But YOUR POSTS are quite literally "spreading hatred".Quote:
I mean, imagine if I were moaning at someone for smoking weed.
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But YOUR POSTS are quite literally "spreading hatred".Quote:
I mean, imagine if I were moaning at someone for smoking weed.
@nanners:
Keep it on topic. This isn't really about the fact that American news agencies are in the entertainment business, not the education business.
It's about 1 puff piece that you took seriously.
There's nothing in that puff piece that I find remotely believable, and I find it odd that someone whom is already opposed to CNN as a biased source suddenly treating a CNN puff piece like it's foretelling the future.
All I'm saying is maybe lay off the coffee, 'cause this is not going to amount to anything.
As for the side-track:
There's tons of corruption in this world. I do not have the social faculties to do anything about that. I'm simply terrible at trying to navigate large groups of people. I lack any ability to see into a deep social morass and find anything to latch onto which could help direct people toward being less fucking led by the nose. I'm not the one to help, here.
If playing with toys and showing physical phenomena to people will help them fight corruption, then I'm your guy. Otherwise, I'll let other people whom are good at that stuff do what they're good at.
I'll keep doing what I'm good at.
and the world will get along.
Just because I see why corruption exists doesn't mean I'm in favor of it. Just because I lack the skills to combat corruption doesn't mean I want people to be fucked over by the corrupt. All I can do, personally, is to try to keep myself aware of corruption and bias and to be vigilant against being manipulated by people whom don't have my best interests in mind.
As for me as an educator: I don't ever make an appeal to authority, since my position is to literally put something in front of a skeptical student and show them what's happening. I give them observations and I tell them what the current understanding in physics has to say about predicting the outcome of an experiment. I challenge them to find another solution which makes the same predictions, but which is simpler or which calls on different parameters to make that prediction. I am not a lecturer. My role is to literally put science in their lives, and avoid appeal to the authority of the textbook's author or their lecturer.
Actually, that's exactly what it is about.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey
Just one? Go through the links I've posted in just, say, the last two weeks. How many of these do there need to be before they stop being "puff pieces" and start becoming mainstream ideas. The most alarming thing about this piece is how 'ordinary' it is.Quote:
It's about 1 puff piece that you took seriously.
I'll admit though, the one where the NY times said "New Hampshire is too white" has me still heavily tilted more than a week later.
Check out Vox today. they're SO deranged over Trump's immigration policies that they actually produced a video saying that Trump gave us all the wrong idea about MS-13. They're not a violent drug cartel....they're kids with part time jobs who ride bikes! I'm not kidding. It's on Vox.com right fucking now.
Honestly man...how much weed do you have to smoke to be this chill? How do you not see the increasing violence and tribalism in this country. It's a powder keg ready to burst. Now I live in a place that the NY times calls "too white", so chances are I won't be caught at ground-zero when the idealogues finally start a legit civil war. But you.....you live in St. Fucking Louis.Quote:
All I'm saying is maybe lay off the coffee, 'cause this is not going to amount to anything.
Unless you have several guns, a few thousand rounds of ammo, and six months of food and water stocked in your basement....you're stupid.
WrongQuote:
There's tons of corruption in this world. I do not have the social faculties to do anything about that.
You're ignoring the line between setting a simple example and blending into the background noise. You don't have to be a vocal leader or activist for change. Just stay on the right side of that line.Quote:
I'm simply terrible at trying to navigate large groups of people. I lack any ability to see into a deep social morass and find anything to latch onto which could help direct people toward being less fucking led by the nose. I'm not the one to help, here.
That's supposed to be CNN!Quote:
I'll let other people whom are good at [fighting corruption] do what they're good at.
You're not giving yourself enough credit here. All banter aside, everyone in this forum (except maybe Jack) has an IQ that is well above average. Well above. Most people CAN'T "be vigilant against being manipulated". Most people are barely smart enough to read.Quote:
Just because I lack the skills to combat corruption doesn't mean I want people to be fucked over by the corrupt. All I can do, personally, is to try to keep myself aware of corruption and bias and to be vigilant against being manipulated
I know you guys like to rail on me for being stubborn, but this is one area I can honestly say my worldview has matured. For me, life hasn't been particularly hard. School was easy, so I got into college, that was easy too. I got a job in my field. I showed up on time. I did what I was asked to do. And life turned out pretty good. So for 30+ years, I just figured "Well look where I am, and it was easy. It's not difficult to be me. So fuck anyone who's struggling more than I am"
But the reality is there is a HUUUUUUGE chunk of society that is downright stupid. . They can't think critically. They can't articulate their ideas well enough to form coherent thoughts. They literally lack the cognitive ability to follow a fucking recipe. And something has to be done to protect these people from those that would take advantage of their naivete.
