Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[TechTalk]

You didn't mention Ford in your list of statistics.  It's market cap is $87B.  GM who he was buddy buddy with and met with a lot of photo ops has a cap of $85B.  Tesla's is over $1 trillion!  Specifically in electric vehicles, unlike those other two who barely make EV's in the USA. Wouldn't it have been nice for him to say something how they're helping reduce CO2 in the world? 

I've moved on. You can keep your own merry-go-round spinning if you like. I'm not riding it.

[Alan Klein]

Try Google... Federal Charges

https://apnews.com/article/records-rebut-claims-jan-6-rioters

Records rebut claims of unequal treatment of Jan. 6 rioters - August 30, 2021

It’s a common refrain from some of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and their Republican allies: The Justice Department is treating them harshly because of their political views while those arrested during last year’s protests over racial injustice were given leniency.

Court records tell a different story.

An Associated Press review of court documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death last year shows that dozens of people charged have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison.

The AP found that more than 120 defendants across the United States have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of federal crimes including rioting, arson and conspiracy. More than 70 defendants who’ve been sentenced so far have gotten an average of about 27 months behind bars. At least 10 received prison terms of five years or more.

I don't know what state and local charges might have been prosecuted or sentences handed out. Maybe you could research that for us. There were a lot of arrests though...

https://apnews.com/article/american-protests-us-news-arrests

AP tally: Arrests at widespread US protests hit 10,000 - June 4, 2020

More than 10,000 people have been arrested in protests decrying racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death, according to an Associated Press tally of known arrests across the U.S.

The count has grown by the hundreds each day as protesters spilled into the streets and encountered a heavy police presence and curfews that give law enforcement stepped-up arrest powers.

Los Angeles has had more than a quarter of the national arrests, followed by New York, Dallas and Philadelphia. Many of the arrests have been for low-level offenses such as curfew violations and failure to disperse. Hundreds were arrested on burglary and looting charges.

Why don't we hear about those arrests and convictions and jail times?  The press is burying that news like it never happened.  They want to bury just how violent BLM and the demonstrations and riots were.  Just a walk in the park. They stay focused on what Trump supporters did.  Just more bias from the press. 

[TechTalk]

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. — Søren Kierkegaard

[digitaldog]

Why don't we hear about those arrests and convictions and jail times?  The press is burying that news like it never happened. 

We (many of us here) do, you don't because you are so poor at obtaining data on your own or believing actual data and facts when provided for you. Eaiser for you to to jerk your knee and make silly statements like that last sentence which as usual, is rubbish.
It happened, it was reported. That you can't understand this, is nothing new.
What you do need, is a new hobby.

[TechTalk]

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. — Søren Kierkegaard

[Alan Klein]

Meanwhile, in other news... The governor of Oklahoma announced last week that he doesn't plan on getting a booster vaccination for COVID-19. He also tried to block the vaccine mandate for military personnel in the Oklahoma National Guard. A federal judge promptly ruled that Oklahoma National Guard members must get vaccinated.

Oklahoma currently has one of the highest ICU bed occupancy rates in the country. ICU beds are 88.28% full with 31.71% of ICU beds filled with COVID patients.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2021/12/28/oklahoma-gov-kevin-stitt-shuns-covid-19-booster-shot

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt says he has no plans to get COVID-19 booster shot - December 28, 2021

Despite state health officials recommending all eligible Oklahomans get a COVID-19 booster shot, Gov. Kevin Stitt says he doesn't plan on getting another inoculation.

Stitt said Monday he hasn't received a booster shot nor does he plan on getting another jab.

https://www.nbcnews.com/national-security/judge-denies-oklahoma-gop-governor's-request-block-military-vaccine

Judge denies Oklahoma GOP governor's request to block military vaccine mandate - December 29, 2021

A federal judge ruled that Oklahoma National Guard members must get vaccinated against Covid-19, denying an attempt by the state's Republican governor to halt the Defense Department’s vaccination mandate.

In his ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot rejected Gov. Kevin Stitt's argument that the Pentagon overstepped its authority when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a military-wide vaccination mandate to fight the coronavirus.

“First, adding a tenth FDA-approved vaccine to the list of nine that all service members are already required to take would hardly amount to ‘an enormous and transformative expansion [of the] regulatory authority’ the Secretary of Defense already possesses,” Friot wrote in his 29-page ruling.

“And, to say no more on this point, there is nothing ‘transformative’ about a force protection measure first conceived and enforced by General George Washington when he required members of the Continental Army to be inoculated against smallpox,” he said.

So there are idiot Republicans and idiot Democrats.  Two people who inspire confidence in our elected officials.  At least she seems to be having more fun.   

AOC caught maskless again in Miami drag bar as Omicron cases skyrocket
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, The far-left lawmaker (D-NY) was spotted maskless once again in Florida, this time at a packed drag bar in Miami — as the Big Apple continued to be hammered by record-high numbers of COVID-19 cases and faces an indoor mask mandate for one more month.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/03/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-caught-maskless-again-in-miami-drag-bar/

[digitaldog]

So there are idiot Republicans and idiot Democrats. 

"To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledge are those knowledge that idiots possess".  -William Blake

[TechTalk]

So there are idiot Republicans and idiot Democrats.  Two people who inspire confidence in our elected officials.  At least she seems to be having more fun.   

