Trump

[Oniya]

The funny thing is that your average 9th grader could concoct an 'algorithm' that decreased one group's votes without risking a negative result.

Come to think of it, it's the same algorithm that they used in determining population in 1787.

[TheGlyphstone]

Algorithms? It has Al Gore in its name so it must be evil! No need to learn what it is, it's how elections are fraudized!

[TheHangedOne]

To quote Little Oni:  'I have several questions.  The nerdiest one is that votes are a countable object, and therefore you can't have a negative number of them.  You can't have a negative number of bananas.'

See, every time I hear about Little Oni, I actually have some faith in humanity restored. 

[Missy]

Democrats are more suited to govern than Republicans, according to none other than Donald Trump!? Nine days until the Georgia runoffs

[Andol]

Agreed. The comparison may not be one-for-one, but we are, in effect, waging a second cold war. Putin will never liberalize, he will never allow the emergence of democracy within or around Russia, and he will never stop trying to curb American power and influence. A 'cold war mindset' if anything is the only appropriate mindset for relations with Russia in the near-future. Otherwise, forget bringing a knife to a gunfight-- we're bringing a bouquet of flowers to a gunfight.

I can agree with that. I just worry about our Asian Pacific allies sometimes. Got to make sure we continue to back them in face of an CCP aggression. I guess it is just a personal thing when I look foreign policy stuff...  

[Chulanowa]

I can agree with that. I just worry about our Asian Pacific allies sometimes. Got to make sure we continue to back them in face of an CCP aggression. I guess it is just a personal thing when I look foreign policy stuff...

You should worry more about the fact you're being told how "aggressive" China is, by the exact same people who lied to you that Iraq had biological weapons and that this justified the needless murder of 1.7 million people.

[Missy]

Annexing the South China Sea, settign up a series of Naval Bases along the Indian Ocean and building eight Aircraft Carriers is peaceful?

[Chulanowa]

Annexing the South China Sea, settign up a series of Naval Bases along the Indian Ocean and building eight Aircraft Carriers is peaceful?

You cannot "annex" seas. They have a territorial dispute with Japan over some rocks out there. Nations have territorial disputes all the time. For instance we have a few with Canada over who controls what part of the arctic ocean, and where, exactly the border passes through the Great Lakes. This is not a military crisis, it's a diplomatic argument. New Zealand, France and Australia are having a territorial dispute about who, exactly, gets to claim what parts of the continental shelf of Zealandia, as all three nations have a presence on that submerged chunk of land, and none of 'em knew it was a continental shelf until like a decade ago. Denmark and Canada have an argument over who controls Hans Island in the arctic. Egypt and Sudan have a weird one where they each argue that the other controls Bir Tawil. These are not acts of aggression or military crises, they are diplomatic arguments. Either they will be resolved by people in nice suits in an air-conditioned room with drink service or - actually more likely - both nations will ignore the dispute except when they want to poke at the other. Because again... it's literally just rocks.

China has leased an island from the Maldives with express permission from the Maldives to build a naval base there. This is a completely peaceful agreement between the two nations. it does annoy India, but being annoyed is not being aggressed against.

The US, Brazil, France, India, and Russia are also currently building up their carrier capacity. China's carrier fleet is currently two. One of which is basically a Soviet cruise liner that's been retrofitted with a tarmac by the Ukranians thirty years ago. Nations are allowed to build their military. And since the president of the world's premier military power has just spent four years threatening "Jyinnah" one really can't blame them for building up their capabilities.

[Haibane]

You should worry more about the fact you're being told how "aggressive" China is, by the exact same people who lied to you that Iraq had biological weapons and that this justified the needless murder of 1.7 million people.

China IS being aggressive. Iraq was a manufactured excuse because of $$$$, China is actually a threat, but since there's no chance of making $$$$ out of it, little is being done (China is also a hugely different opponent to Iraq and has plenty of ability to fight back both economically and militarily).

[Haibane]

They have a territorial dispute with Japan over some rocks out there.

