The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites To The Rise Of Populism

The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites To The Rise Of Populism by Jean-Michel Paul

What a strange book. Has anyone read it?

I'm not sure I agree with the introduction.

Quantitative Easing not working?

Tippit's not going to like that one bit.

Hm. Might be worth downloading.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3ckXIol

Half the universe’s missing Ordinary Matter may have been found

“Astronomers have taken a new census of matter in the universe by examining how bright flashes of radio waves from other galaxies, called fast radio bursts, are distorted by particles on their way to Earth. This analysis shows that about half of the universe’s ordinary matter, which has eluded detection for decades, is lurking in intergalactic space, researchers report online May 27 in Nature.“

“ The mystery of the missing matter has vexed cosmologists for some 20 years. This elusive material isn’t the invisible, unidentified dark matter that makes up most of the mass in the universe. It’s ordinary matter, composed of garden-variety particles called baryons, such as protons and neutrons (SN: 10/11/17).

Observations of light emitted when the universe was young indicate that baryons should make up roughly 5 percent of all the mass and energy in the cosmos. But in the modern universe, all the matter that astronomers can easily see, like the stars and gas in galaxies, adds up to only about half of the expected amount of matter.”

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ZOVzP6

Extinct bird resurrected by evolution.

A species of Rail that became extinct 136,000 years ago has been “resurrected” through a rare phenomenon called iterative evolution.
The flightless Aldabra Rail was wiped out when an inundation event flooded the Aldabra Atoll on which it had existed.

“ The Aldabra rail is a subspecies of the white-throated rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri), which is indigenous to islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean. The birds are “persistent colonizers,” according to the University of Portsmouth; they are known to build up on large land bodies and subsequently depart en masse, possibly triggered by overcrowding and a lack of food.”

“At some point in the distant past, rails landed on Aldabra. There were no predators on the atoll, rendering the birds’ ability to fly unnecessary—so they lost it. And in the wake of the inundation event, the process happened again: Rails arrived on Aldabra and, faced with a lack of predation, once again lost their flight.

“In 20,000 years or less, the rails were evolving flightlessness again,” Hume tells Gizmodo’s Ryan F. Mandelbaum. “Evolution can be incredibly quick if the conditions are right.”“

I can’t understand why people invent creation stories when the actual natural world is so fascinating.

In the meantime, “Darwin’s Finches” on the Galápagos Islands are interbreeding/hybridising and so now blurring the distinction between traditional species.

“... despite having shown convincingly that the finches' family history is decidedly blurry, [researcher] actually argue for the addition of three new species to the existing tally of 15.”

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2XIqiL5

The not quite certain quantum physics thread that can't ever be all things quantum

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startsw...ent-shows-how/

An interesting read. As usual I don't understand it all so no point my putting up an incorrect interpretation of what it means or even how correct it is. They seem to be claiming that the act of measuring which slit a particle going through the famous two slit experiment will stop the creation of a wave pattern. I hadn't heard of this before.

AIUI everything is actually a wave until it is forced to interact with something, then the wave collapses to a particle.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2zztDUT

Streaming audio recording on Android

Does anyone know of any app that will record streaming audio content on an Andrioid phone? On my PC I use a program called MyMP3 I think, but that works through the sound card. I don't know if there is a similar option on a phone.

I have a video recorder, that records the screen and that includes the audio (gamers do screen recording all the time), but I don't want video, just audio.

I don't care about high quality sound recording or anything, I just basically want to an audio grab.

All of the audio recording apps I find just do recording through the microphone.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ZQiycw

Trump's Social Media Executive Order

Today, Donald Trump issued an executive order regarding "censorship" on social media.

You can read the order here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/president...ne-censorship/

It's an interesting order. The core issue is that once upon a time, in a section of the Communications Decency Act, there was a provision that declared internet sites to be people providing a place for speech, as opposed to publishing content. In other words, my words here are not the opinion of ISF. ISF is just presenting a platform that I, and a lot of other people, can post in. They are not publishing my work, so ISF cannot be held to account if I say something bad.

The basis of that judgement is that they aren't picking and choosing what goes in here. They are just providing a platform.

As part of that act, media giants like Twitter (I don't know if it existed yet, but maybe Myspace would be a better example) would also be allowed to eliminate "harmful" material, like pornography. Court rulings had said that if they edited data, removing objectionable material, that meant that they ceased being a public platform, and became a publisher, because they were influencing the content. The CDA provision got rid of that idea, at least in part.

The executive order calls that into question, saying that if the media platforms are exercising editorial control based on politics or ideology, they should be treated as publishers. Sure it's ok to take down pictures of naked ladies, but if they start messing with political content, they become publishers, and subject to the rules that apply to publishers. Most importantly, if I say something libelous on a site that engages in political censorship, they are publishing my libel, and can be held accountable.

In the midst of it, there was a rant about how horribly unfair Twitter was because they labelled Trump's tweets about Joe Scarborough as false, or whatever it said about them, but didn't say anything about Adam Schiff. It was somewhat embarrassing to read, but it wasn't clear how it related to the rest of the order. Had they deleted Trump's tweets it would have made some sense, but as it was, it just seemed stuck in there as a Trump tantrum.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of it. On the one hand, I do think it's dangerous to have a company like youtube having so much power to exercise censorship, because although they are technically a private company, their near monopoly gives them almost governmental power. This order doesn't say it, but it is a lot more about Dennis Praeger than about Donald Trump. Praeger has been involved in long standing legal disputes with youtube.

On the other hand, this order will likely result in more litigation, especially of a political nature, directed at companies, and I certainly don't trust the Trump administration to make anything remotely resembling fair judgements on any aspect of this law over which the executive branch could exert control.

I've only read through the order once, and quickly, so I'm not an expert on it. I hope my summary is adequate and doesn't contain significant error, but it could. However, I found it interesting and could be an interesting topic, so I thought it deserved its own thread.

Note to Mods: I chose "Social Issues and Current Events" for this thread. I tend to reserve "Politics" for things specifically about whether someone ought to be elected, or whether a specific politician was an awful person. This one is more about how government ought to behave with respect to social media companies, so I thought SI&CE was a better fit, but it could go either way. I promise not to whine if it's moved.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2zJfhkB

Palace Letters To Be Released

Palace letters: high court ruling paves the way for release of Queen's secret correspondence before 1975 Whitlam dismissal

Quote:

Historian Jenny Hocking wins landmark case after campaigning for release of secret letters between monarch and then Australian governor general Sir John Kerr Historian Jenny Hocking has won a landmark high court case in her bid to secure sensitive correspondence between the Queen and former Australian governor general Sir John Kerr about the dismissal of Gough Whitlam. The high court on Friday ruled that the commonwealth was wrong in its withholding of the so-called “palace letters”, a series of more than 200 exchanges between the Queen, her private secretary, and Kerr, the then governor general, in the lead-up to the 1975 dismissal of Whitlam, the then Australian prime minister. Hocking is now calling on the National Archive of Australia (NAA) to immediately release the 211 letters, saying the public deserves to know the full history of the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australia’s history. ... The letters represent communications between the two highest members of Australia’s constitutional monarchy in the lead-up to the sacking of a democratically elected prime minister, one of the most important episodes in the nation’s history.

What do you think? Should these letters, which have previously been deemed "personal correspondence" be released? I mean, they're going to be released, but do you think that's a good idea? I for one would like to know what role the Queen had in the leadup to the Dismissal and I think it's exceptionally likely that she was very involved in the decision making process. But there's an argument to be made that they shouldn't be released until after she has passed away, and let's face it, she's 94, so that can't be very far away.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2zwvPwn

Rio Tinto destroys ancient Aboriginal culture site

Quote:

Caves used by Aboriginal people for 40,000 years and rich with ancient artefacts have been destroyed by miners in a state-sanctioned blasting operation. Aboriginal owners said the loss of the culturally precious caves in Juukan Gorge, Western Australia, one of the earliest known sites occupied by their people, was a devastating blow. Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, said yesterday the explosions were in accordance with approvals given by the West Australian government seven years ago. The company said it had worked “constructively” with local people and, where practicable, had modified its operations.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/m...ite-7l062f9lq?

