smjjames

I checked the Vox article https://www.vox.com/world/2018/8/6/17656864/saudi-arabia-canada-ambassador-persona-non-grata-samar-badawi and yeah, it appears that someone made a mistake and heads are probably gonna roll. They tried to explain it away as meant to symbolize the return of the ambassador, but it's a Canadian plane and the whole picture and veiled threat makes it sound hollow to me. Using a pic of a Saudi based airline would have made the Faux Pas even worse though.

That Canadian plane appearing to aim, I'm certain it was photoshopped in at a tower (at least it isn't NYC, doesn't look like NYC) is a severe case of facepalm, given the almost threatening message of 'don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong' paired with the image.... It's possible it's a misplaced attempt at humor or sarcasm, but still...

Well, it was definitely no secret that they were metaphorically inches from coming to blows, with Trump egging the Saudis on even. No idea if he would have approved if Saudi Arabia actually did invade and annex Qatar. It’d have destabilized the whole Middle East for sure.

It took place in Rio de Janeiro, the robbery capital of Brazil, so, perhaps not too surprising.

Ideally, yes, we'd do something before a crisis actually happens, but right now, there seems to be a futile fight against more automation than embracing it's inevitability. Sort of like the social crisies of industrialization, we're now entering a second phase as the automization reaches new levels.

Ontario just elected new governance that is very much against social programs. Results of Finland's UBI experiment were that it was working and it was cheaper than our current social program but our government cancelled it in midway before they got any actual results and replaced it with even more expensive system which they like more because it is designed to punish poorest of the poor. Exactly, it's being used as political football (the analogy works whether it's American Football or Soccer). If we tried the same in the US, I'd expect the Republicans to come along and nuke it, unless maybe it becomes popular among Republican voters. I suppose it might be better to try it at a more local scale, like those programs in Africa, but only national scale governments have the resources to pull it off in a large scale. True, trying it out in small scale has it's limitations, but it 'only working when the government in power wants it to work' absolutely sucks. The spread of automation is going to force governments hands sooner or later, whether they see it ahead of time or forced by crisis (which is the worst time to experiment, IMO, but in desperate times....) And an eagle. You forgot the eagle on top of the cross/staff, not unlike the Roman banner standard.

Or so said the politician who shut it down, without providing any evidence to support her claims. There is a shocker. Where's your healthy distrust for politicians when they say something you are ideologically inclined to believe, I wonder? "fere libenter homines, id quod volunt credunt" Or maybe it only works in a particular way? And yeah, them shutting it down without giving any support for their claims as to why it doesn't work and whether it was shut down for the reason stated is a pretty major red flag. I hear theres at least one universial basic income experiment going on in Africa and at least one of those are pretty dang successful. So, it's worth looking at where it works and why, but only if it's transparent and not used as a political football like I hear it was for Finland and for Ontario. Also, don't you guys usually split off a new topic due to fears of the forum screwing up when the thread gets to a particular length by now? Not trying to distract from the conversation, just an observation.

I don't think it's even possible to uncluster**** the Syria situation. Sure, there was a window where something could have been done, but that closed long ago. Now, there are just way too many actors involved for it to go anywhere good. As for the no-fly zones, just how would those have been enforced anyway? Shoot down Russian planes? What about the Iranians? Syrians? Still, as the incident with Turkey shooting down a Russian plane shows, Putin really doesn't want to get tangled into a fight with the US. So, I think that even with Hillary as President, Putin still wouldn't want to get into a military conflict with the US.

Hasn't started one yet.

The hell are you blabbering about? Most likely referring to one term in the Senate, which is 6 years. Might have been better to say ‘at least one term in office’ rather than a specific number of years.

I probably wouldn't go as far down the line as lt. governors though. Also, if we're going to do that, we might as well go Parliamentary system as it achieves basically the same effect. Though I wouldn't trust the Republicans to not change the rules at the first opportunity so that only the party in the majority can choose the Prime Minister.

To be fair to her, she's new to Congress.

Weren’t there at least two different proposals for infrastructure programs? They both got swallowed almost instantly by the Trump admins own chaos. I guess they might give it another go after midterms, although I’ve heard that Trump was thinking of doing another tax cut push, if Congress is willing to go along with it.

We're going to have to deal with the problems with Social Security sooner or later anyway, it's not an if, it's a when.

Pretty predictable. Trump: @ WTO 'F**k you!' *Trump rips the US out of the WTO, chaos ensues* He wants to exit the WTO, losing the case would be the perfect excuse, as BS as that is, with it's own wide ranging consequences and implications.

Some hypothetical trade deal Trump had in mind, obviously.

Looks like you were thinking the same thing I did, zoraptor. Not the dancing in his underwear part though.

I did think that it might be Yeltsin as it's phonetically similar, but I'm not sure how to interpret that, channeling his inner drunk?

Not to mention that it runs right up against the gun manufacturers own business (the big ones that would rather eat small manufacturers than co-exist that is) if you can just 3D print one, why bother buying one from the shop, right? Of course, the gun manufacturers could get into the business of selling codes or whatever to unlock purchases of gun blueprints instead of making them themselves, but they’d have to upend their entire business structure. Software companies have been doing the exact same kind of thing for decades, so, it’s not like they’re breaking into a brand new business model nobody has tried.

Who is Jelcyn?

Yeah, that's the rumor going around, and it's going to be impossible to determine if he is being truly impartial if something related to the Russia investigation makes it's way to SCOTUS. @GD: He's definetly a safe pick on all fronts. However, he has a MASSIVE paper trail, so long that it's been called unprecedented. This is going to draw out the confirmation proccess even if it went relatively quickly simply due to the sheer amount of paperwork, Chuck Grassley (Chairman of the Senate Judicial commitee) has said that he can't promise having hearings start by September. Not to mention that the Democrats can easily draw this out. Also, some conservatives are leery about him https://www.vox.com/2018/7/9/17548782/brett-kavanaugh-trump-supreme-court-anthony-kennedy , which isn't unexpected due to having been such a public figure and being around for so many conservative causes. The massive paper trail is a double edged sword in this way in that there will be things both sides object to, not to mention possible surprises that come out which couldn't have been discovered during vetting.

Given that the source is the Daily Mail, I doubt she is actually doing that. She really does need to butt out and drop off the radar since all she'll do is provide a foil for Trump. As for the incumbency effect, that's true, but Trump's popularity at this point (which has been wierdly stable and locked in compared to most past Presidents) is in the range where past Presidents lost re-election. A lot can happen in two years, which is an eternity in electoral politics. Still, if the Dems have a bad candidate, not even the most generous buffs will help.

Saw that one on another site, and that should be Mother Nature 1, Poachers 0 Though unfortunately, the lions may have to be put down, unless the lions make a habit of eating people or something, dunno how they handle that.

Maybe they should start marketing kevlar vests as 'bulletproof charms' in Africa. Though seriously, if someone is marketing something as bulletproof when it isn't, or even relying on 'magic', that person should be arrested.

Um, Memphis is 6th on that list GD.