Gromnir

that makes no sense. initially the US had no restrictions on immigration. in the absence o' laws prohibiting, an action doesn't sudden become illegal. regardless, most immigration woulda' taken place during the post civil war years, by which time individual states had already created their own immigration laws, and the fed were becoming more involved in immigration as well. even so, the rate o' illegal immigration into the US has always been relative low... in part 'cause it has always been relative easy to immigrate to the US. HA! Good Fun!

what?

coulda' all been prevented with an assault weapons ban. ... no, wait. that doesn't make any sense, does it? HA! Good Fun!

nobody is stopping us either. point? if you don't like our responses, then do better. vp choice for trump is inconsequential. am thinking he needs another well-timed clinton scandal to make it a real race. HA! Good Fun!

are you trying to be ironic? ... you say such ridiculous stuff all the time. who can tell the difference 'tween your wingnut rants and your hyperbole? am often baffled as to whether or not you could possible be serious, so when respond and find that lo and behold you were being genuine, we do feel a deep sadness. HA! Good Fun!

you are, as is so frequent the case, confused. obama did frequent exceed his authority, but that were only 'cause he understood very well what were possible to accomplish with executive orders. obama knew that Congress were unlikely to do anything to stop him. trump... just doesn't get it. continuing with the press stuff, libel is not a fed crime. trump could author executive orders 'til they literal filled the oval office and such stuff would have 0 chance o' getting the Washington Post of his back. obama understood, and that made him dangerous. trump doesn't understand, and that makes him comical... and potential dangerous. am suspecting that when trump discovers how little he can do to alter anything domestically as he wishes, he will turn his attention to foreign affairs. dangerous. HA! Good Fun!

A Trump victory could make everywhere a very interesting place. As in "may you live in interesting times" special kind of interesting. am thinking that the most interesting place to be following a trump election would be the trump household. no doubt the new President would be shocked to learn that there is simple no executive power existing to do many things he wants to do. imaginary address to joint session of Congress: P. Trump: "i don't pay you to tell me what can't be done. any idiot can tell me that he can't do what i want. the next time i talk with you, i expect to hear that i can now sue the Washington Post when they pi$$ me off. if you can't do that, i will find somebody who can." *stunned silence* the first week or so following an election will no doubt be uncomfortable for those people needing explain to President trump that almost everything he wants to do as President would be requiring an Amendment to the Constitution. am foreseeing the awkward necessity o' a professor o' political science from Georgetown being brought in to give the President a middle-school level primer on the fundamentals o' the American system o' government. perhaps start with a few o' those schoolhouse rock videos. (edit: another video) HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* am aware o' what the op were saying. we were observing the irony w/o trying to indulge in another ridiculous gg/sjw nonsense thread. like it, or don't... game or posts. HA! Good Fun!

want freedom o' expression? write a poem, or buy yourself a watercolor set. there is never freedom of expression in a scripted crpg. all your possible responses are written by the obsidian developers. whatever freedom you see in tyranny or any other crpg with scripted dialogues, essential plot points, skill trees, talents and dozens o' other trappings o' the kinda crpg that tyranny clearly is shaping up to be, will only offer freedom o' expression if you buy into the illusion that your choices is meaningful and real. enjoy the game, or don't. you got the freedom to choose. HA! Good Fun!

yeah. we didn't much like the ny giants when we were young, but pretty much like any kid who played defense in the 80s, we idolized lawrence taylor, and we never complete forgave him for that second failed drug test. seemed like such a big deal at the time. maybe it was and we has become numb. dunno. HA! Good Fun!

