The All Things Political Topic - Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

[Gromnir]

another from joe biden, the voluntary buyback guy.

Biden Says He’s Limited on Guns After Emotional Trip to Uvalde, Texas - Bloomberg

“I can’t dictate this stuff,” Biden told reporters on Monday. “I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that.”

the thing is, the US ain't kanada, and unlike kamala harris, biden ain't pretending he may executive order the 2nd Amendment to its knees.

on the other hand, Congress has real albeit limited options to address firearms, options they is unlikely to take after this fifteen minutes o' outrage passes same as happened following the last few public and horrific mass shootings. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 31, 2022 by Gromnir

[BruceVC]

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-anc-cuba-r50-million-donation-why-latest-updates/

https://ewn.co.za/2022/03/22/court-halts-sa-s-r50-million-donation-to-cuba

This is an ongoing SA specific story but relevant to the dangers and realities of any socialist state and its  economic failures

SA was going to give R50 million ($3.3 million) to Cuba in the form of supplies and food aid

This has been blocked by our courts but it was incredibly frustrating to think of the limited money we have that a failed, socialist experiment like the Cuban government should receive anything

Any aid like this needs to go to African countries and specifically countries on our border like Zimbabwe so they can rebuild their broken economy and the millions of illegal Zimbabweans can go home. This is what they want to do as well but they cant go home if their are no jobs or  their  government has no money to rebuild the economy 

 

 

 

[Darkpriest]

Not sure, where to ask this as it is a bit of a side of politics and has more to do with courts, but what do you think of court cases, that are high public profile to be televised in the same way like the AH vs JD? 

I read some more 'radical' side, and i think there is a point, where such high profile cases, if closed, tend to be misrepresented to broader public. 

https://pjmedia.com/culture/megan-fox/2022/05/29/why-we-cant-let-amber-heards-melodramatic-whining-about-internet-abuse-close-american-courtrooms-n1601939

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, Darkpriest said:

Not sure, where to ask this as it is a bit of a side of politics and has more to do with courts, but what do you think of court cases, that are high public profile to be televised in the same way like the AH vs JD? 

I read some more 'radical' side, and i think there is a point, where such high profile cases, if closed, tend to be misrepresented to broader public. 

https://pjmedia.com/culture/megan-fox/2022/05/29/why-we-cant-let-amber-heards-melodramatic-whining-about-internet-abuse-close-american-courtrooms-n1601939

I dont think the media should be allowed in courtrooms, I just think the courtroom shouldnt become another theater of the left vs right ideological culture wars. I think it creates a distraction 

I havent really been following this Depp vs Heard case but from what I have seen I dont know who to believe?

They both come across as deplorable people 

 

[Raithe]

I did see an editorial talking about how there's a chunk of the anti-Amber Heard crowd on social media isn't there to support Depp or actually anti-Heard, but to make sure the #MeToo movement is pulled into things, or at least take a lot of shots at women coming forward about abuse.

Of course, then there's the crowd who have gone around collecting "The Day After pics" of Amber Heard that she (or her friends) posted of them having fun on the day after various of Heard's claims of having suffered "severe" abuse from Depp.

At the end of the day, there really isn't going to be a lot of good coming out of this trial regardless of the outcome.

[Raithe]

And just for a separate level of snark:

[BruceVC]

54 minutes ago, Raithe said:

I did see an editorial talking about how there's a chunk of the anti-Amber Heard crowd on social media isn't there to support Depp or actually anti-Heard, but to make sure the #MeToo movement is pulled into things, or at least take a lot of shots at women coming forward about abuse.

Of course, then there's the crowd who have gone around collecting "The Day After pics" of Amber Heard that she (or her friends) posted of them having fun on the day after various of Heard's claims of having suffered "severe" abuse from Depp.

At the end of the day, there really isn't going to be a lot of good coming out of this trial regardless of the outcome.

