Cattress 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (173)

• On the post: Six Republican AGs Try To Pretend OAN Was ‘Censored’ By DirecTV

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2022 @ 10:04pm

  I have seen my petite but fierce younger female cousin boot out disorderly drunks from a bar she was merely a bar tender at. I have seen a number of instances where managers, staff and owners have removed problematic patrons of bars, clubs, restaurants, without any security guard in sight. I live in Delaware. My ex got fall down drunk- and he was over served despite my request that he not be served any more alcohol, and we were asked to leave when he fell and pulled a chair from another table down trying to get up. The manager didn't even want me to wait until the check arrived, just wanted his drunk ass gone. This was a fancy Italian restaurant. This was a privately owned public place, with requirements for handicapped parking and restrooms. No security guards or bouncers, just host/hostess. In Delaware, a fairly progressive state. I don't know where you got that dumb idea about who can can kick a problematic visitor out of a privately owned public place.

• On the post: The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2022 @ 04:01pm

  So if you are a teacher where my kid goes to school, and read or hear you say some disgusting bigoted opinions, I can't go to the school board, administration, PTA or town hall and speak up about how i and other concerned parents think those disgusting ideas disqualify you from working with little kids, and your employment should be terminated? Must I be forced to engage with someone who thinks I am undeserving of human dignity, possibly furthering trauma, so that a troll can troll some more and then pretend that I was the one not willing to have a candid discussion? Am I to blame that you hold these awful ideas and can't read the room on what polite society has decided isn't acceptable, and have never made the effort to understand why? How much degrading treatment do others have to tolerate in your mind, before a bigot is shown the door, and if necessary given a shove out it?

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2022 @ 10:51pm

  You want to dance around semantics of "defund" because you think there isn't a broad consensus about the concept. It's not abolish, never has been. It's not even about punishing cops! It's about using some of an ever growing budget to fund public safety and crime reduction by adding qualified professionals to do things that never should have been put on the police in the first place. It's about creating a stronger social safety net, trying different solutions than incarceration. Police should be showing up for crimes in progress, solving reported crimes that have victims, pulling dangerous as in aggressive or intoxicated drivers off the road. No more policing for profit. No more hassling people for expired tags, window tint. No more arresting little kids. And it would do a world of good if drugs could be decriminalized. The reason that violence surrounds the dealing of drugs is because of the risk of going to prison, which has driven up the price and made it so profitable for those willing to take the risk. It's not hard to understand by looking back at why prohibition of alcohol was ultimately rolled back- and only alcohol because it was harming the white community, and the white man was who profited on legal sale of alcohol anyway. oh, and legal pharmaceutical opioids should be regulated to keep the price down, no screwing with the market, ensure that the drug makers who lied about the dangers make no profit off the new system. And sell it to people without a prescription, along with the other controlled substances. And sex work must also be decriminalized so that consenting adults can create a safe market for buying and selling. Vices that have sunlight make it difficult to be criminally exploited. Yes, be able to call the cops if someone tries to rip you off! And the cops must know their place and treat a prostitute, a coke dealer no different than the rich white folks upset about a black family at the same community pool. Also, cops lie. The calculator story, I'm not buying it. Did the guy also clip coupons to maximize his $950 or however much? GTFOH with that bullshit. This is not an ignorant group around here. We recognize your little games, bad argument tactics, and badge licking induced blindness to the reality of policing. Go find out about shit like race riots, redlining, Daughter's of the Confederacy, Cointel Pro. Go read some stuff at The Marshall Project, the Innocence Project, Propublica, the Intercept, Muckrakers.

• On the post: Cops Who Sued Journalist For Reporting On Their Poor Handling Of A Rape Case Lose Their Defamation Lawsuit

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2022 @ 03:41pm

  You are trying to "science-ify" your overly romanticized ideas of an embryo and fetus. Humanity is so much more than unique DNA, the basic processes of the body. You people like to use phrases like pre-born babies to invoke emotional ideas of smiling infants suffering unconscionable destruction. Of course, that's not even remotely accurate. And it all comes back to this idea that women have fundamentally evil intentions or cannot think for themselves, that feminism equals misandry, that accusations of rape should be looked at with great skepticism because women are trying to usurp men's rightful position at the top of the patriarchy. The Catholic church was actually more supportive of abortion before it was against it simply because it was about harm reduction. And the entire "pro-life" movement comes from male doctors wanting to take over the female dominated midwife business, as midwives also used to advised on abortion, birth control, a long with white folks who didn't want black women to have control over how many and when they gave birth because then she could spend more time competing in the workforce, build financial security for her family, and could not be controlled due to dependence on welfare. Save your out of context Martha Sanger quotes, I understand that she held views of her time that are wrong by today's standard, but she did actually believe that large families overburdened women and prevented them from improving their standard if living, and improving the chances of survival of the children she already had.