Testosterone and alcohol. Mutual taunting. Draymond slaps the MSU football player in the face. Cops were across the street and witnessed it. Tough guy football player pressed charges. Draymond even told the cops that he wanted to apologize to the "victim" immediately after the incident. Not like we have a Manziel, Ray Rice, or Ray MacDonald situation here. don't let your fandom get in the way. the "tough guy" football player is 6' and 183lbs. draymond is 6'7 and 230lbs, and at least according to a couple o' accounts, draymond sucker punched the guy. with cops and witnesses present, am not surprised draymond wanted to apologize. am genuine hopeful that the stuff 'bout draymond's entourage having roughed the guy up the previous day and his "scholarship" comments is inaccurate. HA! Good Fun! ps when we first got to california, we literal bumped into ralph sampson at an airport. we both apologized, though it were Gromnir's fault, and then went our separate ways.

so, what exactly is draymond green's problem? didn't he have a reputation as kinda a good guy when off the court? then again, we recall stories o' an acquaintance o' ours, a guy who played for the minnesota vikings during the early 70s. he told us that some o' the bar fights that would routinely occur 'tween players and irate fans after a loss (or a bad win) were responsible for almost as many o' his injuries as on-the-field contact. different times. HA! Good Fun!

that is a reasonable query. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88037-dallas-sniper-shootings/?p=1826927 people is nuts. people thinks silly and insane stuff. even educated folks is not immune from ridiculousness http://www.atlredline.com/i-feel-like-prey-1783478245 "As a black man, my only natural predator is a cop. Other things might kill me, the cop is the only one who acts like it’s his job. " the Perception is true-- he genuine believes cops is trying to kill him. 'course if cops treated killing o' blacks as a job, then his more immediate concern should not be fear o' death by cop, but rather fear o' complete and utter cop incompetence. 90 unarmed folks were killed by cops last year. the 90 total is from the washington post as 'posed to many o' the rather spectacularly biased studies which utilize only initial media reports to generate totals. of the ninety, 'bout half o' those killed were black-- more than any other single ethnic group. even so, if police were actively attempting to kill black men, they has been extreme slothful and indolent in their hunting pursuits. in fact, as an african american, you is far more likely to die of complications during surgery (398) than from police shooting, armed or otherwise. no doubt racist doctors is the real bogeyman the author should be concerned 'bout. how many young black men has been killed by racist surgeons? % of blacks dying form complications is higher than whites. racism is the reason... and not 'cause o' less access quality health care and/or relative poor health compared to whites-- higher rates o' diabetes, high blood pressure, alcoholism, etc. prove it ain't so. doesn't matter. the fear is genuine. people, even educated people, will believe ridiculous stuff, particular if other smart people is telling 'em that they have reason to fear. hell, we see laquan mcdonald video and we get queasy. sure, the guy were armed, but is tough to see the knife wielder as any kinda real or immediate threat. but heck, even if you did see a reason for police to shoot mr. mcdonald after his failure to comply with police instructions (maybe you honest believe that a man resisting arrest and brandishing a knife in a populated area can be shot even if he isn't posing an immediate threat to anybody but self. am not seeing it, but we get the argument) what genuine disturbed Gromnir were the narrative the cops spun 'bout the incident and the way the police and union supported the narrative even after video o' the incident were released. laquan did not lunge at cops contemporaneous with being shot. he made no particular aggressive move towards his eventual killer. cop narrative were fabricated. so, were cop willingness to alter narrative an isolated incident, or an endemic issue? if you already do not trust cops, and you see the solidarity o lies to protect a fellow cop... believe as an indian, or hispanic or black man the cops is active out to kill you may sound as ridiculous as finding that 58% o' english teenagers belief in the realness o' sherlock holmes. look at numbers and such a pov won't make sense to many people. but if you are brought up in a community where the relationship with cops is already adversarial and if you has likely already experienced mistaken profiling, it is not difficult to imagine the people who would accept the argument that cops is active out to do you harm. if Gromnir were to put on a wifebeater tank, saggy cropped khaki pants, old vans with white socks and then don our admittedly hideous gargoyle wrath shades... just hang out near a school or a check cashing store. we would not be the least shocked if eventual a cop stopped by to ask us a few questions. heck, dressed as 'bove, we could take our buick outta the garage and then just park on the street near one o' the more notorious drug sale locations in town. am suspecting we would get a visit from cops or local gang bangers in relative short order. anybody know current gang sign for XIV? simply by being a minority in the wrong place, you can gets unwanted cop attention, and the attention maybe be immediate hostile. sure, it makes perfect sense that if you ain't actual doing anything wrong, compliance with police orders is your best bet. do what cops says and chances o' any lasting harm being done to you by the cops is ridiculous small. but people don't make smart decisions when stressed. they don't make smart decisions when angry. stressed and angry people surrounded by a group o' folks is gonna make even worse decisions. by any objective standard, with almost no exceptions, when armed law enforcement gives you instructions, your best course o' action is compliance. you not need give cops more information than your id if you do not wish to. worst Likely case is you get arrested w/o cause... and then released shortly thereafter. annoying, humiliating and ultimately forgettable. resist and harm is gonna occur, and to what purpose? even so, people thinks ridiculous, or they don't think. get stressed and panic. guys such as alton sterling or michael brown, "gentle giants" who likely were not complete innocent and they gots even more o' a perceived reason to panic when cops try to arrest 'em. the current atmosphere in many urban communities is toxic and getting worse. minorities is afraid and hostile towards cops and the cops is obviously more tense. it don't take much imagination to see how such a situation leads to the ridiculous becoming commonplace. the current situation is a bit ludicrous. gonna need accept the perception o' reasonableness from all quarters is experiencing drastic slippage. HA! Good Fun!