It's fine for you and I to expect each other to filter out the noise. But we're WAAAAAAAAY smarter than the average person. You're asking far too much from people if you expect them sort out fact from fiction themselves.
Who are you trying to convince here? Me? or you? Your whole job is an appeal to authority. Do you stand at the front of the class? Do your students call you "Mr./Prof. Monkey"? Do the students know that it will be YOU evaluating their performance and determining their level of success in class?Quote:
As for me as an educator: I don't ever make an appeal to authority,
And what if you happen to misrepresent the current understanding in physics? What's the accountability there?Quote:
I give them observations and I tell them what the current understanding in physics has to say about predicting the outcome of an experiment.
Your trolling needs to be less transparent to be effective really.Quote:
Originally Posted by OngBonga
A guy talking to six other guys on an internet forum, none of whom hold him up as any kind of authority (no offence Oskar) is hardly "spreading hatred". A guy who 1/3 of a country thinks is a hero has a lot more influence ldo.
The issue I think is more that Trump reflects, not incites, the kind of racist bigotry that's common in the U.S. Not everyone, and God forbid not banana, that paragon of human kindness and understanding, but enough people that it gives him support.
The problem is that by giving them a sympathetic authority figure he's also encouraging them to act on their dipshit views. Hence, Charlottesville, hence kidnapping brown children at the border, etc. etc.
It's the people who turn a blind eye to that, who say MAGA, witch hunt, Hillary, the stock market, he's just blowing off steam, it's their own fault, blah blah blah, who are the real turds. They're basically enabling a racist leader.
You're trying to put me in a box. I believe I'm on record saying something along the lines of: if you made every syrian refugee draw a picture of mohammed getting boned in the ass, that would make for a supremely effective vetting system. (obvious hyperbolic theoretical, if you cry hypocracy at this, you're an idiot) I hate theocrats and I hate islam, but I don't hate muslims and that's an important destinction. Immigration should be merrit based. Turning back all muslims is not a merrit based system. Everyone should have a right to a fair hearing. Blackmailing people into giving up their right to asylum by threatening to steal their children is not that.Quote:
Originally Posted by OngBonga
I have very clearly said, even if I got the amendments wrong: Those who believe they can fight back a tyrannical government, and who have used this as an argument against any type of gun reform every time there's a school shooting - if they could put that to the test when they feel Trump has been toppled by the deep state, I would be absolutely delighted to see them blown to bits.
I'm going to just drop the rest of this, because you can't seem to understand that I'm not talking about anything other than your reaction to a single puff piece.
You may want to talk about some greater ghost of lost ethics, but look at the history of political discourse in America and tell me where in the past 200 years things were different. There's 2 sides, roughly evenly divided and they're both full of overreacting howler monkeys.
Lol. You're the one who keeps insisting I'm a lecturing professor. I'm not. I'm the Physics Demonstration Technician.Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
I put physical demonstrations in the classroom, tell the faculty lecturer how to operate it and I walk away.
The interactions I have with students are when they approach me after a lecture and ask me to clarify the demonstration.
No. My job is to put physical apparatus in the classroom so that the students can make their own observations for the exact reason that otherwise the lecture is nothing but an appeal to authority. The presence of the demonstrations gives them their own observations, so that they don't have to trust anyone but themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
As they file into and out of the lecture hall, yes, I am standing behind the demos, ready to answer questions or explain the setup. If it's after their lecture, I invite them to play with the demo themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
No, they call me Sean.Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
If they try to call me Mr. or Dr., I make a lame joke that I'm scared that my dad has snuck up behind me.
Besides, I'm not Dr. anything, so just Sean is best.
Quite the opposite. They know that I have literally nothing to do with their grade in the course.Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
Then I apologize and correct myself. This is science. There's always room to say "oops."Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
These will be humanity's final words.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMojoMonkey
@MMM I guess I stand completely corrected. I really thought you had a better job
You're going full trainwreck again.Quote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
You criticized me as making an appeal to authority as though that's some problem with the entire world's education structure, and when you find out that I actually do the opposite, you can't even be a man about it. You gotta try and take a dig at me.
