Usa Thread

[jitagawn]

" My biggest beefs are the continued erosion of civil liberties. We are no longer a free society now. Its done. Obama has become like any other politician with promise, he sold out to big money."

 

CS I agree his pooch handler is nothing compared to this ...it all just adds up to a decline in what we have understood to be America,

[King Kung]

Mike Benthins works as a "squeegee man" on East 37th Street near the corner of Lexington Avenue. They were the ultimate symbol of the lawlessness and blight of the 1980s and early 1990s — and now they’re making a comeback.

 

Squeegee men are menacing motorists across New York City, including spots near the Holland, Lincoln and Queens-Midtown tunnels, as well as the Queensboro Bridge, The Post has learned.

 

Residents and drivers who pass through the areas said the panhandlers are spraying and wiping windshields without permission to shake down drivers for cash.

 

Their sudden return is an ominous sign according to the proven “broken windows†theory that has kept the city safe by having cops crack down on minor offenses to prevent bigger, violent crimes.

 

http://nypost.com/20...g-city-streets/

 

Ghetto America. And it's getting worse. Ain't diversity great? I was a child in the early 70s when my father would drive me into NYC. The lumbering Negroes (yes they were always black) would either spit on your windshield and offer to clean it off, or merely act unsolicited and demand payment. It's this sort of simian behavior I cannot tolerate. It's no surprise this sort of deviant behavior is making a comeback.

[SpiceMan]

More racial stereotyping and bigotry, King Kung.

[Steve]

 

 

Ghetto America. And it's getting worse. Ain't diversity great? I was a child in the early 70s when my father would drive me into NYC. The lumbering Negroes (yes they were always black) would either spit on your windshield and offer to clean it off, or merely act unsolicited and demand payment. It's this sort of simian behavior I cannot tolerate. It's no surprise this sort of deviant behavior is making a comeback.

 

To some extent poverty or the road out is on the onus of those in that predicament. That said, the government has and still makes it harder. Education has always been the best route out of poverty. Proven. I can attest to it persoanlly. HOwever, if you look at the urban areas now the standard public school education has been under attack. Philly, Chicago, other urban areas, they are closing schools and the schools there are subservient. Public schools used to be the domain of local and state rule. Now,they all rely on so much federal money its now a national issue. The quality of the urban schools are way, way below standards. They do not educate. Philly's school system was wrested from its school board. I was a pretty good student in school I spent the majority of my public school education in areas far from my own local schools. why? If I had any hope going to a decent college, it would be impossible. My lcoal HS did not even have calculus. We had a teacher that would teach us trig as a special class but it stopped at geometry. I spent the last 1.5 years of my hs life, using an address that wasn't my homes to attend a suburban HS 25 miles outside of Philly. I could have easily been a statistic. I spent my years going schools where I was not welcomed and I was the rare black student. I endured taunts, bullying, etc. were I not the stuborn bastard raised by parents who instilled a great degree of personal pride, the CS you know on here would have been CS the drug dealer, criminal, etc.

 

Crime has always been the function of poverty. ONe must ask this. 100-150 years ago the IRish, Jews, Italians and even at times Germans, Poles, etc. have been involved in organizdd crime. They formed criminal gangs and criminal enterprises. WHy did they? Especially Jews, who faced massive prejudice in various countries in Europe over hundreds of years who have been herded into ghetoes a term that was originally a term for a poor Jewish area. Ever major city had a 'Jewish quarter' yet they resisted the need to start criminal gangs. Storied gangsters like Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz, Bugsy Siegel, etc. Why in America? Why did the others? Because they were kept out of participating in the mainstream economy. They were excluded. Their only role was to be a consumer. The children of European immigrants, at least many of them, saw their plight so bad they started organized criminal gangs. So, you say, okay but they stopped and even the mafia are greatly diminished. They did, why can't blacks or latinos. If you look at their history, Jews, Irish, southern and eastern Europeans were not considered 'white'. They were considered not quite white. The Irish were often depicted as apes in newspaper cartoons and were referred to as 'the Irish race' Southern Eruopeans were óften dark, swarthy, Italians, Greeks, countries bordering the Mediterranean. Slavic peoples were always seen as a lower race. The Germans killed them almost as fast as the Jews and slavic influence and blood in Russia was why the Nazis showed no quarter to the Russians as they did to Americans and Brits.

 

Eventually these groups were accepted as 'white'. HEnce their entre into mainstream American economy. A family today wouldn't have much if any problem if their daughter married someone with an Irish, Italian, Greek and even Jewish surname. Lets be frank. Other than tokenism, as a collective Blacks and latinos are not accepted in America. Its just the way it is. If Blacks became model citizens tomorrow, its simply not going to happen as a colective. Blacks know this. Many strive to be the exception and that one who is accepted. Often its a town or neighborhood or in your company but as a colective Blacks in America know that we aren't. Its sad to say it but I don't sugar coat things. Individually yes, in some areas yes, some areas (Pacific NW) are much better than others (Mississippi) but as a collective by the majority? NO.

Very few familiies would say no to Will Smith marrying into their family or Maia Obama marrying their son. These are the exceptions but lets be frank. You could be Joe Smith, physician, med school graduate, model citizen and its an issue with a fairly significant number of families.

