Arkansas cop shot a kid last week. A white kid this time...

Here's my problem with TFG-- he has done his best to destroy one of this nation's...

basic premises.

For a few hundred years years we have been battling for the hearts, minds, and soul of the country. We have had terrible battles over profound problems and even went to war with ourselves.

But, we have never lost faith in the nation, or the system we live under. Always a few cranks out there, but never enough to cause big trouble. When the battle was over, we all went back to work and lived with the outcome.

Even after the Civil War, everyone pretty much sucked it up, even the losing side. No one pretends Reconstruction went well, or that serious problems didn't last for another hundred years, but we still survived as a nation and the fundamentals were always there.

But now? We had an election last year, but for the first time the losing side refuses to admit it lost. And that side has enough followers to threaten the entire system.

Many of us lived though the 60s when the system was shaken. We saw JFK get shot and Nixon commit what we thought back then were the worst crimes. We saw the Viet Nam, protests and the national guard shoot students. We saw dogs and firehoses turned on racial protesters and lynchings when that didn't stop the protests. But we survived all that, and became the better for it.

I just don't know about now, though. China is the world power now, or soon will be, and we really have little to brag about or feel proud of any more. So we talk about the flag, but close to a third of the population has no idea what is behind that flag. The understanding that we are a unique nation, but still a nation united in our differences may have been lost.

And add to that how the whole planet's population seems to be destroying the planet...

Thank you, you miserable piece of orange shit. And special thanks to the mindless morons who support it.

Been listening to the hyperventilating over the NYC election, and it's nuts...

Everyone who cares knows the NYC BoE is a favorite dumping ground for unemployable relatives going back to Tammany Hall days, and probably before. But, be that as it may, it still generally gets the job done, even with some small quirks at times.

But, this time it blew it big time, or so it seems.

But...

First thing is that ranked choice voting is complicated and this is NYC's first experiment with it. The surprising thing isn't that it screwed up, but that it actually went so well. And that the problem was dealt with properly.

The mistakes that were made were quickly identified and dealt with. It seems that nothing was actually lost and the problem had a "simple" solution. 140,000 or so test votes were mixed in with the totals, and can readily be pulled back out.

So, what is the BFD? Are we so overwhelmed by Prior Pumpkinhead that we can't just apologize for a problem and fix it?

Question about condos. Residents own their apartments, but who...

owns the structure, and the common areas of the building?

It's 8:40pm and the guy next door finally stopped mowing...

I hope he's not just taking a break.

But, now I can hear the bikers again.

This town has been sold for years as quiet country living. It can be if you don't live on the main road

This morning I was listening to NPR and they had a woman who barely escaped the collapse...

She described her fear and managing to find the stairs. She told of all of her personal and family possessions lost.

But the worst thing was that she could not save her cat.

So, tell me Trumpism isn't a cult... It fits all the conditions...

We mourn the Florida victims, as we should, but...

how many places on the planet have even greater death and destruction due to war and revolution?

This is the sort of thing a "surgical strike" results in. And there are lots of those.

Yet another Chauvin thread...

Just did a search on murder sentencing. Several actually. Aside from the known racial and socioeconomic problems, death penalty states, etc. it seems that the mean murder sentence is between 16 and 20 years. The median is in that range, too.

A lot of it depends how you count, and how the charges are brought, and, of course, the jurisdiction. Seems to be a general rule that the lower you are on the social scale, the worse the sentence. No doubt there's a study on that somewhere.

So, Chauvin's sentence is not out of line at all, especially since he was convicted of 2nd and 3rd, not first.

Again, I ask...

How can we muffle a 5000cc car engine to a mere whisper, but my next door neighbors lawn mower rattles my walls and nerves?