Was Robert Hienlien a prophet?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DKR, Jun 15, 2019.


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  1. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    Dunno - but the Starship Troopers scenarios seem to be playing out - more so each day.

    Here's the headline
    Memphis riots: Chaos erupts after police shoot and kill 20-year-old black man Brandon Webber

    Short version of story:
    Brandon Webber, 20, was getting into his car when US marshals approached and attempted to take him into custody. Webber was wanted on several felony warrants.
    When the marshals tried to make their arrest, “he reportedly rammed his vehicle into the officers’ vehicles multiple times before exiting with a weapon,” says the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

    At that point, “The officers fired, striking and killing the individual.”
    (Riots in US city after police shoot and kill 20-year-old black man UK Source)
    ((https://nypost.com/2019/06/13/dozen...injured-in-memphis-riots-over-fatal-shooting/ US source that tap-dances around the facts)

    Yet, here is the go-fund me page asking for $$ for the family.
    Click here to support Justice for Brandon Webber! organized by Alexus Henderson

    20 Y/O - 4 children.. No mention of wife.

    View from the web-
    As it turns out dead guy had warrants for Attempted murder, Assault, Armed Robbery and Unauthorized Use. He and business associate of his went to another state to purchase an automobile they saw on Facebook. They forget their billfolds though and our man shot the seller five times in the chest and took the car anyway. This was the car he then used to ram the USM's who were trying to arrest him.

    After ramming them he then exited the vehicle with a rifle that he had previously posed with on Facebook in an attempt to show the Marshals how proud he was of it. Somehow in the misunderstanding the Marshals thought he was a dangerous fugitive trying to hurt people and they shot and killed him. Speaking of Facebook just hours prior he posted a video on there saying that the police were not going to get him and that they would have to kill him. Mission accomplished says I.

    His apologists say that he said "catch" not "kill" on the video. I listened to the video and sounded like "kill" to me.
    *****

    (Who was Brandon Webber, the Memphis man shot and killed by U.S. Marshals?)
    According to the U.S. Marshals Service, their officers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant for multiple felonies on Webber when they saw him getting into a car outside a home on Durham Avenue.

    "In response to a threat posed by the subject, members of the task force fired their weapons, striking and killing him," a statement from the Marshals Service said.

    At a news conference Thursday afternoon, DeSoto County District Attorney John Champion said Webber went to Hernando on June 3 under the guise of purchasing a car from a man he met on Facebook.

    He was accused of shooting the man five times and stealing the car. The U.S. Marshals were attempting to arrest him on charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
    *****
    Statement from his last common law wife (AKA - baby momma)
    (Mother of Brandon Webber’s baby said she never knew him to be violent)
    She had fled two DV complaints - yet never knew him to be 'violent".
    ****
    More background
    Gangs in Memphis, Tennessee - Wikipedia
    ****
    I find it amazing - the level of dichotomy in the reporting -
    One one hand the kid was nearly a saint (not withstanding 4 illegitimate kiddos) - a college student without a violent bone in his body..

    VS

    A violent gang-banger that shot someone to steal a car....

    [FOX13 learned the Gangster Disciples, a prominent street gang with a large presence in the Memphis area, made a threat toward Mississippi authorities.

    “This is a very serious threat. It’s very evident by what occurred that night,” said Mike Williams, president of the Memphis Police Association.]

    Almost like two completely different societies are present.....and at war with each other.

    Going to be a fun summer in the Big City - ya'll stay safe.
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2019
  2. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Just another day in the hood.............. now days.
     
  3. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Heinlien was a keen observer of human nature and used that insight in his writings. That is what makes his stories so believable.
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2019
  4. oldman11

    oldman11 Monkey+++

    Another one we will not have to worry about. What is it with young people now days? The USA is getting more like dodge city now days.
    [flag]
     
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  5. Thunder5Ranch

    Thunder5Ranch Monkey+++

    Mass Mental Illness???
     
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  6. Salted Weapon

    Salted Weapon Monkey+++

    There is no intervention therefore no accountability, exactly how a thug is born.

    " When a society begins the victimization of the innocent, by rewarding and praising the evil,
    society will fall ".
     
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  7. GOG

    GOG Free American Monkey

    "An armed society is a polite society."
     
  8. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    I don't think that Robert Heinlein was a prophet, any more than H.G.Wells and Jules Verne were prophets. They were acute observers of the human condition with remarkable imaginations and story telling capacities.

    As to the Webber anecdote....it seems like yet another bit of culture war hand-wringing to be harrumphed about. There never seems to be a shortage of harrumphers in this place.:rolleyes:
     
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  9. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    No doubt he had a great intellect and used it to great effect in his writings.
     
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  10. apache235

    apache235 Monkey+++

    Dodge City 1870-1890 was civilized compared to some places today (Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, etc)
     
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  11. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    We can always count on you Chell , for our diversity and diagnosements of our miscomings.
     
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  12. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++



    I don't "do" cities any more except under duress...
     
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  13. hot diggity

    hot diggity Monkey+++ Site Supporter+++

    I've read everything I can get my hands on by Hienlien. I don't see him as a prophet, but as a patriot.
    I see the human experience running in cycles, because were too ignorant to learn from the past.

    But then, I'm hard to argue with because of how I've lived my life.
     
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  14. Bandit99

    Bandit99 Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

    I also don't think Robert Heinlein was a prophet in the Nostradamus sense, able to foretell the future; however, like Voltaire, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain and some others, they could look at the best and worse of mankind, strip away the falsehoods, and articulate what was left into clear, truthful prose, sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly...but clear and concise and ringing true.
     
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  15. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Impotent grumblin', complainin', fingerpointin' and 'splainin' don't require much in the way of diagnosis...it's the tribal norm in this place, and the targets are utterly predictable. It's a chronic condition without cure.

    Perhaps I ought to give as much time and space as others here seem to indulge in their handwringin' harrumphin'; just with different culture wars targets....white male thugs, corrupt conservative Republican politicians, Christian evangelist hypocrites, and women controlling patriarchists, et al. :sneaky:
     
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  16. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    Some folks don't see the import of the Memphis riots. I get that, things which may seem upside down to us, look just fine to another.

    So, imagine, if you will, a working Society. You know, one with laws, a semi-stable currency and an 'unwritten' social contract that following the rules allows the Society to function.

    Now, imagine that Society as a nice kitted sweater. One made over time and by a lot of sacrifice by generations of folks that came before.

    Now then -
    [​IMG]
    What happens when a segment of that Society decides the rules don't apply to them - and that segment is further emboldened by an 'activist' mass media that seems to act as a cheerleader for eeerrr - bad behavior.

    Doesn't take long for that sweater to - quite literally - come apart at the seems..... When that happens to a Society, you get a failed country like - Argentina is the most current example.

    Given a choice, I'd rather not live in a failed country.....
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2019
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  17. apache235

    apache235 Monkey+++

    Argentina just had a nationwide power outage - hmmmm
     
  18. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    That's hardy a surprise - I'm surprised they have had power for this long. All the tech people split long ago.
     
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  19. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    And yet, you delve into that exercise, with evident relish.
     
  20. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Well, I think Sinclair Lewis was. His 1935 political novel 'It Can't Happen Here' seems plausible that it could.
     
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