Congress is using the capitol attack to create new laws to spy on American citizens. Just what America needs.

To effect gun control leaders already controlling guns simply need to set an example.

Simply replace dumb offensive weapons with intelligent defensive ones.

Attackers can be disabled with sound, electrical impulse (a laser to the eyeball goes a long way), gas, anything but hot lead is relative progress.

A huge industry is waiting once this direction is set and it’s a rare example where a leader can set something so important in motion. A police force equipped with such weapons would not only save lives it would restore confidence, replacing fear with respect.

Like any old technology guns will inevitably become obsolete, outmaneuvered by weapons that save lives. Even in the worst case the result is a technological arms race, with one side committed to protection - an outcome far better than shoot outs and more deaths every day, most often at the hands of those intending to uphold a form of peace.

in England we grew up loving American cowboy movies and the hero was always the same: quiet, cool and strong. to an outsider it seems this guy is dead and the cunt that owns the town and is always looking for more is the new America

Lewis Lapham is right on. If we can just recognize fear and understand it instead of judging we can fix this.

Constitution Signer Benjamin Rush: "Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship and force people who wish doctors and treatment of their own choice to submit to only what the dictating outfit offers"

I have 3 weeks off this August and would like to see the United States for the 1st time. I can get a visa but I am worried about hassles from immigration, the police, etc based on everything I see that happens there. It’s not a cheap trip and if there’s a chance it’s going to get ruined I’s rather go somewhere else even though I have always wanted to drive across America.

Americans are happy to devote decades of their lives to supporting an overseas war machine as they gobble up jingoistic bullshit in their media.

They are taxed and regulated as mush as socialist countries but get little benefits in return, all the while being spied on to a standard that would make the Gestapo proud.

They are fine with all of this damage to their liberty as long as they keep their guns, is this just some kind of penis fixation?

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

I know. It's a shit show in the USA for most things, and freedom,the american dream, home of the brave, most of that stuff is in the plumbing end of the toilet already.

But that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm an outsider here having spent most of my life outside of the USA but in many ways I feel strongly american. That's what gives me a basis for comparison of things like freedom. And why I say it's pretty fucking good, at least for immigrants and people that see through their eyes.

The difference is baggage, everyone that has moved here has left most of it at home. Parents, religion, class, reputation - this and more is deleted or at least rebooted; makes for a lot of freedom of thought, feeling and opportunity.

There's tons of high minded law written down by american governments but that all gets corrupted over time like anywhere else.

Generational stray kills the basic, immigrant's freedom too, especially when the pool of noobies gets smaller. But it's a slow, analog fade out, not the hot switch activated when law meets dollar.

There's still a perceptible amount of natural, "new country" freedom remaining, mostly because this stuff sucks even more in the older countries.

You could say "American Freedom" lives outside the USA as well, people that moves to a city with a different rule set have always experienced this, imagine arriving in Rome before they fucked that place up.

"We fear the wrong things" (Edge.org)

This could end very badly. Trump had threatened to bring in the army and after referring to them again as "thugs" he tweeted "when looting starts, the shooting starts"... This tweet was hidden by Twitter (who he recently signed an order against to remove liable protections) so his war with them is ramping up... a CNN reporter was arrested at the protests after identifying as press but has since been released. The Police Department has been burned down. These protests began a couple of days a go and have been ongoing. The officer who killed George Floyd is still free.

Just for any one unaware the protests began after the murder of George Floyd and in the wake of the daily murders of innocent, unarmed black people by US police forces.

I'm getting concerned about this situation and because history shows us that the US can murder scores of black people in the street and have it forgotten about the next day I really would keep a close eye on this one....

Can you believe this is the country we have (apparently) chosen to side with going forward.... this is the country that wants our NHS and a fat new trade deal.... if this where happening anywhere else in the world things would be very different. Every single day our news shows us this shit coming out of America and we have no choice but to stomach it because we can't do anything and our gov is always in their pocket. I feel so bad for the Americans being kept down by these people, I don't even know what to say.... just please don't let this one go unnoticed.

And just hope it doesn't get as bad as it could.

Sorry for the downer topic but this matters. And the US is fucked.