Politics Princess' Sweet Sixteen

[Zoraptor]

virumor is meming again, she's the Prosecutor General of Sevastopol (or Crimea in general, I forget which), and is most famous for looking like a real life anime tsundere (or summat, I'm not fluent in weeaboo) so has an enormous and semi random fan club.

 

And yeah, Medvedev would be successor formally, but he was largely picked by Putin as not being a threat and not because of his competency- not that he's a complete idiot but he almost completely lacks Putin's gravitas and would almost certainly be a lame duck.

 

 

 

Yeltsin being drunk probably didn't help with credibility.

 

 

Yeah, while that wouldn't help anyone's credibility he certainly couldn't even be called a high functioning alcoholic.

 

Yeltsin is one of the very few recent leaders about whom I cannot think of a single positive; and he's completely destroyed the concept of 'western liberalism' in Russia for at least a generation which is a definite shame. Not entirely his fault to be sure, but not that far off it.

[Valsuelm]

......Yeltsin is one of the very few recent leaders about whom I cannot think of a single positive....

 

He was probably good for a couple rounds of flip cup.

 

 

 

Which is more positive than I can give some other "leaders", like Merkel.

 

 

Thought: It might be fun to make a list of 'leaders' and what their positives might be, as actual leadership is a quality often missing in the average world 'leader' these days.

 

Edited March 19, 2018 by Valsuelm

[HoonDing]

he was the best candidate

 

[Malcador]

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/379049-trump-to-release-plan-addressing-opioid-epidemic-on-monday
 

During his speech on it, he said he told China and Mexico to "stop sending it", heh.  Kind of funny watching people clap for drug dealers getting the death penalty.  Also touting "great commercials" to scare kids off drugs

 

Trump needs Adderall, from this speech. 

Edited March 19, 2018 by Malcador

[HoonDing]

Back to leeches and bloodletting.

[Bartimaeus]

Yikes at the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica connection. Those revelations just aired today, and the British police are raiding their offices right now.

[Chilloutman]

Interesting document if someone is interested (its quite long). Quite onesided but still having some truth to it. I expected it to be more phylosophical - I quite can believe there is a lack of some future goal to asspire to

 

[injurai]

Interesting document if someone is interested (its quite long). Quite onesided but still having some truth to it. I expected it to be more phylosophical - I quite can believe there is a lack of some future goal to asspire to

 

 

I agree it's one-sided. I personally feel a lot of the tech innovation can be leveraged for more good than evil, that drastically off-sets the bad. Still... if people don't fight to create the system they want to live in then certainly surveillance and "economic-levers" might become quite tyrannical. I don't see any of those outcomes as permanent or irreversible. Though we might experience another 20th Century but within the digital space instead.

 

It's quite interesting but inter-state cyber-warfare is quickly becoming to be viewed as seriously as atomic weaponry.

[Fiach]

Unfortunately I can't watch it in my country, here is an IMDB link, it may help people to source it elsewhere. The first review I read, gave me the impression it's too slanted to take seriously though.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6156350/

Edited March 20, 2018 by Fiach

[Chilloutman]

Unfortunately I can't watch it in my country, here is an IMDB link, it may help people to source it elsewhere. The first review I read, gave me the impression it's too slanted to take seriously though.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6156350/1 IMG_20180320_065959_451.JPG

 

Yes its slanted but it got some interesting insights

[pmp10]

Interesting document if someone is interested (its quite long). Quite onesided but still having some truth to it. I expected it to be more phylosophical - I quite can believe there is a lack of some future goal to asspire to

 

But that's Curtis.

He has interesting view of our times but the way he connects facts and events smacks of over-intellectualized conspiracy theory.

 

But the way he does narration is worth seeing:

Edited March 20, 2018 by pmp10

[HoonDing]

 

Ukrainian girls hnnngggggggghh

[Chilloutman]

 

 

Ukrainian girls hnnngggggggghh

the Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind

 

And Moscow girls make sing and shout

 

That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my mind

 

 

[Chilloutman]

 

 

 

 

Ukrainian girls hnnngggggggghh

the Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind

 

And Moscow girls make sing and shout

 

That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my mind

wait, are the girls wearing sexualised pioneers uniforms?

 

 

Seems regular to me...

[Valsuelm]

 

 

 

 

 

Ukrainian girls hnnngggggggghh

the Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind

 

And Moscow girls make sing and shout

 

That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my mind

wait, are the girls wearing sexualised pioneers uniforms?

 

 

Seems regular to me...

 

 

[Gorgon]

Why are they talking about this like it's different from what Facebook does every day. Everybody is a data point on the net. If you have a Facebook account you are already giving all that stuff away. 

[Fiach]

Why are they talking about this like it's different from what Facebook does every day. Everybody is a data point on the net. If you have a Facebook account you are already giving all that stuff away.

