Valsuelm
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Posts posted by Valsuelm
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In short, no brokered convention. The big question now, that likely won't be answered for some time yet is: Who is Trump's pick for VP.
On the Democratic front, the Times also shows Hillary as virtually guaranteed, which she has been for months, but only because of the 'super-delegates'. The big questions there are, will Bernie bend over for her, or will he actually make some real noise about the corruption? And, will he run independent?
My guess is no on both counts, but I hope otherwise. -
Can anyone think of a leader that was an evil SOB who was a good leader but in the end did more good than harm?
Winston Churchill. Pathological colonialist to the extent he'd likely be regarded as an outright white supremacist these days and at very best a White Man's Burden paternalist, advocated gassing Iraqi Marsh Arabs, starved millions of Bengalis, would have fought against India's independence tooth and nail if he hadn't been voted out of power, celebrated the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and let Coventry be bombed. Overall, a genuinely crappy person leavened by some pithy comments and being the right man for the right job at the right time for his country. Even then (and much like Hitler and Stalin) most of his direct contributions to the conduct of war were disastrous- sending troops to Greece, Dieppe, in WW2; Gallipoli in WW1.
The only debatable bit is whether he was 'evil' instead of just not a nice guy.
Your words for Churchill are much kinder than mine will ever be. He was definitely evil. Very probably the most evil leader of them all during his era, though he's got some great competition. In terms of evil deeds though, of his contemporaries only Stalin compares, however Stalin wasn't the leader who was the prime instigator of the most destructive single conflict recorded history has known. That said, Churchill didn't lead alone, and he had folks behind him. But he certainly was one sick and evil lying MFer in his own right.
Almost all of the good he's ever said to have done is predicated of myth and lies, and almost all the evil he's ever done is whitewashed or ignored in pop history. That he's considered a hero by so many is a testament to how well oiled the propaganda machine so many are tuned into is, how truly nescient and/or ignorant so many are, as well possibly the best example there is of 'the winners write the history books'.
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Depends on the objective criteria of the discussion I guess. There is no questioning his quality as a human being (or lack thereof). He did lead his country out of ruin it's true. And after that right back into it. Can anyone think of a leader that was an evil SOB who was a good leader but in the end did more good than harm?
I know I'm drawing a blank.
All highly debatable but...Genghis Khan, Andrew Jackson, Stalin, Pope Julius II, Pope Alexander VI, and George Steinbrenner.
Not very debatable at all if one is sufficiently knowledgable.
Insofar who is the most evil on that list you can certainly remove Jackson, and probably Steinbrenner too. The Popes were colorful characters for certain, possibly were very evil, but given that evil is in the hearts of men it's not always knowable just how evil one is.
If one is to judge by the actions of person, Temujin most certainly claims the throne of most evil deeds. Stalin follows him up, yet competes with Mao and I'd say Churchill for most evil SOB 'leader' of the modern era. No one in recorded history compares to Temujin on the level of destruction and murder that not only he directly lead, but that followed for some generations in his wake.
For Genghis Khan and Stalin there absolutely was not more good than harm. In fact, there's relatively very little good that either did for the world, other than for themselves and a relative few around them. Pope Julius II for the most part has a legacy of good, as does Jackson. Pope Alexander VI has a mixed legacy, but the cons aren't even remotely on the same page as those of Temujin or Stalin.
That response to some low brow aside, to answer Guard Dog's question, no. I cannot think of a single leader from the ancient times to the modern that I'd say was definitely evil who in the end did more good than harm. Not even one that broke close to 50/50. If there was one, the good they did was die and early death before they gained infamy.
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Watching this video is kind of depressing.I somewhat agree. I certainly find it disconcerting. There are definitely far many more militant whackaloons running around college campuses these days than 10+ years ago.
The absolute stupidity displayed by the many hostile hecklers in the audience, as well as displayed by some of those asking questions (but didn't really) near the end is a testament to the sad fact that the standards for being admitted into college are way way way way too low. It's also a testament to just how socially inept so many of the current younger generation are.
On the bright side, I do know plenty of people that age who are not that mentally retarded. And yes, mentally retarded is the correct term. Also, as a society I think we've finally reached a point where most are sick of this crap.
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I watched about 30 seconds of that clip. You have someone being ridiculous, so someone else made a ridiculous video about it. Fascinating.
Circle jerk of stupidity.
The entirety of 'late night' TV, SNL, shows such as the 'Daily Show' and 'Last Week Tonight', as well as one hell of a lot of comedic acts are predicated on making ridiculous out of the ridiculous.
