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17th October 2017, 08:59 AM | #361 |
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In January I applied for a position in the White House* lawn mowing team. Been waiting for confirmation ever since. But now I've had enough of it! I am quitting!
*: Well, not THE White House, it's actually a house with a yellowish hue closer to where I live, but it has roses in the garden! I hope this still counts for the purpose of this thread, even if the job is not an actual WH position and I never actually held the job. |
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Thermodynamics hates conspiracy theorists. (Foster Zygote) The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) |
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17th October 2017, 09:37 AM | #362 |
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Science is self-correcting. Woo is self-contradicting. |
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17th October 2017, 02:55 PM | #363 |
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Thermodynamics hates conspiracy theorists. (Foster Zygote) The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) |
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17th October 2017, 07:08 PM | #364 |
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"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." "Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation." |
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18th October 2017, 03:23 PM | #365 |
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As with most things Trump screws up, I don't understand why he hasn't taken more heat for his obvious errors in judgement in terms of his appointments. He publicly and repeatedly has had to push out people who, just a few months ago, he brought into his administration. Aren't these errors in his judgement obvious and indisputable? That is not to say that I personally believe all of Trump's ex-appointees were bad, but clearly he ultimately flip flopped and came to that conclusion. It is difficult to drain the swamp if you can't tell the difference between a festering mudflats versus a shiny meadow until you are knee high in the muck.
Makes one wonder about the contestants to whom he gave the thumbs in The Apprentice, right? |
18th October 2017, 03:24 PM | #366 |
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So I'm going to tell you what the facts are, and the facts are the facts, but then we know the truth. That always overcomes facts. |
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18th October 2017, 03:26 PM | #367 |
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18th October 2017, 03:31 PM | #368 |
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He is weak! The guy is a running joke on this side of the pond. If it wasn't for the sheer size of the US military and it's involvement everywhere the Us would be a has-been pariah state.
The extent to US involvement (for better, or more usually for worse) makes the US unavoidable, but usually unwelcome. Pretty much how the British Empire was in the 1900s. Welcome to the Unwelcome club... |
18th October 2017, 03:38 PM | #369 |
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You can. Indeed, that is the presumption of intellectual discourse.
It is difficult to do so when bias is entrenched but were it not possible, we should give up on argumentation and focus on mere rhetoric. You and I have grown up with biases. I hope that I have shed my insupportable biases, mostly at least, through reason. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk |
24th October 2017, 12:22 PM | #370 |
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Maybe we need to expand the thread beyond the white house :-)
Jeff Flake, Bob Corker ... |
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24th October 2017, 02:54 PM | #371 |
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Science is self-correcting. Woo is self-contradicting. |
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24th October 2017, 03:02 PM | #372 |
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Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert Heinlein. |
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24th October 2017, 03:04 PM | #373 |
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Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert Heinlein. |
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24th October 2017, 06:57 PM | #374 |
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I wish they weren't so cowardly though. They are facing getting primaried from the extreme right, but they should run for election and use the primaries to get out the message against the Nazi-scum-TP-Trump supporters. It is somewhat telling that Republicans are cowards that only say the right things when they aren't running worried about re-election.
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1. He'd never do that. 2. Okay but he's not currently doing it. 3. Okay but he's not currently technically doing it. 4. Okay but everyone does it. 5. He's doing it, we can't stop him, no point in complaining about it. 6. We all knew he was going to do it which... makes it okay somehow. 7. It's perfectly fine that's he's doing it. |
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24th October 2017, 08:11 PM | #375 |
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25th October 2017, 12:31 AM | #376 |
Uncritical "thinker"
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OECD healthcare spending Public/Compulsory Expenditure on healthcare https://data.oecd.org/chart/60Tt Every year since 1990 the US Public healthcare spending has been greater than the UK as a proportion of GDP. More US Tax goes to healthcare than the UK |
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25th October 2017, 12:36 AM | #377 |
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IMO only in the same way that the shareholders are the "boss" of a company employee. The electorate may be the ultimate boss but in between there are various levels of management including the whips, the party leadership and in this case, The President.
In any case Flake looks like he is far to moderate for the modern-day GOP and will be replaced in the Senate by a Trumpist. I personally find this a little concerning. I had hoped that the poisonous effects of President Trump might halt the GOP in its headlong rush towards a new kind of extremism - then again I also said that about the religious fundamentalists and the Tea Party so what to I know ? |
25th October 2017, 01:34 AM | #378 |
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Unfortunately, the highlighted bit is contradicted by Flake voting with Trump 90% of the time.
It sounds more like Flake has realised he's most likely going to be primaried, especially considering his abysmal approval rating (currently at 18%) and the fact that Bannon & Breitbart has gone to bat for Kelli Ward, his opponent, and has decided to fire off a departing salute in order to score credit with the more moderate crowd. |
25th October 2017, 03:20 AM | #380 |
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"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." "Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation." |
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25th October 2017, 05:39 AM | #381 |
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25th October 2017, 06:04 AM | #382 |
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It's very worrying what the GOP is becoming, a hard-right, nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-trade, "know nothing" party funded by shady billionaires with a demagogue as President.
