The Left: Robespierre did nothing wrong

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by bricktop, Jan 17, 2017.

  1. Shawn Hunter

    Shawn Hunter Vote Corey Matthews for Congress
    Donor
    Kentucky WildcatsBoston CelticsNew England PatriotsUniversity of LynchburgAEW

    Took it again because I was on the fence on agree or disagree for a few things, picked strongly for a few more things.

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -1.38
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.74

    [​IMG]
     
    AjaxAsian likes this.
  2. cutig

    cutig My name is Rod, and I like to party
    Donor
    Clemson TigersNebraska CornhuskersCarolina PanthersKansas City Chiefs

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -6.63
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.54

    [​IMG]
     
    Merica, AjaxAsian and Redav like this.
  3. BubbleHead

    BubbleHead Well-Known Member
    Donor
    Auburn TigersNavy Midshipmen

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -5.63
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.03
     
    AjaxAsian and Redav like this.
  4. Can I Spliff it

    Can I Spliff it Is Butterbean okay?
    Donor

    what's up with that texas abortion law?
     
    AjaxAsian likes this.
  5. naganole

    naganole I'm a pretty big deal around here.
    Donor
    Florida State SeminolesAtlanta BravesAtlanta HawksAtlanta FalconsPoker

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -6.63
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.82


    [​IMG]
     
    AjaxAsian likes this.
  6. timo

    timo g'day, mate
    Donor
    Penn State Nittany LionsPittsburgh SteelersPittsburgh PenguinsTottenham HotspurPittsburgh Pirates

    about the 9th time I've done one of these on TMB... but
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Taques

    Taques sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit
    Staff Donor TMB OG
    The Real Movement

    to be fair 99% of the alt-right accounts on any given website have anime avatars so it's a solid pairing
     
    blotter, Cherno Alpha, Merica and 4 others like this.
  8. Gert B Frobe

    Gert B Frobe Well-Known Member
    TMB OG
    Florida State SeminolesAtlanta BravesTampa Bay Buccaneers

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -7.0
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.87

    [​IMG]
     
    Redav and AjaxAsian like this.
  9. Taques

    Taques sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit
    Staff Donor TMB OG
    The Real Movement

  10. Taques

    Taques sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit
    Staff Donor TMB OG
    The Real Movement

  11. Iron Mickey

    Iron Mickey a guy who posted here like five years ago hates me
    Donor TMB OG
    Arkansas RazorbacksSouth Carolina GamecocksLos Angeles DodgersDetroit LionsChelseaReal Salt Lake

    so they're just pouring salt in the wounds of the brick and mortar booksellers they're putting out of business eh
     
    AjaxAsian likes this.
  12. leroi

    leroi -
    Donor
    South Carolina GamecocksGrateful Dead

    Economic Left/Right: -4.38
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05


    so i'm left/libertarian like pretty much everyone in the thread, maybe slightly more centrist.

    I feel like what's missing from this 'political compass' are questions about policy preferences and how certain goals should be achieved. I think most Americans want broadly the same outcomes, but have wildly different ideas about how to get there.
     
    Merica, CaneKnight, TwoPoor and 2 others like this.
  13. AjaxAsian

    AjaxAsian Bayan Pilipino

    https://www.politicalcompass.org/faq
     
  14. leroi

    leroi -
    Donor
    South Carolina GamecocksGrateful Dead

  15. AjaxAsian

    AjaxAsian Bayan Pilipino

    We went over how vague the questions are already, but their faq gives insight as to why. Most of us like to read here, so just thought Id link it to you so you can read it when you have time.

    I reckon reading has a part in how L/R one is.

    Edit: bible aint a science book. Both sides like books about dinosaurs.
     
    #9717 AjaxAsian, May 31, 2017
    Last edited: May 31, 2017
  16. Fran Tarkenton

    Fran Tarkenton Hilton Honors VIP
    Donor
    Wake Forest Demon DeaconsGeorgia Bulldogs

    re: Sinclair buying up an unconscionable amount of media properties in the USA

    Sinclair quickly cancelled Underground after acquiring WGN, which has drawn decent ratings and fairly strong reviews. John Legend one of the producers:

    [​IMG]


    so yea, the myth about a Liberal Media bias.
     