Do you find them a circle jerk of stupidity as well?
Do you find the plethora of ridiculous posts you ever make about the ridiculous a circle jerk of stupidity? When you often make ridiculous posts about things that aren't ridiculous is that just stupidity?
Do you like to circle jerk?
Isn't logic fun?
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This is the full video of the talk that occurred at UMass where #TrigglyPuff was triggered. You can hear her whacking out before the 5 minute mark even. And the best part is, is that she's freaking out while a feminist is speaking.
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Warning #1: If you are a SJW, you will probably be highly offended by the following video. If you aren't, you just may find it hilarious. I did.
Warning #2: Some SJWs have potty mouths in the video. Specifically, the F bomb is dropped a few times. So maybe NSFW.
Best quote in the comments:
"GOOD NEWS: #TrigglyPuff is trending on Twitter. BAD NEWS: I promised to do gay porn with Milo if #TrigglyPuff trended on Twitter."And BTW: Milo Yiannopoulos is awesome. He's like God's answer to SJWs and feminists.
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She looks the same to me. She also looks to be wearing lots of makeup.
Was she supposed to look different? I mean, I didn't imagine her skin would suddenly look 20 years younger because of additional protection of the DNA. I thought the idea was just to protect the DNA from random damage/mutations.
I don't think so. I was just responding to someone who seemed to think she did.
Many humans cells last a lot longer than 6 months. I personally forget how long your average skin cell lasts (anyone know?), but I'm pretty sure it's at least 3 months.
The woman already looked pretty good (with makeup at least) for 45 years old before the treatment. However the whole make up thing can really throw the appearance of age off bigtime, especially on camera. It never ceases to astound me how so many men fall for make up, many to the point of not even realizing it's there. But they do fall for it, so I can see why many women use it.
If the telomere theory is even right (I think the whole theory part in regards to this (and many other things) is lost on many), and one can 'freeze' them at a given length, a question then is: will one actually get younger or will one just stay the same biological age? I would think the latter, but one never knows for sure until it's tried. And again, there very well may be a lot more to aging than telomeres.
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Ugly man announces ugly woman as his choice for VP
Ugly woman says ugly man will say anything to get elected, before she literally sings her praise of him.True beauty or lack of it is on the inside, of course.
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“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”Oh dear, the guy is going to have an assissination attempt on him in the near future. The assassin will be of course a mentally ill Cruz-supporter who thinks that Trump has betrayed God and the constitution for his views on transexuals in the bathroom.
//edit: I do smell a slight calculated move to appeal to Bernie supporters there.
Question is will Trump continue his fight against globalism with continuing to producing his company's goods in Mexico and China?
If he's sincere, yes.
Trump's a businessman. Unfortunately due to NAFTA and some other 'free trade' agreements coupled with the taxes levied to support our massive 'welfare state' and a long list of costly regulations it's a no-brainer for many businesses (particularly manufacturing) to ship jobs to other countries. So much a no-brainer in many cases that it's either do that or die.
I've spoken to a few folks at a couple different companies who were involved in the decision making process to close a plant in the US, and ship it overseas. While I've no doubt the proverbial heartless CEOs do exist aplenty, the folks I spoke with were torn in no small way at deciding to do what they did. They didn't want to send those jobs elsewhere, but to stay competitive in their business (or even in business at all) it was something that had to be done. I had one guy I sat next to on a flight who worked for a company that made fire extinguishers give me the math on the difference in cost to produce in China vs the cost to produce in California (where the company had been based for decades). This was years ago so I don't remember the exact numbers. but it was truly astounding how comparatively inexpensive it was to send parts to China to be assembled and then have the product shipped back to the U.S..
Another guy I know is the CEO of a more than 200 year old local company with an international presence that is the last in the U.S. to produce what they make. Their biggest competition is in China from companies that used to produce in the U.S., and his father (the former CEO) is often down in D.C. lobbying people in congress to change various 'free trade' policies so they can avoid closing their plant and moving operations overseas. They very much want to stay in the U.S. but I'm told that in the long run they may not be able to if current 'free trade' conditions persist. There's a lot of businessmen and businesses that are anti 'free trade', that ultimately end up shipping jobs overseas because of it.
One of the greatest lies perpetrated on the people of various nations is that 'free trade' is good for them. Within a nation it certainly is, but internationally it has varying costs and benefits. It is not uncommon for the ultimate cons to far outweigh the pros, especially when one nation has a higher standard of living and greater labor costs than another. Historically and in modern times 'free trade' has generally only benefited the very upper class. The blue bloods, the robber barons, and oligarchs who have in modern times essentially bought and paid for most of the politicians at the national level of most if not all western nations.
