«“He’s drunk and he’s high and he’s mentally ill,” Castillo told the emergency dispatcher, emphasizing again her son’s mental condition. Less than five minutes later, a police officer burst into the house and shot Arcadio Castillo III dead as he stood, his mother said later, “frozen like a deer in headlights.”

“He didn’t try to calm him down. He just came in and immediately shot my son,” Castillo said. »

The cop is sure he solved all the problems and deserves a medal.
If the victim were holding a vape pen the cop would have said the vape looked like a gun and shot him. This is what cops are allowed to do with impunity.

Biden's speech was a failure last night not because he disparaged a large swath of the electorate that needed disparaging, but because he neglected to speak to the hearts and minds of those "folks" to bring them into the fold. No "olive branch" whatsoever, as corny and cliche as those words may have been, they were sorely needed.

Politics is a game of addition, not subtraction. And Biden's speech would have been an addition if he offered a philosophical or moral off-ramp to those in Trump's camp.

At least he didn't say "semi-fascists" - loved to have been a fly on the wall in the WH listening to that debate.

have other cities been able to keep their citizens safe and healthy from wildfire smoke?

I often hear bleeding heart liberals who want more socialism in this country point to Europe as the model for how the US should be. Do you know what they call people in Germany who don't pay their fare for public transportation? They call them 'black riders'. And they have signs all over the trains and train stations saying if you're a black rider, you'll be sorry. They have transit workers who check the tickets and if you didn't pay, you pay a fine and are kicked off the train at the next stop. How about we emulate that?

speaking of
Olive Branches

look for the Terrorists
to suggest removing our
President 'by any means nec-
essary' in their response to Biden's
finally calling out their Fascist intentions.

Billionaire's are Not gonna waltz
happily into any just and Fair
Taxation situation.

So payment of fares on Sound Transit is essentially optional. Good luck convincing those in the RTA tax zone who do not use the system to tax themselves in the next vote when the users cannot be bothered to pay even a fraction of the cost.

When fare enforcement used to check fares they would board train cars (or Rapid Rides) from all doors and ask every passenger for proof of fare.

How is that biased? They didn’t single anyone out. They checked everyone.

'Perhaps the most memorable line of the speech came when President Roosevelt (FDR) (Dem) (Elected FOUR Times!) described forces which he labeled "the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering."

He went on to claim that these forces were united against his candidacy; that "They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred."'

they Did try to assassinate him
but were Unsuccessful
thanks God.

When fare enforcement used to check fares they would board train cars (or Rapid Rides) from all doors and ask every passenger for proof of fare.

How is that biased? They didn’t single anyone out. They checked everyone.

74,223,369 of us voted for Trump in 2020 after having experienced four years of his Presidency. I don't think that most of those voters are fascists. It's fair for Biden to call out the ones that are, but it would have been a better speech "if he offered a philosophical or moral off-ramp to those in Trump's camp." I've talked to quite a few Trump voters over the past couple of years and I do think that we can bring many of them back. It is important that we try.

Link Light Rail stations should be turnstiled, like pretty much every light rail system in the world.

@13
An ST employee once told me that the fare enforcement wasn't done during peak commuter hours due to the logistics of getting through jam packed train coaches. So theoretically a scofflaw with an office job could ride with near impunity while some poor trying to get across town mid afternoon had a much greater chance of getting busted.

@14: you try.

i can't even pry my father away from Fox News. he believes the 87,000 armed IRS agents BS, except he thinks it's 187,000, and they'll be coming for his pension.

@16 Correct. If we can't be trusted to pay our way, we need a system that impartially makes us. This is why we can; 't have nice things.

the Propaganda Wing of today's
gop is so Fucking GOOD at
turning lies into Facts* it's
No Wonder half the Cit-
izenry doesn't know
the difference

Joseph Goebbels
is Rupert Murdoch's
Hero Mentor & Idol. in
fact I heard he still Works there.

