Messages

51

General Comments / Re: The Jan 6 Commission

« on: June 10, 2022, 04:17:30 PM »

...I just watched the video that the house committee but out. I'm also shocked more of the police didn't pull weapons and start firing into the crowd that was attacking them.

WM if you still think they're all innocent because of laches. Please watch and see how the windows and doors were initially breached. Hopefully they'll put out full videos of multiple angles for people like WM who are going to claim selective editing for seeing just seeing the rioters at some of their most violent moments. 

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/09/1104095062/capitol-police-officer-jan-6-recalls-chaos-carnage

Nice try, but since there was no minority members nominated by GOP, there was no vetting of anything we saw and heard. They let an ABC Producer edit and mix sound over unrelated visuals, and allowed the Never-Trumper Rep. Liz Cheney to lie through her teeth, with no one to object or cross-examine anyone. Strangest insurrection ever, when the insurrectionists came with no weapons, and the only person killed was an unarmed woman who was not threatening the security officer who shot her. Never in 130 years was a committee made like this one. No matter what they cobble together, it will not be accepted.
...

Were police officers assaulted in that video?

Were windows broken to allow people to breach the capital?

What lies did Liz Cheney tell? Be specific please.

52

General Comments / Re: Election Results

« on: June 10, 2022, 03:44:54 PM »

Republicans continuing their effective campaign to demonstrate election fraud by committing it....

Living in Michigan, I can tell you that what occurred is another example of Democrat vote-scamming. One of the big tactics for the Dems has been camouflaging themselves as their opposition in order to sabotage upcoming elections.
... A number of Michigan candidates, some relative newcomers to politics, with the best of intentions had to rely on unvetted volunteers to produce signatures for ballot requirements. A former Police Chief and Auto Executive were sabotaged by these vote-scammers. The descriptions of the obvious improper names generated were obviously not done by volunteers who wanted  to secure the needed signatures for the favored candidate.
...

The signatures weren't faked by deep cover volunteers but by paid signature gatherers.

Ahead of that, on May 23, the state Bureau of Elections published a report that claimed that 36 individual paid circulators faked thousands of signatures to take advantage of a payout that reached as high as $20 per signature on average.

"Although it is typical for staff to encounter some signatures of dubious authenticity scattered within nominating petitions, the Bureau is unaware of another election cycle in which this many circulators submitted such a substantial volume of fraudulent petition sheets consisting of invalid signatures," the report stated.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102485484/why-several-republican-candidates-for-michigan-governor-were-blocked-from-the-ba

Any evidence that these were deep cover Democrats that Republicans were hiring and paying thousands of dollars for fraudulent signatures?

53

General Comments / Re: SOP

« on: June 10, 2022, 10:25:42 AM »

... We have an attempted assassination already (wanna bet that guy ultimately gets charged with a lesser offense or a token sentence?).
...

Given the guy called the cops on himself saying he was contemplating suicide. Yeah he gets a lesser offense. The only statement that is close to damning is him saying he traveled to kill a judge.

54

General Comments / Re: SOP

« on: June 10, 2022, 10:22:38 AM »

...

"This is, in my opinion, a diseased Republican Party. And it needs to be cured and cleansed," Houlahan said.

Nothing like a good cleansing, and we all know what that means.

What does it mean? Does it imply more or less violence than "if you don't fight you won't have a country anymore"?

55

General Comments / Re: The Jan 6 Commission

« on: June 10, 2022, 08:44:13 AM »

One of the other comments that stood out is the these government officials who would not support Trump's effort say they took an oath to the Constitution and not Trump. I think that is what upsets Trump the most.  He demanded personal loyalty to himself.  Like a dictator.

I think 95-98% of the people at the riot were useful idiots. 2-5% were groups like the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers, who were trying to actually stop the counting of the ballots. They used the crowd that Trump and his cronies riled up at the rally and used them as ground troops.

I am just amazed at the restraint showed by the Capital Police.  How more people were not shot on that day is a wonder to me.

I just watched the video that the house committee but out. I'm also shocked more of the police didn't pull weapons and start firing into the crowd that was attacking them.

WM if you still think they're all innocent because of laches. Please watch and see how the windows and doors were initially breached. Hopefully they'll put out full videos of multiple angles for people like WM who are going to claim selective editing for seeing just seeing the rioters at some of their most violent moments. 

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/09/1104095062/capitol-police-officer-jan-6-recalls-chaos-carnage

56

General Comments / Re: We gotta talk about Uncle Joe

« on: June 09, 2022, 07:15:36 PM »

Now we have arrests from the 2000 Mules documentary. This includes Arrested Mules who have plead guilty, and Dems who plead guilty who ran the ballot-supply centers for the Mules to get the scammed ballots. We also have a nightmare investigative committee presenting pure propaganda tonight.

Who was arrested? What was the charge? What did they plead guilty too? Where were they arrested?

57

General Comments / Re: We gotta talk about Uncle Joe

« on: June 09, 2022, 12:20:33 PM »

...
Trump had stopped all wars and aggression,
...