• On the post: Cops Who Sued Journalist For Reporting On Their Poor Handling Of A Rape Case Lose Their Defamation Lawsuit

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2022 @ 01:26pm

  First, no one should ever be forced or coerced into having an abortion, or a baby, or forced to give a baby up for adoption, or keep a baby they do not wish to raise. These are private personal decisions belonging solely to the mother. And the vast majority of women do not regret having an abortion, they regret the circumstances that put them in the situation. Almost all women report relief is how they feel afterwards. You don't know what you are talking about and therefore have nothing to contribute to the conversation.

• On the post: Cops Who Sued Journalist For Reporting On Their Poor Handling Of A Rape Case Lose Their Defamation Lawsuit

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2022 @ 12:55pm

  Stop it. Just fucking stop it. Go find some men's right group and cry in your soup there about me too. I am SICK of this constant need for some mediocre underachieving douchebag to pipe up during a discussion which reflects the reality of a violent crime which only a tiny portion is ever even reported, and point out that there are false accusations, as if they have been shown to have a statistical significance in reported cases. And then this small minded loser, who is butt hurt that women finally have started to feel empowered to speak up about the crimes they have survived, while suffering in silence for so, so long. GTFOH What's especially irritating about this little toad popping up here with his stupid little insight, is how in this case, the victim was not believed, and in fact accused of being the real criminal. Guess what one of the routine assorted excuses was when police were questioned about why they had hundreds of untested rape kits collecting dust in the closet? If you guessed that they didn't believe that the victim was actually a victim, ding ding ding! While my particular case of reporting a crime I suffered and being accused of lying and ending up having to spend a year fighting a charge for filing a false incident report pales, and is magnitudes less than what this woman suffered, what I went through upended my life, caused most of my hair to gray, occupied my thoughts day in and day out. I lost my job and had no idea how to answer the criminal background questions when applying for new jobs. If you think the me too movement suddenly enabled women to make a false reports to police then you are stupid. Shit, being a victim makes you cooperate and answer police questions because they are supposed to be helping. Unfortunately, cops like easy arrests, so in addition to all the social ramifications of making a report- especially against someone well known in the community, victims are at risk of going to jail. Looking at how women are treated when they speak up, which me too is merely a blip in time, why would make victims ever come forward? And there are a lot of male victims, and perpetrators walking around free to prey on more. Seriously, GTFOH with that garbage

• On the post: Ukrainian Soldier Moves To Trademark ‘Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself” Because Of Course

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2022 @ 07:40am

  Slightly off topic, but we love cartoons in my house, and Teen Titans Go is a favorite. They do episodes about mundane grown up topics like buying a rental property, how elite college education is a scam, and recently vs Trademark Troll https://youtu.be/IyermoGqvY8 I could only find this clip of the episode at the moment. The show is really clever,worth a watch

