Traveling the Universe with nothing to do,
Cigarettes, coffee, and alcohol too,
I land on a planet with nothing at all,
And venture onward,
Lately I found a Cyborg,
Name of Agile,
And quote him, admire and take up his style,
His words gave us meaning,
but now that he’s gone,
Gibberish/////.///,,,
As I sail through the Universe,
unencumbered by body or voice,
And look to the sky for answers,
I reflect on my homeworld,long gone,
And wonder what happened,
Did they all die of a disease? Or was it just apathy?
Is my journey in vain?
Will my adventures in the Galaxy ever be heard by another?
Or am I just another lost Soul, traveling….
Anyone can find freedom,
Then what do you do with it?
A scary proposition, taking responsibility,
But that’s how life works,
Dealing with Bullshit,
Dealing with Jerks,
I prefer to be away from the strife,
and live a nice, calm Cylon Life,
“The final Bitcoin block with a subsidy of 12.5 BTC was mined by @f2pool_official and contained the following message in its coinbase transaction:
?NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue”
https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1259929075902222345
I haven’t been following this story…. what’s the incentive to continue maintaining the blockchain going forward? Is it entirely fee-based now?
No, now it’s 6.25 Btc/block
Inflation rate is now 1.8%
Every four years the reward drops by another half.
Generally big price runs when it halves, although this is only the third time
Couple of hits of good acid and you could do a very credible AC impersonation.
This person is doing a decent AC impression without acid. It’s not my usual commenting time, but I just had to share.
Yusef, I like your poems and your upbeat attitude of life. Maybe during my next sojourn out west, I can buy you a beer or 3. I raise a tall can of PBR in your honor.
The above link is extra-strength derp. The comments and the like dislike ratio are a faint ray of hope in my dreary world. Skip to 19:00 if you want to let out an [anguished Zoidberg groan].
“Transgender scholar is like being a unicorn veterinarian”. Yeah.
I refute your assertion that this was a decent AC impression – there was no cursing or surreal mental imagery and no slightly uncomfortable sexual piquancy.
Better than a Demi Lardner set.
And she has a nose ring because of course she does.
I’ll see your derp and raise you transgender slam poetry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnXhH5yWoG8
I’m sorry…is
shehexe doing whatever that is, because they can’t find work? Is everyone in that video in some type of prison? Is that xir real name?Traveling the universe with nothing to do? Fill a bus with retards and take ’em to the zoo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfrQ8ZutmLE
I used to take my retarded cousin to the retarded zoo after he got out of retard school. I gave him retarded snacks while he made retard noises.
The only reason I know the above song exists is because of the late, great sarcasmic.
There was a time when me and my siblings had to be dropped off at school early, and so we had to hang out with the special ed kids. There was a kid who was deaf and blind, but he could tell who was coming into the room by the sound and rhythm of their footsteps. When someone he liked showed up, he sniffed their air and smiled. The teachers gave him Cheez-Its as an incentive to behave.
Derpetologist just came out as retarded.
So, what color is my ribbon? Do I get a parade?
Fun fact: retard comes from the French word for late. The word started out as a late-bloomer type euphemism.
You can’t be trusted not to eat a ribbon if one is given to you.
I did eat a penny when I was 4, so maybe you’re on to something.
It was failed magic trick. The show must go on!
I distinctly remember the x-ray photo…
I stuffed teargas pellets up my nose.
Now you know.
Does anyone else want to come out as a retard tonight? We can make a retarded list.
The NSA already has us on that list.
It may not be Mickey D’s, but I still love it.
I had a Spec Ed class when I did my student teaching. It was the funnest hour of the day. Good kids. They didn’t learn anything from me but otoh neither did the regular classes.
[incapacitating laughter]
something something lead a horse to water…
I taught math at an all-boys high school when I was in the Peace Corps in Tanzania. They did pretty well on the national exams the first year I taught. For the next bunch, I left about 3 months before the exams and the scores regressed to the mean.
Even so, I was happy. I sucked at math until high school but cleaned up my act enough to get a scholarship to study chemical engineering. It happened because my geometry teacher shamed me into working harder.
[another round of applause for Yusef’s fine poem]
That is the best retired teacher confession ever.
In answer to your question below, I have a rather odd story about my closest-in-age cousin. But, first–allow me to offer up the following: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Star-Wars-Snowspeeder-Parts-and-Pieces-Always-100-Original-/192428281942
Now, take a good look at that plastic harpoon. It is rather pointed, is it not? Well, I dared said cousin to insert said harpoon into a certain part of his anatomy.
You thought the Boba Fett action figure’s firing rocket launcher was dangerous*?
I was 9! I could see that the harpoon was problematic. Besides that, he didn’t have to accept the challenge; he was older, and should have known better. Not that it did him any damage (that he mentioned).
*I know it wasn’t, but, it goes with the narrative.
There was also a time when I was so broken hearted
I really thought you were going to say he played a mean pinball.
Here’s blind guy doing spectacular card tricks on Penn and Teller’s Fool Us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwFIJyWKs1k
FWIW, I did, too, C.
+ 42 tape measures
Your adventures have been heard, all over Glibateria, Yusef. Very good
Are you getting AC calls now that the weather has warmed up in BhC?
I’m still building the business, making Restaurant contacts etc. but I can cruise for a whole and enjoy the weather,
Good show!
The pic for this article is called the Hubble Deep Field. Unfortunately for the IFLS crowd, such images are colorized by computers for enhanced contrast. Even so, they’re nice to look at.
I know
Space pics make me think of the Cosmos theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5m_emrK5zE
?
Loved the show and the music when I was little.
The Hubble deep field is one of the most amazing things you will ever see. An image of one of the emptiest spots in the sky they could find, it covers an area about the size of looking through a soda straw. They did a long exposure on this black, empty spot of the sky …. and found more galaxies than you can count.
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0611b/
pretty much everything you can see in this image is an entire galaxy – about 10,000 of them. All in that one, tiny dark patch of sky. It very vividly illustrates just how immense the universe is.
High res tiff of the hubble deep field.
https://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hvi/uploads/image_file/image_attachment/2358/full_tif.tif
Lately I found a Cyborg,
Name of Agile,
And quote him, admire and take up his style,
His words gave us meaning,
I miss Agile Cyborg.
Sorry…
Mammary Monday 4 Yusef.
http://archive.li/M833i
#3 Why I need a boat. Well, I have two, but I need to finish one. Actually I have three, but one is a kayak so it doesn’t count.
Ah, you don’t need a boat to motor-boat.
Too many RealDolls.
I think #31 has potential. According to a Google Image search, she has a subreddit which includes a link to her instagram page.
I”m still stuck on 28 from the morning links.
Anyone can find freedom,
Then what do you do with it?
These days run from the cops in some parts of the country. (that dude jogging on the beach cracked me up)
A scary proposition, taking responsibility,
A lot of that going on around these parts. Fucking county commissioners too scared to open a damn county. All have an R behind there names. Pathetic.
Good stuff Yusef!!!!!!
Speaking of freedom, Gov. Shitstain threatened to take away our toys because the people going to the restaurant in Castle Rock.
I fucking hate everyone.*
*limited exceptions made
I did not hear of this. What restaurant?
Colorado suspends license of Castle Rock restaurant that defied coronavirus public health order
Tri-County Health Department says C&C Coffee and Kitchen must close until it complies with governor’s order
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/11/castle-rock-restaurant-closed-coroanvirus-covid/
They close C&C Coffee and Kitchen, but allow C&C Music Factory to continue? I suspect Polis.
But C.C. Catch is still ok, right??
Wow. The comments are frightening.
I treat the Post pretty much the same as I treat CNN at this point.
Gov. Shitstain
Could you be more specific?
Gov Jared Polis. The esteemed Dictator of the state of CO.
Several counties in the state have laid out proposals and said, “Hey Gov, this is how we are opening” and they have done it. (Mesa and Eagle as far as I know) Some counties have done the opposite and laid out more strict restrictions. (Denver metro area) The counties I spend my days in have done jack shit and are too afraid to make a decision. They are spineless fucks. All have R’s behind their names.
Fuck him.
I’m hearing Monster Magnet’s Space Lord in my head when I read this.
Nice, Mother Fucker,
/Spacelord!
-” I’ve been stuffed in your pocket for the last hundred days
When I don’t get my bath I take it out on the slaves
So grease up your baby for the ball on the hill
Polish them rockets now and swallow those pills
And say ohSpace Lord mother mother”-
I did drugs with Monster Magnet one time. Nice dudes. Good drugs.
I was a bouncer at The Dungeon in NOLA, which the band rented out for an after party. Agreed, they were great guests.
Nice work Yusef! I wonder where Agile Cyborg is these days. What uniqueness.
Traveling the Universe with nothing to do,
Cigarettes, coffee, and alcohol too,
This reminded me of an old fraternity chant:
Walking through the woods with my cock in my hand,
I’m a mean motherfucker, I’m a Sig Pi man.
Lined a hundred whores up against the wall,
Bet a quart of beer I could fuck them all.
Fucked ninety-eight till my balls turned blue,
Then I backed off, jacked off, and fucked the other two.