Thats kind of what I mean, unfortunately when you take cameras into  a courtroom you must realize it will  immediately draw some of the SM\Internet\armchair activists into the commentary and for some people its not about the actual court case but about their own ideological views 

Thats not the end of the world because the actual outcome should be decided on the evidence and not the publics personal opinion. But for me it gets annoying because of how a case like this becomes a media feeding frenzy for people on both sides 

[Raithe]

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Thats not the end of the world because the actual outcome should be decided on the evidence and not the publics personal opinion. But for me it gets annoying because of how a case like this becomes a media feeding frenzy for people on both sides 

I think a lot of people are forgetting that this is not a criminal case. It's a civil case.

And I imagine from Depp's (and his legal team) point of view it's not so much about the actual case and convincing a jury as it is about the public perception and acknowledgement of things.

[Gromnir]

more %$#@ing shadow docket nonsense.

Breaking and Analysis: Supreme Court on 5-4 Vote Reinstates District Court Order Temporarily Barring Enforcement of Texas Social Media Law; Good News for the First Amendment and Bad News for Those Seeking Law to Replatform Trump

keep in mind, am not a fan o' the texas law, but is so not meant to be resolved via the shadow docket.

arguable as concerning as having the issue decided w/o argument, the "activist" label for hippie Justices has been subverted by alito and thomas. 

"But Justice Alito wrote an opinion for himself, Justice Thomas, and Justice Gorsuch. In the opinion, Alito does not say that the law is in fact unconstitutional. He argues that the matter is uncertain, buying into the arguments advanced in the past by Justice Thomas, Eugene Volokh, and others, that social media companies can be regulated like “common carriers” (such as the phone company) and forced to carry speech that they do not like.

"The argument is one that is audacious and shocking for those (like Justice Thomas, less so for a Justice like Alito) who have taken near absolutist positions on First Amendment rights in the past, especially on issues such as campaign finance laws."

alito and thomas is no longer even pretending to embrace a consistent legal theory as the basis for their opinions. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/uvalde-police-school-district-longer-cooperating-texas-probe/story?id=85093405

Well that doesn't look suspicious at all.

[Katphood]

"According to Taliban security authorities in Nimroz province, 12 fuel trucks imported from Iran were found to be carrying poor quality fuels and were barred from entering Afghanistan."

 

https://www.khaama.com/the-taliban-returns-12-low-quality-fuel-trucks-to-iran57438/

 

 

 

 

 

[Malcador]

14 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/uvalde-police-school-district-longer-cooperating-texas-probe/story?id=85093405

Well that doesn't look suspicious at all.

Guess some asses are on the line for sure then.

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, Katphood said:

"According to Taliban security authorities in Nimroz province, 12 fuel trucks imported from Iran were found to be carrying poor quality fuels and were barred from entering Afghanistan."

 

https://www.khaama.com/the-taliban-returns-12-low-quality-fuel-trucks-to-iran57438/

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Katphood said:

"According to Taliban security authorities in Nimroz province, 12 fuel trucks imported from Iran were found to be carrying poor quality fuels and were barred from entering Afghanistan."

 

https://www.khaama.com/the-taliban-returns-12-low-quality-fuel-trucks-to-iran57438/

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, okay. I guess things arent that bad in Afghanistan if the Taliban  can return ostensibly poor quality fuel?

[Katphood]

41 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

 

Wow, okay. I guess things arent that bad in Afghanistan if the Taliban  can return ostensibly poor quality fuel?

 

Truth is that ANYBODY would send poor quality fuel back but yeah...the Islamic Republic of Iran is doing pretty bad at the moment. Worst I've seen, inflation is breaking the country's back.

[BruceVC]

7 minutes ago, Katphood said:

 

Truth is that ANYBODY would send poor quality fuel back but yeah...the Islamic Republic of Iran is doing pretty bad at the moment. Worst I've seen, inflation is breaking the country's back.

