I do say that this country has not been the same since the CIA blew his brains out in broad daylight on behalf of the deep state. — fishfry

So you’re with Oliver Stone on this one I guess.

Seems silly to me. I don’t care that much, to be honest— could be true. What actually changed my mind was NOVA’s assessment:



Worth watching. They dismantle a lot of misinformation.

Chomsky is full of shit on the JFK assassination by the way. — fishfry

Does he say much about it? I recall him focusing more on Vietnam and Cuba.

Anyway…Your credibility continues to wane. First repeating conservative talking points, then echoing Oliver Stone conspiracy theories, now claiming Noam Chomsky is a “CIA asset.” Oof..

Wallace Shawn is fantastic. Great scene.

Dare I ask why you say that? — fishfry

But nevermind. I don't necessarily need to have this conversation. — fishfry

Fine. Chomsky says it better than me, though (at 1:36):




Also recommend “Rethinking Camelot.”

"Leader" isn't a character trait, but a social position. Leaders have followers. — Moliere

Okay, sure. But whatever the traits are that a leader possesses, it’s usually not passivity. Being confident, outspoken, have clear goals, being persuasive, perhaps even arrogant, manipulative, and domineering (if one is a bad leader, in my view).

It’s a shorthand.

The rule is "Leaders have followers" -- so if someone doesn't want to do anything because it won't matter anyway and everyone else follows them then "waiting around for something to happen" is the state of affairs, not the rule. The rule is "Follow the leader", and the leader has various disgruntled reasons for convincing everyone to not put in any effort. — Moliere

:chin:

Well in that case, you’re right: there are a lot of leaders after all!

What rating & time control? I'm around 1900/2000 level on chess.com at 10 minute. I wouldn't typically mention this in conversation. — BitconnectCarlos

Nice.

It varies because I often play stupidly just to try new things, because it’s fun and I don’t care much about the points. I think I could play at 1950 or so at 3 minutes consistently, which is my favorite time, if I played to win every game (which sometimes gets boring because it involves taking advantage of little gains).

Anyway— like I said, not amazing. Maybe above average, but I’ve never studied it formally and would be destroyed by anyone who has.

Incidentally, I have played a few guys in New York at the famous Union Square for money, and won each time. But again — that just likely proves they’re not that good and are used to taking advantage of random people.

I also find that there many different types of intelligences (social, emotional, mental, etc.) — BitconnectCarlos

Yeah, me too. But I don’t see many taking the lead on anything— I guess that’s the point. Everyone’s waiting for something to happen.

I do think that being a big fish in a small pond does elevate some to be big fishes in big ponds as well. — Hanover

Good point— but I wonder how often. I would think mostly they’re just crushed.

You have to have passion or you just won't do it. — Hanover

Yeah, and maybe that’s all it comes down to: few have truly any real passion. Or I haven’t encountered it much in life. Maybe just bad luck for me, who knows. But I wonder.

And regarding chess, you sound like a big fish in a small pond. — BitconnectCarlos

Without question. Playing on chess.com shows me that. Above average, but nothing exceptional. Even @Hanover beat me for God’s sake. But the point being that in situations less amenable to real proof, one can go on wondering…

A good lounge topic.

I have no idea what it’s called.

This is what makes it disappointing - to see intelligent people rationalizing the despicable
actions of Trump and his flunkeys. It’s depressing. — Wayfarer

This and climate change. Those two issues are so easy and so obvious that a child can understand them, and yet individuals who would otherwise fool you into believing they’re sharp thinkers simply cannot grasp them.

To me, both are a kind of litmus test. I used to think it was belief in God (“how can anyone rational really belief this?”), but that’s changed. Actually it’s rather similar, since the dogma and brainwashing of Christianity has largely shifted to politics, and so to education, science, medicine, etc. A lot of overlap. But still, I’m much more forgiving of religious beliefs these days — seem almost quaint and harmless compared to the Trump cult, anti-vaxxers, climate deniers, book banners, etc.

It is indeed depressing, but shows how easy it is to get lost and let irrationality take over. Happens to the best of us.

In Fishfry’s defense, he’s certainly far from the worst of it — just skewed on where the emphasis gets placed and a lot of false equivalence — and there’s a lot of truth in it, to the both-sides stuff. Always has been. Because there really IS a lot to criticize in either party, and the hypocrisy that gets pointed out IS real.

