pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
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User ID: 278
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
5hr ago
"Democracy" is a glittering generality, and not even a very glittering one at that. Democracy isn't an unlimited good after all.
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
6hr ago
Example, the man who threw a sandwich at an ice officer got no charges. The man who bit an agent's finger off does not appear to have been charged. Have local officials charged any of the individuals in Minneapolis who have been engaging in threats, assault, battery, property damage, and disorderly conduct incessantly? Even a single one?
The DHS has referred multiple cases for charges related to threats against the families of ICE agents. In Portland, children and spouses were repeatedly harassed and threatened. No charges were filed. In multiple other cities, protests outside agent's homes, engaging in harassment and disorderly conduct. No charges were filed then either.
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
6hr ago
Why not? Because it's wrong. Because it's wicked and counter to the fundamental dignity of Mankind.
The counterargument is that you are not really reckoning with the real-world costs of the politics you are advocating. You position is that you are content with a larger number of innocent people raped and murdered because you find it morally distasteful to make assumptions about individuals, even when they are warranted. It's a fairly extreme position, so you can't expect to win the argument by declaring the other side is "wrong" as though that is fully explicatory.
pusher_robot
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS
1d ago
The tradeoff isn't worth it, especially when there are alternatives: pursue the threats against agents, investigate, throw the book at the culprits, whatever.
These aren't plausible alternatives when local officials refuse to enforce state and local law. ETA: And federal judges show little willingness to allow prosecutions.
Disagree - diners have always served mostly local customers. The market has been for food done quickly with minimal service and without pretense, at reasonable prices [ETA: and where it's normalized to dine alone]. As such I think three things primarily killed diners:
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Frozen meals - I think a lot of people have forgotten how big a deal the introduction of TV Dinners was. For the first time, you could have a prepared meal in your own home, with no cooking required, at a price competitive with or even cheaper than cooking from scratch. Prior to this, if you wanted anything more complicated than a cheese sandwich and didn't want to or couldn't cook, your only option was a diner. Afterwards, you could have diner-quality meals at a substantially lower price, in the comfort of your own home, and all you needed was a freezer you probably had already and a toaster oven.
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Fast food restaurants - A major appeal of the diner was a hot meal you could get quickly and cheaply, and sit and eat at your leisure. Fast food restaurants offered hot meals even more quickly and cheaply, and many built indoor dining areas so you could sit down and relax. You were never rushed and dining alone is fine. Granted, the menu was much more limited, but it ended up capturing a lot of the remaining people that wanted a simple and cheap hot meal and didn't want to make frozen dinners.
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Bar food - I think a not insubstantial amount of diner traffic, especially the 24-hour variety, was from bar patrons desiring some food to soak up the alcohol, when most bars would offer popcorn or pretzels at most. Now many bars have a TurboChef convection oven to heat up all kinds of frozen snacks, and many have a full kitchen to serve up pub grub, so if you are drinking and want some food, you can just stay at the bar and eat.
That's why I think most diners now survive mostly on breakfast, which is under-served by all those categories.
Women, actually, and they have been identified. Federal charges were filed, but I couldn't find any indication of state or local charges. WRT to other things, unfortunately I don't have references to the places I read about them and searching is useless with the terms involved. How about this as a compromise though - I would concede requiring officers to not conceal their identity if protestors were also required not to conceal their identities. Undoubtedly a big reason for lack of charges is an inability to identify the individuals involved.
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