 

It's not even just Facebook, every site does it', even reserving an item in Argos, you HAVE to provide your email, even though they also use your phone number to text the info, it's all going to be sold. The Irish government thinks it's such a great idea, they want to tax the money generated by the sale of your information. >.<

[Guard Dog]

We are all being assimilated. And not in the way we think. In this collective you keep your individuality but you are most definitely connected and everyone knows everything about everyone.

 

Kind of terrifying when you think about it.

[Malcador]

 

Why are they talking about this like it's different from what Facebook does every day. Everybody is a data point on the net. If you have a Facebook account you are already giving all that stuff away.

It's not even just Facebook, every site does it', even reserving an item in Argos, you HAVE to provide your email, even though they also use your phone number to text the info, it's all going to be sold. The Irish government thinks it's such a great idea, they want to tax the money generated by the sale of your information. >.<

 

 

Why not use the email to send the information?  Strange. Usually is a good idea to have a burner email account for that kind of stuff.   But yeah the idea of Facebook and "if it's free, the product is you" isn't anything new.  Always best to lie on social media

 

 

Somewhat related - 

 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/new-backdoor-around-fourth-amendment-cloud-act

 

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/cloud-act-dangerous-expansion-police-snooping-cross-border-data

 

Must be tough to keep morale up for EFF members

Edited March 22, 2018 by Malcador

[Bartimaeus]

In related news, the CLOUD Act recently became part of Congress' omnibus spending bill. It allows law enforcement to demand data from sites like Google and Facebook without needing a warrant. Sounds terribly unconstitutionally, but they're sticking it in there anyways.

[Guard Dog]

OK, I watched the video Val linked. That was actually pretty interesting stuff. Although I think the outrage was a little misdirected. In the example they discussed a "wealthy foreign investor" offers a candidate a deal too good to be true. A major campaign cash infusion for a sweetheart land deal after they are elected. The candidate agrees and the whole thing is on video because it was a set up. The implication that a set up such as this is unethical. Perhaps it is. But what definitely is unethical is a candidate being willing to take a bribe for a sweetheart land deal.

 

A lot of angst was raised over the DNC e-mail leaks during the 2016 election here. But what a lot of people seemed to miss is that the only reason this was a thing is the people in the DNC behaved like a band of arrogant, self-righteous little s---s who insulted everyone not them. Even people who where mostly on their team. Had they conducted their business with even a modicum of the professionalism expected in the real business world there would have been nothing juicy to find. The problem with the collusion between CNN & the DNC to undermine Sanders isn't that it was exposed. The outrage should have been that it WAS happening to BE exposed.

 

The problem isn't diffing up dirt and dirty secrets on political candidates. It's that there is dirt and dirty secrets to be dug up. If the politicians are unethical then how can you expect your government to be ethical. They (Cambridge Analytical) are not talking about making things up. Just exposing what is already there and targeting who gets exposed to what. The only difference between what is being done now as opposed to the past is the scale and sheer number of people you can reach.

 

But in the end all of this depends on the target of the message believing the message. When they walk into a voting booth there is one one else in there but them. No Russians trolls, no Wikileaks, and no Cambridge Analytical). People will get the government they deserve. And the "the people" are a band of gullible fools that believe everything they are told or see on the internet then they don't deserve and ethical government. And they surely won't have one. As Abraham Lincoln once said "The problem with quotes found on the internet is that they are often not true". And I know he said that because I saw a picture of him with that quote on the internet.

 

One last thought. The real root cause of this whole sorry mess is the dependence people have on their governments.  They have become dependent on them for social welfare, health care, damn near everything required to live. That makes those governments big and powerful and that attracts the unethical types who abuse that power and the people under it. If you (as a people) resolve to take care of your own selves and families and not depend of the benefice of people in government who don't give a f--k about you anyway then you won't need the "all powerful state" f------g you over and getting filthy rich on your taxes. If you have a government so small you could drown in like a rat in a bucket of water you really don't need to ly awake worrying about who is running it.

 

Just my $.02

[Malcador]

In related news, the CLOUD Act recently became part of Congress' omnibus spending bill. It allows law enforcement to demand data from sites like Google and Facebook without needing a warrant. Sounds terribly unconstitutionally, but they're sticking it in there anyways.

 

How else can they fight terrorism/MS-13/pedophiles/psychic vampires

[Gfted1]

I'm a bit curious...social media companies and Google have everything you've ever done recorded, including your exact GPS coordinates, and nobody bats an eyelash. Now "law enforcement" wants access to that same data and a mass pants soiling will ensue. What gives?

[Malcador]

I'm a bit curious...social media companies and Google have everything you've ever done recorded, including your exact GPS coordinates, and nobody bats an eyelash. Now "law enforcement" wants access to that same data and a mass pants soiling will ensue. What gives?

 

Suppose it is due to the state having more power over you than corporations.  Or at least the perception of that lingering still.

[Guard Dog]

Well, Facebook won't send a squad of agents armed with automatic weapons to kick down your door in te dead of the night, shoot all the family pets, terrorize your children, and drag you off in handcuffs after beating you within an inch of your life whle accusing you of resisting arrest. The government will happily do all those things even over minor, victimless crimes.