I must have missed this era of global peace. Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan. All were free of conflict during the Trump Golden Age (TM). Iran sending rockets at American bases in Iraq, never happened. China wasn't aggressive at all in the South China Sea. Iran didn't ramp up their nuclear program again. All figments of reality that don't exist in the Trumpverse (TM). The Trumpverse, just as fictional as the marvelverse.

58

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 09, 2022, 11:00:08 AM »

...
 Sadly his deal with the Taliban was a death sentence for the Afghan government and he continued to listen to the Hawks who kept delaying any exit. For not following his gut in this situation he is responsible. Biden said he would leave, the military hawks didn't fully sport that, and still he did it and ripped the bandage off.  A mess all around and blame for everyone.

You don't get it. Trump's deal with the Taliban was Perfect (tm)  . Afghanistan was a land of milk, honey, and poppy flowers until the evil Joe Biden ruined it all by delaying the American withdrawal by 3 months.

59

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 08, 2022, 09:10:32 AM »

...
I dunno. Is he sitting there quietly and reading a book? Should I feel threatened by that? Why?
...

How do you know he isn't one of the people you claim needs mental health care? Mass shooters aren't walking around muttering and twitching. They are just angry, frustrated, and hopeless. Can you tell at a glance that he's just waiting for the car to get crowded then pull all the pins and kill as many people as he can? If he's sitting there unarmed then that isn't a possibility you need to consider.

60

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 08, 2022, 09:05:32 AM »

...

corporations are not people and I think we would all agree that treating them as though they are is a bad idea.
...

Care to let the conservatives on the Supreme court know that it is a bad idea. Every time they get a chance they expand corporate personhood rights.

61

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 07, 2022, 02:44:43 PM »

game theory

Man, don't even go there

Game theory, or an argument of an analogous sort, is entirely at the core of the types of arguments about "what would happen if". It's a thought experiment meant to employ logic to define a most logical outcome of a scenario. So "what would happen if anyone could have any weapon" is a scenario that could be armchair quarterbacked for the next century, but fundamentally it would have the same problem game theory has: there's nothing behind it. I've read multiple 'textbooks' on game theory at this point, sincerely hoping to be shown how exciting a field it is. I don't even like "A Beautiful Mind" but I'm a fan of formal logic so I figured it would be equally interesting. However I have to submit at this point in time that I'm more or less convinced it's complete nonsense. It is quite similar in its fundamental assumptions to many economic analyses, in which theoretical logic is meant to predict what human beings will do in an undefined future condition. As some of you who study economics or the markets may note, no one can predict what people will do in almost any situation, nor can we predict which situations will in fact occur or what the side effects of these situations will be. Assigning an "optimal outcome" analysis to even the most simplistic situation (the prisoner's dilemma) will likely bear little relation to what actually happens and what the people involved are actually thinking.
...

Game theory works best applied to games. I think the most interesting and applicable game theory work is in poker. The simplifying assumptions for anything more complex than a game with fixed rules and limited choices usually make the resulting models dubious at best. But game theory optimized computers can beat the best poker players in the world over the long term.

Ultimately, game theory has the coolest mathematical name with some of the weakest results. Minimax/Maximin ideas are interesting but the nearly perfect knowledge needed about the underlying probabilities and payoffs rarely exist in the real world. Poker is probably the most complex topic that people have made significant progress on. Because there is real money to be won by the best players learning to be better. In poker the probabilities and payoffs can be calculated exactly. There are deviations to the strategy if your opponent is playing too loose or too tight. But there are real results in that narrow little branch of game theory that are applicable to poker players.

62

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 07, 2022, 12:39:01 PM »

... But this is all sort of beside the point, isn't it?

Yep. We have to allow all weapons so one day Rambo Crunch can take out mass shooters and defend his home against SWAT teams coming to take his daughter  . I mean that logic is iron clad. No argument can sway it. His rights to the biggest and most destructive weapons lie deeper than the second amendment. They come from the very nature of reality. There is no refutation.

63

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 07, 2022, 12:25:51 PM »

Maybe I'm missing something but it seems to me that defining the limits of acceptability is critical to this discussion.  A free for all would appear to allow those with significant wealth to own any weapon systems they want and to basically build their own armies.  This could be construed to include corporations.  How many nukes can Musk (or Soros or Gates) afford to protect himself against a government he feels is stealing his tax dollars?

Business competitors beware. Compete with me and I'll bomb your headquarters. What could go wrong? Just remember its not the bombs that are the problem its the ruthless capitalists using them to gain monopolies. The only solution is a corporate arms race leading to MAD. "We all know" allowing the government to regulate arms is the same thing as letting the government and all their agents have their way with your wife and daughter.

64

General Comments / Re: The Jan 6 Commission

« on: June 06, 2022, 04:18:36 PM »

...
Don't you love it when Chicago Democrats respond to having the strongest gun restrictions yet also has the highest incidents by claiming the guns are purchased in other states and brought in?
...