Same as us, the global inflation is really hurting everyone in SA in an unprecedented  way and  as usual it hurts the poor the most 

I can tell you one thing, it will have to be a deadly virus with a 60%+ fatality rate before we see the level of global lockdowns again that we went through over the last 2 years 

Is your petrol\gas expensive, I know Iran producers oil so I imagine this type of cost  is less? In SA its the most expensive its been in living memory and we also have own petrol tax which is on hold at the moment 

[Gorth]

I was curious about Denmark, as they are mostly self sufficient with gas and oil (having a bit of both in the North Sea and relying more and more on renewable energy). Turns out they do (or did, old numbers) import some oil from Russia, but not crude oil. No idea what 'Oils Obtained from Bituminous Mineral' is

edit: Sounds like something used for asphalt manufacturing...

[Katphood]

9 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Same as us, the global inflation is really hurting everyone in SA in an unprecedented  way and  as usual it hurts the poor the most 

I can tell you one thing, it will have to be a deadly virus with a 60%+ fatality rate before we see the level of global lockdowns again that we went through over the last 2 years 

Is your petrol\gas expensive, I know Iran producers oil so I imagine this type of cost  is less? In SA its the most expensive its been in living memory and we also have own petrol tax which is on hold at the moment 

It depends. You get a 'fuel card' with every car that reduces the price a bit but there are a limited number of times you can use it every month. Now my fuel card hasn't arrived yet so I had to refuel(seriously though, how DO you refuel the car in Fallout 2  ) the car with the 'regular price' which was 750 000 rials for 25 liters. That's roughly two and a half dollars. 

So it's cheap I guess? 

[alanschu]

I actually had missed this and as someone that thinks Death Penalty is super bad largely because it cannot be undone if/when you **** up and will be abused... https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/supreme-court-prioritizes-expedience-not-justice-wrongful-convictions-2022-05-25/

Admittedly I'm just reading the writer's take on a lot of this so maybe he was misunderstanding something, but I know it's already hard to overturn convictions as it is and additional barriers (or even expediency) is not a good thing IMO.

[alanschu]

On 5/25/2022 at 9:58 AM, Gfted1 said:

It seems that all human failings circle back to lack of money, not the individual...

Nah, there's still plenty of issues with personal decisions. There's a lot of extra fun stuff going into stuff like learned helplessness to boot. Plenty of lack of understanding for even how things like progressive tax work and as such make objectively poor decisions under the incorrect understanding of that system. It's basically the intertwining of macro and micro level models of psychology/sociology.

But like some people are sociopaths and want to see the world burn and care not for pesky laws. Some people think that if a husband and wife each pay 25% tax then the household is paying 50% tax. Some of this can be addressed and remedied. Societies are the sum of their individuals, and individuals exist within their societies. It's not trivial to unpack. Overwhelmingly our culture imposes the idea of personal responsibility for one's woes though. It's implicit in reverse, where there's the idea that if someone has a statue of them, or if they're rich, it's probably because they did something worthwhile to do so.

In essence, we like to presume an implicit rationality to a system made up of actors that demonstrate repeatedly that they are often very irrational.

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, Katphood said:

So it's cheap I guess? 

I can't even get a Cappuccino for that

But, as always, it needs to be held up against the average households purchasing power. When I first moved to New Zealand (almost 20 years ago), I used my own 'Beer Index' to compare prices in stores to how many beers it translated into and compared it with similar Danish cost in (Danish) beers for similar products.

I only found out years later, that there was a similar, well known McDonald Burger index for price comparison.

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, alanschu said:

Nah, there's still plenty of issues with personal decisions. There's a lot of extra fun stuff going into stuff like learned helplessness to boot. Plenty of lack of understanding for even how things like progressive tax work and as such make objectively poor decisions under the incorrect understanding of that system. It's basically the intertwining of macro and micro level models of psychology/sociology.