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/36CjvGV

China v India

Just what the world needs right now - another armed conflict!

While the peasants are preoccupied with Covid, let's start a scrap on the India - China border.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...sions-escalate

Appears to result from Modi throwing his weight around on borders, but Xi noticed and has responded.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2X91Qn0

What is the purpose of money?

Hi all,

I have the following argument regarding the purpose of money, does it seem correct to you, or am I wrong in my reasoning?
All feedback welcome, but please, keep it classy.:D

What is the purpose of money?

1. Trade with money or barter with products: You can trade/barter some chickens for a haircut or you can trade some money for a haircut.
2. Why not barter products for products: Chickens are uncomfortable to carry compared with money.
3. Definition:Money reduces the time and effort needed to trade.

Reasoning:

1. Common sense: It is common sense for humans to try to reduce the time and effort spend on activities they do, so that they make their lives easier.
2. What is trade: Trade is defined as the interchange of products between people.
3. Problems with bartering: Trading products for products requires a certain amount of time and effort spend. How much time and effort depends on the specific products used in the occasion, and it makes the problem even worse, as it is difficult for humans to plan their actions.

   • Trading chickens for a haircut is easier than trading a venomous snake for a haircut (unless the barber has pretty weird taste...).

4. Money as a medium: In order to reduce the amount of time and effort spend in trading, a new product is introduced, which on its own doesn't hold any value, apart from the value that people agree it has. This product we call money and it comes in more than one form (physical money, plastic money etc. )

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Xysuot

Is this argument logical or not?

Hi all,

is the below argument logical to you (does it make sense), or am I wrong somewhere (p.s. yeah, I know it's a weird argument...).
All feedback welcome, but please keep it classy :D

Hypothesis:
A joke is funny if and only if:
1) When I think of it, it is abnormal.
2) When I feel it, it feels good.
3) I cannot experience it continuously for it to still remain funny.

Forward Proof:
Assume a joke is funny --> prove that all 3 above are true:
1) If when I thought of it, it was normal, it wouldn’t surprise me. Yet a successful joke always surprises me.
2) If when I felt it, it felt bad, it wouldn’t be a joke to me.
3) No matter how good a joke is, I can only experience it from time to time for it to be funny.

Backwards Proof:
Assume all three above are true --> prove it is funny
Start from 2.
2) it feels good. It belongs in the set of experiences I want to live.
1) I think it is abnormal. It is a surprise/unknown experience I want to live.
3)I cannot experience it continuously. It is an unknown experience I want to live, but once…or from time to time…but I’m not sure when…isn’t it ?

In the above text, by definition the following words provide answers to the following questions in life:
1.Think: If I calm down from emotion, what conclusion do I reach?
2.Feel: which emotions come to me?
3.Experience: within everything, it is me, it is the rest (rest = everything-me). What is my connection with everything, this time?

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3eqpYY0

What more can you tell to your child in life?

Hi all,

what do you think? Both positive and negative feedback are welcome (but as always...keep it classy...)

General argument

what more can you tell to your child in life, than have fun and be careful?
What is my reasoning for saying this? Because if you tell your child to do something else (what else? anything else)

1. at best your child is going to have fun and be careful, plus something else. But as it takes less time and effort to just have fun and be careful, it will be common sense for your child to move to just have fun and be careful, sooner or later.
2. at worst your child is going to do something else, which may be or may not be what you asked your child to do. But your child in this case is not having fun and not being careful (we covered having fun and being careful, plus something else on bullet 1. )

however if you tell your child have fun and be careful (and nothing more), if the child is not careful, it will find this out as soon as possible. Why? Because before it finds this out, your child thought that it was having fun and being careful. Then, something happened, and your child is not having fun. So your child will try to be more careful (or else the child will continue not having fun)

Example Scenario:
you notice it is cold outside and your child is going to play with its friends

More than you should say: Have fun and be careful plus something else
what you tell your kid: Have fun and be careful, but take this jacket also and wear it, as it is cold. Your child disagrees.
What a selfish child does: the child takes but doesn't wear the jacket, and proceeds to have fun and be careful. But if the child is careful up to this point in its life, if it is cold for the child, then it will notice it (because the child is being careful) and will wear the jacket. Also, the child notices that your advice was valuable, and trusts you a bit more in the future. :D
What a bad child does: the child doesn't takes but doesn't wear the jacket, and proceeds to have fun and be careful. But if the child is a careful child up to this point in its life, if it is cold for the child, then it will notice it (because the child is being careful) and will wear the jacket. Still, the child doesn't notice any value in your advice in the future. :(
What a good child does: the child wears the jacket, and proceeds to have fun and be careful. But if the child is a careful child up to this point in its life, if it is warm for the child, then it will notice it (because the child is being careful), and will remove the jacket. Also, the child notices that your advice wasn't valuable, but it was loving. How much your child trusts your advice in the future, depends on how many times your advice wasn't valuable in the past, as a good child, wants also be fair with its mother.:D

Less than you should say: something else
what you tell your kid: Take this jacket also and wear it, as it is cold.Your child disagrees.
What a selfish child does: leaves without the jacket. :(
What a bad child does: takes the jacket, hides it near the house, and proceeds to go to have fun. :(
What a good child does: Takes the jacket and wears it. Regardless of whether it is warm or cold, the child keeps the jacket on. For now the child is afraid to make its own decisions, according to how the child feels. In the future, the child won't always have someone to advice it, and if it is afraid to make its own decisions now, it won't be able to built enough experience making decisions, observing the results, and correcting its behavior. :confused:
the right words: Have fun and be careful.
What a selfish child does: checks the weather and decides on whether it needs a jacket or not. :D
What a bad child does: goes out without checking the weather. If the weather is cold, the child will understand that the mistake was in its decision to not check the weather in the future. :D
What a good child does: checks the weather and decides on whether it needs a jacket or not. Gives you a kiss before it leaves. :D

What I am trying to argue is that in order for your child to build the ability to make decisions on difficult occasions, it needs first to make decisions on its own for simple occasions.
To build this skill (making decisions on difficult occasions), your child needs to accept responsibility of its own decisions, or else it cannot understand where it should correct its behavior.
In the above example, have fun and be careful sounds like and ideal situation, and this is what it is.
In practice for a child to learn a behavior, one needs start from "have fun and be careful, plus something else" (whatever this something else if for the occasion, e.g. wear the jacket, brush your teeth, make your bed etc.), with the aim to reach "have fun and be careful", where the child has an understanding that it is its responsibility to control its behavior.
As a parent, you will notice your kid changing its behavior, and then it is also your responsibility to not do "something else" but "have fun and be careful". The reason for doing this is that then the relationship between the parent and the child is working while both are "having fun and being careful", and this common understanding without extra words, builds trust between them.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2AgqOI0

Amazon buy the news

I mean literally. A bought and paid propoganda piece where news should be.

If this doesn't scare the **** out of you, I don't know what will


"Local news stations across the U.S. aired a segment produced and scripted by Amazon which touts the company's role in delivering essential groceries and cleaning products during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its ability to do so while "keeping its employees safe and healthy.""

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4...uced-by-amazon

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ZF0WQX

Sense of timing

What causes difficulties in a person's sense of timing, rhythm, keeping to a beat?

What foods, vitamins, etc help it?

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3eoh7Gs

...knee to the back of the neck while black: until dead.

