Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)

[TrickstaPriest]

 

[Starlord]

Thanks.

 

Another good documentary about a danger we've been facing and definitely will be facing in the future is The Social Dilemma currently on Netflix.  It's about the dangers of social media and how addiction, privacy breaches and the spread of misinformation are actually features of social media platforms and the psychological damage social media may be doing to our society.

[Old Man]

Surviving the next century? I’m just trying to survive the next couple of months. 

[TrickstaPriest]

4 minutes ago, Starlord said:

Another good documentary about a danger we've been facing and definitely will be facing in the future is The Social Dilemma currently on Netflix.  It's about the dangers of social media and how addiction, privacy breaches and the spread of misinformation are actually features of social media platforms and the psychological damage social media may be doing to our society.

 

2020.  When being bitten by your coffee cup is just the last straw.

[BarretWallace]

I seem to recall Dr. McCoy saying in Star Trek IV, "It's a miracle these people ever made it out of the 20th Century!"

 

Now we just need to navigate the 21st...or heck, just 2020 for that matter.

[wcw43921]

10 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Bond's Section 7 authorization would only shield him from liability to British law.  It has no bearing on the laws of any other nation.

 

Maybe, but he does have a strong measure of influence in some friendly nations, as is indicated in the movie Live And Let Die.  Here, Bond is about to be arrested by the Honorable Sheriff J.W. Pepper--who could have been the direct inspiration for Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Portague County--

 

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "What are you? Some kinda doomsday machine boy? Well WE got a cage strong enough to hold an animal like you here!"

Felix Leiter: "Captain, would you enlighten the Sheriff please?"

State Trooper: "Yessir. J.W., let me have a word with ya. J.W., now this fellow's from London England. He's a Englishman workin' in cooperation with our boys, a sorta... secret agent."

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "Secret AGENT? On WHOSE side?"

10 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Bond's Section 7 authorization would only shield him from liability to British law.  It has no bearing on the laws of any other nation.

 

Maybe, but he does have a strong measure of influence in some friendly nations, as is indicated in the movie Live And Let Die.  Here, Bond is about to be arrested by the Honorable Sheriff J.W. Pepper--who could have been the direct inspiration for Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Portague County--

 

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "What are you? Some kinda doomsday machine boy? Well WE got a cage strong enough to hold an animal like you here!"

Felix Leiter: "Captain, would you enlighten the Sheriff please?"

State Trooper: "Yessir. J.W., let me have a word with ya. J.W., now this fellow's from London England. He's a Englishman workin' in cooperation with our boys, a sorta... secret agent."

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "Secret AGENT? On WHOSE side?"

10 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Bond's Section 7 authorization would only shield him from liability to British law.  It has no bearing on the laws of any other nation.

 

Maybe, but he does have a strong measure of influence in some friendly nations, as is indicated in the movie Live And Let Die.  Here, Bond is about to be arrested by the Honorable Sheriff J.W. Pepper--who could have been the direct inspiration for Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Portague County--

 

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "What are you? Some kinda doomsday machine boy? Well WE got a cage strong enough to hold an animal like you here!"

Felix Leiter: "Captain, would you enlighten the Sheriff please?"

State Trooper: "Yessir. J.W., let me have a word with ya. J.W., now this fellow's from London England. He's a Englishman workin' in cooperation with our boys, a sorta... secret agent."

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "Secret AGENT? On WHOSE side?"

[wcw43921]

11 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Bond's Section 7 authorization would only shield him from liability to British law.  It has no bearing on the laws of any other nation.

 

He does, however, have a strong measure of influence in some friendly nations, as evidenced in the movie Live And Let Die.  Here he is about to be arrested by the Honorable Sheriff J.W. Pepper, who could have been the direct inspiration for Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Portague County--

 

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "What are you? Some kinda doomsday machine boy? Well WE got a cage strong enough to hold an animal like you here!"

Felix Leiter: "Captain, would you enlighten the Sheriff please?"

State Trooper: "Yessir. J.W., let me have a word with ya. J.W., now this fellow's from London England. He's a Englishman workin' in cooperation with our boys, a sorta... secret agent."

Sheriff J.W. Pepper: "Secret AGENT? On WHOSE side?"

 

Don't know as Bond has that pull with Canada or any place in Western Europe.  He certainly didn't have it in North Korea.

[Cygnia]

Florida attorney under investigation for registering to vote in Georgia, encouraging others to do the same

[Starlord]

3 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Florida attorney under investigation for registering to vote in Georgia, encouraging others to do the same

 

From the article:

Instead, Price encouraged the crowd to work toward a “billion-man” march at the State Capitol, show up in Atlanta on Election Day, and move if they can do it.

 

He also may need to work on his math skills....

[Old Man]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

Florida attorney under investigation for registering to vote in Georgia, encouraging others to do the same

 

See, there really is voter fraud! 

