The reporter backtracked saying that he didn't say that.

NFL reporter now says he never asked Kaepernick if he'd stand for anthem - ABC News

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I'm down with this:

https://www.versobooks.com/books/231...ing-the-future

Freedom ain't free round my way.

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Wrong song


But Brother Ali has some good songs.

Something tells me that road would have to be paved with the corpses of a lot of greedy ****ers who like the way things are going now.

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Hmm, yeah once you realise that the search for meaning is all vanity there is a certain peace in embracing the void.

Bob Corker's comeback after the donald spent all morning dissing him via twitter.....

FOR THE WIN!

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NYTimes

That's really sad.

I hope Trump's tweets about Corker and NFL won't distract from what is, as I understand it, a more important news story coming up this week: the supreme court looking at the practice of partisan gerrymandering.

This issue caught my attention when I watched a segment of the A.M. Joy tv programme yesterday, which showed this election result, for Wisconsin 2012:-

..................% of votes....Number of seats

Republican........47................60
Democrats........53................39

Pretty clear that democracy isn't working out too well in Wisconsin, and to hear the language used on the prog, the abuse of the system to produce undemocratic results is at a serious level:-

"voters permanently locked out......voter suppression......locking in minority rule.....inordinate power......we functionally become a country that has minority rule........nearly permanent party control by a single party....."

None of these are expressions you want to hear about any country that has reached that precious but fragile political goal; democracy.

Wow, two of the trauma surgeons who operated on victims at Sunrise Hospital in Vegas right near the shooting were in their first year on the job. They were certified to perform surgery in Nevada for only a few months. Talk about a trial by fire. They were so green they didn't have clearance to perform surgeries on victims without approval from their supervisor.

Gerrymandering is a huge problem that not enough people even think about because it's complicated and thinking is hard. Unfortunately, gerrymandering also isn't the only thing making the US a country that's not ruled by the people. Our whole political structure, from the electoral college to Congress—has always been set up to give a lot of additional weight to the votes of people in states with low populations. Put those two issues together and you have a system that is far removed from representing the will of the people.

Gerrymandering has become a case of politicians choosing the people instead of vice versa.

But another problem is no matter how you slice America up it's still America.

^ Very neat aphorisms, OH. If you came up with those yourself, you are clearly a clever guy!

^ Haha, yes. It's much more comfortable to talk about Trump's latest tweet!
As I see it, the big stumbling block about dealing with gerrymandering is the difficulty of defining what a fair division of constituencies is. Until you have that yardstick fixed and agreed, it's gonna be impossible to decide what are fair and unfair divisions. (If I have the time or patience, I might look at what they do in Europe, where it is not a problem afaik, though don't hold your breath on that one.)

And on that issue of the weighting to low-population states, I read that the equivalency is about 3 urban coastal votes = 1 agricultural hinterland vote. Not the intention behind "One man, one vote" I'm sure!

And which country would this be, I wonder?

Whenever I hear the word gerrymander I always imagine a salamander called Gerry. :laughing:
(which is strangely apt, is it not, Lisna?) ;)

Given that this is a quote from a report that contends that more "children" (ie, under-18s) are committing sex offences on other "children", I feel this is something of an unfortunate choice of words:

"We are dealing unequivocally with the tip of the iceberg," said Simon Bailey, the National Police Chief lead for child protection.
:laughing:

VP Pence was scheduled to fly from Las Vegas to Los Angeles for a conference. Total cost to the taxpayers for the flight: $45,000

Instead, him and Trump cooked up a PR stunt. Yesterday's Colts game in Indiannapolis was a big deal because they honored Peyton Manning by retiring his number at halftime. Lots of eyes were on the game.

Pence flew to the game so him and his wife could stand during the National Anthem. They immediately left after to 'protest' against the players who knelt.
Total cost to the taxpayers for the flight: $242,500 (LV > Indy > LA)

This doesn't include the cost of having the stadium swept by security, additional security being hired for the game, and a special trauma team being on standby at the nearest hospital.

Pence's tweet afterwards: "I left today's Colts game because @POTUS and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem."

Trump's tweet afterwards: "I asked VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and SecondLady Karen."

Like both of them didn't know that players were definitely going to kneel. How stupid do they really think we are?

^ Yep, the whole stunt was a disgraceful waste of taxpayers' money, prob to deflect people's attention from what's really being worked out by the Trump admin, e.g. the surreptitious sabotaging of Obamacare, the review of gerrymandering, the absense of any plan apart from bluster regarding NKorea, etc.

Oddly enough, that's exactly where the word comes from; Gerry Whoknows, an American polititian, carved out a constituency the shape of a salamander to maximise the effect of his supporters.
Yes, what with Jerries=Huns, jerry-building, gerrymandering and jerry-rigging, people called Jerry probably feel unfairly put upon. For different reasons, people called "Willie,""Dick" or "Fanny" might feel aggrieved too.

Damn what a sucker.

Yo Pence if you're reading this, I can make you the best scrambled eggs you've ever had for the low price of $2500 per egg.

Well, there are some very smart people with some good proposals.

That may be true of the electoral college—and that's bad enough—but it's actually far, far worse in the Senate. Each state gets two senators regardless of size so the 600,000 people in Wyoming collectively have just as much say as the 40,000,000 people in California. Unless my math is wrong, that mean an individual voter in Wyoming has almost 80 times the voice in the US Senate than an individual voter in California.

Salt & Pepper is extra, of course.

That is exactly the origin of the word actually. It's named after Governor Elbridge Gerry, who became infamous for creating a voting district that was shaped like a salamander.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ander_Edit.png

I guess I'll be the predictable one and mention the House of Representatives.

Not to mention senators don't represent their constituents in any state. Voters in Wyoming and California have exactly the same voice. None. That's why we shouldn't vote. Don't voluntarily actively participate in a lie that reinforces your own oppression.

It was already part of the conversation since we were talking about gerrymandering, but go ahead.

While I understand the cynicism, I don't think throwing up your hands in resignation is the best approach.

That's just amazing. When a lot younger I wrote some sort of fantasy story in which I had a creature called a gerrymander. Must have heard the phrase somewhere as a kid. Damn salamanders: always turning the heat up!

It's not resignation. Voting is actually harmful.

I vote that it isn't.

The vote is a hard-won victory over autocracy. However unfair the voting system may be, I think it's important to exercise that right and keep it alive.

How?

It's an expression of one's willingness to be governed when one should insist on being ungovernable instead.

It also lends legitimacy to a form of hierarchical oppression. The way that people have social conviction that voting is a civic duty demonstrates to me how insidious democracy really is. As far as I can tell its adherents are the most brainwashed people on earth.

How does one "insist on being ungovernable"?

Break laws that are unjust and spit at cops, duh.

By not acknowledging others right to govern you and to resist when they try.

Won't work until enough people wake up.

Let me ask you something: In your mind is democracy as free as we can get? Could there be a day in the future when all government will be antiquated and abandoned altogether?

Don't recognize laws as a governing force for your conduct and treat all people, including cops, with love and respect. Start by being a person who doesn't need to be governed.

That sounds a lot like not doing anything.

And I can do that from home!

I'm doing it right now.