...the video is HORRIBLE. I'm not going to link to it directly, but here is a news report. Warning: the video is on the link.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minneap...neck-man-died/

The short version: police respond to a "forgery in progress." The video picks up the story with the police officer on top of the arrested man, knee to the back of the neck. The man repeats that "he can't breath." We then watch the man die. And the knee remains on the back of the neck. The crowd are yelling at the cops.

I know that this board LOVES to get pedantic over these stories. But I can't imagine how anyone could defend the officer here.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/36wUz3k

Another monk bites the dust

Breatharian claimant Prahlad Jani has died.

Quote:

Prahlad Jani (Gujarati: પ્રહલાદ જાની), also known as Mataji or Chunriwala Mataji, (13 August 1929 ― 26 May 2020) was an Indian breatharian monk who claimed to have lived without food and water since 1940. He said that the goddess Amba sustained him. However, the findings of the investigations on him have been kept confidential.

Quote:

Prahlad Jani was born in Charada village in Mehsana district.[1] According to Jani, he left his home in Gujarat at the age of seven, and went to live in the jungle.[2] At the age of 12, Jani underwent a spiritual experience and became a follower of the Hindu goddess Amba. From that time, he chose to dress as a female devotee of Amba, wearing a red sari-like garment, jewellery and crimson flowers in his shoulder-length hair.[2] Jani is commonly known as Mataji ("[a manifestation of] The Great Mother"). Jani believes that the goddess provides him with a liquid sustenance[2] or water which drops down through a hole in his palate, allowing him to live without food or drink.[1] Since the 1970s, Jani has lived as a ashram (hermit) in a cave in the forest in Gujarat, awakening at 4am each day and spending most of his time meditating.[2] He died on 26 May 2020 at Charada. He was buried at his ashram at Gabbar hill near Ambaji.[3][4]

I guess the lack of food and water finally caught up with him.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2LZl1t1

Ummm..,.. Birdwatching whule Black?

Yeah, so. Profssional Black man and his professional sister (needed to say 'not thugs for the racists) ask a White woman in CP to put her dog on a leash. She calls 911 and FAKES being threatened. "An African American man is threatining me and my dog!" while fake cryng. This is how innocent people get killed.

Also strangling dog instead of using leash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rrP9Hzlc6U

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2M0MoD0

USA Memorial Day

As a veteran, the crap that shows up on Memorial day really pisses me off.

Never mind mattress, and everything imaginable sales, which are bad enough; but now I'm seeing sales that are offering discounts for active military, veterans, EMT and healthcare workers..


Memorial day is about fallen ( dead ) military service members !


I see a time when Memorial Day will be about kindergartners who didn't make it to the first grade..


And no, it's not about who can drive a race car 500 times in an oval, in the shortest amount of time, either..

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ZyBKLI

Youtube's awful algorithm

For a company with so much money riding on their algorithm Youtube sure is awful. I mean, as an example, for months I've been trying to get it to show me candid, man on the street videos of various construction projects. I do deliberate searches for this every single time I log in and click on videos that seem to be that. Despite this, after months of this, their suggested viewings keep being mass media produced mainstream documentaries about construction I neither want nor ever click on.

In fact I can barely remember the last time I clicked on anything they suggest instead doing specific searches hoping that it will eventually learn. Want videos on astronomy? Here are twenty videos about SpaceX instead! Want realtime drive videos though scenic spaces? Here is a video about some stupid supercar that only Saudi royalty buys!

What is up with this? Even Pornhub figured out that I want to see redheads in glasses giving me orders like after two visits and god bless them for doing so. Surely Youtube has more invested into this than Pornhub?

Sorry, bit of a rant.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3d0yqNv

The US successfully tested a laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight

A US Navy warship has successfully tested a new high-energy laser weapon that can destroy aircraft mid-flight, the Navy's Pacific Fleet said in a statement Friday.

Images and videos provided by the Navy show the amphibious transport dock ship USS Portland executing "the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser" to disable an aerial drone aircraft, the statement said.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/22/a...cli/index.html

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Tzr0Jn

I've been watching Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War"

I'm barely old enough to remember the Vietnam War. I was 10 years old when the peace accords were signed in 1973. So, I recognized a lot of the terms that were used to describe the war, like "Tet Offensive" and "Khe Sanh" and "Ho Chi Minh Trail" and all that, but I really couldn't put them into a context. I knew it was said that our soldiers won the war, but our politicians lost it, but I really didn't know what that meant. I had never read a book about the war, so my knowledge was pretty fragmented. I played wargames, but I always avoided modern stuff, like Vietnam.

Well, the Vietnam war is not as modern as it used to be, and I found myself watching a Ken Burns documentary for my Covid 19 entertainment.


What a thoroughly and utterly messed up piece of history. The people who ran that war were a disgrace. Whether it's LBJ, or McNamara, or Westmoreland. The lot of them should be remembered by history as completely awful people, or at least so thoroughly and utterly inept that it borders on criminal.

I vaguely remember "body counts". As a small child I remember seeing on the news that our team lost 400, but their team lost 640, so that meant we were winning. That made sense to my six year old brain, but come to find out that was the level of thinking of the people in charge, too. It's incredible that such incompetence went on for so long.

Meanwhile, our generals knew how the NVA was getting into the country, and how they were shipping supplies to the Viet Cong, and we bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail, but didn't actually occupy it to prevent those supplies from coming in, because as long as we had a positive kill ratio, we were winning.

I had heard about all this stuff before, but I think it took a documentary of that length to really grasp just how incredibly stupid it all was.

If you want to see something that shows you just how incredibly stupid a government and militiary industrial complex can be, watch it.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2XkFJsI

Paul “Bear” Vasquez 1962-2020

I note with sadness the passing of Mr Vasquez, also known as Yosemitebear62, most famous for the viral Double Rainbow YouTube video.

[yt]OQSNhk5ICTI[/yt]

Though feeling the effects of a heart attack, he delayed calling for help because he “looked forward to reincarnating.” Rest In Peace.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3bUPmDD

Question about ASL (American Sign Language) translators on TV

With so many briefings popping up on TV, I see some speakers (or the networks) provide a feed of an ASL translator on the screen.

I have a serious question -- I'm ignorant on this subject. I can see the hand signs sometimes correlating to the narrative. But I often notice the translator making what I think are... odd... facial expressions.

My question -- is the facial expression part of the translation? Or is it just a personal expression on the part of the translator (much like advanced musicians who often make weird faces when playing)?

It sometimes strikes me like Chevy Chase used to do, making funny faces behind a newscaster while the reporter is doing the story. (Yes, I know that is nowhere near the intent of the one who is very likely a volunteer!)

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2XrfxMT

[Continuation] Biden for President? Pt 2

Quote:

I really, really want Trump to come out and say the exact same thing Biden said, word for word. Just to see what happens.

That would be weird, even for him. I mean, he keeps talking about himself in the third person, but given he's incredibly racist, it'd also be an incredibly strange statement.

Then again, choosing between Trump and Trump is probably exactly the scenario Trump would want for the 2020 election.

Quote:

The left can find subtle racism and white supremacy in Peloton videos but Good Ol' Joe was just joking.

It's as if they are different people or something.

Continued from this thread. You may quote or respond to any post in that thread.

Posted By:zooterkin

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3ghUViY

Microsoft - Killjoys.

It always brightened up my day to watch apparently competent people sabotage themselves and their colleagues over and over again solely due to the absence of any desire to learn even the slightest thing about the tools they're using. That along with the odd comedy reply could make even the dullest days a little brighter.

But now, Microsoft, in their wisdom, are offering an 'ignore conversation' feature, for all those times when somebody's emailed everybody and most people are hitting 'reply all'.

