GOP is simply trying to make the state unwelcoming to progressives and move out the ones that can/will, just so there’s no chance of losing the state to the left. FL and other many other GOP states are doing the same - simple as that: electoral votes.
Next we can bring back blood money. If you’re wealthy, avoid that inconvenient jail time by writing a check! We can make murder another one of those crimes for everyone but the rich.
Probably a ton. If they are showing their ass in public, their online profiles are probably much worse.
I would be down for a good ole public shaming website if a person’s hate rhetoric is verified as true. Unfortunately, some of these people probably make a living by being a public idiot.
A lot really. This is pretty much what Sedition Hunters did for Jan 6 suspects, but it’s also what your local antifascist groups do behind the scenes for your local communities to keep them safer.
If the people supposedly in charge of preventing these kinds of threats were actually looking to stop white supremacists, these people wouldn't have gotten to the point they did.
I guarantee if they were BLM or generally leftist group they would have been arrested and beaten if not killed (if they even got to the point of protesting in public, and not stopped based on online activity, which these nazis absolutely will all have), not let to spew hate speech and get home in time for dinner.
Never forget - some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses. And even those that don't actively, serve the state, that doesn't actually mind white supremacists because they serve it, and the capitalism it works for, well.
Challenge is getting companies to actually move into the spaces earmarked for them.
My area has gone all in on mandating that all new housing must: Be dense, but short (Max of 4 stories) Constructed with dedicated office and retail space
Ok cool, walkable… Except the companies aren’t moving into the retail or office space. Since they only get a useless amount of street side parking, they can’t really serve people outside walking distance reasonably. Meanwhile they can find a bigger spot a few miles down the road with parking to serve a bigger area. Serving a walkable community might be worth it if the apartments were high rise providing the requisite density to support such business. Once upon a time, business did subsist on that volume of customers, but nowadays businesses demand more efficiency…
I think these places will have the opposite problem.
The land is being purchased by heads of industry, not real estate investors who then have to lure business to the area. These people can just move parts of their business there and or strong arm the companies they invest in to move there.
Trick will encouraging people to be the first waves of tech folks to move to the area for work. The work will be there, but the communities / social life won’t be popping at first. People will also need to give up temperate Bay Area weather for hot ass Solano county.
In her decision, Howell also accused Giuliani of destroying evidence relevant to the case.
Well, that's interesting. I wonder if he's destroyed evidence in any other cases he might be involved in. (That's rhetorical, btw - if he's done it here, then of course he's done it in the much more serious January 6th case.)
I am deeply curious to know what prompted the judge to include that accusation. Such an accusation, without sufficient evidence to support it, could definitely (and ironically) be defamatory.
I mean, who wouldn’t? Most people don’t commit crimes, which is of course the right way. But if you do, only idiots create any evidence in the first place, but only complete idiots leave that evidence around for law enforcement to find.
Agreed. But most people were never the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who specialized in taking down hard-to-get-at groups using RICO laws - someone who knows in exacting detail what those laws are and how they can be applied. He knew better than to leave evidence in the first place, and doubly knew that getting rid of it was an especially bad idea of the investigation was at all serious.
I mean he failed to comply with discovery subpoenas. To me that says that he was more concerned with what might turn up than he was with having to pay damages in this case. If he loses this but avoids larger legal cases because of it that may be shady but I wouldn’t call it stupid.
True. But Iirc (it's hard to keep track) he's an unnamed coconspirator in one of the federal cases, and I think destroying that evidence works more against him there.
He is obviously an idiot, because he’s creating evidence left and right. With these people I think it’s a mix of stupidity and hubris. They got away with so much crap, they think they’ll get away with everything.
I'm surprised that for quite a while he was considered a legal genius, up to his mayoral stint. Was he always like this or has it been something related to age/hubris/lead poisoning?
I dunno. I saw a document about prosecutors and feds learning how to use rico when it was still new. He seemed really cogent in his interview. I think there might have been a time when he was pretty sharp. Now his mind is melted by age and ever-more-insane politics on the right. I think he’s also a well-known alcoholic, and not in the fun party way… the all the time way.