My son starts college in the fall. I wonder if people chant things like that anymore, or if he’ll have four years of wokeness.
In case I haven’t typed it out today. Fuck Tom Wolf, fuck his family, and his dog (I assume he has one) too. A pox on his house. For now and forever.
What specifically did he do today?
He was breathing.
https://6abc.com/politics/gov-wolf-warns-pa-businesses-defying-shutdown-order/6169351/
Political fuckery.
Fuck Wolf.
Anyone talking about impeachment yet?
Not cowering at home as ordered by the government is a cowardly act, Sean. It’s desertion in the face of the enemy.
I will not stand second to you in detesting the festering pustule that is our governor, but sir, I will not tolerate you abusing his dog.
Philly and surrounding counties are run by Democrats (Chester being the last to fall). So you can’t even blame spineless Republicans for kowtowing to Gauleiter von Wolf. The populous suburbs are overrun with Karens so get used to full-on fascism in Pennsylvania.
Bucks County officials have made noise about wanting to reopen.
I didn’t realize commodius spitoon had uploaded his baby videos.
That’s some funny shit.
What I remember of AC:
-he was from Ohio
-did a lot of drugs
-had a traumatic childhood and adolescence
-had and endless supply of sublime gibberish
AC, phone home!
[pedals furiously as AC sits in basket of bicycle]
And wrestled with his Akita (!), or claimed to.
Tres seemed to recall (or was at least under the impression) that AC was from Yellow Springs (in the next county east of Dayton,) which would make a lot of sense, as it’s the Hippietopia of SW OH.
If Yellow Springs is the town I think it is, a friend of mine took me through there when I visited him during my friend’s time in the Dayton area. I remember it being a bit hippie crunchy.
Yup – tie dye, patchouli and organic free-range granola.
Yellow Springs
Don’t drink the water.
Worse than what the name implies, Tom Teriffic’s (Mr. GT’s) theory is that back in the ’60s, the CIA decided to put LSD in their drinking water and then just sit back to watch what would happen.
I can’t post from my PC, I just did now it refuses my connection, getting old…..
You gonna back that up with force guvnuh kkklansman? I’m leaving Northern Virginia on the evening of May 20th, and I dare you to stop me.
Well since the site is unreachable on a real computer I’ll comment here. Thanks for the kind words, not trying to be AC, but I think the same way,
?
I love these poems Yusef. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Thankee Xer!
My 7yo computer is giving up the ghost, too. I’m destined for Win10 and not looking forward to it.
I hated the change from Win7 to Win10 (or Lose10 as I call it) but decided to give in because I was already using Win10 at work anyway. IT told me I could run with the retro face on it but I generally had to jump on different PC’s from time to time so it was only a matter of time.
One of the utilities I posted about a while back is “Classic Shell” which is a retro UI.
https://www.glibertarians.com/2020/04/use-it-or-lose-it-links-of-rando/
I’m mostly worried about all the phoning home.
I finally put my kayak on the water, it was a lot of fun til we turned South into the wind, then hard paddling into the wind, even with the current we were getting blown upstream,
But damn what fun!
I need help from the board here!
I just received a text from an old friend’s wife that she is having a birthday thing for him this week, but of course as they live in San Francisco no one can violate cower-in-place and actually congregate. So instead she’s asking several of us to tell a joke on video and she’ll put together a montage of his pals telling jokes to him in lieu of a real party.
A decent enough idea, I guess, but I can’t think of anything. Dirty jokes are out, given the forum it will be in, and his wife is a prude’s prude. Suggestive or risque would be alright, though. And she encouraged corny Dad jokes, but all of those I know are well-worn.
Any of you have any decent, relatively new, not offensive but actually funny jokes that I can use for my obligation for this video? Given all the cut-ups on here I’m hoping for the best, it would be nice to have a memorable part in the video. Thanks!
That sounds awfully convoluted. Can’t they just have a Zoom party?
We just had one of those today for my grandpa’s 80th. Took 30 minutes just to get everybody set up on zoom where we could all hear and see one another. ?
Then I got nothin.
A boring preacher wants to spice up his sermons. He gets a suggestion to go to another church. The preacher at that church starts his sermon by saying: I spent the best years of my life in the arms of woman who wasn’t my wife…
The congregation smiled a bit, knowing that preacher’s reputation.
The preacher said: and that woman was my mom!
There was a loud awwww! from the congregation.
The boring preacher thinks that’s a pretty good joke, and decides to try it in his sermon.
Sunday comes. The boring preacher starts his sermon: I spent the best years of my life in the arms of woman who wasn’t my wife.
The congregation gasps and sucks half the air out of the room.
The boring preacher gets nervous and says: and…I can’t remember her name!
and his wife is a prude’s prude.
If that is the case you have to go with my old standby, and also the only joke I can remember: What is the difference between a woman and a refrigerator? A refrigerator doesn’t fart when you pull your meat out.
I have a hard time believing you can’t come up with a joke. While you look the part of a serious physician who peer reviews scientific papers in real life. Dood, you have the worst jokes out of all the comentariat on this site full of sideways people.
Ouch. I guess I better either up my game or find someone with even worse jokes to comment.
I honestly typed that meaning it as a compliment. In my sideways way. You have to work hard to come up with worse jokes than this lot. Hell look at the pun threads. I love your jokes. I am being a smart ass.
what pun threads?
I’ll assume the guy is in his 50’s or 60’s. Could you make a video where you are doing a breaking news story in the style of a 70’s newscast? “And this just came across our desk, the next spawn of satan has been born in (insert hospital of birth).”
Nun walks into liquor store and asks for a big bottle of gin. Clerk says “it’s quite unusual for a nun to buy liquor.” Nun says, “Oh, it’s for Mother Superior’s constipation.” Clerk sells her the gin, closes up an hour later. Down the block the nun is drunk as a skunk, swinging on a lamppost, habit all in disarray.
Clerk runs up “I thought you said it was for Mother Superior’s constipation?” Nun: “It ish. When she shes me, shes gonna crap.”
OK, drop 3 and fire for effect
Why should older women date archaeologists? Because the older you are, the more they’re interested.
A bunch of monks sued after they got kicked off the Playboy Mansion for trying to sell flowers. It just goes to show that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
Why does no one hear the pterodactyl in the bathroom? Because the p is silent.
What’s the difference between a baby and a bag of cocaine? Eric Clapton wouldn’t let a bag of cocaine fall out a window.
Why does Michael Jackson like twenty eight year olds? Because there’s 20 of them.
Why does Bill Clinton wear boxers? To keep his ankles warm.
What’s the best part of masturbation? You don’t have to talk to anyone afterwards.
What’s the difference between the Apollo Astronauts and Michael Jackson?
The Apollo Astronauts did a walk on the moon, whereas Michael Jackson molested a bunch of little boys.
That’s gotta be a Norm joke. Awesome.
Hefner wrote a tell all before he passed. Talked about the time he walked in on David Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together.
Not to be outdone, Jagger told the story from the early days of walking in on Hefner buggering TV’s Dennis Weaver.
“Hey Hugh! Get off McCloud!”
What’s the difference between Mick Jagger and A Scotsman? Mick Jagger says: Hey you! get offa my cloud! And the Scotsman says: Hey Mcleod! Get offa my ewe!
Another time Mcleod!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc9fUbjJbAU
I mean, if you can do an old jewish guy accent there is always this.
My old standy-by:
What’s the best time to go to the dentist?
2:30 (tooth-hurty)
An oldie, but a long-time fave of mine:
Three old guys are sitting around talking about how they’d like to “go” when their time comes.
The 70-year-old guy says, “I’d like to go out quick, but spectacular, driving a car off a cliff.”
The 80-year-old guy says, “That’s good, but I’d go one better – I’d have a pilot take me up in a small plane, then I’d tell him to bail out with a parachute, and I’d go down with the plane in a fiery crash.”
The 90-year-old guy says, “I’d like to be shot by a jealous husband.”
Why do elephants paint their toenails red? So they can hide in cherry trees.
Why do ducks have flat feet? From stamping out forest fires.
Why do elephants have flat feet? From stamping out flaming ducks.
How do you catch a unique rabbit?
U neek up on him.
How do you catch a tame rabbit?
Tame way. U neek up on him.
These are great suggestions, everyone, thanks!
I laughed out loud a lot.
I’ll have to sort through again and see which one might be best knowing this guy and his crowd.
Thanks again. What a great community, really. You are all awesome.
What do you do when your Kotex catches fire?
Throw it on the ground and tampon it.
I just got done watching a two hour documentary on the construction of the Titanic.
It was riveting.
Two families emigrate to the US from Pakistan. Upon arrival, the fathers make a bet to see who can become the most “Americanized” in one year.
A year later, they meet up. The first dad says, “Well, my daughter is on the cheerleading team at her high school, my son is playing little league baseball, this morning I had a pastry and a latte from Starbucks for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch, and now I’m going to go home, throw some hot dogs on the grill, crack open a Budweiser and watch the football game. How about you?”
The other dad says, “Fuck you towelhead.”