we got a preachy-post quota. just one o' those things that you lost the lottery. HA! Good Fun! ps the heart-wrenching number o' homeless people that is mentally ill and/or children is possible the greatest immediate concern we got as we volunteer at a local food bank/shelter and am seeing too many such folks too often. can't believe we left it out o' our post.

gonna disagree with gd... alot. thank god we had collective awakening and finally embraced the transformative civil rights legislation in 1964, eh? couldn't think that the USA were a great country w/o embracing segregation? we go easy with just one example 'cause am sure that by now gd can think o' many others. is not always easy. we take much heat for our love o' country, particular given our origins. on one recent visit to the rez, our rental car were pelted with frozen apples 'til it were complete unfit to drive. apples: red on the outside, but white on the inside. get it? ... were gonna list some o' the stuff we love 'bout the USA, but it would be an extreme long list. folks who read a few o' our posts regarding US free speech compared to the rest o' the world likely got some notion as to how much we value personal freedoms that exist nowhere else in the west, and virtual nowhere else in whole world. regardless, am thinking it is a given that we are one o' those "I LUV 'MURICA!" folks that euros roll their eyes in response to. the thing is, everyday we see things we wanna improve and fix. we wanna transform. we wanna fix infrastructure problems that has US public education becoming second-rate. we wanna fix the situation on the rez where we come from. we believe it is vital to address income inequality before some kinda class struggle is required to bring 'bout change. we wanna address debt crisis before it is too late. etc. more than one o' our changes requires transformation rather than simple minor alterations to the status quo. gonna need make hard choices. but guess what, Americans can transform. Americans, God love 'em, actual believe that they can transform. the capacity to change and belief in our ability to make things better is just one reason why so many people 'round the world is perplexed (and annoyed) by americans. naive and arrogant. foolish. *shrug* could go on 'til folks get (more) sick o' Gromnir than is normal, but we can't stress just how much we disagree with gd on this point. we believe, unreserved and unabashed, that this is a great country, and we hope we live long enough to see it transform... maybe more than once. HA! Good Fun!

