Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "Insider News"
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Mixed messaging...
There is no support or sympathy to be given to movements that, while they have a fair big share of reasoning to be there, comes with strings attached to conspiracy theories and movements that are actively killing innocent people everyday.
See, I empathize a lot with this class of workers. I'm not from the US, but I have friends and extended family members that either worked or still work as truck drivers. It's a grueling job with all sorts of dangers that isn't paid enough and no one wants to do it, at least here in my country - seems to me that the US is just the same.
For my country you add horrible interstate and general roadway conditions, the vast majority of cities not built with them in mind which ends up in tons of accidents, damages to trucks and roads, and bad conditions overall. And then you also add the constant danger of being robbed and killed on the job, all too common an occurrence here that is often ignored and not reported.
So I definitely get protesting for better conditions, better wages, and bringing in regulations and laws that will make the job better for everyone, roads safer, and work conditions saner. Heck, there is a whole ton of devaluation going on for the most essencial workers, and I specially hate that seemingly all the new economy initiatives are only arriving to trample on this class of workers even further. The uncertainty, stress and anxiety caused by all these factors is palpable.
Problem is the polarization and introducing politics to it. I'm really sorry, but if the movement is calling for mask bans and taking an anti-vaccination stance, that I just cannot support anymore. Because that's not about truck drivers, workers, and conditions anymore.
I know it's tempting to appeal to the party that is easy to talk to because of all their promises and posturing (even though it really doesn't translate to anything more than that, and these people should have realized all that by now), but if it gets into negationism, conspiracy theories, and all this bullshit that the current GOP is going for - you lost my support.
Because then it's about a bigger more encompassing issue than truck drivers or a specific class of workers. In fact, it isn't about truck drivers at all anymore. It's cultism, radicalism, and trying to negate the reality that is right in front of them.
I can only vouch for changes for better conditions and wages to a class of workers, if the workers are also willing to take their civil responsibilities seriously. Which I'm sure most truck drivers do, so they need to keep protesting, but without getting entangled in GOP politics.
And it's not only about lives lost in the pandemic. If you are preaching on with anti-mask stances and anti-vaccination stances, what you are really doing is an injustice to yet another devalued class of essencial workers - hospital staff, ambulance drivers and all the people involved in the unprecedent mass vaccination campaign that have been arguably been more impacted than any class of workers in most countries.
So there you go, my two cents on the subject.
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So, having followed those cases a bit, here's some considerations on the summary.
Stormy Daniels case. As far as I understood this case, the problem isn't the fact that he paid her and the tabloid to keep quiet. I mean, it's a problem for a presidential candidate to do this, it's immoral and unethical, but this is not the main meat of the case.
I heard this hammered over and over again, not sure why you guys chose to mischaracterize it like that.
It has all to do with how the payment was made. Trump used his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, to make those payments in his behalf concealing it as payment for his lawyer, using campaign funds. Michael Cohen went to jail for that, and later he said himself that Trump directed him to do this.
So we're not talking about a hush money case here, we're talking embezzlement and fraud with campaign money. Trump put on paper that the money he used was for his lawyer's service, but it was actually to pay hush money for Stormy Daniels and some tabloid there. And it wasn't his money, it was campaign funds. I dunno how the law works in the US, but here where I live this would be enough to put a candidate in jail and for him to have his right for candidacy suspended for a period of time, usually two terms - 8 years. I understand it's different there, because likewise a presidential candidate cannot run for presidency in jail here. A convicted criminal also can't.
The secret documents case. Quantity aside, add how Trump denied several times, then refused and then fooled agents who were there to retrieve things by moving documents around, which in my opinion should qualify for an entirely other level of crime in comparison to any other public servant who also found secret documents in their possession and returned it promptly, be it president, vice-president or whatever - and then, what about the fact that he has shown those documents after he was already not a president to journalists and that Australian Billionaire weirdo? Doesn't this make the entire case another level above in severity?
Those were US government secret documents, with afaik very sensitive and secret information.
I'm not an US citizen, but looking from outside, this sounds like straight treason to me. Aside from selling it out to countries that are direct enemies of the US, this mishandling is basically one level bellow the very worst thing that Trump could've done to them. So it's quite impressive to me that Trump wasn't taken to jail over this alone.
And then you guys forgot the case he just lost recently which adds over 300 million dollars to his penalties - the New York businesses and real estate case. You know, the one he almost lost the right to run a business in New York, but didn't.
It's like, the first time Trump got elected, you could say it was mostly voters fault that got a whole ton of people by surprise and was a real f*ck up.
This time, if he gets elected, the fault lies not only in voters, it will also lie in US justice system, in Biden's administration inability to address what happened properly, and in people who knows what Trump represents to US democracy and still failed to act. This isn't about Trump's charisma or electorate stupidity anymore, it becomes about a democratic system that has failed to defend itself.