My only hope is that people won't know how to use it.


https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...e/ba-p/1369811

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Xf5RVG

Incel shoots up Arizona mall, wounds 3

This event as far as I can tell wasn't mentioned here when it happened this past Wednesday, May 20th. A local man identified as Armando Hernandez entered a shopping mall in Glendale, Arizona and began firing at shoppers in an attack which he live-streamed on Snapchat. By sheer luck, his spray of bullets managed to only wound 3 people, one of whom remains in serious condition in the hospital. Hernandez used an AR-15, the Mass Shooter Special, for his attack.

Hernandez was captured alive and has been talking to investigators. By his own account, he has contemplated such an attack for a long time to punish society out of frustration at being an "incel", and intimated that he had specifically tried to target couples during the mall attack.

Quote:

"Mr. [Armando] Hernandez had the purpose of taking out his express anger at society, the feeling that he has been bullied, the feeling that women don't want him," Leiter said in court Thursday. Leiter also detailed that while the suspect said he didn’t intend to kill anyone, he had every intention to cause injury to people at the mall with their significant others. "He specifically was hoping to shoot at least 10 people," Leiter said, successfully making the case for bail to be set at $1 million. “He wanted these people to feel the pain that he feels on a daily basis. He suffers from extreme anger. He’s very open about the fact that he has a dark side, and his dark side was coming out.”

Although he has been planning the attack for a prolonged period, he has told police that he decided today was the day, when he learned that a restaurant and theater he wanted to visit at the mall complex were both closed due to COVID, after which he became enraged.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2yueyDq

[Continuation] The Trump Presidency: Part 22

Sarah Cooper does Trump again:

Manorities:
https://twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1263515132698734597

Testing positively:
https://twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1263602783699243015

Thread continued from here. You may quote or reply to any of the posts in that or previous thread parts.

Posted By:zooterkin

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2WT5PUz

When is an event evidence for it's explanation?

In the politics thread, there was a link to a story of one state swapping dates for daily infections, making the numbers look better....three different times.

Replies indicated this was evidence it was on purpose.

This is a concept in general that has seemed flawed to me the many times it comes up...


X is some event (getting it wrong three times)
Y is the theory for the reason of X (on purpose)
X is implied to be the evidence for Y (it was on purpose because it was done three times).

Can an event be evidence for the explanation? Or does the explanation of an event require evidence outside of X?

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3d5L2mg

The “CIA trafficked cocaine” CT...

I don’t get the rationale on this one. Why do some folks insist on believing that the CIA directly trafficked in cocaine?

After all, they certainly had drug traffickers on their payroll (Manuel Noriega being one infamous example), and obviously they funded people like the Contras and other anti-Communist paramilitary groups and corrupt governments in Latin America - many of whom also trafficked drugs. Considering the behavior of those groups and governments, that’s surely scandalous enough!

It’s like the CTs about the CIA supporting Osama bin Laden during the Soviet war Afghanistan - not only did that not happen (his money came from donors in the Gulf monarchies, particularly Saudi Arabia obviously), but the CIA actually did fund hardline Afghan Islamists like Hektmayar (sp) and Haqqani - in large part because the pro-Islamist Pakistani intelligence was the coordinating agency for American and other countries’s funds (including the Saudis).

And not only did many of the Afghan mujahideen commanders the CIA funded via the ISI commit tons of war crimes (particular during the Afghan Civil War, when they WERE FIGHTING EACH OTHER as the CIA washed its hands of Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal), but many of the same people, along with more recent (post-9/11) additions to the roster of US-backed Afghan warlords, have become major players in the Afghan opium drug trade. Again: scandalous enough!

Why make up horrible things that the CIA/US government and/or the individuals and groups they’ve supported over the decades - or indeed, invent direct connections that aren’t there (drug trafficking, Osama bin Laden) - when there are plenty of REAL horrible things that we can and should criticize them for?

Again: I don’t get it.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Zx7dxM

Roe v. Wade: Recanting of the reversal

Haven't seen anything about this, but I thought it might be of some interest.

Remember Roe v. Wade? (The supreme court case that struck down various abortion laws.) The woman behind it caused a little controversy when she later came out on the Anti-Abortion side. But, there might be a bit more to the story.

From: BBC
Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe in the US Supreme Court's decision on Roe v Wade, shocked the country in 1995 when she came out against abortion. But in new footage, McCorvey alleges she was paid to switch sides....In her "deathbed confession", as she calls it, a visibly ailing McCorvey says she only became an anti-abortion activist because she was paid by evangelical groups.

Not sure who comes out looking worse here... The evangelicals for bribing someone into lying, or McCorvey herself for throwing herself in with the evangelicals. (The article doesn't go into details about why she did so, other than 'she was paid', if she had financial problems, etc.)

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2XfJqzX

Beechcraft lands on Interstate 470

FAA investigating after plane lands on eastbound I-470 Tuesday afternoon

Quote:

"At approx. 2 p.m., a pilot was making his final approach to land at the Lee’s Summit airport when he experienced sudden engine failure in one of two engines," the MSHP said on Twitter. "The pilot landed on the nearby roadway of I-470 between Douglas and Colburn. No one was injured." The FAA said the plane was a twin-engine Beechcraft BE50. "A twin-engine Beechcraft BE50 made an emergency landing this afternoon on Interstate 470 near Lee’s Summit, Mo., after the pilot reported a loss of engine power," a statement from the FAA said. "No injuries were immediately reported on the ground nor by the pilot. The FAA will investigate."

Airport data and layout can be seen here:
https://www.airnav.com/airport/KLXT

Wind conditions were something like ENE 6mph.

Landed in eastbound lanes here, with Douglas exit behind them, Colbern ahead. Airport is just to the North. Seems like runway 11 or 36 were options (about the same amount of mild crosswind).

I'm not an air crash investigator, but despite all the accolades for pulling off a crazy landing, I suspect someone is about to lose their license.

Not even sure I respect the landing all that much either, they barely caught paved surface with the undercarriage. The more I've dug, the less I think this is remarkable nerves and skill, more and more to sheer luck.

I'm glad nobody got hurt.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2yjn0Fo

17 year old incel terrorist attacks "massage parlour", kills one and wounds two

Quote:

A Toronto teenager has become the first Canadian ever charged with carrying out an "incel"-inspired terror attack. The 17-year-old boy is accused of fatally stabbing a woman in February. Incel, short for "involuntarily celibate," is an online subculture focused on members' perceived inability to find romantic or sexual partners. A 2018 attack in Toronto that killed 10 was also allegedly inspired by the ideology, but the accused in that case was not charged with terrorism. On Tuesday, Toronto Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) issued a joint press conference announcing the terrorism charges. The suspect, who cannot be named because he is a minor, had already been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder shortly after the incident, which took place at an erotic massage parlour. Police allege he fatally stabbed Ashley Noelle Arzaga, 24, who was discovered inside the building around 13:00 local time on 24 February. Two other people, a man and a woman, were found outside the premises with stab wounds.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52733060

If he's upset about the fact that he's a virgin, or just not getting laid, maybe instead of killing sex workers he should have sex with them.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3bPoPHI

Daryl Bem Proved ESP Is Real

This was an article that popped up when I opened a blank tab on my browser, so I took a look.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/d...=pocket-newtab

I notice that it mentions Randi.

However, it never explains why Bem did not apply for the Randi Prize (his paper was published in 2011). Did he not want to go through Randi's gantlet of comments?

:Blackcat:

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ToHlQZ

Trial By Jury

So what do others here think about trial by jury as being the best and fairest way to reach a verdict? From my youth I always thought it the obvious best, but with the passing of years and knowledge gained, I'm not so sure any more.