One thing I like about Trump, is he is one of the only people to ever run for President (or anything else on the national level) in the last few decades to even say 'free trade' is a problem, let alone the big one that it is. Most candidates have always bent down to worship the genitals of the 'free trade' oligarchs. It was the biggest problem I had with Ron Paul. A guy who I liked for his principles and philosophy, but who fell far short pragmatically on the two issues Trump has made the foundation of his platform: immigration and 'free trade'.
Anyways, to sum up, good businessmen are going to do what is best for their business, whether they like it or not. Pragmatism rules the day in the business world. There are oodles of BS governmental rules, regulations, etc that benefit some business decisions and punish others. In short, the U.S. Federal government policies for many decades has created a business atmosphere where the smart business decision for many companies is to ship many jobs overseas. Just because they do so, doesn't mean they really wanted to, or agree with the government policies that created the situation that caused them to make the decision to send those jobs overseas.
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“We will no longer surrender this country, or its people, to the false song of globalism,” the billionaire stressed. “Under a Trump Administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries.”Oh dear, the guy is going to have an assissination attempt on him in the near future. The assassin will be of course a mentally ill Cruz-supporter who thinks that Trump has betrayed God and the constitution for his views on transexuals in the bathroom.
//edit: I do smell a slight calculated move to appeal to Bernie supporters there.
While my jury is out on whether Trump is sincere or not, I have zero doubt there will be some very serious attempts to off him if he is. This is one of a few reasons I'm hoping he doesn't pick an establishment VP. I hope he's smarter than Reagan was.
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Nice cover that is. Interesting take on a great original. I always thought Alphaville was a bit underrated.
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A game that magically teaches millennials how to write properly.
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Valsuelm, I don't know where you get your odds, but nowhere in any of my posts or in keeping tabs with the various books did I see Trump as a 10 to 1. Especially not from a couple weeks ago. You pulled that number out of your arse.
On these boards, I had written him as a 7-2 on Feb 15, 5-2 on Feb 26, and 9-4 on March 2.
If I was quoting you, I'd have done it.
I got those odds from one of the links you had previously supplied or a site you had mentioned, I don't recall which one. You're the only person I've come across that puts stock in such things in regards to politics. I'd not have looked at betting odds on the U.S. Presidential Election (especially this far out) had you not brought them up. -
*Stuff*
I know you're fascinated with this stuff. However, I suggest tarot cards for a more probable accurate reading.
Trump was 10:1 just a couple weeks ago (and I was considering finding a place to make a safe bet). 3:1, I'm not sure I want to risk the consequences of illegal gambling on the web (no bookie I know would touch those odds). If there was a way to 'sell short' on Hillary at those odds, I very possibly would.
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Trump sweeps five more states, winning at least four of them with more than 50% of the vote.
Clinton wins four states. Sanders one.
http://www.nytimes.com/elections/results
Edit: Nice example of AP writers not understanding what 'sweep' means:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_2016_ELECTION_RDP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-04-26-20-01-12
... or they do, and it's just some blatant pro Clinton propaganda. -
Man, I am so tired of seeing Prince garbage. Living in Minnesota, you'd think he was the (previously) living reincarnation of Jesus or something - it just never ends.
Can't say what it's like in Minnesota, but in the rest of the U.S. it's not that bad, and has nothing on the buttworship that went on for years after Kurt Cobain checked out. MTV, Rolling Stone, et al sucked his dead shaft dry, pumped it full of something and sucked it dry again, and again, and again.
Also, it's somewhat ironic that you follow up the quoted with a song called 'Memphis', where the granddaddy of dead celebrity worship has his shrine.
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That was so quintessential american that it hurts.
Haha. Soul train was the shiz.
But wait, there's more!
Another way to look at it:
Oh come on now... don't get butthurt we've had better music than you for about 100 years now. You've got Tiktak!
I really just wanted an excuse to post this Tik Tak video, because I think it's an awesome song and those Finnish girls are lookers.
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I got those odds from one of the links you had previously supplied or a site you had mentioned, I don't recall which one. You're the only person I've come across that puts stock in such things in regards to politics. I'd not have looked at betting odds on the U.S. Presidential Election (especially this far out) had you not brought them up.
US Election 2016
in Way Off-Topic
Posted
I would support Hulk Hogan as VP of the U.S., if only to see and hear him threaten the baddies of the world with Hulkamaniacs running wild on them. He's even already got an awesome campaign song: