gulliver
gulliver's JournalTrump's a hacker of the human system
There are gaping vulnerabilities in our system, and Trump simply exploits them.
For example, our legal system has this idea of "intent" that is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's like putting your password on a post-it note next to your screen. To be found guilty, it has to be proven you think you're guilty.
Second, our legal system allows jury nullification. So, our very "security adjudication" system is vulnerable. This played out in two impeachments at the high crime level. It's a leading reason why Trump could be found not guilty if criminally tried, literally for anything.
Third, our legal system is wide open to social and political engineering. Witness Trump placing his own operatives, his own trojan horses, in as many seats of power as possible.
I've also noticed Trump doing classic hacker things like "script injection." He'll say things using his own name in the third person. For example, he'll say something like, "The Mueller report completely exonerates President Trump." Then news programs will quote him verbatim, in effect "reporting" that Trump was exonerated. Coincidence or Grade A hacker instinct?
We need to get serious about security.
Rationality vs. opportunism and emotional stampeding
A lot of folks are apparently stampeding now. The Iraq War was a stampede set off by Bin Laden. America lost its marbles. Now we've got Trump and all the little Trumps. On both the left and right we have people being melodrama stars and stirring everybody up. Fact, fiction? It's all the same when you're stampeding, warring, muddying, fogging, etc. Pays the bills, gets the clicks, tastes good, less filling.
We need rationality. That may seem like an unpleasant suggestion. If so, I rest my case.
Defending authorized Dem content to win majorities
The Dem ideas, represented best in the Dem platform and governed by the DNC, are the best ideas out there. They should win a majority every time. A main reason they don't is, I would argue, we don't enforce our character or our canon from a democratic majoritarian standpoint. We build a great car, but then we sometimes let a tiny few self-elected "teens" grab the keys and drive around town in it, waving booze bottles out of the windows.
The responsible, (democratically) authorized people need to represent the Dems, both in what we are and in what we aren't. We need to block the Republicans from taking outlier opinions and acts, exaggerating them mercilessly, and attributing them to Dems.
If someone were a pedophile, which party would they choose?
I think it has to be the Republican Party. Pretend to be conservative. All the lowlife must be lining up to be Republicans. Their moral southern border is wide open.
License, register, and require insurance for guns
There's no good argument against that, and it would solve the problem as much as it can be solved.
We need to focus on concrete action or we're just going to see the usual political bonfire that burns down to the usual result: no change.
Looks like your questions are good questions
A lot of people seem to be bringing up the points you're bringing up, so I'll answer them here.
My answer? Of course cops are supposed to use good judgment. Of course cops are trained. Of course they're supposed to protect and serve. Of course they're supposed to be brave and not cowards. Of course they're supposed to take charge.
And to your question, "How do we honor and respect officers who didn't protect the most vulnerable?"
The answer is we don't.
That's not the point. The above are all givens.
You can't put a 5-ton load in a 2-ton truck and expect the truck not to buckle, at least sometimes.
Who put the 5-ton load in the truck in the first place? I'm not saying don't ask whether the cops made bad decisions. By all means do. Just don't forget to ask why they made those "bad decisions," and, above all, why they were in a position to have to make those decisions in the first place. The answer to those questions, imo, leads to true accountability.
And who put the cops in the situation where they made "the wrong decision?"
That's the question I don't see being asked, and that's an important question. Every single time we get new details about how one or more of the cops "made the wrong decision," I think it's only right that we ask the obvious follow-up: "And why did they make the wrong decision?" And then the follow-up to that: "Are America's gun industry and Republicans making policing untenable by the normal, non-suicidal, family having, imperfect human beings normally found on Earth?"
The Uvalde first responders are also victims of the gun industry and Republicans
Just being a first responder at something as bad as this would be horrible. But imagine there's a cop there who didn't live up to our "expectations" as we sit here at our keyboards. We don't know there is such a cop, not even one. But if some cop were feeling guilty and hated themselves right now for something they did or didn't do, or they can't stop thinking about something they "think" they did or didn't do, that cop is a victim too in my book. They wouldn't have had to be there at all if it weren't for the gun manufactures, gun dealers, and the pitiable cartoon that the Republican Party has let itself become.
Claiming the new liberal center
I'd argue that there is a motherlode of votes to be found among the sensible folks. I've noticed that the phrase "common sense" (formerly an oxymoron) has been getting more traction. Call me superstitious, but I think that's a good sign.
Which side will be the one to bench its self-selected zealots in favor of its wise, to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio? I'm very encouraged with what I see in our Dems. The Republicans are getting close to being sick of their clowns, though. We may start to see a gold rush to compete for the reliable majority in the middle, the true base, the people who count to ten. I just hope it doesn't happen too late. And I hope it's the Dems who are the first to take a closer look at the glittering rocks right under our feet and stake our claim.
If that were in every state it would hurt Republicans
It would keep demonstrators from making Dems look bad by protesting outside people's homes. We would keep some of the votes demonstrators currently cost us and our causes would benefit. I'm not sure DeSantis has thought this through.
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