SmashMouth

We’ll, if I’m thinking correctly, the last four assassination attempts have been on Republican presidents. Kind of makes you wonder doesn’t it?

I’m going to say this as I’m sure many here have at least thought it. I don’t think this is a walk in the park for DJT, the presumptive nominee. He better pick a good running, mate, and he better hope Joe Biden keeps screwing up. This will be closer than we think. For those who have not considered that this race may be close, takeoff the rose colored glasses.

Because the article is without facts proving systemic racism. Go back and read the reply to you that I posted at 11:35 am yesterday, please. Perception is not proof. That's why it would be helpful for you to describe a factual current condition of systemic racism.

Well, I had the guy on the ropes in the conversation, and I went into a feeding frenzy - overplayed my hand a little. Lol. The "Richard" came out in me, and I couldn't (wouldn't) stop...

Couldn't agree more.

I’m not trying to join hands and sing “We are the World”, but why don’t you just rely on facts, logic, reasoning, your intelligence, etc. to make your point. Personally, I almost never disagree with your underlying message. It’s all the extra degradation that clouds the water. For me, there’s nothing wrong with a little jab here and there (it’s actually kinda fun), but when the insults become more personal & overtake the argument, it just seems less effective. I’m no saint. I’ve been warned on here for poor conduct (not just making fun of a poster, but bringing in his family members and other questionable tactics). I just decided to give it up. I think it’s helped me in a lot of ways, not just on here.

Apples & Airplanes

For me, that's the issue. For such a seemingly intelligent person, (again, for me) your message gets lost in the belittling speech.

It's systemic not systematic. Systematic means done in an orderly, process-driven way. Systemic means relating to a whole system, like the criminal justice system or the nervous system. I threw in the nervous system since you are in the healthcare industry, and it may make more sense to you. There simply isn’t any evidence for systemic racism today. Because systemic racism doesn’t exist—not anymore. That doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist anymore. Of course, it does. I’ve been racist against other people. And other people have been racist against me. Just like every kind of sin, racism will never end—not until Jesus returns. Nevertheless, the concept of systemic racism today has become underlined by a form of cultural relativism, a concept defined by perceptions, not proof. You tell me what systemic racism means to you. Perhaps it's just your perception.

Partner, you're wasting your time. You are asking her to give up on a lifetime of manufactured repression & oppression. It's a comfortable place for her and those like her (those who would rather point to excuses than solutions). Does racism still exist? Yes it does - but not systemically like many claim. If she gives up on the idea of systemic racism controlling her life, that means she'd responsible for her own successes & failures. That's a scary place to go when you've been shielded under the blanket of "woe is me" your whole life.

As a percentage, less do.

Maybe he was afraid of gun violence at his properties.

Percentage-wise, there are more.

What statement? I didn’t say anything about that.

That would be like me saying to just lock up all black males so gun violence would go down by half. Stupid way to look at it.

She lost me waaay before that. Lol.

That’s probably one of the most racist things I’ve ever read on this forum.

Per Capita there aren't. You can't use raw numbers. Black citizens only make up approx. 13% of the nation. I have explained this to you before. You know you're being disingenuous.

That has nothing to do with my post, nor does it have anything to do with the proposed ID requirement to vote. You're a smart guy. You don't have any issues with the requirement either.

C’mon CB. You left out the actual requirements which are normal: “(1) A form of identification issued consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID Act of 2005 that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States. “(2) A valid United States passport. “(3) The applicant's official United States military identification card, together with a United States military record of service showing that the applicant's place of birth was in the United States. “(4) A valid government-issued photo identification card issued by a Federal, State or Tribal government showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States. The birth certificate is only required with some alternative ID not described above. It’s no big deal. As a matter of fact, no one should be put off by the ID requirement unless they have a hidden agenda. (I dare not say “like stealing an election”). Note: The REAL ID Act is an Act of Congress that establishes requirements that driver licenses and identification cards issued by U.S. states and territories must satisfy to be accepted for accessing federal government facilities and nuclear power plants and for boarding airlineflights in the United States. Basically it’s a DL or other government issued ID. The same thing you would need to board an airplane or cash a check at a bank or open up a savings account or apply for a loan.

I've said he has cognitive decline. And he does. Do you agree? People use the term dementia loosely and incorrectly to mean cognitive decline (which is a very generic term which easily describes Joe Biden's symptoms). It doesn't take away from the fact that he is rapidly losing his mental acuity.

In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Well, if EVERYONE did that, then DJT would win.

Or a cock.

True, but the Jan. 6 Trials could begin as soon as September. The Supreme Court will let a lower court decide in this case, what is and what is not an official act as pertains to this case.