    Eamudo229, Jax Teller, MA and 8 others like this.
  17. Prospector

    Prospector I am not a new member
    Donor
    Utah UtesArkansas Razorbacks

  18. Prospector

    Prospector I am not a new member
    Donor
    Utah UtesArkansas Razorbacks

    National security and warfare are big business. The U.S. government spent $598.5 billion, over half of its discretionary budget, on military and weapons technology in 2015. The 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies across the globe sold an estimated $370.7 billion worth of arms that year.

    In its latest annual report, Top 100 Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated arms sales for companies around the world using financial documents and reports of sales to national ministries and departments of defense. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 20 companies with the largest arms sales in 2015.
    U.S.-based companies continue to dominate the defense market, a trend that is unlikely to change meaningfully any time soon. Virginia-based Lockheed Martin's arms sales totaled $36.44 billion in 2015, by far the most of any company. Booz Allen Hamilton rounds out the list of 20, with $3.9 billion in military-related sales that year. U.S.- and Western Europe-based companies account for 82.4% of arms sales by the 100 largest military procurement companies.

    Aude Fleurant is programme director of the Arms and Military Expenditure Program at SIPRI. In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., she explained that because U.S.-based arms manufacturers are so numerous and account for such a large share of global defense spending, “what is happening in the U.S. will influence the [military procurement] trends as a whole, as a general rule.”

    Because these companies -- in many cases even foreign arms makers -- sell primarily to the U.S. Department of Defense, sales patterns are closely linked to budgetary decisions in the U.S. The 2011 Budget Control Act, for example, resulted in a dip in global military spending.

    According to Fleurant, shifting budget priorities, which often change dramatically after an election or economic event, add a level of uncertainty that is especially challenging for the defense industry. Not only are fighter jets, submarines, and highly destructive weapons available only to governments and armed forces, but also these defense products often require decades to design, assemble, and test.

    The great length of procurement cycles, scale of product capabilities, limited access to defense markets, as well as the risk of sudden budgetary changes mean defense companies are under enormous pressure to find deals among the already very limited pool of customers. According to Fleurant, the level of uncertainty and these pressures are currently higher than usual. She highlighted relatively small export markets as major targets of companies looking to make up lower revenues.

    According to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, developing nations continue to be the main focus of arms sales. Countries without large arms industries rely heavily on exports from powerful nations, primarily the United States and Russia. From 2011 to 2014, the United States and Russia dominated the arms market in the developing world. Over that period, the United States made nearly $115 billion in such agreements, nearly half of the total value of military deals. Agreements with Russia totalled $41.7 billion.
     
    AjaxAsian likes this.
  19. Hugo Boss

    Hugo Boss The poster formerly known as CarolinaRPh
    South Carolina GamecocksPhiladelphia PhilliesPhiladelphia EaglesTottenham HotspurCharlotte FC

    [​IMG]
    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -7.63
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08

    [​IMG]
     
    AjaxAsian and timo like this.
  20. Shawn Hunter

    Shawn Hunter Vote Corey Matthews for Congress
    Donor
    Kentucky WildcatsBoston CelticsNew England PatriotsUniversity of LynchburgAEW

    WGN has actually cancelled all their original content since being bought up by Sinclair. Apparently, they want to go in a completely different direction with their original content, going with cheaper programs and supplementing it more syndicated reruns.
     
  21. Shawn Hunter

    Shawn Hunter Vote Corey Matthews for Congress
    Donor
    Kentucky WildcatsBoston CelticsNew England PatriotsUniversity of LynchburgAEW

    When is the proletariat revolt starting?
     
  22. Name P. Redacted

    Name P. Redacted I have no money and I'm also gay
    Donor
    Kansas State WildcatsSeattle Kraken

    I've been to that store. It was cool. They post the Amazon rating below each book and price match automatically to the online price.
     
  23. steamengine

    steamengine I don’t want to press one for English!
    Donor
    Duke Blue DevilsHouston AstrosKansas City ChiefsLiverpool

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -6.88
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.69


    [​IMG]
     
    AjaxAsian and Redav like this.
  24. CaneKnight

    CaneKnight FSU Private Board's Fav Poster
    Donor

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -8.38
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.23

    [​IMG]
     
    AjaxAsian, Redav and timo like this.
  25. Hugo Boss

    Hugo Boss The poster formerly known as CarolinaRPh
    South Carolina GamecocksPhiladelphia PhilliesPhiladelphia EaglesTottenham HotspurCharlotte FC

    First they came for the anarcho socialists, and I was like, oh wow, that's me.
     
  26. timo

    timo g'day, mate
    Donor
    Penn State Nittany LionsPittsburgh SteelersPittsburgh PenguinsTottenham HotspurPittsburgh Pirates

    was over for us in '37 when the stalinists stabbed us in the back at Malaga imo.
     
    AjaxAsian and Hugo Boss like this.
  27. leroi

    leroi -
    Donor
    South Carolina GamecocksGrateful Dead

    #9729 leroi, May 31, 2017
    Last edited: May 31, 2017
  28. Beanh8er

    Beanh8er Get the cock out of your ear, Dumbfuck.
    Donor
    Florida State SeminolesMiami Dolphins

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -8.13
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.38

    Eyyyy
     
    AjaxAsian and Redav like this.
  29. Chicago Seminole

    Chicago Seminole Well-Known Member

    I feel like this Chart And it's questions originated from Ronald Boaz's (from Cato) book on libertarianism.

    "Are seat belts fucking gay"? If yes then you are Awesome and clearly a libertarian.

    "are blacks really human?" If yes you are left.

    Regarding state power, I think it's "are you a source of hierarchy or domination? If so, are you legitimate? Explain Yourself!" So the role of state is kind of difficult in A left-libertarian / communitarian anarchist system. You can be an anarcho syndicalist, but still support "authoritarian" Medicaid. The U.S. Is in no condition for direct democracy with current political discourse though, so let's roll with dictatorship of the proletariat.

    We should add some anarchist and anarcho-syndicalism /libertarian socialism to the reading list. Rudolph Rocker, Paul goodman, Colin ward and more old man Chomsky. Also Delueze, Foucault, Agamben, and Nietzsche

    Truman, sorry I called seat belts gay. Political correctness Must always take precedence in a Decaffeinated revolution. What would Anderson and Don Lemon think?
     
    #9731 Chicago Seminole, Jun 1, 2017
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2017
    TwoPoor, steamengine, Merica and 3 others like this.
  30. Name P. Redacted

    Name P. Redacted I have no money and I'm also gay
    Donor
    Kansas State WildcatsSeattle Kraken

    I like to listen to Noam but I feel sad afterwards.
     
  31. Joe_Pesci

    Joe_Pesci lying dog-faced pony soldier
    Donor
    Wolfsburg

    Chomsky has lived kind of a bizarre life. He made his breakthrough in linguistics at a young age and thereafter basically dedicated his life to reading government documents.
     
  32. Merica

    Merica Devine pls stop pointing out my demise. :(
    Donor
    Auburn TigersAtlanta BravesPittsburgh Steelers

    Someone give this mother fucker a hat already.
     
  33. indeed

    indeed All In The Game
    Penn State Nittany Lions

    Good news for all you lefties

     
  34. Can I Spliff it

    Can I Spliff it Is Butterbean okay?
    Donor

  35. Prospector

    Prospector I am not a new member
    Donor
    Utah UtesArkansas Razorbacks

    Iowa teen’s $1 million-per-month illness no longer a secret
    Tony Leys4 hrs ago

    [​IMG]© Tony Leys/The Register Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield headquarters in Des Moines.

    DES MOINES — Somewhere in Iowa, a teenager with a severe bleeding disorder holds the answer to a nationally debated riddle: How could anyone rack up more than $1 million per month in medical bills?

    Iowa’s largest health insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield, has cited the case as an extreme example of exploding health care costs. Wellmark has said the single member’s bills amplified fast-rising premiums among tens of thousands of other Iowans who buy their own insurance.

    The case reportedly contributed to the insurer’s decision to stop selling such policies here next year, which led the state’s other two main carriers to say they probably also will pull out of Iowa's individual insurance market.

    The million-dollar anecdote sparked widespread speculation about what type of illness could lead to such colossal medical bills. In public hearings and interviews with reporters, Wellmark leaders have said the customer had an unspecified genetic disorder.

    But a company executive shared more details during a recent presentation to the Des Moines Rotary Club. The patient is a teenage boy who has hemophilia, a genetic disorder that prevents the blood from clotting, Wellmark Executive Vice President Laura Jackson told more than 100 people who attended the Rotary meeting. She did not name him or give his hometown.

    Hemophilia can lead to uncontrolled bleeding, including internal hemorrhages that can cause severe joint pain, bruising and even death. It is commonly treated with concentrated solutions of “factors,” which are proteins that help the blood form clots and heal cuts. The life-saving treatments are extremely expensive to produce. Most patients require a few infusions per week. Some require several per day.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 20,000 Americans have hemophilia, which mainly affects boys and men. Up to 20% of patients develop an antibody that makes their systems resist the standard treatment, the federal agency reports on its website. “Treatment of bleeding episodes becomes extremely difficult, and the cost of care … can skyrocket because more clotting factor or a different type of clotting factor is needed,” the agency says.

    Katie Verb, director of policy and government relations for the Hemophilia Federation of America, said that in general, hemophilia care costs $250,000 to $1 million per year. At the high end of that range would be patients who need multiple infusions of different types of clotting factor per day. "A million dollars per month is something we've never heard of," she said.

    Verb said she couldn't speculate on what related health problems the Iowa patient might be experiencing. "Without knowing all the facts, it's hard pin this on one disorder," she said.

    Michelle Rice, a vice president for the National Hemophilia Foundation, said she could imagine how aggressive treatment of a complicated case could lead to such costs. Rice said that when a patient's immune system rejects the standard treatment, doctors sometimes try to overwhelm the body's response. "You're giving the patient massive amounts of factor on a daily basis. You're basically trying to get the body used to the factor, so it no longer rejects it," she said.

    Rice, who lives in Indiana, has a mild form of hemophilia that rarely needs treatment. She has two sons with severe forms, which cost about $700,000 per year to treat. She said the shots must go directly into veins, an unpleasant experience. No one would seek to use more of the factor treatment than necessary, she said. "As patients, we are very aware of how expensive we are, and I would tell you that most patients try to be very good stewards of health care dollars," she said.

    Wellmark leaders have said they don't fault the patient or his family for the cost of his care, and they're glad it's helping to keep him alive. But they said the cost needs to be spread across a bigger pool than the 30,000 Iowans who are in the individual-insurance pool he's in.

    If Wellmark follows through on its plan to stop selling individual health insurance policies, the mystery patient's family presumably would shop for another policy. National health-insurance experts have theorized that the prospect of winding up with that extremely expensive Iowan might have helped scare off Aetna and Medica, the other two carriers offering individual health insurance in most of the state. Aetna has said it won't sell such policies in Iowa next year. Medica has said it probably won't.

    "Everyone is trying to avoid the $12 million-man," Duke University research associate David Anderson told the publication PolitiFact. "Because whoever catches him basically can’t make money."

    Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen said that's an oversimplification. Ommen said the pool of Iowans buying individual insurance — as opposed to policies provided by employers or public programs — includes too few young, healthy customers and too many people with chronic medical problems. "We have a concentration of people with persistent health conditions. It's not just one person," Ommen told The Register Wednesday.

    Ommen has been urging Congress to pass new rules that would encourage insurers to stay in markets such as Iowa. Among them could be a reinsurance program that helps carriers shoulder unexpected costs and a reinvigorated high-risk pool, which could take on patients who have chronic, hard-to-treat conditions.

    Iowa still has a high-risk pool it created in 1986. That program has shrunk from 3,000 to 300 members since the Affordable Care Act forced private insurers to cover people with pre-existing health problems. But if no private carriers offer individual coverage for next year, the mystery Wellmark customer probably could qualify for coverage in the state high-risk pool, the program's administrator told The Register last week.

    Premiums for policies from the high-risk pool are generally 150% of premiums for private coverage. Although that's hundreds of dollars extra per month, it wouldn't come anywhere near what the pool would have to pay for treatment for the unidentified hemophilia patient.

    Much of the money would come from a special fee levied on insurance carriers, including Wellmark. But the carriers could deduct those fees from future state tax payments, meaning the state would effectively wind up footing much of the bill, Ommen said.

    Verb, the Hemophilia Federation expert, said the Affordable Care Act has been a big help to people with the condition. Before the law, also known as Obamacare, health insurers routinely excluded people with hemophilia or imposed lifetime limits on how much their policies would pay for care. Even if such limits were as high as $1 million, many people with hemophilia would hit them within a few years, she said.

    The Hemophilia Federation also opposes putting people with the disease back into state high-risk pools. Such pools had high premiums, were routinely underfunded, and often didn't cover everything needed to treat the disease. "It isn't really insurance," Verb said.

    "Everyone is trying to avoid the $12 million-man," Duke University research associate David Anderson told the publication PolitiFact. "Because whoever catches him basically can’t make money."

    Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen said that's an oversimplification. Ommen said the pool of Iowans buying individual insurance — as opposed to policies provided by employers or public programs — includes too few young, healthy customers and too many people with chronic medical problems. "We have a concentration of people with persistent health conditions. It's not just one person," Ommen told The Register Wednesday.
     
  36. Eamudo229

    Eamudo229 Well-Known Member
    Donor
    Florida GatorsJacksonville Jaguars

    I am where I thought I'd be

    Your Political Compass
    Economic Left/Right: -9.13
    Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.74
     
    AjaxAsian and Redav like this.
  37. Prospector

    Prospector I am not a new member
    Donor
    Utah UtesArkansas Razorbacks

    One Official Tried To Warn Us About Attacks Like Portland. He Was Pushed Out.
    Domestic terrorism is the threat that Americans seem determined to ignore.
    By Ryan J. Reilly

    WASHINGTON ― The anti-Muslim white supremacist charged with murdering two men in Portland, Oregon, when they intervened in his bigoted tirade at two teenagers is the kind of extremist that former Department of Homeland Security official Daryl Johnson worried about.

    Eight years ago, working in the department’s now-defunct Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Johnson authored a memo intended to warn law enforcement about the threat posed by right-wing extremists. It wasn’t just the election of the first black president, he wrote, but the troubled economic situation, the divisive political climate, and angry rhetoric about immigrants and outsiders that could spark attacks. Right-wing extremists, he wrote, could capitalize on “racial and political prejudices” to reach a “wider audience of potential sympathizers.”

    The backlash to Johnson’s 2009 memo was swift. Some conservatives portrayed it as an Obama administration attack on the tea party movement. Under political pressure, the administration backed away from the memo. They dismantled Johnson’s team. He left the government.

    In the years since, the U.S. has seen several high-profile incidents of violence by right-wing extremists. The latest tragedy occurred last week with the stabbing deaths of Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, on a commuter train. A third man, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, was severely injured. Jeremy Christian, 35, has since been charged in the incident. The men had confronted Christian as he was harassing two teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab.

