E1G1, it is not uncommon for drivers to wait to pull over until they reach a safe, well lit area. In fact, I have encouraged my daughters to do exactly that. That is not new advice and should not have alarmed the officer. As long as he didn't speed up, make several turns or take other evasive actions indicative of a fleeing suspect, that should not result in escalation from a missing tag to a felony stop. If other factors were present supporting a felony stop, by golly, at least do it RIGHT. Conflicting confusing commands are dangerous and I can't blame the alt. for being hesitant to move. The young officer was afraid, of both the driver and the other officer. The older offer was also afraid, and overcompensating with aggression. No excuse fir either of them. Poorly trained cowards. No excuse fir the department either.

Mad scientist, More often than not, I "back the blue". This is not one of those times. I don't know any police officers who would disagree with Gunslinger. There is NO excuse for the way these officers behaved. I am appalled, disgusted and embarrassed for the profession. These guys were incompetent cowards. It is equally appalling that they are still employed. I hope the Lieutenant wins his lawsuit.

I believe that a great deal of the partisan divide over getting vaccinated is exaggerated media myth, polarizing clickbait. You can get a telephone survey to come out any way you want. I'm in a very conservative area and everyone I know is getting vaccinated. It's a personal decision and when all is said and done its not going to split down party lines like they think.

My daughter is severely immunocompromised and takes medication that will likely nullify the vaccine. She is very vulnerable and dependent on herd immunity. I desperately want everyone to get vaccinated for her sake, but I also don't think it is ok to compel it at this point when all we have is an emergency approval based on short term trials. My daughters doctor recommended against it and is not getting herself vaccinated. She is a well respected expert (oncology) and her arguments were reasoned. She is waiting for other vaccines under development to come out. We did our own research and believe it is *probably* safe, but what if it turns out not be? We all decided to get vaccinated, including my daughter even though it probably won't be effective for her. I don't believe we can force that decision on others at this point in development.

"Except abortion doesn't kill people"
No point in us arguing about about whether a fetus is "people". If you like, I'll go with "abortion prevents certain people from being born" and the argument is the same. And those certain people are disproportionately Black. My point was that the argument that Republicans are racist allies with the Coronavirus because it kills more of the "right people" makesj about as much sense as saying Democrats are racist. allies with abortion because it prevents more of the "right people" from being born. Both arguments are divisive partisan nastiness.

"Apply this same logic to corporate bailouts and let me know what happens."
you are correct, we agree, imagine that.

"Couldn't you say the same thing about the Nazis?" I'm no expert, but i imagine that not all German soldiers were a party to war crimes, or even aware of the extermination of Jews. They didn't have Google to analyze the inner workings of Nazi party or CNN to tell them what was going on at Auschwitz. Many were young boys, raised on propoganda, followed orders and fired back at the people they believed were firing at them. I'm not referring to Ranking members of the Nazi party or those engaging in known war crimes. They should not ehonored in any way and I think history has done a good job of sorting out the difference.

"Or the idiots of 1/6/21?" I don't see any equivalency here, but no. There is no excuse for anyone who attacked any officer or person or entered the Capitol through broken doors and windows. They knew exactly what they were doing. Different times, different rules.

#176 Well said.
Here's an example of two families I know with similar family income:

The Jones's lived modestly, took no vacations, drove used cars, lived modestly so their kids could graduate from a state school without debt
The Smith's spent their disposable income on vacations, new cars, boats. Kid took out big loans to go to Duke

Their choice. You can debate which kid is going to turn out better rounded and more successful, but all is fair.

UNTIL the Govt decides to forgive college debt. The government has just given the Smiths new cars, a boat, vacations and a top education for their kid and told the Jones's they have to pay for it with what they have left over.

This is the only name I have ever posted under. It has been a while.

Once upon a time this was good place to find adult conversation to discuss and debate the issues with intelligent people with viewpoints that differ from mine. I came back recently to stay occupied while recovering from surgery. Some interesting discourse exists, and I thank those adult participants. Unfortunately, the site appears to be dominated by grown men (maybe) who call themselves Liberals but behave like nasty little 13 year old boys, alternating between circle jerking and pissing on other nasty little 13 year old man/boys. I'm disappointed and as one of you "probably won't last long". Celebrate that if you like.

Maybe they could move all the Confederate statues to Stone Mountain. Add educational content to the displays and convert what is now a theme park to a solemn place for reflection and understanding of our history lest we repeat it.

The monuments that exclusively honor soldiers killed in war (rather than their leaders) should remain in their communities of origin. Most front-line soldiers of their time did not have slaves and did not make an active choice to support slavery, or an understanding that was what the war was about. They were following orders and fighting to protect their families and homes. The soldiers themselves should not be dishonored any more than those who fought in any other "bad" war. All war is bad. The idea that we can judge people, and incidents from history by today's standards with 20/20 hindsight is ill advised. Take away their glory, but don't erase the history.

#12 Depends on what time frame you are referring to. In the early weeks COVID was restricted to wealthy world travelers. The middle class who had not left their locales felt safe. As it spread, killing elderly sparing youth, the millenials started calling it the "Boomer Remover" and did not alter their lifestyles. As the general population began to embrace the seriousness, several more factions did their part to help spread. Places of worship (of all genres) who believed God would protect them. Protestors who gathered in enormous groups, believing they were excused from quarantine because their causes were more important than the 500,000 people whose lives were lost to COVID. It has hit minority communities hard due to employment patterns, higher density housing, healthcare disparities and yes, behavioral choices in some cases. There is plenty of blame to go around and I think deliberate racism as a causative factor is a stretch.