So they respond with facts about where the guns come from. How local gun laws doesn't affect gun traffic from Georgia or Indiana or Texas? Big cities have crime because of the drug trade. More people, more drugs, more money, more people willing to kill for it, more guns from out of state. There is nothing Chicago can do to stop straw purchasers in other states. But Republicans in congress hamstring the ATFs ability to go after straw purchasers. Not sure why this is a talking point you "love."

65

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: June 06, 2022, 03:35:49 PM »

I don't want you to get the impression that I'm taking your criticism seriously, Crunch, because I know you're intellectually dishonest in all your interactions here, but I do want to acknowledge that I think William sincerely does not recognize how far his impressions deviate from reality.

Riiiiiiggghht.  Ok, bro

Its amazing you how consistently you have played the right wing character you've created over the years. Thought you would eventually get bored of it. Turns out you only get bored of your user names.

66

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: June 06, 2022, 03:31:28 PM »

...
All your mindless lecturing about Dinesh D'Souza being a "proven" liar has been proved false. I guess you missed the guilty pleas of those mules and their providers of faked ballots. The 2,000 Mules documentary has been proved accurate. even the conjecture on final numbers was made with the minimum guesstimates. The actual numbers are far beyond the numbers necessary to overthrow the 2020 vote-scamming. This is not conjecture, nor opinion. Facts are easy to fight. You just ignore them and insult the messenger. We also have official confirmation that the counting computer systems have been hacked. The earlier protestations that the Dominion voting machines could not be hacked has been walked back. Mike Lindell is due for a huge windfall, if he decides to go after his lying detractors. They tried your tactic to defame the messenger and got caught. 

Respond again, and dig your hole deeper. Apologies appreciated.

Who has pled guilty? What crime did they plead guilty too? Where did they commit the fraud?

What in the documentary has been independently verified?

What official confirmation do you have that voting machines were hacked? In which state, county, precinct did the hacking occur?

No one ever claimed Dominion machines were unhackable. We claimed there was no evidence they were hacked during the election in 2020.

67

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 06, 2022, 01:02:48 PM »

...
 And we'll see the death totals in mass shootings continue to go up when people are allowed to drive around with 50 cals and no one can stop them until they start shooting into a crowd.

Yeah, sure. We've all heard that before. Conceal carry, open carry, constitutional carry - it's gonna be a bloodbath. This is an appeal to emotion and can be safely ignored by rational people.

If a 50 cal was as accessible as an AR-15 you don't think we would see increased bloodshed? Sure 99.999% of people aren't going to use it to shoot up a crowd. But 1 person using it in a crowded venue would be devastating. You said you would be as effective with a glock as an AR-15. How about something bigger (50 cal) against a crowd packed together for a concert or exiting a stadium? How long does it take the police to get close enough to stop someone wielding something that high caliber? Is your conceal carry pistol going to do you any good against someone shooting you at 100+ yards? Do you see any limits on a right to bear arms so we can have a safer society?

68

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 06, 2022, 12:36:43 PM »

Let's be clear also, that as soon as a group actually starts behaving as if they might assert the right to violent overthrow, all the powers that be will work to curtail that right. Perhaps you're familiar with the Mulford Act? When the Black Panthers decided that it was a good idea to walk around Sacramento armed, in order to defend themselves against oppression? Republicans, Democrats, Governor Reagan and the NRA quickly moved to disarm them.

I am not worried about California's state government. I don't live there.

But here's the thing about that ... you guys are not against guns, you don't want them all banned. You just want the state to be the only one that has them. You want the state to have a monopoly on force, with a defenseless and powerless citizenry. No thanks.

The state has a monopoly on force by law and firepower. Individuals have limited self defense rights to use force. To say that you need enough firepower to hold off a SWAT team, much less a military unit is extreme. And we'll see the death totals in mass shootings continue to go up when people are allowed to drive around with 50 cals and no one can stop them until they start shooting into a crowd.

69

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: June 03, 2022, 06:35:04 PM »

Who are the "best historians"?

Neither impeachment had anything to do with the Muller investigation. Why do you think they are related?

Evidently, the historians that are honest and unbiased. The Impeachments were not caused by any action by Trump - only alleged misconduct which has been completely found to be erroneous. Mueller spent millions and basically exonerated Trump of all made-up charges.

Still waiting for the heartfelt apologies. You are just embarrassing yourselves. You do know your words are going to be out there for years as more and more disinformation that you cling to will be even more firmly debunked.

Can you name one of these historians, so I can know who is the best?

Do you realize neither impeachment had anything to do with the Mueller investigation? Extorting Ukraine and January 6th. Those are the reasons for the impeachments.

70

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: June 03, 2022, 06:31:15 PM »

The judge didn't find him not guilty that was the jury. I guess in your world they are all "Hillary's people" too?