I think that having cogent statements about a thing he was well prepared for is not mutually exclusive with being an addled idiot in other areas of his life.
He's had too much koolade and thought he could get away with more and more based on the force of his personality. We are watching it bite him in the ass in real time.
Also lack of AC doesn’t make people regret they did anything wrong. Being separated from society does that. Alcatraz has good weather and you Don’t even need air conditioning there. Still, the prisoners there thought it was torture because you could hear people having fun on the pier in San Francisco a few miles away.
The only thing more surprising than this monument’s existence is the fact that it took thirty years for people to actually notice and start making an issue of it.
Also, it’s a monument to Ukrainian soldiers who fought for the German endorsed military of Ukraine, serving with the SS. It’s a more complex story than just celebrating Nazi collaboration, because while they were definitely collaborators with the Nazis, they were doing so because they wanted a free and independent Ukraine and wanted to fight the USSR.
So, they’re recognizing these soldiers because they fought for Ukrainian independence, not because the people supporting Ukrainian independence at the time were the Germans.
To be clear a lot of the Ukrainians serving in those units were aligned intellectually with the Nazis. It’s a complex story, you know. Not all a good one.
I had no idea Ukraine’s history until Moscow invaded them over a year ago. Since then I’ve learned a lot about Ukrainian history, which helps immensely provide better context in an area I otherwise would know very little. Still not an expert, but when you know more of the complexities like you mentioned, it helps to show the bigger picture so things end up making more sense. Thanks again.
It’s like Americans celebrating the people who founded that country, even the slaveowners. They’re not celebrating that part of the life of the founders, and it certainly colors the perception of people like Thomas Jefferson, speaking noble ideals about freedom while owning and sometimes raping his slaves.
These are people who fought for Ukrainian independence. That’s something to celebrate, even if it’s tainted by who they fought for and with, and at times, what their personal beliefs were surrounding issues like race and religion.
This is a complicated historical topic to Ukrainians. It’s not them celebrating Nazi collaboration.
I’ve met plenty of Ukrainians, it’s literally too common (notably more than for Russians in general, which is already an achievement) for them to ascribe personal traits to genes and thus characterize whole peoples as good or bad (I’m not doing that now, cause I’m talking about society and education). I mean, really, it irritates you.
The issue is that their idea of nationalism is not yet separate from typical Nazi one. Just much more moderate. It shows in various more nuanced conversations on ethnic conflicts, state policies on minorities, centralism, civil rights etc.
They also willingly participated in mass murders of civilian population (Jewish and Polish). By “free and independent” the narrative also stuffs this.
So no, whoever put that there knew very well whom they are celebrating. They are just fine with ethnic cleansing for some perceived benefit of their nation.
Which can be shortened to “a memorial to Nazi collaborators”, which is the title.
Except they’re not celebrating Nazi collaboration. They’re recognizing people who fought and died for Ukrainian independence. However tainted that struggle is by the people they fought for and with, and even sometimes the actions of those armies, it’s not them celebrating or recognizing Nazi collaboration. It’s a recognition of the fight for independence.
To me, this is like recognizing Thomas Jefferson’s contributions to the founding of the US. Is someone who makes that recognition endorsing slavery and rape? No, they’re not. Because he’s a more complicated historical figure than just a random slaver and rapist, and it’s hard to tell the story of the foundation of the US without talking about his positive contributions.
I’m as anti-NAZI as the next guy, but I swear some people have no idea of the nuances of history. I am sure we will start to get a rash of people protesting against Finland soon. We sided with the Soviets because of the convenience of a common enemy, AFTER they had invaded and partitioned and annexed half of Poland right beside the NAZI Germany. The invasion of Poland is what kicked off WWII btw. After the war, the West almost immediately entered into the Cold War with the USSR.