Got a laugh from me anyway
Greatest joke that I know. It’s better when I can recite it in a bar but will try to get the flavor by writing.
A class of second-graders were having trouble with breaking words into syllables and concatenating them. The teacher decided that the best way to learn was to use the student’s name.
“Mary Smith, will you start?”
Little Mary Smith stands up and says, “Ma-ry Smith. M-A got your Ma, R-Y got your ry, got your Mary. Smith, got your Smith, got your ry-smith, got your Mary Smith.”
She does a little courtesy and sits down. Teach looks around and says, “How about you Johnny Jones?”
Little Johnny Jones stands up and says, “John-ny Jones. J-O-H-N got your John, N-Y got your ny got your Johnny. J-O-N-E-S got your Jones, got your ny jones got your Johnny Jones.”
He does a little bow and sits down. Teacher looks around the room. “How about you,, Archibaldas Holebrook?”
Archie stands up and says, “I’ll try. Archibaldas Holebrook. A-R-C-H got your Arch, got your i got your i got your archi. Got your B-A-L-D, got your bald, got your i bald, got your Archibald, got your A-S got your as, got you bald as got your ibaldas got your Archibaldus. Got your H-O-L-E, got your as hole got your bald ashole got your i bald as hole got your archibaldas hole. Got your B-R-O-K-E, got your hole broke, got your as hole broke, got your bald as hole broke, got your i bald as hold broke, got your Archbaldus Holebroke.”
Takes his bow
How White Claw Became a Meme for Militant Gun Rights Shitposters
This was a fun read.
It’s sad to me that somebody got paid to write that.
It makes me smile. America, man.
Better writing for some obscure, embarrassing online publication than teaching at a university and filling kids’ heads with garbage.
How is this a surprise?
https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1259991426944905221
Biden is so far around the bend that he’s incapable of taking care of himself, let alone the country. Of course he would be a sockpuppet.
Is Biden even running a campaign at the moment? Serious question.
Depends on what you mean by “campaign”. If you mean “sitting in his basement drooling while media surrogates masturbate thinking about him being president” then yes. If you mean “actively engaging with voters and communicating proposed policy” then no.
Eh, the whole case for Biden is “He’s gonna bring back all the Obama policy people and let them run the country, man wasn’t Obama great?”
The Left at this point is no longer even pretending that power derives from the legislature. The Left is all about government by “qualified experts”. Biden is just there to rubber stamp Brennan’s intelligence policy, sign the tax hikes, sign the gun grabs, sign the National Mail In Voting Act, etc etc.
“Listen you fat faced pony solider! I don’t work for you..”
We are going for a bigger float on Wednesday, 5 kayaks, 2 tube toys and this,
https://www.amazon.com/Intex-Pacific-Paradise-4-Person-Relaxation/dp/B01CDF9ERE
Weekdays are cool, but weekends get sketchy, with all the toys on the water, we need to play now before the Tourists get here,
come join us anytime! I think Own Best Enemy is coming down with family next week.
I’m getting my Son and his Wife from Needles Tonight, they at least going to vacation from Cali, things are alright…
Where are you guys putting in and floating to? Back in the day I roamed through there more than a few times just to check it out.
Put in at Park ave. Riviera,
put out at canopy 17, Rotary Park, Riviera
About 3 hours, if you have a large group, you take canopy 17 for bbq on arrival, good fun!
Sounds great.
Around the Bend, I’m a Local! YAY!
Yep! The 20th. Wifey has day off and I put in for the day off too.
Awesome! Keep me posted, I just woke up from my gotta drive to Needles nap, let’s make it happen,
I always thought this guy was a doofus, but I have to admit I’m beginning to like him.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891
One of the better middle fingers to “the man”.
And sure, he sometimes says cringeworthy stuff…. .but two companies that completely altered entire industries? That’s Hank Rearden level stuff, no matter how much you might quibble with various details.
By the end of 2022, he may have completely changed the automotive industry, the space industry, and the internet service provider industry. And that doesn’t even factor in the Paypal legacy and some very large leaps in the battery manufacturing business.
Hank Rearden *fans self*
Totally my book boyfriend.
Hears a metal bracelet, put it on your wrist and **** my **** until the sun comes up!
Better than Jamiroquoi lyrics.
uncertainty is wonder, what next?,
only the dead really know,
it’s all con, certed effort toward oblivion anyway,
But can Yusef dance around a moving room in a funny hat?
I can..
/David Johannsen
I like Jamiroquai. *haughty sniff*
I do to. Was giving Yusef a compliment.
Thanks!
My bad. Sorry.
Got canned heat in my heels tonight, baybeh!
then dance to me !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzHW2ONJR-k
Come on, come, let’s work together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPkEyP_Tzg
Almost titled one of my books Canned Heat.
Do you know this wookiee is for real?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JpIcedjFBU
What fresh Hell is this? Lobot is NOT a discotheque disk jockey! Ladies can’t be Bespin Guards.
LucasArts last game before being sold to Disney and being shut down.
Please. That’s virtual insanity.
Trump may let workers take Social Security benefits early in exchange for reduced payments later. Retirement advocate calls it ‘harebrained idea.’
“Social Security advocates were quick to criticize the idea because it could create more harm than good.”
Spending $4 trillion in money you don’t have = good idea
Allowing people to early withdraw their own money that was taken by threat of violence = bad idea
Please please please please please. I will literally stick the proceeds into an empty investment account with it 100% invested in a S
S and P 500 index fund, and then we’ll compare with SS after 30 years.
This exercise was done in reality. There were several articles about it back in the 90’s as the results came in.
Back when SS was created, municipalities had the option to roll their own for their employees. Galviston Texas opted out and provided a perfect test case. They withheld the same percentage as social security, therefore it provided a direct comparison. Enrollees get to pick their mix of investments, like a 401k.
At the time that the first retirees started withdrawing their money, they started writing studies about it. The people of Galviston were retiring with higher monthly payouts than their annual salaries. They were receiving much more than SS.
A decade and a half later, apparently it became an issue again, because a quick google search shows a flurry of “debunking” articles attempting to explain that being better off by investing in the market isn’t really better off.
BuT SOmetIMEs THe StOcK MaRKeT GoES DoWN!!!!
$5k and delay benefits for 3 months??? Yes please. If some whose business is Social Security software says it’s a bad idea, I’m doubly sold.
Wake Me Up, Irish version
[does merry wrist jig with beer can]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ24Wj2zZyM
Watching the media coverage of the Arbery shooting and I’m seeing the underlying problem is that many people just don’t like the idea of open carry. The father and son didn’t point their weapons at Arbery in any of the video I saw. It was the presence of the guns that is causing people to say that Arbery “was in fear for his life” and what would you do if that were the case? It’s a weird argument because it concedes that Arbery rushed the son and initiated the physical violence (I know that “physical violence” is a silly phrase, but YKWIM). So, it’s all coming down to the question of: how much responsibility do people have when open carrying in order not to cause others the feeling of fear for their lives? My take after a week or so of digesting new info: The father and son should not have chased Arbery down. Shit could (and did in this case) get out of control quickly. That being said, if open carry is legal, I don’t see what they did as a crime. They chased a guy (and ,yes, I do think there was a degree of racism involved), confronted him and a tragedy occurred. More than willing to change my view on this if you got another take on it.
I ask this here because I know some of you open carry and I’d like to hear your thoughts on how you change your behavior in public when you do.
Not a gun guy and I mostly agree with your take, only quibble is to me there’s a difference between open carry and brandishing, if you have a gun on your hip a rifle slung across you back or a shotgun in whatever the proper safe way to carry them is (muzzle pointed up only on hand on butt, maybe? I dunno) If you have it drawn and at the ready even if you are not directly pointing it someone that’s a much more threatening look than simply open carrying. Admittedly it’s a small distinction.
I think that’s a valuable distinction, actually, especially in the context of open carry.
Time was, open carry was legal throughout Colorado, but everyone knew to avoid open carrying in Denver, CO Springs, Boulder, and Pueblo as you would be cited for Flagrant Display quick as a wink.
I posted on this earlier, but it came out today that Arbery was caught on video trespassing at an empty construction site during his jog just before being shot. He has a history of shoplifting along with other charges. Which Gregory actively investigated when he worked for the DA. When that video gets broken down factually in a courtroom, there is going to be a very strong defense whether people like it or not.
I posed the question earlier about potential surveillance footage existing of Arbery. That is the claim of the accused. That they recognized him from surveillance footage. If they have that footage and it turns out that Arbery bares a striking resemblance or is positively ID’ed, then shit is going to get real interesting.
No one on the right is really defending this right now because these weren’t cops and the narrative has been dominated by a short video. Add some context, and you have yourself another Trayvon Martin situation.
Why did Arbery fight? Some say human reaction is fight or flight when confronted by perceived danger. Isn’t there a third reaction which is quite common:
bend the knee i.e. submit and see what happens? [That’s apparently what a huge number of Jews did when confronted by the S.S.] Guy with a shotgun draws down on me, and I know I’m innocent, I’m going to stand still, put up my hands, and tell him to call the cops and we will sort it out at the station house.
And haven’t we all been told over and over that black fathers have been telling their sons to do this for generations?
As Broc points out, it’s likely these two already knew each other. Fleeing wouldn’t matter. He’d get caught later. Add that to Arbery hating the father for helping prosecute him in the shoplifting case and, yeah, I could see why he rushed the son.
It all seems more complicated than it’s being made out to be (somehow these are the ones people jump on rather clear cases like Castillio or Garner). First off, why was the video made? And is there more we haven’t seen? The released video starts before any of the participants are in view. Why was the guy making a video to begin with? Then, when that video does get a view of what is happening, the truck is parked on the right side of the road, the runner is running down the middle of the road, then tries to pass the truck on the right shoulder. There is a guy standing in the bed of the pick-up, and he appears to have his back to the runner and only reacts when the runner moves around the front of the truck to confront the driver who left the vehicle.
I’m just going by the video I have seen with these comments.
I’m trying to avoid an even hotter take than what I’ve already performed following the video, so I’m hesitant to voice a strong opinion lest I feel the urge to defend it irrationally. That said, I haven’t seen anything yet that makes me think the shooting couldn’t and shouldn’t have been easily avoided by two people just minding their own business. This is especially true if they knew the suspect. Given that there was no imminent threat to life or limb and, for that matter, no actual theft or damage to property, there is absolutely no reason a concerned citizen couldn’t have called up the local PD and said, “Hey, that Arbery kid’s at it again, I just saw him creeping around the house being built down the road.” There may be details about Arbery or the two men that change, but I think the broad strokes are what they are and support my initial opinion.
All I’m saying, in regards to the video, it’s not the Bubba and Jethro chasing a black kid down the street in their pick-up brandishing their guns shot from an objective film-like point of view like the media is making it out as. The participants in this video are even harder to ID than the surveillance video that prompted the whole thing.
Yeah I mean, the pickup is parked. Now, maybe they passed him, drove on down the road and waited in ambush……but then how did he get the drop on them? Why was the one asshole standing in the truck bed?
It’s absolutely a lot more complicated than the media makes it out to be, on its face, but man the fact that the GBI read over the case file and instantly got felony murder warrants makes me think there’s some kind of smoking gun.
Yep, why chase him down if you knew him? Did they only recognize him when he ran up on them? Not doing a hot take, just throwing out possibilities.
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/transcript-georgia-bureau-of-investigation-arrests-killing-of-ahmaud-arbery
The transcript of the press conference from the GBI guy. Yet another example of how fucking stupid our media is. They ask several times about the video coming out, and why is it that two days after the video the charges were filed, but nothing in the previous 10 weeks.
The question I immediately have is “does something in the video contradict something in the case file, and is that why the GBI was able to so quickly get these charges filed.”
Because to me, that’s what I think might have happened. I think Father and Son Moron gave a sworn statement about how it all went down, and something in the video contradicts that, and it’s such a big thing that the GBI was instantly able to hammer them with felony murder.
Of course we’re speculating, but what could be “the smoking gun”? False statement alone wouldn’t be enough.
My “through the filter of my wife who’s obsessed” version of this is that they said that they drove up behind him and asked him to stop, saying they just wanted to talk. But from the video they had clearly stopped ahead of where he was and were waiting in a sort of ambush position. Dunno if that is a media spin or not – or how much is the wife’s take on the Nancy Grace take.
“Ambush” does not sound like correct term to use. Sitting in the middle of an open street is not an “ambush”.
Ok, I just watched the video for the first time.
There is no argument that they drove ahead of the guy running down the street and stopped the vehicle, getting out to position themselves to confront him. The guy who shot the video says as much.
They unquestionably yelled at him as he neared their truck.
The guy shooting the video helpfully pointed it away from the action at the critical moment.
Quibble over the word “ambush” if you like. Call it a roadblock if it makes you feel better. But there’s no doubt that they stopped well ahead of him to give themselves time to take up a position to stop him.
The guy who shot the video claims he knew the guys in the truck, but didn’t know the guy they were following – so he jumped in his truck and shot the video to help out. So we know they went from “following” to “got ahead of him and jumped out of the truck with gun in hand”.
That’s not just open carry. That’s brandishing at a minimum.
From what I know, they were driving around trying to find the guy. “Ambush” implies they planned on attacking him. Unless there’s evidence that they wanted to shoot him, it’s not an ambush. As CPRM pointed out, the father is facing away. They obviously didn’t know Arbery was running up behind them. Nobody armed turns their back to a perceived threat. Nobody planning on murdering someone calls the cops before doing it. (Insert irrelevant exception here).
As of now, I see the father and son wanting to be Wyatt Earp and take the bad guy in and Arbery wanted none of that. Of course, subject to change.
I’m not saying either of those things aren’t true, but you seem to be letting context outside of the video color your interpretation of the video and what it proves.
To me it would have to be something impossible to explain away as a misstatement or a misremembering. Something that the video clearly contradicts.
I don’t know, I just think it’s pretty suspicious that this video comes out and the GBI only needs a couple of days to file felony murder charges against a former cop. I don’t think they care about PR that much.
Now that you mention it, it is odd that the father is facing the other way. My guess is that there were two cars chasing Arbery with one being the guy filming. The father and son didn’t see Arbery running up the road towards them until the last minute. Maybe Arbery thought he could get the jump on them when he decided to attack.
All I’m saying is, when you look at it with an objective eye, it’s not as clear cut as is being touted. This type of anal cyst is pretty much my job now when I’m not laid off.
Gut feeling, everyone involved was an asshole and someone died when that wasn’t the only solution.
No heroes in this story: fact check true.
It seems odd at first when you see these high profile cases where the “victim” is actually an asshole. They must know that the narrative will fall apart under scrutiny. Intentionally choosing the Michael Brown/Trayvon/Arbery cases because they can keep the racial tension roiling longer and get more money? That seemed a conspiratorial view before, but it is plausible at least on a subconscious level.
I am quite certain that they picked those cases exactly to foment racial unrest. With literally hundreds of better cases available, it is hard to escape that conclusion.
Like I said, choosing who the outrage is about in these cases always seems odd to me. Garner and Castillo were very clear cut and obvious, but somehow not the ones that were rallied around as much as the others.
It’s absolutely why they do it, and it’s happened too many times for it to be a coincidence. Akai Gurley and Tamir Rice got nowhere near the same amount of coverage as Martin or Brown.
The big push is and always will be against gun rights. The lefists seek to make gun ownership and self defense intrinsically racist. If these two assholes didn’t exist, they’d have to be invented.
And that is why I framed my original comment the way I did. If people who are OC’ing are held to a different legal standard than those who aren’t, it will only be a matter of time until OC becomes a relic.
I’m not in an open carry state but I’ve given a lot of thought to it because I advocate the policy. Just speaking to OC, I would think that you have a certain obligation to do so in the least offensive manner possible that does not limit the reasonable exercise of your rights. In the same fashion, I think you should be able to smoke a cigarette in any public space you choose, but I think good manners and wise PR dictate that you exercise suitable discretion so as to not appear to be intentionally aggravating people to make a point. Now, some people will opt to stand a foot away from you in an open park and then complain about your second-hand smoke giving them cancer, but those people are assholes and cannot be helped. They will never be happier than when they feel aggrieved. In a similar way, Karen, her beta husband, and their non-gender-assuming child Pajama Person will blithely walk up to armed police to complain about you having a small revolver discretely holstered on your belt. Again, they are beyond help and not worth consideration.
Makes sense and politeness goes a long way. Legally, however, obligation not to rude isn’t going to matter.
Well, I mention it because there’s going to be a certain amount of discretion involved when the difference between OC and brandishing is largely in the eye of the beholder, or at least the responding officer. Threat is defined by context, which is one reason why most people who are nervous around people carrying firearms don’t even notice them on police in uniform. If you’re dealing with people who might be nervous around OC it behooves you as a gun owner to represent all gun owners well, so that the norm is established that a regular person carrying a secured but visible weapon is not inherently threatening.
Hmmmm, that’s basically how I feel about being white living among the yellow man.
To me, when it’s a long gun, if that thing is in your hands, you’re brandishing it. I don’t care if you’ve got it at the low ready, practicing impeccable safety habits. If it’s in your hands, you’re considering using the thing. You might be justified in using it, you might not be. But open carrying a long gun, to me, is a rifle racked in your car, it’s a rifle slung at your shoulder. There’s a reason so many cultural greetings involve the display of empty hands from one man to another.
“who are nervous around people carrying firearms don’t even notice them on police in uniform.”
Which goes to show their ignorance. Nothing is scarier than a cop with his gun drawn. You’re a sneeze away from him and all his buddies mag dumping everything within 120 degrees of their muzzle.
Let me ask you guys the Arbery question:
If you were on a run and some dudes pulled up ahead of you in a pickup and started yelling at you and brandishing a shotgun in your direction…. how many of you would have drawn down and smoked the dude?
I know this crowd – and there’s a lot of responsible gun owners. Gun owners who might be carrying in that situation. And a bunch who wouldn’t take a threat of deadly force by a couple of random rednecks in a pickup lightly.
