How does the World view America these days?

  On 9/11/2020 at 6:57 AM, Rubin Farr said:

 

 

Expand  

Under normal circumstances, this would be a beautiful picture.

More bullshit Trump can be blamed for, with all of his slashing of environmental protections over the last 3 to 4 years



More importantly though, all of you along the Pacific coastline stay safe.

Posted this a couple days ago. San Francisco (near the beach) at 11am.

  Quote

The beginning of life in this country is frightening and uncertain. Care of expectant mothers is wildly uneven and grossly inadequate. Black women often die in childbirth, and so do their babies. The mortality rate of babies borne by African-American women is higher than in seventy other countries. America as a whole does worse than forty countries in infant mortality. Young adulthood has lost its charm. Unless something changes, millennials will live shorter lives while spending more money on health care than Gen-X parents or boomer grandparents. The prime of life is not what it once was. Middle-aged white men are committing suicide and drugging themselves to death in astonishing numbers. Middle-aged white women in the South are dying before their time.

Our system of commercial medicine, dominated by private insurance, regional groups of private hospitals, and other powerful interests, looks more and more like a numbers racket. We would like to think we have health care that incidentally involves some wealth transfer; what we actually have is wealth transfer that incidentally involves some health care. If birth is not safe, and is less safe for some than for others, then something is wrong. If more money is extracted from young adults for health care, but they are less well than older generations, something is wrong. If the people who used to believe in the country are killing themselves, something is wrong. The purpose of medicine is not to squeeze maximum profits from sick bodies during short lives but to enable health and freedom during long ones.

[...]

Our malady makes pollution deaths, opioid deaths, prison deaths, suicides, newborn deaths, and now mass graves for the elderly all too familiar. Our malady goes deeper than any statistic, deeper even than a pandemic. There are reasons why we are living shorter, unhappier lives. There are reasons why a president thinks he can keep Americans ignorant during a pandemic and exploit our confusion and pain. Our malady leaves us isolated, uncertain where to turn when we hurt.

America is supposed to be about freedom, but illness and fear render us less free. To be free is to become ourselves, to move through the world following our values and desires. Each of us has a right to pursue happiness and to leave a trace. Freedom is impossible when we are too ill to conceive of happiness and too weak to pursue it. It is unattainable when we lack the knowledge we need to make meaningful choices, especially about health.

Expand  

What Ails America (Timothy Snyder, NYRB)

armed patriotic proud boys are now establishing check-points in oregon looking for ANTIFA terrorists. these guys are trained to identify who is ANTIFA and who is not, and have sworn themselves to carry out the necessary justice they deem fit on the offenders. 

America please

  On 9/15/2020 at 6:22 PM, Nebraska said:

armed patriotic proud boys are now establishing check-points in oregon looking for ANTIFA terrorists. these guys are trained to identify who is ANTIFA and who is not, and have sworn themselves to carry out the necessary justice they deem fit on the offenders. 

Expand  

the cops have told all these idiots to go home. reminding them it's illegal to stop any vehicle at gun point. also, the national guard was brought in to fight fires and also run check points at neighborhoods to prevent people from going in before it safe.. and to prevent people from looting etc. 

  On 9/15/2020 at 8:12 PM, ignatius said:

the cops have told all these idiots to go home. reminding them it's illegal to stop any vehicle at gun point. also, the national guard was brought in to fight fires and also run check points at neighborhoods to prevent people from going in before it safe.. and to prevent people from looting etc. 

maybe it's time to indoctrinate the cops, and the national guard into the brotherhood

Hold on, doesn't Al-Qaeda also mean The Base? These chucklefucks are exactly the same as fundy islamists.

  On 9/15/2020 at 6:22 PM, Nebraska said:

armed patriotic proud boys are now establishing check-points in oregon looking for ANTIFA terrorists. these guys are trained to identify who is ANTIFA and who is not, and have sworn themselves to carry out the necessary justice they deem fit on the offenders. 

Expand  

Well if you only have hammers, all problems seem to be nails, right? Gotta put all those assault rifles to use somehow.

We also got militia boys with guns in our country. They want to patrol borders catching illegal immigrants. But the legislative branch doesn't know what to do with them as there are no laws to handle such situations. The times we live in...

  On 9/15/2020 at 8:12 PM, ignatius said:

the cops have told all these idiots to go home. reminding them it's illegal to stop any vehicle at gun point. also, the national guard was brought in to fight fires and also run check points at neighborhoods to prevent people from going in before it safe.. and to prevent people from looting etc. 