AOC caught maskless again in Miami drag bar as Omicron cases skyrocket
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, The far-left lawmaker (D-NY) was spotted maskless once again in Florida, this time at a packed drag bar in Miami — as the Big Apple continued to be hammered by record-high numbers of COVID-19 cases and faces an indoor mask mandate for one more month.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/03/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-caught-maskless-again-in-miami-drag-bar/

You left out that she was seen without a mask outdoors. I don't know if that would qualify as idiotic. You decide. Oh wait, you already have.

[Alan Klein]

You left out that she was seen without a mask outdoors. I don't know if that would qualify as idiotic. You decide. Oh wait, you already have.

The point is hypocrisy.  When she's in New York, everything has to be buttoned up.  Then she goes to Florida where Covid is racing and infecting loads of people, and she hangs out with a bunch of bar hoppers, unmasked, and hugging them close up.  You may have missed that photo. 
Here it is.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/01/aoc-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all

[TechTalk]

You left out that she was seen without a mask outdoors. I don't know if that would qualify as idiotic. You decide. Oh wait, you already have.

[TechTalk]

They want to bury just how violent BLM and the demonstrations and riots were.  Just a walk in the park. They stay focused on what Trump supporters did.  Just more bias from the press.

One event was an assault on the nation's Capitol and its legislators with the goal of overturning an election. That event ended an over 220-year tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. The efforts to promote lies about the election continue.

The other was a nationwide protest movement over systemic racism. Where violence, looting, or arson occurred it was all over the news at the time. The fact is that there were many more protests that were peaceful than there were protests with violence or criminal activity.

They're called a false equivalence because they're not equivalent and they're false.

https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/black-lives-matter-protesters-were-overwhelmingly-peaceful-our-research-finds

Black Lives Matter Protesters Were Overwhelmingly Peaceful, Our Research Finds

Only 3.7% of the protests involved property damage or vandalism. Some portion of these involved neither police nor protesters, but people engaging in vandalism or looting alongside the protests.

In short, our data suggest that 96.3% of events involved no property damage or police injuries, and in 97.7% of events, no injuries were reported among participants, bystanders or police.

These figures should correct the narrative that the protests were overtaken by rioting and vandalism or violence.

Such claims are false. Incidents in which there was protester violence or property destruction should be regarded as exceptional – and not representative of the uprising as a whole.

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. — Søren Kierkegaard

[LesPalenik]

As an outsider, I don't understand why it is taking the entire year to prosecute Trump, Bannon, Giullani and others who orchestrated the insurrection attempt.

[digitaldog]

As an outsider, I don't understand why it is taking the entire year to prosecute Trump, Bannon, Giullani and others who orchestrated the insurrection attempt.

It's not a lot different from you-know-who's tactic of diversion in these very forums.

Trump and his buddies have a tactic of delay:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/10/us/politics/swift-ruling-tests-trump-delay-tactic.html
And here with respect to Jan 6th:
https://www.justsecurity.org/79603/how-stalling-tactics-could-still-constrain-the-january-6-committee/
In terms of the Jan 6th committee, IF republicans take over the house in 2022 midterm elections, that committee is toast. Gone, nada.
Diversion and delay, that's is the best these bozos have. 

[Peter McLennan]

Thank you very much for your research and for the explanation of all the facts.

Indeed. 

[Peter McLennan]

How Canada sees the developments on our southern border:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-american-polity-is-cracked-and-might-collapse-canada-must-prepare/

[PeterAit]

One event was an assault on the nation's Capitol and its legislators with the goal of overturning an election. That event ended an over 220-year tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. The efforts to promote lies about the election continue.

The other was a nationwide protest movement over systemic racism. Where violence, looting, or arson occurred it was all over the news at the time. The fact is that there were many more protests that were peaceful than there were protests with violence or criminal activity.

Here in Durham, NC, a BLM protest turned nasty as dark fell, with vandalism and fires. Police looked at surveillance videos and saw that just before the crap started a group of about a dozen people showed up to join the protest. Many of them were identified as known white supremacists, proud boys, and the like. They pretended to be legitimate protesters while setting fires and breaking windows. All to give BLM a bad rep. And some sapheads bought it.

[Robert Roaldi]

A minor addendum about Oklahoma. They passed legislation making it easy(ier) for parents to get books removed from school libraries. The one article I read only made mention of books with sexual content, and I was left with the impression that the new "rules" only applied to sexual content, but I don't know if that's actually the case. Prior to this I would have assumed that any school library would only have books with educational intent. I kind of doubt they'd have porn. There's porn freely available all over the internet 24/7, why are Oklahoma politicians worried about library books?

[Robert Roaldi]

Why don't we hear about those arrests and convictions and jail times?  The press is burying that news like it never happened.  ...

Why do you assume that just because you didn't know about it means that the press was burying the information?

That loonie leftie media is forever burying stuff you want to read about, it seems. But then when they do publish stories, you call it fake and biased. You're very difficult to please.

[digitaldog]

Why do you assume that just because you didn't know about it means that the press was burying the information?

You could have stopped with "Why do you assume?"
So much of what he doesn't know is burried. I think many here know who's fault that is. 
"An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head." -Eric Hoffer 

[Peter McLennan]

Just more bias from the press.

Alan, you're convinced of a large scale conspiracy by the press and academia to manipulate everything to conform to leftist principles.

1) Why would they do this? What drives them to adhere to this conspiracy so diligently?

2) How could they convince all of the famously irascible press and the academics to fall in line?