I don't know much about NA's and what I do know I generally learned from you so please indulge me in a couple more questions: Reservations are made up from the same tribes or tribes are mixed? Assuming the former, I would have expected a closer sense of unity amongst tribesmen, at least while on the reservation. Kinda "us-against-them" but that's not necessarily the case if there is such an antagonistic relationship between the citizens and the authorities? Is there a such thing as discrimination between different tribes? there is considerable bigotry that endures 'tween tribes. our grandfather, a relative educated man, hated crow more than the BIA. crow and lakota animosity went back before the US ever existed, so simple being placed on reservations did not end for him and for many others. continues to this day for many. there is a few tribes that share reservations. northern cheyenne at one point shared with the lakota. am recolecting that the arapaho and shoshone current share a rez. usually those tribes that share a rez have long and amicable relations. there is a great deal of anger on the rez. there is anger at the BIA and USA and white folks in general or specific. there is anger at parents, as all young people express from time to time. there is anger at tribal authority and rez police. there is anger at the feds when they show up to deal with "real crimes." when there is so much anger, it is hard to turn off that anger just 'cause the cop has red skin. there is also a growing number o' gangs and drug use is always a problem. rez cops understandably is conflicted 'bout the gangs, but the violence the gangs is responsible can't be overlooked complete, which puts young gang members in conflict with rez police with increasing frequency. those confrontations 'tween rez police and gangs is becoming increasingly toxic and is one o' the more serious concerns we hear 'bout when we return to pine ridge. *shrug* btw, please keep in mind that the vast number o' indian tribes in the US never got reservation lands. heck, most never even managed to get any kinda formalized treaty relationship with the US. many tribes were wiped out or simply ignored. for a considerable number o' indigenous peoples, the biggest obstacle they face today is simple recognition. you can be indian. you can have harvard and yale historians and anthropologists agree that you and your tribe has lived in the foothills o' ca or swamps in mississippi since times before first settlers arrived. you can provide dna studies and records from pre-revolutionary war spanish missionaries and... if you ain't a recognized tribe by the BIA, then you ain't really indian for purposes o' federal or State recognition. process to get recognized can take decades, and is often far too costly for many.

trump net worth today is an estimate 'cause he won't release taxes as has every other candidate going back a long time. bloomberg estimates $2.9 billion. Forbes say $4.1 billion. with the money trump had in 1978, which woulda' largely been the result of inheritance, and he had put that money into a retirement fund, he would be worth $6 billion today. failed airline. failed football. failed casinos. too many fails. even his biographer noted that trump's business acumen were limited to real estate investment. and as shady as is clinton, trump gots more than a few skeletons in his closet. no presidential candidate has ever had the kinda documented mob ties as does trump. the claim that trump had no idea that the construction companies he were routinely dealing with in the 70s and early 80s were mob controlled is too ridiculous to believe, but given how pervasive mob involvement were in ny construction at that time, perhaps folks is willing to look the other way... as trump clear did. and given his checkered past regarding the hiring o' undocumented workers, we have a hard time taking his immigration comments serious. the Polish workers involved in trump tower alone should give folks pause as the judge in that case had already determined that trump were aware o' the presence o' illegals before a settlement were reached. wall street avoids him 'cause o' the numerous bankruptcies and he ain't even as big a real estate mogul as he pretends to be. compare to bloomberg if you wanna see american success story http://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/ http://www.forbes.com/profile/donald-trump/?list=billionaires heck, compare to oprah who gots a self-made score o' 10. she didn't have no multi-million dollar inheritance or her father's credit to draw 'pon. http://www.forbes.com/profile/oprah-winfrey/ the only thing trump can genuine sell is his business success as he has no experience in politics. the thing is, his overall business success is less than impressive. shoulda' stuck with his daddy's real estate. HA! Good Fun!

Are reservation police composed of Native Americans? yes and we do understand just how much outrage ms. macdonald's articles has caused in blm circles. some o' her numbers do need to be considered in context. nevertheless, we has similar seen articles at very reputable sites that is being utter dismissive of macdonald... or using chicanery o' their own in an attempt to disprove. cops is more afraid and is facing increasingly more hostile citizenry. the citizenry is likewise more afraid. both sides believe, for often very good reasons, that they is facing more danger now than ever before. is not a good situation. we do need dialogue, but typical what we see is attempts to refute non-supportive points o' view rather than actual discussion. HA! Good Fun!

The Torrey Pine is a local icon, thought by most to be unique. I never knew Santa Rosa is the only other place in the world where it grows. I must visit. Also, this is awesome: as a younger man we went to the channel islands mainly for the surfing. am older now and we find that we can carry more necessary camping supplies when not hauling 'round a short board. even so, is no question that a trip to the channel islands requires a willingness to rough it a bit. HA! Good Fun! ps while surfing the islands, we once saw an orca explode from the water onto shore where sea lions were congregating. the killer whale snatched a meal and then lurched back into the water. left us utter dumbfounded.