*and Viewers
into Fascists.

Biden’s speech was fantastic. And made o my more so by the idiotic reflexive drivel of the Rightwing idiocracy (well represented here on SLOG) who’s hypocrisy and cowardice know no bottom or shame.

It’s always liberals who must compromise. It’s always liberals that have to fix the broken furniture of democracy.

Well, there is no compromise with fascism. There is no compromise with a revanchist death cult that fomented a coup, stole state secrets, and are busy with rhetoric inciting a violent civil war destroying the rights of half the nation.

Biden navigated a perfect line. And for the very first time I’m proud he is my president.

@19 Yes, mocking and ridiculing people with whom they disagree is one of the things people like most about Progressives. lol. When I talk to people who are more conservative, that is actually something they bring up in conversation. It gives us a point of agreement. I explain that many Progressives aren't really Democrats. They're just Socialists with nowhere else to go. That usually gets a smile; sometimes a laugh. Then I ask why they voted for Obama twice and then voted for Trump twice. And then I shut up and listen.

Biden has stepped up and I'm proud to have voted for him. He has plenty to criticize, but given the political climate he is in and having to deal with the shitbags in his own party who stymied his agenda first the first half of his term, I'd say he has been delivering a hell of a lot more than I expected this time around.

If you feel alienated or marginalized by his speech it's because you are a self-victimizing little bitch and feel threatened by a fighter, which is what the Democratic party sorely needs. Enough with the kid gloves and appeasement of complete and total douchebags who deserve no more time of the day for their dumbassery. We've been playing that tune for decades and enough is enough. If you don't like it fuck your feelings.

‘… Trump says he met with J6ers recently and is “financially supporting” some of them.’

He’s giving them free vouchers for the introductory day at Trump U., and claiming each is the ticket to millions in future earnings if they take the whole course.

Voting for Trump in 2020 which was an abysmal choice I can almost forgive.

However, anyone who voted for Trump in 2024 and STILL is a republican?

-After the mainstream adoption of QANON conspiracies
- Nurturing the ignorant Death Cult that resulted in the pandemic death of over one million Americans
- Open collaboration with Putin and his cabal of thuggish oligarchs culminating in the first open land grab war in Europe directly involving a superpower as an aggressor.
- The baseless election conspiracies that are now mainstream republican rhetoric
- Destroying the reproductive rights of for half the country
- Attacking the rights of trans people and other minorities,
- The clear espionage on behalf Americas strategic enemies by the theft of vital top secret documents
- And a FUCKING COUP ATTEMP...

...Anyone STILL calling themselves a republican now is either worthless racist pile of shit, or a fascist pile of shit, or simply too hopeless stupid to consider. They are not going to switch sides no matter what bullshit anyone does. Any of this bullshit that we need to "reach out to them" really just mean roll over on all the above and normalize it.

So, No. Fuck you.

Fuck the apologists and fuck anyone who persist that it's liberals that need to "reach out" instead of these worthless piles of shit who need to disavow their flirtations with white nationalism and fascism.

You do not have conservative friends. You have fascist friends, asshole. And when you keep finding yourself in a room with five fascists... there are six fascists in the room. Go fuck yourselves.

5) So you are a petty cheat, we gather.

Blip, you're thinking in stereotypes. Over 74 million people voted for Trump in 2020. Only 10,000+ went to the Capitol on January 6th and only 2,000+ actually entered the building. Granted, millions more support what they did. But there are millions more - mostly working class men and women - that will listen if you can find some common ground. Progressives are supposedly in favor of unions - talk about unions! You like the idea of a true public option for health care? You're talking to populists. You'd be surprised how many agree with you. You're not going to move all of them but you don't have to. Reducing Trump world by 10 or 20 million would be very helpful politically.

@13 Checking all fares in a rail car is not "biased" in itself, and Will is not claiming otherwise. But it still contains an element of racial injustice because people of color are disproportionately poor and alienated from systems of authority due to a long history of being unfairly targeted by them.