My job:
I play with toys all day. Some of those toys are lasers and tesla coils, and a thing that blows apart an empty soda can in 0.002 seconds without actually touching it. I'm surrounded by literal geniuses whom love what I love and are awesome at it. I get to make toys that put smiles on their faces, and making a good person smile is something I just can't get enough of. I get to interact with a cross section of young adults from all over the world whom never knew anyone could have so much fun doing science as I do, and I share with them my passion and curiosity and willingness to explore a question with toys. Which opens them up to be passionate about the scientific process as so much more than dry words on a page. I show them how a single raindrop contributes one tiny, tiny part of a rainbow, and that it takes millions, billions of drops to make the rainbow they see. I put smiles on their faces.
My job is so kickass and fun, when people see me do my job, they smile and want in.
You wish with you had my career satisfaction.
Mojo probably has the best job out of everyone left here.
https://np.reddit.com/r/greatawakeni...tupid/e3z0ybj/Quote:
I'm proud to be an American more and more every day, when Trump got elected I really thought that'd be my proudest moment.....but Q-Team's constant beast mode domination of the cabal makes me so thrilled to have survived the Obama years. To be clear as a person with severe Bipolar Depression who spent 7 of the 8 Obama years is psychiatric hospitals because I was hopeless for myself, my family & this country, Trump was the gift that allowed me to bring myself back to greatness and even become happy/healthy enough to get married. So watching Q-Team essentially shoot these fish as though they were in a barrel, I live for this type of American greatness on display. I love when Q-Team is loud and proud about how easily they can dismantle this stupid operation being run by SICK STUPID people.....if you can really call them that, to me they are SUB-human.
Sometimes I wonder if it is ingrained in me to never fall in line with vast empires that drown information channels with what they tell me I should believe.
#MAGA
#AltFacts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK3YcHYObHU
What's that now??? A Fox News pushing for the truth, even if it's Anti-Trump?
Weren't they supposed to be irredeemably biased? Weren't they supposed to be sucking Trump's dick all day long? Werent' they supposed to be the mouthpiece for the idiot Trumpers?
The world is made up of two different kinds of people: those who get their opinions from what they consume, and those who get their opinions from what they consume.
Even broken clocks tell the correct time twice a dayQuote:
Originally Posted by BananaStand
I get my opinion from what I eat.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
Perhaps someday it will not be necessary to have the ability to defend yourself against lethal force. To think today is that day is foolish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD_LUqr5M-A
Here's synthol man with the well known fact that liberals use babies for firewood as an example of how truth isn't truth.
Want a better example?
Michael Flynn discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador and then later told the FBI that he didn't.
The recordings show that they did indeed bring up the subject of sanctions. They spoke for maybe two thirds of a second on the topic. No specific action was taken. No recommendations were made. No advice was given. No requests were made. No negotiations took place. The conversation amounted to nothing more than a mutual acknowledgement that sanctions exist. The conversation was so innocuous that any reasonable person might immediately forget that it even took place. That's especially true if that person is charged with the multitude of responsibilities that come with being an incoming National Security Advisor.
Furthermore, anyone in that position would know, definitively, that telephone conversations with foreign agents are being recorded. There is ZERO chance that Flynn could reasonably believe that he could get away with lying.
FBI agents who took his statements are on record saying that they do not believe that Flynn was being deceitful. They believe that the most likely explanation for Flynn's contradicting statements is forgetfulness related to the insignificance of the conversation. Again, they are on record saying this.
Flynn's potential legal fees to effectively defend himself against this allegation far surpass his ability to pay.
Flynn's son was in some kind of legal trouble at the time. I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was bad. And after Flynn's guilty plea, suddenly his son is totally fine.
The statement "Flynn gave false statements to the FBI while under oath" is true. But it's not the truth
Do you get it now? Or do we have to do Popadopoulous next? Mueller is 2 for 2 in this game. Why in the world do you think Trump would ever consider an interview?
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...right-peterson
What's wrong Ezra? No one likes your stupid website anymore and now you're bitter huh?
Kanye pushing too many pencils at the CIA confirmed
https://i.redd.it/47qelchy5mr11.jpg
It's cute how Kanye rambles on incoherently just like Trump. Two of a kind.
