms with the fact, it wasn't "them", it is "us", it's not what the world was like 80 years ago, it's just people, it is some deep flaw in human nature and we just have to own it..

Fuck.

By definition, a “Rogue Nation” is a country that acts outside of accepted international norms, laws, and diplomatic processes, and is characterized as:

1. A threat to world peace, dangerous to global security through aggressive actions
2. Willing to disregard International Law: will violate treaties, conventions, and United Nations resolutions
3. Unilaterally operates outside of traditional diplomatic channels
4. Characterized by autocratic regimes that restrain freedoms and oppress perceived opposition.
5. Has a leadership that is erratic, impulsive, and unpredictable.

The term “Rogue Nation” is a prominent concept used in foreign policy; the Western World hasused the term for decades to describe counties the possess the characteristics of the above definition.

In consideration of US actions in the last year, and given the definition and characteristics of the term, it’s pretty hard to deny that the United States has become a Rogue Nation.

I've always believed the problem of social interaction for those with autism lies more with the neurotypical side of the relationship. Social interaction with those who are different is a core deficit of most neurotypicals.

In general, my interpersonal relationships with those on the spectrum are more real and genuine than interpersonal relationships with neurotypicals tend to be.

" either my DNA mutated a lot or they are not my real family and I am adopted."

Probably the later

Good point, I've always thought I was probably switched at birth in the hospital, I figure there's some nice, normal family out there that has a weird prick of a son. I thought I knew what it felt like to be Marilyn Munster on "The Munsters" TV show.

Judging by my two sisters, it's hard to believe I was raised in the same house, it seems like we weren't even raised on the same planet.

Here is the video of the actual negotiation between Norway and Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7omOBdFrjpg

"Mr. President, Fuck Off".

Trump successfully negotiated a deal for use of Greenland by the US for strategic purposes.

That is yet another MAGA bald faced lie, Trump didn’t negotiate shit, all he did was threaten to violate multiple agreements were already in place beginning in 1941 and show the entire world the US can’t be trusted. The message that Trump has delivered was that under the current administration, the US doesn’t honor agreements, treaties, alliances, the US Constitution, and International Law. Norway has been a strong and Trusted US Ally since before World War II, Trump has damaged the strategic relationship with Denmark and the rest of Nato and weakening the US’ status in the world, he hasn't "negotiated" anything positive in this manic episode of unhinged insanity.

The initial agreement to establish US military bases was signed in 1941 (under FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT) broadened in 1951 (under HARRY TRUMAN - Trump was 5) with the "Agreement concerning the Defense of Greenland" when construction on Thule Air Base began (it is now Pituffik Space Base). In 2023 an even more comprehensive “Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA)” was signed (under JOE BIDEN), which created an extended framework for U.S. forces operating in Denmark and Greenland.

The U.S. built numerous airfields (like Narsarsuaq, Sondrestrom), weather stations, and ports in Greenland during the war, by 1944 US troops constituted a quarter of Greenland total population. Thule Air Base (now Pituffik Space Base) began operating in 1953, the US operates the “Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line” in Greenland, an extensive radar and communications network, and operated an underground nuclear base called Camp Century from 1959 to 1967. These are the strategic resources in Greenland that are public knowledge, there are plenty more that are secret.

To say that “Trump successfully negotiated a deal for use of Greenland by the US for strategic purposes” is preposterously uninformed and dishonest. All he did was throw a tantrum because he wasn’t awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, threatening to end one of our most strategic alliances and destroy NATO. In the process, he has crippled US influence and trust among our allies, driving Europe closer to China economically (Canada announced a strategic economic alliance with China last week btw), humiliate our country, and establish the US as a rogue nation.

He simply backed down because he got his ass handed to him when they finally dumbed it down enough for him to realize he had nothing to gain, everything to lose, and was alienating the entire western world with his childish tantrum.

There's a reason Trump says, "I love the poorly educated" and "smart people don't like me", it's only uninformed dumb shits that swallow his boatload of lies and conspiracy laden dementia.

Did I mention morally vacuous and dumber than a post?

What?

You blocked Double R and not me, how dare you.

I think you are a lowlife white supremacist piece of fascist shit too, and I just can't believe you have snubbed me like this.

Way to hurt my feelings dickhead.

Yes, I have always thought that she is super-hot and types naked.

Yeah, why should she be treated different than everybody else, I think of everyone here as a super-hot woman typing naked.

Nice breasts man.

But must be careful what we think these days.

Big Bro is watching.

Big Bro is a super-hot lady who watches us naked.