A randomly enforced honor system sets a trap (or as some would call it, a "moral hazard") for people for whom $1.50-$3.50 is real money. I hope I don't have to spell out how that works. ST is mitigating it in the only ways it really can -- lower the low-income fare, take a relaxed approach to enforcement in general, and crack down only on the most chronic repeat offenders. Or we could, you know, just make the whole system free or pay-what-you-will. It likely wouldn't cost much more than fare enforcement does now.

@32 Waiting until you catch someone 5times and allowing them to refuse to identify themselves is no fare enforcement effectively making fares voluntary. If the policy is to make a ride free, say so and include it in your financial plan. Then try to get the next tax passed.

@9, @19, @26, @27: You speaking intellectually, that's the problem. Optics trump (no pun intended) intellectual debate in American politics. I wish libs would learn that.

Although I heard it said that Carter didn't mention "malaise" once in that pompous plead, that's the kind of speech it's remembered as. Americans hate being admonished.

I think it’s ironic that Joe Biden is pushing for 100,000 more cops while calling the other side fascist.

the trumpfster's
Already promising
Par-dons to His Bad Bois

so
it'll All
come Off
in the Wash.

when he 'wins'
you'll have Carte Blanche
in thee Best Way -- Retro-Actively!

so boys
any Havoc you
may cause, well we Love
you and we Think you're quite Special!

@35 -- cops are equal
Ideology employees
some'd say mer-
cenaries

@33 (the first one) exactly right. How would you even know if it someone's 5th violation? In 6 months we'll see an article pop up in the Seattle Times regarding how fare box recovery is way down for Sound Transit and they are looking into the root causes. The system is already not meeting its fare revenue targets so its pretty much a foregone conclusion they are going to have to come back to the voters. The only question is how much.

@33:
"Americans hate
being admonished."
--@ tS's best Admonisher

it's what makes
you so Popular!

one reader's comment on 'Biden Warns That American Values Are Under Assault by Trump-Led Extremism' in today's nyt:

“Biden has pitted neighbors against each other, labeled half of Americans as fascist and tarnished any idea of his promise of ‘unity,’” Emma Vaughn, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement."

No, Ms. Vaughn, you're wrong.

It's been the Republican Party and the Rightwing Media that bear responsibility for dividing America.

Ever since your party embraced Newt Gingrich's playbook, ever since the advent of Conservative talk radio, and ever since the advent of Fox News and the rest of the Rightwing Media Cabal, your side has spewed lies and fomented divisiveness 24/7/365, for more than a generation.

But Americans are tired of your lies and your divisiveness, and for what you've done to our country.

We're waking up and speaking out, and we're going to take our country back from the brink of destruction that you've brought us to.

Paul-A; St. Lawrence, NY, today

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/politics/biden-speech-trump-maga.html#commentsContainer

we're getting a little Sick and Tired
of being so Sick and Tired RWNJs
our Patience begins to thin out

Not enough shaming in Biden's speech. Needs more references to GQP, lizard people, 5G, Zuckerberg, Hunter's laptop gaining sentience and firing a laser from space to change ballots, etc. lol

So, no infraction, really, until you are caught for the fifth time? That seems rather aimless, yes? Either offer free rides for everyone or make everyone pay before boarding. Am I crazy?

Hate to say this, but I think it’s pretty clear these days that you can’t count on civic responsibility from some/most. I’m thinking about the three-strikes laws around the country. In theory, you get in trouble with the law, and then you make every effort to keep your nose clean or you’re going to jail for a long time. One account comes to mind of a guy who committed two serious crimes, then got life for lifting a package of batteries from a drug store. He was well aware of possible consequence, and still. So even the threat of life imprisonment isn’t going to keep some from continuing their naughty ways.

If you don’t have a toll booth, ain’t nobody gonna stop and pay the dollar.