Repeal the 13th!
Here's the guy Kanye wants freed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hoover
Kinda surprised no-one's leaping to defend Kanye's babbling as a 3D chess tactic to MAGA, rather than just the demented ramblings of a musical savant.
Swift came out in support of the democrats, it's over.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
In the USA the value of celebrity is way over the top.Quote:
Originally Posted by Savy
Yeah obviously but getting over 100k voters to sign up to vote even if only a relatively small % of them vote is fairly impressive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
That "racism" re-frame. Holy shit!
Can you explain why that's funny? Making a reference, which is wrong, is that funny now?
The left can't meme
Trump should explain to Kanye why he's a gay fish and he should be fully accepting of that. Whilst justifying shooting other black rappers.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
College taught me skills to understand people like Trump and Kanye. By listening.
Or maybe I brought that skill to college. Either way, I did very well with it (some professors' favorite student).
What's he saying here Wuf? Please translate it for me.
Quote:
There’s a lot of things affecting our mental health that makes us do crazy things that puts us back into that trap door called the 13th Amendment. I did say “abolish” with the hat on. Because why would you keep something around that’s a trap door? If you’re building a floor — the Constitution is the base of our industry, right? Of our country, of our company. Would you build a trap door that if you mess up and you — accidentally something happens, you fall and you end up next to the Unabomber? You end up — you got to remove all that trap door out of the relationship. The four gentlemen that wrote the 13th Amendment — and I think the way the universe works, it’s perfect. We don’t have 13 floors, do we? You know, so the four — the four gentlemen that wrote the 13th Amendment didn’t look like the people they were amending. Also at that point, it was illegal for blacks to read — or African Americans to read. And so that meant if you actually read the Amendment, you would get locked up and turned into a slave. Again — so what I think is, we don’t need sentences; we need pardons. We need to talk to people. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was connected with a neuropsychologist that works with the athletes in the NBA and the NFL. And he looked at my brain — it’s equal on three parts. I’m going to go ahead drop some bombs for you — 98 percentile IQ test. I had a 75 percentile of all human beings, but it was counting eight numbers backwards, (inaudible), so I’m going to work on that one. The other ones, 98 percent — Tesla, Freud. So he said that I actually wasn’t bipolar; I had sleep deprivation, which could cause dementia 10 to 20 years from now, where I wouldn’t even remember my son’s name. So all this power that I got, and I’m taking my son to the Sox game and all that, I wouldn’t be able to remember his name from a misdiagnosage. And what we need is, we can empower the pharmaceuticals and make more money. That’s one thing — I’ve never stepped into a situation where I didn’t make people more money. So we can empower pharmaceuticals, we can empower our industries, we can empower our factories. We can bring not only Adidas onshore, we can bring — Foxconn has set up a factory in, I think, Minnesota.
He said slavery still exists and it's in prisons (as codified in US law), he is very smart (an ideas guy like Tesla), and he wants people to make more money (when solving mental health problems).
Nothing new there. And no, repealing the 13th isn't the answer. He's just showing himself to be ignorant saying that.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
What ideas has he had that are:Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
a) original;
and
b) not related to music?
And if the answer is 'none', then why is he having an audience with the president? Doesn't the POTUS have more important things to do than have a photo op with a rapper?
And if Kanye's so smart, why does it take him 1000 words to say what you said in one sentence?
Noticed you skipped that reference, but it seems more apt than the one to Tesla. Freud talked a lot of shit too.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
Because pharmaceuticals don't make enough money already? Seriously, this makes no sense at all, and that's after it's been filtered.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
hahaQuote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
I am very impressed with you based on your favorable self-evaluation.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
So Wuf, what do you think of the NYT report about Trump using tax fraud to 'inherit' about a half bill from his old man?
I'd just ask if he thinks Trump has ever done anything that he objects to.
Wuf is a fiscal conservative, free market memer who loves a president who increased government spending, introduced massive tariffs, and signed a 6 billion dollar welfare check.
Trump was 100% correct when he said he could do literally anything and his core base would still follow him.
Please show me these.Quote:
Originally Posted by oskar
Be assured that I am 100% against policies with the end result of increasing government power at the expense of civil liberty.
Cool. Happy to have translated it!Quote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
Awesome!Quote:
Originally Posted by oskar
My first response is emotional. About NYT: I am emotionally against communist apologists and non-risk takers. I am also a big fan of Michael Crichton's Gell-Mann amnesia effect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
My second response is also emotional, because I don't care about "tax fraud". I do not believe that proceeds gained by initiation of violence are legitimate.
