mrandyk

This almost sounds like an opinion so dumb I'd drunk post it.

LOL at 84 being brought into a discussion featuring facts.

I go out to a brewery/bar/restaurant probably twice a week on average. They are always deserted. I don't know how America's service industry is ever going to make it.

I agree wholeheartedly. I absolutely despise political parties and refuse to ever affiliate with one. However, in order to defeat the force that is killing our nation, I'm stuck in a "vote blue no matter who" mindset. I desperately wish we had more than two viable parties in this country, if not a system where one's merits and beliefs stood on their own and weren't attached to a letter by their name.

Literally the only person I've blocked on this site. Every time I see him quoted I wonder why someone responded.

I'm torn between saying Bernie will only be 83 and Trump 2024. Gonna split the difference and endorse Ralph Nader.

I see cars on the freeway every day with American flags flying on them (those little ones held in place by the windows). I always immediately assume they are the people you reference and that they are definitely racists.

Gee, yet another person whose life has recently been ruined. I hope someone can figure out who did it.

I grew up on a farm in South Dakota south of Gayville, about 1-2 miles from Nebraska (as the crow flies). My family centered on Crofton and Wakefield/Emerson depending on the side of the family.

If we're forming two nations I'd propose making the border a 10-mile radius around every city over 100k residents and we would be well on our way. The city and country already feel like two different nations, it's a shocking experience whenever I go back and see my extended family in NE Nebraska. So many strong opinions on how the world should be run when in reality they are completely isolated from the world.

Are these kids in an impacted area? Are they shipping in kids from Florida and Texas? You make this statement like K-12 schools across the country are making a decision in unison. It's completely up in the air here in Minnesota.

Talking to my grandparents this weekend (who of course live in a bubble of their own), they asked me if there would be a football season. I offered the opinion that there likely wouldn't be kids on campus, so of course there wouldn't be football. Harvard chiming in right on cue here. Harvard's decision to not welcome students back from spring break was about the first sign that made me truly take notice of the impending pandemic. I expect most schools around the country to follow suit, even those who are in relatively unimpacted areas. Most schools have students coming from all over the country, quarantining them upon arrival isn't feasible, and dorms are going to see rampant spread of the virus because of the close quarters and fearless youth. The following spread into the community is inevitable. Any city, county, or state official representing a district with a university and who cares for the safety of their residents will not be in favor of students on campus. It's difficult to envision student athletes choosing to play when it's been deemed unsafe to have students on campus (assuming the school even allows athletic events). There's not going to be a football season this year.

No. There will not be a football season this year. I honestly think it's foolish to believe it will happen at this point. This country shows no signs of slowing down the disease, there is no way to keep the players isolated from the outside world, the rosters and potentially infectious people you'd have are massive, some (many? most?) universities are going to close their campuses and refuse to let their student athletes participate, many schools will find it financially unwise to host games without fans, the logistics are magnitudes more complicated than the doomed professional sports reboots, and just so many other reasons that complicate matters. All of this less than 2 months from kickoff. This country isn't about to take precautions seriously, so it's clear we are going to be in this situation at least through the end of 2020.

I used to have a job where I purchased ad space on cable TV back in 2015-17. The sales rep gave me a profile of all the stations that we could insert ads on (some of the more niche networks weren't options). They had the median age of the viewership at like 71 years old for Fox News. I don't think there was any other channel that had a median age that was even in the 60s, and most channels were in the 40s. Fox News was in the exclusive top tier of 4-5 networks along with ESPN, and no other news channel was. The ratings were among the highest on cable but it's because the right wing of this country trusts literally no other TV network to report anything.

You see it everyday. If Americans generally had self-awareness or respect for others I wouldn't hate going out into public so much. Can't go anywhere without running into a$$h@!es inconveniencing others for no good reason.

Frankly, I'm glad that Minneapolis police and the national guard weren't taking any s#!t last night. Four nights of burning the city is enough. I can't even count how many businesses I saw burn down, let alone the number that have been smashed and looted and may not recover. The people need to be heard, but destroying other peoples' livelihood is not the answer. I'd bet if Minnesota took a hard line a couple days earlier that the damage across the country would be drastically reduced.

At any rate, I'm concerned that if the destruction isn't checked tonight that they may actually deploy the military. The Minnesota National Guard has been fully activated for the first time in the state's history. If that doesn't settle things then what else would be the next step? Shut down the city like Boston or Baltimore have seen in recent years?

The jail records disagree. Still waiting for Ramsey County to release theirs, but Hennepin County shows the vast majority of those arrested the last two days were from Minnesota. All of the destruction yesterday was in Hennepin County so I doubt St Paul police was out there foiling these out-of-staters at a 100% success rate. I think state leadership is propping up a false story in hopes of making the crowds smaller tonight so that they can finally get control of the situation. The Minneapolis chief of police ran with this story too and said anyone in proximity of the destruction will be considered to be complicit. The demonstrations have clearly been hijacked, but I'm not convinced that it's been taken by out-of-state anarchist groups looking to tear down society. It might just be the general public letting out pent up rage, and then seeing how easily they can overwhelm the police in numbers so they keep doing it.

