1884

Carlson is only 50 now. In 24’ he will be 56. He could easily get his 8 years if elected and then engineer additional years somehow.

Imagine if Hitler came to power in a Germany that already had the most powerful military in the world, and then had some years to escalate it.

1885



1886

“Unreconstructed” sounds like a word Orwell would have come up with.

1887

I’ve heard it lots; it probably dates to the post Civil War era, if I had to guess.

1888
1889

I saw this. Gotta pay for the tax cuts for the ultra rich. Why should they suffer?

This has been the plan all along. Cut taxes and then cut the deficit by cutting social spending. They can’t cut defense spending because that protects their international investments and can also protect them from social unrest at home when starvation and deprivation drive the poor to desperate measures.

It’s getting to be time for another French Revolution, but in the U.S. this time.

1890

This isn’t even happening. New budget deal increases both domestic and military spending over the next two years about equally.

Republicans only cry about the deficit when Democrats are in charge.

1891

It would have if the GOP held the House.

1892

Not sure of the best thread for this, but the federal death penalty is back.

1893

For those curious, this appears to be one of the pieces of congressional legislation for reauthorizing the death penalty

2017, and a lot to do with giving preferential treatment for police. As in, if the victim is a cop, it justifies the death penalty when it otherwise would not.

1894

Should have called it the Respect My Authoritah Act.

1895

Honestly, I don’t mind giving a harsher penalty for killing a cop.

Although I would pair it with similarly harsher penalties for when cops commit crimes.

1896

Think of all the times we’ve caught cops not just in flat out lies but on camera making shit up, escalating the issue and in some cases planting evidence. We don’t know if a cop was actually killed simply because someone didn’t feel like being executed that day. If someone murders a cop, they’re a murder, as judged by the court of law, but law enforcement has too much power and enforcement to take their word for it. Which happens to often even in court.

And

This will never happen. They’re not really held accountable at all today. They’ll certainly not get harsher penalties.

1897

‘Qualified* immunity’

*the only qualification being that you are an officer, now you are immune unless someone in your specific jurisdiction already performed an identical act.

1898

Yeah, and they’d still have to be convicted…so I’m not seeing the problem.

There is an additional motivation for criminals to target and kill cops, so I don’t see a problem establishing that as an aggravating circumstance when considering sentencing.

1899

Our judicial system is too unfair and too imperfect to be making final decisions in many if not most circumstances. It’s completely tilted against certain groups and parts of society still believe in cops over anything and everyone else have repeatedly proven they’re not always trustworthy.

If someone is executed, what’s the chances that first one is going to be white you think?

Murdering cops is horrific, so is murdering children, so is murdering good Samaritans so is murdering the elderly… and vets, and a host of others groups. This is just a political maneuver, and they’ll figure out how to call the white ones troubled or mentally ill and execute everyone else.

1900

Federal law and the individual legal codes of all 50 states already establish the killing of a police officer as an aggravating factor in sentencing. The Thin Blue Line Act did nothing to change that.

And yeah, I’m not sure how to fix policing. We need a trustworthy security force, but we simply don’t have one. It’s clear that police culture, in general, is toxic. The lack of accountability is baked in and endemic. Qualified immunity is something we’ll ride right down into third-world status. All degenerate regimes have the corruption of security forces in common.

1901

There is basically no motivation for it, rather the opposite. In any event, cops are meant to serve the law, not enjoy special protections from it.

1902

I’d think if a cop is after you, killing them is a surefire way to stop that. Seems like motivation to me.

That said …

I agree wholeheartedly, as I’m sure many/most of the people here do.

1903

But criminals have additional incentive to murder cops, in order to deter those cops from policing them.