I think the guy in the street may not be the best judge in assessing evidence. Perhaps someone who has more expertise and less vulnerability, to the persuasive skills of talented lawyers, is better suited to the task. It is the knowledge of those innocents having been convicted and later released, that I read about, as well as personal experience in the witness box, leading me to this opinion.

Some years ago I was witness to a stabbing where the victim almost died. My recollection of the detail of the assault itself and the identity of the assailant was clear. The assailant was apprehended by the police and brought back to the scene of the crime where we, the witnesses, were.

After the assault the police (just one guy) was on the scene in minutes, told all present to say where we were, and set off in pursuit of the assailant. We, the witnesses, talked.

For some reason someone mentioned he thought the assailant wore glasses, and although I had no recollection of this, my mind put glasses on his head. They were there when I eventually made my statement to the police.

Some time later, giving evidence at the trial, the defence lawyer made a strong point about my making this observation (as it happened the guy was not wearing glasses), and cast doubt on the veracity of my evidence.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ygKAma

Buying a TV while Black

4 white Missouri cops sued for alleged brutality on 68-year-old black woman and son in a Sam’s Club

Quote:

Four white police officers allegedly used excessive force on a 68-year-old black woman and her adult son after the son was wrongly accused of stealing a TV in a Missouri Sam’s Club, a new lawsuit claims. Marvia Gray suffered “mental anguish” as well as injuries to her tailbone, back, shoulder, knees and arms when she was thrown to the ground and handcuffed March 23 inside the Des Peres store, the lawsuit filed Monday in St. Louis County alleges. Her 43-year-old son, Derek, suffered a concussion, three shattered teeth and other injuries, the paperwork obtained by the Daily News states.

Quote:

At the Sam’s Club, Derek purchased a 65-inch Sony Bravia flat-screen TV for his mother, along with other items, Stroth said. When they tried to load the massive TV in their 2018 Lexus SUV and realized it wouldn’t fit, they asked the store to hold it until Derek could retrieve it later. A Des Peres Police officer in the store mistakenly thought he was stealing the TV when he returned later. The officer followed Derek to his SUV and voiced his suspicion before a store employee intervened and explained the TV was paid for, the lawsuit said. Despite receiving this information, the officer still called the Des Peres Police Department and “falsely reported that he had ‘witnessed Gray steal a TV and place it in the parked vehicle,’” the lawsuit states. When Derek reported the incident to his mom, they decided to return the TV due to the experience with the false allegations, the lawsuit states. While the Grays were at the store seeking a refund, the four officers, including the one who made the emergency call, “violently and physically seized Marvia Gray and Derek Gray, throwing them to the floor, beating them, handcuffing them, then arresting them," the paperwork states.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2zfzluP

David Graeber on BS jobs

(NB, if you want to look for the books or lectures, he does spell BS out in full, but I'm not gonna try my luck with annoying the mods.)

As a quick introduction, David Graeber is a professor of anthropology, so he proceeds to do what anthropology does: try to figure out how a culture works. In his case, western culture, rather than going and annoying some tribe somewhere.

In his case, this started with an article about how some jobs are just useless time-filling pretending to work, and it snowballed until polling companies started doing anonymous polls. Where about 40% of the respondents conceded that either their job contributes nothing to society, or even in some cases that society as a whole would actually be better off if the job were to disappear entirely. That doesn't include those who were unsure if their job actually contributes anything, which were a significant chunk too. Less than half actually gave a definite yes to the question of whether their job contributes anything.

Graeber then proceeds to classify these jobs, based on people's testimonies, into 5 categories:

1. Flunkies: These are people who are there just to make someone else feel good about themselves. Like, say, a secretary who only gets a phone call a day. This can however include any other employees that are there just to inflate the number of people that someone manages, since in most corporations your status and salary as a manager are directly determined by that.

2. Goons: These are the people you only need because the opponents have some of their own. Similar in concept to armies: if nobody had one, you wouldn't need one. In the corporate world that can include stuff like telemarketers.

3. Duct-tapers: People who are there to apply some fix or cover-up to a problem which shouldn't have existed in the first place. His standard example is that when his university needed a carpenter to fix something, for weeks they got to talk on the phone to someone whose job was to apologize that the carpenter can't come today. So, Graeber asks himself, wouldn't have been easier to hire a second carpenter instead of that guy?

4. Box-tickers: People who are there just so it appears that the organization does something that it doesn't actually do.

5. Taskmasters: extra layers of management that aren't actually needed, so in the best case they don't actually do anything, and in the worst case they actually make up BS for other people to do, so they can feel like they did something. E.g., administrators who are supposed to free your time of admin tasks so you can concentrate on the more useful stuff, but in practice make you fill extra forms and attend extra meetings and otherwise actually make you LESS productive.

The last one ties into what he calls the BS-ization of jobs which aren't BS per se. But you get to devote less time on doing the job itself, and more and more on pointless meetings and forms. These are not included in those 40% btw, so this is an additional waste of society's resources on top of that.

Graeber also notes that these have been the jobs that have actually proliferated in the last century straight. The supposed service economy didn't actually create more service jobs that actually do anything for anyone. Those have apparently remained flat at around 20%. They can serve more people nowadays, but that's basically it. Instead what has exploded is the domain of what he calls BS jobs.

One of his example comes from his domain, namely the academia, where apparently teaching jobs have increased by about 40%, but administrative ones have increased by 240%. In case anyone wondered why universities cost more these days.

He also notes that these people don't seem particularly happy about their job. At least theoretically they are getting a good wage for minimal effort, so return on investment, so to speak, is sky high. They should be happy, right? Turns out that most people aren't actually happy about being useless, or worse yet, making up BS work to slow others down too.

Graeber's main solution seems to be the universal basic income. Among other things on the basis that, sure, its opponents say that then people wouldn't go to work if they have some assured income, but then if 40% already contribute nothing or even a negative amount, how much worse can it be?

I'll leave my impressions for another message, since this is already a wall of text.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2ThGi59

CSICon 15-18 October 2020

Hi everyone,
CSICon is five months away and, while nothing is certain, I'm putting out a call for volunteers to help. Tentative volunteers, of course, since CFI hasn't even updated the web site for 2020 yet.

We get invited to the volunteer and staff dinner the Wednesday before CSICon, get free admission to the Saturday night party, and get a free t-shirt. If you're randomly chosen to check tickets at one of the workshops on Thursday, you get to attend it for free also. We take about four hours of your time and _never_ during something you paid for. When the speakers start, you're sitting in the audience.

Last year two volunteers, Kyle and Susan, IIRC, were checking badges before Banachek's show when Banachek asked them if they wanted to be part of the show. They agreed and got to have their minds "read" during the show. It may not happen again, but you never know what might happen when you are visible and approachable.

CFI's board will meet in early June to decide. If you're interested please email volunteering@csiconference.org .

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2X4sADY

first legal victory over 5G?

Am I missing something or the lawyers proved again nothing is imposible?
https://www.energytherapy.biz/2020/0...K5iUwkK-vf2gRg

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2WGzfFy

Shot dead for being female

Pakistan: teenage girls shot dead by relatives over online footage

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...y_to_clipboard

Two female teenagers in Pakistan have been murdered by family members after a video emerged online of them associating with a man.

The pair, said to be aged 16 and 18, were shot dead by male relatives in their remote village in Pakistan’s North Waziristan province this week after footage was posted online of them in the company of a young man in a secluded area.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2AAFMJ7

Chinese ambassador to Israel is found dead in his home in Tel Aviv

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/17/m...ntl/index.html

With next to no other facts, I'll go with Illuminati.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2WBOAHa

What age would you use to characterize Trump's behaviou?

In a great many posts I've seen Donald Trump called a "toddler." I haven't raised any kids myself, so I'm not qualified to pass a judgement on this. But I'm curious how parents here on the forum view him.