I don't get why the cops don't just arrest these gu-...oh, wait.

  On 12/17/2014 at 6:54 PM, mcbpete said:

Pretty much like how an adult views a drunken teenager that's pissing into a bin.

I was in this music comp class in gr 12, where there were only ever 2-3 students at a time working on keyboard/computer compositions.  One day while I was in there minding my own business, some homie kid walked in, said "sup" and peed in the waste bin.  He wasn't there to bother me or anything, he just liked to be bad any time he thought he could get away with it.  I guess he was the 'Murica of my grad class.  Weird memory.

  On 9/16/2020 at 5:28 AM, ignatius said:

 

Expand  

We're getting the smoke from Washington up here in Calgary....

  On 9/16/2020 at 6:19 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

We're getting the smoke from Washington up here in Calgary....

the weather here in portland and the entire willamette valley is starting to lean towards helpful. but the smoke is just being pushed around in circles in a big way.  3 times the local weather people have changed forecasts one what day the smoke might start to move out. supposed to rain over the next few days and the smoke will get pushed out some but then it gets turned around and makes a loop. 

2020 never stops winning! we've only today come out of the "hazardous" rating for air quality... i think now we're just at "unhealthy". 

we're still getting smoke pushed up to oregon from california. it's going to be with us until the fires are totally out which probably won't be until we get legit winter rains/snow. 

  On 9/16/2020 at 4:58 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

I was in this music comp class in gr 12, where there were only ever 2-3 students at a time working on keyboard/computer compositions.  One day while I was in there minding my own business, some homie kid walked in, said "sup" and peed in the waste bin.  He wasn't there to bother me or anything, he just liked to be bad any time he thought he could get away with it.  I guess he was the 'Murica of my grad class.  Weird memory.

wait. music comp class really? i should have done that 

  On 9/16/2020 at 7:01 AM, ignatius said:

the weather here in portland and the entire willamette valley is starting to lean towards helpful. but the smoke is just being pushed around in circles in a big way.  3 times the local weather people have changed forecasts one what day the smoke might start to move out. supposed to rain over the next few days and the smoke will get pushed out some but then it gets turned around and makes a loop. 

2020 never stops winning! we've only today come out of the "hazardous" rating for air quality... i think now we're just at "unhealthy". 

we're still getting smoke pushed up to oregon from california. it's going to be with us until the fires are totally out which probably won't be until we get legit winter rains/snow. 

Expand  

I've friends (other than yourself of course) posting the same on social media; seems like Oregon is in for some record breaking shit....

  On 9/16/2020 at 7:06 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I've friends (other than yourself of course) posting the same on social media; seems like Oregon is in for some record breaking shit....

the entire metropolitan area is sold out of AC/Furnace filters, hepa filters, air purifiers.  COVID is bad enough but at least i could breath outside and ride my bike.. it's like we're living in a big BBQ smoker. not to mention the totally hell scape brutality caused by the fires south of portland and in southern oregon. entire towns gone. 

  On 9/16/2020 at 7:10 AM, ignatius said:

the entire metropolitan area is sold out of AC/Furnace filters, hepa filters, air purifiers.  COVID is bad enough but at least i could breath outside and ride my bike.. it's like we're living in a big BBQ smoker. not to mention the totally hell scape brutality caused by the fires south of portland and in southern oregon. entire towns gone. 

Sad, Scary, but not entirely unanticipated given the last couple years of fires (both BC and Alberta here have been hit savagely over the last 5 years or so). I've got incredibly shitty lungs, asthma etc... I know you have issues as well so sincerely hope you can find a way to keep air quality at least decent! 

The fires from down south has cast the island I live on in a grey fog, despite 100 miles of ocean between us.  I can feel it in my throat.

  On 9/16/2020 at 7:06 AM, yekker said:

wait. music comp class really? i should have done that 

It was fun.  The band teacher just let students who were interested work on music using a roland keyboard + computer for an hour.  There was no class beyond that - no instructions or assignments.  Just make music and occasionally show him what you're working on.

  On 9/16/2020 at 10:49 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

The fires from down south has cast the island I live on in a grey fog, despite 100 miles of ocean between us.  I can feel it in my throat.

It was fun.  The band teacher just let students who were interested work on music using a roland keyboard + computer for an hour.  There was no class beyond that - no instructions or assignments.  Just make music and occasionally show him what you're working on.

Sounds chill.

Sad lol