Again, Clinton apologist POV. The Judge and many in the jury were directly connected to Hillary and Sussman. We know Sussman did what was proven. The Jury tried to equate their unfounded lenience with Sussman skating when Durham nailed him.

The Jury is connected to Sussman?!? Beyond the fact no one knows who is on the jury, you just made the case for Durham being the most inept prosecutor in history. You have to ask yourself why you believe such things. What evidence convinced you the jury had ties to the defendant. That is an extraordinary claim. Needs some evidence, unless you just mean some members of the jury were democrats.

71

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 03, 2022, 11:57:48 AM »

AR-15s are good at killing a lot of people all at once. Perfect for mass killers, drug dealers, gang members. Rarely a needed capability for home defense, and utterly useless defending oneself against a criminal in open ground.

You have a really weird interpretation of what these guns are capable or not capable of - neither grounded in the reality of them.

They are really good at firing a lot of very deadly rounds in a short amount of time into crowds of people. They aren't super accurate for target shooting or hunting. The rounds pass through walls making them poor for home self defense. They are great at killing a lot of people at close to medium range, you know mass killing style. They really suck for almost any other purpose.

72

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: June 03, 2022, 11:27:06 AM »

...
On the contrary. It is generally known by the majority of the people what has happened here. Trump was railroaded by Hillary and the Democrats, including the left-leaning Democrat apologists here in this forum. By any honest person, one cannot deny that the Russian collusion was made up out of whole cloth by Hillary and her people, and then abetted by the Clinton-aligned staff in the top floors of Justice. There is no longer any argument of that. The plan is how to outlast the guilt - not to plead innocence.

Russia hacked the DNC and leaked emails. Trump's campaign manager and son met with people claiming to have dirt on Clinton from Russia. It wasn't made up out of whole clothe.

Hillary's people, including the judge in Sussman's case, want to believe that Sussman was not working on Hillary's behalf for claiming a non-existent Trump link to Alfabank, which he then billed for. Then they want to claim that Sussman did not get the go-ahead by Hillary to do so, even though we have the testimony from her own chief of staff that she did so.

The judge didn't find him not guilty that was the jury. I guess in your world they are all "Hillary's people" too?

Weasels will waffle and say it was an innocent mistake that lasted two-and-a-half years and cost the country millions of dollars, several unsubstantiated impeachments, and systematic blocking of everything Trump was trying to accomplish. This has been called, by the best historians (not just the Clinton apologists) as the single worst example of political malfeasance, and failed coup d'etat, in the history of the country - yet it is still being defended in this forum.

Where are the heartfelt apologies?

Who are the "best historians"?

Neither impeachment had anything to do with the Muller investigation. Why do you think they are related?

73

General Comments / Re: The Jan 6 Commission

« on: June 03, 2022, 10:28:20 AM »

So lets take bets on how the Republicans will spin the hearing of the Jan 6 Commission over the next few weeks.  Biased?  Partisan?  Traitors?

Yes. Yes. Yes. But you forgot. Fake news and lies.

74

General Comments / Re: coronavirus

« on: June 02, 2022, 01:30:24 PM »

And if you read one more paragraph in the article you linked to.

He says the bottom line is that the totality of evidence suggests high-quality masks do help slow transmission in schools, but we may never be able to pin down exactly how much they help.

Emphasis mine. We can't know the exact contribution because you can't do double blind studies with schools where everything is the same except the masks.

75

General Comments / Re: coronavirus

« on: June 02, 2022, 10:29:03 AM »

Masks in restaurants have always been a silly concept. That's why it was so important to close them entirely during the most dangerous phases. I'm not sure how effective they were in schools, given compliance especially from young children and duration. Plus, kids gotta eat food too.  ...

Masks were effective in schools.

https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news/universal-masking-schools-shown-reduce-spread-covid-19

-- School districts that required masking saw lower rates of COVID-19 transmission within schools last fall compared to those with optional masking policies, according to a study by the ABC Science Collaborative.

Kids are relatively good about following rules in schools. My kids schools did lots of outdoor lunches when the weather allowed.

76

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 01, 2022, 03:22:56 PM »

If nothing else it seems like they could at least charge them with disturbing the peace. Of if they didn't pick up their shell casings then at least get a fine for littering.

If it was so obvious that the OK Corral gang shouldn't be charged then why would Mayor Lightfoot get publicly outraged about it and express her vehement disagreement?

Maybe the identity of the suspects is more in question than they are publicly admitting. Maybe they're still trying to get someone to testify against someone else.  Maybe the DA or police screwed this one up and the Democratic mayor and city council are taking them to task over it. Whatever you think your learning about Chicago's systematic and long term enforcement of gun laws (which is where this claim started) can't be learned looking at a single case. And if the shooters were under 20 they may not have a felony conviction on their record yet. And if the guns used weren't recovered then prosecution for any gun crime would be difficult.

77

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 01, 2022, 01:42:30 PM »

...

So if these were gang members one would expect many of them to have felony records and not be able to legally possess a gun let alone engage in "mutual combat" on the street.

One case? Seriously. Optics on that one look bad. But it doesn't mean that it is a systematic failure to pursue gun laws in the city.

78

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: June 01, 2022, 12:27:44 PM »

...
In Trump's defense. We all know Sussman was instrumental in Hillary's plan to overthrow a legally elect6ed President. In lieu of a coup d'etat, she settled for sedition and treason. We also know the proceedings with a corrupt judge who should have recused himself and a Sussman-friendly DC jury reached an incorrect verdict.

You have to quit using "we all know" to describe your private evidence free opinions that are shared by no one here.

79

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 01, 2022, 11:55:10 AM »

This article is a bit dated but I think it clearly shows that Chicago is frequently choosing not to prosecute these types of crimes.

https://www.chicagoreporter.com/thousands-felony-gun-cases-are-being-dismissed-cook-county-criminal-courts/

From January 2006 through August 2013, thousands of cases involving a weapons violation were thrown out in Cook County’s criminal courts, The Chicago Reporter found. More than 13,000 cases that included a gun violation have been dismissed during that period, shows the Reporter’s analysis of records maintained by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. In fact, more felony cases involving a gun–from illegal possession to unlawful sale to a felon–have been thrown out than cases with any other type of charge.

A judge dismissing a case isn't the same as choosing not to prosecute. It could be sloppy police work, lack of evidence, the Heller decision, or lack of resources to prosecute the crimes. If you have to choose between prosecuting a homicide or rape and a gun possession crime, guess which one gets the resources. The fact that the cases got to court for prosecution to be dismissed seems to imply that the police and DAs office were trying to do something. They may have lacked the evidence or resources to get a conviction but that mean that they were always looking the other way dealing with illegal gun possession.

From your own link.

According to the state’s attorney’s office, just 12 percent–or 625 out of 5,260–of gun possession cases have been thrown out during the past two years. But the figure only includes cases in which gun possession was the lead charge and excludes some cases involving multiple charges.

Fabio Valentini, the chief of the state’s attorney’s office’s criminal prosecutions bureau, said an “overwhelming” number of the dismissed cases were based on a judge’s decision to suppress evidence because a gun was intercepted in a way that violates the Fourth Amendment. Under that scenario, the prosecutor’s office would have no choice but to throw out the charge. “We’d have nothing to pursue the case on,” Valentini said.

So if anything the police and prosecutors of Chicago are pursing and charging gun crimes too aggressively.

80

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: June 01, 2022, 11:27:49 AM »

No argument here.  Prosecute them.

While we're at it can we make Chicago prosecute things like illegal possession of a firearm and illegal firearm sales?

They do. They would probably also like to prosecute the straw purchases who buy 200 cheap handguns in Georgia and just happen to resell them to people who sell them to gangs in Chicago. Maybe we should let the ATF track that type of information to see where all the illegal guns are coming from. But most efforts to track that type of behavior has been blocked by the republicans in congress.

81

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 27, 2022, 09:37:54 AM »

yossarian22c

"So much more limited. How about the Republican candidate for Senate from Georgia? Lock him up forever? He pointed a gun at his ex-wife's head."

It would depend on the details but assuming it wasn't self defense then yes. Why not? ...

Well apparently close to half the state of Georgia, including all the tough on crime Republicans, seem to think he should be spending his time in the Senate instead of prison.

But those types of mandatory minimums wouldn't make us safer. Let me ask you a question, you go to your local bank with your family, man walks in with a gun to rob it, would you rather he get the same prison sentence for leaving everyone dead as everyone alive?

82

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 27, 2022, 09:33:18 AM »

I see the catch 22 there too. Can't give up guns for self defense with this high crime rate and can't get the crime rate down with all of these guns. So if there is no way to get the crime rate down while still having all those guns out there then we're stuck because the political support for making people helpless against violent criminals, whether the criminal has a gun or a knife or bare hands, will never happen.

I don't know if it's really true or not, but supposedly some of the countries that did end up with gun bans like Australia ended up with more violent crime afterwards as thugs had nothing to be afraid of from their potential victims.

Not really true.

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-victims/2020

Sexual assaults are up, but there are lots of sociological factors that may have increased willingness to report over the years. Robberies, thefts, physical assaults are all down over the last decade.

83

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 26, 2022, 07:24:29 PM »

Was the school thing a serious proposition? Satire of the right is hard to spot in the age of trump.

84

General Comments / Re: Trump looses again

« on: May 26, 2022, 05:05:20 PM »

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101503129/trump-ordered-to-testify-new-york-investigation

Former President Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in New York state's civil investigation into his business practices, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

Trump loses in court again.

85

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 26, 2022, 11:04:07 AM »

Semi-automatic is a well defined gun property. You can also regulate magazine capacity. 

86

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 26, 2022, 10:43:38 AM »

Though making certain types of guns less available may not have helped in this case since the cops let the shooter barricade himself in a room with his victims and then sat on their hands for most of an hour.

So much for the "good guy with a gun" solution.