I've heard that before there was any destruction at all the protesters at the police station went across the street to Target to buy milk, which apparently soothes you if you've been teargassed. Target refused to sell it to them and people got mad. I'm surely missing some details but that's the gist of it.

Yesterday was perhaps the weirdest day of my life. I'm safe and don't expect anything noteworthy to happen in my neighborhood (about 3-4 miles West of northern Minneapolis city limits), but the series of events still has me in disbelief. I awoke to the news of the Wednesday night riots, not aware of just how out-of-hand things had gotten. I assumed the whole thing was exaggerated but the footage on my phone kept piling up. On my way to work I stopped at "ground zero" and walked around in complete awe of the wreckage. I described the scene to my friends/family as a bomb falling on the city - literally everything was destroyed, except the police station. There was debris everywhere you looked, multiple active fires, news crews, helicopters overhead, etc. I think the weirdest thing I saw was a pile of like 30-40 bunches of bananas completely torched. I get to work and the entire day is spent talking about what had happened, and then glued to the news in disbelief of more full scale riots breaking out in a seemingly random part of St Paul in broad daylight. My office is just a mile North of St Paul city limits and as a precaution we closed and went home early. In my two years of living in Minnesota I've now missed work due to riots and a pandemic, but not snow. A funny observation but It's truly been a weird time. Then after watching the news for a few more hours at home, my wife and I decided to go visit the riot scene. I would describe the mood as one giant party. I really have a hard time painting the mob as angry. It's as if all the young people decided they were fed up with quarantine life and threw the biggest block party imaginable. Lots of music and fireworks. I truly didn't feel like I was in any danger whatsoever even though we were directly outside a police station (and several other buildings) burning to the ground. Obviously anger got us to this situation, but it seems most are just looking to enjoy the chaos. Out of curiosity, I did pop my head in the side door of the Target which happened to be a break room. It was of course trashed. There was probably a quarter inch of standing water filling the room. I saw a pop machine and random break room furniture knocked over...and I wound up taking a scuffed up stool home with me as a memento. I guess I can say that I have now looted. I'm still processing the entire situation here, but one thing I am certain of is that it's very depressing to see the place you call home descend into utter chaos. My heart goes out to the small business owners. I've worked several shifts at the Minnehaha Lake liquor store directly across from the police station (I work part-time for a brewery) and always enjoyed the staff and how they treated me. Now it's gone. The employees are out of work, the owners have a near hopeless situation on their hands, and the community no longer has that sweet establishment shining for them on a prominent intersection. I spent far more time watching the liquor store going down than the police station last night. It just didn't need to happen and lives are being drastically altered because of it. I guess my final thought is that most won't agree with the methods of the crowds, but it leaves no doubt that everyone now knows damn well what that officer was filmed doing. We didn't discuss Floyd's murder at work even once on Tuesday or Wednesday. Everyone was very eager to give their two cents on Thursday.

This whole pandemic seems way overblown to me. The virus has permeated the population much more than we suspect and the precautions in place are doing little to protect the vulnerable that they couldn't just do on their own. Just look at how every public space is crowded, the number of asymptomatic rich people who tested positive, and all the states that seem to be just fine despite taking little action. I feel like we could start opening back up now and not see any drastic results. Too bad we can't prove my thoughts without widespread testing. Even if test kits were available I'm sure a multitude of idiotic reasons would keep them away from those who need them, because America. Now someone please give me reason to question these beliefs. I'm struggling to get on board with everything at the moment.

We've made it this far. There is no bottom.

To kill time yesterday I drove around for a while (in Minneapolis and St Paul). Every single park I passed by was packed. The trail looping around a popular lake was a congested nightmare. Basketball courts all had full 3-on-3 or 5-on-5 games happening. I'm not sure that I saw this many people at these locations at any point last year. I've largely applauded our governor's response to the crisis, closing "non-essential" businesses early (you can't convince me that Cabelas and certain others are essential), but I have been vocal in complaining that the parks are still open. Everyone is going to flock to wherever they are allowed to go. If we are actually going to shut things down let's do it right and not leave pockets for people to flock to.

I honestly didn't realize it was that close last time around. I look at Democrats holding all notable positions and taking the state in every election since man walked on the moon and assumed it was a landslide in 2016. Definitely changes my opinion.

I can't keep up with this thread since I still go to work everyday, but I've read a whole bunch of holier than thou BS that paints anyone who doesn't vote for Biden as a terrible person. It's obvious which candidate is better for our future if it comes down to Trump and...well anyone, but does anyone live in a state where their vote actually matters? I lived in SD last time around and am in MN this time. It was a short move, and the two states have wildly different ideologies, but both have both voted the same way in the general election the past 48 years. Sure, I could vote for Biden because he is better than Trump - as any functioning adult would be. However, knowing my vote means nothing I will again vote for anyone but the s#!tty candidates that the establishment has given us. This country desperately needs a third party or a strong independent presence.