I quit

[DirtDawg]

Sitting out enjoying the birds, my coffee, pipe and dog, I heard a large noise fifty or so feet away. Then some male grunting, whooping and laughter.
My next door neighbor, a fireman who works odd hours and arrives home at even odder hours full of caffeine, so yeah, probably another early morning BBQ/drunk fest with his buddies or something.

Then hammering on metal sounds. OK, now I am interested. He just bought a huge anvil, over seven hundred pounds. Took four guys to unload it. KOOL find!

BUT, they were putting away their hammer when I approached, because they had just been issued these brand new, air powered pepper guns. Basically it is a paintball gun of very high quality and power, but it shoots little latex balls of pepper powder instead of paint.
They just got four for each truck company (six guys) and are supposed to take them home and become familiar before training begins today.
Of course this is what we all cackled about for the next half hour.

Another sign of our times, though. The fact that the fire department feels the need to be able to disperse crowds in order to do their jobs being taken so lightly speaks volumes.

Doesn't arming them move them from "Heroes" to "Oppressors" in one swoop?

One way of looking at it and why I made the comment.
The firemen normally do not go armed, since they are supported by a police presence, which is WELL armed.
They laughed at this "little"  gun, though. It is just smaller by about 25% than an AR type carbine and thirty round magazine.

The ladder hose guy said he already has one of the most powerful weapons in town with his hose cannon.
 

[FourAceDeal]

Sitting out enjoying the birds, my coffee, pipe and dog, I heard a large noise fifty or so feet away. Then some male grunting, whooping and laughter.
My next door neighbor, a fireman who works odd hours and arrives home at even odder hours full of caffeine, so yeah, probably another early morning BBQ/drunk fest with his buddies or something.

Then hammering on metal sounds. OK, now I am interested. He just bought a huge anvil, over seven hundred pounds. Took four guys to unload it. KOOL find!

BUT, they were putting away their hammer when I approached, because they had just been issued these brand new, air powered pepper guns. Basically it is a paintball gun of very high quality and power, but it shoots little latex balls of pepper powder instead of paint.
They just got four for each truck company (six guys) and are supposed to take them home and become familiar before training begins today.
Of course this is what we all cackled about for the next half hour.

Another sign of our times, though. The fact that the fire department feels the need to be able to disperse crowds in order to do their jobs being taken so lightly speaks volumes.

Doesn't arming them move them from "Heroes" to "Oppressors" in one swoop?

One way of looking at it and why I made the comment.
The firemen normally do not go armed, since they are supported by a police presence, which is WELL armed.
They laughed at this "little"  gun, though. It is just smaller by about 25% than an AR type carbine and thirty round magazine.

The ladder hose guy said he already has one of the most powerful weapons in town with his hose cannon.
 

Whever you mix a militarised force with a protesting mob, it's only a matter of time until something very bad happens.  #BloodySunday

[DirtDawg]

I tend to agree with that.

[odeon]

Bad things are already happening.

[ALL LIVES MATTER]

Surprising so many people terrified of infecting Covidand wanting to be locked down indefinitely & to stay in their homes and never come out for fear of infecting or being infected. Now everyone is out and looting and not giving a damn about social distancing. Guess Covid is over

African-American Black people are not similar to the Aboriginal people.
Black Americans follow a story closer to the Convicts and Aboriginals follow a story closer to the Native Americans.

[Pyraxis]

Yeah it is kind of ironic.

I've heard people say that the protests are important enough that it's worth risking covid, but there seem to be an awful lot more who are just saying screw it, as if the numbers weren't still high.

[Phoenix]

Changing your username to All Lives Matter is a shit thing to do, Al.

[rock hound]

Changing your username to All Lives Matter is a shit thing to do, Al.

Agreed!    

 Your comparing apples to oranges to bananas.  The african americans were brought here as slaves, now it seems that they are being hunted down like animals, aborigines were also enslaved as well as hunted down like animals, native americans were enslaved originally and then hunted down like animals.  A lot of similarities, and not many differences.  I remember back in the 70's, my friend Fred, spoke of an Australian policy of keeping Australia WHITE.  And he agreed with it, one of many contradictions of the man, I knew!      So how did that work out?  How did apartheid work out? 

The histories are there, I've read many of them and it's sickening and horrifying about the many forms of white privilege over the centuries and the horror stories of white on white, black on black, asian on asian atrocities.  I could go on and on.  But I'll stop here with this one thought.

THOSE WHO FORGET HISTORY ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT! 

[rock hound]

Ok, that was a bit wordy, so I'll simplify it.  In this country, "All lives Matter" has become associated with the groups that align with trumpolini.  As in "All lives Matter"........if your white!  "If your black or otherwise, they don't care!"   White Power, errr, PRIVILEGE is all they care about.
 
Have a nice day!

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

"All Lives Matter" is a racist dog whistle.

If someone says "Save The Rainforest" we know that they don't mean "fuck all other types of forest". We don't insist that they say "Save All Forests".

[odeon]

I was just wondering what Al would say about the current mess. I guess I know, now. Bigots will be bigots.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

I strongly support the protesters.

But nobody who thought the virus was real suddenly thinks it has gone away now, like Trump said it would in April. The protests are a disaster for containment and, barring a major miracle, the 2nd wave late this year is gonna be hell.

[Phoenix]

That's the only reason I didn't go to my local protest although the police made sure to give it enough space to accommodate all of the people and still help them distance.

[Icequeen]

I strongly support the protesters.

But nobody who thought the virus was real suddenly thinks it has gone away now, like Trump said it would in April. The protests are a disaster for containment and, barring a major miracle, the 2nd wave late this year is gonna be hell.

That.

Nothing local really here, I'm deep in Trump country close to the WV line...some protests in Pittsburgh.

SO opened the bar Friday after the county got the green light. Trying to enforce social distancing in a bar is like herding cats. Not to mention half of the population here will NOT wear masks.

Thankfully we're pretty rural and the cases have been very few, but aware that could change in a heartbeat with how this is reported to spread...it's worrisome to say the least.

My diabetic MIL with COPD is chomping at the bit to go out to eat and back to her marathon shopping trips.

I'm afraid the next two months might morph into one hell of a shitshow.

[Phoenix]

Very true. Yesterday we got: Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has issued a clear warning that Canada could see “explosive growth” in new cases if reopening is not done with caution.

Ontario is too eager right now