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2022 @ 06:37pm

  I'm a lifelong Delawarean, I have no say in CA law. I didn't get anything I want and I don't know who those patsies I acquired at some point even are. Obviously you didn't read the article in the Intercept that I linked, talking about the retaliation a couple whistleblower cops in Chicago suffered, that came from the top down and crossed different divisions. No response to the other recent or memorable cases of good cops suffering retaliation (even likely murder in Baltimore) for speaking up about a couple bad apples. Or the sexual assault of minors running rampant in the Explorers program. Must be those damn calls for a modicum of responsibility for their actions that are running the cops out. Oh and how dare we ask folks working with the public, often around vulnerable members of the public, actually cooperate with pandemic mitigation efforts, let's not forget how many cops are acting like jack asses over this tiny request. Since Prop 47 is only in CA, how do you explain homeless camps, drug addiction, crime spikes (that coincide with the pandemic) that plague other densely populated cities across the country? Or even not so densely populated areas, where there has been nothing but ever increasing police budgets (as have all those in CA)? Could the problems be more complex, deeply rooted in systemic racism and oppression of minority groups and women? Inescapable cycles of poverty exacerbated by criminalizing poverty? Surely some of these seem more plausible than whatever that garbage you heard or imagined about homeless folks using calculators for shoplifting (I mean, if you were a regular reader here you might actually know that the shoplifting stats haven't actually increased by any significance, and the matter is being pushed by big retailers that don't want to compete with e-commerce. Oh, didn't expect that red pill did ya) You think we can incarcerate our way out of complex social problems; you want to double down on policies that don't work and actively cause more harm. You choose not to understand what defunding actually means, or see the reality of systemic racism. You think you actually hold the moral high ground while dehumanizing people you know nothing about. And I'm self righteous?

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2022 @ 08:03pm

  My question should be 'why do you think that I, or anyone else here, would believe such a stupid claim' instead of where he got the stupid idea. I really am sick of that hero bullshit. And for fuck sake I'm so tired of hearing idiot "conservatives" appropriating the word "woke" and slinging it every, dripping with condescension, and such profound ignorance of what it really means. I try to expose myself to alternative viewpoints, even if they turn my stomach, and I read something in Conservative American, and quickly looked back over previous articles, and like 8/10 used the word woke in the title. It's like they think if they use it enough in such a mocking & ignorant, way that it makes racism less bad, or that being woke is worse than being racist.

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2022 @ 07:26pm

  If I fuck up in any part of my life I could die, hurt an innocent person, go to jail, face financial ruin. If I cause harm to another person at minimum I could be sued. I don't even have to have done anything wrong to end up in jail, or dead in jail, learned that lesson. And I don't know any job that let's employees fuck up to the degree of causing death, dismemberment, or an experience that results in another suffering PTSD, and keep my job and get protected from all civil and criminal liability. I certainly wouldn't keep my job if I just shoved customer complaints in a closet to be ignored for years and years. Seriously, how do you defend people who treated the crime of rape like annoying customers they didn't want to deal with? That's not a one off, that was hundreds of thousands of rape kits just ignored? And what about the hundreds of cases that have been over turned because of cops framing or coercing a false confession, which isn't even a fraction of a percent of times it's happened? And these are malicious actions, not mistakes. What about the Catholic church cares program that has allowed predator, incompetent, criminal, violent, abusive cops bounce around to new jobs and promotions like nothing ever happened after being caught for something serious happening? Gee, ever think a real deterrent to young people becoming cops is their experience in the young explorers club (looking at you Kentucky)? I'm not saying your Son and daughter in law are these bad people, or they turned a blind eye to awful things, or that you shouldn't be proud of them- they're your kids of course you should be proud. But to paint cops as essentially victims, or underdog heroes wrestling back the fall of society all on their own, it's just so wrong. It's wrong for so many reasons, and none of them are hypothetical like your ridiculous example of man in a wheelchair dying during arrest. The crimes, the brutality, the injustice at the hands of people whose job is the exact opposite, often for racist motivations. You think people who are supposed to uphold the law should be exempt from it, and have expectations lower than everyone else. Who you dehumanized as just snakes, and then have the gull to make jokes about dehumanizing people. Shame on you.

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2022 @ 06:28pm

  You just pissed all over the pilot program, which for it's limited scope and budget, is working well. So well that the city wants to expand it. AOC didn't come up with the concept of defunding the police, and it sounds like you are conflating that with her calls to abolish ICE. You know the difference, but that doesn't fit neatly into your war on cops, who are you going to call when there's a burglar if there's no police bullshit narrative. Wanna know what I want to see even more than defunding the police? Abolish collective bargaining for all law enforcement. I'm generally against public sector unions, but none more than cops. No more cop unions, all contracts void (except for retirement benefits already promised) and all legislation, like cops bill of rights (that shit is the antithesis of our constitution and enumerated rights) and special treatment for cops stricken as unconstitutional.