You are being deliberately disingenuous here and I stopped reading your post at this sentence. You need to make yourself aware of the Nine Dash Line. Also discussed here if you are one of those people who has a mistrust of Wikipedia. China is creating islands by dumping spoil many tens of miles off her shoreline, then establishing military bases on them to specifically lay claim to international waters. And yes, while the word "annex" may have not been completely correct for a body of water China is making claims to territorial rights to bodies of ocean that the UN and her neighbours see as international waters. That's as good as "annexing" as any other terminology in a case like this.

[Haibane]

A summary of China's current and planned aircraft carrier assets.

[Missy]

It depends on whether or not you're using 'defamation' in a very strict legal sense or more colloquially. In a strict legal sense no, of course, a person does not have a right to defame another, regardless of how liberal the free speech laws are in their jurisdiction. If you mean it in a more general, loose sense...the answer is too context dependent to say.

I guess I have to querry as to the context of a general more loose sense???

[Regina Minx]

I guess I have to querry as to the context of a general more loose sense???

Then yes, people generally have the right to say shitty things about you even if it impacts your life and business. They would only not have that right if their speech was legally defamatory.

[Missy]

What we don't want to encourage, though, is the defamation suit's demented evil twin, SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation). John Oliver's done a few good shows about them, but the gist is that wealthy people/businesses sue newspapers or private citizens who try to publicly call them out on their misdeeds, relying on the sheer cost of defending oneself in court even against spurious lawsuits to silence their critics with smaller bank accounts.

In a large way, to me, that seems more like a land of the priviledged home of the rich problem. That is to say we're all free, but some of us are more free than others.

I certainly can't afford a lawyer whenever ti strikes my fancy and indeed if I were a black man and ended up on the wrong side of the law I may feel pressured to plead guilty over rotting in a cell for months awaiting a trial while my kinds go hungry or I could just count the last time lobbyist worked for me making less than six figures.

Indeed, litigation is one among the more oligarchic aspects of American Democracy. Some people are just more free.

[TheHangedOne]

Not Trump, I know, but kind of feels like it belongs here.

[TheGlyphstone]

Technically, that is Mitch actually doing his job for once - representing the interests of the state of Kentucky. Not in a way we approve of, admittedly, but the Derby is indeed a big thing in Kentucky and preserving that income stream is useful to them.

[Haibane]

You mean in a trickle-down way...

[legomaster00156]

I award him a single clap for remembering that Kentucky has interests.

[TheGlyphstone]

I did say not in a way we approve of...

[Deamonbane]

Technically, that is Mitch actually doing his job for once - representing the interests of the state of Kentucky. Not in a way we approve of, admittedly, but the Derby is indeed a big thing in Kentucky and preserving that income stream is useful to them.

Correction: The millionaire horse owners of Kentucky. The fact that I think almost 20,000 people in the state are employed in the equine industry wouldn't really be affected by changing tax credits associated with thoroughbred purchases.

[Callie Del Noire]

You cannot "annex" seas. They have a territorial dispute with Japan over some rocks out there.

Let’s stop right there.. China has building towards. Conflict over Taiwan for decades. In the decade and a half I was in the Navy, they bought deisel subs from the Russians, and promptly put half in dry dock to take apart, developed a missile/torpedo strategy designed towards fouling US fleet tactics, in fringed on territorial waters of Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines   

They ARE doing a resource grab with their barrier islands and have repeatedly said it was their territory. 

[Haibane]

They ARE doing a resource grab with their barrier islands and have repeatedly said it was their territory.

Since 1947. That was when the Nine Dash Line was drawn.

[TheGlyphstone]

Correction: The millionaire horse owners of Kentucky. The fact that I think almost 20,000 people in the state are employed in the equine industry wouldn't really be affected by changing tax credits associated with thoroughbred purchases.

TBH i hadnt even considered the actual credits, assuming most people benefiting from them don't even live in Kentucky. It was the Derby itself I was thinking about, presuming that it is a tourism draw/money maker for the state. But I could be wrong on that.

[TheHangedOne]

https://imgur.com/gallery/GSn5Tgd

Imgur gallery about Dominion sending cease and desist letters, and how Giulani's star witness was literally a temp agent hired to do "menial tasks". Worth a read.

[Beorning]

Did I read it correctly that the Republican senators helped reject Trump's veto regarding a bill? If so, how did he react?