If you want to throw out the claim that Republicans are allies of the Coronavirus because it "kills more of the right people", apply that same line of reasoning to Democrats and the world's leading cause of death, abortion. Is that why the Democrats are allies of abortion, because it kills more of the right people (the Black abortion rate is 4X the white abortion rate). Of course not.

Doctor, the first time you call a woman a "----" without your shroud of anonymity your career in academia will be over. Time to start studying for your CDL.

Enlightening. The interesting part was studying JPW's extensive vocabulary. The "Doctor" called FV an "idiot" 9 times, "illiterate" 3 times, "worthless" twice, "dumbass", "ignorant", "stupid", "awkward" and "moron once". He flexed his prowess with more complex insults like "slumlord", "mundane" and "unimaginative". Sixteen times the Doctor referred to FV as "__________" so we must imagine how cleverly descriptive those names must have been. He wins the award for "numbnuts". I hadn't heard that one since 7th grade, but apparently he learned that while studying for his PhD.

Cuing up the trolls, me saying, "I've never seen" is not the same as "it's never happened". Bring on the links. I'm sure it has, but I don't think open carry demonstrators actually shooting people is "a widespread.problem".

Cops assume everyone is carrying so at least with open carrying they know which hand to watch. When I see someone open carrying for no apparent purpose or direction I give them a wide berth because I know they are a little unhinged but I don't find them intimidating. I've never seen an incident of an open carry proponent actually shooting someone. When I see someone open carrying and moving swiftly with some real purpose, that is the time to worry about an active shooter, but then again....at least you get some warning. Not so with the guy with the AK in a violin case.

#17 Open carry laws vary from state to state, some wide open, others more restricted. I think Michigan is pretty wide open. Just curious, wondering why you have a 30-06 if you don't hunt? Heirloom?

Sounds like here is one trying to change that but y'all just want to tear him down

Boogaloos are definitely not Trump Supporters. Any Boogaloo at the insurrection were there to assault police and promote general anarchy, not support Trump. The Media likes to call the Boogaloo right wing extremists, but they have elements of leftist extremism as well and don't fall neatly into either category.

A big factor in the assessments is that in higher income neighborhoods, properties are appreciating in value. In lower income neighborhoods, home values are depreciating, or appreciating very slowly relative to market values. If assesments are not updated regulatly, assessed values remain the same and this inversion of valuation relative to the market is inevitable.

Correction, the troll was correct, Harris county is Houston, which is still a swing county in a red state.

#10, I didn't get to pick. The article is about real estate taxes. That's what I am talking about. What are YOU trying to bring to this conversation?
12, what partisan lie is that? My points come from the article, not my personal opinions.
#14 no I wasn't suggesting that is where this practice ends. I thought this thread was about the referenced article here, not the entire universe
#15 I didn't "find three examples if you kinda squint." I merely quoted the article, the one you evidently didn't bother to read.
#17-18 St. Louis county has been blue since 1943. Harris county is not Houston. Try again. More third grade name cvalling from the peanut gallery. Ssssss.
#21 so Snoofy takes a hit and run partisan dig, Miranda refutes it but it is Miranda who turned it into a partiisan issue? To you fools EVERYTHINg is a partisan issue, you just can't handle it when someone proves you are wrong.

I hadn't "hoped" for anything. This isnt about me, it is about truth. Snoofy and others are using this story to demonize Republicans and they are way off base, because the areas cited as being regressive are SOLIDLY in blue territory, solid blue cities in solid blue counties in solid blue states. and have been so for decades if not forever. That's the hard hitting part. Chicago, Detroit, ST. Louis, New York City, Delaware. That is the main part of the story, it is in fact Democrats keeping the rich rich and the poor poor in these areas.

As for the places that are "showing equity is achievable", Maricopa County is solid red in a red state. Harris and Wake Counties are swing counties in red states. They didn't mention Jacksonville, where the lower 30% pay no taxes at all. There are plenty of others, but that's enough to see a pattern which is opposite of what Snoofy said, don't you think?

Snoofy, they have look up REAL ID, which standardized ID requirements for states. Now tell me, why haven't the liberals taken steps to help these millions of potentially disenfranchised people get an ID card, which would open the doors to a myriad of other helpful programs and services for these folks? Because they don't really care about helping these people get services or to the polls, they just want to use them as pawns to perpetuate the faux "Voter ID is racist" narrative to demonize Republicans.

Not gonna waste my time with Yav due to his abusive language on other threads.

Danforth, My argument focuses on the future, not the past 20 years. Read my post again. I agreed with you that an operation like that would collapse quickly, but the damage will be done by then, short term in that tainted election (how do you even quantify and remedy that?) and long term in destroying public confidence in the electoral system once people see how easy it was to pull off.

The Russian/Chinese mail in voting scheme? Entirely possible for that to happen and escape detection without changes to existing law. The 30+ percent of people who never vote would not notice if someone or something voted for them.

More name calling. I can't wait till in person school starts up again so you guys can get back to middle school.