For those here who have raised children, preferably all the way to adulthood or mid-teens, given what we've seen of how Donald Trump conducts himself on television, in interviews, and on Twitter, as well as stories coming out of the White House, what age would you ascribe to Trump's overall behaviour? Toddler? Spioled eight year old? Tween? Emotional or even responsible teenager? Examples from your own child raising experience would be interesting.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2LzyPdF

Commander in Cheat

I was reading this article; https://golf.com/lifestyle/celebriti...g-tiger-woods/

Quote:

I used to have this coach who told us, “How you do one thing is how you do everything. You loaf in practice, you’re gonna loaf in the game. You cheat on your tests, you’re gonna cheat on your wife.”

Interesting read to say the least. So I got the book Commander in Cheat. It is funny and tragic at the same time. If it was just about Trump the buffoon, it would be merely funny. But it's about the President of the United States.

Ranb

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2y8I8y9

Help solve a mystery: Is this an illustration from a science textbook?

Hello Science Types,

I'm trying to track down some information about a painting. I sense that it was used as an illustration for a bio-chem textbook or something. I'm trying to find where it was originally used. If anyone recognizes it specifically, or the style, I'd be interested to learn more about it. For those of you with a large sciencey social media presence, let the word go forth.

Thanks for helping,
Ward

Oh, P.S. Here's the image: https://www.incollect.com/listings/d...gouache-168210

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2WC8r9n

Covid Database

I'm creating a database for capturing data surrounding covid-19. There are many organizations that have implemented such databases, but there are some features I'd like that I don't see elsewhere. (Also this is a cabin fever skills refresher, so I'm glad to invest the time.)

Features I intend to include:

* able to store data at Country, State, and/or Subdivision (e.g. County) granularity
* use standardized codes for geographic keys
* implement numeric facts (e.g. Cases, Deaths) without schema change
* support multiple versions of the same numeric fact

I'm doing the project in MS SQL Server but I'm avoiding features specific to the product in case I want to port it to a different DB platform.

I'll be posting here as I progress and I welcome feedback.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3fO28XI

Lognormal question

Is the derivative of a lognormal distribution lognormal?

Thanks

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3630IEe

Gated community resident "detains" black deliverymen, demands client's name

Furniture delivery man Travis Miller and a coworker had just finished delivering merchandise to a house in a gated community, and were on the way out of the neighborhood in their delivery truck when a man suddenly blocked the street with his vehicle.

Miller and his companion, who are both black, were both wearing company work uniforms with name patches, and the delivery company's branding was visible in multiple places on the truck itself as well. Nevertheless, the man, who said he was from the home owner's association, demanded to know the delivery drivers' business "on his street", and stated that he would not permit them to leave until they answered his questions. Halfway through the incident, Miller took out his phone and began recording.

Quote:

Miller said Thursday that he kept his seat belt on, remained in the truck and recorded the encounter to protect himself and his colleague. "My intention was never to go viral," Miller said in a phone interview Thursday. "My intention was to cover myself in case he called my employer and said I did something other than what I did." He said he also did not want the situation to escalate, because he feared that if police had responded, he would have been perceived as the aggressor. About 30 minutes into the encounter, a second white man confronted Miller. "All we want to know is why you're in here and who gave you the gate code," the second man said. "That's all we need to know."

Miller refused to give the unknown-to-him men the personal information of the delivery customer. At some point, though the exact circumstances are unclear, that customer contacted the men himself by phone and told them to move. Miller and his companion had been detained for nearly an hour by that point.

After the situation diffuses and the men blocking the road leave, Miller speaks on the phone to various parties regarding the incident, including the police and the delivery customer, who profusely apologizes for the actions of the goons (although Miller repeatedly asserts the situation was not the customer's fault).

In the video, and in interviews since, Miller describes the frank horror and helplessness of being a black person trapped in a situation that seems to be escalating beyond his control in an all-too-predictable way. He cannot simply drive around the blocking vehicle, on some other resident's grass, because that would be "aggression". He can't leave his truck, because that would be "aggression". He is afraid to call the police himself, for no reason other than that police might decide he has somehow committed "aggression" and act accordingly. He has literally no option except to sit there wait for strangers to decide his fate. After they have left, multiple times between calls and while talking with his friend Miller can be seen crying, pausing for a time to recompose himself before proceeding to the next call.

Luckily for him, the delivery customer somehow became involved and made the goons leave without incident. If that intervention had not taken place - well I think we all know what easily might've happened. Most of us are honest enough to admit it.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3dQdrNe

Committing Armed Robbery While Black

Giants CB Deandre Baker, Seahawks CB Quinton Dunbar facing multiple armed robbery charges

This is pretty stupid. Glad they didn't kill anyone, except their own future and careers.

Quote:

The New York Giants’ Deandre Baker and Seattle Seahawks’ Quinton Dunbar are each facing four counts of armed robbery with a firearm, while Baker is facing an additional four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, after the two allegedly robbed guests at a party in Miramar, Florida, the Miramar police department said on Thursday.

Note they are saying allegedly. I guess it could be a hoax of some kind.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3fSUoUr

Tragedy in Afghanistan; a maternity ward under attack

I (mostly) quote the BBC:

The number of people who were killed in a militant attack on a maternity ward in Kabul, a few days ago, has risen to 24. Mothers, newborn babies and nurses were among the victims. At least 16 people were injured, the health ministry said. In a second incident on the same day, a suicide bomber killed at least 32 people at a funeral in Nangarhar, in the east of the country.

The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack on the police commander's funeral in Nangarhar.

It is still not clear who carried out the attack at the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, and the Taliban have denied any involvement. However, US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has blamed IS for the hospital attack, saying the jihadists want to undermine recent peace efforts and fan a sectarian war.

Little Amina (one of the injured babies) is now recovering in a different hospital. She has already had one round of surgery, with at least two more to go. The doctors hope they can save the leg shattered by a bullet, but they don't know yet.

The family fear for her future if they do have to amputate - life is not likely to be easy for a disabled girl in Afghanistan.

But right now, they are just trying to understand why, as the country supposedly moves towards peace, this happened.

(https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52673563 , https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52642503)

Why are things like that happening?

It seems to me that at least one of the reasons is the very brutal and violent way the Islamic State militants are being dealt with (and killed) themselves by the U.S. mostly (but also by its allies). I suspect the extraordinary violence by Isis is a reaction to the violence that they suffer themselves, after they created a pseudo-state in Iraq and Syria, following the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003:

Quote:

According to the Pentagon, by December 2017 over 80,000 ISIL fighters had been killed in Iraq and Syria by CJTF-OIR airstrikes.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islami...and_the_Levant)

Something similar happened during WWII: Nazi violence against the Jews enormously increased after the UK and France (joined later by the U.S., after Pearl Harbor) declared war to them.

In other words, if you want real progress (in Afghanistan and elsewhere), and not just more of the same, the U.S. should (in my opinion) learn to treat the members of the Islamic State like human beings, as opposed to some kind of infected rats that would need to be eliminated.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Tc2j5o

Local Murder -Very Shocking

When I first heard about this I assumed that I had misheard or it was some kind of sick joke. :(

Quote:

A police officer is reported to have discovered human remains in a suitcase being carried by a couple in England. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the discovery on Tuesday night and a large area on the outskirts of Coleford in Gloucestershire remains cordoned off.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/u...tMKHsim7xFFgO4

It seems that the officer saw the couple, thought their actions were suspicious and then made a grisly discovery.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Z3Sr1k

pax amerikana: assassination of Qassem Soleimani by USG (WWIII?, really?) ...

In the main, these post is based on a long, protracted back-and-forth I was having with a friend of mine; some history buff whom I know well not to be exactly one of those "USA! USA! USA!" kinds of "critical thinkers". He knows well, I am not a Nazi apologist, an anti-Semite or any of that crap, when the targeted assassination of the Iranian al-Quds force commander, Qassem Soleimani and the group accompanying him by USG "happened".