For example, it’s true that there was some violence and destruction of property in the 2020 protests, yes. It’s true that the people who generally agreed with the values downplayed a lot of it, despite condemning it. It’s true that the conservative media ran NOTHING BUT these negative stories, to the point where you might have been convinced entire cities were being burned down and the world was falling into anarchy and being consumed by fire.

But most of us are already beyond that analysis. Getting stuck in the endless hypocrisy accusations is boring and tiresome and regressive, and usually serves as nothing more than a cover for one’s thinly-veiled partisanship. If you want to pretend you’re independent but deep down feel that one side is a bigger threat, then that will eventually come out. Look where the emphasis gets placed. I do this too. But I don’t hide it under the cover of “both sides.” The Republicans and Trump are more dangerous in my view— period. So I vote against them because I don’t want them in power. Why? Because it makes it that much harder to make any progress. But that’s not an endorsement on Biden or the Democrats, whom I loathe. But they’re NOT the same.

Eh…rambling over. Bottom line: stop overthinking things. Stop the gaslighting. Forget the culture war nonsense. And for God’s sake, enough with the fucking both-sides Nickelodeon analysis.

You'll ignore a summer of deadly rioting — fishfry

Hysterical. Childish.

Handful of unarmed clowns in costumes. Guess you missed the leftists interrupting Kavanaugh hearing. — fishfry

:rofl:

Totally unbiased analysis. Very convincing.

Since November 22, 1963. — fishfry

Oh Christ. Yeah, the day one of the worst presidents in history gets shot — all downhill from there. Please.

Another excellent explainer by Vox. Goes to show how silly the US's system is.

Would you rather live in a world run by Israel or Hamas? I think we both know the answer to that. — RogueAI

You mean Likud or Hamas. Neither, because I dislike terrorists.

Would I prefer to live in Israel or Gaza? Israel, hands down. But that’s exactly the point.

If you have the right belief system, killing people is fine.

Like the US in Iraq: spreading freedom and democracy. The “right” values. You have to burn a few babies alive to spread your superior Western values? Thems the breaks I guess.

How sickening.

No, Hamas and much of the Arab world fight for a belief system that oppresses women and LGBTQ people — RogueAI

Sorry, but war is hell. Collateral damage.

Oh and the IDF fight for a belief system of apartheid and ethno-nationalism. No thanks.

aware of any civilian casualties.” — RogueAI

Oh, cool! What a shocker. I’m sure Israel has the capability for precise targeting, after all, and that no innocent people will be among the dead.

Nothing to see.

All roads lead back to WW2. — RogueAI

How tiresome.

By that logic, Hamas is also justified in what they did. Innocent people die in war — “too bad.” I suppose the Israelis shouldn’t demand justice for all the dead civilians. War is hell.

Another day, another “accidental” bombing of a school and innocent people being murdered. But war is hell and collateral damage and Hamas etc.

Looks like women are our last best hope. — RogueAI

Could be.

The planet just marked a “shocking” new milestone, enduring 12 consecutive months of unprecedented heat, according to new data from Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service.

Every single month from June 2023 to May 2024 was the world’s hottest such month on record, Copernicus data showed

12 Months of Records

Turning the planet into Venus seems to be the goal.

Electric Cars Are Suddenly Becoming Affordable

More (somewhat) good news. Thinking my next car will be a used EV.

More efficient manufacturing, falling battery costs and intense competition are lowering sticker prices for battery-powered models to within striking distance of gasoline cars.

It is interesting to watch Stewart in his old show again after nearly a decade. So much less cringey than how other “talk show hosts” handle these things, in part because he prioritizes humor.

It’s fun that he’s back for the election.

I read what you said very well, and it’s obvious where you’ve gotten your information, what you’ve been taken in by, and where you stake your assumptions.

This is obvious because I (and others), unlike you, follow this stuff closely. You show up spouting talking points straight from conservative media, Trump tropes and other bromides that we’ve seen many times and which are indeed boring and ignorant. It’s “Well Hillary was an election denier too!” and similar statements. If you really see it as the same thing from what Trump was doing and continues to do, then “reason and logic” really doesn’t apply to you, and you deserve exactly what you’ve gotten.

It's the unequal and politicized application of the law that even some on the left are deeply concerned about. — fishfry

Let the Clintons and Bidens be jailed too for all I care. The Republicans were trying for years and continue to try. Their cases are so stupid it’s not worth discussing— what they should be doing is going after stock trading and other issues like that, but because they’re just as culpable, they won’t.