I asked that question of a cop friend of mine. His response included the phrase “totality of circumstances”. True story…
He’s as even-tempered and analytical as you are going to get in a cop, and he had the honest assessment: It depends on how I perceived the threat – which probably depends on a lot of things, including my own mood at the time. And he definitely carries all the time. And is a deacon at the church. And he’s pretty far over on the shooter’s side when it comes to “justified shoot?”.
Ability
Intent
Means
Only one of those is in doubt.
I’ve been mugged at gun point. Calmly handed over my wallet.
I wasn’t carrying, though*
In my mind I picture you as Samuel L. Jackson handing over his wallet at the diner …
Not that cool by any stretch. This was in America, but I was with a Japanese friend who didn’t speak English well. He panicked and didn’t know what the muggers wanted. Told him, “They want you to drop your pants.” He panicked more. “No, dummy. Give them your money!”
I am in awe of the fact that you could crack a joke at that moment. ::respectful bow::
It wasn’t bravery, just a lack of ability to control my stupid mouth.
As Ron White said…
I had the right to remain silent. But I did not have the ability to remain silent.
Ha! I don’t run!…But for serious,
All I’m saying is, this isn’t what the video shows. The versions I’ve seen no audio outside the guy making the videos car is heard until the gunshot, and the guys from the truck seem to be facing the other direction.
This an anal cyst from an objective perspective of what is seen in the video as released.
That would make absolutely no sense. They called 911, grabbed a gun, jumped in the truck to chase him down… and then pulled over ahead of him on the shoulder as he’s running down the middle of the street…….. and looked away from him and didn’t interact with him in any way until he attacked the one in front of the truck, unprovoked?
I dunno what did happen. But I know that isn’t it.
I’m just responding to the video evidence, without context. It’s an objective assessment on those grounds. It doesn’t matter if that makes sense, but that seems to be what is in the video.
I think if I saw a guy standing on the street holding a long gun, I’d immediately stop closing the distance and start opening it up. There’s just no way running directly at a guy who’s nervous enough to be holding a loaded shotgun in his hands ends in a happy fun time.
Yeah, ditto. I have a finely-tuned Spidey-sense and am disinclined to risk my safety and comfort without a damn good reason. Some dude in the street with a shotgun in his arms might just be walking it over to show a friend I can’t see or he might be about to murder the next person he sees, but if I just go the other way I never have to find out one way or the other.
This x1000 Discretion truly is the better part of valor. My first thoughts in that situation would likely be to run and run someplace that pickup trucks can’t fit.
Totally. On the list of things that are my problem, finding out why some stranger is holding a shotgun on someone else’s street is nowhere to be found.
I always try to remember G. Carlin’s sage advice in the event of an airplane crash – “Find the nearest farmhouse. Have a Dr. Pepper. Then call the police!“
The video makes it difficult to tell what exactly is going on, but I agree it isn’t immediately evident that they’re yelling at him or brandishing weapons at him. As near as I can tell, the truck is parked, he jogs down the street, veers around the passenger side, the camera moves over, and next thing we see he’s running across the front of the truck towards a guy with a shotgun.
They unquestionably are yelling at him as he approaches the truck, as he passes the truck and as the confrontation continues.
Driver is standing in the driver’s door holding a shotgun as he approaches. Driver moves to block his path as he approaches the truck on the driver’s side. As the camera bobs around, we see he is now standing in the oncoming traffic lane. Dad is standing in the back of the truck, armed with a handgun.
Runner changes course to pass on the other side of the vehicle from the shotgun bearing driver.
Driver (out of our view) runs from that position near the middle of the opposite lane of the road all the way across in front of the truck while the runner is crossing behind the truck and down the passenger side. Son is all the way in front of the truck when he turns the corner. Driver reverses course and raises gun to fire. Driver is backing up as he fires the shot, entering our view from in front of the truck. Runner makes contact with the driver very close to the time the gun is fired.
I can’t make out what is being yelled exactly… but it kinda sounds like dad in the back of the truck is yelling at his son not to do what he his doing as he runs to physically confront the runner. I definitely hear “Travis” loud and clear – and it is in a command voice. Checking the charges… yup, dude’s name is Travis.
So that’s the “facts” as I see it. The rest would be conjecture.
Just to be clear, I’m not defending the gung ho good ol’ boys. It’s the gun rights angle I’m worried about.
Ok, having watched the video, here’s my conjecture about what happened during the part we can’t see because our videographer was distracted with something else that definitely wasn’t his gun (his lawyer said so in the interview).
So, dude is running down the street at a pretty good clip. Truck has stopped well ahead and someone is standing in the driver’s door. Running dude sees driver move away from the door and toward the middle of the street, blocking him, so he starts angling to the right… and then cuts around to the other side of the truck. I’m going to say that this is without doubt an attempt to avoid the driver who’s holding a gun. Next we see him, he’s alongside the passenger side of the truck, running past the truck. Then he swerves to the front of the truck and we hear a gunshot.
The son is no longer in the front driver’s door of the car. He has run around the truck to intercept the running man.
If I’m on the jury there is zero chance I’m calling that self defense. Dude tried to avoid them off camera (by the testimony of cameraman). Dude tried to run past them as they attempted to block his way. Guy runs around truck with shotgun and meets him at the right front corner of the vehicle and fires as running dude turns toward him.
I don’t see a lot of nuance there for “well, he was attacked as he open carried”.
The bad camera work leaves some holes for creative minds to play around. But the only moment that I see as being in question is what happened as the driver sprinted from his position in the middle of the road around the front of the truck and as the soon to be dead guy reached the front of the vehicle.
I’d say there’s little chance that anything other than one dude is running to get away from them as he approaches the front of the car, and the other dude is running toward him, yelling, holding a shotgun and moving toward him at a right angle to his path.
So…. put that as the starting point. One dude running forward at a good clip. Another dude with a gun, running at a right angle to his path, apparently very close to him – probably within 10 feet.
There’s where the “self defense” question is going to be raised.
So… I’m running at you with my gun, yelling at you. You don’t know me from Adam’s house cat, but you do know that I’ve chased you for the last half mile. I’ve got an angle on you, and if I can’t hit you with the but of my gun, I can definitely shoot you in the back of the head at very close range as you pass by. You take that threat seriously and turn to take on the attack. I shoot you. We scuffle some more over the guy, and I shoot you dead.
Do I get the protection of self defense?
I don’t see it. This isn’t Zimmerman confronting a guy with insulting questions and getting his head pounded against the pavement, firing at a guy on top of him.
I don’t see how he gets off with less than a plea to involuntary manslaughter or negligent homicide.
I’m not arguing it is self-defense, or has anything to do with open carry. I’m just pointing out the video doesn’t show what the media narrative has proclaimed. And you try to disprove that by adding your own interpretation based on other media accounts you’ve heard to fill in the blanks.
Sure, your interpretation is plausible, given the narrative the media has released. I’m only advocating looking at the video evidence in an objective manner to evaluate it properly.
My only accounts are the video and the guy who shot the video. The fact that they are father and son. And their assertion that they grabbed their guns and went to follow the dude.
Again, these are not things established in the video, which is the only aspect I am discussing. Perhaps now, with the way you have responded to me when I am discussing one very narrow aspect, how other narratives can influence people’s bias.
For argument sake, I’ll concede your description of the encounter. How would you square that interpretation if it turns out that Arbery had been inside that house late at night on other occasions? Was he casing the house in order to come back again late at night? How did he get to that neighborhood? Does his criminal history as a thief and someone who flees from police provide any insight to how he reacted?
I can’t see what happened in front of the truck. The two men emerged from the son’s side into view after that indicating Arbery rush him and not the other way around. Why would the armed man rush the unarmed man?
There are a lot of questions that need answering. For me the biggest is: did the father know Arbery and vice versa. That would explain a lot.
BTW, Cyto, thanks for discussing this rationally. I think we’re both just trying to piece this together in order to have an informed opinion.
Whether the guy is a thief who was casing the joint or not only goes to “were they right in their accusations”, not to whether they initiated a violent confrontation. That part is all on tape. There is no allegation that he’s just murdered an old lady and is on the way to the local cinema to do further damage. So use of deadly force in a citizens arrest on “suspicion of casing the joint with intent to commit burglary” is definitely off the table.
That last question is what my initial reaction was. The press version makes zero sense. Their version is “racist Klan members see black man on a pleasant healthful run and hunt him down and murder him because they are so unbelievably racist, like all white southern men are”. That struck me as stupid from the jump. There are, near as makes no difference zero klan members. And even Klan members are usually not so crazy racist that they’ll just shoot a guy in broad daylight for being a black man in their neighborhood.
So I said “why?” And my first thought was… there’s more to this than we know. Dude has some relationship to these guys. Banging the ex-wife…. something like that. Because even if they suspect burglary….. trying to physically block him while armed with a shotgun and handguns? Makes no sense, absent other info. It just seems like way too much.
Of course, the big part of the story is their connection to the DA and the killing of the case until the video came out. But as to the shooting….
Now that I’ve seen the video, I can see the potential for “wannabe cop and former cop get carried away and things get out of hand” and then junior screws up big time and dude winds up dead.