Maybe banning AR's doesn't help in this one case but from looking at death tolls of mass shootings over the last several years it seems like it would help in most cases. Or maybe the cops wouldn't have been as reluctant to engage in a shootout with someone who didn't outgun them. There is no feasible law or action that 100% prevents all of these. Only laws that make them slightly more rare with fewer deaths.

87

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 26, 2022, 10:39:08 AM »

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101434831/public-camping-felony-tennessee-homeless-seek-refuge

Tennessee is about to become the first U.S. state to make it a felony to camp on local public property such as parks.
...
Tennessee already made it a felony in 2020 to camp on most state-owned property.

How about camping on public lands with a gun? Felony. Is that violent trespass in your book? Lock people up for life being homeless and armed?

88

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 26, 2022, 09:50:12 AM »

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I'm talking about locking people up for life for violent gun crimes.

So that wouldn't include the dummy who forgets to take his gun out of his luggage at the airport. Or who had a child get ahold of a gun they didn't properly secure. Those crimes could have the same punishment they have now.

I'm talking about people who use a gun, whether or not it's fired, in the commission of a violent crime.
...

So much more limited. How about the Republican candidate for Senate from Georgia? Lock him up forever? He pointed a gun at his ex-wife's head.

89

General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 25, 2022, 09:18:01 PM »

Not sure how locking people up for life for carrying while driving under the influence makes us safer. All that law does is exacerbate our leading in prison population per capita. It would cause more people to be willing to kill everyone, armed robbery and murder have the same punishment in your world. No reason to leave any witnesses behind. People usually aren’t thinking about the consequences when they commit a crime, 10 years or life in prison doesn’t change the calculus that much because they are expecting to get away with it. It would make carrying a weapon much more legally risky. Accidentally shop lift while legally carrying a weapon. Instead of probation, life in prison. This does almost nothing to reduce crime while coming with a huge price tag monetarily and societally.

I’ve posted my idea for reducing the deaths in these situations. No assault rifles. Compare the outcome of the NY subway shooter to mass shootings involving AR-15s. You can have, pistols, shotguns, and hunting rifles. Just get rid of the mass murder weapons.

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General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 25, 2022, 02:27:59 PM »

Maybe we should just follow the Texas workaround to Constitutionality. Make it possible for private citizens to sue anyone who helps a mass shooter commit that crime. The Uber driver that dropped them off, the guy who sold them the gun, the ammo, anyone who instructed them how to use the gun, anyone giving advice on how to aim it...

Maybe some state needs to pass a horrendous law like that to get the Supreme Court off their ass in striking down end runs around the constitution.

My position is again. No AR-15's (or similar semi-automatic high capacity, high power rifles). The death totals are way higher using that type of rifle than someone using handguns. Doubt the current supreme court would allow such restrictions. Maybe just let everyone mount 50 cals to their cars and trucks. Right to keep and bear arms. Who cares if our streets start seeing gun fights like we're in a war zone, gun rights shall not be infringed. Ignore that militia part.

Just have a few peaceful protests outside Supreme Court homes say ten thousand well armed people holding a torchlit vigil. Laws will change.

The laws will change but probably not in the way you want. Laws to ban the speech or bearing arms around the justices but nothing for the rest of us.

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General Comments / Re: Thoughts and Prayers - Again...

« on: May 25, 2022, 01:40:17 PM »

Maybe we should just follow the Texas workaround to Constitutionality. Make it possible for private citizens to sue anyone who helps a mass shooter commit that crime. The Uber driver that dropped them off, the guy who sold them the gun, the ammo, anyone who instructed them how to use the gun, anyone giving advice on how to aim it...

Maybe some state needs to pass a horrendous law like that to get the Supreme Court off their ass in striking down end runs around the constitution.

My position is again. No AR-15's (or similar semi-automatic high capacity, high power rifles). The death totals are way higher using that type of rifle than someone using handguns. Doubt the current supreme court would allow such restrictions. Maybe just let everyone mount 50 cals to their cars and trucks. Right to keep and bear arms. Who cares if our streets start seeing gun fights like we're in a war zone, gun rights shall not be infringed. Ignore that militia part.

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General Comments / Re: We gotta talk about Uncle Joe

« on: May 24, 2022, 12:01:19 PM »

https://www.yahoo.com/news/president-biden-seems-praise-high-005828016.html

"President Biden seems to praise high gas prices as 'incredible transition' Americans must go through"

There's a lot of truth here from Biden.

The Democrats actually want higher gas prices because of the environmental agenda. And that's fine. The higher gas prices are actually what is needed to make this transition Biden and the Democrats have wanted since Al Gore brought it up some time back.

The problem I've had is that often times they won't admit the truth. They've been blaming Russia for higher gas prices when higher gas prices have been what they've wanted all along. To be sure, Russia is contributing greatly but acting like Democrats haven't been rubbing their hands with glee as prices surge at the pump, envisioning all of that global warming being prevented, struck me as duplicitous. The effects on inflation are also huge and devastating and trying to skirt the blame for that when it's so obviously and predictably a result of the agenda is cowardly and duplicitous. It's nice to see Biden finally, to some extant at least, owning up to it all.

