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State Terror, American Style

paulkrugman.substack.com

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Re: State Terror, American Style

#101

Post by array_key_first »

naldb wrote: post #87
tallanvor wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in Portland less than a month ago and had no problems. Sure, there was one time I crossed the street to avoid someone who was clearly homeless and mentally ill, but I never found myself feeling unsafe. Unfortunately homelessness is something that can't be solved by one city or even one state. Feeding, housing, and getting them treatment is expensive and not something even the wealthier cities have the budget to…

> there was one time I crossed the street to avoid someone who was clearly homeless and mentally ill, but I never found myself feeling unsafe. Seems a contradiction.

There's homeless and mentally ill people in all major cities. Or, at least, the ones that matter.

They're usually harmless, just troubled. You're not in much danger walking down the street; you're actually in much more danger driving down it.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#102

Post by it_is_I »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #93
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #10

Are they limiting their raids to be within 'blue' states / districts to minimise the collateral damage their reputation may receive from those sympathetic to this cause? Chicago was 77% Democrat in the last election. These behaviours won't stop if there's no blowback from the MAGA base.

Blue states and heavily-Democratic urban areas are also likely to have explicit local laws preventing local police authorities from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, since whether it is good or bad to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement is a central point of disagreement in partisan American politics right now. For the same partisan reasons involving political support for illegal immigrants…

> strenuously object to these raids and think they are deplorable is not a critique any member of the MAGA base will take seriously. There's not gonna be blowback from the MAGA base over the government doing precisely the thing that the base wants and that their political enemies hate.

Every day MTG’s “national divorce” sounds like the only real solution. These people live in entirely different realities and despise each other. Insane to believe you can manage a functional country that way.

Too bad it’s a political and logistical pipe dream.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#103

Post by SkipperCat »

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #29
SkipperCat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I've never talked to a person in a rich neighborhood that would turn down more police Rich people in safe neighborhoods very commonly turn down police because they don't want their local taxes to go up. It's as simple as that. You can also add to the fact that they don't want their children slammed into the pavement for minor infractions such as having an open container beverage or doing 35 in a 25 mph zone. It…

My friend lives in a rich neighborhood in inner Chicago and they all chip in to pay extra for private security patrols through the neighborhood because they don't have enough cops. On top of one of the highest property tax in the country (2.1%) and sales tax (10.75%), etc etc.

Private security is not police. Private security will not give you a ticket for speeding. They wont write you a citation for not having a working turn signal. Their only mission is to protect the people who employ them. Very different from actual police work.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#104

Post by johnnyanmac »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #95
johnnyanmac wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but they pay for it and know exactly where it's going. Not so much for raising local taxes. We've seen how common it is for rich people to spend more on private matters, even though paying via a tax would be cheaper for them.

Someone in who can afford to live in a wealthy neighborhood in Chicago and who is concerned about being a victim of violent street crime in their neighborhood might reasonably prefer to pay a neighborhood association for additional private security, rather than engage in a city-wide political process and agitate for raising their taxes and using the proceeds to pay for additional police. Paying for neighborhood-level…

>rather than engage in a city-wide political process and agitate for raising their taxes and using the proceeds to pay for additional police.

The thing is that they are more likely than non-wealthy citizens to be agitating city hall anyway. They'd just rather decrease taxes and have more control of their money than do anything to improve the city as a whole. If it gets too bad they just leave the city.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#105

Post by marssaxman »

iseletsk wrote: post #47

I visited Portland a month ago. There are security guards at each pharmacy and supermarket. I got screamed at by a violent/homeless person because I walked on her block. Some streets - and we are talking downtown/center - I was just afraid or disgusted to walk on. So, yes, Portland is a dump that needs to get cleaned up.

How much time do you spend in cities, generally?

Re: State Terror, American Style

#106

Post by tastyface »

iseletsk wrote: post #47

I visited Portland a month ago. There are security guards at each pharmacy and supermarket. I got screamed at by a violent/homeless person because I walked on her block. Some streets - and we are talking downtown/center - I was just afraid or disgusted to walk on. So, yes, Portland is a dump that needs to get cleaned up.

You... want to bring in the US military to clean up some bums and garbage?

Re: State Terror, American Style

#107

Post by JuniperMesos »

rich_sasha wrote: post #74

My impression of Trump is that he's a showman with crazy ideas, but ultimately not organised or determined enough to see them through. On his own, he might flail about and go round in circles a bit like his first term. Undeniably, he is good with the public. The thing that really terrifies me is the people who attach themselves to him, thinking they can use his mandate to push their agendas through. Because there see…

A lot of senators and judges are trying to stop various aspects of the Trumpist poltical agenda. And in turn the Trump administration is working against those senators and judges, to the great approval of the MAGA base.

There are a lot of people who really want the objectives you find repulsive, and they want the elected officials they support to smash through the opposition of the elected officials (and judges) that you support. In a democracy, it will often happen that different elected officials supported by rival factions of citizens bitterly fight each other for control of what policies the state actually carries out.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#108

Post by actionfromafar »

throw0101a wrote: post #84
actionfromafar wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The police may or may not be good, but these raids are like the brownshirts in Germany. Not regular police.

> Exactly. The police may or may not be good, but these raids are like the brownshirts in Germany. Not regular police. Recent observation I came across: folks like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers stopped marching ever since the ICE raids started.

I suppose Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are now largely split in two groups - the first putting on an ICE mask and beating people up, and the other group cheering with a beer in front of Fox News.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#109

Post by actionfromafar »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #73
actionfromafar wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda thankful that you didn't continue the if-then after the military. Many possible outcomes after that are really depressing. Almost all options involve China laughing all the way to hegemony.

>Kinda thankful that you didn't continue the if-then after the military. There's so many possibilities of what happens if elections are halted that you no one can truly predict anything. It never happened for nationals and it very very rarely happens in state elections. Having a hostile takeover of the ballot box will truly throw things into chaos. In what way and against who, it's hard to tell. And yes. Of all thing…

There are so many options besides halting elections outright

You could -

close Congress

ignore Congress

declare a sufficient number of Democrats "antifa" and arrest/disappear

require a special passport for traveling to DC (magically, some democrats are denied)

Whatever happens, the midterms is a ticking clok.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#110

Post by actionfromafar »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #96
lapcat wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "Democrats" I meant the Democratic Party. Democratic politicans are not a fixed group of people: anyone can run for office. The issue is not so much that money is corrupting otherwise good people. Rather, the issue is that political campaigns are self-financed, and wealthy donors put their money behind candidates who they know to be friendly to their interests. The wealthy do not fund candidates who are unfriendly…

>The fundamental problem is that primary campaigns require money, just like general election campaigns That's part of the thing that irks me. In the age of the internet, I just don't get how and why money needs to correlate with outreach. As the most extreme examole: is 1 billion in funding really getting your name out there more than 2 billion? And is 1 billion really doing a better Job than 50m that's hyper focused…

Pushing youtube channels, buying spots in podcasts, meta ads, google ads, AI ads, AI alignment. It's all money game.
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