I get it, this is an SS squad, and they contributed to atrocities of NAZI Germany, but I can understand some Ukrainians considering them to be freedom fighters against the Soviets, especially in 2023. It is also a memorial in a church cemetery, and not a statue of Lee in the middle of a town square. A debate is warranted, but I hope some people will learn a little bit more about how history is not black and white with the conversation.
This is about one particular unit with history of war crimes. Different national legions of Wehrmacht and even Waffen SS have different record. I’m aware of some not so bad.
but I can understand some Ukrainians considering them to be freedom fighters against the Soviets, especially in 2023
I can agree that some “forest brothers” in1960s really were freedom fighters. But these guys - sure as hell not.
And Zelenskyy agrees with you. Any part they had in torching Polish villages or other atrocities are horrendous.
To be honest, i am a bit conflcted about it all. This wasn’t a statue put up to help bolster segregation 100 years after the fact, and I just wanted to point out that the Ukrainian struggle for independence has been ongoing and real, regardless of how ugly it may look. It is stuff like this that is fueling the propaganda of Russian’s invasion as an attempt to de-nazify Ukraine.
It is stuff like this that is fueling the propaganda of Russian’s invasion as an attempt to de-nazify Ukraine.
Wanted to say that nah, that’s not really a working mechanism… But suppose some people buy it. What even then, we should just whitewash crimes because recognizing them may strengthen propaganda in some particular case?
Hope not, but de-nazifing Ukraine is still a prevalent talking point. It is also interesting to me this monument is only becoming an issue now.
War is hell and there are evils always perpetuated on both sides (and i hate both sides arguments! Sorry!). I do believe intentions are important too, especially as in war people usually need to choose between the lesser of evils, which again comes with their own perspective. Being told as a Ukrainian you would only “fight the Bolsheviks” seems like it could have seen as a pretty good deal, especially when combined with the naive thought that supporting the Nazi effort could lead to an independent Ukraine. Again, naive but understandable. When focused on that perspective, and with consideration that they were separated from much of the rest of the SS in being charged with war crimes, I am a little more sympathetic. How many towns and villages did the US burn in WWII and in other wars? Sherman’s March to the Sea? Should we tear down those memorials too? I’d rather not know some of the shit my father did in the Vietnam War on behalf of the US government, but I can’t bring myself to curse his service. He just married an amazing Ukrainian woman a few years ago too…
It’s easy to just jump to conclusions. No, don’t whitewash history, but having a more nuanced perspective I think is important. To be clear, I would be right there with a pitchfork if this was a monument to the Dirlewanger or Kaminski Brigades.
Finland was a democratic country that the Soviet Union invaded, and they cooperated with the later Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
That seems more akin to the US allying with Stalin against Germany. They were allies of strategic convenience and it didn’t mean that the US approved of Stalin, gulags, etc.
By contrast, this was a group in German- occupied Ukraine who enlisted in the literal SS. History isn’t black and white, but at best this is a very dark shade of grey.
I can’t say anything about Graeco-Catholic or just Catholic Ukrainians in the USA, but most Ukrainians from ex-USSR I’ve met celebrate both. They’re just kinda modest with the Nazi part, but they are fine with it, and see it as something naughty all big boys have done, not to boast about, but important. They do have a problem as a nation.
What if there was any other vehicle stalled there? Wouldn’t it have been the same situation?
Also would be great if we had dedicated zones for autonomous vehicles that are clear of any obstacles, confusion or situations that even a normal driver could get stuck in.
Nah, he could have pardoned them before he left office but as usual doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone except himself. These idiots don't realize they were simply tools used and then discarded.
However, I could foresee a scenario where another candidate runs hard on the "pardon all the J6 'political prisoners' platform" and get some traction. That said, they would only follow-through if it got them political points or some other personal gain.
Trump literally doesn't understand doing something charitable for someone else.
He literally let his own fanbois and fangirls risk hypothermia after rallies in the winter because of stiffing the bus companies that got them there. TWICE.
If he won he’d pardon himself for sure, this guy though? Doubt it. But it’s a bit of a moot point. Nothing turns out the majority like voting against this fuckstick.
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