Democrats (for the most part) aren't gleeful at high gas prices. Its going to sink them in the midterms. The war in Russia causing energy and food inflation combined with supply chain issues is what is causing most of the inflation we're seeing. Democrats do see that high gas prices are a driver for climate change policies and motivators for people to use fuel efficient vehicles. Democrats have been encouraging that change for years. Republicans continually resist it. So now when there is a world energy crisis everyone feels a ton more pain than if we had pushed more aggressively on fuel efficiency and electric cars. The average consumer doesn't study long term trends in oil prices before buying a new car. They saw the price drop and bought up inefficient trucks and SUVs and when the price inevitably went up they are going to blame Biden and elect a bunch of Republicans. Maybe we get a little more domestic drilling, a gas tax reduction, or something that reduces the pain a little until the next crisis. But from a national security standpoint the easiest way to cut Venezuela, Iran, and Russia off at the knees is to get off of oil. Maybe then we could care about human rights in Saudi Arabia or at least be able to quit selling them weapons.

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General Comments / Re: #Tweetstorm 14:1-5

« on: May 24, 2022, 11:51:48 AM »

For those interested, there's an in-depth article published by the Brookings Institution.

Segregating ourselves so we do not have to listen to people who differ from us is not a remedy for the information externalities that make hate speech and misinformation so dangerous even to people who are not exposed to it. People cannot remain indifferent to what other people in society believe because what other people believe affects them. If enough people reject vaccines and other public health measures, we are all at risk from the next pandemic. If enough people become racists or intolerant of the LGBTQ community, significant parts of our community are not safe in their own society. And how are we going to agree on what to teach our children if there is no uniform public platform where we can exchange ideas?

By the same token, you do realize just how insulting it is that many people seem firmly convinced that there are "Millions of racists in waiting" just needing to encounter that one moment where another racist says just the right thing and BOOM they're instantly transformed into a diehard racist who thinks the German SS didn't go far enough.

It's not millions in waiting its thousands. The Buffalo shooter posted that he was radicalized on 4chan. People in his life at some point realized it, reported his threats to the authorities, had him involuntarily committed for a psychiatric assessment which he passed. Then a few months later he buys some guns and starts shooting up strangers at a grocery store. This is exactly the type of thing I was pointing out happens when the internet becomes all legal speech. This is the most extreme example and luckily very rare. But there is no reason to host the recruiters and radicalizers on mainstream services so that they can more easily reach the people vulnerable to radicalization.

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General Comments / Re: Whose cell/womb is it anyways?

« on: May 24, 2022, 08:47:00 AM »

You're not thinking very deeply about this, Fenring.  This isn't just one correlation; it is about seven.
...

But his counter argument still stands. Politics has become tribal. You could have picked any 7 statements Republicans are more likely to agree to than Democrats and found the same result. Using this strategy you could show a relationship between attitudes about; guns and abortion, taxes and abortion, Trump and abortion, the wall and abortion, etc.

So unless you think there is some causation there, let this one go. Its either half assed social science research or half assed statistics by the people at 538. Unless you can point to some causal link one way or the other its just showing that if you chose statements one political party is more likely to agree on than the other you can show correlation between that and any other political topic.

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General Comments / Re: Whose cell/womb is it anyways?

« on: May 19, 2022, 04:37:29 PM »

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1100173223/oklahoma-legislature-passes-bill-banning-nearly-all-abortions

Oklahoma's legislature passed a bill Thursday that prohibits nearly all abortions beginning at fertilization.

The legislation builds on an Oklahoma bill passed earlier this month, which prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy — echoing a similar move in Texas.

At fertilization. Outlawing plan B and potentially some IUDs (they prevent implantation but some also prevent fertilization, definitely a legal gray area with that law). It didn't even take Oklahoma until Roe was officially dead to go all the way to fertilization. And you guys said we're all crazy for thinking that's where the right was headed.

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General Comments / Re: CPAC in Hungary

« on: May 19, 2022, 02:42:49 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-YuZPT1NzM

Jordan Klepper goes to CPAC and Hungary if you prefer to laugh as you watch people advocate for the end of democracy.

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General Comments / CPAC in Hungary

« on: May 19, 2022, 02:40:33 PM »

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/18/1099680587/a-prominent-conference-of-american-conservatives-is-taking-place-in-hungary

Princeton sociologist Kim Scheppele, an expert on Hungarian politics, says Trump's relationship with Orban is different than the typical good relations an American president might have with a foreign leader.

"All of the international democracy rating agencies agree that Hungary is no longer a democracy. And the U.S. hasn't had a president be best buddies with a dictator before," Scheppele says.
...
"All the culture war campaigns have been used to disguise the fact that, by law, Orban has been limiting the democratic space. And he's done that particularly by rigging the election laws and then capturing all of the independent agencies that could tell him no," she said.
...
"What Orban has really perfected is how to keep reelecting leaders whose aspirations are absolutely not to maintain a democracy, but rather the opposite: to lock in power forever to a small group of people. When you raise that question now in the United States, people don't automatically say that's a bad idea."

