[OFFICIAL] Democratic National Convention 2020 thread

Can we do a tally of who @'ed each other more? Because I'm pretty sure you would win. So kinda lacking in self-awareness here.

 

There is a way out of poverty. I lived it. It is definitely easier to stay in it. You are doomed if you catch a felony. I have empathy for those people but they aren't blameless when it escalates to felonious crimes.

 

You are "@os triggered" and need to check your pulse and med dosage.

 

Related:

 

Lol, like we’re gonna hear about any major policy at the RNC...

it will be more talk of the “radical left,” antifa, anarchists, marxists, and pandering to white fear while trying to incite a culture war...basically the same BS we’ve been seeing for months as Trump has used Twitter and briefings to campaign for a 2nd term

I’m surprised they’re not having Diamond and Silk on there as speakers...Trump could ask them to “do a little routine” like he did back in 2016 as if they were some modern day minstrel show

 

This captures it perfectly.

When you hear about violence in Chicago and things like "Chiraq" it is all in a very small area of the city (4-5 neighborhoods) that are attached together and are essentially segregated from the rest of the city. For the last 100 years there has been an understanding between the citizens of the city, the police and the people that live in these neighborhoods...... the crime and the people in the ghetto have to stay in the ghetto. They can sell drugs and shoot each other..... but they stray even a block away and there will be hell to pay and the cops can do whatever they want for punishment without consequence.

The wealthiest part of Chicago (where the riots have happened) is walking distance from the ghetto. Yet historically there has been no crime in these wealthy areas. In fact there is very little crime in Chicago outside of these neighborhoods. You can walk downtown at midnight drunk and nothing will happen to you. The police keep these areas of the city safe and nice.

The police for their part only solve 15-20% of the murders in the ghetto, but 75% in the nicer areas.The level of corruption in the Chicago police department is staggering. However it is over looked because the officers make sure the consumer and business districts are safe and places like Trump Tower have no violence or gang members. The poor adults in the ghetto get on the rail each morning to go work in the wealthy areas, and each night they get back on the rail and come home through corridors where the gangs agree to not harm or rob them.

These ghetto neighborhoods are 98-99% black and the residents will not go outside their apartments after dark during the week. You hear about shootings on the weekends because everyone in the neighborhood ventures out for block parties. Gang members drive around looking for rival gang members and shoot into crowds or look for a drunk or high gang member walking home. Each street or block has a different gang so it is common for there to be shootings at gas stations in these neighborhoods.

Now most of the gang members are 10-17 years old. Starting around 18-19 you begin seeing less because they are all either dead, in jail or a lucky few have joined the military or moved out. Most stay because their grandma's and mom's and family live in these ghetto neighborhoods.

The quality of education is horrendous. The schools have gang members by the 4th grade. The middle and high schools encompass many streets or blocks of students which means you have upwards of 20 gangs in a high schools and there are beatings, shootings and stabbings in the schools. As of last year some of the high schools did not have AC and some had water and sewer leaks. The only employment options in the neighborhoods are fast food places. So most of the time people have to look outside the area they work for a job. There is rampant discrimination against those from the neighborhoods. If you are black applying for a service job in downtown Chicago the assumption is you are from Garfield Park or EW and trash.

Some of the housing has been rebuilt and is actually quite nice. However the residents are still in poverty, with a high concentration of people so it causes problems. Gun ownership is extremely high. The police do not get involved unless there is a shooting so the areas are controlled by 16-20 year old gang members. The top employer is drug dealers where a kid can make 4-5 times what he would make working at McDonald's.

Drive by shootings are extremely common with innocent pedestrians often getting hurt. The community used to rely upon the church as a form or civic anchor but that has become less popular with time. You will notice that there are very few males between 25-40 in these neighborhoods. All the males are teenagers or younger. There are some men over 50, but they likely make up 15-20% of the males you see. Why are there so few men? Because they are all in jail, dead from gang violence or if they were lucky, moved away.

The role models are usually rappers that are in their early 20's that they know, that have record labels and moved away (they have to move or will be killed) or gang members that are martyred after death or in prison.

The young people that live in these areas have almost no interaction with anyone outside the neighborhoods. The interactions that they have with white people are either policemen or prosecutors......... Sometime watch a police investigation of a shooting in Chicago. The city sends 20-25 officers and officials, almost all white to the scene. Sometimes the police cover up the body, sometimes they do not. They are not somber in anyway, often they are hanging out with other officers they are friendly with which angers local residents. Then pictures are taken and 85% of the time no one is ever arrested for the murder. Rumors of which gang did it get passed around, and score cards are kept like old west gun slinger's. Young rappers and gang banger's (usually the same in drill rap music) get reputations based on their body count, and as the legends spread those same kids become targets for death from other gangs.

These kids are literally raised by the street......... and many of them are smart enough to know it isn't like that everywhere....... so no, they don't give a **** is Gucci or Ralph Lauren is mad at property damage from looting. The fact that they are going into the wealthy areas is a break through because before that would have been a big "no no".

 

I agree with this, and the tone was regrettably doused in drummed up emotion. "Clunker," from the column's title doesn't really match acceptable and workmanlike, but whatever. It definitely did remind us all (if we needed reminding) why her primary campaign fizzled.