I've been saying this for years now, on Democrat or neutral channels and whatnot, that US Democracy has been on it's death bed for a while now. If someone as transparently corrupt and unabashedly fascist as Trump can raise to power like that, whether Trump wins or loses this round, it's just a matter of time until someone like him, but perhaps not as stupid, takes over US government and turns it into a dictatorship or theocracy. Trump is almost like the worst type of character to try this, and he is right about to do it.
These constant affirmations that he won't go to jail because he is a former president is just an indication on how things are already warped in people's mind. He is a f*cking sh*tty president that attempted a coup, and is using friggin' Nazi rhetoric in his pre-campaign speeches. It's like the US is begging for democracy to end. All the while, the only other party who can elect a president is basically trying to fight in the election with a rubber stick, which is Biden, as if his politics of trying to be a middleground candidate didn't already fail.
The US is truly and really f*cked. I dunno what else to say. I don't see a path towards correction there. I only see a path towards self destruction with the options for a faster or slower route.
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Answers for people asking.
Afaik, no, it's impossible for regular pagers to explode like that. It's also impossible for regular lithium polymer batteries, which most smartphones have these days, to go off like that.
The most you can do with regular lithium polymer batteries is perforate them with a conductive metal object, that will make them puff and potentially catch fire... the fire will be extremely hot and hard to extinguish, but it'll also not last for too long.
Nothing like what was shown in the video though - for that you need an explosive charge to be implanted inside the device. You cannot make any regular electronics to explode in that way, doesn't matter if devices were hacked or not. The pagers got modified to basically become remote controlled bombs.
For something as small as a pager to pack that much punch, seriously injuring and killing people, this is most likely a coordinated state action, as it's not that easy to put your hands on advanced explosives like that, nor coordinate such an attack.
Meaning that yes, this was likely Israel. A genocidal nation that is already using the dirtiest tactics in the books to go after it's enemies, doesn't matter if civilians gets in the crossfire.
Not a surprise for a government that is already killing tens of thousands of civilians on it's quest to eliminate Hamas. The question is how long are people going to justify such actions in the name of "protecting" Israel and other excuses like those. What amount of innocent people losing their lives, their families and their way of life is enough for people to understand these actions are criminal. And how many centuries more of sectarian violence Israel's current actions will bring forth against it's population by trying to erase Palestinians from existence.
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The comments would be hilarious if they weren't just... sad.
On one extreme, it's all the folks saying this doesn't solve the issue, as schools should be made to pay for it. Ever heard of a compromise? How about addressing one part of the problem that government can actually do something about, instead of getting into yet another lock and block situation amongst interested parties where no one gets anything and taxes are wasted into some other crap? Education has a late stage capitalism issue, for sure... as health and other areas. Past administrations promised to solve the problem and either didn't do it, got locked out because of political infighting, or just made things worse. Whatever opinion you have on Biden or Democrats, it's just a fact that he managed to work these problems way more than any of his predecessors. Is it gonna solve the problem entirely? Of course not. At this point solving these issues in this short of a time would require a full scale revolution, eat the rich style... you Americans are so entrapped into the late stage capitalism thing that I blame no one for not seeing a way of getting out of it. And worse, it's set up in a way that I can see a president or political party making things way worse, but not much better. So, instead of trying to push for the impossible, perhaps attack it from a different angle.
On the other extreme, MY TAXES and INFLATION people. See folks, first, this is a pretty reasonable way of using taxes for what they are designed to do - solve societal problems. It's a major apparently long forgotten role of government to try to balance things out and address the major issues a nation has... by spending taxes on it. Keep unhinged capitalism under control, or at least deflect it's worse effects.
Or you are gonna tell me that handing the money over to the coal industry, telecom giants and big corporations is the way to do it? Like that has worked great to bring jerbs back in the past administration. Jobs isn't even the problem anymore, it's supply chain and people outright refusing to work for wages that don't pay their bills and debts.
Wasn't the complaint in Obama years about the inaction of the government? Would it be better to sit on the money, let students stay on their permanent debt situation often getting into endless hell circles of loan and debt? Those are the people who will be sustaining the economy when you intend to retire, you know?
Also, if you don't have the problem, doesn't mean it's solved for everyone else. So if your complaint is that you already paid yours, survival bias is not the way you should look into a problem you used to have. This is exactly the sort of ratchet situation that ends in late stage capitalism in the first place... middle class and rich people can only look at their own problems living inside thick bubbles, and cannot see the problems of the majority rest of the nation, so they want taxes to be spent on their issues, instead of addressing the issues of the poorest, which only makes the situation worse, and drags even more people into poverty. The biggest social problem in a country that has a portion of the population under the poverty line, are the poor. Taxes need to be spent to address it - not all of it, but at least a considerable portion of.
