Posts by bohm

103

Sam Harris on Trump - The Most Powerful Clown

by cofty in

harris is at his incisive best in his latest podcast.. he likens the situation to being on an aeroplane where the pilot has died and somebody with no experience of flying has grabbed the controls.

we should all be committed to his success.

prize for the best line goes to - "caligula with a iphone".. even if you love trump and despise harris you should appreciate his clarity.. waking up with sam harris....

bohm

SBF:
Gad Saad supported Trump. Murray refused to say if he supported Trump but said he opposed Clinton. I don't know about the rest, where did they stand?
It's amazing you'd hold up as admirable a list including people who supported Trump. Why does the world need more voices of people who are so confused in their moral thinking that opposing Trump is not a no brainer for them?

You won't like this comparison, but Sam Harris has a phrase that if you can't stand up to radical islamism and condemn it without 'but's, that's failing a moral litmus test.

Supporting Donald Trump is IMO such a test. I can't understand why it is not black and white clear that a candidate who so openly says he WILL erode constitutional rights and institutions is not fit to be president, issues that are unaffected by whatever mean things the supporters of the other candidate might say.

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

JeffT: Could the reason that the media was fact-checking Trump more than Hillary be that Trump is more dishonest than Hillary?

Regarding the emails, yes, I agree it is a bad story. I have to deal with protected data as part of my job and the precautions that have to be taken are quite clear. However, on the scale of things, how does the potentially improper configuration of an email server scale up against a candidate wanting to change the freedom of speech so as to allow him to sue newspapers that print bad stories about him?. Quite frankly, that is the kind of behavior I associate with dictatorships (and only dictatorships) and implies a serious violation and disregard of the US citizens constitutional rights to a free press.

Imagine for a moment that Hillary had toyed with the idea of changing libel laws so as to silence discussion of her email server...

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

garyneal: I notice that you did not question the bit about sexual harassment. Donald trump has on several occasions suggested policies including surveillance and the creation of a database of Muslims, as well as the proposal that they could not enter the country. That is violating the US constitutions' guarantee of equal protection of religious expression and the first amendments clause about freedom of religion.

I hope you understand that suggesting the creation of a database of US citizens based on their religion is not the same as limiting immigration of non-US citizens.

Sigh. Rather than engage in ideas you go off on the attack. Just like a regressive leftist.

The use of these cute labels to identify the in and out group (racist misogynist homophobic white man or "regressive leftist"/SJW) would appear to exactly fit my diagnosis of the problem in my previous post.

As to not having elected a dictator: The US could have elected Putin and he would not have been a dictator by definition, that's not the issue.

The issue is that next president is going to be a person who flirts with the idea of limiting the freedom of the press (specifically, change legislation so that he can sue newspapers who write bad stories about him) and put his political opponents in prison. Are those values reflecting the US constitution and democratic system in your opinion?

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

JeffT: In your opinion, if a TV station ran stories about Donald Trump proposing that the united states commit warcrimes and violate several articles of the united states constitution (including but not limited to a limitation of the freedom of the press and imprisonment of his political opponents) as well as bragging about what amounts to either sexual harassment or sexual assault, would you then consider that TV station as being "biased"?

On this topic, since we have had what seems like three months of non-stop talk about the configuration of an email server, I am just wondering what you would consider as being an appropriate amount of time to spend on each of these views and actions by Donald Trump?.

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

And this is why your little mind will never comprehend why Clinton lost.

No, you are correct. I cannot comprehend why so many people who otherwise gives the apperance of supporting the american constitution and the values it stands for (as I do) would elect a person who advocate warcrimes and plainly unconstitutional ideas, nor why they would put someone who regularly loose his shit on twitter in charge of the greatest military on earth.

Trump came to this election with the same "you are part of a down-trodden group, you have every right to be angry, now let's go show em'"-rethoric which you can find on the furthest end of the regressive left, and then kept pandering to the feeling of being persecuted and convinced nearly half the population they should rally behind him because he would "fix" everything: Been there done that.

The ironic thing is that so many of his supporters can't see they are doing exactly the same gender politics crap that they keep pointing out amongst the "evil left".

