Ben No.3

Wait, the US top bracket is only 40%?

I have a high degree in trust in the US state apparatus when it comes to surveillance

The only problem I see is an overreaction from the Trump administration. I wouldn’t be a fan of systematic oppression of muslims for being unamerican.

know your parasites: the bourgeoisie. My condolences comrade

It’s much better. The philosophical implications of the idea of “replicants” were explored much more in depth. The philosophical references alone. Rick Dekart and René Decart. Joe K, the two names of the main character, and Joseph K, Kafkas character. The main question the movie is of course asking, is what truly differentiates us humans from machines. And by making the main character a replicant, we see so much more nuance: The main character is a product, but he appears to us more human than the actual humans in the movie. This becomes even more clear with the character of his Hologram lover. This blurrs the line between human and product; which is easily understandable as a critique of capitalism. Of course, this analogy holds true across many themes such as the usage of the replicants (essentially the proletariat). The difference between human and product is further explored. The most fundamentally human character attributes are all seen amongst machines and even just holograms: Love, sex, nudity (an age old symbol for “human”), childbirth and family. There’s also a heavy use of symbolism - water for example - but I didn’t quite understand that yet. Also, silver is indeed a quite beautiful colour.

I just saw the new blade runner. Definitely better than the old one.

Why would you associate Manaford with Trump only? Of all the people? He was chairman for Trump campaign for like 3 months March - June 2016.He worked closely with Podesta group for much much longer and other politicians for years. Not to mention that none of the charges are from the time he worked with Trump campaign. So how could Trump knew about his mischief's if the FBI only now pressed charges against him? I think it's completely dishonest to blame Trump for Manafort. The stuff extended through his time with the Trump campaign. However, a former Federal prosecutor says that Muellers real goal is to try and flip Manafort, most likely against other individuals rather than Trump. Why would you associate Manaford with Trump only? Of all the people? He was chairman for Trump campaign for like 3 months March - June 2016.He worked closely with Podesta group for much much longer and other politicians for years. Not to mention that none of the charges are from the time he worked with Trump campaign. So how could Trump knew about his mischief's if the FBI only now pressed charges against him? I think it's completely dishonest to blame Trump for Manafort. Except for Manafort just turning himself in upon being investigated with treason against the USA as part of a larger investigation by the US intelligence against the Trump election campaigners. Feel free to translate http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/trump-mueller-103.html Um, he's not being charged or investigated with treason, he's being charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against the US. The translated article doesn't mention treason. sorry. My English failed me there

Why would you associate Manaford with Trump only? Of all the people? He was chairman for Trump campaign for like 3 months March - June 2016.He worked closely with Podesta group for much much longer and other politicians for years. Not to mention that none of the charges are from the time he worked with Trump campaign. So how could Trump knew about his mischief's if the FBI only now pressed charges against him? I think it's completely dishonest to blame Trump for Manafort. Except for Manafort just turning himself in upon being investigated with treason against the USA as part of a larger investigation by the US intelligence against the Trump election campaigners. Feel free to translate http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/trump-mueller-103.html

The worrying part is not the number of Nazis, but how emboldened they seem recently. I’m not looking into US politics for that long, but it seems to me that the public existence Nazis being straight out and honestly Nazis has seen a sharp increase. And that I find worrying.

The **** is going on with Twitter? „White lives matter“? https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/national/white-lives-matter-organizers-cancel-second-rally-after-being-taunted-by-counterprotesters/2017/10/28/a6fee0d2-bc1f-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html This kind of protest seems a bit worrying

wouldn’t that just mean that in the end, the communists win?

Regrettably this is incorrect. There have been a number of attempts to end what Barbra Lee has correctly called a blank check to wage debate free war forever. Including one earlier this year that was quietly scuttled by the rules committee. We have had Democrat led Congresses and Republican led Congresses along with Democrat Administrations and Republican Administrations. But the same story, in every one. More money, men, hardware and escalations. And all of it in secret until someone gets killed. And even then there is far more angst expended over how condolences are offered than why the hell it happened to begin with. Oh and Ben, that uranium and the private companies that are mining it are all French. To my thinking that equals "Not Our Problem". There is nothing, not one goddamned thing in Niger that was worth the lives of those four men. Speaking from the point of view of a world power, there are many men but little Uranium. I'm not trying to defend but to explain.

That’s how being an imperial nation works, no? You send your people around the world to serve your interests. Seriously though, Guard Dog, do you really not understand why someone has to watch over Uranium mines in Africa? Bad enough that those mines are there in the first place, worse even that they were privatised; but under the given circumstances someone has to see that while they are operating at least no one steals the Uranium. By no means am I defending the practice as a whole. But I do think military is a much better option for doing at least the guarding than mercenaries would be.

Someone pointed me out this video. Thought it was interesting.

so that no awkward silence develops

"Are there any monuments to slaves?""Yeah, heres one." "Not big enough." hah! Fair enough You know what I mean. That stone is barley the size of a tombstone. Certainly not enough to give an appropriate impression of the misery it represents. If you will ever get the chance to walk through these stones in Berlin, you’ll understand what I mean... they get higher and more maze like, and it does convey a very powerful message.

Its true that new right wing parties are raising around Europe and I am sad for it as well. But its because established parties just don't want to tackle immigration at all :/ No doubt that was the trigger. But the causes are much more deep rooted... the lack of any real democracy in the EU, the growing wealth gap, the (possible) disappearance of jobs due to digitalisation, high unemployment levels and stagnant wages with rising costs of living, the aftermath of the financial crisis, the shrinking of the state apparatus (and thus of state services), the high degree of similarity between the big parties, and so on and so forth. It had to retaliate against the establishment at some point. I hope that point has already reached its height... I wouldn’t particularly like it if the far right grows even bigger.

Both the Smithsonian and the Civil Rights Museum have sections devoted to slavery. And that’s great! But you will agree with me that that is very different from a monument. A museum offers education to anyone interested. A monument is there to be seen. And don’t you think the slaves deserve something on the scale of Lincoln’s monument?

I see you've specifically narrowed the possible results to the 68.34 square miles that comprises "Washington" (winkwink) but heres a slave memorial at Mt. Vernon. I respect the effort. But I don’t think that’s quite the scale we’re talking about

So I was in Berlin recently. We have a huge and quite well done Holocaust Memorial there. A far right politician from the right wing of the (already hard right) AfD has criticised that it stands. He didn’t even explicitly propagated its takedown. And he already got into deep ****. Now I don’t recall any monument for the slaves I’m Washington. Or for the natives. I do know you have a lot of confed monuments in the south. And I’m my saying that’s like putting up a monument of Hitler. But it is like putting up one of Rommel. And I believe Trump is quite fond of Lee for being his Rommel, no?

Do I read some Weber in there?

„It’s tough to be a father when your son is in his rebel years.“ -Darth Vader.

well what did the republicans talk about? I mean the right to demonstrate is just as sacred as the right to free speech; and perhaps the repubs did say something worth protesting against.

if I get to have great grandchildren https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/07/25/health/sperm-counts-declining-study/index.html