In these cases, I always try to role-play each person and see if I can make sense of what they are doing and seeing. If you can’t, then you are missing some information. I
n this case, running dude is easy… whether a simple jogger who was interested in the new house going up or a would-be tool thief, his POV is the same. He’s running along, a couple of guys in a pickup truck pull up and start telling him to stop… and they have guns. Yeah, I can totally see deciding “I’m not stopping for these guys” as a decision one might make in that circumstance. Then, they drive ahead a ways and get out, blocking the way. … .He tries to go around to the left, but a dude with a shotgun steps to block the way. Another vehicle that I may know is with them is approaching from behind. I run around the other way, but shotgun dude is running to intercept me. I’m scared. I’m angry. My only chance is to get that gun before this asshole kills me.
That’s a narrative that absolutely makes sense. Thief or no thief, you might do the same at each step… although I might run to a nearby house yelling “call 911” if I wasn’t a thief. But dude might not have thought of that one.
Dad makes sense. He’s a former cop. He sees something off…. dude is looking through the new home construction site. Not cool! Call 911 to report, get my son, we’ll go detain this guy until the police can get here.
Son makes sense. Dad says let’s go get this guy. I’m all hopped up. We drive after him, but he won’t stop! Dad says get ahead of him and we’ll get out and stop him, so I gun it and stop a hundred yards ahead of him. I hop out and stand by the truck….. Dad’s got me covered from the bed of the truck…. I’m getting kinda pissed… this guy won’t stop…. “Hey, asshole! Stop!”… Oh, no you don’t! You’re not getting away from me that way either! I’ll cut you off! Shit!! This big-ass mother is gonna jump me! He’s gonna get my gun! Shoot! He’s still coming and swinging at me, trying to get my gun! Shoot! Shoot!
Yup…. His version checks out.
All of those guys make sense. Also makes sense if they have some beef with the guy – maybe they are fairly sure he stole their good ryobi tool set from the garage that one time.
What doesn’t make sense? “He Dad! There’s one of them black guys running in our neighborhood again! We gotta do something about that! Get your gun!”
Nope. That one doesn’t compute at all.
Neither does “I’m a violent thief!! That guy with the gun in the car pissed me off! I’m going to loop around his truck and sneak up on him and beat the shit out of this asshole!” Nope. That doesn’t compute.
So there’s no question in my mind that the media is full of crap on this one. But they always are… even when they accidentally get one right. They have one objective, and only one objective… foment racial division for political gain. Team D is out in force, saying this is racist America under trump…. “they are killing our people and nobody will stand up with us” says Don Lemon.
So I see two villains here – the DA who seems to have had at a minimum a bit of a biased look at things, and the progressives who desperately want people to hate each other so they can extract power.
The two dudes in the truck? Anywhere from misguided idiots trying to protect their community and screwing it up, to violent wannabe cops who were desperately hoping for a chance to whip out their deadly toys. Even if they just plain don’t like black folk, I really don’t see “because black” as the prime motivator. What SJW types in the media don’t realize… most of us folks in the south actually know quite a large number of black folks. They aren’t exactly scarce down here. We go to school together, eat dinner together, work together…. and mostly nobody gives a rat’s butt.
The only reason I bring up his criminal history is that Arbery would know that another strike against him and he’s doing real time in prison. I don’t see enough in the video to make a judgement based on it alone. It’s too blurry and choppy. Motivation is part of any criminal case.
But his motivation wouldn’t be relevant. The motivation of Dad and son are the relevant motives.
At least, I think that’s how it works legally.
The only difference that would make is to make their suspicions correct about his intent in the house. But wrong or right on that count doesn’t swing the case. I suppose having that video does help with one thing… it helps blunt the “racist” media narrative that threatens to steamroll them into oblivion.
Apparently the legal issues are pretty sticky as to their actions pre-shooting. Here in Florida you are not allowed to use deadly force to protect property. Talking with my cop friend, he posits this scenario: Someone is breaking into your car. You grab your gun and run out to confront him. Instead of running away, he bum-rushes you. You shoot and kill him. Would you be charged?
Of course, I had to give him the business a bit. I told him “of course you wouldn’t get charged. You carry a badge with that gun. Automatically a good shoot. Me? I’m 60/40 on whether or not the charge me, at best. Prosecutor Russian roulette at that point. I may have offended him a bit at that point.
The difference here is there is no imminent threat to anything. So blocking his way with a shotgun is probably a criminal act in itself. Repeatedly doing so… probably enough to get you jail time.
Dad seemed to know this. Note that he didn’t jump the guy as he ran past the Truck? He definitely could have jumped on the guy and tackled him. With his boy to help, they stood a good chance of detaining him. He also didn’t appear to point his weapon at any point.
Dad and son didn’t seem to be on the same page as to how to handle this part of their operation.
Couldn’t log on for a while. Odd. Anyways, I bring up motivation because we can only speculate on what happened in front of the truck as it obscured our view. If he were hell bent on not going to prison, yeah, he could’ve bum rushed the son. The momentum going from right to left as they emerge suggests that the case. I don’t know what the crime should be for the father and son if they chased the guy, but he initiated the physical confrontation. Manslaughter due to reckless behavior? Got me. If you are open carrying, do you get to tell someone who you think committed a crime to stop because you have questions? Do you get to chase them? And what exactly is the relationship between Arbery and the Father and son? The video alone is no where near the smoking gun it’s made out to be IMO. Way to out of focus and missing crucial footage.
And to answer the “what happened in front of the truck” question, break down the position of the two players at each point that we see them.
Driver starts in driver’s door. Runner is on left side of street, same side as driver, but to the far side of the street.
Next time we see driver, he is maybe 8 or 10 feet to his right, blocking the path the runner is currently on.
Runner swerves behind truck and up the right side. He turns in front of the truck.
Next we see driver, he is in front of the truck. (so, unless he teleported there, he has seen that the runner is trying to give him the slip and has run toward the other side of the vehicle). Driver is backing up from in front of the truck, contact has not yet been made. He seems to be raising his gun with two hands as he clears the corner of the vehicle.
So… the “who rushed who” question. That puts us in a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
They’ve parked themselves in his path, so runner has to either stop, or get past them somehow. Not apparent in the video exactly, but trail vehicle knows the two in the truck. There have been other contacts along the way – of what nature exactly we don’t know – but suffice it to say that the runner probably has reason to suspect that the vehicle behind him is not a disinterested 3rd party. So he can’t go back either. And he’s probably getting tired.
If you are him… the dude with a shotgun just cut you off in the street, so you ran around the other way to avoid him. But he’s running toward you… And you make a choice that you would be forced to account for… except you are dead.
If you are the dude with the shotgun, you can start the conversation at the point where the runner rounds the corner of the truck and heads your way – and it is a pretty scary moment. Fast forward to a more athletic dude trying to grab your gun and it gets even more scary. Or, you can rewind that tape to the moment you ran from the middle of the road to try to intercept him in front of the truck. Or rewind further to the moment you moved across the street to block his path. Or rewind further to the moment you got out of the safety of your truck, armed with a shotgun in order to attempt to make him stop. He’s got a lot of moments to account for.
From what I can see, they were trying to confront a guy they ‘knew’ was up to no good. Seems the dad had dealt with him before, and had made up his mind. Having worked for police departments for 19 years, I am still one who thinks they are called waaay too much, and that cries of, “Just let the police handle it” are one of the reasons why government has become the Leviathan that it has. So, yes, I think that, in most cases, people need to handle issues themselves, with police involvement being more of a last resort.
Then we have something like this, with a former cop that seems unable to stop being one, and we get a man that was murdered. Certainly (to me), some level of (criminal) homicide. And, I believe you are correct to wonder what this does to 2A protections, especially in the area of OC. This will be used for all the wrong reasons–I think it shows more what the ‘cop mentality’ is, and how it lingers in people, and has less to do with firearms themselves. But, the statists can’t, and won’t, see that, and will insist that this just proves that regular people can’t be trusted to handle things when they are armed.
Never mind all the legit self-defense uses that happen on a daily basis. Never mind people talking about how the Thin Blue Line family could have handled this, without armed confrontation.
Well, the one good thing for any larger gun control argument is, they decided early on to make it all about race. They are racist white supremacists who tote guns, just like Trump supporters everywhere. So Trump supporters are racist murders by the transitive property of the race card.
Which means that this goes nowhere, other than to gin up the base and turn out the black vote.
Except the dudes are in jail, the prosecutor is being investigated… and there’s no larger state or societal issue at play. There’s not even an assault rifle or bump stock anywhere in play.
Once again, the progressive asshats have taken a good issue (abuse of power by prosecutors to protect their friends) and managed to pollute it with the race card. So nothing will be done.
Because nothing can be done. Not if the problem is inherent, systemic racism that we are all guilty of, no matter what.
Corona catches the military
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqAvgWDera4
Fun facts: the black beret was meant to be the official headgear to show that all soldiers are elite, because no one at the Pentagon knows what “elite” means. After complaints, the beret was switched out for a patrol cap which actually shields the eyes from the sun. 9 years later the so-called universal camo pattern was changed after it was discovered that it only blends in with some guy’s grandma’s couch:
https://reposti.com/i/m/j9.jpg
Screw it, let’s go back to Shakos. Or three foot tall polar bear skin hats. Also cool, those Soviet era caps with an 8″ crown riser.
