u/Zombie

But why? News agencies can do that if they wish, for the viewers, but why would a government agency releasing video evidence touch it up in any way? That's just asking for questions.

>Governments and others with power are constantly finding new ways to suppress protest and silence critical voices. Global trends towards the militarization of police, the increase in the misuse of force by police at protests and shrinking civic space mean that it is becoming more difficult to stay safe while making your voice heard.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/freedom-of-expression/protest/

>The way police and other state authorities engage with protesters has become increasingly militarized since the early 2000s. Militarization is happening in many ways, including the deployment of armed military forces to suppress protests and supplying police with equipment like armoured vehicles, military-grade aircraft, surveillance drones, guns and assault weapons, stun grenades and sound cannons.

>Military forces are organized, trained and equipped for war and defence and have no place at a protest, where police should be trained in de-escalation, mediation and keeping people safe.

>Governments try to justify this disproportionate escalation in the use of force by painting protesters as a threat to public safety, but in truth, these tactics are ultimately a way to intimidate people into silence.

Aldi is better at pumping every product with palm oil and making knock off branded products

Lidl is better at having a chaotic middle that never gets tidied

To save those, like me, that don't know what Zapruder is, a search:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film

It's a recording of JFK getting shot

Sweet, ta! I listened to The History of Rome a few years ago so I'll check this one out.

Aye, true progress was being made and that couldn't be allowed to happen. Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics were practised on Spain before they began their expansion.

I tried but I have an unfortunate case of bees in my brain so I didn't finish it. Need to give it another go. The portion that I read was interesting though!

Who's the revolutions podcast by?

Edit: https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/ this?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia

The Spanish are a great bunch of lads

Fada beò an Spàinn!

And the civilian population are just meant to die while that is happening? Pray every night their home, of all the homes bombed each night, isn't one of the ones hit? Hope upon hope that missiles don't rain down upon them?

If Russia is such a threat, and we are currently at peace and have time, would it not make sense to build some defensive capabilities at the same time as offensive ones? While there's peace and time to do so? But there's nothing, no bunkers for civilian populations, no mass education of what to do in x and y scenarios, just extra missiles, drones, and planes.

Does that sound like countries that are preparing for defense or ones that are picking a fight?

Russia is the boogeyman used to justify increasing military spending, and then instead of spending that money protecting our populations from them, it's used to attack somewhere else. Iran this time, Afghanistan and Iraq and countless other places in the past.

This isn't defence spending, we don't need to increase it to 5% of GDP when we already have some of the best funded, equipped, and trained militaries in the world.

Some people just want to justify blowing some shit up.

Yes, of course, it doesn't mean ONLY defensive items. But so far, all of the money is being spent on OFFENSIVE items in the name of DEFENSE. With no defensive items being purchased at all.

And again, without wanting to sound like "my dad can beat up your dad", Russia would not be able to take the EU, let alone NATO, in conventional warfare, and especially if nukes became involved. Ukraine is not comparable.

Whose second hand weaponry is already holding back Russia? What do you think will be the result of the modern stuff being used?

Again, this isn't defence. It's war being dressed up as defence to illicit consent.

We already spend 2% of GDP on defense. And if war broke out do you not think that would increase substantially? Do you not think manufacturing would be forced to change to military manufacturing?

We are not at war. We already have multiple well funded militaries throughout NATO. Why the sudden push to increase funding if not to try and start a war?

If they were genuinely serious about this being DEFENSE spending and not WAR spending it would be spent on bunkers for civilian populations, information for civilians to self sustain themselves when centralised systems no longer can, redundancies added to energy, communications, transport, and food networks.

But instead it's spent on shiny new planes when there's already a stockpile of shiny planes. What does that tell you about this push for extra funding? Does it sound like intelligent, well thought out planning for the defence of a population or does it sound like sabre rattling and a chance to try out some new toys?

The EU, and NATO, already invest in defence. It's not like the 1920s where everything has been left to rot. What's changed is the push from 2% to 5% of GDP, by those who are just begging for war.

That's a huge sum of money.

Ukraine is almost alone, they're getting aid from NATO and the EU but they're having to do the dirty work themselves. And they're still holding their own.

Do you honestly believe a war that brings in France, Germany, the UK, (maybe) the USA, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, etc is one that Russia is going to pick? And if they do, have any chance of winning?

Unless China sides with Russia they haven't a chance, and China doesn't seem to have shown any form of intent in that regard. They sell equipment to Russia because there's money to be made, in the same way they sell equipment to NATO countries.

As you're so keen for war, will you be on the front line sacrificing your life for it? Or will you be leaving that up to others?