Oh but I know: "Hillary Hillary Hillary, that thing on Yale a few years ago, Hillary Hillary, look at this crap on Tumbler, buhu mean things about white men, Cologne Hillary & you have a small mind".

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

Sorry Simon, but I lost confidence in a lot of what Huff Po has to say since it became overrun with regressive leftist propaganda.

... is that a bit like when someone says: "I have lost trust in what (insert media source here) because it is run by racist misogynists"?

Trump's lies and advocacy of unconstitutional ideas are well-documented, as is his denial of science and support for warcrimes. I think that is why you will still rather attack Hillary and other people you do not like than face who you placed in your highest office.

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

Clinton lost my vote because she, and the democratic party demonized me. I am a 40 something white male. I have been made to feel that my mere existence is evil and I owe everyone something. Sorry, but I don't. I am not evil. And I refuse to support ANYONE or ANY Party that wants to try to make me feel that way.

Aww.. how awful for you and thanks for sharing your lived experience.

It is good that you found a candidate who does not brag about sexually harassing members of YOUR sex and do not advocate unconstitutional and racist ideas against members of YOUR race.

And I also think it is helpful that you frame this as being a race/gender issue. Like, when crazy feminists say that men should be castrated, or BLM protestors lay hate onto the police.

Is it not reassuring and comforting to picture yourself in the victim position and get a good in-outgroup dynamic going? It simplifies everything, and gives a sense of moral superiority, where YOU do not have to think about what YOUR group does because YOU are the victim.

Oh wait, perhaps that only applies to "them"?

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

It's not what Trump will do, it's what domino's he knocks over and what his messages set in motion elsewhere - because of what he's said he won't do and what agreements he's said he will renege on..Ironically, the very thing he claimed made other people stupid when dealing with foreign affairs.
NATO is one of the most important partnerships that's ensured peace in North America and Europe for many decades. He's undermining it to the extent that it could all unravel and that would be a very ugly future for everyone.
He's also likely to drive countries like Iraq more towards an emboldened and reverting Russia rather than closer to the US (yes, as potential allies - shouldn't that b the goal?).

This hits the nail on the head. Trump has promised to do all kinds of crazy shit and in particular cast doubt about what he will do. It is that uncertainty which is dangerous: if everyone knows NATO will go nuclear apeshit at the first given chance over even the most insignificant piece of land (as were the case during the cold war under eg Reagan) there is no reason to test that. Now that trump is like: hum dum, how much are they paying? That is an open invitation to see what will actually happen for eg putin. On top of that, by all accounts trump cant hold his shit together when a comedian sayes his father was a monkey, how are he going to handle real opposition from a smart diplomatis team who tries to trigger him?

31

Fossilized foot prints, how do they explain it away?

by Crazyguy in

so there have been many sets of fossilized human footprints found in africa, italy, europe, britain and new mexico.

these foot prints are thought to be anywhere from 20,000 to 2 million years old.

so what do christians and jws do to try to explain these away.

bohm

That is very easy: Before the flood, the Nephilim went around doing their evil things and due to their great weight left footprints.

Then the flood came and it is a well-known fact (as you can verify yourself if you are caught in a flash-flood) that a huge flash flood, where the land is suddenly covered by several meters of water, will act as to preserve whatever small indentations are in the topsoil, in particular, volcanic ash.

The pressure of several meters of water then turned these footprints into fossils, just as a footprint left by a diver at the bottom of the ocean will rapidly fossilize.

So there you see, the presence of these footprints actually verify the biblical account as being accurate and provide tangible evidence of the Nephilims existence!

133

Election Post-Mortem

by Simon in

i'm sure many people, republicans included, are shocked at the results of the 2016 presidential election.

really, wtf!.

the polls were wrong and although it's tempting to blame voter suppression and fbi interference, that would just avoid looking at the real issues for the loss.

bohm

Yah, running the MostConventionalPoletician in recent memory in a time where people obviously wanted something else sure backfired...

I guess the best we can hope for is that Trump is not actually going to do many of the things he promised.