Well, that was basically my translation too.Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
"Gobbledygook. Prison reform. Gobbledygook. I'm really smart. Rambling gobbledygook. Word salad. I have ideas. Rambling nonsense. I like money."
Seriously, the guy should stick to making music. By all accounts, he's a wizard at it. But in the world of politics he has nothing to contribute. People will listen to him 'cause he's a celebrity, but he doesn't know any more about what's going on the world outside the recording studio than Taylor Swift, which isn't much.
In an alternate universe, this is Kanye as an old woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi2oIvFEGZU
My favorite contributions are his many incredible re-frames that are necessary base to solving some very big political issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
Are you saying you are unaware of the 6 billion dollar farmer bailout, the trade war and Trump increasing government spending? I have to "show you?"Quote:
Please show me these.
Trump is very unpopular with black voters, and there aren't many black celebrities to choose from who would endorse him. Just Kanye appearing in the white house made Trumps approval rating among black voters double from 10% to 22%.Quote:
Seriously, the guy should stick to making music. By all accounts, he's a wizard at it. But in the world of politics he has nothing to contribute. People will listen to him 'cause he's a celebrity, but he doesn't know any more about what's going on the world outside the recording studio than Taylor Swift, which isn't much.
This is theater. Nobody is going to vote for Trump on core issues. You can watch the rally interviews. You can see wuf right here: fiscal conservative choking himself on the cock of keynesian economics and loving every inch of it. This is all about feelings. They feel Trump is right. Trump is against every core issue Wuf was arguing for, but he supports him because:- gobbledygook.Quote:
My favorite contributions are his many incredible re-frames that are necessary base to solving some very big political issues.
Playing a word association salad game is making a 'contribution'?Quote:
Originally Posted by wufwugy
"Hey, prisons are full of black people. 13th amendment was about freeing black people. So repealing that amendment will fix the prisons."
"Hey, treating mental health costs money. I like making money. So treating mental health means making pharmaceutical companies money."
How about just admitting the guy makes no sense at all, but you're still happy he's supporting Trump 'cause you assume that will help him with black voters.
What's funny is that Kanye is so out of touch with his fan base that he thinks supporting Trump will make him richer.
Taylor Swift and Nike at least realise that the people buying their stuff are not old and white.
You know Banana kept calling me a demagogue. You know who's the real demagogue? The mechanic who does the annual checkups on my scooter. That fucker uses language straight out of Crime and Punishment to describe the condition of my wheels. Calm your tits there, Dostoevsky, you need to pace yourself with your adjectives so you have somewhere to go should you ever find the things you missed that I'm not telling you about!
He called us all demagogues. It was a total demagogue tactic on his part.
It seems Elizabeth Warren took a DNA test that showed she had a Native American ancestor(s) 6-10 generations back. So somewhere between 64 and 1024 great-greats ago at least one of them was a N. American. This woman is a fucking idiot claiming that a drop or two of N.A. blood in her from two centuries ago somehow contributes to her racial identity to the extent she can call herself "Native American." Fuck off.
Also, the average White American has more N. American blood that Elizabeth Warren. Double fuck off.
I think you might be missing an important part of that story.
What part is that?
Trump calling her Pocohantas, showing he's as willing to mock N. Americans as she is?
The promise of a $1m donation to charity by Trump if she proved her "ancestry"? Lol, that's never gonna happen. Surely no-one who knows anything about Trump needs that explained to them.
The fact she listed herself as Native American at Harvard? If she was NA so was half the faculty.
There's nothiing to excuse her dickbag phony pandering to the minority vote here. Zero. Zilch. The fact that she's spinning this <1% NA DNA test result as some kind of victory just shows what a slimy douchebag politician she is.
Really, Oskar, let's say you moved to some place in Africa where whites were a minority, and there was some visibly black liberal politician calling himself white because somewhere back in the 1700s he had a single white ancestor. Would you not think he was a total twat?
The Rs are praying the Ds put Warren up against Trump in 2020 because that's about the only chance he has. And if they do, they fucking deserve to lose not just that election, but the next three as well.
Yeah I don't get it, poop's mum is full of black yet he identifies as white.
This is just classic fighting the wrong battles.
