• Joe Biden (+General Biden/Harris Administration)
    Now, however, McCarthy seems to think it's a boast! As if 'being an adult' is something the brag about. But then, I guess with the company he's keeping, it kind of makes sense, sad though that may be.Wayfarer

    Reminds me of the skit from Chris Rock "I take care of my kids!" as if it's a boast "you're supposed to you dumb fuck!"

  • Joe Biden (+General Biden/Harris Administration)
    Section 1512(c)(2) makes it a crime to “corruptly ... otherwise obstruct[], influence[], or impede[] any official proceeding, or attempt[] to do so.” Federal prosecutors have used § 1512(c)(2) to charge individuals for conduct such as falsifying evidence to influence a federal grand jury investigation and tipping off the target of a grand jury proceeding about an undercover operation. Numerous individuals involved in the unrest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, have also been charged under the provision in the same jurisdiction where the Indictment has been filed. In one such case, United States v. Fischer, a split D.C. Circuit panel held that Section 1512(c)(2) “encompasses all forms of obstructive conduct,” including “violent efforts to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.” — Congressional research service
  • Joe Biden (+General Biden/Harris Administration)
    Who are you talking to since nobody here said that? Although there's tons of obvious things to say about the equivocation you're suggesting. A rather callous and cavalier attitude to the storming of a government building and the deaths that followed by suggesting they are the same.

    Of course, if you're only wanting to make the inane point that crimes should be prosecuted irrespective of who committed them then this is so obvious you'll not find anyone here to disagree.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Without some kind of explanation of how they worked, it's hard to take the yacht story seriously.Tzeentch

    I agree that the "experts say it's possible" is weak and it would be great if they'd give some more information on it why they say so. But that statement is lifted from the official investigators intermediary reports so probably isn't disclosed because they're not done yet with the investigation.

    The damage on the loading bay was consistent with "heavy equipment/machinery". I think forensic research can probably tell what damaged it if they really wanted to. Traces of explosives and other things could have been found as well.

    But even if that all bears out, it still doesn't answer whether this was a false-flag operation or not.
  • Joe Biden (+General Biden/Harris Administration)
    He claimed the doors were usually open. If that's true then looking to open fire/emergency exit doors on purpose is possible.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    Oh, plenty of vision but solely aimed at making profit. The fundamental problem is that "the economy" or "the market" has become the goal and measurement of all human endeavour and there's a small group of people and countries this benefits. Until we can turn this around, hexing economies work for the benefit of humanity we will not solve global warming.

    I sincerely believe we will have to retreat into regional communities again and trade in the iPhone upgrade for actual connection with neighbours and nature.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    That's all based on a hunch though and other than Hersh's unidentified sources there's no evidence for it at this point in time. The estimates was hundreds of pounds of TNT btw, so not at impossible as you might think, and I don't know what your list of equipment is based on.

    In any case, I'm not in favour of any specific scenario since the information simply isn't there but I do assign a decent probability to this group of people being involved. How much deeper it goes is another question.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    @Tzeentch you might want to watch the Nieuwsuur episode from last Tuesday if you haven't seen it yet. https://www.npostart.nl/WO_NTR_20079363

    It reconfirms the Ukraine hypothesis but they stop at making a link to the government. I wonder how private players can get their hands on TNT without consent ow knowledge from the local authorities. There has to be an evidence trail of multiple witnesses somewhere.

    My personal most likely scenario is that either this was ordered by or done with the knowledge of the Ukrainian government. In the latter case they chose not to intervene.

    The second most likely is that it doesn't stop there and other EU(?) countries were involved.

    The third is a US or Russian submarine and all this is a big distraction. And here I find US involvement more likely due to the interests involved.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    How do you go from global numbers to US numbers?

    And it could be far less if people would be prepared to consume less. The problem is that people just assume sustainability is doing the same but greener. We really need a system change more than investments.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    Enemies are subjects of a foreign government that is in open hostility with the United States.
  • Let’s play ‘Spot the Fallacy’! (share examples of bad logic in action)
    You can read the thread I replied to yes? It's a simple straw man fallacy by representing the mathematical argument as a paradox of actual motion.
  • Let’s play ‘Spot the Fallacy’! (share examples of bad logic in action)
    I already answered your question 5 years ago: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/181078

    A lot of you are missing the point when they start applying Zeno's paradox to real world circumstances. It was an allegory for a mathematical argument he was having with other Greek philosophers. It isn't intended as a theory of motion but as argument against the then prevailing idea that a mathematical line is build up of points (atoms) and a finite number could not be divided infinitely (again, atoms!). It's an argument against there existing an indivisible mathematical quanta that they thought existed at the time.

