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15th February 2017, 03:17 PM | #1081 |
Penultimate Amazing
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I don't know what the reality of it is, but my first thought is that Putin had no idea it would actually work. I think he told his guys to cause havoc and "help that buffoon throw the electorate into a tizzy," and when Trump actually won, Putin probably had a moment of shock. "Holy ****** We own a stupid POTUS! Now what do we do?"
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15th February 2017, 04:04 PM | #1082 |
Penultimate Amazing
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I think the events of the past few days have made any attempt to lift the sanctions or do anything to look like you are friendly to Putin politically toxic. And even before the Flynn story broke, both houses of Congress were sending shots across Trump's bow when it came to making pals with Putin, "Don't Go There". Now that just been multiplied X10.
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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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15th February 2017, 04:05 PM | #1083 |
Fiend God
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I'm saying that as members of a forum dedicated to critical thinking we should indeed apply a court-level benefit of the doubt. This isn't a holiday dinner with your in-laws.
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15th February 2017, 04:06 PM | #1084 |
Fiend God
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15th February 2017, 04:45 PM | #1085 |
Penultimate Amazing
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The official account on Flynn's sins is incredibly self-serving. If this is what he is willing to admit, how much worse can the reality be? I can't rule out that any intelligence briefing is immediately shared with some functionary in Russia. Who would immediately share it with whoever might covet that information - for example, Syria or Iran.
Whoever plays Putin on SNL is doing a great job and I hope the show continues to depict their budding relationship. I was going to say romance or bromance but that would probably require mutual respect and I doubt that Putin respects Trump in any way, shape or form. Trump is seriously outmatched and does not comprehend that. |
15th February 2017, 04:47 PM | #1086 |
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Someone in my office just remarked that Stephan Miller bears a certain resembelance to Vlad the Impaler Putin.
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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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15th February 2017, 05:01 PM | #1087 |
Penultimate Amazing
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15th February 2017, 05:17 PM | #1088 |
Philosopher
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Nothing about the spy ship or the treaty-busting missile, but damn that Obama for being soft on Russia.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...46101179314177
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15th February 2017, 05:19 PM | #1089 |
Penultimate Amazing
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Stupidity takes many forms. Expertise (of one degree or another) in a narrow field(s) doesn't exclude a general inability to recognize patterns and discern subtle meanings. I think Dump is, in many ways, quite stupid. Putin has also been able to exploit that, although it may turn out to be a double edged sword.
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"To me, Hitler is the greatest man who ever lived. He truly is without fault, so simple and at the same time possessed of masculine strength" -Leni Riefenstahl Wollen owns the stage
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15th February 2017, 07:00 PM | #1090 |
Penultimate Amazing
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Courts vary from preponderance of evidence (<50%) to clear and convincing (<75%) to beyond a reasonable doubt (<90%). Criminal courts will use reasonable doubt, civil courts will usually use clear and convincing, but step down to preponderance in some cases (typically in things like 'which person owns this object'). We don't have to apply the same level as criminal courts to make simple discernments, particularly when that discernment is whether or not someone is getting away with breaking the law. Requiring a level of evidence sufficient to prove someone actually committed a crime in a court room to justify a statement like "she's getting away with a crime" is an impossible bar.
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"Structural Engineering is the art of molding materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyze so as to understand forces we cannot really assess in such a way that the community at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our own ignorance." James E Amrhein |
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15th February 2017, 07:11 PM | #1091 |
Nasty Woman
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15th February 2017, 07:19 PM | #1092 |
Nasty Woman
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What in your mind would cause any reasonable prosecutor to forego a prosecution?
Not enough evidence? That's called not guilty. Clinton controls all the reasonable prosecutors? CT forum that way -> Do you know how absurd it is to interpret "no reasonable prosecutor would take the case" to mean 'the person got away with it'? Jeebus, talk about an alt-reality, you are living it (apparently). |
15th February 2017, 07:39 PM | #1093 |
Penultimate Amazing
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15th February 2017, 07:46 PM | #1094 |
Penultimate Amazing
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15th February 2017, 07:52 PM | #1095 |
Fiend God
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15th February 2017, 09:34 PM | #1096 |
Nasty Woman
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15th February 2017, 11:41 PM | #1097 |
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We do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they were going to be easy. Everything is possible, but not everything is probable. “Perception is real, but the truth is not.” - Imelda Marcos |
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15th February 2017, 11:55 PM | #1098 |
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“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago |
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15th February 2017, 11:57 PM | #1099 |
Lackey
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“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago |
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16th February 2017, 12:07 AM | #1100 |
Lackey
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Let's also remember that we now know that must have been the worse possible wording he could have used about Hillary's "crimes" , and if he could have used anything more politically damaging he would have done. Another way of putting the same thing would have been "there was no case to answer"
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“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago |
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16th February 2017, 12:25 AM | #1101 |
Nasty Woman
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16th February 2017, 08:17 AM | #1102 |
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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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16th February 2017, 08:21 AM | #1103 |
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Trump's problem is stupidity compounded by ignorance. And to make matters worse, the ignorance is willful. Anything which casts doubt on something he believes to be true isn't considered an opportunity to learn, it is seen as a personal assault on his success and integrity that must be suppressed with extreme prejudice. I don't see this changing anytime soon. |
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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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16th February 2017, 08:23 AM | #1104 |
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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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21st February 2017, 03:26 AM | #1105 |
Penultimate Amazing
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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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26th May 2017, 07:07 PM | #1106 |
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