Just because you're bored doesn't make it cool to bore the rest of us with the your momma jokes over and over. That shit stopped being funny when I turned 8.
Maybe it's just a coincidence that's when your mom started liking black guys?Quote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
You should better pick the parts of the conversation you want to continue. Just because you're racist doesn't mean we couldn't have had a nice chat about politics.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/har...eport-says.ampQuote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
It's not that it didn't work, it's that she even tried.Quote:
Originally Posted by oskar
Quote:
The Globe noted that Warren listed herself as a “minority” before Penn offered her a job. However, the law school’s dean and affirmative action officer wrote in a 1987 equal opportunity compliance statement form that Warren was the best candidate for her job despite being “white.”
The report also noted that nearly three years after she took the Penn job, she asked the university to change her listed ethnicity to “Native American.” A 2005 university publication noting a teaching award that she won a decade earlier listed her as a minority, the Globe added.
You worked on that for half an hour and that's the best you could come up with?Quote:
Originally Posted by Savy
If she did try to use it to get an advantage, that's bullshit, but it's really low on the list of things I care about. I certainly wouldn't get emotional over it.
It's not just that what she did was bad (it was), it's that the Ds are accepting her proof of <1% NA blood as somehow vindicating her claim to be NA, when they should be giving her shit for being such a sleaze.
Instead they're touting her as their next presidential candidate. And if she runs, Hispanics are going to vote more for Trump than they would against some other D candidate have because he's (rightly) been calling her out as a phony. The real NAs are going to find pretending to be NA about 100 times more offensive than calling someone pretending to be NA Pocahantas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Savy
WhooshQuote:
Originally Posted by Poopadoop
That guy in charge of the bone saw - damn, his face must be red right now.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/...ance-1.4864427
Didn't sound like they were sending their best and their brightest. I wouldn't want an apple watch in the room when I jack off, much less when I do business involving a bone saw. How inept do you have to be to not get rid of the smart devices for the duration of your murder.
Yeah something doesn't quite add up there. The Saudis send 15 guys, one with a bone saw, to interrogate a journalist?
Also, how does an interrogation accidentally turn into a murder? They asked him a question he didn't like and he attacked them, so they killed him in self defence?
Even if they were planning to kill and dismember him all along, I still don't see why they need 15 guys. You'd think three or four, or a half dozen at most, would be plenty.
Has this alleged smart-watch recording been released to the public, yet?
The article I read about it said it was claimed to exist, but not confirmed to exist.
At any rate, this is fucking nuts. Trump basically said, "Look, he buys property from me, spends millions of dollars, of course I like him. What am I supposed to do?" Telling world leaders that the USA will turn a blind eye to any and all transgressions so long as they pay Trump to ignore it.
Trump effectively announced to the world, "Yes, I'm corrupt. Here's how to buy me off." and half of America still supports him as MAGA.
People are weird. I don't understand.
The turkish government is very cautious with the material. The recording has not been released, and I believe the bone saw detail is a leak that is not being denied. What is pretty much confirmed is that 15 people, about half of which were in the princes very close circles were there and that they brought their top forensics expert. Last I heard they weren't even denying that these people were given orders from the prince, but they say it was to "interrogate" - not sure what kind of interrogation requires a forensics expert with a bone saw.
I'm not sure what you expect from Trump after he says he believe Putin over his own intelligence service and more recently declaring that he "fell in love" [sic] with Kim Jong Un. As to why: either he's demented or he is compromised in a way that he doesn't dare to say anything bad about the saudi prince, or both. I'm pretty sure there's a massive shitstorm coming out of Muellers office after the midterms. Weisselberg has immunity, and both Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort are cooperating, and Flynn, Papadopolopolus and Gates cut a deal. The only reason impeachment hasn't started is because they're waiting for the midterms to conclude.
I think his behavior will make a lot more sense in retrospect. My cautious prediction is that he's been laundering money for the saudi royal family.
Maybe Trump,along with the American people, care more about jobs than they do about missing journalists. I'm not defending anyone here, just explaining why we do business with these people, and why they think they can get away with this incident. Yemen is on the brink of famine, and people are more outraged about a random Saudi meeting his grisly end in a consulate. People are indeed weird.
There's definitely something that doesn't add up though, I mean they send their top forensics expert, and the Turkish authorities say they have found evidence in the consulate? Unless that "evidence" is a suspiciously clean environment, then he can't have been a very good forensics expert. And you'd think someone amongst this delegation would have heard of an Apple smart watch.
