LastPommerFan

The atomic bombs killed 10x the number of causualties in Dresden. There really is no comparison. If you want a conventional bombing comparison to the nukes, you need to look to Tokyo. It's also important to remember that news coverage of these things was wildly different in the 40s. We didn't have nightly television updates like Vietnam, let alone CNN reporting the bombin live like in the first gulf war.

like I said, boring.

(1) the comparison is not Japanese vs. Asian, it's Japanese vs Italians vs Germans. Those were the Nationalities we were at war with. The Japanese were treated differently and they have the unique characteristic of being the only non-Europeans in that group. This is how race works it's way into my analysis. (2) About 75,000 US Citizens of Japanese ancestry were removed and placed in camps. It was illegal for Japanese immegrants to become citizens, so it is safe to say that nearly all of these 75,000 Citizens were born in the united States. Italian-American and German American citizens placed in camps numbered less than 2,000. To put this in perspective, there were about 5 Million each of first generation Italian Americans and first generation German Americans in 1941. In the 100 years prior to 1941 there had been about 250 thousand immigrants from Japan, total. No matter how we stack the stats, Japanese people in the US were treated differently during the war. (3) We were committed to unconditional victory against the Germans as well. I agree that the actual fighting of the war 1941-1944 was done irrespective of race. (A boring hypothetical argument could be had about whether Truman would have been willing to nuke Berlin) I think it's probable that racism is an element of this difference between Germans and Japanese in the US.

I don't think this is accurate and relevant relative to historical American Racism and what drew us into the war. We not, however, put Japanese Americans in Internment camps at an exponentially higher rate than Italians or Germans. This is probably the better example of America's historically racist response to threats (real or perceived).

Flagg- I won't speak for anyone else, but your understanding at 21/22 that these issues are more complex and nuanced than we think pits you well ahead of where I was philosophically at that age. More than a decade, a family and career, a home and a position in the community, and just now I'm starting to grasp that idea. If you could go back and read some of my posts from early in this thread, I think you'd think you were reading a different person. Keep inquiring and reading, thinking complexly and adjusting your view. Don't forget to be awesome. Neo- this quote, "Just as "fear" isn't a concept that motivates my political philosophy, it's also isn't a concept that limits my language or my exploration of ideas." As a sapien, it's incredibly unlikely that you've managed to work fear out of your decision making. Reflecting deeply in the question, "what am I afraid of" is a tough exercise. If your response to that self inquiry is, "nothing", more power to you. If something is there, however, it is very likely motivating both your politics and your language, and not because you're a bad guy. Fear is a subconscious thing most of the time, emotions like that take an immense self awareness (which I often lack) to keep out of our decision making.

I respectfully disagree. You, personally, need to stay to make my position better and to make your position better. Our ideas improve like life. We mix and blend and mutate and there are some really ugly outcomes, but ultimately, really great stuff survives. To be fair, I do some level of internal filtering of some things in this thread to try and find the meat. That process may be harder for a mod, who needs to see everything.

There was a lot of spur of the moment emotion clouding the post, but if you look at drunkards post an my response, it did result in somewhat constructive discussion. That said, I think it's fair to hold freeman to a high standard because (a) he's a mod and (b) he's delivered that higher standard in the past.

The GOP does not prioritize international women's rights as an issue. It's mentioned nowhere in its platform. The most wide sweeping plank in the GOP platform addressing women's issues is the Mexico City Policy, which extremely hampers the US's ability to promote women's access to family planning by preventing US government organizations from providing any funding to international organizations that even mention abortion as an option for women, regardless of they actually provide the procedure or not. The Democrats, on the other hand expressly mention taking actions to drive nations to respect women's rights, including a reversal of the Mexico Coty Policy by the last two Democrat presidents. In addition, we would finally ratify the 1979 UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Becoming a party to this treaty would give us some leverage on an international stage to get othe signatories, like Pakistan, to hold up their end of the bargain. We'd essentially need 67 Democrat senators to make this happen. tl;dr- you don't actually side with the right on this issue, you side with the democrats. Bingo. My fear, however, is that this will all be pinned on the president, who has little to do with state and local law enforcement policies, and not at the feet of the GOP and Democrat state and local government officials where the blame belongs. Surely the president is a part of this, he has not been the leader he could have been on this issue, but this is happening in Texas and Louisiana. These are states where policy is set by Republicans. Baltimore, New York, Chicago, Oakland all of these cities represent the democrats failures to deescalate and resolve this police-minority animosity. The blame goes all the way around.