This is just scaremongering to normalise the idea of war in people's minds. To push money towards unnecessary military spending instead of healthcare, education, etc.

Russia has less than 140m people. The EU has over 400m.

The EU has a vastly larger economy, more worldwide allies, more advanced technology, blah blah blah.

Russia can't even win in a surprise war against a small neighbour ffs.

I didn't think it was that hard at all, he's in the news every day!


Every one of your complaints stem from Americans not marching in the past. If you want a better life, a better country, more equal distribution of wealth, march! All the excuses you give for people not marching are conditions brought about because your population doesn't generally march in the first place. As a culture, you're so individualised that you forget how to stand up for each other, until it's too late, and blood gets shed. None of us survive in a bubble alone, we all live in communities, we all rely on other people for various things. Unions work because alone we are weak, but together we're strong.

We don't take things like free healthcare for granted, it didn't magically manifest itself, it was fought for by our predecessors. By marching. The same conservative rich fucks that prevent you from having healthcare are consistently trying to remove it from us. We have regular industrial action, attempting to prevent them from taking it away from us.

Do the same.

We have bullshit anti-protest laws too, we still manage to enact change though.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-alarming-crime-and-policing-bill-yet-another-assault-right-peacefully-protest

American democracy tends to be passive. You vote red or blue every now and then and that's it. The politicians handle the rest. In Europe there's more to democracy than just voting for your representative. Learn from us, claw your freedoms back. For starters, demand a real democracy where you can vote for more than just 2 choices.

The Arab Spring managed to enact change at least, No Kings hasn't achieved anything yet. I hope it will, but so far the fascists still run the country.

The original numbers were 4-6 million, it's only recently been corrected to 13 million by some sources.

4-6 million is pathetic. 13 million is a lot better.

Of course I'm negative when it looks like less than 2 out of 100 of you can be arsed to oppose fascism.

Well done for finally waking up, but you haven't done great yet. Keep going. Until Trump and his ilk are gone you haven't achieved anything but let off some steam.

Keep up the momentum!

Is that better? 🥕🥕🥕🥕

Not that it's relevant, but Scotland. A country that is quite good at telling fascists and racists to fuck off.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nigel-farages-previous-visits-to-scotland-arrests-protests-and-fleeing-from-royal-mile-pub-5147584

A country that is welcoming to LGBT people and immigrants.

https://www.gov.scot/policies/lgbti/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/migration-helping-scotland-prosper/

A country, that despite being under the thumb of a colonial power, has still managed to gain its own parliament and enact progressive policies that Westminster opposes.

How? By fucking yelling from the streets! By not accepting what our supposed superiors tell us and demanding better.

That's not how logic works. Jesus Christ. Absolute numbers aren't how you compare these things.

Of course the country with 340m people can get a bigger crowd than the one with 18m.

I know the American education system is underfunded but why over the last two days have I had to argue this point to so many of you?

The Dutch are standing up for others, they could go about their day as if nothing is happening and nothing meaningful would change in their lives. But they chose not to.

Americans are only standing up for themselves, so they don't lose their freedoms. The Dutch protest is therefore more impressive, even with it being a smaller turnout.

If 13m is the true number then that's a lot better! That's 3.86% of the population. Now keep it up! You still have a king as far as I can see, so why did you all go home on Sunday?

People are still being deported, people are still being snatched by masked men, the federal government is still breaking laws and doing what it wants, checks and balances be damned.

Keep the momentum going, depose these fascist fucks!

There's the American spirit!

Emotion and bravado instead of rationality and decorum.

Now go outside and show Trump that same attitude.

If it was 20% we wouldn't be watching the country with the largest nuclear arsenal and the most military bases around the world descend into fascism.

This affects the world but only Americans can do something about it, the rest of us have to convince you to get off your arses and do it.

1.18 - 1.76% of Americans showed up to protest fascism in their own country.

0.82 - 1.09% of Dutch showed up to protest genocide thousands of miles away.

If you can't understand how there's a difference here, between standing up for yourself and standing up for others, I don't know what else to say.

For an issue that doesn't effect the Dutch. And yet they still showed up in solidarity, because they have principles, and understand that to live in a democratic country means taking responsibility for its politics and not _just_ voting every 4-5 years.

Americans are being kidnapped, assassinated, and having entire departments shut down, and their turnout isn't much better than the Dutch outraged at what's happening another continent away.

I want them to learn that if they want change they need to do something, instead of giving every excuse under the sun as to why they couldn't show up as has been done in other threads.

This is a good start I guess, but it hasn't done anything to stop Trump and co yet. They need to pump those numbers up.