Also, the Turks say they have video evidence. Does that mean the consulate was bugged?
They understandably don't want to share information on how they spy on foreign nations. Turkey under Erdogan is not the most exemplary of nations, and they're not particularly friendly with SA, but there's also no precedent for them staging something like this, or reason for framing it as something it's not.Quote:
Originally Posted by OngBonga
The only job he cares about is his own. The job meme is ridiculous anyway. Yes unemployment is low, but there's no magic as to why. The entire world is coming out of a recession. Unemployment is going down in all countries. And while that's happening Trump decreased corporate taxes while increasing government spending and giving billion dollar cash injections to struggling sectors while also dismantling the EPA, deregulating environmental protection and pulling out of climate agreements. All that money he's spending is coming out of the national deficit. It's an artificial numbers boost that will blow up sooner rather than later.Quote:
Originally Posted by OngBonga
Gotta love when Fox News debunks the Trump.
I heard the suspicious evidence in the consulate includes fresh coats of paint in certain places. Hmm, wonder why they suddenly needed a touch-up?
Also, the media totally decides what Joe Public cares about. I only heard about the Yemen invasion through a Yemeni student of mine. It's just not good ratings to spill the beans on your allies. Kind of like when Israel does fuckity shit, I doubt most Americans hear about it.
And the only thing that surprises me any more about Trump is how he's just so brazen and obvious about what's he doing, and how his hard core fans still don't care. I guess that's a personality cult for you.
From what I understand from my Saudi friend, which is from a conversation we had years ago, the conflict between SA and Yemen goes back at least a decade, and it's not a 1-sided affair.
Granted, he knows what is news in his country, and much like America, it's mostly a story of what is done "to" us from around the world and how we've been provoked into a military response. The reality usually goes back a bit further and starts with the US poking their nose into other people's governance. So I'm sure his side isn't the whole truth, either.
Still. Yemen bombs have been hitting SA for a long time, and according to Saudi's, they are only striking back to prevent further attacks. It's not a campaign to occupy Yemen.
IDK if this is still the case. He and I speak maybe 2 or 3 times a year, since he's back in SA and I'm still in the US, and we don't talk international politics, we talk about our families and our work.
My point is thus: I believe there's more to the Saudi-Yemen conflict than is getting reported on in recent news.
The fact that painting SA as terrible foments the anti-Trump rhetoric is probably fueling this angle on the reporting, but ... it must be said ... I could be taking a Saudi's story of what he sees on his local news as more fact-based than I should. Especially when that news story is from almost a decade ago.
Yeah I don't really know more about the situation than my student told me, apart from a couple of snippets here and there. I just take the default attitude that a stronger country interfering in the civil war of a weaker country is being a cunt. Maybe not though.
The Saudis are indiscriminate.The Yemenis might well be too, but we're not supplying them with weapons. It is a war crime to indiscriminately shell residential areas, and it's a war crime to knowingly supply weapons for such purpose. It's a murky world and we're neck deep in the shit.
But it's ok, history will judge us kindly, since we write the history books.
I am really torn about the whole "killing civilians is a war crime" thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by OngBonga
It's something that a larger military force says to a smaller one that can't face them in direct conflict. The smaller force cannot openly fight the larger force, but they can still fight soft targets, hurting the larger force.
Whether or not that's moral really depends on which side you're on.
My dad worked for Boeing and designed the landing gear for F-15 fighter jets. Is he a civilian when F-15's are being used to drop bombs on people? Just because he worked for a contractor does it mean he contributed less to the deaths of those people? Just because he is a loving father whom was far removed from the violence inflicted by the war machines he helped to build... does that absolve him of responsibility for the use of those war machines?
If an enemy to America decided that destroying our ability to produce the planes which drop bombs on them was the best way to protect its people... can we really call that a war crime?
IDK. I really don't.
Killing civilians is an inevitability of war. It's just that when bombing the shit out of an enemy, there are rules about how you can and can't go about that business.
Trump has cautioned against rushing to blame the Saudis, saying they're being treated as innocent before proven guilty. Nice.
So... a retired Russian and his wife become ill in England, and Trump agrees with the UK that Russia are to blame. Meanwhile, a journalist goes missing the the Saudi consulate, but it might not be the Saudis.