Stop digging man. It wasn't just your comment. It wasn't just comments at all. NS is a good man. In fact, NS is a great man. I've been in situations where I have to defend my faith (I'm Catholic), but only rarely. I can't imagine how exhausting it must be to have to do that every day. I'm sure he meant it when he said he wanted to focus on other things. I'm also sure that he is exhausted, generally and not directed at any single person, for having to defend his faith daily. Leaving here, however, isn't going to end that for him. Anti-Islam words and actions happen every day in the west. When the sex abuse scandals broke in the US and Ireland and elsewhere, it quickly became evident that the issue was pervasive among members and leaders of the faith. At the same time, not one person ever approached me implying that Catholicism itself, as a faith and doctrine, was causing child sexual abuse. Not one. People were able to separate the two. We would all be better to attempt to do the same here. Everything is more complex and nuanced than your think, than I think. On every issue. Everywhere. All the time.

Power cut at Incirlik Airbase and local authorities have sealed it off. If this gets from bad for Turkey to bad for Earth, this is how it will start. Hopefully the Turkish leaders know what they're playing with.

Man up, buddy. Popular coups armed with tanks and choppers don't die that fast if more than say, 20% of the people are ready for an overthrow of the government. A majority may very well hate the guy and want him gone, but at this point, it's pretty clear that they believe enough in the system to prefer it be changed from within, which indicates that they don't believe he's destroyed their democracy. And this was in the cities, where he has the lowest levels of support. I agree. These working class white folks supporting trump need to stop blaming the government and immigration for their problems and pull themselves up. Their problems were caused by no one but themselves. I spent 10 years in the Midwest, and met plenty of folks who wanted to work hard and get out of the terrible rust belt culture. and the ones who did, I never heard them once blame NAFTA for their plight.

The email issue barely moved the needle in the polls. That decision was July 5th. Polls with data collected on July 6-10 still have her well ahead. It's not until July 11 that trump starts to move ground. Polls don't swing that fast unless there is an emotional response. Dallas created emotion, FBI pressers about potential digital crimes and congressional hearings don't. This bump is all about the sad state of race relations in America, unfortunately. Tomorrow's poll: What should eleven eat: A) his words B) his hat C) crow D) Humble Pie

Good people in general. Honestly hurting, honestly scared, or both. Looking for a solution and not finding it in the recent focus of American Liberalism. I think they are a great reflection point for Liberal leaders on where the gaps are and where they need to put at least some energy going forward.

. Trump wasn't even close until 5 cops got murdered in an attack by a violent terrorist lunatic in the name of killing white people at a protest rally against police violence toward Blacks. His strength in the last 5 days has absolutely nothing to do with "establishment politics" or trade deals.

BBC reporting some possibility that the coup is actually being driven by a sub-set of the military. Reports of jets attacking army helicopters. If the military is not unified on this, it could get really bad, quick.

I bet trump takes a lead in the aggregate polls next week. He already got a big bump from the Dallas shootings, turkey and Nice will bump him even further, then the VP and Convention bumps, he'll be out in front for a bit. Ewww.

Gonna go hunt Pokemon with my two youngest. Mrs. Emotion is off at a lacrosse tourney with the oldest. Somehow the deep fryer made its way out and some steaks appeared in my fridge. Can the three of us drink all these beers tonight?

I have a right to bear arms. If I decide my car is how I will arm myself, dont I have a constitutional right? Who decides what qualifies as "arms" under A-II?

Think of it more as campaigning for your cause. Formulating your case so that you can help convince more folks to see it your way. If you're having the same argument umpteen times (I imagine not just here) and the needle of democracy isn't moving in your direction, consider altering the argument with input from others, while keeping your values and goals in sight. Leadership in our great political experiment comes from everyone. That's how we'll ultimately get a c in c candidate who is a competent, honest leader. When we have our arguments in vague sound bites and memes, and hold to our stump speeches regardless of the political results, we end up with two groups who just preach at the choir and tilt at windmills of their own creation. I'm coming along to a better military solution, especially to the immediate threat from daesh, but I'm also looking for some new method that doesn't look like what we've done before. What we done before doesn't seem to work against this kind of enemy. It is possible that bigger and more deadly violence to meet this threat is the right option, but we, as in America, should have a better debate about it to formulate where a proposed plan meets our values. Lincoln-Douglas style.

What? And why cryptic?

He was born in New Mexico.

TP: you have absolutely massive earlobes. Do thy get sore?

But there is also a 5th amendment, and everytime police kill a suspect, especially when there could be conceivable alternative options, that amendment is violated. Agents of the state failed to deliver due process. Tactical quasi-military decisions are not due process. I was absolutely shocked to read a response from you in particular that did not vigorously defend the most important amendment for protecting the individual from the state.

The 5th Amendment makes a pretty clear case for what constitutes justice in the United States. This may well have been the right tactical decision and an ethical choice but I don't think I would use the word justice.

Fans vote in less than 1/4 of the roster and getting to 1-rep per team still leaves you with 20 open spots. More than enough to build your league's beat 1-game roster. And since they made the switch, only 4 series have gone 6 or 7 games, and those series have been split 2-2 between the home team and the away team. The old way was just alternating AL/NL, and with the massively unbalanced schedules in baseball, going by best record would be just as random.