 

Spoiler: This is where the protests/riots are... the wealthiest part of Chicago

Spoiler: This is the Austin neighborhood where many of the looters live. It is less than 5 minutes from the richest part of Chicago

Spoiler: This is a break down of the crime rate in Chicago and why there are riots

Chicago is the most segregated city in America and it is really two separate cities. The poor part of the city is 98% black, unemployment is over 40%. The murder rate is 25-30 times as high as the other part of Chicago. The wealthy part of Chicago has almost no crime. The black population is almost 0% and the poverty rate is 5%. The 5% poverty rate is mostly a result of section 8 housing, with residents that have been carefully selected.

 

I didn't think her speech was bad, it was clearly done with the purpose of avoiding any controversy. Kamala Harris' best attribute as a politician is when she is live and under pressure and unscripted or when she is attacking someone else.

 

That's where you and the rest of your liberal cohorts are dead wrong.

Nothing at all that Trump has done policy wise has negatively affected our way of life , in fact its been quite the opposite.

Pre covid the vast majority were doing significantly better than they were 4 years prior. It took a global pandemic to slow that economy and .... the markets are still doing leaps and bounds better than they were when your boy was running the show.

 

Thanks for sharing. I've done some reading on different inner city livelihoods, I grew up when gangsta rap was big, watched quite a few of the movies, met some former gang members after they had left jail when they came through school to try to sell their book. Also read some books from former gang members from South Central that were caught...and of course watched the Wire which led me to the book Homicide among others.

What you describe is almost exactly what's described in those books: both non-fiction and fiction. It's not just the level of hopelessness, not just the level of fear, but the utter lack of empathy that anyone seems to have for anyone born into those situations. The chance of getting out is just about the same as winning the lottery for many of them..it's so unrealistic so they just try to survive...even though the deck is completely stacked against them.

And yet, I know people and have been in conversations where people say it's their own fault...they do it to themselves. Or you hear sayings like "they should try to do better" or "why don't they just get a job." The people saying those things have never had to imagine what that type of life is like and don't want to...don't want to imagine that this could be happening in their great country. Of course, they don't bother to drive anywhere near those parts of the country and will gladly warn others not to travel there...like actual human beings don't live there.

You're right, the complete lack of empathy towards other Americans in this country is a sad state of affairs in this country.

 

I visited Chicago often when I lived in Iowa. Took the train with my friends from Arlington Heights to downtown. Back then, you had to use this antiquated system called 4-1-1 (or area code-555-1212) for information, do you remember it?

All the information operators were young black females. I was appalled at the level of education. I had to spell the simplest words for them, and even after spelling the words, they weren't following me. "Cineplex Odeon." Pause. "C-i-n-e-p-l-e-x." Pause. "O-d-e-o-n. On McAllister Street." Pause. "M-c-A-l-l-" And so on. I'd give it, redial, go through the same process with another young lady.

Down the car(riage?) I'd hear another dude going through the same thing, trying to get the 4-1-1.

I say this not to judge or ridicule (although it was frustrating as hell) but rather to underscore how poor environment and education not only affect what you learn, but how your brain develops. It's sad. And obviously not confined to one race or whatever, but in the inner city, it's damned bad. And sad. Some people want that to improve one day. Others smirk and side-glance at each other, a "what do you expect?" sort of attitude.

 

I wish I could copy the news from these recent articles about why the stock market is so high despite the pandemic. (I'm not paying to have the news.) It isn't because of your boy, although maybe you can find something off the WSJ opinion page to suit you.

If your boy had swallowed a bitter pill and dealt with the coronavirus at the beginning when he was being warned (January) and actually acted more forcefully when it still would have mattered (February, March, April, May, oh, June, hmn, July, now, tomorrow), the economy would be in better shape now because we'd have got a better handle on it (much like South Korea, although ours is a more complicated nation than theirs; and we sure don't like to be told, "No, don't do that.")

But you dudes see Trump through some kind of rose-colored prism. Or is it orange? How many more Americans does he get to kill before you proclaim him Jesus Returned? Or did that already happen?

 

The quality of education in the inner city part of Chicago is terrible. The teachers that teach in those schools are paid more money because no one is willing to do it. As a result many of the teachers are motivated by money or in some cases they are teachers that have been reprimanded and sent to these schools. The buildings in many places are in terrible shape and old. Couple that with attendance being up and down and little parental involvement because it is typically a single parent and they usually are working from early in the morning until late at night.

It has gotten marginally better largely because of the social media. Some of the younger people from those areas learn grammar from social media and the people they communicate with online. However that is a double edged sword too because most of the killings are prompted by social media as well. A teenage kid will go to twitter and insult another kid from his class two or three streets over and it ends with a drive by shooting. There is no fear of punishment because most of them expect to die or go to jail and they know that if they are smart the chance of being caught is small.

I used to get a lot of looks when I would go to these areas of town and talk to the people that live there. When I was younger they all thought I was there to buy drugs or worked for the government. Now I mostly go with my friend and employee and we both are big guys that stick out. Between the two of us is over 13 feet so people remember us. These kids for the most part are really good people and the adults are almost all great.

 

Which voice is worse to listen to AOC or Kamala Harris? is the real question

honestly they both are kinda attractive but their voices need serious help. Dear lore

 

A positive story and I'm glad you shared it.

Maybe when they see you they think it's George Clooney from that one episode of "E.R." when he delivers that kid's medicine (on foot) into the inner city?