I guess Saudi Arabia are a more important economic partner than Russia. Kind of shits on the idea he's a Russian puppet, but that was always a stretch anyway.
Dresden was probably a war crime. We shelled the shit out of that town in direct revenge for Coventry. It was pure bloodlust, there was no strategic reason for that. Is it ok because they did a terriblething first? No. It was possibly ok in the context of total war though.
It's hard for us to take the moral high ground on that since 500 died in Coventry, whereas >100k died in Dresden, so the response was out of all proportionQuote:
Originally Posted by OngBonga
Also, there's no evidence that killing civilians served any military purpose to either side.
Air Chief Harris should have been tried at Nuremberg along with all the Nazis really. Maybe Churchill too since he sanctioned it. But, lolwewon so that obviously wasn't going to happen.
The thing about the Koshoggi story is that it seems so, so, so obvious that the Saudis sent a 15-man hit squad to kill 1 nerd in an embassy.
Everything about the story is like, "So... you're not even trying to hide it, eh?"
Yet, the Saudis deny it.
It doesn't add up.
Why make the hit so obviously a hit and then deny it?
The original lie to his girlfriend, "Oh him? He left a while ago. You must have missed him." is so obviously BS.
They could have said so many other things to buy time, throw off the story, confuse things, but no... they go with, "we're obviously full of shit and are concealing something."
Dafuq?
It doesn't make sense to me.
Makes sense to Trump! Maybe if you were on their payroll, you'd understand.
There's 808 in one mass grave, with a total of approx 1200 dead, 80% of which died in the attacks of November 14/15 1940. My Nan was on lookout that night in Solihull, she witnessed the massive squadron of aircraft and knew something bad was happening. But yeah, still well short of the casualties in Dresden.Quote:
It's hard for us to take the moral high ground on that since 500 died in Coventry, whereas >100k died in Dresden, so the response was out of all proportion
I wasn't claiming moral high ground, simply arguing that in the context of total war, things aren't so simple. Total war means the deployment of civilian resources in a state of war, and that unfortunately means civilians are a more legitimate target.
It was a show of force.
Saudi Arabia and Yemen are not in a state of total war, so civilian targets are much less legitimate. Sure, no doubt the Yemeni military use schools and hospitals as bases to give them some kind of moral high ground when they get attacked, but that doesn't justify the indiscriminate bombing of residential areas. And, more to the point, it doesn't justify our weapons trade with the Saudis. We justify that by pointing to jobs... that's a terrible reason to sell weapons to oppressive giovernments.
Saudi oil will be gone during our lifetimes*, so I expect the US interests in SA will change soon enough.
*according to my friend, whom is an engineer working in Saudi oil. I definitely clarified to make sure I understood him correctly. I did. He said the oil is going to be gone before he is at retirement age, so he can't count on keeping his current job as a long-term career.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45923217
So, they admit he's dead but there's no body? So that guy with the bone saw was there why?
Also, lol Trump finds the Saudi claim 'credible'.
I am pretty hard to shock when it comes to Trump but when he called their explanation "credible" and "a great first step" I was stumped. They say that he got into a fist fight with 15 saudi's - accidentally got his fingers chopped off and killed, and their natural response was to saw him into pieces with the bone saw that they happened to have around and then... WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? I don't get why they even bothered releasing that statement. For anyone to call that credible... He has to be compromised. How else does this make any sense?
The problem is when you try to use logic to understand Trump. I'm pretty sure 90% of the time he has no fucking idea what's going on and just instinctively says the opposite of what any sane person would say. It's kinda uncanny really how he can manage to be inappropriate almost every opportunity he gets.
I know there's a ticker somewhere that keeps count of his lies, but there should also be one that keeps count of the times he's just wtfsayingthewrongthing.
It's the war economy, not "compromised". Even I find this indefensible. But Trump is no different to May here, both the UK and USA will continue to supply their weapons.
Is that what the new Nuremberg defense going to be? 'We were just fulfilling orders.'
Nuremberg? You think a Western leader ever stands accused in that court? He'll have to wait for Blair, Sarkozy, Obama and Bush to be tried, first.
I am so confused by this whataboutism shit. If you say: ok Trump did this, but Obama did THAT, why doesn't that absolve Obama? If Trump is justified because the other kids at the playground also do mean things, that should work both ways, right? So nobody is accountable for anything now.