But like some people are sociopaths and want to see the world burn and care not for pesky laws. Some people think that if a husband and wife each pay 25% tax then the household is paying 50% tax. Some of this can be addressed and remedied. Societies are the sum of their individuals, and individuals exist within their societies. It's not trivial to unpack. Overwhelmingly our culture imposes the idea of personal responsibility for one's woes though. It's implicit in reverse, where there's the idea that if someone has a statue of them, or if they're rich, it's probably because they did something worthwhile to do so.

In essence, we like to presume an implicit rationality to a system made up of actors that demonstrate repeatedly that they are often very irrational.

Im a little unsure about what you saying, I like what I think you saying but Im not sure I do understand your broader point?

When you say " societies are the sum of the individuals " what exactly do you mean? Let me use an example, their is a high level of gun violence in the US. What does this tell us about the society of the US? Surly we dont generalize about the worst aspects and criminal elements of any society and say that is a reflection of the society

We must separate bad behavior from good behavior and that should be the sum of the society because if most people really believed the US was a country of mass shootings or structural racism why would so many people want to immigrate their?

 

 

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, Gorth said:

I can't even get a Cappuccino for that

But, as always, it needs to be held up against the average households purchasing power. When I first moved to New Zealand (almost 20 years ago), I used my own 'Beer Index' to compare prices in stores to how many beers it translated into and compared it with similar Danish cost in (Danish) beers for similar products.

I only found out years later, that there was a similar, well known McDonald Burger index for price comparison.

McDonald Index is a very interesting and applicable economic metric, it has some flaws to it but its  a good way of measuring the strength of currencies and the spending power within a country  

[alanschu]

38 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

When you say " societies are the sum of the individuals " what exactly do you mean? Let me use an example, their is a high level of gun violence in the US. What does this tell us about the society of the US? Surly we dont generalize about the worst aspects and criminal elements of any society and say that is a reflection of the society

The "systems/institutions" that a society are both made up by, and contribute to, the people that live within them. I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that I'm making a generalization about the United States people from this though. Perhaps you meant to direct your comment at Gfted?

38 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

We must separate bad behavior from good behavior and that should be the sum of the society because if most people really believed the US was a country of mass shootings or structural racism why would so many people want to immigrate their?

Again, my response is that systems/institutions are made up of the people within the country, and that those in turn feed back onto each other. I'm not even sure what you're asking. My post was in response to a flippant take that seemed keen on assuming that everyone just assumes it's "systems" (whatever he wants to mean by that) that cause issues and that it's never personal responsibility when that isn't true?

I don't understand your post at all...

Edited June 2, 2022 by alanschu

[alanschu]

Maybe I can clarify? The institutions a country upholds are a reflection of the people (will give a nod to those with greater power having more influence), while simultaneously impacting the people that live there.

I don't think it'd be surprising to learn that opinions on gun ownership would be different among a group from USA compare to say, a group from the UK. And by the same token, I think it's obvious that if you take me, Allan Schumacher, and have me born and raised in a place like Texas that there's a good chance I'd grow up with a different opinion of fire arms than if I grew up in London, UK?

Of course it can still be broken down by states, counties, and what have you. I'm just saying that people have an impact on the society they live in while that society also has an impact on the people that are raised there. This doesn't mean any population is homogeneous or anything either, or that the influences had are the same across different demographics either. Nor am I making a value judgment on whether said influences are good or bad or anything.

Edited June 2, 2022 by alanschu

[BruceVC]

14 minutes ago, alanschu said:

The "systems/institutions" that a society are both made up by, and contribute to, the people that live within them. I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that I'm making a generalization about the United States people from this though. Perhaps you meant to direct your comment at Gfted?

Again, my response is that systems/institutions are made up of the people within the country, and that those in turn feed back onto each other. I'm not even sure what you're asking. My post was in response to a flippant take that seemed keen on assuming that everyone just assumes it's "systems" (whatever he wants to mean by that) that cause issues and that it's never personal responsibility when that isn't true?

I don't understand your post at all...

Okay I see, I misunderstood your point. My bad