 

Hopefully they give this clown the maximum sentence.  He needs to be made an example of.

[Matt the Bruins]

It sounds like giving him a polyester suit to wear and a box of matches to play with would do the trick without any other intervention required.

[unclevlad]

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

See, there really is voter fraud! 

 

Hopefully they give this clown the maximum sentence.  He needs to be made an example of.

 

I could also live with just disbarment, and loss of voting privileges.

[TrickstaPriest]

Just felt like sharing the fun

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

It's a stand worth analyzing. The pro-military President is threatening to defund the military. Which would include salaries. Right before the holidays.

 

He wants to end section 230, which prevents social media companies from being held liable for content on their websites. Apparently he thinks this will stop people on their platforms from posting things that hurt him. It seemingly hasn't occurred to him that they would also have to take down his own postings which are frequently false and defamatory.

 

It's hard not to see this as a child throwing a tantrum because somebody said something mean to him.

 

[TrickstaPriest]

6 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

It's a stand worth analyzing. The pro-military President is threatening to defund the military. Which would include salaries. Right before the holidays.

 

With all the stuff that happened with Turkey and the Kurds, it's hard to think of him as anti-war.  Now with this stuff going on with Iran, the same.

 

6 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

He wants to end section 230, which prevents social media companies from being held liable for content on their websites. Apparently he thinks this will stop people on their platforms from posting things that hurt him. It seemingly hasn't occurred to him that they would also have to take down his own postings which are frequently false and defamatory.

 

Ultimately this will be a big boon to big companies that can fight lawsuits or use ML to shut down anything potentially resembling objectionable speech.  But it will kill a number of platforms, big and small.

[Dr.Device]

13 minutes ago, TrickstaPriest said:

Ultimately this will be a big boon to big companies that can fight lawsuits or use ML to shut down anything potentially resembling objectionable speech.  But it will kill a number of platforms, big and small.

 

Even sites like this might have to close down without section 230. All it takes is one lawsuit to bankrupt an individual or small business. Right now, section 230 provides for an easy dismissal. Without it, anything but the most obviously ridiculous libel claim would have to at least reach the discovery phase, which can be very expensive.

[unclevlad]

33 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

It's hard not to see this as a child throwing a tantrum because somebody said something mean to him.

 

 

At what point has Trump's behavior while in office been anything else?

Oh, and you forgot bullying because he still has the bigger stick.

 

It would be interesting, if too little too late, if Congress passes the authorization bills, Trump veto-pouts, and they override.  

[Pariah]

The NPR article I just read suggests that this is reliably the one piece of legislation that will pass both chambers of Congress with veto-proof majorities every year.

[TrickstaPriest]

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

The NPR article I just read suggests that this is reliably the one piece of legislation that will pass both chambers of Congress with veto-proof majorities every year.

 

Yeah.  Like, it won't happen.

 

It's just intent.  Pattern of behavior.  People responding on twitter with adoration.

 

I find a lot of the people I know personally who like Trump don't have a clue about what he puts on his twitter.  They get news from 'balanced sources' but bias/believe heavily towards any source pro trump.  Stuff like this, or what happened in Turkey, never gets on their radar.

[unclevlad]

Another tantrum.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/trump-pentagon-board-lewandowski-bossie/index.html

 

The good news:  they won't have much time to cause harm.

The bad news:  complete turnover is just stupid and will do nothing but reduce effectiveness and quality of service.

[Matt the Bruins]

Is there anything other than using his veto power in the legislative process that Trump can do without Biden being able to almost immediately undo upon taking office? (Well, besides antagonizing another nation into declaring war on us, I mean.)

[Lord Liaden]

Anything that Trump can do or has done by presidential executive order, can be immediately undone by Biden with another executive order. Any other hair-brained moves he might dream up take an act of Congress, and the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives is guaranteed not to pass such a thing.

 

Trump can cause plenty of aggravation in his remaining weeks, but nothing more with a lasting impact. Except for that war-provocation thing, of course.

[unclevlad]

It's not what Trump can do;  it's what the federal agencies can do.  Some things can be rolled back, sure, but it's usually more difficult and slower than the pure executive order.  Some may NOT be fixable, like removing wilderness or refuge designations and selling off development rights.  I think he's still got a few nominees in the pipeline, for positions that normally aren't considered political and whom Biden couldn't readily dismiss.

 

But, yes, by and large, it doesn't look like there are many areas where he can do more enduring harm.  But don't think he won't try hard.  And, heck, if nothing else, it'll force the Biden administration to waste time and resources when we can't afford the distraction.

[Lord Liaden]

Trump's never demonstrated much understanding of the limits of his office. Still, the power and prestige of POTUS is immense. For someone as hungry for attention and acclaim as Donald Trump, losing all that must feel like cutting off his arm...

 

 

 

[Pariah]

...except for the whole bleeding out part.