[jitagawn]

I appreciate your restraint Steve.

[cavanami]

He'll get another Nobel prize, I'm sure!

[King Kung]

More racial stereotyping and bigotry, King Kung.

 

How is a first hand testimonial stereotyping or bigoted? I'm not relating a story I heard or that I assume to be true. Sorry my reality doesn't fit within your constrained PC prism. Open your eyes, you'll be surprised at what you see.

[jitagawn]

"Ghetto America. And it's getting worse. Ain't diversity great?"

 

This statement alone reveals your bigotry.

[Flashermac]

The untransparent CIA is ridiculously [redacted]

 

 

WASHINGTON – If the CIA spends half as much energy finding terrorists as it has spent fighting Congress, we should feel very safe.

 

The spooks, taking a break from the mundane work of protecting the nation, have lately been turning their spycraft against the lawmakers who are supposed to be overseeing them. The not-so-secret mission: To block the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on tortu—, uh, enhanced interrogation methods.

 

First, CIA officials broke into computers that were being used by the committee — a clear constitutional violation — and then, using false information, tried to have committee staffers prosecuted. CIA Director John Brennan apologized for spying on the senators’ activities. President Obama, in a news conference on Aug. 1, said the Intelligence Committee was free to issue its report, “the declassified version that will be released at the pleasure of the Senate committee.â€

 

But Brennan’s apology must not have been sincere, and the committee, to its displeasure, learned that the CIA has “redacted†— read: censored — key elements of the report. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairman of the committee, said she couldn’t release the report because the CIA had attempted to redact key details that “eliminate or obscure key facts that support the report’s findings and conclusions.â€

 

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence who has already admitted to giving false information to Congress about the National Security Agency’s activities, defended his efforts to undermine the torture report. “More than 85 percent of the committee report has been declassified,†he said in a statement, “and half of the redactions are in footnotes.â€

 

Clapper’s word-count defense can be summarized in one word: dubious. The “footnotes†are not mere afterthoughts in such reports; that’s where the evidence is. And the administration’s claim that it has struck only 15 percent of the words is about as compelling as claiming the CIA spied on only 15 percent of senators.

 

“While Director Clapper may be technically correct that the document has been 85 percent declassified,†Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., a member of the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement, “it is also true that strategically placed redactions can make a narrative incomprehensible.â€

 

Strategically placed redactions? Well, yes, that could cause [redacted], particularly if it were done to [redacted]. Imagine Clapper trying to do his job while operating under the 85 percent rule:

 

“Director, the prisoner is not [redacted]. Do we have your permission to [redacted]?â€

 

Or: “Sir, the Russians say they will [redacted] Snowden if we agree to [redacted] on [redacted]. What should we do?â€

 

Imagine Clapper’s anxiety when he gets a call saying the president wants to see him in the Oval Office at [redacted] to get his briefing on [redacted], or when he is asked to authorize a drone strike right in the capital of [redacted].

 

It would be enough to make Clapper [redacted] himself.

 

To accept the CIA’s claim that the torture report must be censored is to embrace the notion that the people’s representatives — Democrats and Republicans alike — cannot be trusted to keep truly sensitive information (rather than embarrassing disclosures) out of the public domain.

 

“The Senate Intelligence Committee is not the ACLU, and if they’re saying more can and should be released, one suspects that is likely to be true,†says Steven Aftergood, who monitors government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists.

 

Obama’s overall failure to deliver on his promise to create a more transparent government has been one of the greatest disappointments of his leadership. Aftergood says the administration hasn’t improved on the record of the highly secretive George W. Bush administration. And in some cases, such as leak investigations, it has been worse: The administration is now deciding whether to seek to jail a New York Times journalist, James Risen, for protecting his sources in a national security case.

 

Recently, the House Intelligence Committee asked the intelligence agencies to declassify the committee’s report on the 2012 Benghazi attacks. The committee’s top Democrat says the report finds “no intelligence failure,†so maybe Clapper and his colleagues will use their redaction pens more lightly. But they have shown little inclination to relax their reflexive secrecy, even if it’s in their interest.

 

The intelligence agencies’ slow-walking of the torture report, and the clashes with lawmakers, have only drawn more attention to the matter and made them look worse. Why would the intelligence community handle this with so little intelligence? And why would the president let them get away with this?

 

There can be only one explanation, and that is [redacted].

 

- Dana Milbank

 

 

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/opinion/2014/08/10/untransparent-cia-ridiculously-redacted/13853237/

[King Kung]

"Ghetto America. And it's getting worse. Ain't diversity great?"

 

This statement alone reveals your bigotry.

 

It reveals my opinion. Nothing more. Multiculturalism has failed Europe and is failing America. Diversity for diversity's sake is a non-starter. Read SCOTUS' Clarance Thomas. America is failing its children, failing its elderly, failing its future. It has become ashamed of its proud past and is busy rewriting history to create new heroes -- pure fiction. It's shameful that anyone might consider the new generation of squeegee men on 37th and Lexington as progress. I am not proud of America and what its become -- a ghetto.