am actual in favor o' blm as a vehicle for positive change, but am concerned 'bout obfuscation of facts and am also worried that blm has resulted in more o' the escalation we referenced earlier in this thread. http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-chicagos-streets-became-the-wild-west-1466029701 "Police officers who try to intervene in this disorder often face virulent pushback. “People are a hundred times more likely to resist arrest,” a police officer who has worked a decade and a half on the South Side told me. “People want to fight you; they swear at you. ‘F--- the police, we don’t have to listen,’ they say. I haven’t seen this kind of hatred towards the police in my career.” "Antipolice animus is nothing new in Chicago. But the post-Ferguson Black Lives Matter narrative about endemically racist cops has made the street dynamic much worse. A detective told me: “From patrol to investigation, it’s almost an undoable job now. If I get out of my car, the guys get hostile right away.” Bystanders sometimes aggressively interfere, requiring more officers to control the scene." increased rates o' use o' force is hardly surprising given such conditions, yes? from the same author is an article that questions the factual basis of blm http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-myths-of-black-lives-matter-1468087453 "Police officers—of all races—are also disproportionately endangered by black assailants. Over the past decade, according to FBI data, 40% of cop killers have been black. Officers are killed by blacks at a rate 2.5 times higher than the rate at which blacks are killed by police." "The Black Lives Matter movement claims that white officers are especially prone to shooting innocent blacks due to racial bias, but this too is a myth. A March 2015 Justice Department report on the Philadelphia Police Department found that black and Hispanic officers were much more likely than white officers to shoot blacks based on “threat misperception”—that is, the mistaken belief that a civilian is armed. "A 2015 study by University of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway, formerly acting director of the National Institute of Justice, found that, at a crime scene where gunfire is involved, black officers in the New York City Police Department were 3.3 times more likely to discharge their weapons than other officers at the scene." etc. however, while ms. mac donald is a bright and articulate woman with degrees from yale and stanford law, she is decided right o' center on many issues. our recollection is that she defended the practices at abu ghraib, and is highly critical o' welfare programs that allow single mothers to create a generation o' fatherless and dependent children. her bun may be wound a bit too tight. HA! Good Fun!

one wonders if there is reputable study o' escalation in police encounters. is not simple a matter o' how cops interact with different racial groups but also how different racial groups interact with police. as one might expect o' the oglala, most o' Gromnir's relatives, particular male relatives, have serious authority issues. when encountering cops on the rez or off, our cousins will inevitable fail the "attitude test." worse, especially if a young lakota man's friends is present, there is a perceived duty to resist searches and arrests. to accede to cop authority and instructions is the worst kinda cowardice. escalation is predictable. shocking numbers showing a high incidence o' police use o' force during encounters with young, lakota, males is hardly surprising and cannot be attributed solely to police bias. am not suggesting that all blame for escalation is the responsibility o' the person being confronted by police. as we has said elsewhere, we believe that law enforcement as a whole should consider changes regarding the appropriate use o' force, and there needs be serious counseling regarding the so-called "attitude test." we would expect the police officer to be actively attempting to reduce tensions rather than looking for excuses to twist a fella up for contempt o' cop failures. even so, we recognize that escalation is usual requiring more than one yutz. HA! Good Fun!

'cause we boasted 'bout the channel islands national park earlier, we were recalling the visitor center video is available online. HA! Good Fun!

no doubt the 58% o' english teens who believe sherlock holes is teh real will one day be vindicated. HA! Good Fun!

we would still win our bet. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1577511/Winston-Churchill-didnt-really-exist-say-teens.html http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0222/Was-Chelyabinsk-meteor-actually-a-meteor-Many-Russians-don-t-think-so.-video people believe all kinda ridiculous stuff, and the surveys can be tailored to make folks seem even more ridiculous. so let's all have a hearty laugh at the 68% of english teens who believe that king arthur were a real boy and the 47% that thought richard the lionheart were fictional? HA! Good Fun!

oh, and for californians who has not actual visited the channel islands https://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/index.htm 'ccording to the site, only 30,000 people visit the islands annually. compare to yosemite which gets 4 million visitors. as a teacher, hurl gets summer vacations... am recollecting that summer is a good time for seeing blue and humpbacks 'round the channels. grey whale migration is winter. HA! Good Fun! ps the little island foxes that is seeming everywhere is more insidious and clever than raccoons, and they will 'mark' everything.