I favor chestnut color slouch hats.
Fun fact: the reason Australians and female US drill sergeants, old French musketeers, and others folded up the right side of their hats is that if you’re marching with a rifle at right shoulder arms, the right side of a broad brim hat is going to get squashed up anyway.
What?? Female DIs aren’t wearing the campaign hat now? Sexist.
It was changed for them in 1972.
***
The female drill sergeant hat was designed by BG Mildred C. Bailey. The design was taken from the Australian bush hat. The first female drill sergeant hat was beige in color. The beige hat was replaced by a dark green female drill sergeant hat, style unchanged. The green hat was put into use in January 1983. After the green drill sergeant hat appeared, the beige hat was slowly phased out of the system.
In 1984-85, a proposal was made for females to switch to the drill sergeant hat worn by male drill sergeants. Female drill sergeants at Training and Doctrine Command posts opposed this idea. In June 1985, General John A Wickham Jr., Army Chief of Staff, stated that female drill sergeants will continue to wear the original female drill sergeant hat.
***
“1: People aren’t wearing enough hats.”
I remember Wickham’s name mostly because a lot of the FMs had his name on the authorization sheet in front.
I suddenly have a desire for the common tasks book. I wonder if I still have one in storage?
Ah, I have a Warrior Skill Level 1 book from 2015. Probably mostly the same stuff.
The main thing in my opinion is to sort what was absolutely essential from what is merely nice to have.
About 80% of Americans aged 18-30 are ineligible for military service.
Blah, blah, blah, if I was in charge, herp herp herpaderp…
I miss the days when visible tattoos were a bar to enlistment/re-enlistment.
And when soldiers were, well soldiers. Not warriors and not athletes.
the beret was switched
outback for a patrol capI still remember when that memo came out and was lying on a desk in the admin office. I thought it was a joke. I also remember when Rangers wore that black beret, not tan. Fuck Eric Shinseki.
For Class A’s, the beret was a toss up from the cunt cap. Only certain NCOs and officers wore saucers.
Purchasing my own saucer to replace the awful cunt cap was 2nd in importance only to getting division and unit patches sewn on to my class a uniforms. I hated that silly soda-jerk hat.
The other thing I forgot until thinking about it was that the cunt cap laid flat and could be tucked into the belt or pocket a lot easier.
Getting the buttons replaced with sta-brite ones was right there with patches.
Fancy uniforms for ceremonial units is fine with me. Uniforms for everyone else should be simple and utilitarian.
GI Joes weren’t dressed like Disney princes. There’s a reason for that.
Simple is efficient and efficient is effective.
There was a sci-fi story called Superior about a civilization defeating a more technologically advanced one with simple, reliable weapons.
Derpy needs more time polishing boots and buttons to appreciate sta-brite.
Reminds me of a Ralph Peters’ column back when he used to write for Army Times.
They gave us dull metal ones in basic. The ones in the px store are all stay bright. I like the dull ones better.
Actually, let’s just save the medals for the guys that go above and beyond. Most medals are perfunctory.
https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-blog-about-military-matters/69822403-did-u-s-military-personnel-really-earn-all-their-medals
My brother told me a story about a medic he flew out. The medic ran 100 yards or so under fire, retrieved the wounded soldier, brought him back, and kept him alive on the flight back to base.
My brother and others who saw what the medic did filed the paperwork to get the medic a bronze star. It was refused by a colonel who said “medics are supposed to do that.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, usually perfunctory.
Someday I’ll get around to getting a shadow box made. My little fruit salad is purely attendance, but it’s still mine for showing up (mostly).
I always liked that the Marine Corps doesn’t give out a lot of medals. Even Marines who have seen combat might only have a couple rows of ribbons after tens years of service. My battalion commander in boot camp had done two tours in Vietnam and only had 8 ribbons – the top one was the Medal of Honor.
Black beret soldier.
Fuck Rangers! The black beret belonged to the Cav before they took it in the mid ’70s.
We had Stetson’s
/6th US Cavalry (air combat)
/fuck 82nd
I earned my Green Beret in 1986 and never put Shinsecki’s black one on my head.
(The green beret is worn by burly chested freedom fighters- and girls scouts.)
We stopped at an island,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QMSjFCyF3DJaDwY7A
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/05/07/neo-liberalism-may-be-another-covid-19-victim.html
Meanwhile, Russia is the 5th country in recent weeks to lift its ban on exports.
People are eager to get back to trade. People will always want to make money.
The spice must flow.
It’s all Drumpf’s fault!
Political class says you are engaged in Human Sacrifice/ Rolling Stone
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/07f29a7e-9363-11ea-abcd-371e24b679ed
Who are these “traditional liberals” that you speak of? They don’t seem to be in any power of influence anywhere.
Who pray tell will decide what these “temporary” measures, when they are going to far and when it is time for them to be rolled back?
Also I’m not sure what policy he is advocating here? We need to be more statist than libertarians but not too statist or be statist in a non-communtarian way unlike the Communists and the NatPops?
The Reign of Terror and the Kulturkampf say otherwise.
“ They accept the need for an active state to allow markets to function.“
Smuggled premise. *stops reading*
Ah yes only liberals are civilized. Non-liberals are barbarians so sometimes the state is needed to kill them.
Sounds like a call for a bunch of TOP MEN to implements tariffs and border controls to appease the right and higher taxes and more free shit to appease the left but not too much of those things since they will harm the economy and civil liberties. How exactly is this different than what the centre-left and centre-right have been doing since about 1900?
If you want to quote articles and then comment on them you could always write something up like your mom does and submit it.
Winston was told that posting articles in the comments would turn everyone into libertarians.
I like you Hyperbole. I’ll kill you last. (not a threat, an Arnold joke, don’t have me arrested.)
I lied!
Gustave gets it.
https://youtu.be/CcXASrhk_zA
Gustave, if you’re wearing a fishnet shirt waiting for me in the boiler room, I’d should tell you I might not make it. Let off some steam.
I thought it was gonna be Michael Ironside and Molly Ringwald.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnDJBl2MQl0
This is sloppy language that leads to horrific results. Rights are rights, and humans have rights as a consequence of their personhood. For example, the Supreme Court has ruled time and time again that while within the borders of the United States, non-citizens have pretty much all the rights protected by the Bill of Rights, as they are rooted in inalienable natural rights that can be determined via reason. On the other hand, citizens should always have more privileges than non-citizens. That is what citizenship is about.
Radical Centrism.
Your jib- I like the cut of it.
“rights” vs. privileges
Well Turdeau Jr. is supposed to be one of those “radical centrists” and he sure likes to ban stuff and tax and spend and control the economy and is nationalistic when it suits him.
Yeah, he’s at the center. He IS the GOVERNMENT!!!
Sounds like he’s advocating for the fascist middle.
http://archive.li/y4vgS/313d44775b49b176e15a4abf89d4a606f675c87f.jpg
NSFW.
http://archive.li/GYAur/2b0c2b3195ecfd1ff30a3185bc254301b63b7c91.jpg
NSFW.
http://archive.li/Y0yKA/e2ac72d45b4f2eaa21bc51cdd80fb0b002939a8c.jpg
NSFW.
http://archive.li/h5b1q/5954badaee218f8f37a5337efc114fd370d31a87.jpg
NSFW.
yes
Something very odd another this one.
Another = about
And I was referring to the 3rd “chick “, so failed twice.
Reminds me of Arby’s for some reason. Just a bad angled shot…
Boo- you can see the scar from there they put her nipple back on.
+ points for meaty labia tho
Looks like the Meghan Markle Harry should have married.
Hey Yufus!
I want to cite one of the premier poets of our time, Ice-T:
6 in the morning, police at my door
Fresh Adidas squeak across the bathroom floor
Out my back window I make my escape
Didn’t even get a chance to grab my old school tape
Mad with no music, but happy ’cause free
And the streets to a player is the place to be
Got a knot in my pocket, weighing at least a grand
Gold on my neck, my pistols close at hand
I’m a self-made monster of the city streets
Remotely controlled by hard hip-hop beats
But just living in the city is a serious task
Didn’t know what the cops wanted, didn’t have time to ask
My replacement birthday gift to myself got routed from Michigan to Missouri on it’s way to me in Wisconsin, so it didn’t arrive in time. I’m no geographic mathematician, but that doesn’t really seem like an efficient route. Good job USPS, you essential frontline workers.
BTW, Digby check your e-mail.
Check yours! Yeah, I wrote you back,Got it, thanks. I’m still dreaming after number 28 from Q’s morning cavalcade. I’d pay for her to get all that ink removed, and buy her a car and…
Huh–speaking of ‘types’…
I’ve been very vocal about my type.
Everything gets routed to the hub before getting sent out on a periferal route. There’s just not enough traffic to short cut across lake michigan
If my dick pics offend you, you’re not a real libertarian. No evidence suggests it is hurting the party, only that it is creating more libertarians. Instead, you self consciously fear judgement by others of your association to someone who refuses to live according to societal norms.
What are these “societal norms” that libertarians are supposed to follow? When it was a societal norm to disapprove of weed and Ass-Sex libertarians were supposed to oppose them and try to change those norms.
And a real libertarian is a polyamorous pansexual vegan nudist who lives underground, only listens to Rush and smokes purple marijuana only grown in Inner Mongolia. I have spoken as The One and Only True Libertarian.
I never took you for a polyamorous pansexual vegan nudist.
The Rush thing doesn’t surprise me though.
Begone with your thin libertarianism!
Grace Under Pressure is the only Rush album. This is an objective fact.
Pbbt….. Kids.
Purple smoke?
Those who smoke purple marijuana only grown in Outer Mongolia are a bunch of soyboy cuck cosmo commie woke corporate shill Karens. This is a fact.
No denying that logic.
No true libertarian would deny that logic..
… wait…. now I’m confused. Am I supposed to be negating the legitimacy of your libertarian stance, or the parent, or the OP… dang it!
No true libertarian would riff 3 layers of comments deep.
Huzzah
Of course it got ugly–that precisely what The View is!
Patched and inflated my Battle Cat (how is that for a euphemism?!), so far it seems the hole I patched was the only one.
A cat with one hole? Sounds kinda fishy…
Am I the only one who thinks this type of writing is embarrassing? Its childish and painful to look at. WTF is the point? It makes me angry that this can pass as anything besides a high school poetry homework assignment. I know I’m the asshole but jesus christ this is pathetic
Cacciatore?
Maybe they’re brothers from another mother.
Hmmm…. I suppose that happens around here.
?
Uh… this is the header under which we post pointless ramblings, railing against the tides of stupidity and pontificating pointlessly about both the non-aggression principle and boobies. The best you can hope for is a jumping off point for something pointless.
And I’ve read Maya Angelou and had a similar reaction, so poetry that isn’t embarrassing is way too high of a bar to set. They act like that lady is Jesus, Ghandi and Martin Luther King all rolled up into one. Meanwhile Yusef drives a Kia and plays with frisbees.
So maybe cutting him some slack is in order.
Whoa, not Dr. Angelou? Treading on thin ice.
I find pretentiousness off-putting. The good doctor has enough of that for any 3 famous authors. It is kinda her shtick, playing the placid, wise old lady. Smug works for some people. Not so much for me.
Smug pretension was really hot there for a while as she become the hot property, so I get it. Old Madonna was playing that game, Alicia Keys was doing it, George Clooney…. it was quite popular there for a while. Definitely not my thing.
Yusef is wired a bit unusually and also might not be entirely sober.
Keats and Yeats are on my side personally, but I dig his rap.
He’s our own in-house James Joyce! “O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire” *
*(or something like that)
I prefer Otis,
Howdy!
FUCK OFF! try something yourself, or STFU,
KTHXBYE!
You know you can not read it, right? Why does it matter to you?
🙂
I’m tempted to ask why this happens when Yu posts his prose. Tempted, but I won’t.
I ask this question as well, it’s just silly fun after all, does he think I’m Cereal?
/Hail AC!
No one bothered to correct me which makes me feel entitled to know I am right in my assumption.
Some people didn’t care for AC’s schtick. Simple as that.
I can’t say that it’s my cup of tea, but AC’s stuff gave me the occasional chuckle, as does Yusef’s. Besides, nobody is entitled to have every article conform to their tastes.
I’ve had stuff posted here under my name that I found a bit embarrassing after the fact, so I’m not gonna ball bust. Without Yusef, there would be many more open posts with no content, and I immensely respect all of his contributions to the site.
TNT if you don’t like it then treat it like an open post. Here, I’ll get you started
WTF? https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/11/doctor-deborah-birx-coronavirus-covid-19-death-toll-inflated-numbers-cases-cdc-white-house-meeting-report/
-Rick Santorum, WSJ, May 11, 2020
I’m still delighted for the search results for his name.
I am not exactly clear on what any politician did to protect lives. And it seems the most vulnerable did die.
That’s because you are poisoned by the Right-wing media (they run everyting!), and the Orange Perv in the White House. Him and his lackeys are ruining the legitimate orders of the benevolent governors trying to get all the rabble in line, and behave like civilized humans…pardon my scoff.
Are you calling me rabble? 😉
You just gave away the surprise ending.
This. So very much this.
And I’m kinda chapped that the absolute worst governor – Cuomo – is getting the hero treatment. Mostly it bothers me because it proves that Huxley and Orwell were right. Propaganda does work, and work well. They literally have a bunch of people believing down is up on that one.
“Am I the only one who thinks this type of writing is embarrassing” I think that’s a stupid question, oh that’s right there are no stupid questions, if you don’t like it Toledo SHUT THE FUCK UP!
or do better, Hell just do something. whiny Bitch,
Silence is golden
Honestly, i was happy to see my stuff posted, as always, and I appreciate the compliments, i often see posts that seem boring to me, but I never complain, we all have different tastes.
Some people just want to watch the World burn……
Yeah, it’s your byline and yours alone.
It is nice to be appreciated, ;),
Ditto. Besides, who reads the posts anyways instead of just shitposting below?
Yeah……….::sigh::
There is stuff besides comments?
You bastard….
Top notch! I have 30 minutes to call you out, come out and play! or else, shhhhhhhh,
That right there makes it seem like ‘Top Notch’ is his super-villain name.
/I’m claiming “The Mad Diddler”
Either that, or, “The Diddler Crab”. Not sure just yet.
My Autistic Grandson calls me Nick Fury…..
/My Boy!
Nick Fury Drives a Kia….I like it!
and now!…….. I’m off to Needles to pick up my Son and his wife, yippee!
Thanks for all the nice compliments, and one bad one, I larfed, Goodnight for now!
Glibberish?
Something like that.
I like it!
Howdy, JD.
At some point in the past two weeks you asked me “Kitt or Newmar?” which I was unable to answer as I had not reached NewMar’s episodes. Having reached them, I find the two look and act very simiar on the show but there is one detail that makes me answer Kitt. It’s the fact that I kept getting distracted by the severe tobacco staining on Newmar’s teeth. To be that yellow at that age indicates a severe habit, and all I could think was “She must have smelled like an ash tray.”
You are obviously a man of discerning taste, attentive to subtle but important details.
Yet I make a lot of typos.
Mornin’ ☕
https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2020/05/watch-herd-of-deer-enjoy-a-walk-on-the-beach-in-this-jersey-shore-town.html
Karen, call the cops ASAP.
Apparently not a cop, or this would have ended very differently.
Hide and seek champ gets a date:
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/pennsylvania/date-of-execution-set-for-man-convicted-of-killing-pa-state-police-corporal/article_e952db62-93b5-11ea-8141-dfaf430e4073.html
https://abc13.com/physical-distancing-riverside-girl-invents-way-to-hug-grandparents-creative-covid-19/6173152/
Awwwww.
I’ve always yearned for a means to turn a hug into the equivalent of handling plutonium. If they’re so concerned maybe they should just wait.
I’m just proud that I avoided any glory hole reference.
“Keeps out the alpha rays, Max.”
You all may be unfamiliar with this Midwestern restaurant chain, but its continuing decline makes me sad. It’s long been a favorite of ours, but the one closest to us has been “temporarily” closed for many months now, searching in vain for someone to franchise it. We were delighted to find an open location while visiting family in St. Louis at Christmas. We may not even be able to look forward to that any more.
From the comments it looks like they were being managed into the ditch long before this craziness came along.
A waitress we chatted with at Christmas strongly hinted that new ownership/management had indeed done just that.
TBH, they were always expensive and the food and service wasn’t amazing at the location near me. Oh, and shoestring fries are objectively the worst cut of fries.
I went there maybe 8 or 9 times in 20 years, mainly because it was in the same parking lot as the movie theater.
There’s one that closed a year back or so near me, and one that’s still open. The problem was greasy burgers (to the point of dripping), long waits for the food, and as trshmnstr says, shoestring fries are the worst. There’s still a billboard that goes up near me trying to get a franchisee for the closed location, offering $100k a year.
We had one that never took off and closed within a few years, there’s still one off the interstate but the food/service suffers from what Neph and Trashy describe, I never was a fan.
Hey Hype, I just sent a pair of cats up to your neck of the woods this weekend. My grandparents live just outside of Fredericktown.
Speaking of Fredericktown and burgers, ever had Sordy’s Moon Grill? They went out of business a few years back, but I loved that place.
No, for whatever reason Fredericktown is one of the little villages around here that I never get to, I’ve been all around and through it but never had a reason to stop.
Don’t act like this is anything other than an unemployed tin knocker trying to act like he is a erudite poet who has anything useful to say. Any rational adult would be embarrassed by this sad attempt to recapture his drug addled 20s. What did he say that added to the public discourse? Absolutely nothing. Its childish and sad. Yusef is a middle aged man for God’s sake. His decades of life have not added to his ability to add to the conversation of life. We all know its pathetic. Please lets all stop with this sad attempt at “art”