• On the post: Cops Have So Much Extra Military Gear They’re Giving It Away To Ukraine Freedom Fighters

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2022 @ 04:29pm

  Unfashionable? We aren't talking about acid washed jeans and jackets with shoulder pads. I get into this argument with my mom all the time, as she seems to believe that expiration dates and how old a product is, opened or not, are nothing to pay attention to, as apparently everything just lasts forever. Sure, some items do have a longer shelf life than what they are guaranteed for, but that is based on numerous variables. Exposure to sun, moisture, extreme temperatures, extreme dryness, plus dirt and oils that collect on the surface all affect how well any item will hold up. Kevlar vests don't come in seasonal Pantones "it" colors

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2022 @ 02:24pm

  Where did you get this idiotic idea firefighters wait for cops to make it "safe" before clearing a building and putting out the fire? Or paramedics for any situation that isn't an active shooting when they arrive? Colorado has a pretty successful experimental program that sends essentially professional social workers to address mental health & substance abuse calls, non emergency situations that were called into 911, things that involve the homeless. They don't need the cops to show up with them. And after seeing the SRO cower outside and do literally nothing to help victims or engage with the shooter, or even just identify and locate the shooter in the Florida school shooting, how do you reconcile with this notion of cops are heros bullshit?

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2022 @ 02:03pm

  You aren't even current/correct on your pathetic examples of the war on cops. Rolfe isn't being charged, has already been reinstated as a cop for almost a year now. And this is one of those cases where cops create unnecessary danger, risking their own safety. Brooks was drunk driver- not something I'm very sympathetic to because a friend of mine was killed by a repeat drunk driver- but he no longer posed a risk. The cops had his vehicle, had enough personal information that they could have just lel Brooks run. Could have shouted at him as he ran that he was just making the situation worse for himself, he was better off going to jail voluntarily. They could have gone to his home to arrest him the next day, or waited for him to try to get his vehicle back. Brooks wasn't a risk to anyone now that he wasn't behind the wheel. Potter's mistake ended the life of a young father who was practically still a kid himself. The reasons for pulling him over in the first place are highly questionable- taking in account what the trainee said, and the bullshit reasons they first cited to Wright. There were so many ways that danger could have been mitigated for the cops while also making clear to Wright that he had a warrant, and that the vehicle stuff they pulled him over for could be resolved after the warrant. The kid was clearly scared and confused, and it's entirely possible he had a legit reason he didn't show for a hearing. But Potter wanted to show the trainee how it's done and was too cocky to pay close attention to her actions. She's got a whopping 2 years and this young father is dead. And those 19 officers "following training", clearly weren't following their training because they fired bean bag munitions way too close and directly at people, causing brain damage to a young man in one case, and breaking a woman's jaw in another. Lots of complaints were lodged about violent suppression tactics, which so far haven't looked very favorable to cops. Pretty much always cops instigated, provoked, responded disproportionately and escalated the violence. Sure, there are some higher ups that should be accountable for sending an insufficient response to the actual crowd size, leaving them unprepared. Of course, if police brutality had actually been addressed the hundreds and thousands of times it occurred in the past, these protests wouldn't be so desperately emotionally charged. But cops don't want different training and won't get it. They refuse accountability, use their unions to manipulate the rules in their favor, cost cities billions in lawsuits while demanding more money and toys. They don't even want to let their training methods be evaluated, only the sanitized version.

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2022 @ 12:49pm

  Maybe you should look into how budget and spending are determined in IL, Lightfoot has tiny influence over spending policies, let alone an 80 million$ cut

• On the post: Performative Conservatives Are Mad That A Search Engine Wants To Downrank Disinformation

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2022 @ 09:52pm

  Down ranking does not equate removing the search results. The search engine isn't refusing you results about Ford products, but you might have to go through pages about Acura, BMW, Chevrolet, Dodge, first. The search engine has to figure out a useful way to present the results.

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2022 @ 10:23pm

  Of course no decent human would stay at Chicago PD, https://theintercept.com/series/code-of-silence/ The cops have been criminalized?