    [​IMG]
    Beth Nakamura/Pool/Reuters
    Jeremy Christian, accused of killing two men on a train, shouts in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland on May 30.
    Christian left a long trail of hate online. His mother told HuffPost that her son, who had spent time in prison, had a habit of “spouting anti-establishment stuff.” At his first court appearance on Tuesday, he called for the death of the “enemies” of America. “You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism,” Christian said. “You hear me? Die.”

    Johnson, now a security consultant, has fielded calls from reporters in the wake of other such attacks by domestic extremists. After a white supremacist killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012. After another white supremacist slaughtered African-American churchgoers in South Carolina. After militia extremists occupied a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. After radicalized military veterans murdered police officers in Baton Rogue, Louisiana, and Dallas. After three members of a Crusaders militia were arrested for plotting an attack on Muslim immigrants in Kansas.

    Rather than dialing back after President Donald Trump’s win, as some had predicted they would, domestic extremist groups seem to have been “emboldened” by the rhetoric of the 2016 election, Johnson told HuffPost. Friday’s attack in Portland, he said, highlights once again the federal government’s failure to take the threat of domestic terrorism seriously.

    “This just re-emphasizes that we have an issue that has pretty much permeated the entire country, and yet the legislators and leadership in government either don’t recognize it, or are de-emphasizing it, or are not really playing close attention to it,” Johnson said.

    On that point, he agrees with then-Attorney General Eric Holder, who told HuffPost in 2015 that the murder of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, should serve as a “wake-up call” about the danger of domestic terrorism. Holder said America liked the fiction that the extremist threat arose solely from ideologies coming from outside the United States.

    “We have a young man who apparently becomes radicalized as the result of an incident and becomes more radicalized as a result of what he sees on the internet, through the use of his computer, then goes and does something that by his own words apparently is a political, violent act,” Holder said at the time. “With a different set of circumstances, and if you had dialed in religion there, Islam, that would be called an act of terror.”

    [​IMG]
    Steve Dipaola/Reuters
    People react outside the courthouse during the May 30 arraignment of Jeremy Christian.
    There’s a history of the U.S. government treading carefully when it comes to domestic extremists. During the Clinton administration, extremists seized on two deadly conflicts between federal agents and fringe groups ― in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993 ― to recruit and propagandize. Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995, was motivated by those incidents. Since then, the government has adopted a strategy of acting with what one former FBI hostage negotiator called “infinite patience” in direct standoffs with domestic extremists. Rhetorically, too, the government has largely avoided language that could heighten tensions with those groups. In some situations, like the wildlife refugee standoff in Oregon, that approach has generated criticism and accusations that the feds are appeasing extremists.

    More recently, the government has taken some limited steps to address domestic extremists. In 2014, the Justice Department re-established the Domestic Terrorism Task Force, which had been set up in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing but allowed to go dormant after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In 2015, the head of the department’s National Security Division said that domestic groups organizing online were a “real threat” to the United States and established the position of counsel for domestic terrorism matters. The counsel, former FBI official Thomas E. Brzozowski, said last year that extremists’ underlying ideology is “immaterial” to how the Justice Department approaches domestic terrorism.

    The major hurdle that prosecutors face in the realm of domestic terrorism is that supporting such groups is largely protected by the Constitution. That’s not the case for those who back designated foreign terrorist groups: They can be hit with “material support” charges for a wide variety of activities, even tweeting support for foreign terrorists.

    Johnson noted that the government also puts a much greater emphasis on preventing attacks inspired by the Islamic State and al Qaeda and has assigned a lot more resources to those types of cases. But that doesn’t mean domestic extremists are any less of a threat, he said.

    “If the government wanted to shift its focus and look at other types of domestic terrorist groups and individuals, if they decided, ‘Hey, that’s a priority of ours,’ they could pump out as many cases on the right-wing side,” Johnson said. “It’s just a matter of priorities and budget and resources.”