    As a mathematical argument it's quite good and easily imagined but the allegory is just an aid for understanding the mathematical argument not intended as to say anything sensible about the real world. So once you realise it isn't about physical reality, the paradox disappears.
    — Benkei

    Lazy with the search function, eh? :wink:
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    He needs Trump to have literally said "I want to overturn the election". He'll be the guy when a mobster sends a chopped off horse's head that says: "It's not a threat. He's taking care of that poor family by sending them fresh meat!"
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)
    This land is your land, this federal government is your federal government. It’s not just the sole province of people in the metro D.C. area. — corrected Paul Dans quote

    The argument for more participatory democracy in a nutshell but instead they prefer to vest all power in the President and defund all countervailing powers. The performative contradiction alone makes me giggle.
  • Coronavirus
    Anybody who saw what happened in Italy could've known. And I remember images from NY where people were stacked in the corridors needing ventilators but there obviously were not enough around.

    Governments had let slide pandemic reserves, tossed their playbooks when it did happen (if they had one) and most of them didn't define exit strategies. They (western European countries) screwed over healthcare personnel to boot (we'll applaud you but fuck your raise after we've cut your budget in the past 2 decades), who understandably left in droves, leaving healthcare in shambles in many countries. Waiting lists are the longest ever in the Netherlands.
  • Coronavirus
    I suppose the covid policy that we were all forced to comply with did him no good.Merkwurdichliebe

    Presumably countless others like him were saved.
  • Coronavirus
    Nonsense. You yourself equated the damage to heavy exercise. There are plenty of people from whom heavy exercise would be potentially dangerous, so you're just contradicting yourself at this point.Tzeentch

    You're equating it. I said heavy exercise causes myocardial injury. These are different things but as usual you're being an idiot.
  • Coronavirus
    come to think of it. You can also get a shot of stress of hold your breath really long and you'll get the same level of troponin too. Ooihhh, adverse effects! Fuck of man and get real.
  • Coronavirus
    Yes, it is listed as being very rare, whereas myocardial injury is apparently very common. To list one and omit to other I find misleading. Period.Tzeentch

    No it isn't. Campbell is the one misleading here and you're too stupid to realise it even after I spoonfeed you why. Headaches, nausea etc. aren't harmless as they could indicate much worse conditions and are actually effects people notice. The worse condition that myocardial injury could indicate is myocarditis or pecocarditis, which are included. Transient myocardial injury in itself (eg. an elevated level of substance) is harmless and therefore not an adverse effect.
  • Coronavirus
    Myocarditis is included. Transient myocardial injury is automatically included under myocarditis. Transient myocardial injury isn't an adverse effect. Otherwise the consequences of exercising would be too. Myocardial injury can be an adverse effect If it isn't transient.
  • Coronavirus
    By the way, you realise that heavy exercise will show the same levels of myocardial injury? Because that's what you're arguing about at the moment. John Campbell is an idiot or a lying sack of shit. The sooner you realise this, the better.

    The question really is now why you're married to his false statements that you've been arguing in favour of it this entire day.
  • Coronavirus
    I don't find that very compelling.Tzeentch

    No, you rather not figure things out for yourself and prefer to listen to some dipshit on youtube because it fits your preconceived notion of bad government.
  • Coronavirus
    Myocarditis and myocardial injury aren't the same.

    Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium diagnosed by established histological, immunological, immunohistochemical, and molecular criteria; endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is necessary to achieve a diagnosis of certainty and identify its cause.

    Myocardial injury is defined by only one criterion: the elevation of cardiac troponin, with at least one value above the 99th percentile upper reference limit.

    Only one of these is actually dangerous, the latter is a measure of myocardial damage but obviously if it's transient, there's no actual damage.

    You seem to be extremely agitated at the idea that a medical professoinal asks critical questions when such a discrepancy is brought to light. Why is that?Tzeentch

    Because he's not a professional, just a former nurse whose bullshit I can even unravel as a total layman with the ability to read. He's a sack of shit.
  • Coronavirus
    it's in Dutch so maybe you understand this "bijsluiter". This is for Cominarty. Maybe next time do some research before believing that asshole shill. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/comirnaty-epar-product-information_nl.pdf
  • Coronavirus
    I'm not sure who you think you're fooling if you are seriously arguing this was all common knowledge when people were being vaccinated en masse. Yourself, perhaps?Tzeentch

    The clinical trial reports were publicly available and there was no actual risk. Why report on something that wasn't a risk? Or are you actually thinking myocardial injury equates with a heart attack?
  • Coronavirus
    Oh, that must be why the clinical trials of Novavax already showed "an increased risk of myocarditis".