The "officially cultured" term, "kept" by USG you can find at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pax_americana

The aspects I talk about are from not being taken into consideration at all, to being carefully (as "critical thinkers" would say, "responsibly") avoided by the "freedom loving" media who have been flying around all kinds of "WWIII" memes.

// __ Intercepted Podcast: Could Trump Start World War III?

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/22/...nts=1#comments

In order to start "WWIII", you need a spine and some balls as a people. I don't think that having watched star wars as a kid, twitter accounts, techno *****, large TV sets, cell phones, "worldsonlysuperpowerness" ... will do. Something that I find worryingly silly about gringos is that they seem to take movies as some soft of self-help philosophy seriously:

// __ Inside the mind of NSA chief Gen Keith Alexander

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...nder-star-trek
~
* guy in college:
* lady the force:

Based on "freedom-lovers"'s (the U.S. and British government) past, their tried-and-true historical ethos, the most essential pillar supporting their claim to "glory", "greatness", ... is a peculiarly schizophrenic combination of a formidably accurate aiming sense, "critical thinking", ... with huge and "incredibly selective" geographical/physical, visual and moral blind spots.
~
Am I the only one who has noticed how "verbally careful", "caring about rights/the rule of law", pussycat, "diplomatic" freedom-lovers get when their bluff is called by a force that can and will defend themselves on an equal basis?

With the assassination via a drone attack of Soleimani whom Iranian people themselves considered to be the second most important defense and political figure (de-facto vice president) of their sovereign nation, USG has effectively made the statement, again, -to the part of the world they can safely abuse-: "you must have, eat and pretend to like our pax amerikana *****". You must be and be seen as "amicus populi Amerikani". If you don't all it will take is a press on a button to say "good bye" to you.

Trump also said: "this won't be another Benghazi":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack

// __ Trump, Pompeo, Esper Defend Killing Of Soleimani; Iranians Vow Revenge

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/07/79417...we-got-it-righ
~
// __ Trump, top officials mount defense over Soleimani killing

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...lture-n1111776
~
and, as if he were an abusive husband who had just beaten his wife: "what she shouldn't be doing". As USG has always done, something "interesting" about gringos is that they think that they have the responsibility to own reality (or is it an unavoidable illusive artifact that comes with illusions of "power"?).

What shouldn't Soleimani, Iranians, Muslem, Arabic people opposing USG genocide have been doing? The ever factual, truthful and honest U.S. "freedom of thought, the press, ..." media "clarified" it to us: "Soleimani had 'American' blood in his hands".

I wonder who could get anywhere near USG while trying to emulate them at having all kinds of blood of all kinds of people all over their bodies even if they do their best at pretending they care to put on white gloves while they go about their bloody, "freedom loving" business. This time around they didn't care so much about trying to hide their actions, "be 'intelligent'", but is the targeted assassination of Soleimani by USG really something new?

To just name a few cases right in what they consider to be their "America for 'Americans'" backyard, USG had previously assassinated (had been since 40 years ago when they killed Roldós) two democratically elected presidents by more "simple", less theatrical conventional means: placing bombs in their presidential planes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Roldós_Aguilera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Torrijos

and using their domestic corruption, politicians, the military, to destabilize the government of those countries if they are not perceived as "amicus populi Amerikani" enough is just an axiomatic part of their "freedom loving":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Árbenz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Bertrand_Aristide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff

...

Gringos would ask you for "proof". They want to see "the smoking gun" held by the very "Teddy" Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, ... in the way that this administration not only did, but also, as if it were necessary, to add insult to injury, boasted about it. So, this is a new phase of USG's Pax Amerikana bs. The new normal are direct drone attacks to assassinate whomever is not perceived as "amicus populi Amerikani". What, who will be next? Bashar al-Assad? Kim Jong-un?, Evo Morales?, Julian Assange?, you and me?

// __ Obama tells UN: Syria's Assad must go

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us...-assad-must-go
~
// __ Obama's drone wars and the normalisation of extrajudicial murder

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...dicial-killing
~
// __ Double-Tap Warfare: Should President Obama Be
Investigated for War Crimes?

https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/...50&context=flr
~
Before the British government took him into custody in their torture chambers, that Hillary Clinton lady with her neurotic faces was suggesting assassinating Julian Assange via a drone attack, so now we know we should not take any of it as just "jokes".

// __ Clinton 'can't recall' if she joked about getting rid of Julian Assange with a drone - as she holds a press conference in a secretive shrine

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ve-shrine.html
~
Are you sure you aren't doing something that "you shouldn't be doing"? (tm) and the most interesting part about that kind of thinking is that you won't even have the chance to know what was it exactly that you "you shouldn't be doing" (tm). Actually, most people killed in drone strikes have no idea why they were "signature-struck" by "the worldsonlysuperpower"'s algorithms, what was it exactly that they shouldn't be doing:

// __ We dream about drones, said 13-year-old Yemeni before his death in a CIA strike

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ath-cia-strike
~
// __ WHEN WILL OBAMA APOLOGIZE FOR ALL THE OTHER INNOCENT VICTIMS OF DRONE STRIKES?

https://theintercept.com/2015/04/24/...gy/?comments=1
~
// __ OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FINALLY RELEASES ITS DUBIOUS DRONE DEATH TOLL

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/01/...ll/?comments=1

"Under Obama, the unmanned vehicles have become both a tool and a symbol of a new age of modern American warfare, one in which the U.S. government asserts the right to reach out and kill suspected terrorists wherever they may be".
~
// __ One in six children live in war zones, Save the Children says

https://www.dw.com/en/one-in-six-chi...ays/a-42594476
~
Since they have more detailed information about all aspects of one's life that any one could possibly imagine, they can read whatever they want into "your profile" and as that idiotic, morally deafferented USG/CIA moron Brennan actually expressly stated: "the definition of 'terrorist' is that we killed you". Now, isn't that as self-evident and clear a proof as it gets?

Obama, who sat his black rear end in all those fancy schools for half of his youth studying "U.S. Constitutional Law" loved his newly instituted signature strikes as part of his never-ending war ideations, he was especially proud of the double taps aspect of it, even though USG people not exactly known for their kinds hearts and humanity repeatedly pointed out to him that terrorists (and when USG talks about "terrorism" they mean the kind not financed, sponsored and trained by them) who could tie their shoelaces knew well "what they shouldn't be doing" (tm).

Bullies are very careful about whom they pick fights with, killing children and their grandparents for threatening their "worldsonlysuperpowerness" would be a way to start WWIII?

USG (Trump's administration) killed 8 year-old U.S. born Nawar_al-Awlaki (after Obama had killed her dad and her U.S. born minor brother)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawar_al-Awlaki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_al-Awlaki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki
~
I wonder what that little girl could have possibly had in her computer that could threaten "theworldsonlysuperpower"?

Did "Vladimir Putin" used his direct secret line to hell and managed to talk the very devil into releasing Osama Bin Laden's spirit for a while, so he could entangle his mind using the space-time demultiplexing base on what seems to be the Pleiades in the constellation of Taurus in order to write the specs of the next attack in the U.S. on that little girl's computer? This is what I heard, but I am still curious about the details.
~
Trump had been mocking the Iranian naval forces "for patrolling U.S. navy ships with 'their stupid boats'". However, not long ago the Chinese rammed a ship against one of their own that was "patrolling international waters" ... boy! and USG knows very well the Chinese know hell well they were "doing something they shouldn't" (tm) ...
~
What did USG do? Next time USG got closer to those waters was to sink their own war ships as part of an "international 'training' operation". Their military put on their Saturday night uniforms and made a movie. That was all there was to it! Those kinds of idiots are all about "uniforms". Collin Powell related how "impressed" he was when he put on one of those. He sorely lacked the brains and/or morality to see he was just a mercenary genocidally abusing people, while sucking it up the chain of command in order to advance "his 'career'":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre

He also took the main role in the WMD USG lying theatrics at the UN. Great, Lord! What those uniforms do to you! I remember Powell once protesting the Chinese for making a U.S. surveillance plane flying around China forcibly land. He put on some funny, ****** face, but, no, he didn't swing his fist to them on camera. It would have been way too hilariously self ridiculing. Isn't USG the worldsonlysuperpower already, why do they care about whatever they mean by "force projection"?