It's even more worrying that the GOP is willing to become this kind of party and isn't being manoeuvered against its will by skilled puppet masters. What's most worrying from my perspective is the popularity of this kind of party among the white US electorate. |
27th October 2017, 07:56 AM | #383 |
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Not to mention the fundamental goal of skeptical activism.
I've met dozens of former fundamentalists and not a few former alt-medicine users / woo believers who are now free of harmful false beliefs precisely because people took the trouble to reason with them. Trump supporters do seem to be especially immune to evidence, though. I'm guessing this is largely because they are watching a totally different movie than the one I'm seeing play out; and because they have been trained to believe that the most conscientious and ethical reportage is mere "fake news." Not directly, but with the ongoing Trumpification of the Republican Party, he can influence whether they remain electable. So . . . yeah, not on topic but topically adjacent. They haven't quit being Senators just yet, and probably won't do so until early 2019. There are now, by my count, at least four serving GOP senators completely free to break with party leadership/orthodoxy whenever they damn well please. This bodes ill for major single-party legislative reforms, in the near term. It really is worrying, but what is the viable alternative for that party? Put another way, who can possibly drag them back towards the center on any major issues? Jon Huntsman? Chris Christie? Susan Collins? I'm afraid the damage may be irreversible, the epistemic and moral rot too deep. |
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27th October 2017, 08:41 AM | #384 |
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It would be a lot less worrying if the Trumpification (and prior to that the Christian fundamentalisation and Tea Partification) of the GOP made it less electable (and hence provided a sharp correction) but instead they remain at least as electable as ever and in some states far more electable.
Whoever replaces Flake will likely be some combination of religious fundamentalist, Tea Party, America First, vehemently anti-Immigrant, anti-science, know-nothing - and will be enthusiastically elected by the good people of Arizona. IMO President Trump isn't the problem, he's just a symptom |
27th October 2017, 12:11 PM | #385 |
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Suffering is not a punishment not a fruit of sin, it is a gift of God. He allows us to share in His suffering and to make up for the sins of the world. -Mother Teresa If I had a pet panda I would name it Snowflake. |
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27th October 2017, 01:17 PM | #386 |
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2nd November 2017, 08:21 AM | #387 |
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...on-for-ag-post
Washington (AP) -- A former Trump campaign official who has been linked to the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has withdrawn his nomination for an Agriculture post. Sam Clovis says in a letter to President Donald Trump dated Thursday that he does "not want to be a distraction or a negative influence." Clovis cites what he calls "relentless assaults on you and your team" that "seem to be a blood sport." Out before he was in .... |
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"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States...nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov |
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2nd November 2017, 08:33 AM | #388 |
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“Knowledge is Power; France is Bacon.” |
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2nd November 2017, 08:52 AM | #389 |
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If we weren't in a period in time where the craziness, lies, bigotry, and rank incompetence weren't so rampant, there would be multiple threads focused on Sam Clovis, buffoon extraordinaire. Bye Sam, we barely knew you.
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To survive election season on a skeptics forum, one must understand Hymie-the-Robot.
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2nd November 2017, 08:54 AM | #390 |
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2nd November 2017, 09:13 AM | #391 |
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2nd November 2017, 06:45 PM | #392 |
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I'm going back to Kushner as the next to leave. CNN was damning and if the leaks are true, The Hair is very angry with him. If it looks like he might get called, Kushner will need to gone so Trump can say he had a minor role.
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2nd November 2017, 07:23 PM | #393 |
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3rd November 2017, 06:25 AM | #394 |
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"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States...nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov |
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3rd November 2017, 08:03 AM | #395 |
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Rex seemed to be on the hot seat a bit based on this morning's news. Kush may be moved to the side, but I don't see him being dropped unless he is actually indicted, and even then I'm not sure.
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Suffering is not a punishment not a fruit of sin, it is a gift of God. He allows us to share in His suffering and to make up for the sins of the world. -Mother Teresa If I had a pet panda I would name it Snowflake. |
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9th November 2017, 07:36 AM | #396 |
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Betsy DeVos, according to the general Trump thread.
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9th November 2017, 08:40 AM | #397 |
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“Knowledge is Power; France is Bacon.” |
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9th November 2017, 08:43 AM | #398 |
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Thermodynamics hates conspiracy theorists. (Foster Zygote) The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton) |
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10th November 2017, 02:47 PM | #400 |
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Should really have known that she wasn't up to the job when she stated that they needed guns in schools as protection for grizzly bears. Come on, everyone knows, you don't shoot a grizzly, it'll just make it angry!
*****WARNING: Graphic Images in article. Not for the squeamish!****** |
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It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. -- JayUtah I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871) |
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