And by the way, I’m probably beating a dead horse (a terrible, regrettable idiom), but civic responsibility isn’t just something white people can afford, it helps everybody. Makes life easier for all kinds of people. And the absence of it marks the beginning of a community’s deterioration.

Have a splendid Labor Day weekend, everyone. The sun is trying to melt us all here in Los Angeles. Where the fuck is fall?

@3
No, Biden's speech was not a failure.
If the protester had the right to heckle Biden, Biden had the right to say what he thought of 'MAGA Republicans'.

@23 OWG,

"I ask why they voted for Obama twice and then voted for Trump twice. And then I shut up and listen."

I'd be genuinely curious to learn what you hear upon listening. What exactly was it about Obama's tenure that would cause someone to pivot a full 180 degrees and vote Trump? He (Barack, of course) occupied the office with as much class and dignity as pretty much anyone I can recall, and the most notable events to have transpired during his presidency were the granting of healthcare to millions of poor and uninsured Americans, and the ordering of the strike that killed Bin Laden. What exactly are the gripes of these people?

Honestly, I'm highly skeptical of the notion that there's all that many Obama/Trump voters out there. Far more prevalent I would assume would be people who'd long abstained from voting until they saw the office helmed by a black man, then were energized to support an overtly racist fuckwit who'd restore some "honor" to the country following such a travesty.

@43: What's the difference between 2012 & 2016? Facebook.

@43 I don't know how common Obama/Obama/Trump/Trump really is but I have run across it repeatedly during my little two year "mission." That may have to do with the people that sit down to talk about it - they are all vaxxed or the conversation doesn't happen. They chose to get the jab and that's something that we talk about. To the extent there is a common thread in the way that they talk about their votes, it may have something to do with Raindrop's idea about "optics." Obama and Trump convinced them that they were honest politicians and understood "people like them." Often political issues didn't seem to be particularly important. The folks that I talk to have opinions of course, but it didn't matter so much that their candidate disagreed. It was more important that they were seen and recognized. Obama and Trump were able to make a personal connection with them that Hillary Clinton, for example, was not. The Trumpsters really don't seem to realize how far down the path of authoritarianism they've gone. On the other hand, some laugh and say that "stop the steal" is just a joke designed to piss off the libs. They know that Trump lost fair and square.

@43

While I find the concept of Obama to Trump voters bizarre U think it lies with people who were left behind during the boom economy of the Obama years. The term is Land Rich and Cash Poor.
People like myself (so called knowledge workers) prospered greatly during the Obama years. Wages paid to us increased greatly and our liquid investments prospered as well. Many of us had the resources to go bargain hunting on Wall Street in 2009 and 2010 and then watch our nest eggs grow during the long Obama boom market.

But others didn’t fair as well. In the Midwest and Rust Belt people’s wealth wasn’t in assets like stocks and wages it was in the family home or plot of land.

While us coastal elites saw our net worth sky rocket they did not. They saw their real estate value drop in 2008 and never recover. They were underwater with their mortgages exceeding their property value.

They also don’t follow politics or keep current on the various isms. They saw politicians and media touting a boom economy that left them busted.

Then that famous guy from TV ran for President….

@35 …still a fucking idiot I see.

@29:

Either that or he's shooting rolls of paper towels at them from a modified t-shirt cannon...

Claiming you know people that voted for Obama twice and Trump twice is a fucking worthless anecdote, probable lie, and fig leaf.

It should be and it can be totally ignored.

@31:

It wasn't a larger crowd because most of those 74 mm either couldn't afford the bus ticket or else couldn't find Washington D.C. on a map if you pointed it out to them...

@47 Are you saying that hiring 100,000 cops isn’t fascistic? Or are you just here to troll?

@43 & @49: JD Vance and Bernie Sanders know all about that constituency. It's folks who are are sick and tired of the corporate dems. They want progressives or populism.