What Orban is doing is not only not a bad idea to conservative thought leaders like Dreher, it's an existential necessity.

I guess the CPAC Republicans are being very open about their disdain for democracy, free press, and human rights. They'll yell freedom, gays, Mexican invasion, CRT, or anything that isn't their increasingly open goal of "we are intent on deconstructing democracy in America as long as we're the ones in charge when democracy dies."

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General Comments / Re: Cryptocurrencies

« on: May 19, 2022, 09:05:24 AM »

Should the perpetrators be able to get away with it with total anonymity though? Soros didn't when he crashed the pound and other currencies too. And now people can choose whether or not to do business with him or respect him as a person. But if Soros was just betting based on market conditions, this attack here was very different. It was directly, purposefully, with malice aforethought, causing the conditions.

Does the legality and morality depend a bit on who did it?

Was it some guy operating out of his mom's basement?

Was it a nation state like North Korea or Russia or Iran?

Was it a competitor in the crypto sphere or a competitor in the legacy financial sector that wanted to crash the market not just for a quick buck but to destroy an entire industry?
...

Probably legal. It was immoral. But also inevitable. As soon as crypto became shortable and people could make money off its value crashing, someone was going to figure out how to crash it and make bank.

The entire industry just uses massive amounts of computing power and electricity to solve math problems no one cares about. Its unsustainable. I'm really sorry you lost money in this investment. It sucks. But the only people who make money in crypto are people who get in early, hype it and get out before it crashes. Its a nice idea that there could be an agreed upon currency (value exchange) that isn't dependent on a government for creation and backing. But without a government backing crypto is just a confidence game. It has value while people believe it has value and if that belief gets shaken the value drops, if the value drops, the confidence drops, causing a nasty price spiral that goes down to zero.

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General Comments / Re: Madison Cawthorn, Too Stupid to Serve?

« on: May 19, 2022, 08:54:02 AM »

I'm glad Cawthorn will no longer be representing my state. I do find it kind of sad with all the stupid and illegal things he did the one thing that got the Republican party to turn on him was when he said that Republicans in congress were having orgies and doing drugs. I understand why they don't like that. But I don't understand why they tolerated everything else. I also don't get why they tolerate Greene and Gaetz. Gaetz is under a serious investigation for paying minors for sex. How can they not be trying to throw that guy under the bus?

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General Comments / Re: Cryptocurrencies

« on: May 19, 2022, 08:45:18 AM »

...
What your grasping at is that value is still vapor-like.  While crypto is different than any other currencies, you can still ask yourself why people accept dollars in exchange for real goods.  It's not because the dollar itself has a value, its because of a long confidence that the dollar means something.  Is it really different if its a government that represents 300m people that says it has value, or 300 million people not represented by a government that say something has value?
...

Taxes. Taxes make dollars valuable. Everyone has to pay taxes, property, income, etc. Therefore dollars are a needed commodity for people and businesses.

Your argument is that government issued currency's value is that the government accepts it back in satisfaction of tax payments.  That's so circular that it's scary. 

Honestly, if that were the basis for value the dollar would have died a long time ago.  People would hold and trade other assets and only convert to dollars when they had to for tax purposes.  In fact if that were the sole basis of value of the dollar it would be virtually impossible to calculate the value of the assets you actually receive and trade. 
...

That is largely what people do. Well people and companies who have a large excess of dollars. They buy stocks, bonds, real estate, and other investments when they have a large excess of dollars. Warren Buffet doesn't have 40 billion dollars sitting in his bank account. He probably has a couple million (at most) in checking and savings accounts. He only converts those investment holdings to dollars when he needs dollars for taxes or for some other large purchase.

And taxes have always been a driver of value of currency, particularly paper currency.

See the British hut tax. This is how they introduced paper currency to their African colonies.

The hut tax was a form of taxation introduced by British in their African possessions on a "per hut" (or other forms of household) basis. It was variously payable in money, labour, grain or stock and benefited the colonial authorities in four interconnected ways, by raising money; supporting the economic value of the local currency; broadening the newly introduced cash-based economy, which aided economic development; and integrating local communities into the new economic system.[1] Households which had primarily been rural ranchers or farmers proceeded to send members to work in the cities or on colonial government-sponsored construction projects to earn money to pay the tax.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hut_tax

The paper currency was tradable and valuable because everyone needed it to pay their taxes in. Afterwards it gains an inherent value of its own based on the strength of the economy but the root value of a paper based currency system is taxes. It means there is always a demand for the paper to pay taxes. There are also lots of practical reasons why a currency based economy is much more practical than a barter based economy. But the underlying value of any currency is that citizens of that country need to trade for it in order to pay their taxes.