    It is, of course, a tall order for the federal government to track every self-radicalized lone wolf in the country. Still, FBI stings aimed at right-wing extremists have been rare. And some cases against domestic organizations, like the Hutaree militia in Michigan and the anti-government forces that took over the Oregon wildlife refuge have been unsuccessful, with prosecutors facing skepticism from judges and juries that is rarely seen in cases against Muslim extremists. (There are also successful prosecutions: Alaska extremist Schaeffer Cox received 25 years, while senior citizens in a Georgia militia got sentences in the range of five to 10 years.)

    The federal government doesn’t make much of an effort to really keep an eye on domestic extremists, according to Ryan Lenz, a senior investigative reporter for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project.

    “It seems that the federal government is very reluctant to call American citizens terrorists, even when their actions meet the definition of what terrorism is,” said Lenz. “It’s much easier to assign that label of terrorist to someone who is Muslim and comes from a foreign country than someone who is American and looks like people in Congress.”

    It’s not just the government, Johnson said, it’s the way cases are treated by the media as well. There would be a lot more reporting on the Portland attack if it had been committed by a Muslim, he contended, and it likely would have been national news for days.

    What is it going to take for them to step up and actually recognize the threat for what it is? Daryl Johnson, former Department of Homeland Security official
    When an attack is committed by a Muslim, Johnson said, “everybody gets real spun up, and there’s a lot more news coverage, and you have all of these counterterrorism consultants all over the news talking about the threat of Muslim extremists. You don’t get that same attention and that same response from the public or these counterterrorism officials or the government over these similar incidents that were hate-motivated.”

    For now, Johnson predicts the government will continue to aggressively target sympathizers of Muslim extremist groups with sting operations and pay only lip service to the idea of tackling homegrown terrorism.

    “That’s just the government’s stances and its policy, wanting to reinforce the war on terror. So we’re going to target these ISIS supporters and do these sting operations against people we feel are being sympathetic towards ISIS and al Qaeda,” Johnson said.

    In the short term at least, he’s not very hopeful that the government will launch a similarly dedicated effort to combat domestic extremists.

    “We’re already behind on resources and attention given to domestic terrorists, and now we’ve got even more emerging from different sides of the political spectrum,” Johnson said. “Right now, the picture in my opinion is bleak.”

    He also had some urgent words for those critics in Congress who attacked his 2009 memo.

    “I would say it’s never too late to reconsider your stance on how serious this threat is,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen the threat grow and grow year after year, and here we are eight years removed and incident after incident has pretty much validated the analysis in that report. What is it going to take for them to step up and actually recognize the threat for what it is?”
     
    AjaxAsian likes this.
  38. VaxRule

    VaxRule Mmm ... Coconuts
    Donor TMB OG
    Michigan WolverinesSwansea

    Shawn Hunter and AjaxAsian like this.
  39. AjaxAsian

    AjaxAsian Bayan Pilipino

    Should I do bootstrap scores and political compass scores for each user or should I just go out for a walk?

    Edit: nevermind not everbody taken both
     
  40. Joe_Pesci

    Joe_Pesci lying dog-faced pony soldier
    Donor
    Wolfsburg

    Breaking: place not as great as rumored to be

    I feel like that guy just reassembled that one Cracked article and the handful of others that it spawned a year or two ago. And people like Shawn Hunter repost them.
     
    cutig likes this.
  41. herb.burdette

    herb.burdette Meet me at the corner of 8th and Worthington
    Donor
    Ohio State Buckeyes

  42. pez

    pez Competent
    Staff
    SMU Mustangs



    Edited: Found this interesting. Not sure he's wrong but it's definitely catering to the center. Not sure if the democratic base or the Bernie wing would sign off on it

     
  43. Fran Tarkenton

    Fran Tarkenton Hilton Honors VIP
    Donor
    Wake Forest Demon DeaconsGeorgia Bulldogs

    the GOP college-educated paradox continues

     
  44. LuPoor

    LuPoor Cuddle with the homies watching Stand By Me
    Donor
    Tulsa Golden HurricaneOklahoma City ThunderTottenham HotspurSeattle Kraken

    It's gonna kill us all, but the greater moral blight would be intervening in the market