• On the post: Clarence Thomas Is Doing That Thing Again Where He Muses Ignorantly About Section 230 For No Damn Reason

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2022 @ 10:00pm

  I don't think the problem is that he he has become incompetent because of age or physical condition affecting his mental state. The problem is that his wife has barely ever had a grip on reality, and she has compromised his ability to rule impartially. Ginny Thomas is part of the Trump machine, and they are out for blood from social media giants for booting Trump off. In fact, I would argue that this particular instance of bitching about those evil social media giants is well calculated. SCOTUS denied a very sympathetic case, where facts are less relevant than emotions. Only monsters would let FB get away with profiting off of sex trafficking a minor, facts be damned right? And since some other know nothing with tax dollars to blow in Wisconsin is talking about decertifying 😂 2020 due to in part Zuckerberg get out the vote spending, it's not hard to see the connection. I don't think the framers of the Constitution foresaw such a polarized congress that the relief valves they built in couldn't handle.

• On the post: Minneapolis Cops Who Watched Officer Derek Chauvin Kill George Floyd Convicted On Federal Charges

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2022 @ 11:37pm

  So you think criminalizing poverty and addiction, so that all those awful "snakes", can be locked away out of sight is how modern society should deal with it's problems? I guess prisons do a really good job hiding what happens inside so it would make you boomers feel all warm and fuzzy not having to look at the problem. But the younger generations, we see our fellow human beings suffering. We see years of repeating the same failed tough on crime policies just making things worse and perpetuating inequality, reverberating through the generations. It's my friends, people I grew up with, my family. You know why prop 47 doesn't seem to work? Because the state didn't invest in recruiting the skilled social workers and arm them with resources. Because they failed to preempt the local zoning laws that keep housing from being built- like tiny home communities, prevent life saving methadone clinics from opening up, won't allow safe injection sites, that favor tax money sucking stadiums and polluting factories over grocery stores, small businesses, health clinics, green space and recreation areas and the housing of course. The state still hasn't done anything to improve successful reentry. All of this necessary investment/spending that could permanently improve living conditions for generations to come. Funny, those poor demoralized cops never once saw a budget cut. Their paychecks padded with overtime they may or may not have actually worked and pension checks always cleared, they don't have medical bills. There's no way your convincing me cops don't skim off of what the citizens forfeit simply because the cops deemed it was too much cash to carry, or drug sniffing dogs responded as trained. What you should be upset about is that while a 22year old kid, well father, was shot to death without fully understanding why he was even being arrested and Potter is going face as much as what a decade for her recklessness, that L.A. Sheriff's department has a god damned gang running free, with tats for killing citizens. Instead of crying about some imaginary victim losing faith in the system because the suspect (caught? You say the suspect was caught, oh that's rich) was charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony, you should be outraged at cops shoving rape kits by the thousands into closets (or even going into a college football locker room to warn the players to be careful of Mormon chicks, they are apt to claim rape to their pastor) and how that undercut victim's faith in the system. It is Squarely the fault of cops that so many people feel the cops are more likely to make the situation worse. Kids aren't sufficiently respectful, or boot licking, you can point your finger to those SRO pushing for a kid to be charged for exploiting herself, for cops hassling kids from the neighboring town riding bicycles without a license, or tasering teens for vaping out fucking doors. For every single case you got your panties in a wad because overly aggressive, reckless cops have had to face modicum of justice, I can bury you in countless injustices without scratching the surface, just within my life time. Oh, and a protestor you claim yelling that cops should kill themselves, or let's just go with Trump's idea of terror over pigs in a blanket chant, because that I know was actually said one time, SNOWFLAKES! For fucks sake, we have heard cops making fun of people dying, laughing about hitting people with rubber bullets, and sharing jokes about running over protesters or even breaking granny's arm, and yet I'm supposed to feel bad that protestors hurt their feelings, or that your son suffered the worst human indignity of being called a racist? GTFOH

• On the post: Pentagon Publication: Young People Getting Injured At Basic Training Because Of 'Nintendo Generation'

  

  Cattress ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2022 @ 09:19pm

  Hey husband grew up in Alaska, and they played in the gym when it was too severely cold and snowy to be outside. This just means more nutritious food is needed to make up for it. Personally, I hated going outside any time the temp was less than 50 degrees, so I would have been happy with more gym activities. Lots of schools have closer to year round, with shorter, more often breaks. Some place like AK isn't going to move too much into summer though, because the long days there have the sun up until 1 am, and it really messes with sleep routines.

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