// __ Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs: Aircraft Carriers and Anti-Ship Missiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae124QiBOfc
~
Even if not directly establishing a cause-effect relationship, "Adamizations" (as linguists and semioticians call them), as some sort of conscious social text become interesting when such apparently "new" incidents "happen" officially become "the new normal". The credit goes to "the region's only democracy" (tm) (as the Israeli government calls itself). They had been doing that to Palestinian people and their leaders, who apparently had a hard time understanding why they had to serve as "man power" in their concentration camps, Jewish ghetto police in the occupied territories. I am old enough to remember when the Israeli government started doing such things, their USG ally initially didn't see as that kosher those "technical" ways of dealing with defenseless people kept in the largest and longest concentration camps ever.

Anyone would admit, that the Israeli gov has quite successfully managed to make the whole world feel like an extension of the Gaza-strip, as they say, "because God (their favorable landlord, it seems) gave us that land".

Rachel Corrie was run over by an IDF bulldozer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Corrie

and Israeli judges ruled it "her fault". Israeli citizen Shimon Yifrah from a nearby Jewish settlements in occupied lands fatally shot a Palestinian school girl, Intissar al-Atar, for no apparent reason whatsoever/just for the fun of it, as "target practice", to call it something. He was set free by an Israeli judge because: "the offense was not severe enough" to warrant detention, "Yifrah only intended to shock the girl" ...

chomsky.info/articles/20121104.htm

I can't even begin to image that someone in the U.S. would take a gun, use children in an ICE detention center for target practice and would then be protected by the courts.

On a documentary, "the Gatekeepers", about the oppression of Palestinian people by the Israeli government (made by themselves) I would recommend to anyone to watch if you are interested in knowing the kinds of dynamics going on in the occupied territories and what USG apparently aims to turn the world (they can safely abuse) at large into, their New World Order commitments:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gatekeepers_(film)

The highest ranking Shin Bet officials of "the region's only democracy" (tm) laughingly and on camera admitted to not caring about "'intelligence' or any of that nonsense" whatsoever that: "they just kill people". In a quite uninhibited way, they related how eerie it felt killing people (even if you don't give a ***** about them from a legal/judicial or moral point of view (provided they had some sense of morality)). How it felt like you were "taking away God's job" as you so thoroughly monitored and killed unsuspecting people as if you were playing a computer game. They related how they would torture people to death who never knew why they had been detained (their "pattern recognition" identified them as targets to work them as snitches and/or "for 'training'").

Something "interesting" about that latest, "new normal" kind of incident is that USG repeated that they operated based on Israeli "intelligence". Some other interesting data about the persecution of Jews by the Nazis was that they got hurt the most, even measurably so!, by those governments who kept thorough reports about them. Take, for example, their fate in Hungary. The Hungarian government kept thorough dossiers of every one of them, so it only took like four SS officers to arrive in order for their business plan to be set in motion. However, as expected, "history" blames Nazis for what "happened" to them. If I didn't know people I would find strange and self-disrespecting that it is now the Israeli gov/Jews capitalizing on keeping thorough dossiers on every self-moving thing on earth:

* go to the jews cell phone hacks
* facebook the jews

Why do they do that? Well, "for the money". It is actually a sound business model, they seem to have learned from the ways in which they were "loved", so they can’t help but loving other people in kind. Once "you know" so much you can read whatever you want into whomever/whatever you choose to.

I have been raising awareness about those Übersurveillance issues and helping "We the people" see how they can protect themselves from the "if you have nothing to hide" (tm), "if you are doing something you shouldn’t be doing" (tm) era in which we live nowadays, but you don’t have to take it from me. As Lennon sang: "Imagine!" Dianne Feinstein, someone who, as vice chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was supposed to be supervising them and had been despairingly mocking Snowden, outrightly and publicly turned against them when she managed to gain a short glance into their practices:

// __ VICE: 'State of Surveillance' with Edward Snowden and Shane Smith (VICE on HBO: Season 4, Episode 13)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRWyGKBVzo
~
Also, if the Israeli government knows so well about everything and everybody, how come they didn't let USG know that all those WMD in Iraq ideations were self-serving delusions? They certainly knew USG was bent on freedom loving Iraq anyway, so it would have given them more credit as knowitalls.

So, USG has "just" applied the Israeli model not just relatively "domestically" to people in an illegally occupied territory, but "responsibly" to a sovereign nation in the same way: -safely calculated abuse-. You may consider that to definitely be different in kind and/or degree, but something "new" it is not. They just used their new toys in the way that the Israeli gov taught them.

"The region's only democracy" (tm) easily gets away with it because USG abuses U.S. tax payers into financially sponsoring them and politically endorses their state terrorism. In the U.S. active public libraries are being closed for "lack of funding", but, of course, there is no "lack of funding" when it comes to financing state terrorism by "our key ally in the region":

// __ U.S. Admits Israel Is Building Permanent Apartheid Regime — Weeks After Giving It $38 Billion

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/06/...it-38-billion/

yet, I would have a few very basic questions:

* who would serve as life line for USG? Oh, OK, of course "God"! and, hey! "in God they trust"!

* will it actually work trying to -officially- turn the world into some sort of USG's Gaza strip? Not just making it -feel- like it, which is the starter job that Israel did for USG?

What the New York Times meant with those "regions" in their article about the USG assassination of Qassem Soleimani:

* NY Times

was not Texas or Alaska, but a sovereign state half way around the globe. Does USG actually believe they will succeed at turning the whole world into an extension of Gaza strip?

In addition to how they gauge how well pax amerikana is doing by how well the world at large has been McDonaldized, something "interesting" on the officially "kept" pax amerikana wiki page is the view on it by that idiotic, morally deafferented USG Henry Kissinger (Hillary Clinton's hero) who plotted the assassination of "terrorist" Bob Marley. He says that "we don't invade countries we 'freedom love' them"

I was not shocked, not even slightly amazed at hearing Bernie Sanders say that "he would opose wars because our youth would die in them", no Bernie. First "our youth" can and should say no to bs and also go ahead with a war but a true one against a true force for once.

On my list of my dreams I have included:

* Russia and/or China take Iran under their wings. That would be a very smart move from an economical to human rights prespective. It would give middle Eastern people a respite from "freedom loving"

* I was "amazed" about the German government asking USG if they had used Rammstein for Soleimani assassination. Well, last times I checked 2 + 2 was still 4 and most probably if you do you will find the same answer. Imagine, that German people organize a popular vote to let freedom lovers know that they don't like, never did officially being still an occupied country. I know, I know politicians always know best, but still "We the people" will be putting it squarely on their faces. I have even heard that USG may even get the hell out of Germany, so they apparently got bored faster than German people let them know.

* Latin America makes close net: 97 of the Internet traffic emanating from LA crosses through the U.S. ... USG is mentally ill in the sense that "they will definitely use what they know about you to mess with you" to them they are making sure that "freedom and progress prevail in the Universe" and all that bs

* LA should start directly making business with China, bypass gringos adn their way-overrated bs

truth and peace and love,
rclopez2

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3cw3sg3