So it’s not unequal — for anyone paying attention, it’s been happening for years. See Clinton 1998 or Hillary’s emails or the current impeachment “inquiry” into Sleepy Joe. Trump’s hush money case is small potatoes, but because he’s such a moron and so blatantly corrupt, it’s easy to win in court. That’s the real difference. The other cases — like overthrowing an election — are more serious.

buzzwords — NOS4A2

:rofl:

Carry on.

The most abject conjecture and persistent appeal to authority is their highest degree of evidence — NOS4A2

Says an election denier, a climate denier, and a Trump defender. :rofl:

Not that much riding on some rambling imbecile on the internet. Just come to this thread to laugh a little and go about your day.

Up is down and black is white. Don’t try to reason— just enjoy the show. Trump is perfect— the rest follows.

There are plenty wrongly convicted felons. — NOS4A2

:rofl: Yes yes!!

Please continue your incomprehensible defense of this degenerate con man. It’s comedic gold.

Trump hasn’t committed any crimes — NOS4A2

:rofl:

He’s a felon. Just convicted. Maybe you didn’t hear about it.

Biden family corruption is the real problem. — NOS4A2

Yes! Lol. Thanks for getting back to your funniest material.

Wait let me do one: “Trump is the greatest president in history and had the biggest inaugural crowd ever.”

It might be the soy shots, Xtrix. — NOS4A2

Xtrix is my old screenname. And what’s “soy shots”? You mean steroid shots?

Does literally everything you write have to be absurd and incoherent? It’s like a natural law.

Anyway, stick to the stuff where Trump has never committed crimes and the real issue is Hunter Biden, etc. Much funnier than when you try to be.

Unlike spouting bullshit, which need not be cited. Leaves you off the hook.

Biden is attempting to imprison Trump. — NOS4A2

Trump never committed any [crimes] — NOS4A2

:rofl:

Stop! My abs hurt.

Violent protesters were let off easy for razing city blocks, but if you take a lectern or put your feet on Pelosi’s desk your thrown in the gulag for years. — NOS4A2

:rofl:

These stats from the Gaza Health ministry? — BitconnectCarlos

Someone’s obsessed with defending genocide.

Many of us focused on the problem of climate change have been waiting for the day when renewable energy would become cheaper than fossil fuels.

Well, we’re there: Solar and wind power are less expensive than oil, gas and coal in many places and are saving our economy billions of dollars. These and other renewable energy sources produced 30 percent of the world’s electricity in 2023, which may also have been the year that greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector peaked. In the United States alone, the amount of solar and wind energy capacity waiting to be built and connected to the grid is 18 times the amount of natural gas power capacity in the queue.

So you might reasonably conclude that the market is pivoting, and the end for fossil fuels is near.

But it’s not. Instead, fossil fuel interests — including think tanks, trade associations and dark money groups — are often preventing the market from shifting to the lowest cost energy.

Similar to other industries from tobacco to banking to pharmaceuticals, oil and gas interests use tactics like lobbying and manufacturing “grass-roots” support to maximize profits. They also spread misinformation: It’s well documented that fossil fuel interests tried to convince the public that their products didn’t cause climate change, in the same way that Big Tobacco tried to convince the public that its products didn’t harm people’s health.

But as renewables have become a more formidable competitor, we are now seeing something different: a large-scale effort to deceive the public into thinking that the alternative products are harmful, unreliable and worse for consumers. And as renewables continue to drop in cost, it will become even more critical for policymakers and others to challenge these attempts to slow the adoption of cheaper and healthier forms of energy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/01/opinion/clean-energy-solar-wind.html

I can't help but notice the stark difference in tactics (violence) between the two sides — BitconnectCarlos

Yeah, 99.9% peaceful protests with .1% property damage (like burning down a police station) hyped up by Fox News and getting idiots riled up…and attacking the Capitol to overthrow an election that wasn’t to Daddy Trump’s liking, that Fox News called a “tour.”

Stark contrast indeed — about the state of one’s brain on propaganda.

Another boring “both-sides” guy. How original— how interesting.

Well said. :up:

Oh and every human rights organization and…checks notes…every country in the world is biased.

The whole world is out to get me. The teacher hates me.

Summing up 13 pages:

When we do it, war crimes are justified (or simply not crimes).

When they do it, war crimes aren’t justified. It’s terrorism.

:ok: