POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[buddha]

17 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I don’t know where this comes from, but of course I respect you. I thought we were breaking balls and having fun. But, OK, note taken.

At no point did I say I don’t believe your anecdotes. In a big city with a lot of people densely packed in, individual violent incidents can occur even in safe neighborhoods where violent crime has dropped. But even if it’s the safest neighborhood in the city, if police still wanted to beef up their patrols there, I have no beef with that, because that’s the city’s prerogative. We pay them with our tax dollars and they are accountable to all of us. I simply don’t believe an unvetted private armed force should be hired by individuals who are unaccountable to the taxpayers and who make themselves unavailable to explain the details. I think that’s dangerous. YMMV. 

i was joking in that mb quote.  🙂

just trying to lighten the mood.

[buddha]

22 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I don’t know where this comes from, but of course I respect you. I thought we were breaking balls and having fun. But, OK, note taken.

At no point did I say I don’t believe your anecdotes. In a big city with a lot of people densely packed in, individual violent incidents can occur even in safe neighborhoods where violent crime has dropped. But even if it’s the safest neighborhood in the city, if police still wanted to beef up their patrols there, I have no beef with that, because that’s the city’s prerogative. We pay them with our tax dollars and they are accountable to all of us. I simply don’t believe an unvetted private armed force should be hired by individuals who are unaccountable to the taxpayers and who make themselves unavailable to explain the details. I think that’s dangerous. YMMV. 

i think the feeling that private security is necessary is a comment on the culture of gun violence in chicago and the failure of the police to control it.  or the lack of confidence in the police to control it.

those private security firms are all ober the place and usually amount to nothing more than a visual deterrent that doesnt do much of anything, but they can be dangerous, especially because they are run by ex-cops with political connections who can use those connections to avoid scrutiny.  that's what was happening in boystown for years (your buddies at cwb would post a lot about the excesses of private security firm there) otoh, what they usually amount to is a mild deterrent and they never end up doing much in the way of arresting or shooting anyone.  maybe they make some people think twice before robbing a place?  maybe they make them do their shooting or carjacking on a different block?  dunno.

a lot of michigan avenue/river north places have private security and they usually just stand there while people steal stuff.  in fact, two of them were assaulted by robbers yesterday!

https://cwbchicago.com/2021/12/shoplifters-mace-security-guard-during-simultaneous-raids-on-hermes-and-prada-stores.html

ultimately, like you said, the perceived need for this is a failure on the part of the police department and the public safety organizations in the city.

[chasfh]

To me the biggest red flag about the whole thing is the neighborhood association people dodging questions from the media about the details of their plan. Strikes me as being on the same side of the line as Colonel Jessup blasting Lt Caffey for sleeping under the blanket of the very freedom that Jessup provides, and then questioning the manner in which he provides it.

[gehringer_2]

isn't most of surveillance provided in downtown Detroit provided by Bedrock rather than the police? Not quite the same as having their people in the street but a case of a private org directly contributing to or supplementing police activity. 

[Jim Cowan]

I'm surprised to hear that Detroit is a problem, I thought that OCP had cleaned that all up.

[Motown Bombers]

8 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

isn't most of surveillance provided in downtown Detroit provided by Bedrock rather than the police? Not quite the same as having their people in the street but a case of a private org directly contributing to or supplementing police activity. 

Detroit Police patrols downtown heavily and Midtown gets a big assist from Wayne State police. The rest of Detroit is the wild west. Your other neighborhoods that are hanging on by a thread like Palmer Woods has private security. 

[pfife]

 

[Jim Cowan]

Ha ha that didn't age well.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

On this Christmas Eve I would just like to say that in Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol if you thought strident capitalist Mr. Scrooge was a better person before the spirits redeemed him then you're heartless trash!

[Dan Gilmore]

I have seen a couple of commercials based on A Christmas Carol that seem totally screwed (scrooged?) up. The Mercedes Benz one shows the past and present as dirty and filled with suffering -okay. But the future has “him” getting into a luxurious MB and then the camera takes us out into the bright sunny open road. Leave the Cratchet family behind - no Christmas feast for them, maybe some exhaust fumes lingering in the air instead. Scrooge, or any wealthy person can and should wrap themselves in a hundred grand of leather and steel and floor it. Leave reality behind, no lessons learned, no compassion for others, no awareness.       Who wrote and approved of that ad? Assholes.

Merry Christmas 

[Motown Bombers]

Massie was my first guess. 

 

[romad1]

19 minutes ago, Dan Gilmore said:

I have seen a couple of commercials based on A Christmas Carol that seem totally screwed (scrooged?) up. The Mercedes Benz one shows the past and present as dirty and filled with suffering -okay. But the future has “him” getting into a luxurious MB and then the camera takes us out into the bright sunny open road. Leave the Cratchet family behind - no Christmas feast for them, maybe some exhaust fumes lingering in the air instead. Scrooge, or any wealthy person can and should wrap themselves in a hundred grand of leather and steel and floor it. Leave reality behind, no lessons learned, no compassion for others, no awareness.       Who wrote and approved of that ad? Assholes.

Merry Christmas 

That is some Teutonic missing of the point for sure.  I'm sure in the version they show in Germany, in Christmas past a Von Scrooge is a Luftwaffe bomber pilot just returned from laying waste to Rotterham or Warsaw

[Jim Cowan]

38 minutes ago, romad1 said:

That is some Teutonic missing of the point for sure.  I'm sure in the version they show in Germany, in Christmas past a Von Scrooge is a Luftwaffe bomber pilot just returned from laying waste to Rotterham or Warsaw

I have done some work with Siemens in the past, and can report that they are still the master race.  They really don't get it.