    Classy opening, by the way. Yea, I'm sure Campbell is the idiot here. :roll:Tzeentch

    I'll correct my statement. He's an immoral asshole who goes on youtube telling lies. I hope he dies sooner rather than later.
  • Coronavirus
    Campbell is an idiot.

    From the study he cited:

    Hospital employees scheduled to undergo mRNA-1273 booster vaccination were assessed for mRNA-1273vaccination-associated myocardial injury, defined as acute dynamic increase in high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T(hs-cTnT) concentration above the sex-specific upper limit of normal on day 3 (48–96 h) after vaccination withoutevidence of an alternative cause. To explore possible mechanisms, antibodies against interleukin-1receptor antagonist(IL-1RA), the SARS-CoV-2-nucleoprotein (NP) and -spike (S1) proteins and an array of14 inflammatory cytokineswere quantified. Among 777 participants (median age 37 years, 69.5% women), 40 participants (5.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.7–7.0%) had elevated hs-cTnT concentration on day 3 and mRNA-1273 vaccine-associated myocardial injury was adjudicated in 22 participants (2.8% [95% CI1.7–4.3%]). Twenty cases occurred in women (3.7%[95% CI 2.3–5.7%]), two in men (0.8% [95% CI 0.1–3.0%]). Hs-cTnT elevations were mild and only temporary. No patient had electrocardiographic changes, and none developed major adverse cardiac events within 30 days(0% [95% CI 0–0.4%]). In the overall booster cohort, hs-cTnT concentrations (day 3; median 5, interquartilerange [IQR] 4–6 ng/L) were significantly higher compared to matched controls (n=777, median 3 [IQR 3–5]ng/L,p<0.001). Cases had comparable systemic reactogenicity, concentrations of anti-IL-1RA, anti-NP, anti-S1,and markers quantifying systemic inflammation, but lower concentrations of interferon (IFN)-λ1(IL-29) andgranulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) versus persons without vaccine-associated myocardial injury.

    Conclusion: mRNA-1273 vaccine-associated myocardial injury was more common than previously thought, being mild and transient, and more frequent in women versus men. The possible protective role of IFN-λ1(IL-29) and GM-CSF warrant further studies.

    Big fucking yawn.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    As I said, you just come up with shit so you feel good about yourself doing fuck all. It's the same why oil companies are so keen on wanting carbon capture work but of course have governments pay for it. That way they don't have to stop what they're doing. You want a magic bullet (fusion) so you don't have to do shit, a government to do shit for you, a religion to convince others to do what you won't do out of free will (I guess; I haven't exactly read the hair-brained idea of convincing 8 billion people to change religion but hey, very unhelpful bullshit as usual) and every other thing you mention as a reason not to do anything.

    The technology is already there, the awareness is there but hey, let's just keep doing what we're doing. What I contribute is less than the global average and I set aside about 3% of my income each year to finance further reductions. Isolate your home maybe get some solar panels, ompartimentalise your heating system so you only warm rooms you're using, use a bike to get around, consume less, buy second hand, torch all advertisement. You'll save money, get healthier and be happier. It's not new or ground-breaking. In fact, it's all very easy unless you're poor. That's really the only excuse to do nothing.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    Let's just assume there's competing narratives. How do you tell which one to subscribe to? Assuming it's not false reporting, a majority of scientists state there's a climate crisis and biodiversity crisis looming or already there. Obviously, from a purely logical standpoint I can't claim "the climate crisis is happening because almost all scientists say so" but heuristically that's how we tend to have to operate. And to an important extent the IPCC reports do try to make the science understandable to laymen, if you've read it.

    So I kind of miss what exactly is the relevance of pointing out that it's a narrative to assume the science in favour of the global warming hypothese is right or a "fact"? Technically those claims go to far but for the purposes of discussion I've found alternative narratives easy to disprove. The bigger problem is the moral apathy and cynicism of some posters - which I feel regulary but choose to ignore because I owe that to future generations. Even if we can't stop it, mitigating it will go a long way.

    Other than that, good quotes from Marcuse!

    Any good textbook on global warming will have a section on the philosophical challenge of climate change: that this problem will always be with us as long as coal is around to burn. As a species, we have no experience addressing a problem that extends beyond about a hundred years. This problem extends for thousands upon thousands. The real problem is time.frank

    The real problem is people like you insisting the problem is too big, too difficult, too whatever reason you can dream up to do fuck all. It's just moral weakness.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    Nothing of the sort. I just think most of your posts in this thread are vapid and devoid of any semblance of a moral backbone. I've yet to discover a substantive post or anything respectable in this thread from you.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    We're not fucked, the human race isn't fucked, so let's fuck the next xx generations. You're a sad case you know that?
  • Strikebreaker dilemma
    Yep, they seem to be pretty Marxist to me...javi2541997

    Any social democrat, eg. centrist and anything to the left of that has similar ideas. It's not really marxist.
  • Strikebreaker dilemma
    Yes, and given such history it's so annoying you get these ideological fundamentalists proclaiming the evils of collective action when it's unions and governments but when it's corporates it's all "no problem mate! Markets are super efficient!". Which is true, I guess, if you don't give a shit about your fellow man.
  • Strikebreaker dilemma
    @javi2541997 Here's some Spanish history on unions and how you got an 8 hour workday.

    In February 1919 the Catalan Regional Conference (part of the CNT, an anarcho-syndicalist union) organized a strike at the Barcelona offices of a Barcelona electrical company, because they fired people for attempting to form a union.

    When they didn't listen the CNT escalated and organized a strike at the electricity generation plant. This plunged Barcelona into darkness and stranded trams on the streets.

    So the Spanish state send in the military to restore power.

    So naturally this caused the strike to further escalate now including most of the city's gas, water, and electricity workers. Not to mention the solidarity strikes, outside of Barcelona, happening in Sabadell, Vilafranca and Badalona.

    On March 8 the Spanish state responded by militarizing the reservists working in these fields, threatening them with being confined to barracks, if they don't break the strike.

    Which of course ended in the only obvious consequence. The tram workers and carters who transported essential goods also joined the strike.

    And almost none of the militarized workers broke the strike leading to the government locking 800 of them up.

    These workers were than supporterd by the printers union, which refused to publish the proclamations of the Spanish state or articles that opposed the strike.

    Not even the statement by the company saying that everyone who wouldn't return the work would be fired was printed.

    Throughout this whole strike the CNT sought to win their demands by mobalising a lot of large amounts of workers and using tactics like sabotaging the transformers and power cables.

    At this point the CNT's strike committee were in a position where they could negotiate with the ruling class and force them to increase wages, pay worker's wages for the period that they had been on strike, recognise the union, grant an eight hour day and reinstate fired workers.

    This whole thing was so threatening that the prime minister declared the 8 hour day for the whole construction industry (and later expanded it to all industrie) just to calm them down.

    This is a great example of how solidarity can be an extremely strong weapon, being able to shut down whole city's.

    A following strike to release a number of prisoners who were not released sadly failed, through state repression using martial law, but what was achieved is still incredible. And it is also absurd how much the strike grew. Remember this conflict started with a company firing a couple of people for trying to build a union.
    Lonely_traffic_light

    Viva la Unión!
  • Taxes
    People are atoms. All relationships are transactional. I'm an idiot homo economicus. It's tiresome to read ideological screeds from wannabe Thatcherites and Reaganites that missed the last 40 years of economic research.
  • Strikebreaker dilemma
    &Yes, income was the wrong choice of words by me.

    There's no one way to arrange this and I suspect you have much more information and "insider" knowledge to know everything that's wrong with the Greek system. The Dutch system looks horrible a lot of the time as well but pretty good when compared to UK or USA, for instance.

    I think we could relax employee protections provided we create a good safety net. That should include options to learn new trades at no cost and substantial efforts in combatting discrimination (age, sex, ethnicity, etc.) would go a long way as well.

    The other side of the coin of employee protections is also that employees feel safe to speak out against corruption or to challenge management views. And diversity of views makes for more profitable companies as well. It's very hard to get fired in the Netherlands as well, probably not much easier than in Greece (if at all, I haven't compared the two). The problem is often that those advocating for relaxing employee protections do it for the wrong reasons (the ephermal market) and would double-down by also cutting unemployment benefits or otherwise make life harder for the unemployed as a perverse incentive to force them to work as soon as possible. Whereas we're probably better off (morally as well as economically) with people doing what they want to do instead of what they have to do to avoid starving.
  • Strikebreaker dilemma
    I've never been a union member but I'm a trained human rights lawyer. People underestimate the good unions have brought because especially Americans are hung-up on the mob influence on the unions in the past. It's not representative of its history.

    You'd still be working six days a week, starting at 8 AM until past midnight (90+ work week, hooray), no holidays, no paid leave for family deaths or health issues. They ended indentured labour. Women would still not be voting because mass protests wouldn't be accepted and women's suffrage movement would never have been possible. And they did all that in the face of corporate and government backed violence. When unions were most powerful, income inequality was lowest.

    Do not underestimate the good we enjoy now that we only have thanks to unions. Those early unionists were some of the bravest and morally upright persons, who not only fought for their own good but that of all labourers, even those who weren't brave enough to stand up for themselves.
  • Literary writing process
    Is there anyone who'd like to proofread my first few chapters to see whether I'm on the right track with world-building and initial character exposition? It's hard sci-fi set in 2130, dystopian, corporate, corrupt and polarized.