Inflation... I'm just gonna go ahead and say people talking about this have no idea how inflation works, what strategies are available and proven to solve it, and how macro economics works in general. I suggest looking for more info on the matter. I also don't know a whole lot about it, but I'm at least not at the point of relativizing everything and assuming government spending is all to blame for it - that's just extremely ignorant and missing the target by a mile. Protip - look for economists explaining the subject matter, not clickbait alarmist videos saying it's the end of 'MURRICA yadda yadda. Because truth is - inflation is an extremely complex problem that has all sorts of things influencing it because it's really a matter of expectations. One way to address is by giving people hope that the economy will get better overtime. And one way to do that is be reducing debt for people who will be entering the workforce soon. But for this particular moment in time, it shouldn't take a lot to figure out that most of the problem with inflation that is affecting all corners of the world today have all to do with a supply chain issue tied to the pandemic, plus all the myriad of consequences coming from the war in Ukraine. Both have knock on effects that de-estabilize global economy that we've been reliant on for several decades now, and both are unprecedented in their own manner for modern times.
If all these bets Biden is making will pay out in the end, that I won't predict or jump to conclusions... because no one can, and those who say they can are just lying to you. It's a pretty good bet though, better than any other we've seen in past administrations, which mostly sums up to... betting on nothing and let the opportunity fly by. You can either sit and wait for things to go wherever they get, or do something.
There you go. Want a suggestion? Try being a little bit optimistic about it... you don't have to like Biden, become a democrat, or God Heaven's become a soyboy or some sh*t. Perhaps a strategy of forgiving loans for the poor, working on Climate Change issues and taking other active measures that this administration is doing, just perhaps is better than spending on military, big corporations, denialism, failing coal and oil giants, telecoms and whatever conspiracy theory the alt-right is worried about.
It could like... accomplish nothing in the macro scale, perhaps even make things worse. I dunno. But doesn't the thought that tons of students striving for a better life will have a huge burden taken off their backs make you at least feel a bit good for your country? It's an injustice that while it's not being fixed or solved, at least your current government isn't letting people hang to dry completely.
Just last FYI before I start getting attacked - I have no horse in this game. I'm not an American citizen, I didn't vote in your past election nor will vote for the next, and I have my own government to worry about, which is far more corrupt and also has it's own spending problems.
I just find it very weird how some arguments will go in stuff like this. Do people in the US even knows how much tax money is spent on the many other areas of government and administration that serves no direct purpose? It's so weird to hear people complaining about tax money getting spent on the exact problems government should be addressing, finally.
I personally think that it's because Biden attracts no goodwill from any of the vocal sides, so there is some sort of instinctive hope he doesn't accomplish anything.
I am personally glad, for the first time in years, for the American people and American government finally taking bold stances on spending and on what issues it's trying to address. If the bets don't pay off, at least you'll know what the bets are in the next administration, and not stay in a permanent state of gridlock where everything proposed gets stuck between partisan lines.
And I hope the same thing can happen for my country too, in the next administration, because we basically mirror what is happening over there with a little delay.
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The US has become and is going fast towards a country of insular bubbles, communities, and ideologies so much that it can't function as a society anymore. With not only the guns issue, but also stuff like the recent fall of Roe v Wade, rise of extremism and radicalization, mass shootings with racial and religious motivations, white supremacists marching on the streets, political division and tribalism, plus a ton of other recent happenings, social media dynamics, the entire wage gap problem that the country is facing - the future of the country is either civil war and collapse, or a division so deep and so intractable that it'll be functionally like it was a collection of extremely disparate states rather than "united".
Further, the entire media landscape in the US is already set up in a way to reinforce divisions rather than mediate it.
It's already happening. Minorities are getting away and finding comfort in sticking to their own neighborhoods and cities, local political minorities are getting displaced due to persecution and harassment, and entire neighborhoods and cities are being formed with the premisse of everyone living there having the same ideologies and political inclinations.
This all happening because people are too comfortable, conformed and apathetic inside their own bubbles, not caring enough or not having enough energy to care, not acting on it, not going over the thoughts and prayers level.
The pandemic only further exacerbated the problem, and in effect you have people so completely isolated in their own world that it gives rise to extreme cases like Uvalde.
I am totally for gun control and further, total reform... not only in laws, but in how they are culturally seen and treated, down to education level, down to portrayal of them in news, movies and whatnot.
Problem is, this won't be enough to solve the country's current issues. In fact, depending on how exactly this goes, it could make things even worse. It needs support from all sides and understanding that it needs to happen, or else what you end up having is a continuation of the problem only this time it'll be also feeding money and power into black markets and criminals.
Gun reform is remediation, it's a reaction to yet another tragedy. It needs to be done for lack of alternative, but the US needs way more than that for an actual return to sanity.
Which is why this is so important I guess. At some point US citizens will have to define their rock bottom state, particularly on the media landscape. A white kid filled his head with fake crap racist and white supremacist ideology so much that he decided to go into a school with minority kids and kill as many of them as he could. This isn't only a mental health issue as so many are trying to paint it as, none of the mass shootings really are. This is a societal level problem. The kid was brainwashed with garbage he considered "news" and "reliable" sources. It was an extreme unbalanced reaction, yes, but that sort of mentality has to be fed in some way over years to go that way, it doesn't just happens because of mental issues.
A huge category of US citizens is growing up with zero understanding on where they are coming from, zero understanding of their surroundings, zero understanding of their own country's history and past - or at the very least an understanding that is so extremely distorted that it might as well be a work of fiction, of the worst possible type. It's like some people are growing up under something that looks closer to North Korea, total propaganda news.
If a society that has reached that point cannot even pass laws that restricts tools for taking out lives, there is no hope for the bigger and more comprehensive reforms that country needs to unite once again.
So yes, the US needs bipartisan gun reform laws. But please, don't stop there.
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Pretty much.
Something for non-Brazilians to understand - it's not only yesterday's insurrection... it's pretty much the entire 4 years that Bolsonaro was in power. Yesterday was only the culmination of all of it, and we knew it'd happen at some point.
Fake news, firehosing of bs conspiracy theories, incensing his cult followers, using his base to flood social networks with bullshit conspiracy theories of his opposition, blaming the "leftist media" of political witch hunt on all of his obvious corruption schemes, taking a position against "woke culture" which is basically everything he doesn't agree with, selling out majorly to corrupt politics after saying he was going to "drain the swamp" of Brazilian politics of predecessors, using his entire family as partners in schemes and frauds... the shameless blatant copy of Trump's tactics is so ill disguised that some stuff they used don't even translate well into Brazilian culture, but this never stopped them from using similar narratives and similar bullsh*t coming straight from Fox News, Breitbart, Alex Jones and whatnot. The most self defeating thing of all this is that there is a huge portion of the Brazilian population that is so ignorant that they cannot see the obvious structure of this hate template machine. It's like they are following a script step by step, but because the idiots who fall into it don't know enough to understand this, you end up with extremists like the ones in Brasilia yesterday.
Several of Bolsonaro partisans even started using crap like neo-nazi gesturing and other fascist symbology like that, demanding a return to military dictatorship, and getting armed like we were going to face some sort of communist apocalypse that never happened during the 8 years of Lula in power, and 12 years of PT in power, so for whatever imaginary reason it was gonna happen now, PT was going to paint the Brazilian flag red, yadda yadda the bullsh*t never ends.
There will likely be some brainwashed sop replying to my comment with these idiotic fantasies because he or she stopped watching actual news years ago and only listens and watch the ridiculous deranged crap that Bolsonaro, his followers and propaganda machine are letting out in chat apps and whatnot.
If you told me it was fiction I'd have said to you that suspension of disbelief had been broken long ago, and yet enough people believe in all of the sh*t he's putting out to this day enough to cause the damages they did yesterday in our capital.
I hope everyone gets arrested, put in jails separated from each other in all corners of the country, and the true conspirators and financiers behind all of this gets arrested, their property taken, sold out, and then the money gets used to repair all the damage they've done to our public property. I'm for much worse than that, but democracy has to act within it's limits.
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Yup, the sort of sick sociopathic behavior that social networks are shamelessly profiting from these days, who thinks it's right to pose as badass while he's being arrested. The guy clearly only cares about his own image, everything else is a stepping stone to that.
I'm glad that this asshole is getting arrested, but truth be told, he's a single guy in an ever growing crowd of sociopaths, scammers, grifters, criminals and people generally responsible for the rot and putridness of current western cultures that are amassing power and money on the Internet because social networks and streaming platforms are completely out of control.
By disconnecting brands and advertisers from exactly where their ads are popping up in, you get a total lack of sense of responsibility for the content and behavior that gets financed on streaming platforms.
There's no sense of social or cultural responsibility anymore from businesses in relation to what they are helping finance with advertisement money. You put ads online via a third party advertisement agency because everyone is doing it and you can't survive on the market if you also don't do it, nevermind what the money is really paying for.
The middlemen gets protected by safe harbor laws, the filthy rich CEOs of tech giants protect their status quo with empty promises of doing better, the filthy rich CEOs behind the companies paying advertising money to those tech giants feign ignorance about where their money is going, and things continue racing towards the bottom of the barrel with a cultural rot, a complete destruction on reliability of information, the triumph of sociopaths and their sycophant fans, and the rest of us watching powerless in despair how the world burns to a crisp.
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