[buddha]

29 minutes ago, Jim Cowan said:

I have done some work with Siemens in the past, and can report that they are still the master race.  They really don't get it.

you get this image in the media of german companies being the height of efficiency, but when you work with them, you find out theyre really no better than anyone else.  and in a lot of ways theyre worse, but they benefit from europe's old boy network.

at least that's my experience.

[Jim Cowan]

15 minutes ago, buddha said:

you get this image in the media of german companies being the height of efficiency, but when you work with them, you find out theyre really no better than anyone else.  and in a lot of ways theyre worse, but they benefit from europe's old boy network.

at least that's my experience.

I agree, Siemens executives had the attention span of a fruit fly but that did not impede their arrogance.

[romad1]

50 minutes ago, buddha said:

you get this image in the media of german companies being the height of efficiency, but when you work with them, you find out theyre really no better than anyone else.  and in a lot of ways theyre worse, but they benefit from europe's old boy network.

at least that's my experience.

German and Austrian cops will remind you of their grandfathers.

German engineering to me means: "how can we make this super complicated?" 

[romad1]

Not to get all Christmasy at this inopportune time, but the very interesting podcast "The Rest is History" which is two brit history profs going all in depthy on various history topics did a recent one about the Dickensian London of "A Christmas Carol" which was very interesting.   Lots of discussion of the politics of Dickens.  Which were very Thatcher/H.W. Bush/Peggy Noonan-y.  Instead of raising everyone out of poverty, the upper middle class should get everyone a turkey at Christmas.  Good behavior by the people who have is the solution to suffering. 

I can see how that would have appealed broadly to a large British and American middle class who could buy magazines for serialized novels.

Edited December 24, 2021 by romad1

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

Not to get all Christmasy at this inopportune time, but the very interesting podcast "The Rest is History" which is two brit history profs going all in depthy on various history topics did a recent one about the Dickensian London of "A Christmas Carol" which was very interesting.   Lots of discussion of the politics of Dickens.  Which were very Thatcher/H.W. Bush/Peggy Noonan-y.  Instead of raising everyone out of poverty, the upper middle class should get everyone a turkey at Christmas.  Good behavior by the people who have is the solution to suffering. 

I can see how that would have appealed broadly to a large British and American middle class who could buy magazines for serialized novels.

Was give given a copy of 'the Dawn of Everything' which looks to be arguing Rousseau and Hobbes were all wrong. I'll let you know if they succeed in drowning the Leviathan. 

[buddha]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/democrats-are-doing-weirdly-well-in-redistricting.html

 new House map is more than half finished. And in many states where maps haven’t been finalized, the broad outlines are already visible. Taken together, the emerging picture is far more favorable for Democrats than most anticipated. As of this writing, it looks like the new House map will be much less biased in the GOP’s favor than the old one. And according to at least one analyst, there is actually an outside chance that the final map will be tilted, ever so slightly, in the Democrats’ favor.

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/democrats-are-doing-weirdly-well-in-redistricting.html

 new House map is more than half finished. And in many states where maps haven’t been finalized, the broad outlines are already visible. Taken together, the emerging picture is far more favorable for Democrats than most anticipated. As of this writing, it looks like the new House map will be much less biased in the GOP’s favor than the old one. And according to at least one analyst, there is actually an outside chance that the final map will be tilted, ever so slightly, in the Democrats’ favor.

Just my two cents, but I think Wasserman and the other redistricting gurus underestimated the degree to which GOP mapmakers would draw lines to shore up incumbents versus going on offense.

Certainly the case in Texas.... they could have maybe squeezed a few more seats out of the maps at the federal and state levels, but they would have left themselves vulnerable later in bad cycles should trends around DFW/Austin/Houston continue.

Edited December 27, 2021 by mtutiger

[buddha]

12 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Just my two cents, but I think Wasserman and the other redistricting gurus underestimated the degree to which GOP mapmakers would draw lines to shore up incumbents versus going on offense.

Certainly the case in Texas.... they could have maybe squeezed a few more seats out of the maps at the federal and state levels, but they would have left themselves vulnerable later in bad cycles should trends around DFW/Austin/Houston continue.

yeah, the article talks about that too.  dems did the same thing in new jersey, left a seat in the gop in order to shore up their own seats.  as opposed to illinois where they went full bore to create more dem seats, at the expense of a couple of their junior members.

[chasfh]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:36 AM, buddha said:

you get this image in the media of german companies being the height of efficiency, but when you work with them, you find out theyre really no better than anyone else.  and in a lot of ways theyre worse, but they benefit from europe's old boy network.

at least that's my experience.

I worked at a website that was owned by a German billionaire, and whose brother was the second-in-command. They ran it very much as an apprentice-based operation, in which everyone comes along very slowly, often working below their capacity and without true executive agency over their own position, for years before they are offered the opportunity to move up in the organization.

That may be a well-understood and -accepted system for the labor force in Germany, but here at the website in America that was staffed with American employees, what happened was that the most talented people would end up bolting within the first year or two, while the very average people who patiently did their prescribed job and marked their time ended up getting promoted into the executive leadership.

[Motown Bombers]

It's looking like the new proposed congressional map for Michigan is going to move me from a Democratic district to a Republican one. It's probably as good of time as any to move away. 

[Tigerbomb13]

24 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

It's looking like the new proposed congressional map for Michigan is going to move me from a Democratic district to a Republican one. It's probably as good of time as any to move away. 

It could also mean your vote is needed even more. Is there info online about the new proposed new districts?

[Motown Bombers]

3 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

It could also mean your vote is needed even more. Is there info online about the new proposed new districts?

My new district could be a toss up but my estimation is it will lean Republican. Here's a link to the proposed maps:

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/12/28/michigan-redistricting-panel-maps-vote-congress-state-house-senate/9028496002/